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THE LIBRARY

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THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive

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. IVIicrosoft Corporation

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/flowersofmatinevOOrobe

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1 Mfadow Saffi-on 7. D.-usy S.Purplc Sanrfwori

FLOWERS

THE MATIN AND EVEN SONG

OR,

THOUGHTS FOR THOSE WHO PJSE EAKLY.

MARY ROBERTS.

AUTHOR OF

EUINS AND OLD TBEE», ASSOCIATED WITH MEMORABLE EVENTS IN
ENGLISH BISTORT," " PROGKESS OP CREATION,"
" CONCHOLOGISI'S COMPANION," ETC.

LONDON:
GRANT AND GRIFFITH,

SUCCESSOKS TO

JOHN HARRIS, CORNER OF ST. PAUL's CHURCHYARD.

M.DCCC.XLV.

LONDOX:

Printed by 8 3t J. Bkntlzy, Wilson, and Flit.

Bangor House , Shoe Lane,

^

^^^:^

f( ^H-'^s'^L

BY SPECIAL PERMISSIOX

OP

HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY,

THIS WORK

IS

DEDICATED TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS

BY HER ROYAL HIGHNESS's
DEVOTED AND HCMBLE SERVANT,

MART EOBERTS.

PREFACE.

Every flower telleth its own tale to the
ear of reason ; yet men pass by unheeding.
Women too, and yomig children, who love
flowers, and ask questions concerning them,
seem alike regardless of the small voices
which speak from out the brakes and hedge-
rows, the gaily decked meadows, and daisied
commons.

I have listened to those voices, height-
ening the delight of every country walk,
and I have desired that others should profit
Kkewise. Amid those mingled voices, there-

VI PREFACE.

lore, I Ikivc souglit to embody a few of the
most interesting, and to describe especially,
sucb flowers as observe a fixed time of
opening or sliutting, and from which Lin-
naeus constituted his celebrated horologe,
or Watch of Flora.

Nothing more remains to be observed
concerning this small volume, except as
regards its title. To those who appreciate
the Book of Common Prayer I need scarcely
mention, that the tenns Matin and Even
Song are used in reference to the time
appropriated for reading such lessons as are
appointed for the daily services. When
considering the regular opening and closing
of those flowers which Linnasus termed
solar, because rejoicing as it were, when the
sun arises, throwing wide their petals to his
beams, and closing them at even tide, as if

PREFACE. Vll

to guard their tiny households from the
dangers of the night, I have thought what
a theme for meditation to the passer-by !
And, thus tliinking, I have given to such
flowers a more appropriate designation, as
it seems to me, than that assigned by
Linngeus, by caUing them. Flowers of the
Matin and Even Song:.

CONTENTS.

MEADOW SAFFRON.

PAGE

Origin of the Name. — Place of Growth. —
Meadows by the Stream Side. — Holy-Well. — Its
ancient Cross and Cup. — Singular Construction of
the Flower. — Adaptation to the Season of its
Flowering. — Reflections on the Orphan Flower,
— and Poetry. . . . , .1

THE DAISY.

It& Derivation. — Associations of Childhood with
the Daisy. — Names given to it. — Belle Marguerite
of the French. — Meadow Pearl. — '^' Bonnie Gem."
— Cuckoo among Flowers. — Task assigned to the
Daisy. — Its punctual Opening at certain Hours ;
seeming to watch for the Sun when he arises, and
telling of coming Showers. — A favourite Flower
among Poets. — Wood Nymphs seen in Poet's
Vision, decked with the simple Daisy, by IMilton.
— Ruined Towers of Ludlow Castle. — Its former
Greatness. — Cowper's Reflection on the Daisy. —

X CONTENTS.

PAGE

Shakspeare, Burns, and Chaucer \\Tote respecting
it. — Higher Thoughts tlian Cliihlhood's Joys, or
Poetic Musings associated witli the simple Flower.
— Lessons to be derived from it. — Poetry. . 11

PURPLE SANDWORT.

