DAFFODILS 57 



in copse-land and in open clearings in woods, and 

 though not so commonly distributed over the 

 country as some other plants, is ordinarily in 

 abundance when met with at all. Wordsworth's 

 " host of golden daffodils " that " stretched in never- 

 ending line," and which he computed at some ten 

 thousand, are recalled to one's memory. We have 

 seen far-reaching tracts of woodland as gloriously 

 yellow with countless daffodils as a buttercup 

 meadow is in June, and though it is in such districts 

 the correct thing for the children and cottagers to 

 " go daffying," not all the baskets-full of golden 

 treasure that are carried off appear capable of 

 diminishing the wealth of blossom in the slightest 

 degree. 



The older herbal-writers call them affodillies, the 

 Latin name being asphodelus, but with the popular 

 taste for alliteration I we get daffodil too, and 

 daffadilly, or even, as in Spenser's " Shepherd's 

 Calendar," daffadowndilly. They are also some- 

 times called Lent-lilies, and golden tassel. The 

 aspodel was in classic days one of the sacred 

 flowers, being dedicated to Proserpine and blossom- 

 ing in the Elysium Fields. It is referred to by 



good." The lover of his garden plot may claim at least the 

 first third of this ideal life. 



1 As in bachelor's buttons, parsley-piert, codlins and cream, 

 goosegrass, primprint, primrose-peerless, hook-heal, lamb's- 

 lettuce, tine-tare. 



