214 DFant T^ore, Isege^/, cmcl "bLjric/". 



AMORPHOPHALLUS.— The gigantic Aroid, Amorphophal- 



lus campamdatus, or Carrion Plant of Java, is regarded with repug- 

 nance as a plant of ill-omen. Previous to the sudden bursting, about 

 sunset, of the spathe containing the spadix, there is an accumulation 

 of heat therein. When it opens, it exhales an offensive odour that 

 is quite overpowering, and so much resembles that of carrion, that 

 flies cover the club of the spadix with their eggs. 



ANDHAS. — The luminous plant of the Vedic Soma. The 

 plant is also called in general Arjuiit, that is to say. Shining. 

 From Andhas it is supposed the Greek word anthos was derived. 



ANDROMEDA. — This shrub owes its classical appellation 

 to Linnaeus, who gave it the name of Andromeda after the 

 daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope. Ovid, in his ' Metamor- 

 phoses,' has sung how, lashed to a rock, she was exposed to a sea 

 monster, sent by Neptune to ravage her father's country, and how 

 she was at last rescued by Perseus, and became his bride. 

 Linnaeus thus explains why he gave the Marsh Cistus the name of 

 the classical princess: — "As I contemplated it, I could not help 

 thinking of Andromeda, as described by the poets — a virgin of 

 most exquisite beauty and unrivalled charms. The plant is always 

 fixed in some turfy hillock in the midst of the swamps, as Andro- 

 meda herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her 

 feet as the fresh water does the root of the plant. As the distressed 

 virgin cast down her blushing face through excessive affliction, so 

 does the rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and 

 paler till it withers away. At length comes Perseus, in the shape 

 of Summer, dries up the surrounding waters, and destroys the 

 monster." The leaves of this family of plants have noxious pro- 

 perties, and the very honey is said to be poisonous. 



ANEMONE. — The origin of the Anemone, according to 

 Ovid, is to be found in the death of Adonis, the favourite of Venus. 

 Desperately wounded by a boar to which he had given chase, the 

 ill-fated youth lay expiring on the blood-stained grass, when he was 

 found by Venus, who, overcome with grief, determined that her 

 fallen lover should hereafter live as a flower. 



"Then on the blood sweet nectar she bestows ;j 

 The seemed blood in little bubbles rose; 

 Little as rainy drops, M'hich flutt'ring fly, 

 Borne by the winds, along a lowering sky. 

 Short time ensued till where the blood was shed 

 A flower began to rear its purple head. 

 Such as on Punic Apples is revealed, 

 Or in the filmy rind but half concealed, 

 Still here the fate of lovely forms we see, 

 So sudden fades the sweet Anemone. 

 The feeble stems to stormy blasts a prey, 

 Their sickly beauties droop and pine away. 

 The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long, 

 Which owe to winds their names in Grecian song."— Congreve. 