Name whence derived. — Lark and Purple Sand-
wort associated in the Herdsman's Calendar. —
Beauty of the early Morning. — Different Species of
Sandwort. — Places of their Growth. — Peculiarities
in their Construction. — Poetry. . . .25

THE DANDELION.

Derivation of the Name. — Thoughts suggested
by observing the Dandelion growing in deserted
Places. — Historic Associations with different
Flowers. — Ancient Ruin on the Verge of a wild
Connnon, supposed to have been erected in the
Time of Queen Elizabeth. — Its lone and desolate
Appearance. — Visited by Village Children to ga-
ther the bright Flowers that grew among the
Ruins. — Beauty of the Sphere composed of small
Arrow-like Seeds. — Poetry. . . .39

YELLOW GOAT'S-BEARD.

Derivation of the Name. — Punctual in its open-
ing and closing. — Wonderful Construction of its
Roots, Stem, and Leaves. — Effect of Light and

CONTENTS. XI

PAGE

Heat on the Sap. — Spiral Wires. — Air Vessels. —
Difference of Scent and Colour observable in
Plants that grow in the same Soil. — Common Yar-
row and Henbane afford remarkable instances,
with the Goat's-beard and Lettuce. — Difference of
Roots. — Their especial reference to the Habits of
Plants. — Remarkable Property in some Plants of
opening and closing at stated Hours, ascribed to
the Agency of the Spiral Fibres. — Their further
Use in the Vegetable Economy. — Purple Goat's-
beard noticed by Dellenius as growing in Cumber-
land : by Gerard in Lancashire. — Time Pieces of
Nature's making. — Useful to Labourers. — Poetry. 49

SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

Notice of the Three Species that form this small
Tribe. — Places of Growth, and singular Beauty. —
Bog Pimpernel. — Approaches nearer to London
than any other Plant. — Recollections of Home
and Kindred in Foreign Lands associated with
the Sight of Flowers. — Poetry. . . .65

WOOD SORREL.

Derivation of its Generic Name. — Vale of Dud-
combe. — Well-head, and Flowers. — Traditions
respecting it. — Tufts of Fern and Hart's-tongue
beside the Stream. — Golden Saxifrage and White
Sorrel. — Reflections suggested by the Remem-

Xll CONTENTS.

TAnr
Itrance of Dudconiltc — Tlic Poet Keblc i)robnbly

visitLMl tliut Spot. — His Hrotlicr, tlie Pastor of a
Neiglibouriii!,' Villnjre. — Sources of F/njojTnent pe-
culiar to a Christian Poet. — Pleasures derived from
Flowers, and the Places of tlicir Growth, by Bo-
tanists.— Two species of Wild Sorrel, the White
and Yellow. — Remarks on the Adaptation of
White Flowers to the Spring. — Brighter Colours
in Summer F'lowers. — Familiar instances: the
Com Cockle, Com Marigold, Wild Charlock, and
Blue Cyanus. — Frequent reference made by our
Lord while instructing his Disciples to Natural
Objects. — Closing Observations. . . .77

EVENING PRLMROSE.

Name whence derived. — Beauty of Twilight. —
Thoughts suggested by the lighting up of Stars. —
Opening of the Evening Primrose when all other
Plants close. — Resort of numerous winged Crea-
tures.— Found in the Vale of Clwyd, near Ruthin.
— Sketcli of a Moonlight Scene. — Night Moths
and Ephemera. — Luminous Appearance of the
Flower. — Phenomena of Phosj)horescent Light
observed in other Plants, and in Mosses growing
on Dartmoor. — Suggestions respecting their Lu-
minous Appearance. — Poetry. . . .91

CONTENTS. Xlll

CHICKWEED.

