408 FLORA HISTORICA. 



being touched. The French give this plant the 

 appalling name of Tue Chien, Kill Dog, and 

 Mort ail Chien, which also signifies Dog's Death. 

 In floral language this flower expresses '' My 

 best days are past;" for, far from inspiring us, 

 like the Crocus, with joy and hope, it appears 

 to announce to all nature the loss of the fine days, 

 and the approach of a cheerless atmosphere. It 

 appears naked, like a spright amongst flowers to 

 warn them of their destiny, and nature seems to 

 have reversed its order in some of the characters 

 of this curious plant, which cannot fail to interest 

 the students of natural history and botany ; and 

 the closer they investigate the apparent pheno- 

 mena of the Colchicum, the more will they be 

 struck with the w^onderful arrangements that the 

 all-wise Creator has adapted in the formation of 

 vegetables^ which appear, on a superficial inspec- 

 tion, to act by contrarieties, whilst their actions 

 are governed by the most consummate wisdom. 

 Let us regard the Colchicum as a native of our 

 moist pastures, and we shall find that its corolla 

 is sent out of the earth with its parts of fructifi- 

 cation at a season when they have only time to 

 mature the anthers that the stigmas may receive 

 and convey the fecundating particles of vegetable 

 nature to the numerous empty seed- shells that 



