COLCHICUM luteum majus. Bauh. Pin. p. 69.
NARCISSUS autumnalis major. The greater Autumne or Winter Daffodill. Park. Parad. p. 77. 75. f. 7.
The Amaryllis lutea is a hardy perennial bulbous plant, a native of Spain, and other of the more Southern parts of Europe, and was cultivated in our Gardens in the time of Gerard, and Parkinson.
Flora, who commences her revolutionary reign, by enlivening the flower border with the Spring Crocus, and its numerous varieties, terminates it with flowers equally pleasing, and of similar hues; thus we have the present plant, the Saffron Crocus, and the Colchicum, flowering nearly at the same time, from the end of September, through October, and sometimes part of November.
Similar as the Amaryllis is to the yellow Spring Crocus, in the colour, and form of its flowers, it differs obviously in the number of its stamina, the breadth of its leaves, and the size and colour of its root.
Authors describe it as varying in size, in the breadth of its leaves, the height of its flowers, and multiplication of the Corolla.
The Dutch Florists export it under the title of yellow Colchicum, following the name of some of the old writers.
It succeeds best in a soil moderately moist, in which it increases considerably by offsets, and flowers to the most advantage when the roots have remained for some few years undisturbed in the same spot.