CRO. 
C R O 
As foon as the roots begin to flioot upwards, there 
are commonly two or three large tap-roots fent forth 
from the fide of the old root, which will run down- 
right two inches and a half or more, into tire ground ; 
at the place where thefe bulbs firft come out from the 
m one, will he formed a bulb fometimes (though 
not always, as you will hear prefently ;) and this tap- 
root, decays. The bulb will increafe in its bignefs, 
till at laft it quite falls off, and is then left entire, 
which commonly happens in April, when the green 
begins to decay ^ but many times thefe tap or car- 
rotty roots never produce any bulbs, but always re- 
tain the fame figure, and for ever after, I believe are 
barren ^ for I planted a parcel of thefe carrotty roots 
four years ago in a little bed, where they have ever 
fmce remained, but have not produced one hngle 
flower, nctwithfcanding they have produced a nu- 
merous offspring of the fame carrotty roots. 
And the people about Saffron Walden are well ap- 
prifed of this barrennefs, and therefore throw away 
all fuch roots when they make a new plantation •, but 
as this change of the root is not peculiar to the Saf- 
fron only, permit me to digrefs a little, to give you 
fome account of this matter. 
In the parifn of Fulham, near London, the garden- 
ers tiled to. drive a great trade in the jonquil, or Nar- 
ciffus juncifolius, flore muitiplici, at which place the 
greateft quantity of thole roots was raifed for fale, 
as perhaps was in any part of England, and turned 
to as great account for the maker, as any crop they 
could employ their ground in, till of late years, that 
moft of their roots have turned carrotty, and fo 
proved barren, or have produced only fingie flowers ; 
fo that the gardeners being hereby diflieartened, have 
thrown them out entirely, neglecting to cultivate 
them, fatisfylng themfelves with this reafon, that 
their ground was tired with them. 
But to return to the Crocus. Befides thofe roots al- 
ready mentioned, there will be three or four fmall 
bulbs formed upon the upper part of the root, and 
fome underneath, which from the firft appearance 
affume the round fhape of its parent root, and have 
no tap-root belonging to them ; thofe on the upper 
part of the root rarely emit fo much as a fibre, but 
receive their nourifliment immediately from the old 
root ^ but thofe on the under fide fend out many fi- 
bres all around, by which they draw their nourifliment 
from the ground ; thefe * being parted from the old 
root much fooner than the other, ftand in need of fit 
organs for receiving their nourifliment. 
I have fometimes taken up fome, through the middle 
of which hath been a root of the Gramen caninum, 
or Couch Grafs, which fome people have imagined 
had ftrength enough to force its way through the Cro- 
cus root ; but the truth is, the root of the Grafs 
clofely adhering to the old root of the Crocus, juft 
at the place where the young roots were emitted, thefe 
young roots being quick of growth, inclofed the 
root of the Grafs, and thus I have feen feveral roots 
run through each other in the fame manner. 
But befides thefe offsets mentioned, direCtly upon the 
upper part of the root is one large root formed, of 
equal bignefs with the old one, and this is the time 
that the root is Radix gemina, as Tournefort calls it ; 
for they are not fo at any other feafon, and therefore 
I think it a very improper appellation ; for when the 
new roots are perfectly formed, the old ones, with 
their coats, fall off and die, and leave the new roots 
all fingie. This has occafioned feveral people to 
doubt of what Tournefort had faid of the roots, till 
I took up fome plants at that feafon, and with them 
the two roots of equal bignefs, i. e. the old at the bot- 
tomland the new one at the top. 
Dr. Blair alfo happening, in viewing a root, to be 
lurprifed with a different appearance from what he had 
feen before or heard of, fent me another letter. 
