XII. CORA AND KRONOS. 229 



Regina * : an action as beautiful in her as it is 

 terrible in the Kingly Serpent of Egypt. 



3. The formal differences between these three 

 families are trenchant and easily remembered. The 

 Ericas are all quatrefoils, and quatrefoils of the 

 most studied and accomplished symmetry ; and 

 they bear no berries, but only dry seeds. The 

 Myrtillae 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 

 sometimes quatrefoil, in sympathy with the Ericas. 

 But the Auroras are strictly cinqfoil. These last 

 are the only European form of a larger group, well 

 named ' Azalea ' from the Greek a£a, dryness, and 

 its adjective a^dkea, dry or parched ; and this name 

 must be kept for the world-wide group, (including 

 under it Rhododendron, but not Kalmia,) 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 collection of earth upon rocks. 



* ' Arctostaphylos Alpina,' I believe ; but scarcely recognize the 

 flower in my botanical books. 



