ADONIS. MS 



of Venus is not to be disputed, but whether the 

 goddess of beauty changed her lover into this 

 plant or the Anemone would be difficult to decide, 

 since the Linnsean system of dividing plants into 

 families did not exist when the gods and goddesses 

 made love upon earth, and previous to the time of 

 the Swedish botanist the Adonis was considered 

 to be one of the Anemonies, which it greatly re- 

 sembles. 



The Pheasant' s-eye, Adonis autumnalis, is evi- 

 dently a native flower of our corn-fields, since Ge- 

 rard observes, as long back as 1596, that ** the red 

 flower of Adonis groweth wilde in the west parts of 

 Englande, among their corne, euen as Maie-weede 

 doth in other parts, and is likewise an enimie to 

 corne as Maie-weed is, from thence I brought the 

 seede, and haue sowen it in my garden for the 

 beautie of the flower's sake." Both Ray and Mar- 

 ty n seem to have overlooked this account, as they 

 say it is a native of most of the southern parts of 

 Europe. Though now common in corn-fields 

 with us near London, yet not being mentioned as 

 indigenous by any of our old writers, it is probably 

 of no very long standing, and was originally con- 

 veyed from gardens by the intervention of the 

 dung-heap. 



'' It grows in Kent, particularly by the side of 



