THE LEGEND OF THE FLOWERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE LEGEND OF THE FLOWERS.

TALES OF LONG AGO

Moat flowers have legends—that ij, verv old stories that were told by our crekt grandmothers and their greatgrandmothers years ago-woven round ■ ''The snowdrop, which appears in England in winter, often when the snow is on the -round, is really the herald of isptinfc, for it is followed soon after by the crocus, in its yellow and its purple dre*se= the primrose, the violet, and then by all the flowers which makes the English spring beautiful. There is a story that Go<l was once angry waUj the earth and its ugliness in sin, and He sent hundreds and thousands of snowflakes to 'cover the earth with a white blanket to hide its ugliness.

An angel caught one of those snowflakes as C it was" flying through the air, breathed upon it, and then the snowflake was changed into a little flower with a bell-shaped head, and on the earth hundreds of snowdrops sprang up and covered- the ugly pte'eu with their beauty.

The narcissus has a strange story to tell. It was originally a beautiful youth, for whom the "maiden Echo pined in vain, until, as we find her to-day, she had nothing left but her voice. Narcissus was so beautiful that it was generally felt that the sight of his own face'would be fatal so all mirrors were hidden away from him. Alas! Hβ chanced to see a reflection of his own face in a pool, and fell so desperately in love with it that he killed himself. The gods, however, unwilling that so much beauty should be lost, transformed him into the flower now known so well. The hyacinth, according to its most popular legend, was once a human being. It, .too, was extraordinarily beautiful, and it was beloved by Apollo and by Zephyr., but as it preferred Apollo it was slain by Zephyr, who afterwards repented and caused his victim to be turned into a hyacinth. The story says that the hyacinth when growing in a garden, or wild in a wood, is still loved by Zephyr (I expect you know this is the wind), who whispers soft words in her ear.

Txie crocuses' story is also one of love and death, but the tulip has no romantic story. Tulips were introduced into Holland late in the sixteenth century. The soil and climate there suited them so well that the Dutch florists cultivated them on a large scale, and supplied them to other European nations, including England. Even now the tulips flourish exceedingly in Holland, and it is a beautiful sight to see whole fields of them growing there in early summer.