XI. GENEALOGY. 201 



body had been trying to wring the blossom off; 

 and the name of the family, in Proserpina, will 

 therefore be ' Contorta ' * in Latin, and ' Wreathe- 

 wort' in English. 



Farther : the beautiful power of the one I have 

 drawn in its spring life, is in the opposition of its 

 dark purple to the primrose in England, and the 

 pale yellow anemone in the Alps. And its indi- 

 vidual name will be, therefore, ' Contorta purpurea ' 

 — Purple Wreathe-wort. 



And in drawing it, I take care to dwell on 

 the strength of its colour, and to show thoroughly 

 that it is a dark blossom,f before I trouble myself 

 about its minor characters. 



9. The second group of this kind of flowers 

 live, as I said, in all sorts of places ; but mostly, 

 I think, in disagreeable ones, — torn and irregular 

 ground, under alternations of unwholesome heat 

 and shade, and among swarms of nasty insects. 

 I cannot yet venture on any bold general state- 

 ment about them, but I think that is mostly their 

 way ; and at all events, they themselves are in 

 the habit of dressing in livid and unpleasant 



* Linnaeus used this term for the Oleanders ; but evidently with less 

 accuracy than usual. 



t "&r$rt iropipvpociSri" says Dioscorides, of the race generally, — but 

 " S.v6-q Si iiiroiropipvpa" of this particular one. 



