FLOS ADONIS. 
147 
FLOS ADONIS. 
PAINFUL RECOLLECTIONS. 
Adonis was killed, while hunting, by a boar. 
Venus, who, for his sake, had relinquished the 
joys of Cythera, shed tears for the fate of her 
favourite. They were not lost; the earth re¬ 
ceived them, and immediately produced a light, 
delicate plant, covered with flowers resembling 
drops of blood. Bright and transient flowers, 
too faithful emblems of the pleasures of life, ye 
were consecrated by Beauty herself to painful 
recollections ! 
That this flower owes its name to the fa¬ 
vourite of Venus is not to be disputed; but, 
whether the goddess of beauty changed her 
lover into this plant or the anemone it would 
be difficult to decide, since the Linnean system 
of dividing plants into families did not exist when 
the gods and goddesses made love upon earth : 
and, before the time of the Swedish botanist, the 
Adonis was classed among the anemones, which 
it greatly resembles. 
