Sunlight Dancers

♥ Heartfelt Gratitude to FAA Groups for featuring this image :... more

by Connie Handscomb

Title

Sunlight Dancers

Artist

Connie Handscomb

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

♥ Heartfelt Gratitude to FAA Groups for featuring this image :

The Artistic Forager
Visions Of Spring
Fine Art Wildflower Photography

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I wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed and gazed but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~ William Wordsworth [fr. The Daffodils]
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Daffodil
(Narcissus pseudonarcissus)

Family: Amaryllidaceae
Genus: Narcissus

Daff-a-down-dill
Has now come to town
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown
~ country rhyme [Dyer: The Folk-Lore of Plants, 1889]
*****************
There are 13 divisions of daffodils, each classed according to the daffodil's form. They can last a long time: 30-50 years.

It is the national emblem of Wales, and grows wild in England and Wales. The Elizabethans called it the Lent lily, as it was believed to flower for the first time on St. David's Day. The Victorians of England used it as a symbol for Chivalry, while Eastern cultures believe it brings wealth and good fortune.

While the bulbs are poisonous, and can cause paralysis and/or death, it has been used with care medicinally. Homeopathic remedies for bronchitis and whooping cough have been made from the bulb. Fresh roots have been used as a purgative, although primarily they were used externally: bruised roots were used to treat aching joints and to heal wounds and burns. More recently, pharmaceutical companies have isolated galanthamine from the bulbs to be produce synthetic drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer's.

Sources:
Hatfield's Herbal: The Secret History Of British Plants [Gabrielle Hatfield]
Four Chefs, One Garden : Seasons Of West Coast Living [Roy]
Culpeper's Color Herbal [Potterton]

Uploaded

April 8th, 2014