46 FLORA DOMESTICA, 



Questo subito allor vedrai posarsi 

 Nei luoghi medicati, e poi riporsi 

 Second il lor costume entr' a le celle." 



LE API DEL RUCELLAI. 



" When the hees issue from their nestling homes, 

 And you behold them through the clear blue ether, 

 Swimming tow'rd heaven like a wind-sprinkled cloud, 

 Be on the watch ; for then it is they go 

 To feel the open air on a green oak, 

 Or near a mossy and fresh-bubbling fountain ; 

 There follow them, and put the genial flavour 

 Of the bruised balm, or cerinth, and strike up 

 The hollow brass or tremble-touching cymbal, 

 And you will see them suddenly come down 

 Upon the season'd place, and so re-enter 

 After their wonted fashion, in their cells." 



Virgil, in one of his pastorals, which was indeed the 

 original of the poem of Rucellai, mentions green casia, 

 wild thyme, and savory, instead of the violet, parsley, and 

 wild thyme. By casia, some have supposed the poet in- 

 tended rosemary ; but in another passage he distinguishes 

 these two plants: and as he uses the epithet ' green,' which 

 the ancient poets almost invariably apply to parsley, it is 

 probable Rucellai may have considered this as the plant 

 described by Virgil. The frequent changes in the names 

 of plants have occasioned much doubt and difficulty in 

 ascertaining exactly the plants intended by old authors. 

 Vaccinium has been translated by different writers, the 

 privet, the hyacinth, the violet, &c. 



Evelyn tells us that " this noble plant yields an in- 

 comparable wine ; w and that " sprigs, fresh gathered, put 

 into wine in the heat of summer, give it a marvellous 

 quickness." 



There is a plant called Bastard Balm, or Balm-leaved 

 Archangel; in French, Le Melissot, or Melisse de Pu- 

 naisse [Bug-balm]; of which the botanical name, Me- 



