The common Crocus Sativus, a small bluish flower, whose yellow, thread-like stigmata yield an agreeable aromatic odor; and also the Indian saffron, Song of Solomon 4:14. In the East these were used in making a highly valued perfume, and also as a condiment and a stimulating medicine.

Heb. karkom, Arab. zafran (i.e., "yellow"), mentioned only in Cant 4:13,14; the Crocus sativus. Many species of the crocus are found in Palestine. The pistils and stigmata, from the centre of its flowers, are pressed into "saffron cakes," common in the East. "We found," says Tristram, "saffron a very useful condiment in travelling cookery, a very small pinch of it giving not only a rich yellow colour but an agreable flavour to a dish of rice or to an insipid stew."

SAF'FRON, n. The radical sense is to fail, or to be hollow, or to be exhausted.

1. A plant of the genus Crocus. The bastard saffron is of the genus Carthamus, and the meadow saffron of the genus Colchicum.

2. In the materia medica, saffron is formed of the stigmata of the Crocus officinalis, dried on a kiln and pressed into cakes.

SAF'FRON, a. Having the color of saffron flowers; yellow; as a saffron face; a saffron streamer.

SAF'FRON, v.t. To tinge with saffron; to make yellow; to gild.

(yellow ). (Solomon 4:14) Saffron has front the earliest times been in high esteem as a perfume. "It was used," says Rosenmuller, "for the same purposes as the modern pot-pourri." The word saffron is derived from the Arabic zafran , "yellow." (The saffron (Crocus sativus ) is a kind of crocus of the iris family. It is used its a medicine, as a flavoring and as a yellow dye. Homer, Virgil and Milton refer to its beauty in the landscape. It abounds in Palestine name saffron is usually applied only to the stigmas and part of the style, which are plucked out and dried. --ED.)