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THE GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 
PARNASSIA PALUSTRIS. 
-“ A little flower, milk-white,” 
Which sportive fancy often fondly thinks 
May once have sprung beneath the Muses’ feet, 
And heard Apollo’s lyre. 
The “ grass of Parnassus, meek as star of even,” 
bearing a single leaf and blossom, is the only one of 
the genus familiar to Europeans; but “ several species, 
abundantly distinguished by various characteristics, are 
found in America and Nepal.” Its delicate beauty, we 
may presume, has obtained for it the honourable title of 
Parnassia; and certainly no flower better deserves not 
only a classic name and abode, but to be the chosen 
favourite of the Muses themselves. After all, however, 
there may be something more than fable in the habitat 
assigned to it, as Dioscorides mentions a plant called 
“ Gramen Parnassi,” which in his time grew on that 
“ old poetic mountain; ” and assuredly it loves high 
ground, for we find it thrives best in our own country 
on moist mountainous pastures and commons. 