PAGE

Origin of the Name.— Anecdote of Henry Mar-
tyn.— His weary Walk up the Rocky Mountain at
the Cape.— Encouraged by the Sight of a beautiful
Flame-coloured Flower.— Reflections suggested by
the Construction of the Common Chickweed. —
Description of the Capsules.— Curious and ela-
borate Machinery of the Sap Vessels, and Spiral
Wires,— Closing of the Flowers at the Approach
of Evening.— Sleep of Plants.— Poetry. . • 101

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED.

Derivation of the Name.— Its Place of Growth.
—Observations on the Petals of Plants.— Their Use
and Beauty. — Floral Leaves.— Corollas acted on
by Heat and Moisture.— Resting-places for Bees
and Butterflies when gathering Honey, serving as
Wings to waft the Flowers up and down in the
Air. — Flowers growing in even the most lonely
Places have an appropriate Use.— Kindred of the
Common Hawkweed. — Where most luxuriant.—
Observations suggested by the Lawsoni or Glaucous
Hairy ftawkweed, flowering beside Anna-Well, in
Westmoreland. — Poetry. . • • H^

XIV CONTENTS.

globe-flo\\i:r.

Name given by Gcsner.— ^Conclusion suggested
by Lord Bacon from an attentive Consideration of
Flowers. — Tuft of CJlobc-Flowers growing near
Capcl Curig in North Wales. — Surrounding Sce-
nery.— Mountains. — Alpine Lake. — Song of Birds.
— Natural Sounds peculiar to Mountainous Coun-
tries.— Delight experienced while looking at bro-
ken Ground, watered with a Mountain Stream, and
covered with Wild Flowers. — Lilies of the Valley
growing near Harlech. — Charms of Association. —
Importance of uniting Religious Thoughts with
Natural Objects. — Woods and Com Fields fabled
to be the Resort of imaginary Beings by Ancient
Heathens. — Goodness of the Deity manifested in
his Works. — Works of Art cannot yield the De-
light which is afforded by the Works of Nature. —
Flowers the .Joy of Lifancy and Childhood, the
Comfort of Old Age. — Lessons suggested by them.
— Observations. . . . . .120

WATER LILY.

Derivation of the Name. — Growing profusely in
Alpine Lakes. — Extreme beauty of the Flower,
and singular Arrangement of the Petals, placed to
reflect, like ^lirrors, the full Power of the Sun-
beams upon the Stamens. — Thick coating of the

CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

under Surface of the Leaves, in order to resist the
effect of Water. — Their contrast to those of Land
Plants. — Opening and closing of the Water Lily. —
Observations on its wonderful Construction. —
Poetry. . . . . . .145

GREAT BINDWEED.

Derivation of its Specific Name. — Each Flower
telleth its own Tale. — Thought suggested by ob-
serving the Bindweed's Place of Growth. — ]\Ien-
tion of the Mountain-Furze. — Its Adaptation to
high Places. — Citadels for Birds and small Ani-
mals.— The Bindweed's humble Use. — Singular
Construction of the Unicorn-Moth, with reference
to the Formation of its Flowers. — Poetry. . 155

PASQUE-FLOWER.

Generic Name derived from a Greek word. —
Growing on Commons. — Seasons of Flowering. —
An Harbinger of Leaves and Flowers, Birds and
Butterflies. — Mention of such Constellations as
appear in April. — Poetry. — Domiy Seeds of the
Pasque-flower. — Wonderful Construction of all
Seeds. — Component Parts. — Rudiments of the fu-
ture Plant contained within the Heart or Corcu-
lum. — Poetry. — Atmospheric Air with Heat and
Moistm-e, essential to the Development of Seeds. —
Unable to vegetate without them. — Ascent of the

XVI CONTENTS.

