LADY'S SLIPPER.... Capricious Beauty.

THE Lady's Slipper is well known in Europe and America. The plant is small, but produces a considerable number of flowers, of variegated hues. flower is made the emblem of capricious beauty, because

This

she seems,

-With her changeful hues,

As she were doubtful which array to choose.

I saw thee in the gay saloon

Of Fashion's glittering mart,

Where Mammon buys what Love deplores,
Where Nature yields to Art;

And thou wert so unlike the herd

My kindling heart despised,

I could not choose but yield that heart,
Though Love were sacrificed.

The smile which hung upon thy lips,

In transport with their tone,

The music of thy thoughts, which breathed

A magic theirs alone!

The looks which spake a soul so pure,

So innocent and gay,

Have passed, like other golden hopes

Of happiness, away.

Dawes.

Her eyes

Are blue and beautiful, and flash out gleams
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.

Beauty gives

Byron.

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!

Like Ixion,

Anon.

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.

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.

Milton.

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;