The blossom that bashfully shuns the daylight,
And yields all its sweetness and bloom unto night.

F. S. O.

THANKFULNESS.

AGRIMONY

AGRIMONY is a pretty species of campanula, whose flowers of the most delicate lilac colour are suspended from the plant like little bells. The French commonly call it "Religieuse des Champs;" and Madame de Chastenay says, in her Calendar of Flora: "It is suspected that this has been called agrimony from the resemblance of its flowers to the hermit's bell. For my own part I think that gratitude has given it the name of Religieuse des Champs,' in honour, probably, of some kind, tender, and beneficent Sister of Charity."

And the nuns used to dream, as they roamed about

The convent-garden of St. Ursula,

That, at matins and vespers, a peal rang out,

From the fairy bells of the campanula.

F. S. O.

THINK OF ME.

PANSY, OR HEART'S-EASE.

pray you, love, remember,

There's pansies-that's for thoughts.

SHAKSPEARE.

THE teints of this flower are scarce less varied than the

names that have been bestowed upon it.

That of pansy is a

corruption of the French name, pensee, thought.

Leigh Hunt introduces the heart's-ease into his verses:

The garden's gem,
Heart's-ease, like a gallant bold,
In his cloth of purple and gold.

Phillips observes that the most brilliant purples of the artist appear dull when compared to that of the pansy; our richest satins and velvets coarse and unsightly by a comparison of texture; and, as to delicacy of shading, it is scarcely surpassed by the bow of Iris itself.

Oh! long may the blossom, whatever betide,
The tenderest breath of the summer-wind win,
And smile in its beauty, thy threshold beside,
Bright symbol, sweet lady, of heart's-ease within!

F. S. O.

TRANQUILLITY.

ROCK MADWORT.

There is a gentle element, and man
May breathe it with a calm unruffled soul,
And drink its living waters, till his heart
Is pure, and this is human happiness.

WILLIS.

The species generally are
The rock madwort is very

THIS plant was esteemed by the ancients on account of its supposed power to allay anger. showy plants, and of easy culture. ornamental early in the season.

My heart is like a sleeping lake,

Which takes the hue of cloud and sky,

And only feels its surface break,
When birds of passage wander by,
Who dip their wings and upward soar,
And leave it quiet as before.

TREACHERY.

WILLIS.

BILBERRY.

THIS species of whortleberry is an elegant and also a fruitbearing plant. "The young fresh green leaves, and waxlike red flowers, appear in May, and toward autumn the leaves grow darker and firm, and the ripe berries are gathered in the north

for tarts;" and in the highlands they are eaten with milk; and also in Derbyshire, where they are found in great quantities.

The bilberry has been made the symbol of treachery from the following fable: "Enomaus, father of the beautiful Hippodamia, had for his charioteer the young Myrtilus, son of Mercury. Enomaus offered the hand of his daughter to any one who should outdo him in a chariot-race. Pelops, anxious to obtain Hippodamia, bribed Myrtilus to overthrow his master's chariot, and Enomaus was killed. In dying, he cried for vengeance, when Myrtilus was changed into the shrub which has ever since borne his name."

Thou hast come.

not to cherish

To win but my heart;

It is thine till it perish;

Now, trifler, depart'

TRUTH.

BITTER-SWEET NIGHTSHADE.

F. S. O.

THE ancients thought that truth was the mother of the virtues, the daughter of time, and the queen of the world. We moderns say that that divinity hides herself at the bottom of a well, and that she always mingles some bitterness with her sweets; and we appoint for her emblem a useless plant that loves the shade and is ever clothed in green. The bitter-sweet nightshade is, we believe, the only plant in our climate, that sheds and reproduces its foliage twice in one year. Its roots smell somewhat like the potato, and being chewed, produce a sensation of bitterness on the palate, which is succeeded by

sweetness. From this singular fact it derives its specific name, "bitter sweet."

Spring has passed and has left behind
Perfumed gardens to scent the wind,
And beautiful flowers that bless the eyes,
With visions of a lost paradise:

But thou art lovelier far than these,

And owest no charm to sun or breeze:

Their lifeless colours could never vie

With the spirit that speaks in thy laughing eye.

JOHN KEESE.

I love a hand that meets mine own

With grasp tnat causes some sensation;

I love a voice whose varying tone

From Truth has learned its modulation.

UTILITY.

F. S. O.

GRASS.

He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth.

PSALM civ. 14.

It will be admitted that what is the most useful, is in nature the most common; and of all vegetable productions, what is