HYACINTH. ] 93 



together as to form the letters Ai as the ancient Hya- 

 cinth is represented. 



Our modern Hyacinth has celebrity enough to stand 

 upon its own ground, and, though it bears the same name, 

 needs not to usurp the birth-right of its elder brother, of 

 whose origin we are told : 



" Apollo with unweeting hand, 



Whilome did slay his dearly loved mate, 

 Young Hyacinth, the pride of Spartan land ; 

 But then transformed him to a purple flower." 



It is always of the purple Hyacinth the poets speak : 

 the modern purple is a deep blue; the Roman purple 

 more resembled a light crimson. The flower which we 

 now call the Hyacinth is often of a blue-purple colour, 

 but is very seldom seen at all approaching to a Roman 

 purple. A flower fabled to have sprung from blood, we 

 may naturally suppose to have been of a somewhat similar 

 colour. 



Virgil, in speaking of the Hyacinth, uses an epithet 

 peculiarly applicable to the M artagon Lily : 



" et ferrugineos Hyacinthos." 



GEORGIC. 4. 



And any one who is acquainted with the Martagon 

 Lily will immediately recognise the kind of iron-red here 

 described ; although the flower is often of a bright crimson, 

 and the spots nearly black. 



The very different manner in which our English poets 

 describe the colour of the Hyacinth, proves it to be a dif- 

 ferent flower : who can confound a Roman purple with 

 sapphire ? 



" Shaded Hyacinth, alway 



Sapphire queen of the mid- May." 



KEATS. 



