THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



77 



are beautifully apostrophised by Her- 

 rick ; — 



" Fair daffodils, we weep to see 



You haste away so soon ; 

 As yet the early-rising sun 

 Has not attained his noon. 



Stay, stay 

 Until the hastening day 



Has run 

 But to the evensong, 

 And, having prayed together, we 

 Will go with you along," 



Who has not welcomed their coming 

 and as ruefully regretted their evan- 

 esence ? Wordsworth calls it a hope- 

 ful season — 



" When early primroses appear, 



And vales are decked with daffodils, 

 I hail the new-reviving year, 



And soothing hope my bosom fills." 



The genus I^arcissus is said to 

 derive its name from the mythological 

 Narcissus, a beautiful but vain young 

 man who was so enamoured with the 

 reflection of his own features in a lake, 

 that he was changed into a flower, 

 equally lovely, of which our own 

 daffodil [JV. Pseudo-narcissus) is a 

 representative, although not the type. 

 But this pretty legend has been written 

 to fit the floral name rather than been 

 its origin. Por with more plausibility 

 it has been derived from the Greek 

 narM, torpor ; Latin, narkissos, because 

 of the narcotic, acrid, emetic, and poi- 

 sonous character of the genus. The 

 common name of daffodil seems a 

 corruption and confusion of the Greek 

 " AsphodeV an allied plant which it 

 somewhat resembles; and the more 



elaborate " daffy-down-dilly," a cor- 

 ruption of saffaroun or saffron lily — 

 the yellow lily; the Narcissi being 

 always popularly confounded with the 

 true lilies. In southern districts they 

 are called "Lent lilies," from their 

 season of blooming : they may always 

 be looked for the first week in March. 

 " Crow lilies " is another name ; and 

 in Scotland, where they are rare, except 

 in cultivation, they are simply " lilies." 

 The snowdrop is there much better 

 known and more abundant. Burns 

 evidently thought it native and com- 

 mon, for he sings — 



" The snawdrap and primrose the woodlands 

 adorn, 



And violets bathe in the weet of the morn." 



Their benumbing or stupifying pro- 

 perties seem to find expression in the 

 local term of reproach for a senseless 

 fellow, " he's a daffy- dow'-dilly," and 

 in more genteel or literary circles " a 

 narcissus " is equivalent to a conceited 

 fop or dandy. In certain rural dis- 

 tricts I have seen them freely used as 

 floral tributes laid on graves. Can 

 this have any association with the 

 mythic ''Asphodel" whose mission is 

 so so finely pourtrayed by Longfellow 

 in the Two Angels. 



In cultivation, the snowdrop and 

 daffodil often become double by the 

 transformation of the stamens into 

 petals. The flowers of the daffo- 

 dil are narcotic and the bulbs 

 emetic, but for such a common and 



