the pansy,[1294] “freaked with jet;” the purple cyperus, the iris, the water-mint,[1295] and hyacinth,[1296] and the narcissus,[1297] and the willow-herb, and the blue speedwell, and the marsh-marigold, or, brave bassinet, and the jacinth, and early daffodil, “That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty.” ----- Footnote 1290: Geop. xi. 20. Heresbach. de Re Rust. p. 122. b. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 4, 8. Footnote 1291: Plin. xxi. 13. Footnote 1292: Colum. De Cultu Hortorum, x. 102. Footnote 1293: Winter’s Tale, iv. 5. Footnote 1294: Sibth. Flor. Græc. t. i. tab. 222, tab. 318. Schol. Aristoph. Eq. 1320. Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 4. The finest violets, crocusses, &c., in the ancient world, were supposed to be found in Cyrene. Id. vi. 6. 5. Footnote 1295: Dioscor. ii. 155. Footnote 1296: On the birth of the Hyacinth, see Eudocia in the Anecdota Græca, i. 408. Footnote 1297: Theoph. Hist. Plant. vi. 6. 9. 8. 2. This flower flourishes after the setting of Arcturus, about the autumnal equinox.—“We were ferried over a narrow stream fringed with Agnus-Castus, into a garden belonging to the convent. A number of vernal flowers now blossomed on its banks; the garden anemone was crimsoned with an extraordinary glow of colouring. The soil which was a sandy loam, was further enlivened with the Ixia, the grass-leaved Iris, and the enamel-blue of a species of speedwell, not noticed by the Swedish Naturalist.” Sibth. Walp. Mem. i. 282, seq. ----- A netting of wild thyme[1298] tufted with sweet mint, and marjoram,[1299] which, when crushed by the foot, yielded the most delicious fragrance, embraced the sunny hillocks, while here and there singly, or in beds, grew a profusion of other herbs and flowers, some prized for their medicinal virtues, others for their beauty, others for their delicate odour, as the geranium, the spike-lavender, the rosemary,[1300] with its purple and white flowers, the basil,[1301] the flower-gentle, the hyssop, the white privet, the cytisus, the sweet marjoram, the rose-campion, or columbine,[1302] the yellow amaryllis, and the celandine. Here, too, “Their gem-like eyes The Phrygian melilots disclose,”[1303] with the balm-gentle, the red, the purple, and the coronal anemone,[1304] the convolvulus, yellow, white, pale pink, and blue, together with our Lady’s-gloves, the flower of the Trinity, southernwood,[1305] and summer-savory,[1306] œnanthe,[1307] gith, the silver sage,[1308] Saint Mary’s thistle, and the amaranth, while high above all rose the dark pyramidal masses of the rhododendron,[1309] with its gigantic clusters of purple flowers. ----- Footnote 1298: