14
NOTES ON THE SAFFRON PLANT
years after, he laughed at the notion recorded by Camden that the
flowers should be gathered early in the morning, before sunrise. The
only other saffron that I have ever seen was a bed in the garden of
a celebrated amateur florist, Mr. Charles Baron. At his demise his
garden passed into other hands, and the saffron failed. The saffron
farmers were called, by way of distinction from other farmers, "crocurs,"
and from the uncertainty of the crop from disease in the bulbs, and
the changes of this variable climate in September and October,
the profits were very precarious, occasionally ruinous; which gave
rise to habits of habitual discontent, and it may be inferred that the
word "croaker," now a common appellation for a grumbler, was so
derived! Saffron, in some shape or another, is still used in con-
fectionery, probably only as a colouring matter, and for colouring
butter and cheese.8 In the county of Durham it is largely
employed in the manufacture of biscuits, buns, and cakes. Such
things, bought in the confectioners' and bakers' shops around
Bodmin, Penzance, and Land's End, are coloured with saffron.
Nothing of the kind is heard of here. In Ireland these cakes
are well known and used. The late Lord Talbot de Malahide,
as an inducement for me to visit him in Ireland, said he would treat
me with saffron cakes; and Mr. Maynard informs me that in the
Museum here lately an Irish lady said that saffron cakes were now
extensively used in her country, especially in the neighbourhood of
Dublin. The commercial value of saffron is chiefly for the dye
which it affords.9 There are many imitations of it, some of great
beauty, but they lack the charm of the floral tincture. There is
nothing analogous in nature to the delicately rich and beautiful tint
which is supplied by the stigmas of the saffron blossoms, excepting
the hue of early morn, to which the poet has referred :—
" How, when the rosy morn begins to rise,
And wave her saffron streamer through the skies."
I think it is a flower which might, with advantage, as a late autumn
beauty, with its light violet or lilac blossoms, be introduced into our
gardens.
I will now devote a few lines to the name of the town in connection
with the saffron plant, and the time when it assumed its present
prenomen. It never was a large town, but was an important one
8Shakespeare's reference to it ("Winter's Tale" iv. sc. 2)—"I must have saffron to colour
the Warden-pies," indicates its common use for this purpose in his time.—Ed.
9"The chiues, steeped in water, serue to illumine, or, as we say, limne pictures and imagerie,
as also to colour sundry meats and confections."—Gerard,—Ed.