THE CHEQUERED DAFFODIL 331 



the flowers, and they were seen in every cottage; 

 and as a result of this misuse the flower had been 

 extirpated. 



They wished it would come again! 



If comparatively few persons have seen the blue 

 native columbine, just as few perhaps have found, 

 growing wild, that more enchanting flower, the 

 snake's-head or fritillary. Guinea-flower and bastard 

 narcissus and turkey-caps are some of its old 

 English names, the last still in common use; 

 but the name by which all educated persons now 

 call it is also very old. Two centuries and a half 

 ago a writer on plants spoke of it as " a certaine 

 strange flower which is called by some Fritillaria." 

 Another very old name, which I like best, is 

 chequered daffodil. As a garden flower we know 

 it, and we also know the wild flower bought in 

 shops or sent as a gift from friends at a distance. 

 In most instances the flowers I have seen in houses 

 were from the Christchurch Meadows at Oxford. 



I know what white, what purple fritillaries 



The grassy harvest of the river-fields 



Above by Ensham, down by Sandford, yields, 



says Matthew Arnold in his beautiful monody; 

 the wonder is that it should yield so many. But 

 to see the flower in its native river-fields is the 

 main thing; in a vase on a table in a dim room 

 it is no better than a blushing briar-rose or any 

 other lovely wild bloom removed from its proper 

 atmosphere and surroundings. 



It was but a twelvemonth before first finding 



