Cornflower. 
(DELICACY.) 
“ Now, gentle flower, I pray thee tell 
If my lover loves me, and loves me well. ” 
Anonymous. 
T HE classic cognomen of the bright blue Cornflower is 
Cycinus, and it was so named after a fair young devotee 
of Flora, who made garlands for public festivities out of various 
sorts of wild flowers, and who lingered lovingly from morn till 
eve amid the corn, weaving into flowery coronals the blossoms 
that she had collected, accompanying her pleasant labour by 
singing the songs of her beloved fatherland. 
This flower, although now so common in our corn-fields, is 
thought not to be indigenous, but to have been brought from 
the East amongst some imported grain. 
Its deep blue hue is so deep that it almost approaches a 
purple, and as such the poet addresses it: 
“ There is a flower, a purple flower, 
Sown by the wind, nursed by the shower, 
O’er which Love breathed a powerful spell, 
The truth of whispering hope to tell. 
Now, gentle flower, I pray thee tell, 
If my lover loves me, and loves me well: 
So may the fall of the morning dew 
Keep the sun from fading thy tender blue.” 
Elizabeth Rowe is stated not only to have been extremely 
fond of the cyanus, as indeed every lover of the beautiful in 
nature must be, but to have obtained from this flower’s ex¬ 
pressed juice a permanent transparent blue, little inferior to 
ultramarine, wherewith to paint some of her choicest blossoms. 
The following pretty description of the habits of this delicately 
beautiful flower appeared some years ago, in the pages ot a 
monthly publication; 
