THE CROCUS 
cursor of this season as its accompaniment, as it blooms 
both in February and March; and when it first gilds the 
bed, we know that spring is coming quickly. It is like 
the early beam of the morning sun — a promise of a rich 
noontide glow. We are glad, when the rain will cease 
awhile, and when the thaw is not dropping from the trees, 
to wrap our warm clothing about us, and venture forth into 
the garden to watch the first crocuses, and to predict the 
beauty with which the earth shall soon be covered. 
Perhaps there is not, throughout the year, a more un- 
delightful month than February. It is that in which na- 
ture presents her fewest beauties. We observe this espe- 
cially in the flower-gardens. Indeed, the grass is getting 
green upon the meadow, and under the hedges several 
plants are putting forth their herbage, their delicate green 
leaves and stems. The woods are always lovely, even in 
winter, with their black and red berries, and the varied 
outlines presented by the naked boughs of the differently 
formed trees, and the pathways dry from the carpet of 
brown leaves which the angry winds have flung over them. 
The beautiful snow has melted away from the flower-beds, 
and here and there the leaves of the early plants may be 
seen unfolding themselves ; but the large uncovered spaces 
of the parterre, adorned by scarcely any other blossom, 
seem, notwithstanding the open cups of its knots of cro- 
cuses, a barren, dreary spot. 
There are generally enumerated fourteen species of gar- 
den crocus; either of blue, in its varied shades, from, the 
full purple to the azure tint, or of the most brilliant yellow. 
They are almost all natives of warm climates; though, 
with the exception of the autumn species, they bloom with 
us during February and March. 
The autumn-blooming crocuses, though not inferior in 
beauty to those of spring, are of course, from the season 
of their blossoming, less generally admired ; but one of 
these species, the Crocus sativus, is valuable for its pro- 
duction of saffron. 
But it is in the few spots in English meadow-land where 
this flower is found, that it is invested with all its. loveli- 
ness. There it rises among the shining blades of grass, 
or grows beneath the welcome plants which, at the begin- 
ning of the year, grace the hedges, adding greatlv, bv 
