TRE HYACINTH 169 
of the THi'k’s-cap may, by a little help of the imagination,, 
be considered to bear this inscription. 
Milton, when enumerating the flowers w^hich were to 
strew the bier of Lycidas, alludes to the ancient belief : 
“ Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 
The tufted crow-toe and pale jessamine. 
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet. 
The glowing violet. 
The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine. 
With cowslips wan, that hang the pensive head. 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears : 
Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 
And daffodillies fill their cups with tears. 
To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies.’’ 
Farther on he adds, in allusion to the hyacinth, 
“ That sanguine flower inscribed with woe.” 
We might look in vain for these w^onderful initials, or any 
lines resembling them, on the foliage of our wood hya- 
cinth, which is, from the absence of these marks, termed 
“ Hyacinthus non scriptus ” (not written). This flower is 
sometimes called wood-squill; but the French term it as 
we do, “ Jacinte des bois.” Every wanderer in mead or 
woodland knows this simple flower. It grows wild 
throughout Europe under every hedge, from that which 
skirts the vale of Avoca, where two waters meet, and in 
which Inglis found it in great beauty and luxuriance, to 
the most sequestered glade, untrodden by the traveller or 
the poet, and unhonoured by song or story. May is the 
month when its blue flowers swing before the breezes, and 
when crowds of gleeful children go out into the w^oods to 
gather it. 
The hyacinth belongs to the order Asphodelese, which 
comprises a large number of beautiful garden flowers, and 
received its name from the asphodel. This plant is very 
common on the plains of Greece, and it was used by the 
ancient Greeks at funerals. The star of Bethlehem (Orni- 
thogalum), which is a frequent garden ornament, is a plant 
of this order. From one species was obtained that ancient 
