Stepping further into summer, comes the star-white Jasmine,—that sweet perfumer of the night, which only throws out its full fragrance when its sister stars are keeping watch in the sky; as if, when the song of the nightingale no longer cheered the darkness, it sent forth its silent aroma upon the listening air. Many a happy home does it garland, and peeps in at many a forbidden lattice, where Love and Beauty repose. Little did the proud courtiers and stately dames of Queen Elizabeth's day dream that this sweet-scented creeper (a sprig of which seemed to make the haughty haughtier still) would one day become 'so common as to cluster around and embower thousands of humble English cottages,—a degradation which, could they but have witnessed, would almost have made every plait of their starched ruffs bristle up, like "quills upon the fretful porcupine." Beautiful are its long, drooping, dark-green shoots, trailing around the trellis-work of a door-way, like a green curtain embroidered with silver flowers; while here and there the queenly Moss-Rose, creeping in and out like the threads of a fanciful tapestry, shows its crimson face amid the embowered green, -a beautiful lady peeping through a leaf-clad casement. A lover on the Indian Sea, And saw the coast all round embowered, For her by whose green cot it flowered. Woodbine, or Honeysuckle. And oft when from that scorching shore, In after years those odours came, The very Jasmine-flower that crept Miller. 111 WOODBINE, or Honeysuckle....Affection. This elegant, climbing shrub at once delights the eye and gratifies the smell, by the exquisite fragrance of its blossoms; while it confers on those humble dwellings in the rural districts of England and America, a character of cheerfulness unknown in other countries. It begins to flower in May, and puts forth its blossoms until the end of summer. It is chosen as the emblem of affection, from its clinging to trees and lattices with all the ardour and constancy of a weak, confiding woman, clinging to one of the stronger, sterner sex, in prosperity and in adversity. Copious of flowers, the woodbine pale and wan, With never-cloying odours, early and late. Cowper. 112 Woodbine, or Honeysuckle. Sister, sister, what dost thou twine? I am weaving a wreath of the wild Woodbine ; And there is not a perfume which on the breeze blows Miller. A Honeysuckle, on the sunny side, Ah! could you look into my heart, And watch your image there! Miss Landon. You would own the sunny loveliness Affection makes it wear. Mrs. Osgood. The pensive soul with ardent thirsting turns MacKellar. Oh! there is one affection which no stain Of kindred taste has fastened mind to mind. Is but with hands entwined to lift our being higher. Percival. CowSLIP....Pensiveness. The solitary Cowslip was known to the old English poets as the "sweet nun of the fields," and has been immortalized in " Shakspeare's Midsummer Night's Dream." In America, the Cowslip may be found from Maine to Missouri. Its hues are not gaudy, but winning; and the whole appearance of the flower, as it blooms in some solitary vale, or on some gentle slope, expresses the idea of pensive beauty. The rose its blushes need not lend, Give me a cheek the heart obeys, Features, where pensive, more than gay, Frisbie. There is a mood, (I sing not to the vacant and the young,) That wings the soul, and points her to the skies. Dyer Oh! fragrant dwellers of the lea, Of thickets, breezes, birds, and flowers; Of thoughts as cloudless as the hours; Oh! blessed, blessed do ye seem, For, even now, I turned, With soul athirst for wood and stream, From streets that glared and burned. And ye are here! and ye are here! I care not that your little life Will quickly have run through, And the sward, with summer children rife, Keep not a trace of you. For again, again, on dewy plain, I trust to see you rise, When spring renews the wildwood strain, And bluer gleam the skies. |