GO WILD FLOWEBS OF SPRING. 



streaked with black, nay, even were marked with AT, 

 to express Apollo's grief for having accidently killed 

 the boy Hyacinthus, and was changed by him into a 

 hyacinth. 



" Apollo, with unwitting hand 

 Wliilome did slay his dearly loved mate, 

 Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land, 

 And then transformed him to a purple flower." 



"We look in vain for any marks on this beautiful 

 denizen of our woodlands, and it is now thought that 

 the flower meant is the Martagon Lily, the markings 

 of which sometimes assume the shape indicated by the 

 legend, and botanists have taken it out of the family 

 of hyacinths altogether, and have named it Agra-phis 

 nutans. Even in the smoky Lancashire cloughs they 

 c;row abundantly, 



" As if the rainbows of the fresh wild spring 

 Had blossomed where they fell ; " 



and in many places they literally clothe the woodlands 

 with an azure carpet. Tne blue -bell is universally 

 prized wherever it grows. The slimy juice with which 

 its deeply-seated root and its long green foliage abounds 

 was once highly prized as a starch to stiffen the stiff 

 ruffs of our forefathers. 



