1 50 May — Lychnis, 



of the water iris have, for me, associations with history 

 as well as landscape. 



From the beginning of May there are also immense 

 quantities of flowering lychnis, whose bright red is like 

 gems scattered prodigally by field and river. The plant 

 was used in Greece for garlands, and it seems possible 

 that in this way it may have been associated with the 

 idea of a light-giving gem that was called \vyyk also. I 

 am aware that another interpretation has been suggested. 

 It is said that the Greeks used a plant of this kind for 

 lamp-wicks, and as they called a portable lamp \vyyos 

 the flower got its name from this more utilitarian origin 

 I cling by preference to the association with the gem 

 rather than the lamp, and I should like very much to 

 know what was the color of the gem Xv^vk. If it. 

 were red, that would almost settle the question. But 

 whatever may have been the origin of its name, the 

 lychnis is one of the brightest and most abundant of 

 wild flowers, giving a wonderful gayety to foregrounds 

 wherever it occurs. 



A perfect contrast in this respect are the members 

 of the humble spurge family, with their flowers, green- 

 like leaves, and their cold, white, milky blood, caustic 

 and pungent. With a poet's felicity of choice Rossetti 

 selected this unattractive plant as the object of contem- 

 plation in an hour of bitter reverie : — 



* Between my knees my forehead was, — - 

 My lips, drawn in, said not Alas 1 

 My hair was over in the grass, 

 My naked ears heard the day pass. 



