96' 
EXCESS IS DANGEROUS. 
SAFFRON. 
A slight infusion of saffron is agreeably 
stimulating; but if taken in excess it pro¬ 
duces madness. It is said to have been 
brought to England in the reign of Ed¬ 
ward III., and introduced to Walden in 
Essex, from which that town derives its pre¬ 
nomen. It was cultivated there, and in the 
counties of Cambridge, Suffolk, and Here¬ 
fordshire, in the early part of the seventeenth 
century. It is now, however, cultivated only 
in Essex. The flowers are gathered in Sep¬ 
tember ; the yellow stigmas and part of the 
style taken out, and dried on a kiln between 
layers of paper, under the pressure of a thick 
board, to form the mass into cakes. 
