Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



One objection that may be made to the claim of 

 the martagon applies equally to the red lily, if its old 

 name may still be used. It seems that neither of 

 them grows wild in Sicily. It is of course possible 

 that they become extinct, but in the case of the 

 martagon this is unlikely. As Mr. A. Grove says in 

 his monograph on the genus, it is the one lily that 

 will grow wherever the seed happens to fall. In 

 a copse at Mickleham it has so completely estab- 

 lished itself, southerner though it is, as to obtain 

 admittance to the English flora. It seems unlikely 

 that the martagon can be the written hyacinth of 

 Theocritus. 



There is, moreover, a Sicilian flower the inside of 

 whose perianth bears marks, which do frequently 

 take the form of an A, with a smaller blotch after it, 

 which one could plausibly ' cause to be represented ' 

 as an I. This is the corn-flag (Gladiolus segetum). 

 Of many specimens which I gathered near Selinunte 

 and near Catania almost all had marks, and about 

 one in five had the marks described above. A figure 

 of a kindred species, G. communis, is given in Eng- 

 lish Botany, but this has no marks that resemble 

 letters. It is against the corn-flag's claim and some- 

 what in favour of the martagon's that the shepherds 

 in Theocritus seek the hyacinth in the hills. 



Flower : Lilies, July and August. 

 Corn-flags, April to July. 



Italian names : Giglio Rosso (Lilium bulbi- 

 ferum). 



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