ADONIS. 3 



yellow flower, which blows about the end of March, or the 

 beginning of April. 



The Apennine Adonis is very similar to the vernal, of 

 which it is termed the sister; but it continues longer in 

 flower than that species, which, true to the name it bears, 

 comes and goes with the spring. The reader of poetry is 

 aware that Adonis, after death, was supposed to spend his 

 time alternately with Proserpine in the lower regions, and 

 with Venus on earth. 



" Go, beloved Adonis, go. 

 Year by year thus to/md fro, 

 Only privileged demigod ! 

 There was no such open road 

 For Atrides ; nor the great 

 Ajax, chief infuriate ; 

 Not for Hector, noblest once 

 Of his mother's twenty sons ; 

 Nor Patroclus ; nor the boy 

 That return'd from taken Troy *." 



There is also a shrub Adonis, a native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. 



The Autumnal Adonis is an annual, and the seeds sown 

 in spring will flower in October. If some of the seeds are 

 sown in September they will blow early in June. As the 

 flowers open sooner or later in proportion to their ex- 

 posure to the sun, a little attention to their arrangement will 

 insure a longer succession of them. The seeds should be 

 sown two or three in a pot, half an inch deep. During 

 the severity of the winter, the pots should be housed ; but 

 in mild weather they should stand in the open air. In dry 

 weather they should be occasionally, but sparingly, wa- 

 tered, just enough to preserve them from drought. 



» See the Translations from Theocritus, in Hunt's Fohage. 



b2 



