404 ©Pant "boi*©, "bege"?^/, orieL "k>Lji*ie/, 



up, left a cleft in the centre : this aperture the devotees dedicated 

 to the reception of their offerings. 



LARKSPUR. — The Larkspur, the Delphinium or Dolphin- 

 flower of the ancients, was considered by Linnaeus and many other 

 botanists to be none other than the Hyacinth of the classic poets. 

 It is not, however, generally recognised as the flower that sprang 

 from the blood of the unfortunate Hyacinthus, and which to this 

 day bears his name ; but is rather regarded as the flower alluded 

 to in the enigma propounded by a shepherd in one of the Eclogues 

 of Virgil. 



" Die quilms in terris inscrij>ti notnina regiini 

 A^ascuntur Jlores.^' 

 " Say in what country do flowers grow with the names of kings written upon them." 



Tradition states that from the life-blood of the disappointed and 

 infuriated Ajax sprang the Delphinium — the flower which we now 

 know as the Larkspur, upon whose petals it is said may be read 

 the letters A I A, and which the botanists consequently term Del- 

 phininium Ajacis — truly a flower upon which the name of a king is 



written. The legend concerning the origin of the flower is as 



follows : — Ajax, the son of Telamon and Hesione, was next to 

 Achilles worthily repvited the most valiant of all the Greeks at the 

 Trojan war, and engaged in single combat with HecTior, the in- 

 trepid captain of the Trojan hosts, who was subsequently slain by 

 Achilles. After the death of Achilles, Ajax and Ulysses both 

 claimed the arms of the deceased hero : the latter was awarded 

 them by the Greeks, who preferred the wisdom and policy of 

 Ulysses to the courage of Ajax, This threw Ajax into such a fury, 

 that he slaughtered a flock of sheep, mistaking them for the sons of 

 Atreus ; and then, upon perceiving his error, stabbed himself with 

 the sword presented to him by Hecftor ; the blood spurting from his 

 self-inflicfled death-wound, giving birth, as it fell to the earth, to the 

 purple Delphinium, which bears upon its petals the letters at once 

 the initials of his name and an exclamation of grief at the loss of 



such a hero. The generic name of the plant is derived from the 



Greek delphinion, a dolphin; the flower-buds, before expansion, 

 being thought to resemble that fish. In England, the flower is 

 known by the names of Larkspur, Lark's-heel, Lark's-toe, Lark's- 

 claw, and Knight's-spur. 



LAUREL. — Daphne, daughter of Peneus and the goddess 

 Terra, inspired Apollo with a consuming passion. Daphne, how- 

 ever, received with distrust and horror the addresses of the god, 

 and fled from his advances. Pursued by Apollo, she adjured the 

 water-gods to change her form, and, according to Ovid — 



" Scarce had she finished when her feet she found 

 Benumb'd with cold and fastened to the ground : 

 A filmy rind about her body grows ; 

 Her hair to leaves, her arms extend to boughs. 



