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AUTUMN CROCUS
Sentiment: Growing Old

"Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand Who saith 'A whole I planned'
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"
Robert Browning

Browning's long poem, "Rabbi Ben Ezra," begins with these lines; it was published in 1864, three years after the death of his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Rabbi Ben Ezra was a Jewish scholar, born in Spain at the turn of the eleventh century, who mastered astronomy and physics and was a grammarian, philosopher, and poet. Browning has the rabbi speaking these well-known lines about growing old.

Botanical Species: Colchicum autumnale
Common Names: autumn crocus, meadow saffron

Often confused with crocus, autumn crocus is actually a member of the lily family. Its botanical name, Colchicum, comes from Colchis, a country in Asia Minor, where it flourishes. It is valued for its medicinal properties, particularly in the treatment of gout. The active principle is said to be an alkaline substance of a very poisonous nature called colchinine. An emblem of growing old, it blooms in the autumn of the year.

Description & Habitat: Long, dark green, lance-shaped leaves appear in early spring and usually die down by June. Crocus-like flowers arise in autumn from the root or corm and are light purple or white. It is like the spring-flowering, three-stamen crocus, except for its six stamens and autumn flowering habit. Gerard's Herbal described the meadow saffron: "It brings forth leaves in February, seed in May, and flowers in September, which is a thing clean contrary to all other plants whatsoever, for that they do first flower, and after seed; but this Saffron seeds first, and four months after brings forth flowers." A native of Europe and South Africa, it grows wild in meadows and is cultivated in America and elsewhere.

© 2001 by CSL Press and Susan Loy. All rights reserved.

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