12 A VEGETABLE PROTOTYPE.

naming of the Andromeda polifolia. In traversing
the uncultivated wilds of Lycksele-Lapland, whi-
ther, while yet a young man, Linneus was sent by
the Royal Society of the University of Upsal on a
tour of scientific research, he found this plant in
great abundance, decorating the marshy grounds
with its delicate blossoms. It is a beautiful little
flower, somewhat resembling one of the heaths
(Erica Dabecia); the buds are of a blood-red
colour before they expand, but when full-blown
the corolla is of a flesh colour. In contemplating
the delicate blossoms of the chamce daphne, as it
was then called, the imaginative mind of the natu-
ralist was struck by a fancied resemblance in the
appearance and circumstances of this plant to the
story of Andromeda, as related by the ancient
poets. “A maiden of exquisite beauty, chained to
a rock amid the sea, and exposed to monsters and
venomous serpents. ‘This lovely little flower,” he
sald, “is her vegetable prototype. Scarcely any
painter could so happily imitate the beauty of a
fine female complexion, still less could any arti-
ficial colour upon the face bear any comparison
with this sweet bloom. I find it always fixed
upon some turfy hillock amid the swamps, and its
roots bathed by their waters. In these marshy and
solitary places, toads and venomous reptiles abound:
and just as in the case of Andromeda, Perseus