led
through the Hoop-petticoats, the many-flowered Tazettas, and the sweet
Jonquils, till we end the Narcissus season with the Poets' Narcissus
(Ben Jonson's "chequ'd and purple-ringed Daffodilly"), certainly one of
the most graceful flowers that grows, and of a peculiar fragrance that
no other flower has; so beautiful is it, that even Dr. Forbes Watson's
description of it is scarcely too glowing: "In its general expression
the Poets' Narcissus seems a type of maiden purity and beauty, yet
warmed by a love-breathing fragrance; and yet what innocence in the
large soft eye, which few can rival amongst the whole tribe of flowers.
The narrow, yet vivid fringe of red, so clearly seen amidst the
whiteness, suggests again the idea of purity, gushing passion--purity
with a heart which can kindle into fire."

FOOTNOTES:

[73:1] This account of the Daffodil, and the accounts of some other
flowers, I have taken from a paper by myself on the common English names
of plants read to the Bath Field Club in 1870, and published in the
"Transactions" of the Club, and afterwards privately printed.--H. N. E.

[73:2]

"Herbe orijam and Thyme and Violette
Eke Affodyle and savery thereby sette."

_Palladius on Husbandrie_, book i, 1014.
(E. E. Text Soc.)

[74:1] "The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the
tears of Narcissus, to which Milton alludes; . . . and Virgil in the
following--

'Pars intra septa domorum
Narcissi lacrymas . . . ponunt.'"--_Flora Domestica_, 268.

[76:1] The "Quarterly Review," quoting this description, says that "few
poets ever lived who could have written a description so simple and
original, so vivid and descriptive." Yet it is an unconscious imitation
of Homer's account of the Narcissus--

"+narkisson th' . . .
thaumaston ganoonta; sebas de te pasin idesthai
athanatois te theois ede thnetois anthropois;
tou kai apo rizes hekaton kara exepephykei;
keodei t' odme pas t' ouranos eurys hyperthen,
gaia te pas; egelasse, kai almyron oidma thalasses.+"

_Hymn to Demeter_, 8-14.

DAISIES.

(1) _Song of Spring._

When Daisies pied, and Violets, &c.

_Love's Labour's Lost_, act v, sc. 2 (904).
(_See_ CUCKOO-BUDS.)