pfant Isore, l2>cgeT^/, anB. Isijric/. 36" 



Tithymalus (Spurge) , or Heliotropium minus. Referring to his description 

 of the Spurges, we note that he figures twenty-three varieties, the 

 first of which is called Wart-wort; and the second, Sun Spurge, 

 which is thus described : — " The second kinde (called Helioscopius 

 or Solisequitts, and in English, according to his Greeke name, Sunne 

 Spurge, or Time Tithymale, of Uirninfr or keeping time with the sunne) 

 hath sundry reddish stalkes of a foot high ; the leaves are like unto 

 Purslane, not so great nor thicke, but snipt about the edges : the 

 flowers are yellowish, and growing in little platters." Here, then, 

 we have perhaps a sufficiently near approach to the pale flower of 

 Ovid; but nothing like the blue flower of Pliny. Among the 

 Spurges described by Gerarde, however, is one which he calls the 

 Venetian Sea Spurge, and this plant is stated to have bell-shaped 

 flowers of a dark or blackish purple colour, so that possibly this was 



the flower indicated by Pliny. De Gubernatis, in his Mythologie 



des Plantes, states that the flower into which Clytia was transformed 

 is the Helianthemum roseum of Decandolle. The author of ' Flower 

 Lore' says, "The classic Sunflower is an annual of an insignificant 

 appearance, having many fabulous properties assigned to it. The 

 Heliotrope belongs to the natural order Boragince, and is a native 

 of the south-west of Europe." The late Mr. H. A. Bright, in ' A Year 

 in a Lancashire Garden,' tells us that one of our very best living 

 authorities on such a subjecft sent him " the suggestion that the 

 common Salsafy, or possibly the Anagallis, may be the flower." 

 Turner, in his ' I3rittish Physician' (1687), calls the yellow-flowered 

 Elecampane, the Sunflower. Other botanists suggest an Aster or 

 Calendula (Marigold) : if this last suggestion be correct, the flower 

 called by Parkinson, in his ' Paradisns,' the Purple Marigold, and 

 by Gerarde Italian Starwort (Aster Italorum), comes nearest to 

 Pliny's description. This flower is stated by Gerarde to have been 

 called by some the Blue Marigold, whose yellow European brother 

 Shakspeare describes as 



" The Marygold, that goes to bed with the sun, 

 And with it rises weeping." 



We may include the blue or purple Marigold among those flowers 

 of which Bacon writes: "For the bowing and inclining the head, 

 it is found in the great Flower of the Sunne, in Marigolds, Wart 



Wort, Mallow Flowers, and others." Albertus Magnus accords 



to the Heliotrope the following wonderful properties : " Gather in 

 August the Heliotropon, wrap it in a Bay-leaf with a wolf's tooth, 

 and it will, if placed under the pillow, show a man who has been 

 robbed where are his goods, and who has taken them. Also, if 

 placed in a church, it will keep fixed in their places all the women 

 present who have broken their marriage vow. This last is most 

 tried and most true." According to another version, in order to 

 work this last charm, the Heliotrope-flower must be gathered in 

 August when the sun is in Leo, and be wrapped in a Laurel-leaf 

 before being deposited in the church. 



