—wind flowers sway
Against the throbbing heart of May.
PLATE II
RUE ANEMONE.—A. thalictroides.
WOOD ANEMONE.—A. nemorosa.
And in the writings of the ancients as well we could find many allusions to the same flower were we justified in believing that the blossom christened the “wind-shaken,” by some poet flower-lover of early Greece, was identical with our modern anemone.
Pliny tells us that the anemone of the classics was so entitled because it opened at the wind’s bidding. The Greek tradition claims that it sprang from the passionate tears shed by Venus over the body of the slain Adonis. At one time it was believed that the wind which had passed over a field of anemones was poisoned and that disease followed in its wake. Perhaps because of this superstition the flower was adopted as the emblem of sickness by the Persians. Surely our delicate blossom is far removed from any suggestion of disease or unwholesomeness, seeming instead to hold the very essence of spring and purity in its quivering cup.
Rue Anemone.
Anemonella thalictroides. Crowfoot Family.
Stem.—Six to twelve inches high. Leaves.—Divided into rounded leaflets. Flowers.—White or pinkish, clustered. Calyx.—Of five to ten petal-like sepals. Corolla.—None. Stamens.—Numerous. Pistils.—Four to fifteen.
The rue anemone seems to linger especially about the spreading roots of old trees. It blossoms with the wood anemone, from which it differs in bearing its flowers in clusters.