Saffron
in botany, the Crocus sativus, a species with light purple flowers which come out in autumn. It grows in the S. of Europe and in parts of Asia.
It is extensively cultivated in France, Austria and Spain, as it formerly was in England. The Spanish variety is the best for commercial purposes, though it is said that 100,000 flowers are necessary to produce one pound of saffron. The stigmas of the flower are from 1 to 1/2 inches in length, narrow and rounded where they are attached to the style, but spreading and club-shaped near the extremity, which is truncated. They have an orange or brownish-red color, yellow in the narrower par part, and an agreeable aromatic odor. The dried stigmas of the saffron crocus are sometimes used in dyeing and for coloring tinctures. They have a bitter taste, and impart a yellow color to water, alcohol, and oils. It was formerly met with in two forms, viz., hay saffron and cake saffron, but the former is now alone in demand. Saffron is slightly stimulant. It is used in the treatment of exanthemata, but chiefly as a coloring agent in preparing medicines and in cookery. The natives in India use saffron as a remedy in fever, melancholia, catarrhal affections of children, and as a coloring matter in some dishes.