268 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



The poets have celebrated this flower also by its hum- 

 bler name of Daffodil : 



" Bid Amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

 And daffodillies fill their cups with tears, 

 To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies." 



MILTON. 



There is a beautiful allusion to the early flowering of 

 the Daffodil in the Winter's Tale : 



-" Daffodils, 



That come before the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty." 



There is a species of the Daffodil which is very com- 

 monly seen by brooks and rivulets with some of the Iris, 

 or Flag-flowers : 



there 



Spring the little odorous flowers, 

 Violets, and lilies white 

 As the slender streams of white 

 Gathering about the moon, 

 On a lovely eve in June. 

 Narcissus hanging down his head, 

 And Iris in her watery bed, 

 Round about the silver streams, 

 Sparkle out like golden beams 

 Scattered from Apollo's hair, 

 When springing to the morning air 

 From the frothy sea, he shook 

 Some crystal drops into the brook." 



The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to con- 

 tain the tears of Narcissus ; to which Milton alludes in 

 the passage cited above; and Virgil in the following, 

 where he is speaking of the occupations of the bees : 



" pars intra septa domorum 



Narcissi lacrymam, et lentum de cortice gluten, 

 Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces 

 Suspendunt ceras." 



VIRGIL, GEORGIC 4. 



