Flora's Lexicon/Crocus
ROCUS. Crocus. Class 3, Triandria. Order: Monogynia. According to the Grecian mythology, the name of this flower is derived from Crocus, a youth who was consumed by the ardour of his love for the nymph Smilax, and afterwards changed into the flower which bears his name. The common saffron used in medicine is a species of crocus, the crocus sativus, a native of Greece and Asia Minor.
CHEERFULNESS.
Oh! many a glorious flower there grows In far and richer lands;But high in my affection e’er The Autumnal Crocus stands.
I love their faces, when by one And two they’re looking out:I love them when the spreading field Is purple all about.
I loved them in the by-gone years Of childhood’s thoughtless laughter,When I marvell’d why the flowers came first, And the leaves the season after.
I loved them then, I love them now— The gentle and the bright;I love them for the thoughts they bring Of Spring’s returning light;
When, first-born of the waking earth, Their kindred gay appear,And, with the Snow-drop, usher in The hope-invested year.
Howitt.