PROSERPINA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Brantwood, \i,th March, 1874. 



YESTERDAY evening I was looking over the 

 first book in which I studied Botany, — 

 Curtis's Magazine, published in 1795 at No. 3, 

 St. George's Crescent, Blackfriars Road, and sold 

 by the principal booksellers in Great Britain and 

 Ireland. Its plates are excellent, so that I am 

 always glad to find in it the picture of a flower I 

 know. And I came yesterday upon what I suppose 

 to be a variety of a favourite flower of mine, called, 

 in Curtis, "the St. Bruno's Lily." 



I am obliged to say " what I suppose to be a 

 variety," because my pet lily is branched,* while 

 this is drawn as unbranched, and especially stated 

 to be so. And the page of text, in which this 



* At least, it throws off its flowers on each side in a bewilderingly 

 pretty way ; a real lily can't branch, I believe : but, if not, what is 

 the use of the botanical books saying "on an unbranched stem"? 



I 



