THE FLOWER-GIRL.

COME buy, come buy my mystic flowers,
All ranged with due consideration,
And culled in Fancy's fairy bowers,
To suit each age and every station.

For those who late in life would tarry,
I've Snowdrops, Winter's children cold
And those who seek for wealth to marry,
May buy the flaunting Marigold.

I've Ragwort, Ragged-robins too,

Cheap flowers for those of low condition;
For Bachelors I've Buttons blue;
And Crowns-imperial for ambition.

For sportsmen keen, who range the lea,

I've Pheasant's-eye, and sprigs of Heather;

For courtiers with the supple knee,

I've climbing plants and Prince's-feather.

For thin, tall fops I keep the Rush ;

For pedants still am Nightshade weeding;

For rakes I've Devil-in-the-bush;

For sighing Strephons, Love-lies-bleeding.

But fairest blooms, affection's hand
For constancy and worth disposes,
And gladly weaves, at your command,
A wreath of Amaranth and Roses.

MRS. COBBOLD.

THE HARE-BELL,

IN Spring's green lap there blooms a flower
Whose cups imbibe each vernal shower;
Who sips fresh Nature's balmy dew,
Clad in her sweetest, purest blue,
Yet shuns the ruddy beam of morning,
The shaggy wood's brown shade adorning.
Simple flow'ret! child of May!

Though hid from the broad eye of day,
Though doom'd to waste those pensive graces,
In the wild wood's dark embraces,

In desert air thy sweets to shed
Unnotic'd droops thy languid head,
Still Nature's darling thou'lt remain,
She feeds thee with her softest rain;
Still then unfold thy bashful charms
In yon deep thicket's circling arms:
Far from the common eye's coarse glare,
No heedless hand shall harm thee there;
Still then avoid the gaudy scene,

The flaunting sun, th' embroider'd green.

And bloom and fade, with chaste reserve unseen.

MISS C. SYMMONS.

The Hare-bell, or Wild Hyacinth, Scilla nutans, dedicated to St. George, the patron saint of England, is one of the earliest beautifiers of our woods and glens. Dr. Drummond, in his Steps to Botany, remarks, "The Hare-bell of Scotland is a very different plant from the English one. It is a species of Campanula, common in dry mountainous pastures, and has a wiry elastic stem instead of the soft brittle scape of the Scilla nutans. The description of Ellen's Foot in the fine poem of the Lady of the Lake, would be quite absurd, were the flower there mentioned, intended to be the English Hare-bell.

A foot more light, a step more true,

Ne'er from the heath-flower dash'd the dew;

E'en the slight hare-bell raised its head

Elastic from her airy tread.

When applied to the Campanula these lines are very intelligible."

Sir J. E. Smith, in his English Botany, observes in the description of the Blue-bell, Campanulia rotundifolia,-"We suspect Poets sometimes take this plant for the Hare-bell. We have somewhere read of

The trembling rye-grass, and the hare-bell blue,

growing on mouldering turrets, which could scarcely be the real Hare-bell."

SPRING.

THE sweet season that bud and bloome forth brings,
With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale;
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her mate hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now springs,
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale,
The buck in brake his winter-coat he flings,
The fishes fleet with new-repaired scale :
The addert all her slough away she flings,
The swift swallow pursues the fliès small,
The busy bee her honey now she mings.

Winter is worn that was the flower's bale,
And thus I see, among those pleasant things,
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs.
EARL OF SURREY.

These descriptive lines were composed by the Earl of Surrey, one of the earliest cultivators of sonnet-writing. This accomplished scholar and soldier was charged with high treason, and without any evidence being brought against him, was cruelly beheaded in the reign of Henry VIII.

* Deer shed their horns every year, in the spring, and it is not before the beginning of August, that they attain their full growth and firmness. The size of the horns and the number of branches increase with the age of the animal.

In the Spring, Snakes always cast their skins. The slough is turned inside out, as if drawn off backward like a stocking or glove. Not only the whole skin but the scales of the very eyes are peeled off, and appear in the head of the slough like a pair of spectacles, with their concave sides outward.-See White's Selborne, vol. 2, p. 242.

Shakespeare thus alludes to it in his Mids. N. Dream, ii. 2.

+ Mixes.

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin.

TO THE SMALL CELANDINE.

PANSIES, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there's a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory ;
Long as there are violets,

They will have a place in story:
There's a flower that shall be mine,
'Tis the little Celandine.

See its varnish'd golden flowers
Peeping through the chilling showers,
Ere a leaf is on the bush,

In the time before the thrush
Has a thought about its nest,
Thou wilt come with half a call,
Spreading out thy glossy breast,
Like a careless Prodigal ;

Telling tales about the sun,

When we've little warmth, or none.

Comfort have thou of thy merit,
Kindly, unassuming spirit!
Careless of thy neighbourhood,
Thou dost show thy pleasant face
On the moor, and in the wood,
In the lane,—there's not a place,
Howsoever mean it be,

But 'tis good enough for thee.

WORDSWORTH.

The small Celandine or Pilewort, Ranunculus ficaria, expands its bright golden flowers early in March The petals seem, as if they were varnished, and turn white from the action of light.

THE BANYAN-TREE.

'Twas a fair scene wherein they stood,
A green and sunny glade amid the wood,
And in the midst an aged Banyan grew.
It was a goodly sight to see

That venerable tree,

For o'er the lawn, irregularly spread,
Fifty straight columns prop'd its lofty head;
And many a long depending shoot,
Seeking to strike its root,

Straight like a plummet, grew towards the ground.
Some on the lower boughs, which cross'd their way,
Fixing their bearded fibres, round and round,
With many a ring and wild contortion wound;
Some to the passing wind, at times, with sway
Of gentle motion swung ;

Others of younger growth, unmov'd, were hung
Like stone-drops from the cavern's fretted height.
Beneath was smooth and fair to sight.

Nor weeds nor briers deform'd the natural floor;
And through the leafy cope which bower'd it o'er
Came gleams of checker'd light.

So like a temple did it seem, that there

A pious heart's first impulse would be prayer.

SOUTHEY.

The Banyan Tree, Ficus Indica, is remarkable for the singularity of its growth. Its lateral branches send shoots downward which take root, till, in course of time, a single tree extends itself to a considerable grove; as is beautifully expressed by Milton, Paradise Lost, B. ix.

The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow
About the mother-tree, a pillared shade

High overarched, and echoing walks between.

One near Mangee, in Bengal, overspreads a circle, whose diameter is 370 feet. The Hindoos worship this tree, and erect their temples near it. Southey here describes the Banyan, in the spirit both of a Poet and of a Naturalist.