348 pfant "bore, "begef^ti/} cmel "bLjrlc/*, 



majestic name of Crown Imperial from the celebrated Guirlande de 

 Julie. The Duke de Montausier, on New Year's Day, 1634, pre- 

 sented his bride, Julie de Rambouillet, with a magnificent album, 

 on the vellum leaves of which were painted a series of flowers, 

 with appropriate verses. The principal poem was by Chapelain, 

 who chose this Persian Lily as his theme, and, knowing the bride 

 to be a great admirer of Gustavus Adolphus, represented in his 

 verses that the flower sprang from the life-blood of the Swedish 

 King when he fell mortally wounded on the field of Lutzen ; adding 

 that had this hero gained the imperial crown, he would have 

 offered it with his hand to Julie, but as the Fates had metamor- 

 phosed him into this flower, it was presented to her under the name 

 of La Couronne Impeviale. In later days the flower received the 

 name of Fntillaria (from Fvitillus, a dice box, the usual companion 

 of the chequer-board), because its blossoms are chequered with 

 purple and white or yellow. 



FUMITORY. — This plant, which Shakspeare alludes to as 

 Fumiter, derived its name from the French Fume-terre, and Latin 

 Fumus terra, earth-smoke. It was so named from a belief, very 

 generally held in olden times, that it was produced without seed 

 from smoke or vapour rising from the earth. Pliny (who calls it 

 Fmnaria) states that the plant took its name from causing the eyes 

 to water when applied to them, as smoke does ; but another 

 opinion is that it was so called because a bed of the common kind, 

 when in flower, appears at a distance like a dense smoke. Rapin 

 has these lines on the plant : — 



" With the first Spring the soft Futnaria shows 

 On stern Bavaria's rocks her sev'ral hues; 

 But by report is struck by certain fate, 

 When dreadful thunders echo from their height ; 

 And with the li^jhtning's sulph'rous fumes opprest, 

 Her drooping beauties languish on her breast." 



Dioscorides says that the juice dropped into the eyes clears the 

 sight, and also that the juice, having a little gum Arabic dissolved 

 therein, and applied to the eyelids when the hairs have been pulled 

 out, will keep them from growing again. According to astro- 

 logers, Fumitory is a herb of Saturn. 



GANG FLOWER.— The Milk-wort, Flos Ambarvalis, Cross-, 

 Procession-, Gang-, or Rogation-Flower (Polygala vulgaris), was so 

 called from its blossoming in Gang-week or Rogation-week, when 

 processions were made in imitation of the ancient Roman Ambar- 

 valia (see Corn), to perambulate the parishes with the Holy Cross 

 and Litanies, to mark boundaries, and to invoke God's blessing 

 upon the crops ; upon which occasions Gerarde tells us " the 

 maidens which use in the countries to walke the procession do 

 make themselves garlands and nosegaies " of the Milk-wort, which 

 the old herbalist likewise informs us is so called on account of its 

 " vertues in procuring milke in the breasts of nurses." 



