the
gem with the mineralogists. Pliny (xxi. 97) describes it as a bulbous
plant, growing most abundantly in Gaul, and used by the natives for
making the dye " hysginum," usually translated, blue. Its juice had the
singular property of checking the development of puberty in boys, and
therefore was valuable in preserving their youthful bloom for the
slave-market.* It was also an antidote against serpent-bites, another
proof it was some powerful narcotic. Sprengel defines it to be the
common gladiolus, an explanation overthrown by Pliny's distinction:
"Post hanc gladiolus comitatus hyacinthis." Many others agree with La Chaux in considering it to be the tiger lily, with whom sides Milton, who has
" Like to the sanguine flower inscribed with woe."
A few make it to be the lark-spur, a purple flower,
hence termed delphinium Ajacis, because inscribed with the name of that
hapless hero. My own opinion, amidst this diversity, rather inclines to
the blue fleur-de-lys, the blossom of which lasts but a day, and thus
answers to one of Pliny's characters of the disputed flower. This is
supported by Ovid's elegant description of its first springing from the
blood of the youthful Hyacinthus :
