THE DAFFODIL. 85 



a quality from which the daffodil is perfectly free. 

 The narcissus was, therefore, consecrated to the 

 furies, who were fabled to stupefy their victims by 

 its means before attacking them; hence Sopho- 

 cles calls them "garlands of the infernal gods/'* 

 Perhaps, on this account the asphodels, which Pro- 

 serpine is represented as gathering when she was 

 seized by Pluto, were really the narcissus (the 

 Jeanette de Contois of the French). The Chinese, 

 however, regard the narcissus very differently, de- 

 corating the shrines of their household gods with 

 it, and placing large china dishes of its blossoms 

 before them on the first day of the new year ; for 

 which purpose the roots are planted in pots filled 

 with pebbles and water, just in time to cause them 

 to blow for this festival. 



In modern mythology, the common daffodil is 

 sacred to St. Perpetua ; the pretty little hoop- 

 petticoat daffodil to St. Catherine, and the nar- 

 cissus nutans to St. Julian. 



The name of daffodil, which Skinner and others 

 derive from the family resemblance of the plant to 

 the asphodels, is simply the old English word affo- 



* It seems almost superfluous to remind the reader of the 

 fable of the youth Narcissus, who falling in love with his own 

 image in the water, pined away until he was changed into the 

 pale flower which now bears his name ; 



" And on a bank a lonely flower he spied, 

 A meek, and forlorn flower, with nought of pride, 

 Drooping its beauty o'er the water's clearness, 

 To woo its own sad image into nearness, 

 Deaf to light Zephyrus it would not move ; 

 But still would seem to droop, to pine, to love." 



