140 WHITSUN TIDE? 



MAY 19. St. DuNSTAN, archbishop of Canterbury, 

 A.D. 988. 



St. Peter Celestine, pope and confessor, 1296. 



St. Prudentiana, virgin. 



Obs. St. Dunstan the renowned Archbishop of Canterbury was 

 a native of Glastonbury, where it is said his bones were translated 

 sometime after his death. 



St. Peter was born in ApuUa about the year 1221 ; from his in- 

 fancy he evinced the most extraordinary piety. On the death of 

 Nicholas IV. he vvas unanimously chosen Pope. After having sat 

 in the chair four months, he abdicated the supreme dignity of the 

 church the 13th of December, 1292. 



Monkshood Aconitum Napellus flowers. 



Florentine Iris Iris Florentina flowers. 



Bugle Ajuga reptans still in full flower. 



Blue Bottle Centaurea monfana in full flower. 



The Monkshood is one of the commonest of our Wolfsbanes ; its 

 long spike of blue flowers is conspicuous in our cottage gardens from 

 now till the end of June. The plant is poisonous, and children 

 should be cautioned against sucking or even playing with its leaves. 

 Ovid, in allusion to the murderous hand of the stepmother, observes, 

 Lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercue. 



Today is Paeonifiora in the Epheraeris, from the blowing of that 

 tribe of plants, which begin now to be common in the gardens, and 

 of which there are now ten or twelve species become familiar to our 

 gardeners. 



The quantity and variety of flowers which blow everywhere at this 

 time of year, and the frequent habit among country girls of gather- 

 ing nosegays and presenting them to passing travellers, reminds us 

 of the following lines : 



Lilia plenis 



Ecce ferunt nymphae calathis : 

 Pallentes Violas et sunima papavera carpens, 

 Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi. 

 Turn casia, atque aliis intexens suavibus herbis, 

 Rlollia luteola pingit vaccinia caltha. 



Virgil, Eclogue 2, 



