BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 51 



ers, is also here with the Calamus and Hyacy- 

 cinth. The white bells of the Solomon's Seal 

 Convallaria, the edges of which seem to be 

 tinged with the green of the leaves under which 

 they are found peeping, and its elegant sister, 

 the Lily of the Valley, so renowned in song as 

 the emblem of purity, are also in the sixth class, 

 and then we have the Narcissus, whose history 

 I suppose you remember. 



L. He was a youth who looked at himself in 

 a river, and was so delighted with his own beau- 

 tiful image as to fall in love with it. He 

 pined away inconsolably, and died of grief at 

 last. When his friends came to bury him they 

 only found a rising stalk with yellow blossoms 

 crowned, which ever after bears his name of 

 Narcissus. 



E. I will close my enumeration by mention 

 ing the Bethlehem Star Ornithogalum, which, 

 like the Lily, has been made the emblem of 

 purity, and whose beautiful star-like blossoms, 

 so sweet, pure, and agreeable, -merit the distinc- 

 tion of its name. Its flowers are white as the 

 drifted snow. 



