ido 7 be Q ar den of pleafant Flowers. 
fter, and other places alfo. T he double kindcs arc thought to come out of 
Germany. 
The Time. 
Their times likewifeare declared in their feuerall deferiptions : thofc 
that are carlieft in Autumne, flower in Auguft and September , the later 
inO&ober, andthelateftinthcendof 0<ftober, and in Nouember. The 
otherarefaid to bee of the Spring, in regard they come after the deepe of 
Winter (which is moft vfually in December and lanuary ) is paft. 
TheNames. 
The generali name to all thefe plants is Colchicum , whereunto fome haue 
added Efhemcrum, becaufe it killeth within one dayes fpace ; and fome 
Str*nguUtor 'mm. Some haue called them alfo Hulbus agreftu, and Filius Ante 
Tetrcm, The Sonne before the Father , becaufe (as they thinke) it giueth 
feede before the flower : but that is without due confideration ; for the root 
of this (as of moft other bulbous plants)after the ftalke of leaues and feede 
are dry, and paft, may be tranfplanted, and then it beginnethtofpringand 
giue flowers before leaues, (and therein onely it is differing from other 
plants) but the leaues and feede follow fucceffmely after the flowers, before 
it may be remoued againe ; fo that here is not feede before flowers, but con- 
trarily flowers vpon the firft planting or fpringing, and feede after, as in all 
other plants, though in a diuers manner. 
The Colchicum HermoiAHilum may feeme very likely to bee the Colchicum 
OricxtA/e of Mitthiolus, or the Colchicum Alexandrinum ofLobelius : And 
fome thinke it to be the true HcrmodAtiilw, and fo call it, but it is not fo. We 
doe generally call them all in Englifh Medowe Saffrons, or Colchicum , ac- 
cording to the Latine , giuing to euery one his other adiumft to know it by. 
ThcVcrtues. 
None of thefe are vfed for any Phy licall refpeft , being generally held 
to be deadly, or dangerous at the leaft. Only the true Hermoda&ile (ifit be 
of this tribe, and not this which is hereexpre(fed)is of great vfe. for paines 
in the ioy nts, and of the hippes, as the Sciatic a, and the like , to be taken in- 
wardly. Coftams in his Bookc of the nature of plants, faith, that the rootes 
of our common kindes are very bitter in the Spring of the yeare, and fweec 
in Autumne, which Camerarius contradideth, faying, that hefound them 
bitter in Autumne, which were(ashefaith)giucn by fome importers to di- 
uers, as an antidote againft the Plague. 
Chap. XVII. 
Crocus. Saffron. 
T Here are diuers forts of Saffrons, whereof many doe flower in the Spring 
time,and fome in Autumne, among whom there is but one onely kinde, that 
is called tame or of the Garden, which yeeldeth thofc blades or chiues that are 
vfed in meates and medicines, and many wayes profitable for other refpe&s , none of 
the reft, which arc all wilde kindes, giuing any blade equall vntothofeof the tame 
kinde, or for any other vfe, then in regard of their beautifull flowers of feuerall varie- 
ties, and as they haue been carefully fought out, and preferued by diuers , to furnifii a 
Garden of dainty curioficy. To entreate therefore of thefe, I muft, toobferue an or- 
derly declaration, diuide them into two primary families: the former (hall be of thofc 
that yceld their pleafant flowers in the Spring of the yeare, and the other that fend out 
their 