PAUK

Stem, anil Descent nf the Root. — Vernal and Au-
tumnal Equinoxes necessary for the dispersing of
Seeds. — Various means by which Seeds are con-
veyed to distant Places. — Beautiful Construction of
different Seeds. — Variety of the Capsules. — Urn-
shaped Seed Vessel of the Poppy. — The Seeds of
such Plants as grow beside Rivers or Streams,
coustructetl for Hoating on the Water. — Common,
on which the Pasque-flower grew again adverted
to. — Its local Beauties, Streamlet and Wood. —
Effect of Scenery on the Mind. — Closing Observ-
ations. . .171

FLOWEES

OF

MEADOW SAFFRON.

'Tis a lovely thought to mark the hours

As they float in the light away,
By the opening and the folding flowers,

That laugh to the summer's day.

Thus has each moment its own rich hue,

And its graceful cup or bell :
In whose colour'd vase may sleep the dew,

Like the pearl in an ocean shell.

Hemans.

Colchician autmiuiale. Meadow Safiron.

From Colchis, on the Euxine Sea, where this plant grows
abundantly.

Opening Closing

At 10 or 11 o'clock. At 3 or 4 o'clock.

MEADOW SAFFRON.

I HE country in which my young
days passed was beautifully va-
ried with wooded glens, with
quiet valleys, and commons open to the sun,
where the cistus and the wild thyme mingled
their beauty and their fragrance. But in all
and each, you might see a streamlet flashing
and eddying in the sunbeams, or hear the
pleasant sound of falling waters : some flowed
silently adown the meadow banks, and either
wasted themselves among the grass, or went
on their noiseless way ; others leaped and
danced over a pebbly bed, clear, rapid, and
transparent ; others again rushed forth from
out some stony bank and formed small cas-
cades, beside which the bulrush grew, with
long tufts of pendant ferns, and the adders-

MEADOW SAFFRON. 3

tongue, that drooped its glossy leaves upon
the waters. Among these streamlets, there
was one in which I especially delighted. It
gushed from out two hollow spouts, that
projected from a walled bank, grey with
lichens, and dotted over with such plants as
love both shade and moisture. A cross once
stood there, and beneath it an iron cup was
chained to a cramp in the old wall, that
thirsty men might drink and be refreshed ;
while, beneath the cross and cup, a huge
stone cistern had been hollowed out to re-
ceive the confluent waters of the fountain,
and thus an ample supply was always ready,
even in the hottest summer months, for the
sheep and cattle that resorted thither. This
fountain was called Holy-well by the coun-
try people, because a monastery had been
contiguous. Few resorted thither, for the
place was not very easy of access, but he
who liked to scramble down the stony bank

MEADOW SAFFRON.

was well rewarded for his pains, so clear,
so cool, and sparkling, looked the bright
waters of the bason, as the gushing stream
flowed into them, and they in their abun-
dance overflowed the stony brink, and hur-
ried among sedges and tangled briers, wild
flowers, and bending hazels. But though
no longer seen, the rippling of the current
told of its onward course, till joining an-
other streamlet, they flowed silently and
deeply through meadows, such as poetic
fancy might delight to feign, for never has
poet's eye rested on a fairer scene.

Among these meadows, and crowding to
the streamlet's brink, grow the meadow
safirons, or tube-roots. Lovely flowers that
open their lilac-coloured or pale purple
cone-shaped petals in September ; greeting
the sun when he arises, like the garden
crocus ; and folding up again about four
in the afternoon, when his beams slant

MEADOW SAFFRON.

athwart the meadows, and tall trees cast
their lengthened shadows on the grass. Or-
phan flowers, for such they may be called,
rising above the ground, without a sheath,
a fence, a cal}^, or even a leaf to protect
them ; and this not in the spring, nor yet to
be visited by summer suns, but when the
nights are cold, and deciduous trees begin to
shed their leaves. You would pity that lit-
tle plant — you would be ready to exclaim,
*' Surely it is forgotten amid the immensity
of creation." No, my friend. He who sus-
tains the firmament, and causes the day-
spring to know its place, who spreads abroad
the heavens as a tent to dwell in, and kin-
dles the suns of other systems, cares for that
little flower, preserves and cherishes it. The
seed-vessel, which in other plants is open to
the influence of light and air, is buried, in
the meadow saflron, at least ten inches un-
derground, ^vitl^in the bulbous root. The

