the true Saffron, a native of the East, but long
cultivated in Great Britain, where it is sometimes found apparently
wild. They are plants of the Iris order.

From the Meadow Saffron is obtained a corm or bulb, dug up in the
spring, of which the well-known tincture of colchicum, a specific
for rheumatism, is made; and from the true Saffron flowers are
taken the familiar orange red stigmata, which furnish the fragrant
colouring matter used by confectioners in cakes, and by the
apothecary for his syrup of Saffron, etc.

The flower of the Meadow Saffron rises bare from the earth, and is,
therefore, called "Upstart" and "Naked Lady." This plant owes its
botanical name _Colchicum_, to Colchis, in Natalia, which
abounded in poisonous vegetables, and gave rise to the fiction about
the enchantress Medea. She renewed the vitality of her aged father,
AEneas, by drawing blood out of his veins and refilling them with
the juices of certain herbs. The fabled origin of the Saffron plant ran
thus. A certain young man named Crocus went to play at quoits in a
field with Mercurie, when the quoit of his companion happened by
misfortune to hit him on the head, whereby, before long, he died, to
the great sorrow of [484] his friends. Finally, in the place where he
had bled, Saffron was found to be growing: whereupon, the people,
seeing the colour of the chine as it stood, adjusted it to come of the
blood of Crocus, and therefore they gave it his name. The medicinal
properties of Colchicum have been known from a very early period.
In the reign of James the First (1615), Sir Theodore Mayerne
administered the bulb to his majesty together with the powder of
unburied skulls. In France, it has always been a favourite specific
for gout; and during the reign of Louis the Fifteenth, it became very
fashionable under the name of _Eau Medicinale_; but the remedy is
somewhat dangerous, and should never be incautiously used.
Instances are on record where fatal results have followed too large a
medicinal dose, even on the following day, after taking sixty drops
of the wine of Colchicum overnight; and when given in much
smaller doses it sometimes acts as a powerfully irritating purgative,
or as an emetic. The medicine should not be employed except by a
doctor; its habitual use is very harmful.

The acrimony of the bulb may be modified in a measure if it, or its
seeds, are steeped in vinegar before being taken as a medicine.

The French designate the roo