1 62 PROSERPINA. 



the minute particles of the Host sprinkled on the 

 patina — " Has particulas ytxepiSas vocat Eucholo- 

 gium, juapyaptras Liturgia Chrysostomi."* My 

 young German readers will, I hope, call the flower 

 Gretschen, — unless they would uproot the daisies 

 of the Rhine, lest French girls should also count 

 their love-lots by the Marguerite. I must be so 

 ungracious to my fair young readers, however, as 

 to warn them that this trial of their lovers is a 

 ^ery favourable one, for, in nine blossoms out of 

 ten, the leaves of the Marguerite are odd, so 

 that, if they are only gracious enough to begin 

 with the supposition that he loves them, they must 

 needs end in the conviction of it. 



23. I am concerned, however, for the present, 

 only with my first or golden order, of which the 

 Roof-foil, or house-leek, is called in present botany, 

 Sedum, 'the squatter,' because of its way of 

 fastening itself down on stones, or roof, as close as 

 it can sit. But I think this an ungraceful notion 

 of its behaviour ; and as its blossoms are, of all 

 flowers, the most sharply and distinctly star- 

 shaped, I shall call it ' Stella ' (providing otherwise, 

 in due time, for the poor little chickweeds ;) and 



* (Du Cange.) The word ' Margarete ' is given as heraldic 

 English for pearl, by Lady Juliana Berners, in the book of St. 

 Albans. 



