58 SPRING FLOWERS — ANEMONE. 



vators), but such as they do possess they may cultivate well, and the 

 above mode of exhibiting would enable all to compete, however small 

 their collection; and there should be scope enough given, by allowing 

 every variety shown to be placed according to its merits. There 

 would be no lack of opportunities for the distribution of the funds, 

 however large they may grow, as there would be fourteen (or, if the 

 scarlet-edged picotees were shown apart from the rose- edged, sixteen) 

 different classes, in some of which there would be upwards of twenty, 

 and perhaps thirty, distinct varieties shown. 



Next in order is the (at present) undefined classes of light and 

 heavy- edged picotees. I have often wondered at, and deeply regretted, 

 the want of decision, or firmness, in judges on this point ; particularly 

 when I have seen the same variety taking prizes in both classes, and 

 that too with blooms as much alike as two peas could he ! Really, in 

 the middle of the nineteenth century this ought not so to be. Why 

 not say at once, that such only as have a threadlike margin of colour 

 will be considered " light-edged," and there would be an end to the 

 difficulty. To this it must and will come ere long I hope. Colour 

 should be left untouched, being a matter purely of taste, and differing 

 in many individuals without their being able to give any distinct 

 reason why they prefer one shade to the other ; but it is unpardonable 

 to say that, because the colour is light, although broad, it should take 

 precedence of a narrow or threadlike marking which is of a deeper 

 colour. 



SPRING FLOWERS.— ANEMONE. 



" From the soft wing of vernal breezes shed, 

 Anemonies." — Thompson. 



" That veteran troop who will not for a blast 



Of nipping air, like cowards, quit the field." — Mason. 



" And coy Anemone, that ne'er uncloses 



Her lips until they're blown. on by the wind." — Smith. 



The Greeks named this flower Anemone from Anemos, the wind, 

 because it flowers both in a windy season and in exposed windy 

 situations. 



Eapin, in his poem on gardens, ascribes the birth of the Anemone to 

 the jealousy of Flora; who, fearing that the incomparable beauty of a 

 Grecian nymph would win from her the love of her husband £ephyr, 

 transformed her into this flower. But to this tale he adds an account 

 better authorised, of the Anemone having sprung from the blood of 

 Adonis and the tears of Venus shed over his body ; and it is but com- 

 mon justice to Flora to observe that this is the generally received 

 opinion of the origin of the Anemone. Cowley gives it this parentage 

 in his poem on plants. Ovid describes Venus lamenting over the 

 bleeding body of her lover, whose memory an€ her own grief she 

 resolves to perpetuate by changing his blood to a flower ; but, less 

 poetically than some others, he substitutes nectar for the tears of 



