Hyacinthus and Vaccinium 



KOI ro lov iie\av e'crri Kai & ypaTrra vaKivBos. 



Pliny's ' vaccinium ' is an entirely different plant. 

 He calls it a shrub, and it may possibly be the bilberry. 



No ancient flower has stirred more controversy 

 than this, and it cannot be said that the identifica- 

 tion even now is beyond dispute. Columella has 

 caused some complication by speaking of hyacinths 

 not only as ' ferrugineos,' wherein he merely followed 

 Virgil, but also as ' vel niveos vel caeruleos ' and as 

 * caelestis luminis.' We may, however, leave out of 

 account this sky-blue hyacinth, possibly the two- 

 leaved squill, for beyond doubt it is not the same 

 plant as Virgil's. It may, however, be well to bear 

 in mind that the Greeks applied the name to several 

 flowers, which do not greatly resemble each other, 

 and that probably among them are the squill, already 

 mentioned, the larkspur, and the flower which we 

 know as the hyacinth. 



Let us start with the passage of Ovid in which, as 

 Martyn says, ' the form of the hyacinth is particularly 

 described.' The poet is describing what followed 

 the death of the youth Hyacinthus : 



' Ecce cruor, qui fusus humi signaverat herbam, 

 Desinit esse cruor, T^rjogue intentior ostro 

 Flos oritur formamque capit quam lilia, si non 

 Purpureus color his, argenteus esset in illis. 

 Son satis hoc Phoebost, is enim f uit auctor honoris. 

 Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit, et ai ai 

 Flos habet inscriptum, f unestaque litera ductast.' 



Now, if this passage contained all our information, 

 there could be no doubt about our plant. There 



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