FLOS ADONIS. 147 
FLOS ADONIS. 
PAINFUL RECOLLECTIONS. 
Adonis was killed, while hunting, by a boar. 
Venus, who, for his sake, had relinquished the joys 
of Cythera, shed tears for the fate of her favourite. 
They were not lost ; the earth received them, and 
immediately produced a light, delicate plant, covered 
with flowers resembling drops of blood. Bright 
and transient flowers, too faithful emblems of the 
pleasures of life, ye were consecrated by Beauty 
herself to painful recollections ! 
That this flower owes its name to the favourite 
Venus is not to be disputed ; but, whether the god- 
dess of beauty changed her lover into this plant or 
the anemone it would be difficult to decide, since 
the Linnean system of dividing plants into families 
did not exist when the gods and goddesses made 
love upon earth ; and, before the time of the Swedish 
botanist the Adonis was classed among the anemones, 
which it greatly resembles. 
