beautifully decorated courts in fair repair, built by Mohammed XVII., is a prominent object above the town, and there are many interesting buildings and ruins.
SAFFLOWER (ultimately from the Arabic safra, yellow) or
Bastard Saffron (Carthamus tinctorius), a plant of the natural
order compositae; its flowers form the basis of the safflower
dye of commerce. The plant is a native of the East Indies, but
is cultivated in Egypt and to some extent in southern Europe.
To obtain the dyeing principle—carthamin, C14H14O7—the
flowers are first washed to free them from a soluble yellow
colouring matter they contain; they are then dried and powdered,
and digested in an alkaline solution in which pieces of clean white
cotton are immersed. The alkaline solution having been neutralized
with weak acetic acid, the cotton is removed and washed in
another alkaline solution. When this second solution is neutralized
with acid, carthamin in a pure condition is precipitated
as a dark red powder. It forms a brilliant but fugitive scarlet
dye for silk, but is principally used for preparing toilet rouge.
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; but it is
named in Canticles iv. 14 among other sweet-smelling herbs.
It is also repeatedly mentioned (κρόκος) by Homer, Hippocrates
and other Greek writers; and the word “ crocodile ” was long
supposed to have been derived from κρόκος and δειλός, whence
we have such stories as that “ the crocodile's tears are
never true save when he is forced where saffron groweth ”
(Fuller's Worthies). It has long been cultivated in Persia and
Kashmir, and is supposed to have been introduced into China
by the Mongol invasion. It is mentioned in the Chinese materia
medical (Pun tsaou, 1552–1578). 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; Reymond, on
the other hand, with more probability, holds that the name of the
drug arose from that of the town. 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.”
Saffron was used as an ingredient in many of the complicated medicines of early times. That it was very largely used in cookery is evidenced by many writers; thus Laurenbergius (Apparatus plantarum, 1632) makes the large assertion “ In te familiari vix ullus est telluris habitat us angulus ubi non sit croci quotidian usurpation aspersi vel incocti cibis.” The Chinese used also to employ it largely, and the Persians and Spaniards still mix it with their rice. As a perfume it was strewn in Greek halls, courts and theatres, and in the Roman baths. The streets of Rome were sprinkled with saffron when Nero made his entry into the city.
It was, however, mainly used as a dye. It was a royal colour in early Greek times, though afterwards, perhaps from its abundant use in the baths and as a scented salve, it was especially appropriated by the hetairae. In ancient Ireland a king's mantle was dyed with saffron, and even down to the 17th century the “ lein-croich,” or saffron-dyed shirt, was worn by persons of rank in the Hebrides. In medieval illumination it furnished, as a glaze upon burnished tinfoil, a cheap and effective substitute for gold. The sacred spot on the forehead of a Hindu pundit is also partly composed of it. Its main use in England was to colour pastry and confectionery, and it is still used for this purpose in some parts of the country (notably Cornwall).
One grain of saffron rubbed to powder with sugar and a little water
imparts a distinctly yellow tint to ten gallons of water. This
colouring power is due to the presence of polychlorite, a substance
whose chemical formula appears to be C48H60O15, and which may be
obtained by treating saffron with ether, and afterwards exhausting
with water. Under acids it yields the following reaction—
C48H60O18+H2O=2C16H18O6+C10H14O+C6H12O6
Polychlorite. Crocin. Essential oil. Sugar.
Crocin, according to Watts, Dict. of Chem., has a composition of C29H42O15 or C58H42O30. This crocin is a red colouring matter, and it is surmised that the red colour of the stigmas is due to this reaction taking place in nature.
Saffron is chiefly cultivated in Spain, France, Sicily, on the lower spurs of the Apennines and in Persia and Kashmir. The ground has to be thoroughly cleared of stones, manured and trenched, and the corms are planted in ridges. The flowers are gathered at the end of October, in the early morning, just when they are beginning to open after the night. The stigmas and a part of the style are carefully picked out, and the wet saffron is then scattered on sheets of pa er to a depth of 2 or 3 in.; over this a cloth is laid, and next a board, with a heavy weight. A strong heat is applied for about two hours so as to make the saffron “ sweat, " and a gentler temperature for a further period of twenty-four hours, the cake being turned every hour so that every part is thoroughly dried. This is known as cake sagron to distinguish it from hay saffron, which consists merely of the dried stigmas.
The drug has naturally always been liable to great adulteration in spite of penalties, the severity of which suggests the surviving tradition of its sacred character. Thus in Nuremberg a regular saffron inspection was held, and in the 15th century we read of men being burned in the market-place along with their adulterated saffron, while on another occasion three persons convicted of the same crime were buried alive. Grease and butter are still very frequently mixed with the cake, and shreds of beef dipped in saffron water are also used. Good saffron has a deep orange-red colour; if it is light yellow or blackish, it is bad or too old.
SAFFRON WALDEN, a market-town and municipal borough
in the Saffron Walden parliamentary division of Essex, England,
beautifully situated near the Cam in a valley surrounded by
hills, on a branch of the Great Eastern railway, 43½ m. N.N.E.
from London. Pop. (1901) 5896. It has a somewhat ancient
appearance and possesses a spacious market-place. Of the old
castle, dating probably from the 12th century, but in part
protected by much earlier earthworks, the keep and a few other
portions still remain. Near it are a series of curious circular
excavations in the chalk, called the Maze, of unknown date or
purpose. The earthworks west and south of the town are of
great extent; there was a large Saxon burial-ground here.
The church of St Mary the Virgin, a beautiful specimen of the
Perpendicular style, dating from the reign of Henry VII., but
frequently repaired and restored, contains the tomb of Lord
Audley, chancellor to Henry VIII. There is an Edward VI.
grammar school, occupying modern buildings. The town possesses
a museum with good archaeological and natural history
collections, a literary institute and a horticultural society. The
benevolent institutions include the hospital and the Edward
VI. almshouses. There is a British and Foreign School Society's
training college for mistresses. In the neighbourhood is the fine
mansion of Audley End, built by Thomas, 1st earl of Suffolk,
in 1603 on the ruins of the abbey, converted in 1190 from a
Benedictine priory founded by Geoffrey de Mandeville in 1136.
Brewing, malting and iron-founding are carried on. The
borough is under a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors.
Area, 7502 acres.
Saffron Walden (Waledana) was almost certainly fortified by the Britons, and probably by some earlier race. The town corporation grew out of the Gild of the Holy Trinity, which was incorporated under Henry VIII., the lord of the town, in 1514. It was dissolved under Edward VI., and a charter was obtained for Walden, appointing a treasurer and chamberlain and twenty four assistants, all elective, who, with the commonalty, formed the corporation. In 1694 William and Mary made Walden a free borough, with a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 town councillors. The corporation became a local board of health under the act of 1858, and a municipal borough in 1875. The culture of saffron was the most characteristic industry at Walden from the reign of Edward III. until its gradual extinction about 1768.
