The Herb of the Field Author:Charlotte Mary Yonge General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1887 Original Publisher: Macmillan and Co. Subjects: Flowers Botany Nature / Flowers Nature / Plants Science / Life Sciences / Botany Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When y... more »ou buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II MARCH FLOWERS The Daffodil and Hazel Who can pass by the 1st of March without a word or two of the Lent Lily, the beautiful yellow daffodil? The Latin name of the daffodil is Narcissus, and there was an old heathen story that there was once a youth who was always admiring his own beauty, looking at his face reflected in clear pools and streams (for it was before looking-glasses were invented), till he was punished for his vanity by being changed into the flower which still hangs down its head, as he hung his over the water. Certainly he has not left off wearing a very gay dress, though I never yet saw him near the water, but always in copses and woody banks. How pleasant it is to see those multitudes of yellow flowers scattered all over the ground. And how delightful to gather them, blossom after blossom, and still it does not seem as if the numbers were in the least thinned. And then, when the hands are as full as ever they can hold, to tie the stalks up in a hard solid bundle, cut them all to one length, and make a present of the noble golden nosegay, or put it into a cup of water, or perhaps send it to market, where it maybe bought by some town person, who does not often see a fresh flower. I remember that my nurse did not always like my daffodil nosegays, because there were no leaves, and she said the flowers were too gaudy, but I did not think so ; the six outer petals and sepals are so soft and delicate, and the deep yellow bell inside is so brigh...« less