THE season when the crocuses are in their full splendour is pretty sure to give us a glorious burst of sun-shine for a day, or even a week, and then the flowers expand to their utmost, and surprise us with their splendour. They seem to surprise the honey-bees no less, for the music they make as they brush up the pollen is just that of a crowd of working people rendered half delirious by the discovery of a gold-mine. And, indeed, it is a gold-mine to them, or, better still, a bread-mine, for the pollen becomes "bee-bread" when carried into the hive, and constitutes the first food of the callow-worm hidden in its cellular cot, and feeding itself up to the point when it will emerge as a perfect bee and join the general congregation. Bee-keepers cannot have too many crocuses, because at the time they flower the bees are more or less distressed and cannot travel far, and it is of immense value to them to find refreshment near home, and thus be enabled without risk to "improve the shining hour."

The spring-flowering crocuses are as well known in a general way as any flowers of the garden. But those whose knowledge of horticulture is more than skin-deep can tell us of crocuses that flower in almost every month of the year. For the present purpose, however, we may divide them into two classes--those that flower in autumn and those that flower in spring. The naturalist may prove to us that the season in which a plant produces its flowers is determined by circumstances acting through many long years; but the poet has a perfect right to take another view of it as having no relation to heredity, climatical influence, or the origin of species. Good Gilbert White found in the crocus a sermon so plainly written that he who runs may read it for himself, and it might be interwoven with the pregnant text, "My times are in thy hand."

Three species of crocus claim priority of attention in this brief essay. The common yellow crocus of gardens is the Crocus luteus of the botanist. The native country of this is at present unknown, but it probably is "at home" somewhere on the shores of the Mediterranean. The finest of the yellow crocuses is known to traders in bulbs as the "Cloth of Gold;" this is the Crocus susiana of the botanist, native of the "Levant," which may mean anywhere in Asia Minor. The blue, white, and striped crocuses are the product of the spring crocus, Crocus vernus of the botanist, native of the Alps and Apennines.

The following less known species are worthy of especial attention by such as find amusement in collecting choice hardy flowers. Crocus Imperati, flowering in spring, creamy white with purple stripes, a very fine sweet-scented species, the leaves distinctly marked with a central white line. Crocus boryanus, flowering in autumn, white with yellow throat with a stain of purple outside. Crocus pulchellus, flowering in autumn, pearly blue with dark pencil lines, the throat orange-yellow. Crocus sativus, the saffron crocus, an autumn-flowering plant, the flowers violet with long tubes, sweet-scented; requires a dry warm soil, or it will but rarely flower. The dried stigmas of this crocus constitute the genuine saffron of commerce. We say "genuine," because common shop saffron, like restaurant soup, is made of anything that comes nearest to hand, several other species of crocus being pressed into the service, with florets of the marigold and slices of the flowers of the pomegranate. It is not unlikely that a very nice-looking sample might be made from scraped carrots. The matter is not of great consequence now, because saffron has parted from the fame it enjoyed as a drug that "maketh the sences more quicke and liuely, shaketh off heauie and drowsie sleepe, and maketh a man merrie." Gerarde, from whom the foregoing is a quotation, figures several "saffrons," including crocuses and colchicums, and he reminds us that Saffron Walden obtains its name from the abundance of saffron-producing flowers in its vicinity. Finally, Crocus speciosus is a particularly fine autumn-flowering species, with flowers of a rich violet colour, striped with purple lines.