ANEMONE. 27 



" But be thy blood a flower. Had Proserpine 

 The power to change a nymph to mint ? Is mine 

 Inferior ? or will any envy me 

 For such a change ? Thus having utter'd, she 

 Pour'd nectar on it, of a fragrant smell; 

 Sprinkled therewith, the blood began to swell, 

 Like shining bubbles that from drops ascend ; 

 And ere an hour was fully at an end, 

 From thence a flower, alike in colour, rose, 

 Such as those trees produce, whose fruits enclose 

 Within the limber rind their purple grains ; 

 And yet the beauty but awhile remains ; 

 For those light-hanging leaves, infirmly placed, 

 The winds, that blow on all things, quickly blast." 



SANDYS' OVID, book x. 



" By this, the boy that by her side lay killed, 

 Was melted like a vapour from her sight ; 

 And in his blood, that on the ground lay spilled, 

 A purple flower sprung up chequered with white, 

 Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood 

 Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood." 



SHAKSPEARE'S VENUS AND ADONIS. 



The Spanish poet, Garcilasso, attributes the red colour 

 only of the Anemone to the blood of Adonis : 



" His sunbeam-tinted tresses drooped unbound, 

 Sweeping the earth with negligence uncouth ; 

 The white anemonies that near him blew 

 Felt his red blood, and red for ever grew." 



WIFFIN'S Translation, p. 273. 



The Greek poet, Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, makes 

 the Anemone the offspring of the goddess's tears. 



Mr. Hor. Smith, in his poem of Amarynthus, supports 

 the first reason for naming this flower the wind-flower 

 that it never opens but when the wind blows : 



" And then I gathered rushes, and began 

 To weave a garland for you, intertwined 

 With violets, hepaticas, primroses, 

 And coy Anemone, that ne'er uncloses 

 Her lips until they 're blown on by the wind." 



AMARYNTHUS, p. 46. 



