POETS NOT BOTANISTS.
Addison, who was probably unacquainted with the flower described by Virgil, represents the Italian aster as a purple bush, with yellow flowers, instead of telling us that the flower had a yellow disk and purple rays.
Aureus ipse; sed in foliis, quae plurima circum
Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae.
Virgil, Georgic iv.
The flower Itself is of a golden hue,
The leaves inclining to a darker blue;
The leaves shoot thick about the root, and grow
Into a bush, and shade the turf below.
Addison.
Dryden falls into the same error:—
A flower there is that grows in meadow ground,
Aurelius called, and easy to be found;
For from one root the rising stem bestows
A wood of leaves and violet purple boughs.
The flower itself is glorious to behold,
And shines on altars like refulgent gold.
Mag. Nat. History