ILLUSTRATIONS. 21 



more rarely pinkish. It is sometimes referred to the Scilla 

 family, but a comparison with the foregoing will show con- 

 siderable difference between them. This flower is occasionally 

 called Harebell : a name which is more appropriately given to 

 the little Campanula rotundifolia. The Hyacinth of the an- 

 cients, which was named in commemoration of a comely 

 youth, Hyacinth us, who was accidentally killed by Apollo, 

 and which bore certain lines or marks on its petals, in allusion 

 to the absence of which our native species was called non- 

 scriptus,was made by the Greeks the emblem of Death; 

 and hence an American poet has taken it as the symbol of 

 sorrow : " the deep blue tincture that robed it seemed the 

 gloomiest garb of sorrow." Another poet has called it the 

 " sublime Queen of the mid-May." 



And with this well-known and favourite flower we close our 

 sketch of the illustrative examples of the flowers of the spring 

 season. In the succeeding pages we shall give a more com- 

 plete and formal, as well as classified enumeration of the prin- 

 cipal kinds of wild plants which blossom during the early por- 

 tion of the year. The examination of these, as day by day 

 they become unfolded, will, we hope, prove an agreeable and 

 instructive pastime to many readers, and give them an in- 

 creased zest for the search after those which are yielded by 

 the seasons that follow. 



Who loves not Spring's voluptuous hours, 



The carnival of birds and flowers ? 



Yet who would choose, however dear, 



That Spring should revel all the year ? Montgomery. 



