SPRING FLOWERS. 47 



Was it, I wonder, owing to this story of Nar- 

 cissus, and as an emblem of self-seeking, that the 

 Greeks twined the white stars of this flower among 

 the tangled locks of the Eumenides ? 



The Snowflakes have been flowering abundantly, 

 but they are now passing. The Greek name for 

 the Snowflake is the Leucoion literally the white 

 Violet and I think it possible that in a passage 

 of Ovid, where he speaks of the Violet, the Poppy, 

 and the Lily being broken by a storm, he is really 

 thinking of the Snowflake. I am satisfied, as I 

 have already said, that the Iris is never (as Lord 

 Stanhope asserted) called the Violet. 



My Auriculas are not as good as they should 

 be in a Lancashire garden, for of all flowers it is 

 the old Lancashire favourite. It is still known 

 as the Easier (a corruption, no doubt, of Bear's 

 Ear), and a pretty Lancashire ballad ends every 

 verse with the refrain, 



" For the Basiers are sweet in the morning of May." 



The old-fashioned Columbine is in full bloom, 

 as is also the Aquilegia glandulosa. I have 

 planted the Aquilegia coerulea, but both the plant 

 and some seeds which I have sown have failed 

 me, and I half fear I may never be successful 



