POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
167 
NARCISSUS. 
Narcissus, poeticus . . . Class 6; Order 1. 
Flowers white, very large and fragrant, with a crimson 
border round the nectary. 
SELF-LOYE. 
Nature’s laws must be obeyed, 
And this is one she strictly laid 
On every soul which she has made 
Down from our earliest mother : 
Be self your first and greatest care, 
From all reproach the darling spare, 
And any blame that she should bear 
Put off upon another. 
Had Nature taken a second thought, 
A better precept she had taught, 
And good instead of evil wrought 
By those the power possessing; 
For self had been put out of sight, 
The love of others brought to light; 
In short, the wrong had all been right, 
And man to man a blessing. 
The white or poetical Narcissus is aptly- 
adopted as the florigraphical sign of egotism , in¬ 
asmuch as, according to the mythologists, it 
owes its origin to a beautiful youth of Bceotia, 
of whom it had been foretold that he should 
