FRITILLARY. 163 



The bee appears regardless of its poisonous qualities : 



-" Bees that soar for bloom, 



High as the highest peak of Furness Fells, 

 Will murmur by the hour in fox-glove bells/' 



WORDSWORTH'S SONNET. 



" The fox-glove, in whose drooping bells the bee 

 Makes her sweet music." 



B. CORNWALL. 



" Let me thy vigils keep, 



'Mongst boughs pavilioned, where the deer's swift leap 

 Startles the wild bee from the fox-glove bell." 



KEATS, SONNET vii. 



But it is not the bee alone that braves this powerful 

 poison ; women of the poorer class, in Derbyshire, drink 

 large draughts of Fox-glove tea, as a cheap means of ob- 

 taining the pleasures, or the forgetfulness, of intoxication. 

 It is said to produce a great exhilaration of spirits *. Well 

 may the word intoxicate originate in poison ! 



FRITILLARY. 



FRITILLARIA. 



LILIACE.&. HEXANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 



THE Imperial Fritillary, or Crown Imperial, is supposed 

 to be a native of Persia : there are many varieties, all 

 handsome, and varying in colour. This species is less 

 esteemed than its beauty merits, on account of its strong 

 and disagreeable scent. The earth should be kept mo- 

 derately moist. About the end of July the bulbs should 

 be taken up, cleaned, &c. &c. and kept out of the earth 

 about two months ; but care must be taken in putting 

 them by, to lay them all singly, not in heaps. The offsets 



* See Time's Telescope, 1822, p. 237. 



M 



