Proserpina, Volume 1

Proserpina, Volume 1, by John
Ruskin

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Title: Proserpina, Volume 1 Studies Of Wayside Flowers
Author: John Ruskin
Release Date: January 22, 2007 [EBook #20421]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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as {99}.

PROSERPINA.
STUDIES OF WAYSIDE FLOWERS,
WHILE THE AIR WAS YET PURE
AMONG THE ALPS, AND IN THE SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND
WHICH MY FATHER KNEW.
BY
JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE
PROFESSOR OF FINE ART.
"Oh--Prosérpina! For the flowers now, which frighted, thou let'st fall
From Dis's waggon."
VOLUME I.
New York: JOHN WILEY & SONS, 15 Astor Place.
1888.
* * * * *
Press of J. J. Little & Co., Astor Place, New York.
* * * * *
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
PAGE INTRODUCTION, 1
CHAPTER I.
MOSS, 12

CHAPTER II.
THE ROOT, 26
CHAPTER III.
THE LEAF, 40
CHAPTER IV.
THE FLOWER, 64
CHAPTER V.
PAPAVER RHOEAS, 86
CHAPTER VI.
THE PARABLE OF JOASH, 106
CHAPTER VII.
THE PARABLE OF JOTHAM, 117
CHAPTER VIII.
THE STEM, 127
CHAPTER IX.
OUTSIDE AND IN, 151
CHAPTER X.
THE BARK, 170
CHAPTER XI.

GENEALOGY, 176
CHAPTER XII.
CORA AND KRONOS, 205
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SEED AND HUSK, 219
CHAPTER XIV.
THE FRUIT GIFT, 227
INDEX I. DESCRIPTIVE NOMENCLATURE, 239
INDEX II. ENGLISH NAMES, 255
INDEX III. LATIN OR GREEK NAMES, 258
* * * * *
{1}
PROSERPINA.
INTRODUCTION.
BRANTWOOD, 14th March, 1874.
Yesterday evening I was looking over the first book in which I studied
Botany,--Curtis's Magazine, published in 1795 at No. 3, St. George's
Crescent, Blackfriars Road, and sold by the principal booksellers in
Great Britain and Ireland. Its plates are excellent, so that I am always
glad to find in it the picture of a flower I know. And I came yesterday
upon what I suppose to be a variety of a favourite flower of mine,
called, in Curtis, "the St. Bruno's Lily."

I am obliged to say "what I suppose to be a variety," because my pet
lily is branched,[1] while this is drawn as unbranched, and especially
stated to be so. And the page of text, in which this statement is made, is
so characteristic of botanical books, and botanical science, not to say all
science as hitherto taught for the blessing of mankind; {2} and of the
difficulties thereby accompanying its communication, that I extract the
page entire, printing it, opposite, as nearly as possible in facsimile.
Now you observe, in this instructive page, that you have in the first
place, nine names given you for one flower; and that among these nine
names, you are not even at liberty to make your choice, because the
united authority of Haller and Miller may be considered as an accurate
balance to the single authority of Linnæus; and you ought therefore for
the present to remain, yourself, balanced between the sides. You may
be farther embarrassed by finding that the Anthericum of Savoy is only
described as growing in Switzerland. And farther still, by finding that
Mr. Miller describes two varieties of it, which differ only in size, while
you are left to conjecture whether the one here figured is the larger or
smaller; and how great the difference is.
Farther, If you wish to know anything of the habits of the plant, as well
as its nine names, you are informed that it grows both at the bottoms of
the mountains, and the tops; and that, with us, it flowers in May and
June,--but you are not told when, in its native country.
The four lines of the last clause but one, may indeed be useful to
gardeners; but--although I know my good father and mother did the
best they could for me in buying this beautiful book; and though the
admirable plates of it did their work, and taught me much, I cannot
wonder that neither my infantine nor boyish mind was irresistibly
attracted by the text of which this page is one of the most favourable
specimens; nor, in consequence, that my botanical studies were--when I
had attained the age of fifty--no farther advanced than the reader will
find them in the opening chapter of this book.
{3}
* * * * *

[318]
ANTHERICUM