pPant bore, bege'r^V, dn^ Isijric/. 215 



The Greek poet, Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, makes the 

 Anemone the offspring of the tears of the sorrowing Venus. 



" Alas the Paphian ! fair Adonis slain ! 

 Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain, 

 But gentle flowers are born and bloom around 

 From every drop that falls upon the ground. 

 Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the Rose, 

 And where a tear has dropped, a Wind-flower blows." 



Rapin, in his poem, gives a somewhat similar version of the origin 

 of the Anemone. He says: — 



" For while what's mortal from his blood she freed, 



And showers of tears on the pale body shed, 



Lovely Anemones in order rose, 



And veiled with purple palls the cause of all her woes." 



In Wiffen's translation of the Spanish poet Garcilaso, we find 

 the red colour only of the Anemone attributed to the blood of 



Adonis: — 



" His sunbeam-tinted tresses drooped unbound. 

 Sweeping the earth with negligence uncouth; 

 The white Anemones that near him blew 

 P"elt his red bluod, and red for ever grew." 



Rapin recounts another story, according to which the Anemone 

 was originally a nymph beloved by Zephyr. This is, perhaps, 

 an explanation of the name of the flower, which is derived from 

 Anemos, the wind. 



" Flora, with envy stung, as tales relate. 



Condemned a virgin to this change of fate ; 



From Grecian nymphs her beauty bore the prize, 



Beauty the worst of crimes in jealous eyes ; 



For as with careless steps she trod the plain, 



Courting the winds to fill her flowing train, 



Suspicious Flora feared she soon would prove 



Her rival in her husband Zephyr's love. 



So the fair victim fell, whose beauty's light 



Had been more lasting, had it been less bright: 



She, though transformed, as charming as before. 



The fairest maid is now the fairest flower." 



The English name of Wind-flower seems to have been given to the 

 Anemone because some of the species flourish in open places exposed 

 to the wind, before the blasts of which they shiver and tremble 

 in the early Spring. Pliny asserts that the flower never blooms 



except when the winds blow. With the Egyptians, the Anemone 



was the emblem of sickness. According to Pliny, the magicians 

 and wise men in olden times were wont to attribute extraordinary 

 powers to the plant, and ordained that everyone should gather the 

 first Anemone he or she saw in the year, the while repeating, with 

 due solemnity — " I gather thee for a remedy against disease." The 

 flower was then reverently wrapped in scarlet cloth, and kept 

 undisturbed, unless the gatherer became indisposed, when it was 

 tied either around the neck or arm of the patient. This supersti- 



