206 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
it has produced injurious effects ; so that, as a medi- 
cine, it ought not to be administered but by the 
most cautious practitioners ; for the Colchicum is 
undoubtedly a poisonous root, and its deleterious 
effects are to be dreaded until the precise dose 
is accurately ascertained. 
The poisonous quality of this plant seems to be 
known as it were by instinct to all kinds of cattle. 
They all shun it, and it is no uncommon thing to 
see it standing alone in pastures, where every other 
kind of herbage has been eaten down, without a 
leaf of this plant being touched. 
The Meadow Saffron cannot but interest the 
botanist on account of the singular phenomena 
which it exhibits. Its corolla, six-cleft, of a violet 
colour, has neither leaves nor stem : a long tube, 
white as ivory, which is but a prolongation of the 
flower, is its sole support. At the bottom of this 
tube Nature has placed the seed, which is not 
destined to ripen before the following spring. The 
seed-vessel which encloses it is buried in the turf 
during the winter ; but, on the return of spring, it 
rises from the ground, waving in the sunshine, 
surrounded by a tuft of broad leaves of the brightest 
green. The seeds ripen in May. Thus this plant, 
