The language of flowers The floral offering ; a token of affection and esteem ; comprising the language and poetry of flowers
Of diamond light, like that which brightly beams
On stilly summer nights from starlit skies.
Her cheeks are tinted with the blushing dyes
Which Heaven--so wisely bountiful--bestows
In virgin freshness on the modest rose.
_MacKellar._
* * * * *
Most fair is e’er most fickle. A fair girl
Is like a thousand beauteous things of earth,
But most like them in love of change.
_Peerbold._
* * * * *
We gaze and turn away, and know not where,
Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the heart
Reels with its fulness.
_Byron._
* * * * *
Beauty gives
The features perfectness, and to the form
Its delicate proportions: she may stain
The eye with a celestial blue--the cheek
With carmine of the sunset; she may breathe
Grace into every motion, like the play
Of the least visible tissue of a cloud:
She may give all that is within her own
Bright cestus--and one glance of intellect,
Like stronger magic, will outshine it all.
_Willis._
ALTHEA.... _Consumed by Love_.
The name and signification of the Althea is derived from the Grecian
fable of Althea and her son, who lost his life in consequence of his
love for the beautiful Atalanta. His consuming away as the fatal brand
was burning, suggested the emblem of consumed by love. The Althea is a
shrub from five to seven feet in height, and is a native of the East
Indies. The flowers are about the size of the common rose, and either of
a white or pink hue.
* * * * *
There is an all-consuming passion here;
But ’tis a vestal flame, which worships thee!
_Anon._
* * * * *
Like Ixion,
I look on Juno, feel my heart turn to cinders
With an invisible fire; and yet should she
Deign to appear clothed in a various cloud,
The majesty of the substance is so sacred
I durst not clasp the shadow. I behold her
With adoration, feast my eye, while all
My other senses starve; and oft, frequenting
The place which she makes happy with her presence,
I never yet had power, with tongue or pen,
To move her to compassion, or make known
What ’tis I languish for; yet I must gaze still,
Though it increase my flame.
_Massinger._
* * * * *
With thee conversing, I forget all time;
All seasons and their change, all please alike.
_Milton._
* * * * *
Love is a region full of fires,
And burning with extreme desires;
An object seeks, of which possest,
The wheels are still, the motions rest,
The flames in ashes lie opprest;
The meteor, striving high to rise,
The fuel spent, falls down and dies.
_Beaumont._
* * * * *
What scenes appear where’er I turn my view!
The dear ideas, where’er I fly, pursue,
Rise in the grave, before the altar rise,
Stain all my soul, and wanton in my eyes.
I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
Thy image steals between my God and me;
Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
With every bead I drop too soft a tear.
When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,
And swelling organs lift the rising soul,
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight:
In seas of flame my plunging soul is drowned,
While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.
_Pope._
LARKSPUR.... _Flights of Fancy_.
Larkspur, Lark’s-claw, Lark-heels, and Lark’s-toe have been given in
allusion to the long spur-like nectary, which has been whimsically
supposed to represent these things, and many more. The Latin name,
_Delphinium_, is from the Greek, Dolphin, because the nectary was
thought like that fish. The French call it _Dauphinelle_, _pied
d’alouette_, _l’épéron de chevalier_, (knight’s spur;) and the Italian,
_speronella_, (little spur,) _sperone di cavaliere_, (knight’s spur,)
and _fior regio_, (king-flower.) These names give quite a chivalric
importance to the gentle flower, and furnish abundant subject for
thought and fancy. Our own rural names give us a picture of the
sky-lark; that “musical cherub,” soaring far and high into the blue
summer heaven, above the lonely mountain-top, or over the busy town, and
we can recall the delight of listening to his sweet melody.
_Louisa A. Twamley._
* * * * *
For never yet was bosom found
So dull of sense to music’s sound,
As not to linger on the way,
And list to his ascending lay,
And upward gaze with straining sight,
And see him melting into light;
Till the eye fail its part to bear
In concert with the hearing ear;
And naught remain but what may seem
Imagination’s fairy dream,
Or the sweet strain, if such there were,
Of Prospero’s spirit in the air.
Oh, for that strength of voice and wing
To sing and soar, to soar and sing;
With all his joyousness of heart
From earth’s encumbrances apart;
And with heaven’s denizens on high
To revel mid the calm clear sky!
_Mant._
* * * * *
Fancy is a fairy, that can hear,
Ever, the melody of nature’s voice,
And see all lovely visions that she will.
_Mrs. Osgood._
* * * * *
All impediments in fancy’s course
Are motives of more fancy.
Shakspeare.
* * * * *
Ever let the fancy roam,
Pleasure never is at home;
Then let winged Fancy wander
Through the thoughts still spread beyond her:
Oh, sweet Fancy! let her loose,
Every thing is spoilt by use.
_Kent._
DYER’S WEED.... _Relief_.
