thus was lamented on the first and last days; when the people refrained from wearing garlands at their repasts, and from singing anything in honour of Apollo; but on the second day there were public amusements and rejoicings, the city was thronged with strangers, who flocked thither to take part in the festival, boys played on musical instruments, and celebrated the praises of Apollo in songs, while others, decked in splendid attire, performed horse races in the theatre. Then national songs were sung, and dances were performed to the accompaniment of the flute, and a variety of other entertainments were provided. Herodotus tells us, that the due observance of this festival was held to be of such great importance by the Lacedæmonians, that they neglected urgent business of the state in order to attend to it.

The Hyacinth has received its due meed of praise from poets in all time. Those of Greece and Rome have, however, been generally inspired by the charms of the marked (vganтos) species; but several who have sung in our own tongue have designed to celebrate our native kind, and since by the Greeks it was made the emblem of death, we find an American poet introducing it as the symbol of sorrow :—

"A Hyacinth lifted its purple bell
From the slender leaves around it;
It curved its cup in a flowing swell,

And a starry circle crowned it;

The deep blue tincture that robed it, seemed
The gloomiest garb of sorrow,

As if on its eye no brightness beamed,

And it never in clearer moments dreamed,
Of a fair and calm to-morrow."

PERCIVAL.

The Hyacinth is found blooming towards the end of April, and during May is seen in its full beauty. Keats, in his poem, "Fancy," styles it Queen of this month.

-"hark!

'Tis the early April lark,
Or the rooks with busy caw,
Foraging for sticks and straw.
Thou shalt, at one glance, behold
The daisy and the marigold;
White-plumed lilies, and the first
Hedge-grown primrose that hath burst;
Shaded Hyacinth, alway

Sapphire queen of the mid-May;

And every leaf, and every flower

Pearl'd with the self-same shower."

The graceful manner in which the petals are curled back has suggested a beautiful simile to several poets. Milton applies it :

"and Hyacinthine locks

Round his parted forelock manly hung clustering."

And Hunt seems to have regarded this appearance as indicating, that his curly locks added much to Hyacinthus' personal beauty:

"Hyacinth handsome with his clustering locks."

Casimir, an Eastern poet, invokes the Hyacinth to come forth as the child of Spring.

"Child of the Spring, thou charming flower,

No longer in confinement lie,

Arise to light, thy form discover,

Rival the azure of the sky.

The rains are gone, the storms are o'er;
Winter retires to make thee way;
Come then, thou sweetly blooming flower,
Come, lovely stranger, come away.

The sun is dress'd in beaming smiles,
To give thy beauties to the day;
Young zephyrs wait with gentlest gales,
To fan thy bosom as they play."

There is another flower, not unfrequently found along the borders of cultivated fields in a wild state, but said to be a doubtful native, called the Grape Hyacinth, probably on account of the close resemblance of the cluster of flowers at the extremity of the scape to a purple grape in shape. It is also called the Starch Grape Hyacinth, from its sweet fragrance, which many persons fancy to be like wet starch. It is now quite naturalized, and those who are partial to a bouquet of native flowers are very desirous to include it. It is frequently cultivated in gardens, and is a very pretty ornamental Spring flower. Several species of this plant have been imported from the Levant, the South of Europe, and from Italy.

THE COWSLIP.

Primula veris; Linn.

"Where the bee sucks, there lurk I;
In a Cowslip's bell I lie :

There I couch when owls do cry."

SHAKSPEARE.

THE Cowslip is one of those flowers which every native of our island must at one time or other have seen. Those who were born in the country, or even in provincial towns, of moderate size, can, doubtless, call to their remembrance many pleasant hours spent in the fields, plucking Cowslips, in the golden age of childhood. We have now distinct views, in our mind's eye, of many a delightful scene in which we took our part, in years gone by, when afternoon holidays fleeted away too fast, as we gathered Cowslips and primroses, together with daisies and buttercups, in luxuriant meadows by the banks of the silver Trent. How those hours flew away, to be sure! We had no care or anxiety, other than to enjoy to the full the time present; and we did enjoy it, and we drank in with the sweet breath of heaven, perfumed by the mingled. odours of earth's fairest flowers, feelings and affections, ideas and associations, which have been treasured up in the storehouse of our memory, from whence, when far away from such scenes, we have drawn sweet recollections of past events, which have tinged many of later years with the bright hues of a golden summer's

eve.

Mrs. Howitt has written such pretty verses, wherein she describes many circumstances of childhood which

were brought to her remembrance on seeing Cowslips, that we shall quote them here.