LADY TIDE. 87 



MARCH 27. St. John of Egypt, hermit, a.d. 394. 

 St. Rupert, bishop and confessor. 



Obs. St. John of Egypt, from an early acquaintance with one oi 

 the old anchorites of the east, took at length to the life of a hermit, 

 and retired to the top of a rock near Lycopolis. In a cell in the rock 

 he lived, eating only undressed herbs, roots, and grain, and that never 

 before sunset : on Saturdays and Sundays he gave spiritual instruc- 

 tion to such as wrould ascend to his elevated dwelling to hear him 

 discourse. Before his death Palladius and other eminent men 

 visited him. Like other ascetics he delighted in his solitude, and 

 Butler in relating it quotes Isaiah, The Lord will change the desert 

 into a place of delight, and will make the solitude a Paradise and a 

 garden worthy of himself. 



St. Rupert was a Frenchman of royal blood, and was Bishop of 

 Saltzbourg about the year 700. 



Sweetscented Jonquil Narcissus odorus flowers. 



We have already related the blowingof another plant very similar 

 to this, the N. laetus ; it seems probable that they are only perma- 

 nent varieties of the same plant. Many Narcissuses begin to blow 

 BOW, and to follow each other successively in the garden or green- 

 house. The N. Tazetta, with deep yellow petals and orange cups, 

 is the earliest; then comes one with white petals and orange cups, 

 and a longish root ; then the Grand Prima Citronier, with white 

 petals and yellow cups ; then the yellow, as well as the white, 

 Oriental Narcissi, known by theil' peculiar perfume ; the Jonqu'l 

 and the large tubiflorus Daffodil follows; and then the Primrose 

 Peerless and the Poetic Narcissus, which blow in May. Botanists 

 count fifty five species of this genus, all in flower between Lady 

 Day and Holy Cross Day. 



Hyacinths now begin also to blow abroad, and so continue through 

 April; every variety of blue, white, yellow, red, and mixed colours 

 are displayed by this favourite plant, and the aim of the Haerlem 

 gardiners and florists seems to be to get as many monstrous varie- 

 ties and forms of flower as possible, every year adding some new 

 ones raised from seed, while the offsets from the roots retain the 

 same form. They are all varieties of the Hyacinthus orienlalis. 

 Our Field Hyacinths, which are called by some Scilla nutans, flower 

 later. See St. George's Day, April 23. 



