THE MEADOW SAFFRON — continued. 
the shrivelled remains of the now emptied corm of last year will be seen attached 
laterally to one side of the new corm which has sprung from it, but at a somewhat 
higher level, each succeeding year carrying the plant slightly deeper into the ground. 
There are thus generally three radical foliage-leaves. They reach a foot or 
more in length and about an inch and a half in width, having an oblong-lanceolate 
outline, the entire margin common among Monocotyledons, closely-set parallel 
veins, the midrib forming a slight keel, an obtuse apex, a smooth surface, and a dark 
green colour. Rising nearly erect, they show but little colour-contrast between 
their two surfaces. 
As the corm enlarges, the other internodes of the stem elongate, so that the 
fruits of the flowers of the previous autumn which have formed underground are 
now carried up to ripen in the summer sun. It has been suggested that this is an 
advantage to the plant, since, flowering so late as it does in autumn, it would not have 
time to ripen its fruit, if remaining above ground, before the frosts of winter. 
In September and October three or four flowers rise in succession from the 
arrested apex of the stem ; and, although the foliage is, as will have been seen, more 
like that of a Tulip than that of a Crocus, the close resemblance of these flowers to 
those of the latter genus have naturally given to the plant the names of Autumn 
Crocus and Meadow Saffron, both of which are misleading. The slender, pale, angular 
perianth-tube rises from two to six inches above the ground, ending in two whorls 
of elliptical concave pointed segments, about an inch and a half in length, but the 
inner circle slightly shorter than the others. The flowers may be lilac or white ; and 
we have noticed on the slopes of the Long Knoll at Maiden Bradley, on the borders 
of Wilts and Somerset, that whole fields were of one colour or the other, as if 
spreading in each case from one centre. The perianth-leaves elongate while the 
flower is open. 
Concealed within its bell-like cup and slender tube are the characters that 
distinguish Colchicum from Crocus ; for here we have six stamens, instead of the three 
in Crocus ; and, though the ovary is underground, at the bottom of the long perianth- 
tube it is superior, free, that is, from all adhesion to the tube, which is not the case 
in Crocus. The yellow anthers are versatile, but burst outwards, and they are not 
mature until after the stigmas. Honey is secreted by the bases of the filaments, 
which are woolly. Three separate slender styles rise from the ovary to the summit 
of the flower, ending in recurved simple stigmas, quite unlike those of Crocus , which 
constitute saffron ; and there seem to be three different lengths of style in different 
individuals, as in the Purple Loosestrife, an arrangement probably connected with 
insect-pollination. 
The large elliptical three-sided capsule splits open at the top and discharges 
numerous minute seeds. 
