HYACINTH. 223 



" While I with grateful heart gather him yellow 

 Daffodils, pinks, anemonies, musk-roses, 

 Or that red flower whose lips ejaculate 

 Woe, and form them into wreaths and posies." 



AMARYNTHUS. 



The description of the Hyacinth in Ovid exactly answers 

 to the Martagon Lily : 



" Sweet flower, said Phoebus, blasted in the prime 

 * Of thy fair youth : thy wound presents my crime. 



Thou art my grief and shame. This hand thy breath 



Hath crush'd to air : I, author of thy death ! 



Yet what my fault ? unless to have played with thee, 



Or loved thee, (oh, too well !) offences be. 



I would, sweet boy, that I for thee might die ! 



Or die with thee ! but since the fates deny 



So dear a wish, thou shalt with me abide, 



And ever in my memory reside. 



Our harp and verse thy praises shall resound ; 



And in thy flower my sorrow shall be found. 

 **** 



Behold ! the blood which late the grass had dyed 

 . Was now no blood : from whence a flower full blown 

 Far brighter than the Tyrian scarlet shone : 

 Which seemed the same, or did resemble right 

 The lily, changing but the red to white. 

 Nor so contented (for the youth received 

 That grace from Phcebus) ; in the flower he weaved 

 The sad impression of his sighs; which bears 

 At, ai, displayed in funeral characters." 



SANDYS'S OVID, Book x. 



There have been great disputes and differences about 

 the Hyacinth : all were agreed that our modern Hyacinth 

 was not the Hyacinth of the ancients ; but the difficulty 

 was to determine what was. The larkspur has laid claim 

 to this honour, and some have supposed it to be the gla- 

 diolus, or corn-flag; but the best arguments have been 

 urged in support of the Martagon Lily, which is now pretty 

 generally acknowledged to be the true heir to this ancient 

 and illustrious race. 



