MARCH 87 



guishing livery of the family. But the allusion here is 

 to the carmine centre. 



By the time, however, that the poet's narcissus is in 

 bloom, there is so much competing wealth of colour and 

 greenery that it scarcely gets its due tribute, and it is 

 the daffodil of March the true Lenten lily that Keats 

 has wedded with a praise long since threadbare : 



A thing of beauty is a joy for ever, 

 .... and such are daffodils 

 With the green world they live in. 



Shall I wind up this tribute to the chief glory of our 

 early springtide by recounting the evil deed of a 

 Scottish country minister. It may be done harmlessly, 

 both he and his wife having taken flight to the meads 

 of asphodel. In the manse grounds and kirkyard was 

 great store of daffodils an annual delight to church- 

 goers. One Sabbath in a far-off March I was smitten 

 with dismay to find that the scythe had been busy 

 among the plants just about to burst into bloom. 

 They lay in dismal swathes upon the lawn and among 

 the graves. After the service I expressed my feelings 

 to the minister in terms of some vehemence. ' Oh,' 

 quoth he, ' it was done by my orders. My wife dislikes 

 yellow ; she considers it a vulgar colour ! ' 



XXIV 



Field for interesting speculation is opened up by the 

 republic ation, in his admirable volume Pre- saurian 

 historic Problems, 1 of Dr. Munro's presidential bipeds 

 address to the Anthropological Section of the British 



1 Edinburgh : Blackwood and Sons. 1897. 



