io8 
Crocus. 
It has been observed of the rich tint obtained from this 
plant that there is nothing analogous to it in nature excepting 
the hue of morn : 
“ How when the rosy mom begins to rise, 
. And wave her saffron streamers through the skies.” 
Saffron was formerly much used in medicines, but modern 
discovery has enabled us to dismiss it from our pharmacopaeia, 
as also from the laboratory of the manufacturer’s chemist, 
more permanent dyes having supplied its place. It still, how¬ 
ever, retains its post at the confectioner’s, where its use must 
have been well known as long ago as Shakspeare’s days, since 
we find the clown in the “Winter’s Tale,” when enumerating 
the articles he has for sale, speaks of “saffron to colour the 
warden pies.” 
Virgil alludes to the fondness of bees for “the glowing 
crocus,” as also does Moore—to pass to modern times—in his 
“ Lalla Rookh ” : 
‘ * The busiest hive 
On Bela’s hills is less alive, 
When saffron-beds are full in flower, 
Than look’d the valley in that hour.” 
Mrs. Howitt says of the purple crocus: 
“Like lilac flame its colour glows, 
Tender and yet so clearly bright. 
That all for miles and miles about 
The splendid meadow shineth out; 
And far-off village children shout 
To see the welcome sight.” 
Miss Pratt, in one of her floral works, remarks upon the 
abundance of the purple variety of this flower in the vicinity 
of Nottingham: “There the lands which it adorns are like 
radiant spots, compared with which the other meadows seem 
almost colourless. Its full-blown cups stand open to invite 
the spring butterfly to his regale, or the diligent bee to add to 
the store which he is gathering for others. Not one little up¬ 
land or dell of these meadows but is covered with the daisy 
and the crocus. Every hedge violet that there expands seems 
of a darker hue by its contrast; and never does cowslip or 
primrose better merit its long-worn epithet of pale than when 
either the sunny or blue crocus stands beside it.” 
