THE LESSER CELANDINE. 75 



indeed, owes much of the interest felt in it to the fact of 

 its being one of the earliest pledges that the long reign of 

 winter is ending, and that the brighter days of spring are 



coming. 



Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies, 

 Let them live upon their praises ; 

 Long as there's a sun that sets, 

 Primroses will have their glory ; 

 Long as there are violets, 

 They will have a place in story : 

 There's a flower that shall be mine, 

 'Tis the little celandine. 



The flower was an especial favourite of Wordsworth's ; its 

 praises are enshrined in his verses, its blossom carved on 

 the white marble of his tomb. The plant is called the 

 lesser celandine to distinguish it verbally from another 

 having the same name, but which bears no relationship, 

 and has no similarity, to it. The confusion of name 

 seems to have arisen some three hundred and sixty years 

 ago, when John Gerade, a very noted herbalist, published 

 a list of all the plants in cultivation in his garden, on 

 Holborn Hill, and introduced in it, under the same name, 

 this and the celandine proper, the Chelidonium majus of 

 later botanists, probably because both may be found in 

 bloom when the swallows arrive, though the same simple 

 principle of nomenclature might as justly have made 

 the primrose, hyacinth, cowslip, anemone, and many other 

 plants into celandines as well a consummation certainly 

 not devoutly to be desired in the interests of specific 

 identification. 



Besides the species already referred to, there are several 

 other conspicuous members of the genus. The great 

 ranunculus, or spearwort the R. lingua of botany is 



