April — The Name Celandine. 109 



of the poets, so suitable to the childish condition of the in- 

 tellect, by which they attribute human feelings to the oak 

 and reed, to rose and lily, that we have a difficulty in realiz- 

 ing the true nature of a plant's existence. And yet there 

 is poetry in the truth also, as my last quotation proves. 



The Lesser Celandine attracts us by scattering a little 

 bright gold on the earth so early in the season, but its 

 yellow is neither more modest nor more beautiful than 

 that of the later flowers that Wordsworth playfully sacri- 

 ficed at the shrine of his early favorite. It is evident, 

 however, that in addition to its sweetly-sounding name, 

 the poet found another attraction in the Lesser Celandine 

 — the idea of connecting his own fame with that of the 

 flower permanently, and of conferring fame upon what 

 had been hitherto unnoticed ; an idea that has always 

 been pleasing to poets, from Horace downwards. Words- 

 worth does not appear to have remembered that the name 

 which pleased him by its music is associated with, and 

 even derived from, the name of one of the most beautiful 

 and poetical of the birds. Celandine is a corruption of 

 the French che'lidoine, which in Italian is cJiclidonia or 

 celidonia, in Latin chelidonium, in Greek ^ekihoviov, from 

 XeXi&cov a swallow.* Opinions differ as to the reason 



* The classical reader may remember the beautiful passage in 

 the thirteenth idyl of Theocritus, where Hylas goes down to the 

 fountain to fetch water for the heroes who are eating. Several plants 

 are mentioned by name : — 



Uept 6e dpva iro7,la 7te<jwkei 

 Kvaveov Te x&doviov, ^/lotpov r' udtavrov, 

 Kal OuXXovra aeXtva, mi eVaitevtjs uypuonc 



Liddell and Scott suggest that kvuveov (which presents a little 



