pfarit Isore, "Iscge)^^/, oriil l^ijrlc/*, 341 



FLOS ADONIS. — In most European countries the Flos 

 Adonis (the dark-crimsoned Adonis autiimnalis) still retains in its 

 nomenclature a legendary connedlion with the blood of the un- 

 fortunate Adonis, and is called by the Germans Blutstrupfchen to the 



present day. Just as from the tears of the sorrowing Venus, 



which fell as she gazed on the bleeding corpse of the beautiful 

 Adonis, there sprang the Anemone, or Wind-flower, so from the 

 blood of the lamented boy which poured forth from the death- 

 wound inflicfted by the boar, there proceeded the Adonis-flower, 

 or Flos Adonis. Referring to this, Rapin writes — 



" Th' unhappy fair Adonis likewise flowers, 



Whom (once a youth) the Cyprian Queen deplores ; 



He, though transformed, has beauty still to move 



Her admiration, and secure her love ; 



Since the same crimson blush the flower adorns 



Which graced the youth, whose loss the goddess mourns." 



And Shakspeare, in his poem on Venus and Adonis, says — 



" By this the boy that by her side lay killed 



Was melted like a vapour from her sight ; 

 And in his blood tliat on the ground lay spilled 



A purple flower sprang up, chequered with white, 

 Resembling well his pale cheeks and the blood 

 Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood." 



FLOWER DE LUCE.— The Iris has obtained this name, 

 which is derived from the French Fleiir de Louis, from its having 

 been assumed as his device by Louis VII., of France. This title 

 of Fleur de Louis has been changed to Fleur de Luce, Fleur de Lys, 



and Fleur de Lis. (See Iris). A curious superstition exists in 



the distri(5t around Orleans, where a seventh son without a 

 daughter intervening is called a Marcon. It is believed that the 

 Marcon's body is marked somewhere with a Fleur de Lis, and 

 that if a patient suffering under King's Evil touch this Fleur de 

 Lis, or if the Marcon breathe upon him, the malady will be sure to 

 disappear. 



Flower Gentle, or Floramor. — See Amaranth. 



FLOWERS OF HEAVEN.— Under the names of Rain 

 Tremella and Star Jelly is known a strange gelatinous substance, 

 of no precise form, but of a greenish hue, which creeps over gravelly 

 soils, and is found mixed up with wet Mosses on rocks besides 

 waterfalls: when moist, it is soft and pulpy, but in dry weather it 

 becomes thin, brittle, and black in colour. Linnaeus called it 

 Tremella Nostoc, but it is now classed with the Alga Gloiocladece under 

 the name of Nostoc commuue, a name first used by the alchymist 

 Paracelsus, but the meaning of which is unknown. During the 

 middle ages, some extraordmary superstitions were afloat concern- 

 ing this plant, which was called Ccelifolium, or Flowers of Heaven. 

 By the alchemists it was considered a universal menstruum. The 

 country people in Germany use it to make their hair grow. In 



