CHAPTER III 



HYACINTH OR IRIS ? 



HYACINTHUS, beloved of Apollo, accidentally met 

 death at the hands of that god, through the 

 interposition of jealous Zephyr. Apollo, after 

 grieving for his favourite, cried to his blood : 

 "Thou shalt be a new flower inscribed with my 

 lamentations!" and immediately after, "Behold 

 the blood shed on the grass ceases to be blood, 

 and a flower springs forth more beautiful than 

 Tyrian dye, and takes the same form as the 

 lily, save that the lily is silvery white and this 

 is purple. Phoebus himself writes his own 

 lamentations upon the petals, and Ai ! Ai ! is 

 written upon the flower." 



But it was very long ago when Ovid told 

 this tale of the childhood of the world, and in 

 the course of the centuries some names get lost 

 and some misapplied ; the question is, what flower 



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