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A M O R P H O P H A L L U S .—The gigantic Aroid, Amorphophal-
lus campamlatus, or Carrion Plant of Java, is regarded with repugnance
as a plant of ill-omen. Previous to the sudden bursting, about
sunset, of the spathe containing the spadix, there is an accumulation
of heat therein. When it opens, it exhales an offensive odour that
is quite overpowering, and so much resembles that of carrion, that
flies cover the club of the spadix with their eggs.
A N D H A S .—The luminous plant of the Vedic Soma. _ Th®
plant is also called in general Arjuni, that is to say. Shining.
From Andhas it is supposed the Greek word anthos was derived.
A N D R O M E D A .—This shrub owes its classical appellation
to Linnaeus, who gave it the name of Andromeda after the
daughter of Cepheus and Cassiope. Cvid, in his ‘ Metamorphoses,’
has sung how, lashed to a rock, she was exposed to a sea
monster, sent by Neptune to ravage her father’s country,_and how
she was at last rescued by Perseus, and became his bride.
Linnseus thus explains why he gave the Marsh Cistus the name of
the classical princess:—“ As I contemplated it, I could not help
thinking of Andromeda, as described by the poets—a virgin of
most exquisite beauty and unrivalled charms. The plant is always
fixed in some turfy hillock in the midst of the swamps, as Andromeda
herself was chained to a rock in the sea, which bathed her
feet as the fresh water does the root of the plant. As the distressed
virgin cast down her blushing face through excessive affliction, so
does the rosy-coloured flower hang its head, growing paler and
paler till it withers away. At length comes Perseus, in the shape
of Summer, dries up the surrounding waters, and destroys the
monster.” The leaves of this family of plants have noxious properties,
and the very honey is said to be poisonous.
A N E M O N E .—The origin of the Anemone, according to
Ovid, is to be found in the death of Adonis, the favourite of Venus.
Desperately wounded by a boar to which he had given chase, the
ill-fated youth lay expiring on the blood-stained grass, when he was
found by Venus, who, overcome with grief, determined that her
fallen lover should hereafter live as a flower.
“ Then on the blood sweet nectar she bestows;]
The scented blood in little bubbles rose;
Little as rainy drops, which flutt’ring fly,
Borne by the winds, along a lowering sky.
Short time ensued till where the blood was shed
A fiower began to rear its purple head.
Such as on Punic Apples is revealed,
Or in the filmy rind but half concealed.
Still here the fate of lovely forms we see.
So sudden fades the sweet Anemone.
The feeble stemS to stormy blasts a prey.
Their sickly beauties droop and pine away.
The winds forbid the flowers to flourish long,
Which owe to winds their names in Grecian song.”— Congreve.
pfant boro, begeqb/, orii bijric/, 2*5
The Greek poet, Bion, in his epitaph on Adonis, makes the
Anemone the offspring of the tears of the sorrowing Venus.
“ Alas the Paphian ! fair Adonis slain !
Tears plenteous as his blood she pours amain.
But gentle flowers are born and bloom around
From every drop that falls upon the ground.
Where streams his blood, there blushing springs the Rose,
And where a tear has dropped, a Wind-flower blows.
Rapin, in his poem, gives a somewhat similar version of the origin
of the Anemone. He sa y s:—
“ For while what’s mortal from his blood she freed,
And showers of tears on the pale body shed,
Lovely Anemones in order rose,
And veiled with purple palls the cause of all her woes.
In Wiffen’s translation of the Spanish poet Garcilaso, we find
the red colour only of the Anemone attributed to the blood ot
Adonis:— . , . j
“ His sunbeam-tinted tresses drooped unbound,
Sweeping the earth with negligence uncouth;
The white Anemones that near him blew
Felt his red blood, and red for ever grew.”
Rapin recounts another story, according to which the Anemone
was originally a nymph beloved by Zephyr. This is, perhaps,
an explanation of the name of the flower, which is derived from
A nemos, the wind.
“ Flora, with envy stung, as tales relate.
Condemned a virgin to this change of fate;
From Grecian nymphs her beauty bore the prize.
Beauty the worst of crimes in jealous ey e s;
For as with careless steps she trod the plain,
Courting the winds to fill her flowing tram.
Suspicious Flora feared she soon would prove
Her rival in her husband Zephyr’s love.
So the fair victim fell, whose beauty’s light
Had been more lasting, had it been less bright:
She, though transformed, as charming as before.
The fairest maid is now the fairest flower.”
The English name of Wind-flower seems to have been given to the
Anemone because some of the species flourish in open places expos J
to the wind, before the blasts of which they shiver and tremble
in the early Spring. Pliny asserts that the flower never blooms
except when the winds blow. With the Egyptians, the Anemone
was the emblem of sickness. According to P my, the magicians
and wise men in olden times were wont to attribute extrao J in a r y
powers to the plant, and ordained that everyone should gather the
first Anemone he or she saw in the year, the while repeating, wito
due solemnity—“ I gather thee for a remedy against disease. ih e
flower was then reverently wrapped in scarlet cloth, and kept
undisturbed, unless the gatherer became indisposed, when it w j
tied either around the neck or arm of the patient. This supersti