COL'CHICUM VARIEGA'TUM. 
CHECKERED-FLOWERED MEADOW SAFFRON- 
Class. Order. 
HEXANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
melanthacea:. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Habit. 
Introduced 
Greece. 
4 inches. 
September. 
Bulb. 
in 1629. 
No. 1137. 
The word Colchicum is founded on Colchis, the 
name of a country in Asia. 
Of the qualities of Colchicum variegatum we 
have no evidence ; hut those of the Colchicum 
autumnale, a plant which abounds in meadows, in 
various parts of England, are so powerful and poi- 
sonous, that it may be well to put on record the 
dangerous character of its leaves to cattle ; and the 
more especially so from its having been stated that 
cattle never eat it. Generally speaking this is true, 
but two instances have come to our knowledge of 
cows having eaten it and died, on first being turned 
out to grass in May, when its leaves are quite young, 
and the cattle, after the dry hay and straw of winter, 
not fastidious in regard to their green food. If its 
leaves were pulled up on their first appearance, for 
two or three years, there can be little doubt but it 
would be destroyed. 
Colchicum variegatum is an exceedingly pretty 
border plant, with the same habit as the wild Mea- 
dow Saffron, above alluded to, producing its flowers 
in autumn, and its leaves in spring ; and it is 
nearly as hardy as that species. 
285 . 
