th clear of egg without
water, and when it has stood a night, on the following day cover with a
pencil the places which you wish to gild, the rest holding the place of
silver" (Book i, c. 23, Hendrie's translation).

Though the chief fame of the Saffron Crocus is as a field plant, yet it
is also a very handsome flower; but it is a most capricious one, which
may account for the area of cultivation being so limited. In some places
it entirely refuses to flower, as it does in my own garden, where I have
cultivated it for many years but never saw a flower, while in a
neighbour's garden, under apparently the very same conditions of soil
and climate, it flowers every autumn. But if we cannot succeed with the
Saffron Crocus, there are many other Croci which were known in the time
of Shakespeare, and grown not "for any other use than in regard of
their beautiful flowers of several varieties, as they have been
carefully sought out and preserved by divers to furnish a garden of
dainty curiosity." Gerard had in his garden only six species; Parkinson
had or described thirty-one different sorts, and after his time new
kinds were not so much sought after till Dean Herbert collected and
studied them. His monograph of the Crocus, in 1847, contained the
account of forty-one species, besides many varieties. The latest
arrangement of the family by Mr. George Maw, of Broseley, contains
sixty-eight species, besides varieties; of these all are not yet in
cultivation, but every year sees some fresh addition to the number,
chiefly by the unwearied exertions in finding them in their native
habitats, and the liberal distribution of them when found, of Mr. Maw,
to whom all the lovers of the Crocus are deeply indebted. And the Croci
are so beautiful that we cannot have too many of them; they are, for the
most part, perfectly hardy, though some few require a little protection
in winter; they are of an infinite variety of colour, and some flower in
the spring and some in the autumn. Most of us call the Crocus a spring
flower, yet there are more autumnal than vernal species, but it is as a
spring flower that we most value it. The common yellow Crocus is almost
as much "the first-born of the year's delight" as the Snowdrop. No one
can tell its native country, but it has been the brightest ornament of
our gardens, not only in spring, but even in winter, for many years. It
was probably first introduced during Shakespeare's life. "It hath
floures," says