Dyer’s Weed is like a very large upright plant of Mignonette, to which
sweet exotic it is nearly related, both being members of the _reseda_
family. The _Reseda odorata_, or Mignonette, is a native of Egypt, and
was introduced into England in 1752. The word _reseda_ is from _resedo_,
to calm, to appease. The plants were thought useful applications to
external bruises, to ease pain. There are two species growing wild in
England. _Reseda lutea_, or Base-rocket, likes a chalky soil, but _R.
luteola_, the Dyer’s Weed, is often found on waste ground everywhere. It
is much used by dyers, particularly in France. It affords a most
beautiful yellow dye, for cotton, woollen, mohair, silk, and linen. Blue
cloths dipped in a decoction of it become green. The entire plant, when
about to flower, is pulled up, and employed both fresh and dried. Like
the Coltsfoot, this plant is among the first which spring from the
rubbish thrown out of coal-pits. Linnæus observed, that the nodding
spike of flowers always follows the sun, even on a cloudy day, pointing
eastward in a morning, southward at noon, westward in the afternoon, and
northward at night. If this be true, it may supplant the sunflower in
the favour of sentimental florists, for the inconstancy of that has long
been proved. Good old Gerarde, who evidently did his best to believe all
things, says, that he has seen four sunflowers on one stem, pointing to
the four cardinal points. I am wandering from my subject, but must
remind you of some sweet lines by that poet of nature--Clare, where he
groups the sunflower so nicely; and you may look at that cottage, where
the children are playing, and see the picture nearly realized:
Where rustic taste at leisure trimly weaves
The rose and straggling woodbine to the eaves,
And on the crowded spot that pales enclose
The white and scarlet daisy rears in rows,
Training the trailing peas in clusters neat,
Perfuming evening with a luscious sweet,
And sun-flowers planting for their gilded show,
That scale the window’s lattice ere they blow,
And, sweet to habitants within the sheds,
Peep through the crystal panes their golden heads.
* * * * *
A gentle peace, like evening winds
In summer from the ocean’s breast,
Moved o’er my sighing, sinking soul,
And soothed my murmuring griefs to rest;
And through the weary night of pain,
When it were manliness to weep,
My soul was comforted by this--
“He giveth his beloved sleep.”
_MacKellar._
NASTURTION.... _Patriotism_.
The Nasturtion is a native of Europe and the East. The flowers are of a
very brilliant golden yellow, and present a beautiful appearance. The
plant is said to emit flashes of light in the morning before sunrise,
and also at twilight. Its pure, glowing hue recalls that ardent feeling,
so clear of self, which leads men to lay down their lives and fortunes
for their country’s safety and glory.
* * * * *
Land of the forest and the rock,
Of dark blue lake and mighty river--
Of mountain reared aloft to mock
The storm’s career and lightning’s shock,
My own green land forever!
_Whittier._
* * * * *
Clime of the daring, thy sheltering banner
Unfurls its stars o’er the land and the sea;
While tyrants are warring, and freemen love honour,
That banner shall be the light of the free.
_C. Watson._
* * * * *
Our country first, their glory and their pride,
Land of their hopes, land where their fathers died,
When in the right, they’ll keep thy honour bright,
When in the wrong, they’ll die to set it right.
_James T. Fields._
* * * * *
Pride in the gift of country and of name
Speaks in the eye and step--
He treads his native land!
_Halleck._
* * * * *
The patriot! go, to Fame’s proud mount repair,
The tardy pile, slow rising there,
With tongueless eloquence shall tell
Of them who for their country fell.
_Sprague._
* * * * *
’Tis home-felt pleasure prompts the patriot’s sigh,
This makes him wish to live, and dare to die.
_Campbell._
* * * * *
Land where he learned to lisp a mother’s name,
The first beloved in life, the last forgot,
Land of his frolic youth,
Land of his bridal eve,
Land of his children--vain your column’s strength,
Invaders! vain your battles’ steel and fire!
Choose ye the morrow’s doom--
A prison or a grave!
_Halleck._
* * * * *
My country is my Holy Land. I love her!
The purest, brightest skies are spread above her.
And heavenliest verdure covers vale and hill.
The clearest waters fish did ever swim in
Are hers. And oh, what words can praise her virtuous women?
_MacKellar._
NIGHTSHADE, OR BITTER-SWEET.... _Truth_.
According to the belief of the ancients, Truth was the mother of Virtue,
the daughter of Time, and queen of the world. It is a frequent saying,
that Truth lies at the bottom of a well, and that she always mingles
some bitterness with her sweet blessings; and we have chosen for her
emblem a plant which, like her, delights in the shade, and is evergreen.
The Nightshade is the only plant in England which loses and reproduces
its leaves twice a year.
* * * * *
Truth, crushed to earth will rise again,
The eternal years of God are hers;