Of the Hiftorie of Plants. 
IB. i. 
i<5o 
"are ofa lighter purple without, and of a toper on the inf>de,and they are marked certaine 
veines running alongft thefe leaues. The roots and feeds of this plant are thrice as lar 0 e as thofe 
° f fo 6 C Thhharii toots and leaues like to the firft deferibed but the floure is Sorter, and growes 
vnon a fliorrer ftalke fo that it rifes but little aboue the earth : the three inner leaues are of a red- 
difli purple • the three out leaues ate either w holly white, or purplifh on the middle in the infid e, 
or ftreaked with faire purple veins, or (potted with fuch coloured fpots : all the leaues oft he floure 
are blunter and rounder than in the common kinde* • . r , a ,- c 
n This in leaues, roots, manner and time of growing, as alfo in the colour of the floures^l.f- 
fers not from the firft deferred, but the floures, as you may perceiueby the figure here expreffed, 
are very double, andconfift of many leaues. 
d 5 Colchicum montttnnm minus verfico- 
loreflore. 
Theleffer mountaine Saffron with 
a various coloured floure. 
6 Colcficum llljricum . 
Greeke medow Saffron. 
1 2 This Colchicum differs little from the firft ordinarie one,butthat the floures are iomewhat 
lefle and the three out-leaues are fomwhat bigger than the three inner leaues ; the colour is a lit, 
tie deeper al fo than that of the common one ; but that wherein the principall difference conli ts, 
is, That this floures twice in a yeare, to wit, in the Spring and Autumne : and hence CLujtus natn 
called it Colchicum biflorum, Twice-flouring Mede Saffron. , 
1 2 This alfo in the fhape of the root and leaues is not much different from the ordinary, out 
the leaues of the floure are longer and narrower, the colour alfo when they begin to open an 1 ew 
themfelues,is white, but fhortly after they are changed into a light purple teach leafe ° 1 e 
floure hath a white thread tiptwith yellow growing outofit, and in the middle Hands a w i e 
three forked one longer than the reft. The floure growes vp between three or foure leaues narrow er 
than thofe of the ordinarie one, and broader than thofe of the fmall Spanifh kinde. Clujius , to 
whom we are beholden for this, as alfo for moft of the reft, calls it Colchicum vernum, or Spring 
Mede- Saffron, becaufe it then floures togetherwith the Spring Saffrons and Dogs Tootn. 
14 Thereare other Mede-Saffronsbefides thefe lhaue mentioned, but became they may 
