134 THE SHAKESPEARE GARDEN 



Bion sang : 



Alas! the Paphian! fair Adonis slain! 



Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain, 



But gentle flowers are born and bloom around 



From every drop that falls upon the ground. 



Where streams his blood, there blushing springs a Rose 



And where a tear has dropped a windflower blows. 



Pliny asserted the anemone only blooms when 

 the wind blows. 



The flower was associated with illness in the days 

 of the Egyptians and also during the Middle Ages, 

 when there was also a superstition that the first ane- 

 mone gathered would prove a charm against disease. 

 The first spring blossom was, therefore, eagerly 

 searched for, delightedly plucked, and carefully 

 guarded. No token of affection was more prized by 

 a loved one going off on a journey than the gift of 

 an anemone. An old ballad has the lines: 



The first Spring-blown Anemone she in his doublet wove, 

 To keep him safe from pestilence wherever he should rove. 



Anemones were greatly valued in Elizabethan 

 gardens. Indeed it was a fad to grow them. 

 Parkinson distinguishes the family of anemones as 

 "the wild and the tame, or manured, both of them 

 nourished up in gardens." He classifies them still 

 further as "those that have broader leaves and those 



