May — A Poefs Botany, 151 



My eyes, wide open, had the run 



Of some ten weeds to fix upon ; 



Among those few, out of the sun, 



The woodspurge flowered, three cups in one. 



From perfect grief there need not be 

 Wisdom or even memory : 

 One thing then learnt remains to me, — 

 The woodspurge has a cup of three.' * 



This, of course, is a poet's botany, and one does not 

 expect it to be very accurately scientific. Rossetti 

 means, by his 'cup of three,' the pair of flowers at the 

 end of each ray of the umbel, and the floral leaves 

 beneath the pair which are connected into one large 

 orbicular leaf. The two flowers and the orbicular leaf 

 below make up the number three, and this is the only 

 explanation I can venture to suggest. Is it worth while 

 to dwell in this way upon poets' fancies in connection 

 with the subjects of our study ? Yes, I think it is ; for 

 experience proves that nothing impresses natural objects 

 upon the memory so much as association with human 

 thought and fancy, even when, as in the case of many 

 popular superstitions, it has no foundation in fact. 



♦ D. G. Rossetti's Poems, Roberts Brothers' Ed. p. 249. 



