-shaped, and produced below into
a long slender tube, in the upper part of which the six stamens are
inserted. The ovary is three-celled, and lies at the bottom of this
tube. The leaves are three or four in number, flat, lanceolate, erect
and sheathing; and there is no stem. Propagation is by the formation of
new corms from the parent corm, and by seeds. The latter are numerous,
round, reddish-brown, and of the size of black mustard-seeds. The corm
of the meadow-saffron attains its full size in June or early in July. A
smaller corm is then formed from the old one, close to its root; and
this in September and October produces the crocus-like flowers. In the
succeeding January or February it sends up its leaves, together with the
ovary, which perfects its seeds during the summer. The young corm, at
first about the diameter of the flower-stalk, grows continuously, till
in the following July it attains the size of a small apricot. The parent
corm remains attached to the new one, and keeps its form and size till
April in the third year of its existence, after which it decays. In some
cases a single corm produces several new plants during its second spring
by giving rise to immature corms.

_C. autumnale_ and its numerous varieties as well as other species of
the genus, are well known in cultivation, forming some of the most
beautiful of autumn-flowering plants. They are very easy to cultivate
and do not require lifting. The most suitable soil is a light, sandy
loam enriched with well decomposed manure, in a rather moist situation.
The corms should be planted not less than 3 in. deep. Propagation is
effected by seed or increase of corms; the seed should be sown as soon
as it is ripe in June or July.

Colchicum was known to the Greeks under the name of [Greek: Kolchikon],
from [Greek: Kolchis], or Colchis, a country in which the plant grew;
and it is described by Dioscorides as a poison. In the 17th century the
corms were worn by some of the German peasantry as a charm against the
plague. The drug was little used till 1763, when Baron Storck of Vienna
introduced it for the treatment of dropsy. Its use in febrile diseases,
at one time extensive, is now obsolete. As a specific for gout colchicum
was early employed by the Arabs; and the preparation known as _eau
medicinale_, much resorted to in the 18th century for the cure of gout,
owes its therapeutic virtues to colchicum; but general attention was
first directed by Sir Everar