THE LLUE. 53 



of the most beautiful and curious diversity. In the crown -imperial the 

 vases are like round white eyes, six in every flower, or one to every petal ; 

 in the grass-of-Parnassus they constitute the palms of most elegant little 

 hand-like bodies, every one of which is provided with an uneven number 

 of fingers, usually either eleven or thirteen, so that the central one shall 

 stand higher than the others, which gradually diminish in height as 

 they are further and further from the middle. In the aconite, again, the 

 honey-cups resemble two little birds, and in the hellebore they remind 

 us of certain bivalve sea-shells. The lime-tree is one of those plants 

 in which no special provision is made for the care of the honey: in 

 botanical language, although brimming with nectar, the flowers are 

 unprovided with "nectaries." Keen was the appreciation of the old 

 naturalist who adopted this classic term into the language of phytology. 

 The pleasant beverage feigned in the most ancient times to be the 

 drink of the gods, might well have its appellation transferred to that 

 which gives new charm to the loveliness of the flower. Virgil's 

 immortal description of the bees must furnish us yet once again with an 

 illustration : " Some address themselves to the gathering of food, and 

 by fixed agreement have their occupation in the fields ; some deposit 

 within the inclosure of the hive Narcissus' tears,* and clammy gum 

 from the bark of trees, for the foundation of the combs ; then build 

 into arches the viscid wax. These, on the other hand, bring up and 

 tend the younger ones, the hope of the nation ; others again, distend 

 the cells with liquid nectar, "f 



One other circumstance connected with the lime deserves mention : 

 it is one of the trees upon which the mistletoe occasionally grows. The 

 limes in the Home Park, Windsor, are, or were a few years ago, richly 

 adorned with it ; there are other examples in Bushy Park, and in the 

 avenue at Hampton Court ; and at Penshurst Park, in Kent, with 

 doubtless very many more, in different parts of the country. History 

 connecting the mistletoe so especially "with the oak, it is well to know 



* The flowers of the daffodil and other species of the genus Narcissns are pro- 

 vided, as all who know these plants will recollect, with a peculiar cup in the centre. 

 These cups, mythology tells us, contain the tears of the fabled youth whose name 

 they bear, 



Narcissus pining o'er the untainted spring, 



and are beautifully alluded to by Milton, in Lycidas, 

 Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 

 To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies. 

 + Georgic, iv. 158 164. 



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