28 LANGUAGE AND 
fication in all the productions of nature, re 
garded the anemones as the emblem of sickness , 
probably on account of its noxious properties. 
In some countries people have such a prejudice 
against the flowers of the field anemone that 
they believe they so taint the air, that those who 
inhale it often incur severe illness. 
In this country the buds of the wood-anemone 
are generally of a snowy whiteness ; but some¬ 
times a delicate flush, like the blush on a maiden’s 
cheek, tinges their exquisitely formed petals, 
and sometimes they are found colored a rosy 
red. 
The best known species of this flower, the 
wood-anemone, grows very far north, and is 
common in the woods of North America. They 
are considered very unwholesome for cattle, and 
two kinds which grow on this continent are said 
to prove fatal to animals who eat them. 
Miss Pratt has favored us with these appro¬ 
priate lines to wood anemones: 
“Flowers of the wild wood ! your home is there, 
’Mid all that is fragrant, all that is fair; 
Where the wood-mouse makes his home in the earth 
Where gnat and butterfly have their birth; 
Where leaves are dancing over each flower, 
Fanning it well in the noontide hour, 
And the breath of the wind is murmuring low, 
As branches are bending to and fro. 
