THE CROCUS 
133 
and which are the only useful part; the bright petals 
being thrown away. The stamens are then dried in a kiln, 
and pressed into cakes, when the saffron is ready for com- 
mercial purposes. 
The use of saffron as a medicine has been greatly super- 
seded by the late discoveries of physicians; and its chief 
use now is in dyeing and confectionery. To this latter 
use it has been put for many years; for the clown in the 
“Winter’s Tale,” \\hen enumerating the articles he has 
to sell, does not forget to mention the “ saffron to colour 
the warden-pies.” From the gradual diminution, during 
late years, of the use of this drug, it is not thought worth 
while to cultivate the saffron crocus to any extent in Eng- 
land; it is therefore often imported from France and 
Spain, though the native produce is considered superior 
to that derived from foreign sources. When saffron was 
at first generally used throughout Europe, as a medicine, 
it was entirely brought from the Levant ; but the method 
of cultivating the crocus, and the means of making it 
serviceable, soon became known to the English. 
Among the nations of the East the crocus is still ga- 
thered in large quantities and made into saffron. This is 
in high repute as a cordial and restorative medicine ; and, 
among a people delighting in perfum.es, it is valued as 
an agreeable arom^atic. Letters of invitation to the m.ag- 
nificent nuptial or other entertainments, in which the rich 
Orientals delight, are written upon paper flowered with 
gold and sprinkled with saffron. A beautiful .yellow ex- 
tract is very generally obtained from it throughout the 
East, and used for the purpose of dyeing. 
Garments dyed in saffron are apt to fade upon exposure 
to the sun ; so that many other plants are used now for 
dyeing’ — the yellow extract being procurable from a great 
number of vegetables. The dyer’s 'weed, or wild migno- 
nette, is cultivated in France for the use of manufacturers; 
and the yellow-berried buckthorn of the south of Europe, 
the black or dyer’s oak of the American forest, the timber 
of the West-Indian mulberry-tree, with a large number of 
other vegetable dyes, have almost superseded the use of 
saffron in England. 
The abundance of wild crocus in some of the islands of 
the Greek Archipelago is very great. Tt colours the land- 
