Flos Adonis. 
(PAINFUL RECOLLECTIONS.) 
T HIS emblem of painful recollections has received as many 
names as a Spanish princess. To Gerarde it was known 
as May-flower and red camomile ; but he says, “ our London 
women do call it rose-a-rubie.” Red morocco and pheasants 
eye are also amongst its cognomens, but, Adonis flower and 
Flos Adonis are the titles by which it is at present recognized. 
To the poetical Greeks it was known as the Spring-flower ; by 
the French it is termed “ drops of blood,” or gouttes de sang , 
in allusion to the fable which ascribes its origin to the blood of 
Adonis. In all probability the flower received its classic name 
of Adonis from being confounded with the anemone, which it 
resembles. They, however, are not the only blossoms which 
lay claim to the same illustrious origin : the larkspur has been 
put forward as an aspirant for this honour, but its claim has 
obtained very few advocates. Moschus gives the right to the 
rose, as also did Bion, in his well-known “Lament for Adonis,” 
of which the words in question are thus rendered by Mrs. 
Browning, in her translation of the poem : 
“ She wept tear after tear, with the blood which was shed, 
And both turned into flowers for the earth’s garden-close ; 
Her tears to the wind-flower—his blood to the rose.” 
Some will have it that the identical bloom—whichever one 
it was, and quaint old Gerarde would persuade us that it was 
the Venice mallow—sprang up entirely from the tears shed by 
Venus. When doctors differ it is hard to come to an under¬ 
standing, and therefore we will content ourselves with the re¬ 
flection that whatever flower it was that came of such renowned 
parentage, this pretty crimson blossom most decidedly deserves 
