I should
think that this was the flower that poor Ophelia wove into her garland.
Gerard says, "They are not used either in medicine or in nourishment;
but they serve for garlands and crowns, and to deck up gardens." We do
not now use the Ragged Robin for the decking of our gardens, not that we
despise it, for it is a flower that all admire in the hedgerows, but
because we have other members of the same family as easy to grow and
more handsome, such as the double variety of the wild plant, L.
Chalcedonica, L. Lagascae, L. fulgens, L. Haagena, &c. In Shakespeare's
time the name was also given to the Wild Hyacinth, which is so named by
Turner and Lyte; but this could scarcely have been the flower of
Ophelia's garland, which was composed of the flowers of early summer,
and not of spring. (See Appendix, p. 388.)

FOOTNOTES:

[67:1] In Scotland the Wild Hyacinth is still called the Crow-flower--

"Sweet the Crow-flower's early bell
Decks Gleniffer's dewy dell,
Blooming like thy bonny sel,
My young, my artless dearie, O."

TANNAHILL, _Gloomy Winter_.

CROWN IMPERIAL.

_Perdita._

Bold Oxlips, and
The Crown Imperial.

_Winter's Tale_, act iv, sc. 4 (125).

The Crown Imperial is a Fritillary (_F. imperialis_). It is a native of
Persia, Afghanistan, and Cashmere, but it was very early introduced into
England from Constantinople, and at once became a favourite. Chapman, in
1595, spoke of it as--

"Fair Crown Imperial, Emperor of Flowers."

OVID'S _Banquet of Sense_.

Gerard had it plentifully in his garden, and Parkinson gave it the
foremost place in his "Paradisus Terrestris." "The Crown Imperial," he
says, "for its stately beautifulnesse deserveth the first place in this
our garden of delight, to be here entreated of before all other
Lillies." George Herbert evidently admired it much--

"Then went I to a garden, and did spy
A gallant flower,
The Crown Imperial."

_Peace_ (13).

And if not in Shakespeare's time, yet certainly very soon after, there
were as many varieties as there are now. The plant, as a florist's
flower, has stood still in a very remarkable way. Though it is
apparently a plant that invites the attention of the hybridizing
gardener, yet we still have b