128 THE ASSOCIATIOISIS OF FLOWERS 
There are in gardens three cultivated species of snow- 
drops which are natives of Germany and other parts of the 
Continent. 
The snowdrop is placed by botanists among a class all 
somewhat similar in the form, of their leaves and manner 
of growth. The amaryllis gives its name to the order 
Amaryllidae. The plants comprised in it have all bulbous 
roots, and are many of them very beautiful, especially 
those genera brought from the Cape of Good Hope. The 
Guernsey lily (Amaryllis sarniensis), though brought from 
Japan by a vessel, and cast upon the shore of that island, 
has found there and in Jersey a very favourable reception. 
It does not, however, flower there so freely as on its native 
soil. “In Guernsey,’’ says Dr. MacCulloch, “every gar- 
dener and almost every petty farmer who has a bit of 
garden-ground, appropriates a patch to this favoured root ; 
and the few hundreds of flowers which are brought to 
England in the season, or which are kept for ornament in 
the island, are the produce of thousands of roots. The 
average rate of flowering is about fifteen or eighteen in a 
hundred.” 
The narcissus is another plant of this order, and is 
highly esteemed in the East. Its scent is, however, gene- 
rally considered very unwholesome; and the ancients de- 
voted it to the Furies, who were said to torment their 
sufferers by its stupifying powers. Three species of this 
flower grow wild. Among these is the daffodil, or Lent 
lily. In som.e parts of England this flower is commonly 
wild; but in many it is found only in gardens. Sometimes 
on the borders of rivulets in the countrv one may see, 
among other river-side flowers, the “ daffodillies fill their 
cups with tears,” and sometimes one meets with a patch 
of its strongly-scented blossoms in the meadow. The 
Turks call it golden bowl. Herrick has beautifully apos- 
trophised it : 
“ We have short time to stay as you, 
We have as short a spring. 
As quick a growth to meet decay 
As you or anything : 
We die. 
As your hours do, and dry 
Away, 