6 MEADOW SAFFRON.

blossom- tube extends even to the root; the
styles, too, are so elongated as to reach the
seed-vessel. Why is this? Because the
plant blossoms late, and has not time to per-
fect its seeds before the setting in of win-
ter. The Creator has, therefore, so con-
structed it, that this important office is
carried on at a depth below the usual ef-
fects of frost. But then a difficulty occurs.
Seeds, we know, may be perfected, but they
will not vegetate at such a depth. How is
this provided for ? Those who visit, in the
spring, the meadow beside the streamlet
that flows from Holy-well, may see, among
the grass, numerous egg-shaped capsules,
with three blunt angles and several spear-
like leaves rising round them. These are
the seed-vessels of the colchicum. The seeds
that were buried during winter within the
root, have now the benefit of light and
air ; they ripen about the time of hay-

MEADOW SAFFRON. i

harvest, when the capsules open longitudi-
nally, and the seeds are scattered by the
wind.

Why so much contrivance for a simple
plant ? Why not allow that plant to flower
and to perfect its seeds with others of the
vegetable tribes ? It seems the will of Him
who called this fair world into existence, and
replenished it with innumerable instances of
his wisdom and beneficence, that, in no
place, and at no season, should manifest
signs of that beneficence be wanting, to fill
our hearts with gratitude.

When the beautiful flowers of the spring
and summer are withckawn, when neither
a primrose, nor a cowslip, nor yet a ^nld
brier, or a honeysuckle may be seen among
the grass or in the hedgerows, new flowers
appear at intervals, less beautiful, indeed,
and blended with much of sadness, for they
are the harbingers of shortening days, and

8 MEADOW SAFFRON.

coming storms. The meadow saffron is one
of these. And who, that lias a heart to
feel, can contemplate this orphan flower,
thus rising amid cold winds, and beneath
cloudy skies, to clothe our meads with beauty,
without a feeling of commiseration for the
apparently defenceless flower ?

Methinks a voice thus answers low,
By Hollwell's deep and silent flow,
For not another sound is heard,
From wandering bee or joyous bird.
And far and wide, o'er dale and hill,
Deep Silence holds her vigils still.
0 list my words, vain erring man !
For thus the gentle voice began,
Who thinks, because the sun is low,
And deep and dark the torrents flow,
And summer's last lov'd rose is gone,
And warbling birds from dale or burn,
That I, a lone and orphan flower.
Child of this drear, and joyless hour,

MEADOW SAFFRON.

Upspringing in the wild mead lone,
From whence all other flowers are ffone,
Must sink before the chastening blast,
When murky clouds are gathering fast.
Ah, no ! nor stern winds piping loud,
Nor sleet, nor rain, from driving cloud.
Can harm the little orphan flower,
Which God hath set in this lone hour.
That mighty Hand which placed on high
The glittering stars that stud the sky ;
And those — the seven fair isles of light,
So purely, spiritually, bright,
Which shine, as if nor care nor sin
Could find a place their realms within.
That mighty Hand has placed me here.
Child of the pale descending year.
Witness, that neither sleet nor rain,
Nor stern winds eddying o'er the plain.
Can harm the little orphan flower,
Sustain'd in weakness by His power.

THE DAISY.

" She lifts up her dewy eye of white,
To welcome the rising orb of light ;
And when the Spring comes with her host
Of flowers, that flower belov'd the most,
Shrinks from the crowd that may confuse
Her heavenly beauty and virgin hues,
The morning star of all the flowers.
The pledge of daylight's lengthen'd hours :
A simple flower of lowly birth,
Yet lingering still to deck the earth,
On waste or woodland, rock or plain,
'When swift has pass'd the floreal train."

