1 66 ANEMONE CAROLINIANA. CAROLINA ANEMONE. 



connected relate to different species of the genus. The sad 

 tale, for instance, of the fair maiden who fell in love with 

 Zephyr, and was banished from her court by Flora, and finally 

 destroyed by the rude blasts of Boreas, seems to be most in 

 accord with the character of the Wind-Flower or Anemone 

 nemorosa; while tha flower which is involved in the story of 

 Venus and Adonis must evidently have been more brilliant 

 in color, and somewhat like our own Anemone Caroliniana. It 

 is well known that Venus, or Aphrodite, as the Greeks called 

 her, was enamored of a beautiful mortal, a youth named 

 Adonis, and that when Adonis had been killed by a w r ild boar 

 while hunting, Venus caused flowers to spring up out of the 

 blood of her lover. This version of the creation of Anemone is 

 related by Ovid, the celebrated Roman poet, in the tenth book 

 of his " Metamorphoses," and has been translated into English 

 by Eusden as follows : — 



" ' For thee, lost youth, my tears and restless pain 

 Shall in immortal monuments remain ; 

 With solemn pomp, in annual rites return'd, 

 Be thou forever, my Adonis, mourn 'd. 

 Could Pluto's queen with jealous fury storm, 

 And Menthe to a fragrant herb transform, 

 Yet dares not Venus with a change surprise, 

 And in a flower bid her fallen hero rise ? ' 

 Then on the blood sweet nectar she bestows ; 

 The scented blood in little bubbles rose, — 

 Little as rainy drops which fluttering fly, 

 Borne by the winds, along a lowering sky. 

 Short time ensued till, where the blood was shed, 

 A flower began to rear its purple head. 



Still here the fate of lovely forms we see, 

 So sudden fades the sweet anemone." 



Shakespeare also, in his poem entitled " Venus and Adonis," 

 mentions this myth : — 



" By this, the boy that by her side lay killed 

 Was melted like a vapor from her sight ; 

 And in his blood, that on the ground lay spilled, 

 A purple flower sprang up, chequered with white." 



