110 FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS. 



distinction, but in any case confusion is caused a con- 

 fusion that, had more care been taken in floral nomen- 

 clature in the olden time, need never have arisen, as 

 the names are the only common point of resemblance 

 between the two plants. The true celandine, the subject 

 of our present illustration, is known botanically as the 

 Chelidonium majus Chelidonium having the same deriva- 

 tion and significance as celandine. On this account, too, 

 the plant is sometimes in old herbals called the swallow- 

 wort. Some writers go so far as to assert that the 

 celandine not only arrives, but departs with the swallow; 

 naturally such a statement can only be an approximation 

 to the truth, as so many climatic and other influences 

 arise with potent force to set aside the old theory. The 

 celandine will ordinarily be found in flower by the 

 third week in April, and lasts in blossom throughout the 

 summer ; some few specimens being occasionally met with 

 up to the middle of October. The swallows, should the 

 season be mild and open, will ordinarily arrive in the 

 second week in April, and they leave us again about 

 the middle of September, though some few may often 

 be found for almost a month after the departure of 

 the main body. The dates, therefore, sufficiently coincide 

 to satisfy the not too exacting requirements of popular 

 belief. The idea has arisen in our minds, and, so far as 

 we are aware, it has never been pointed out before, that a 

 further point of resemblance, that would have been at least 

 confirmatory to the minds of the older writers, if not in itself 

 sufficient to build a name on, may be found in the fact 

 that both bird and plant seem to have an especial liking for 

 the company of man. The swallow builds fearlessly and 

 confidingly beneath the eaves of the cottage roof, and the 



