Some authors suppose the Red Martagon Lily to be the poetical Hyacinth of the ancients, but this is evidently a mistaken opinion, as the azure blue color alone would decide and Pliny describes the Hyacinth as having a sword grass and the smell of the grape flower, which agrees with the Hyacinth, but not with the Martagon.  Again, Homer mentions it with fragrant flowers of the same season of the Hyacinth.  The poets also notice the hyacinth under different colours, and every body knows that the hyacinth flowers with sapphire colored purple, crimson, flesh and white bells, but a blue martagon will be sought for in vain. Phillips’ Flora Historica.

A doubt hangs over the poetical history of the modern, as well as of the ancient flower, owing to the appellation Harebell being, indiscriminately applied both to Scilla wild Hyacinth, and also to Campanula rotundifolia, Blue Bell.  Though the Southern bards have occasionally misapplied the word Harebell it will facilitate our understanding which flower is meant if we bear in mind as a general rule that that name is applied differently in various parts of the island, thus the Harebell of Scottish writers is the Campanula, and the Bluebell, so celebrated in Scottish song, is the wild Hyacinth or Scilla while in England the same names are used conversely, the Campanula being the Bluebell and the wild Hyacinth the Harebell. Eden Warwick.

The Hyacinth of the ancient fabulists appears to have been the corn-flag, (Gladiolus communis of botanists) but the name was applied vaguely and had been early applied to the great larkspur (Delphinium Ajacis) on account of the similar spots on the petals, supposed to represent the Greek exclamation of grief Ai Ai, and to the hyacinth of modern times.

Our wild hyacinth, which contributes so much to the beauty of our woodland scenery during the spring, may be regarded as a transition species between scilla and hyacinthus, the form and drooping habit of its flower connecting it with the latter, while the six pieces that form the two outer circles, being separate to the base, give it the technical character of the former.  It is still called Hyacinthus non-scriptus—­but as the true hyacinth equally wants the inscription, the name is singularly inappropriate.  The botanical name of the hyacinth is Hyacinthus orientalis which applies equally to all the varieties of colour, size and fulness.—­W.  Hinks.

[070] Old Gerard calls it Blew Harebel or English Jacint, from the French Jacinthe.

[071] Inhabitants of the Island of Chios

[072] Supposed by some to be Delphinium Ajacis or Larkspur.  But no one can discover any letters on the Larkspur.

[073] Some savants say that it was not the sunflower into which the lovelorn lass was transformed, but the Heliotrope with its sweet odour of vanilla.  Heliotrope signifies I turn towards the sun.  It could not have been the sun flower, according to some authors because that came from Peru and Peru was not known to Ovid.  But it is difficult to settle this grave question.  As all flowers turn towards the sun, we cannot fix on any one that is particularly entitled to notice on that account.