Thlaspis, a Cretan youth, who won the fair:
Happy if more auspicious Hymen’s rites
Had with pure flames adorned their nuptial lights.”
CANNA.—The Burmese esteem as sacred the Bohdda Tharanat (Canna Indica, or Indian Shot), so named from its seeds, which are used for the beads of the rosary. The flowers are red, or sometimes white. The Burman believes that it sprang from Buddha’s blood; and the legend relates that his evil-minded brother-in-law and cousin Dewadat, enraged that he was not allowed to have a separate assembly of his own, went to the top of a hill, and rolled down a huge stone, intending to destroy the most excellent payah. But the boulder burst into a thousand pieces, and only one little piece bruised Buddha’s toe, and drew a few drops of blood, whence sprang the sacred flower, the Bohdda Tharanat. The renowned physician Zaywaku healed the great teacher’s wound in a single day. The earth soon afterwards opened and swallowed up the sacrilegious Dewadat.
CANTERBURY BELLS.—The Nettle-leaved Bell-flower, Campanula Trachelium, was so called by Gerarde from growing plentifully in the low woods about Canterbury, and possibly in allusion to its resemblance to the hand-bells which were placed on poles, and rung by pilgrims when proceeding to the shrine of Thomas à Becket—St. Thomas, of England. There is, however, a tradition extant that the name of Canterbury Bells was given to the Campanula in memory of St. Augustine.
CARDAMINE.—The faint sweet Cuckoo-flower, common in meadows and by brook sides, is the Cardamine pratensis. It was so called, says Gerarde, because it flowers in April and May, “when the cuckoo doth begin to sing her pleasant notes without stammering.” The flower is also called Lady’s Smock, and Our Lady’s Smock, from the resemblance of its pale flowers to little smocks hung out to dry, as they used to be once a year, at that season especially. Shakspeare alludes to it in these lines:—
“When Daisies pied and Violets blue,
And Lady-smocks all silver white,
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight.