234 AMARYLLIDE^ 



departed and dulled with death should Avorthily be crowned with a dulling 

 flower." Our Common Daffodil possesses a poisonous juice, but it has been 

 used on the Continent medicinally. 



Though the Daff'odil gladdens us by its brightness and early flowering, 

 yet it is not a favourite with modern as with olden poets ; and would not, 

 at any rate, be used as a symbol of feminine grace, as it was by so many old 

 writers. Michael Drayton has a poem called the " Shepherd's Daffadille": 



" Though with my flower thou didst not meet, 

 Nor news of her doth bring ; 

 Yet is my Daftadille more sweete 

 Than that by yonder spring. 



" I saw a shepherd, that doth keeps 

 In yonder field of lilies, 

 Was making, as he fed his sheep, 

 A wreath of Daffadilles." 



Spenser describes a lady as thus attired— 



" Upon her head a crimson coronet, 

 With Daffadils and damaske roses set." 



And the maidens are represented as 



" Gathering sweet Daffadillies to have made 

 Gay girlonds from the sun their foreheads fair to sliade." 



When Milton bids 



" The Daffadillies fill their cups with tears, 

 To strew the laureate herse where Lycid lies," 



there seems a meetness in the figure ; but we fear that neither the com- 

 parisons to Daffodils, nor the gift of the wreath made of their blossoms, 

 would suit modei^n feminine taste. The scent of the flower is unpleasant, 

 and would doubtless cause headache, in a close apartment. 



2. Poet's Narcissus {N. posticus). — Spathe usually single-flowered ; 

 nectary very short, and notched at the edge ; leaves keeled. This beautiful 

 species, the Primrose-peerless of old writers, is well known in our gardens, 

 and is, when found in a wild place, but an outcast from cultivated ground. 

 It blooms in April and May, and has a flower cut into broad white segments, 

 and a short crown with a dark purple or crimson edge. It is known through- 

 out Europe as the Narcisse, Narcis, Narzizo, or by some very similar name, 

 and is believed to be the Narcissus of the classic writers. The ancients used 

 it as a funeral flower, and also consecrated it to the Furies, who were fancied 

 to stupefy persons before punishing them. The bulbs of this, and some 

 other kinds, contain a farinaceous substance of so emetic a property, that 

 the older herbalists called them hulhi vomiiarii. An extract from this plant 

 is still given, in slight doses, for whooping-cough. The perfume of the flower 

 is not so powerful as to be unpleasant. Lobel notices its culture in this 

 country in 1570. The Chinese use it in the religious ceremonies customary 

 at the commencement of their year ; and the bulbs are sent from Canton to 

 other places, just as they are about to blossom, and are planted in pots for 

 this purpose. The flower is much prized in the East, is worn in the head- 

 dress of the women of Aleppo, and placed in the vase which adorns the table 



