180 PROSERPINA. 



conditions, rather smaller than the average, indeed, that 

 I might get it well into my plate. It is one of the flow- 

 ers whose names I think good to change ; but I look 

 carefully through the existing titles belonging to it and 

 its fellows, that I may keep all I expediently can. I 

 find, in the first place, that Linnaeus called one group of 

 its relations, Ophryds, from Ophrys, Greek for the eye- 

 brow, on account of their resemblance to the brow of 

 an animal frowning, or to the overshadowing casque of a 

 helmet. I perceive this to be really a very general 

 aspect of the flower ; and therefore, no less than in re- 

 spect to Linnaeus, I adopt this for the total name of the 

 order, and call them ' Ophrydre, ' or, shortly, ' Ophryds. ' 

 8. Secondly : so far as I know these flowers myself, I 

 perceive them to fall practically into three divisions, 

 one, growing in English meadows and Alpine pastures, 

 and always adding to their beauty ; another, growing in 

 all sorts of places, very ugly itself, and adding to the 

 ugliness of its indiscriminated haunts ; and a third, grow- 

 ing mostly up in the air, with as little root as possible, 

 and of gracefully fantastic forms, such as this kind of 

 nativity and habitation might presuppose. For tlie pres- 

 ent, I am satisfied to give names to these three groups 

 only. There may be plenty of others which I do not 

 know, and which other people may name, according to 

 their knowledge. But in all these three kinds known to 

 me, I perceive one constant characteristic to be some 

 manner of distortion ; and I desire that fact, marking a 



