THE AURICULA. 



HISTORY. 



There is no valid reason for believing that this 

 beautiful flower — this " powdered beau" of our par- 

 terres — was cultivated by the ancients. The Roman 

 legions traversed its native regions — the Alps — and it 

 may have attracted, by its beauty or its fragrance, a 

 transient notice, but we have no record of its being 

 added to their pleasure-ground adornments. Indeed, 

 they paid little attention to floriculture, and, if the 

 Rose be excepted, we have but scanty notice even of any 

 garden flower. Fabius Columna, it is true, thought 

 that the Auricula is the Alisma or Damasonium of 

 Dioscorides (1. iii. c. 169), and other classic natural- 

 ists, and that it is mentioned by Pliny (1. xxv. c. 10), 

 but these are mere surmises, having no better foun- 

 dation than that it would be as diflicult to prove them 

 erroneous as it is hopeless to shew that they are cor- 

 rect. 



That the Auricula was but little known, even at 

 the commencement of the 17th century, is demon- 

 strated by the fact that neither Dodonseus nor Lyte 



B 



