“ SAFFRON (Arab. za'fardn) , a product manufactured from the dried stigmas and part of the style of the saffron crocus, a cultivated form of Crocus sativus; some of the wild forms (var. Thomasii, Cartwrightianus) are also employed for the manufacture. The purple flower, which blooms late in autumn, is very similar to that of the common spring crocus, and the stigmas, which are protruded from the perianth, are of a characteristic orange-red colour. The fruit is rarely formed. The Egyptians, though acquainted with the bastard safflower, do not seem to have possessed saffron ”

“ The chief seat of cultivation in early times, however, was the town of Corycus (modern Korghoz) in Cilicia, and from this central point of distribution it may not improbably have spread east and west. According to Hehn, the town derived its name from the crocus ”

“ It was cultivated by the Arabs in Spain about 961, and is mentioned in an English leech book of the 10th century, but seems to have disappeared from western Europe till reintroduced by the Crusaders. According to Hakluyt, it was brought into England from Tripoli by a pilgrim, who hid a stolen corm in the hollow of his staff. It was especially cultivated near Hinton in Cambridgeshire and in Essex at Safron Walden, its cultivators being called “ crokers.” ”