nt, exhibits to an
imaginative observer such an aspect of spiritual life and such an
apparent sympathy with other living things as flowers, shrubs and trees.
A tree of the genus Mimosa, according to Niebuhr, bends its branches
downward as if in hospitable salutation when any one approaches near to
it. The Arabs, are on this account so fond of the "courteous tree" that
the injuring or cutting of it down is strictly prohibited.

[068] It has been observed that the defense is supplied in the following
line--_want of sense_--a stupidity that "errs in ignorance and not in
cunning."

[069] There is apparently so much doubt and confusion is to the identity
of the true Hyacinth, and the proper application of its several names
that I shall here give a few extracts from other writers on this
subject.

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