THE CHEQUERED DAFFODIL 331 



the flowers, and they were seen in every cottage ; 

 and as a result of this misuse the flower had been 

 extirpated. 



They wished it would come again ! 



If comparatively few persons have seen the blue 

 native columbine, just as few perhaps have found, 

 growing wild, that more enchanting flower, the 

 snake's-head or fritillary . Guinea-flower and bastard 

 narcissus and turkey-caps are some of its old 

 English names, the last still in common use ; 

 but the name by which all educated persons now 

 call it is also very old. Two centuries and a half 

 ago a writer on plants spoke of it as " a certaine 

 strange flower which is called by some Fritillaria." 

 Another very old name, which I like best, is 

 chequered daffodil. As a garden flower we know 

 it, and we also know the wild flower bought in 

 shops or sent as a gift from friends at a distance. 

 In most instances the flowers I have seen in houses 

 were from the Christchurch Meadows at Oxford. 



I know what white, what purple fritillaries 



The grassy harvest of the river-fields 



Above by Ensham, down by Sandford, yields, 



says Matthew Arnold in his beautiful monody ; 

 the wonder is that it should yield so many. But 

 to see the flower in its native river-fields is the 

 main thing ; in a vase on a table in a dim room 

 it is no better than a blushing briar-rose or any 

 other lovely wild bloom removed from its proper 

 atmosphere and surroundings. 



It was but a twelvemonth before first finding 



