And for their scent not ill, they for this purpose choose.
The "luscious smell" cannot refer to the harebell, which has a very faint perfume; besides, it is difficult to think of the harebell in this connection, for it is a full summer flower, while all the rest belong to spring: Drayton must, therefore, mean the wild hyacinth, which is still often called the bluebell by people in England, though in Scotland this name is correctly reserved for the harebell. The "luscious smell" exactly describes the rich, rather cloying scent of the hyacinth. There has been some discussion as to what is meant by the eglantine, which the old poets are so fond of mentioning. In Milton it means the honeysuckle, but in the others probably the sweetbriar; while woodbine is either the twining clematis, the "traveller's joy"—rather a misnomer, by-the-way, as it is an insignificant and disappointing flower—or the honeysuckle.
Isis was gay with garden flowers:
... The brave carnation then,
With th' other of his kind, the speckled and the pale,
Then th' odoriferous pink, that sends forth such a gale
Of sweetness, yet in scents as various as in sorts.
The purple violet then, the pansy there supports
The marygold above t' adorn the arched bar;
The double daisie, thrift, the button bachelor,