100 THE LIME. 



further from the middle. In the aconite, again, the 

 honey-cups resemble two little birds, and in the 

 hellebore they remind us of certain bivalve sea- 

 shells. The lime-tree is one of those plants in which 

 no special provision is made for the care of the 

 honey : in botanical language, although brimming 

 with nectar, the flowers are unprovided with " nec- 

 taries." Keen was the appreciation of the old na- 

 turalist who adopted this classic term into the lan- 

 guage of phytology. The pleasant beverage feigned 

 in the most ancient times to be the drink of the 

 gods, might well have its appellation transferred to 

 that which gives new charm to the loveliness of the 

 flower. Virgil's immortal description of the bees 

 must furnish us yet once p^gain with an illustration : 

 " Some address themselves to the gathering of food, 

 and by fixed agreement have their occupation in the 

 fields ; some deposit within the inclosure of the hive 

 Narcissus' tears,* and clammy gum from the bark 



* The flowers of the daffodil and other species of the genus 

 Narcissus are provided, as all who know these plants will 

 recollect, with a peculiar cup in the centre. These cups, 

 mythology tells us, contain the tears of the fabled youth 

 whose name they bear, 



"Narcissus pining o'er the untainted spring," 

 and are beautifully alluded to by Milton, in Lycidas, 



" Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 

 To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies " 



