Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Meadow-saffron

MEADOW-SAFFRON, or Tuberoot, Colchicum autumnale, L. an indigenous perennial plant, being the principal of three species; growing in meadows; flowering in the months of August and September.

The flower of this hardy plant rises immediately from the root, and its large leaves appear in the succeeding spring: the former afford a beautiful variety of purple, white, red, rose-coloured, yellow, &c. with single and double flowers.—This vegetable is more ornamental than useful; and, though it frequently occupies a considerable part of a meadow, it is never touched by horses.

In its medicinal properties, the Meadow-Saffron resembles those of the Squill: the root of the former has ever been considered as an acrid poison, but it is less injurious in autumn than in the spring; its seed is also deleterious, though not mortal to either man or cattle.—The juice expressed from the leaves of this plant, wheu rubbed on the skin of animals, affords a very powerful and effectual remedy against vermin, with which they are often infested.