94 
TR1ANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. Crocus. 
Common or Autumnal Saffron. Saffron Crocus. (Irish: Crogh. 
Welsh: Saffyr meddygawl. C. sativus . FI. Brit. C. autumnalis. E. 
Bot. C. officinalis sativus. Huds. C. officinalis. Hull. E. In meadows 
and pastures,, suspected to be naturalized. About Cambridge, and Saf¬ 
fron Walden, Essex. Not cultivated there in 1796, nor could I find any 
traces of it. Mr. Turner. E.) In a meadow near the copper mills, 
Derby. Mr. Whately. (Common in meadows about Manchester. Mr. 
Caley. Breadfall and Duffield, near the banks of the Derwent. Pilking- 
ton. Anglesey. Welsh Bot. E.) P. Aug.—Sept.* 
(C. ver'nus. Two leaves broader, with flat edges. Flowers in the 
spring. Summit three, short, wedge-shaped lobes, inclosed within 
the blossom. E. Bot. E.) 
Jacq. Austr. App. 36— (E. Bot. 344. E.)— Ger. Em. 153. 1— Clus. i. 205. 2 
—Ger. Em. 156. 12 —Ger. 125. 1. 
Inserted on the authority of Hudson, but he has given no place of growth. 
It may however be found in almost every garden, both with blue and 
yellow blossoms in the month of March; (and few primeval flowers are 
more cheering and acceptable. E.) 
Spring Saffron or Vernal Crocus. (Welsh: Saffyr gwanwynawl. 
C. sativus. (3 With. Ed. 2. C. officinalis sylvestris. Huds. Meadows 
near Nottingham. Deering. Meadows near Gorton, four miles from 
Stockport, Cheshire. Mr. G. Holme. Covers a field by the side of 
Mendham long lane, by Harleston, and has grown there for a great num¬ 
ber of years. Rev. H. Tilney. The osier ground, at Beccles, Suffolk, 
but sparingly. Rev. G. Crabbe. Battersea Mill. Martyn, in Bot. Guide. 
On waste ground near Holyhead. W elsh Bot. I have found this plant in 
flower near Blackburn late in the autumn. Hull. E.) P. March. E.)t 
* The summits of the pistils (Stigmata Croci. Pharm. Loud, sometimes called chives,) 
of C. officinalis sativus, carefully collected, and moderately dried, are the Saffron of the 
shops. That grown in England is larger than, and preferred to, all other. (Its cultivation 
was first attempted in the reign of Edward the Third. It is now principally obtained 
from a particular district in Cambridgeshire. The flowers are usually gathered early in 
the morning, after which they are carried home and picked. Five or six pounds of the 
wet saffron yield about one pound of dry; the finest kind, hay-saffron, is not pressed 
into a cake, but merely dried. An acre of land will produce ten or twelve pounds of 
saffron when properly managed. It affords a beautiful colour to water, wine, or spirit, 
and gives out the whole of its virtues to either. Dryden compares the rich tint it com¬ 
municates to the dawn : 
“ Now when the rosy morn began to rise, 
And wav’d her saffron streamer through the skies.” E.) 
It hath been holden in high repute as a cordial; but modern practice pays no great 
attention to it, since it has been found to produce no sensible effect, even in doses 
greatly larger than those generally prescribed. (Of the efficacy or propriety of its use, 
even in the olden time, much difference of opinion seems to have prevailed. Temp. 
Henry viii. the colouring of long locks of hair called glibbes, and various articles of dress, 
with saffron, was strictly prohibited : while in Ireland, according to Lauremberg, “ the 
Irish women dye their shirts with saffron to preserve them from vermin, and add 
strength to their limbs, which is a desirable end in this humid island.” The bulb of the 
saffron is liable to the attacks of Sclerotium Crocorum, a small parasitic tuber. E.) 
■j* Whether the above-named stations be originally indigenous may, perhaps, be 
questionable: at least that the indefatigable Gerard deemed the plant exotic is to be 
inferred from the following passage of his great work, “That pleasant plant that 
