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d into 
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rse by 
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offered 
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rushed 
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‘om the 
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wel; 
FLORAL RECORDS. 13 
Crocus was once a beautiful youth, who 
loved the nymph Smilax. He was turned 
into the golden spring blossom on account 
of his impatience ; and still the purple, white, 
or yellow flower, hurries to greet the spring 
before the snow is well melted, or the sun- 
shine has regained its warmth. 
Smilax, through her grief at the loss of 
her lover, was changed into that emblem 
of sorrow, the mournful yew tree, so well 
known in the old village churchyards of 
England. 
We may add here, that it was not from 
any sympathy with the unknown legends of 
Greece that our graveyard yews were planted. 
They were verily ¢vees of death, for from their 
wood the deadly bows of our forefathers were 
manufactured, as were also those arrows which 
were winged fates in the hand of an English 
yeoman. 
The Peony derives its Latin name, Paonia, 
from Pzeon, a celebrated physician, who em- 
ployed its root to cure Pluto, when he had 
been wounded by Hercules. It was sup- 
B 2 


