Chap. 39.] THE SUMMER FLOWERS. ' 33/ 



the others, tlie flowers which last the longest, are the hya- 

 cinth, the white violet, and the oenanthe ; but to make this 

 last keep any time in flower, it is necessaiy to gather it re- 

 peatedly, to prevent it from running to seed. The oenanthe 

 grows in warm localities, and has exactly the smell of the vine 

 when in blossom, to which circumstance it is indebted for 

 its name. 



There are two fabulous stories attached to the hyacinth ;*' 

 according to one of them, it bears the impress of the grief^^ 

 which Apollo felt for the j^outh^^ whom he had so tenderly 

 loved; and we learn from the other, that it derives its name 

 from the blood ^^ of Ajax, the veins being so arranged in the 

 flower as to form the Greek letters A I inscribed upon it. 



The helichrysos has a flower resembling gold in aj)pearance, 

 a small leaf, and a fine, slender, but hard, stem. According 

 to the Magi, the person who crowns himself with a chaplet 

 composed of this flower, and takes his unguents from a box 

 of gold, of the kind generall}' known as " apyron," ^^ will 

 be sure to secure esteem and glory among his fellowmen. 

 Such are the flowers of spring. 



CITAP. 39. THE SITMMER FLOWERS THE LYCHNIS '. THE TIPHTON. 



TWO VARIETIES OF THE POTHOS. TWO VAHIETIES OF THE ORSI- 



K Uil. THE VINCAPERVINCA OR CHAMJEDAPHNE A PLANT WHICH 



IS AN EVER-GREEN. 



The summer flowers come next, the lychnis ^- the flower of 



4'^ There have been conflicting opinions as to tlie identification of the 

 hyacinth of the ancients. Linnajus identifies it with the Delphinium 

 Ajucis : Sprengel and Salmasius with the Gladiolus communis : Sibthorp 

 Avith the Gladiolus communis triphyllos : DodonjEUs and Porta the Lilium 

 bidbiferum : and Martyn and Fee the Lilium Martagon of Linnaeus, the 

 Turk's-cap lily. From what Pliny says in cc. 39 and 97 of this Book, 

 and in B. xxv. c. 80, it is pretty clear that under the name of hyacinlh he 

 has confused the characteristics of two diiferent plants. The hyacinth, 

 too, of Lioscorides, B. iii. c. 5, is a different plant, I'ee remarks, being 

 the Hyacinthus comosus of modern botanists. 



*8 The Greek AI, "'Alas!" which the ancients fancied they saw im- 

 pressed on the leaves. 



19 See Ovid's j\let. B. x. 1. 162—220. 



^^ See Ovid's Met. B. xiii. 1. 397, et seq. 



51 '' Unsullied by fire." 



*2 Or " light" flower : the Agrostemma coronaria of Linnrcns. 



VOL. IV. Z 



