XII. COltA AND KRONOS. 



are all quatrefoils, and quatrefoils of the most studied 

 and accomplished symmetry ; and they bear no berries, 

 but only dry seeds. The Hyrtillas and Auroras are both 

 Cinqfoil ; but the Myrtillae are symmetrical in their 

 blossom, and the Auroras unsymmetrical. Farther, the 

 Myrtillae are not absolutely determinate in the number 

 of their foils, (this being essentially a characteristic of 

 flowers exposed to much hardship,) and are thus some- 

 times quatrefoil, in sympathy with the Ericge. But the 

 Auroras are strictly cinqfoil. These last are the only 

 European form of a larger group, well named ' Azalea ' 

 from the Greek <*', dryiiess, and its adjective a^aXea, 

 dry or parched; and thix name must be kept for the 

 world-wide group, (including under it Rhododendron, but 

 not Kalinia,) because there is an under-meaning in the 

 word Aza, enabling it to be applied to the substance of 

 dry earth, and indicating one of the great functions of 

 the Oreiades, in common with the mosses, the collec- 

 tion of earth upon rocks. 



4. Neither the Ericas, as I have just said, nor Auroras 

 bear useful fruit ; and the Ericas are named from their 

 consequent worthlessness in the eyes of the Greek 

 farmer ; they were the plants he ' tore up ' for his bed, 

 or signal-fire, his word for them including a farther sense 

 of crushing or bruising into a heap. The "Westmoreland 

 shepherds now, alas ! burn them remorselessly on the 

 ground, (and a year since had nearly set the copse of 

 Brantwood on fire just above the house.) The sense of 



