.88 
THE ASSOCIATIONS OF FLOWERS 
CHAPTER VI. 
Buttercup— Meadow Flowers in ]une — Speedwell — Wild 
Cranesbill — Wild Succory — Charms of Country m 
Summer — Various kinds of Crowfoot — Acrid Froper- 
ties of Crowfoot — Water Crowfoot— Its Use— Celan- 
dine — Ranunculaceous Flants — Christmas Rose — Cle- 
matis— F(^ony — Liver Wort — Fheasanfs Eye — Marsh 
Marigold — Larkspur — Fennel Flower — Cummin of 
Scripture — Columbine — Ingenuity of the Bet. 
“ Buttercups that will be seen^ 
Whether we will see or no.” 
— ■ W ordsworth . 
It would seem that modern poets have taken a great pre- 
judice against those two flowers^ the tulip and the butter- 
cup. They seldom honour them with a stanza, except to 
adduce them as emblems of pride. Yet buttercups have 
had their day, when the older poets sung of them, under 
the names of king-cups, or gold-cups, or leopard 's-foot, 
or cuckoo-buds; names significant of their beauty, or of 
their connection with the bird whose note is one of the 
first voices of the spring. The appearance of a meadow 
in summer, covered with the glossy yellow blossoms of 
this plant, is certainly such as may induce us to regard 
it as an ornament to the landscape, however little the 
farmer may value it as pasture. When 
Cuckoo buds of yellow hue 
Do paint the meadows with delight,” 
they have a very rich and beautiful aspect; and as we 
stand upon an eminence and look down upon the thickly- 
studded plain, or sit upon the meadow-style and look 
upon the wide expanse, coloured by the gay flower, we 
are charm.ed at beholding a field of gold. 
