Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/152

 144 NAKCISSUS Nemesis to punish him, and the goddess caused him to fall in love with the reflection of his own figure in a spring. Under the influence of this passion he pined away, and after death was changed into the flower which bears his name. II. A freedman and secretary of the Koman emperor Claudius, who was completely subject to his influence. For some time he used his power in subservience to the wishes of the empress Messalina ; but when he found that she meditated his destruction, he deter- mined to anticipate her, and, revealing to Clau- dius her marriage with Caius Silius, convinced him that his own safety required her imme- diate sacrifice. The emperor consented to her imprisonment, but as he manifested reluctance to have her put to death, Narcissus sent a tribune to despatch her. Agrippina, whose intrigues in favor of her son Nero Narcissus had thwarted, had him removed to Campania, where he was murdered by her orders, A. D. 54. He is said to have amassed a fortune of 400,000,000 sesterces, equivalent to $13,500,- 000. HI. A Roman athlete, with whom the emperor Commodus was in the habit of con- tending in the arena, and who was afterward employed by Marcia to strangle his patron. For this crime Septimius Severus, on his ac- cession (A. D. 193), had him given to the lions. NARCISSUS, the common as well as the botan- ical name of a genus of popular garden flowers. It is often said that the name is from that of the youth of Grecian mythology who was turned into the flower. Prior regards this as " an instance, among many more, of a legend written to a name," and considers it to be de- rived from vapudeiv, to become dumb, as it had the reputation of causing torpor or heaviness by its perfume. The genus belongs to the amaryllis family, and consists of bulbous-root- ed plants, with flat or channelled, linear leaves, an often compressed or angular scape or flow- er stalk, at the top of which is a spathe, which bursts at one side and liberates one to several flowers. The tube of the perianth (calyx and corolla together) is prolonged above the ovary, with six equal spreading divisions ; stamens six, of unequal length, included in a cup-shaped or tubular white or colored crown, which springs from the corolla-tube at their base; ovary three-celled, with a simple style and an obtuse stigma. This genus, which is mainly south European, extending into Asia, has been divided by some botanists in a most perplexing manner. While some regard it as containing only a few species, others, upon trivial charac- ters, have made some 15 genera, with about 100 species. ^ In popular nomenclature the genus is divided into narcissus, jonquil, and daffodil. Those recognized as narcissuses have a very short, cup-like crown to the flower. One ^ of the best known of these is the poets' narcissus (N. poeticus), large clumps of which are common in old gardens ; the scape, about a foot high, bears but a single flower, of the purest white color, yellowish at the throat, the small crimped crown with a bright pink or scarlet edge ; there is a double variety in which the crown disappears; this species, which is very fragrant, especially when double, is a Poets' Narcissus (N. poeticus). native of southern Europe from France to Greece. The two-flowered narcissus (N. M- florus) is also a native of the south of Europe, but has become thoroughly naturalized in Eng- land, and is thought to be native to some parts of that country; it has two white or pale straw-colored flowers to each stem, the flowers having a short yellow crown ; this is also sweet- scented, and is the primrose peerless and pale daffodil of the old gardeners. The hoop-petti- coat narcissus {N. bulbocodium) has its leaves and flower scapes 6 to 9 in. long ; the solitary bright flower is 1J to 2 in. long, with a very Two-flowered Narcissus (N. biflorus). conspicuous cup, which widens rapidly toward the brim ; it is an exceedingly neat and pretty species for the border or for pot culture. The most prized of all is that known as the poly