THE CROWN IMPERIAL. 



" And presently the Crocus heard their greeting, and awoke, 

 And donned with care her golden robe and emerald-coloured cloak ; 



******* 

 The Crocus brought her sisters too, the purple, pied, and white ; 

 And the redbreast warbled merrily above the flowerets bright." 



Bernard Barton looked upon it as an emblem of the leaf 

 which the dove brought to Noah in the ark, when hoping for 

 the subsidence of the waters, and thus addressed it : — 



" Thine is the flower of hope, whose hue 

 Is bright with coming joy." 



So poets, and all who delight in flowers, have felt a gush of 

 pleasure when these bright things have first presented them- 

 selves in the parterre, a promise of the coming spring. 



THE CROWN IMPERIAL {Fritillaria Imperialis).— 



Power. 



Fritillaria, the generic name of the chequered Daffodil, 

 or Snake's-head Lily, was given to it from its resemblance to 

 the Roman dice- box. Our indigenous species is called 

 Meleagris, because its markings are like those of Guinea-fowl, 

 hence we find people speaking of it as the Guinea-hen 

 flower. Its tulip-shaped cup hangs down inverted, which has 

 given rise to the absurd name of " The Drooping Young 

 Man," in some parts of the country. It is a common plant in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, and we have met with it in Cambridge- 

 shire. It was at one time so abundant near Kew, that a 

 meadow between that royal residence and Mortlake, retains 



63 



