Tournefort, who also relates this story, says that this ingenious flower-stealer took with him three or 
four of his friends to visit M. Bachelier, and that when they drew near to the place where the Anemones 
were placed, they began to amuse him, and engage his attention by relating different tales and anecdotes, to 
prevent his observing what was passing around him. 
Rapin, in his poem on gardens, ascribes the birth of the Anemone to the jealousy of Flora, who fearing 
that the incomparable beauty of a Grecian nymph would win from her the love of her husband Zephyr, 
transformed her into this flower. But to this tale he adds an account better authorised, of the Anemone 
having sprung from the blood of Adonis and the tears of Venus shed over his body ; and it is but common 
justice to Flora to observe that this is the generally received opinion of the origin of the Anemone. Cowley 
gives it this parentage in his poem on plants. Ovid describes Venus lamenting over the bleeding body of 
her lover, whose memory and her own grief she resolves to perpetuate by changing his blood to a flower, 
but less poetically than some others ; he substitutes nectar for the tears of Venus, not even hinting that the 
said nectar was the tears of the goddess. 
“ But be thy blood a flower. Had Proserpine 
The power to change a nymph to mint ? — Is mine 
Inferior ? or will any envy me 
For such a change ? Thus having utter’d, she 
Pour’d nectar on it, of a fragrant smell ; 
Sprinkled therewith, the blood began to swell, 
Like shining bubbles that from drops ascend ; 
And ere an hour was fully at an end, 
“ By this, the boy that by her side lay killed, 
Was melted like a vapour from her sight; 
And in his blood, that on the ground lay spilled, 
A purple flower sprung up chequered with white. 
The Spanish poet, Garcilasso, attributes the red colour only of the Anemone to the blood of Adonis : 
“ His sunbeam-tinted tresses drooped unbound, 
Sweeping the earth with negligence uncouth; 
The white anemones that near him blew 
Felt his red blood, and red for ever grew.” — Wiffin’s Translation, p. 273. 
The Greek poet, Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, makes the Anemone the offspring of the goddess’s 
tears. 
Mr. Horace Smith, in his poem of Amarynthus, supports the first reason for naming this flower the 
wind-flower — that it never opens but when the wind blows : 
“ And when I gather’d rushes, and began 
To weave a garland for you, intertwined 
With violets, hepaticas, primroses, 
And coy Anemone, that ne’er uncloses 
Her lips until they’re blown on by the wind.”— Amarynthus, p. 46. 
It seems more usual, as well as in character, for the presence of the sun to unclose the lips of the 
Anemone, which commonly close when he withdraws ; but when he shines clear, 
“ Then thickly strewn in woodland bowers, 
Anemones their stars unfold.” 
From thence a flower, alike in colour, rose, 
Such as those trees produce, whose fruits enclose 
Within the limber rind their purple grains ; 
And yet the beauty but awhile remains ; 
For those light-hanging leaves, infirmly placed, 
The winds, that blow on all things, quickly blast.” 
S andys’ Ovid, book x. 
Resembling well his pale cheeks, and the blood 
Which in round drops upon their whiteness stood.” 
Shakspeare’s Venus and Adonis. 
I 
Sir W. Jones has translated an ode from the Turkish of Mesihi, in which the author celebrates several 
of the more sweet or splendid flowers : 
“ See ! yon anemones their leaves unfold, 
With rubies flaming, and with living gold.” 
“ The sweetness of the bower has made the air so fragrant, that the dew before it falls is changed into rose water.” 
“ The dew-drops, sweeten’d by the musky gale, 
Are changed to essence ere they reach the dale.” 
An Anemone with the motto, “ Brevis est usus,” — “Her reign is short,” admirably expresses the rapid 
decline of beauty. 
Dr. Taylor observes (Poisons, p. 509) that, “ This is a genus of plants comprising several species, all 
possessed of irritating properties in the moist state, but which they appear to lose in great part when dried 
or exposed to heat, owing to the presence of a volatile principle, Anemonine. These plants have a strong \ 
acrid burning taste, which is stronger in the roots than in the leaves. The Anemone Pulsatilla ( Wind Flower ), 
and Anemone Pratensis, are the two principal varieties. Small doses of the extract of the latter produced, 
according to Stork, pain in the abdomen and diarrhoea. The different parts of these vegetables have a local 
irritant action. All that is known concerning their operation on the human subject, is comprised in the j 
following cases. Haller and Bockler remarked that they caused vesication of the skin, and that the distilled ! 
water produced nausea and vomiting. Orfila relates that an apothecary suffered from irritation of the eyes, ! 
colic, and vomiting, after having bruised some anemone pulsatilla. (Toxicologie, ii. 133.) Bulliard reports 
the case of a man who applied the bruised leaves of the plant to the calf of his leg. There was great pain 
for ten or twelve hours, and the local irritation was so severe that inflammation and gangrene followed. I 
(Orfila, ib. ; also Wibmer Die Wirkung der Arzneimittel, i. 178.) No instance is recorded of the plant 
having destroyed human life, but experiments on animals show that it will act fatally like other irritants ; 
and that it causes most violent inflammation in all parts of the alimentary canal. In some instances symp- 
toms indicative of an affection of the nervous system appeared. 
Analysis. — The nature of this poison can only be determined by the botanical characters of the plant. 
In the language of Flowers, Anemone is the emblem of Forsaken. 
