be blown, either in glasses or pots, without difficulty, and may be readily increased by offsets.

Although it has been observed that most of these flowers blow in April and May, this only applies to such as are left in the earth to blow at their own season; but, according to their time of planting and their situation, they may be continued for many months in succession. Those planted in pots should be covered an inch over the top of the bulb; and the pot should not be less than seven inches in depth. According to the size of the bulb, one or more may be planted in each pot. They may be planted any time from September to February. Careful admissions of air in mild weather will be beneficial; and they must on no account be denied the enjoyment of daylight and sunshine, towards which they will lean with an almost animal yearning, which it were a sort of cruelty not to indulge.

Water must not be given them until the green begins to appear: they should then be gently watered once or twice a week. In a warm inhabited room they may be blown even in the midst of winter.

Such as are blown in glasses should have fresh water about once in ten days. The leaves should never be plucked off before they decay, or the root will be thereby deprived of much of its natural nourishment. When they have decayed, the bulbs should be taken up, laid in the shade to dry, cleaned, and put in a dry secure place till wanted to replant. The offsets should be taken off, and sorted according to their size. When planted, they may be put two or three together, until they have grown large enough for flowering.

When the plants are somewhat advanced in height they will require a stick to support them. Such plants as are kept in the open air in the spring must be defended from

strong winds, which would otherwise be apt to break the stems, particularly after rains; when their cups, being filled with water, will be more heavy :

"All as a lily pressed with heavy rain,

Which fills her cups with showers up to the brinks,

The weary stalk no longer can sustain

The head, but low beneath the burden sinks."

P. FLETCHEr.

They will thrive best in a south-eastern exposure, where the morning sun may dry off the moisture which has lodged upon them during the night; and they will better preserve their beauty there than in the shade, or in the scorching heat of the afternoon sun.

Armstrong notices the destructive effect of the easterly winds upon the Narcissus: in common indeed with all other flowers, for those must be very hardy that can bear an exposure to them without injury :

"As when the chilling east invades the spring,

The delicate narcissus pines away

In hectic languor, and a slow disease

Taints all the family of flowers, condemned
To cruel heavens."

The poetical origin of this flower, and its own beauty, have conspired to obtain for it the notice of some of the greatest poets. The story told at length in Ovid's Metamorphoses, of the transformation of Narcissus into a flower, is too well known to need, and too long to admit of, in

sertion.

The Naiades, lamenting the death of Narcissus, prepare a funeral pile, but his body is missing

"Instead whereof a yellow flower was found,

With tufts of white about the button crown'd."
SANDYS'S OVID.

"What first inspired a bard of old to sing

Narcissus pining o'er the untainted spring?

In some delicious ramble he had found

A little space, with boughs all woven round;
And in the midst thereof a clearer pool
Than e'er reflected in its pleasant cool
The blue sky here and there serenely peeping
Through tendril wreaths fantastically creeping.
And on the bank a lonely flower he spied,
A meek and forlorn flower with nought of pride,
Drooping its beauty o'er the watery clearness,
To woo its own sad image into nearness.
Deaf to light Zephyrus, it would not move;
But still would seem to droop, to pine, to love.
So, while the poet stood in this sweet spot,
Some fainter gleanings o'er his fancy shot;
Nor was it long ere he had told the tale

Of young Narcissus, and sad Echo's bale."

KEATS.

The poets have celebrated this flower also by its humbler

name of Daffodil :

"Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,

And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,

To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies.”

MILTON.

There is a beautiful allusion to the early flowering of the Daffodil in the Winter's Tale :

"Daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”

There is a species of the Daffodil which is very commonly seen by brooks and rivulets with some of the Iris, or Flagflowers:

"There

Spring the little odorous flowers,

Violets, and lilies, white

As the slender streams of light

Gathering about the moon,

On a lovely eve in June.

Narcissus hanging down his head,

And Iris in her watery bed,

Round about the silver streams,
Sparkle out like golden beams
Scattered from Apollo's hair,

When springing to the morning air
From the frothy sea, he shook

Some crystal drops into the brook."

Spenser represents the "black-browed Cymoent," the mother of Marinel, playing

Amongst her watery sisters by a pond,

Gathering sweet daffodillies to have made

Gay garlands, from the sun their foreheads fair to shade."

The cup in the centre of the flower is supposed to contain the tears of Narcissus; to which Milton alludes in the passage cited above; and Virgil in the following, where he is speaking of the occupations of the bees :

-“ Pars intra septa domorum

Narcissi lacrymam, et lentum de cortice gluten,
Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces
Suspendunt ceras."

VIRGIL, GEORGIC 4.

"Some within the house lay tears of daffodils, and tough glue from the barks of trees, for the foundations of the combs, and then suspend the tenacious wax."-MARTYN'S TRANSLATION.

Thomson celebrates the sweetness of the Jonquil, or Sweet Narcissus :

"No gradual bloom is wanting; from the bud,
First-born of Spring, to Summer's musky tribes;
Nor hyacinths, of purest virgin white,
Low bent, and blushing inward; nor jonquils,
Of potent fragrance; nor Narcissus fair,
As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still."

THOMSON'S SERING.

"Narcissus, drooping on his rill,

Keeps his odorous beauty still *."

* Translation from Milton.-See Literary Examiner, No. 11.

X

Virgil, in one passage in the fifth pastoral, speaks of the Narcissus as purple; and Mr. Davidson, in a note on that passage, observes that Dioscorides also speaks of a species of Narcissus which is purple :

"Pro molli violâ, pro purpureo narcisso."

"In lieu of the soft violet, in lieu of the empurpled narcissus.”— DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION.

Several of them have a ring of purple :

"Bring rich carnations, flower de luces, lilies,
The checqued and purple-ringed daffodillies."
BEN JONSON.

The Italian poet, Francesco Del Teglia, has some elegant lines on the Jonquil, but they are rather too long for insertion.

TROPEOLIEÆ.

NASTURTIUM.

TROPÆOLUM.

OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Called also Indian-cress.-French, la capucine.—Italian, fior cappucino; caprivola; cardamindo. The botanical name of this plant is the diminutive of tropeum, a trophy.

THE Nasturtium is a Peruvian plant; yet, in warm sheltered situations, will grow and flower in the open air, which is extraordinary in a native of so warm a country. They will, however, flower earlier and better when raised in a hot-bed. Where this aid cannot be allowed them, the seed may be sown in autumn, about two inches apart, and should be kept in the house till spring. Early in spring they may be gradually inured to the open air. They are esteemed annual plants, but may, with care, be preserved through the winter: they only require protection from frost. There are the Great and the Small Nasturtium, and a double