CANDLEMAS TIDE. 37 



FEB. 6. St. Dorothy, virgin, martyr in 3d century. 



St. Vedast, bishop of Arras, a.d. 539. 



St. Amand of Nantes, B. Conf. a.d. 628. 



St. Barsanuphius, anchoret. 



Obs. St. Dorothy appears to have suffered martyrdom in the 

 persecution of Dioclesian. She was tortured by order of Jabritius, 

 the governor of Caesarea in Cappadocea, for her fidelity to the 

 Evangelical Councils, refusing either to marry or to worship idols. 

 She converted two apostate women who were sent to her to over- 

 turn her virtue, and she also made a convert of Theophilus, and it 

 is recorded of her among other things that she sent to him presents 

 of flowers. We may therefore fairly infer that she was fond of 

 botany, and probably agreeable to the legend made use of them as 

 subjects for some of those moral and religious aspirations which the 

 religious of early times so much delighted in, and of which we 

 have recorded some examples in our pages. Botany seems to have 

 been a favourite study of the religious orders, and St. Dorothy's 

 festival is kept on a day when the primaveral flower begins to en- 

 liven the earliest indications of spring. Her reliques are kept in 

 the Eclesia S. Dorotiieae ultra Tiberim. 



St. Vedast was native of the south of France. The church in 

 Foster Lane, London, is dedicated in his name. 



St. Amand built many large abbeys in and near Ghent, and the 

 cathedral of that city is dedicated in his name. 



Jacinthe Hyacinthus orientalis flowers. 



The oriental Hyacinth now flowers in our bowpots, and in glasses 

 filled with water and kept in rooms. There are almost innumerable 

 varieties of this plant produced from seeds by the Dutch gardeners. 

 One red variety called St. David's is well known. The common 

 blue variety has been called St. Dorothy's. The beautiful bulbous 

 plants havebellshaped flowers like our Harebells ; their scent is deli- 

 cious and refreshing, and mingles agreeably with the varied scents 

 of the Narcissuses and Sweet Tulips and early Jonquils, which make 

 up the primaveral Blumenbottles and garlands of our Florists, anci 

 of the Dutch in particular. It grows best in sand and loam mixed 

 together. 



The following lines seem to lelate to the three principal colours 

 of the three Hyacinth : 



The varj'ing floure of Dorothea shews 

 Three colours, emblems of htr meed and woes : 

 The white her virgin chastity on earth, 

 The blue her constancy and saintlie worth, 

 The red her martyrdorne wheieby 'twas given 

 To wearth' anselic double crown in heaven. — Antholotria 



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