LETTTER XXXI. 



VIAGIL AGAIN — THE HTACINTH — THE LARKSPUR. 



It is unfortunate that I have not my young savant here. 



There are, in one of the Eclogues of Virgil — the third, if I 

 am not mistaken — some enigmas which two shepherds propose 

 to each other : 



" Die quibus in terris . . . 

 Xres pateat coeli spatium non amplius ulnas." 



To which the other replies, without guessing the enigma : 



" Die quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum 

 Naseuntur flores." 



" Say, in what country do flowers grow with the names of 

 kings written upon them." 



The commentators of Virgil, and the professors after them, 



