It then exerts its gentle power An emblem true thou art BARTON. Of love's enduring lustre, given Id. And our friend Moir (Delta of Blackwood's Magazine) pays this feeling tribute to the Wallflower. The Wallflower, the Wallflower! How beautiful it blooms! It sheds a halo of repose Around the wrecks of time; Flower of the solitary place! Whither hath fled the choral band Yon dark sepulchral yew-trees stand In the belfry's crevices, the dove Her young brood nurseth well, Whilst thou, lone flower, dost shed above A sweet, decaying smell. In the season of the tulip-cup, When blossoms clothe the trees, How sweet to throw the lattice up, And scent thee on the breeze! The butterfly is then abroad, The bee is on the wing, And on the hawthorn by the road Sweet Wallflower, sweet Wallflower! And summer skies were far more blue Now Autumn's pensive voice is heard The robin is the regal bird, And thou the queen of flowers! And Araby ne'er gave the breeze Rich is the pink, the lily gay, The rose is summer's guest; Bland are thy charms when these decay - And statelier on the tree But Wallflower, loved Wallflower, NARCISSUS AND DAFFODIL. SELF-LOVE. THE ancients attributed the origin of this flower to the metamorphosis of a beautiful youth named Narcissus, who, having slighted the love of the nymph Echo, became enamoured of his own image, which he beheld in a fountain, and pined to death in consequence. Here young Narcissus o'er the fountain stood, Himself alone the foolish youth admires, GAY. The There are several species of the Narcissus. That called the Poetic is the largest of the white kinds, and may be distinguished from all others by the crimson border of the very shallow and almost flat cup of the nectary. The double variety is the most frequent in gardens. narrow-leafed crimson-edged Narcissus is the only one that resembles the Poetic, but it is not much more than half as large, with narrower leaves, a flatter form, and the edge of the nectary more prominent. It flowers earlier than the other. The Yellow Narcissus is better known by the name of Daffodil. By early writers this flower was considered as a species of lily. It has even been conjectured that the name is a corruption of Dis's Lily, as it is supposed to be the flower dropped from the chariot of Dis or Pluto, in his flight with Proserpine. Shakspeare, in his Winter's Tale, alludes to this story, as well as to the early season in which the Daffodil flowers: O Proserpina, For the flowers now that, frighted, thou lett'st fall From Dis's waggon: Daffodils That come before the swallow dares, and take The winds of March with beauty. |