OF BRITISH PLANTS. 163 



NANCY PRETTY, or NONE-SO-PRETTY, an unexplained 

 name of the London pride, Saxifraga umbrosa, L. 



NAP-AT-NOON, from it flowers closing at midday, the 

 goat's beard, Tragopogon porrifolius, L. 



NARCISSUS, Gr. vaprctcra-os, from vapxaa), become numb, 

 related to Skr. nark, hell, so called from the torpidity 

 caused by the odour of the flower, as remarked by Plutarch, 

 who (in Sympos. con. 3, c. 1) says : TOV vaptuo-o-ov, &>9 

 afj,^\,vvovra ra vevpa teat /3apvTr)Ta$ ep/jroiovvra 

 Sio icai, o ^o(f)OK\Tj^ CLVTOV ap%aiov /j,eya\&)v 

 (rovTeaTi Tew ^6oviwv) TrpoarjjopevKe : " Narcissus, as 

 blunting the nerves, and causing narcotic heaviness : 

 wherefore also Sophocles called it the ancient chaplet of 

 the Great (that is the Infernal) gods." The passage is 

 quoted from an exquisite chorus of the (Edipus at Colonos, 

 where (at 1. 682) the original has (M=ya\aiv Oecuv, the two 

 great goddesses, meaning Ceres and Proserpine. The 

 epithet which the poet here applies to the narcissus, /caXXt- 

 /3oT/3u?, finely clustered, suggests that he meant the hya- 

 cinth, a plant which, from its heavy odour and dark colour, 

 was more likely than the one we now call narcissus to have 

 been consecrated to those deities. Plutarch adds that, 

 " those who are numbed with death should very fittingly 

 be crowned with a benumbing flower." The coincidence 

 of the name narcissm with the Skr. nark indicates some 

 very ancient traditionary connexion of Greek with Asiatic 

 mythology. Ovid, who undoubtedly means one of the 

 plants which still bear this name, represents it as having 

 been so* called after a youth who pined away for love of his 

 own image reflected in a pool of water ; an instance, among 

 many more, of a legend written to a name ; for as an old 

 poet, Pamphilus, remarks, Proserpine was gathering Nar- 

 cissi long before that youth was born. Narcissus, L. 



NARD, Gr. vapSos, the name of various aromatic plants, 

 chiefly of the valerian tribe, that were formerly, and are 

 still used in Asiatic harems. 



