Edited by Charlotte Mitchell, Ellen Jordan and Helen Schinske
Download 1.33 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- 51. To Alice Arbuthnot Moberly
- 52. To Elizabeth Roberts
50. To Elizabeth RobertsMS Huntington Library: Yonge Letters Novr 22d [1851] Dear Madam, I am obliged by the kind manner in which you have received my suggestions, and I must pursue the Lotus controversy a little further with the assistance of Liddell and Scott’s dictionary.1 Λωτος, it says, is the name of several plants often wrongly confounded. The Egyptian Lotus or Lily of the Nile, white or blue blossoms at the time of the overflowing of the Nile, and of the Ganges, and thus both in Egyptian and Hindoo mythology became the emblem of fertility, and was used in the sacred rites. It is figured in Icones and is a decided Lily, but you will observe it could never have been eaten, as it is of the poisonous class Polyandria, and besides could never have been called a Tree.2 I believe it is through this that the Lily has become the emblem of the annunciation, though, of course, this association can not be mentioned in the packet. The botanical name is the Nymphæa Lotus. There is besides a class of Lotus, with papilionaceous flowers, bean like seeds in pods, and trefoil leaves. The North African kind was a low thorny shrub ‘still purveyed at Tunis and Tripoli under the name of the jujube, and a favourite subject of Arab poetry.’3 This was the food of the Lotophagi, the fruit supposed to confer immortality, and must be your Lote-tree. One kind is said to have rose coloured blossoms which produce the Egyptian bean. I will write to my friend and ask her the colour of the Lotus she knew in the Greek islands. I have a vague idea she said it was pink, and I know it was papilionaceous. The butterfly form, emblematic of the soul is the very thing so the plant of immortality and Resurrection, and I hope our little Lotus Corniculatus derives its name from this source. It is not an Easter flower here, but I dare say the foreign sort may be. Your account of your researches interested me much. I thought at first you must have consulted those pretty German Almanacks where I have seen something of the kind. I hope you will not think the beautiful Dove orchis of South America too new to insert, it is exactly like a hovering Dove, and I believe the name is St Esprit, but I do not know its botanical name.4 I like your plan of the Garland of our Lady’s Flowers. Is your name or initial to be put to the papers? pretty verses, for which I am much obliged, will not be in time for the Decr no, I hope to have room for them on New Year’s Day. With many thanks Yours sincerely The E of the M P.
Herewith is the 'Bridge of Cramond' finished. I hope George will not think too much sentiment falls to his share; and that we shall soon fall in with that important actor, the hawk. You and your two gipsies (Emily and Annie) will make courtiers, and Zedekias will help; indeed six, besides the other actors, is nearly as much as the stage will hold. Pray be grateful to me for bringing in a rat and the old lark. As to the Scotch, I believe it is shocking; but if you can get it corrected it will be a good thing. My boast of no scratches was futile; I had to make them afterwards. We were glad to hear of Kate Barter.1 52. To Elizabeth RobertsHuntington Library: Yonge Letters Decr 5th [1851] Dear Madam My cousin answers me ‘the Lotus is not a flower, but a large tree, I do not remember the blossom, but the fruit is in large pods which the Zantiotes almost live on, we used to have them as vegetables at dinner but I always thought them very nasty. It was always called the locust tree, and it was disputed whether it was these Locusts or the insects that St John the Baptist used to eat.’2 I doubt whether she is right about this. I see the Delphin annotator on Virgil considers the Lotus in Georgic III to be the same with that in Georgic II, which is evidently the tree.3 I always learned to call our own little flower the Birds foot trefoil. In Facciolati’s Lexicon, I find that the Lotus is sometimes called the Nettle tree from its serrated leaves, and that when introduced into Italy it was called the Greek bean.4 The Egyptian bean or Lotus is I see clearly the Nelumbium Speciosum, of which both the roots and seeds are eaten in China as well as in Egypt, and which is a splendid kind of water lily.5 Facciolati says that though it is ‘similis fabæ, foliis densa congerie stipiatis, brevioribus tantum et gracilioribus, fructu in capita papaveri simile incisuris, omnique alio modo: intus granis ceu milii.’ and then follows the account of the inhabitants making bread of them.6 This accommodates the question how the plant could both be a bean and a waterlily. I see you give St Catherine as bay, which is very appropriate to her learning, but do you observe that Raffaelle introduces a dandelion globe in her picture in the National gallery, I wonder if this is any allusion to her wheel. Did you ever hear of the custom at Eton that on St Patrick’s day the Irish boy of highest rank should give the head master a silver shamrock, the chief Welsh boy a silver leek on St David’s day, and the chief Scots boy a silver thistle on St Andrew’s day? I could find out more about this if you thought it would be of any use to you. The Dove orchis I think I have once seen, it is one of the orchidaceous parasites, and is like a white dove flying, about the size of the little ivory things that ladies some times wear. I think it was at Chiswick that I saw it. There is another kind like a dove in a nest, which I saw at a gardener’s at Plymouth, very pretty, but I believe not the St Esprit flower, unluckily I do not know the botanical name of either. I think it is hardly worth while to make your letters pass through the Paternoster Row, so I will ask you to direct for the future to Miss Yonge, Otterbourn, Winchester, begging you however not to talk of me by my name, as I do not wish to be known as the Editor. Yours sincerely Charlotte M. Yonge Directory: 337 337 -> Your Name Period Date Chapter 24 Earth Science Word Study Movements of the Ocean 337 -> 3 Cheyne Street 337 -> Georgia Department of Human Services Alcohol/Drug Screening Services Solicitation No: 42700-040-dhs0000205 Cost Proposal Worksheet Metro Area – 337 -> Earth Science Chapter 9 – a view of Earth’s Past Section 3 – The Mesozoic and Cenozoic Eras 337 -> Press release alitalia / sea – Aeroporti di Milano 337 -> The Carleton Clinic Cumbria Partnership nhs foundation Trust 337 -> Earth Science Chapter 21 Section 1 Ocean Currents 337 -> Senate, No. 3375 state of new jersey 217th legislature Download 1.33 Mb. Share with your friends:
|