The manner of the root was thus ; from the upper 
part of the bulb, where it fends forth all the leaves 
within a common tunicle, at the exit there was an ap- 
pendix about an inch and a half long, about the grolf- 
iiefs of a large turkey or goofe-quill, cylindrical and 
blunt, without the leaft radical fibre, by which it 
might receive the nourifliment, fmooth or polifhed, 
and bluifh in the furface, confifting of feveral circular 
lines, when cut tranfverfly ^ white, with a hard 
greenifh center like a Carrot, when it hath pufhed 
forth the flowering-ftem, not unlike the flolones of 
of fome running root, fuch as the Mints below ground, 
only the extremity defcended obliquely, inftead of af- 
cending, to fend forth leaves to produce a new plant ; 
and what is moft remarkable, this did not happen to 
one or two plants, but to the whole bundle, which 
were above twenty diftinCt roots, differing in nothing 
but majus and minus ; the bulb feemed at the fame 
time to be pined and emaciated, though it emitted 
large radical fibres like thofe of a Leak. 
I having received this account from him by letter, 
fent him the following; anfwer : 
I received yours in anfwer to my laft, with the figure 
of the roots of fome fets of Crocus Autumnalis you 
have taken out of the ground ; I have found a figure 
in Dodonasus which correfponds with it, and thofe 
roots are no new thing with the Saffron gardeners, 
who always throw them away when they make frefh 
plantations. 
Your figure does not agree with my tap-roots, as 
you will fee by the figure taken as juft from the life 
as I could. In mine you will find the bulb turned 
Tideways, which I ftill find to be conftant in all the 
roots I have examined, which have been a great many, 
and makes me fufpeft thefe tap-roots are occafioned 
by the accidental pofition of the roots in planting, 
which may retard the afcending fap, the ftowering- 
ftem being thereby turned into a crooked figure, 
and the tap-roots are full of longitudinal veflels, of 
a conftderable dimenfion ; fo that the greater attract- 
ing power of the fap being hereby diverted down- 
wards, the flower-ftem may be quite deftitute of pro- 
per nourifliment. 
The method you propofe to remedy this inconvent- 
ency, will not do, for I have removed fome of thefe 
roots at the feafon when the tap-roots were forming, 
and this alone deftroyed them all ; fo that I am per- 
fuaded, the cutting them off entirely will kill them. 
The method I ufed with the Jonquils was, to lay 
fome tiles juft under the roots, to prevent their run- 
ning downwards, but this has not anfwered, nor do I 
think it poffible wholly to recover them ; for the al- 
teration is not only in the root and flower, but alfo 
in the leaf and blade, which before was fiftulous, but 
after this alteration in the root, becomes a plain ful- 
cated leaf, and if it ever bloffoms after, the flowers 
are large and fingie, which before were fmall and 
double ; but the Saffron, after the change of its roots, 
produces a fmall narrow blade, feldom half the length 
of thofe in a natural ftate. 
Upon this Dr. Blair formed this conclufion : 
Thefe additional obfervations plainly fhew, that nei- 
ther the carrotty root, nor the blafted tap-root, as I 
may call it, are merely accidental, or what may be 
called lufus naturae, but certain difeafes incident to 
fuch roots ; for were they accidental, they would not 
have the fame appearances to different perfons in dif- 
ferent foils and climates, nor would fo many taken 
up together have fuch a refemblance to each other, as 
I have twice obferved. 
CROTOLARIA. Lin. Gen. Plant. 77 1 . Dill. Elth. 
122. Tourn. Inft. R. H. 644. [of KporaXov, Gr. rat- 
tle ; becaufe its feeds in the pods, when ripe, make 
a rattling noife when fhaken, or becaufe the infants 
of the Indians make ufe of the branches of this plant 
furnifhed with pods inftead of rattles.] 
The Characters are, 
‘The empalement of the flower is divided into three large 
ferments ; the two upper refling on the ftandard , the 
lower is concave , trifid , and is fituated below the keel.. 
1 The flower is of the Butterfly kind-, the ftandard is large, 
heart-fhaped and pointed the wings are oval and half 
the length of the ftandard the keel is pointed and as long 
as the wings 5 it hath ten ftamina which are united , ter- 
minated 
