THE DAFFODIL 



vertigo, and giddiness. Other authorities say that it causes 

 in man and rabbits eruptions, fits of trembling, and con- 

 fusion of sight. It seems not to affect horned cattle, swine, 

 and ducks. 



As regards those plants which were specially beloved and 

 venerated by the Greeks, there is not very much to say. 

 Moly seems to have been Allium moli/, one of the onion or 

 garlic family. It is not very remarkable in any way. 

 Amaranth was apparently the garden Love-lies-bleeding, 

 called in France Queue -de-Renard and Discipline -de - 

 Religieuse. The Asphodel which covered the Elysian fields 

 seems to be Asphodelics ramosus.^ This grows in quantities 

 in Apulia, and is said to afford good nourishment for 

 sheep. 



The Myrtle, with which the Athenian magistrates and 

 victors in the Olympic games were crowned, is not really 

 a European plant, though it has a wide range from Asia 

 Minor to Afghanistan. It was sacred to Venus, and had 

 some importance as a medicinal plant and for perfumes. It 

 was even used in cookery and for making myrtle wine, which 

 last is said to be still prepared in some parts of Tuscany. 



"Narcissus, son of the river Cephisus and of Liriope, 



daughter of the Ocean, was a young man of great beauty 



who scorned all the Nymphs of the country, and made to 



die of languor Echo, because he would not respond to her 



passion. But one day returning from the chase weary and 



fatigued, he stopped at the side of a fountain to refresh 



himself. There having seen his own face in the water, he 



was so smitten with it and so greatly loved himself that he 



died of grief. The Gods, touched by his death, changed him 



into a Daffodil, according to the fable.*" 



* Figured in Kerner's Natural History of Plants. 

 368 