BelUs percnnis. Common Daisy.

From bellus, pretty : Daisy, the eye of day.

Opening Closing

With the sun. Wlien the sun sets.

1^

THE DAISY.

'EE modest crimson-tipped flower,
" art thou too," one of " Flora's
watches"* noting upon earth
her progress in the heavens ? The name of
Robin is given to that fond bird, which, as
legends tell, covered the innocent children
with green leaves, when sleeping their last
sleep in the lonely forest ; and to thee, a
name is given, which tells of the sports of
childhood, and of the love which has been
shed upon thee from one generation to
another. The daisy, then, is called bain-
wort, from the delight with which the young
are seen to gather it ; the eye-of-day, be-

• Linnaeus gave the name of Flora's watches to all
such flowers as close and open at certain hours of the
day.

THE DAISY. 13

cause, while other flowers are still sleeping,
no sooner does the sun appear on the hori-
zon, than the daisy is awake. Who is there
that does not love the daisy, la belle Mar-
guerite of the French, the meadow-pearl, so
called from its pearly look among the grass ;
the bonnie gem of the Ayrshire ploughman,
that "wee modest crimson-tipped flower,"
which is associated with all the sports of
childhood, and all the delights of home ?
A thousand indefinable emotions are blend-
ed with this simple flower ; it recalls to mind
not only the race in the green meadow, or
beside the wood walk; the stringing of its
emerald-tinted stars, when the petals had
fallen off", and the butter-cups and prim-
roses, which often lured our steps into
the damp grass, or beside the streamlet's
brink ; but the home, the home, in which
our young days passed. It might have been
a mansion or a cottage, but there our father

11' THE DAISY.

watched over lis, and there our mother
smiled u])oii us ; and over its blessed thresh-
old, our brothers and our sisters went and
came, and we too passed in and out, when
roses blossomed beside the open door, or the
snow lay cold and white upon the ground.
The daisy is the flower which of all others,
calls up such wayward fancies : it is among
flowers, what the cuckoo is among birds, and
he who hears the one, or sees the other in
a distant land, might break his heart in long-
ing for all the hopes and joys, the comforts
and the virtues which are comprised in that
one word — home. The daisy, too, is the
meekest looking of flowers ; it grows in mead
or glade, on commons, or broken ground
rough with stones and pebbles, on which few
other plants will vegetate. Wliere the wind
has deposited a scanty supply of earth,
blown up from the dusty road, or swept
from out the quarry, there the daisy will

THE DAISY. 15

take root, and clothe the arid soil with
beauty. There, too, the little hawkweed,
concerning which I shall speak elsewhere,
will sit beside her ; the one to tell when
the sun is about to rise, the other to remind
the weary labourer, that he may rest from
his work at noon. The daisy has also an-
other simple task assigned her, and this she
faithfully performs. She not only watches
for the sun, when the day begins to dawn,
but she tells of coming showers. She folds
up her sno^^'y or pink-tinted leaves around
the golden disk which they encircle, when
journejdng clouds obscure the rays of the
warm sun. And thus it often happens, that
acres of waving grass, which have looked as
if covered with a white sheet, are, by the
effect of a coming shower, suddenly restored
to their pristine verdure. Poets, in all ages,
have loved to speak concerning it. Milton,
in his musings by dimpled brook or foun-

16 THE DAISY.

tain-lirim, saw in poet's vision, wood-nymphs,
decked with the simple daisy, keeping their
merry wakes and pastimes beside the gush-
ing waters. And he who likes to visit the
green meadows that stretch away from the
ruined towers of Ludlow Castle, may see
the daisy on the river brink, where grew
her congener, when Milton walked there,
and when the spacious halls of the old
castle resounded with cheerful voices. At
that time the Earl of Bridgewater, Lord
President of Wales, presided, with regal
dignity ; but the halls of Ludlow Castle
are roofless now, and those who ruled, or
served witliin them, have long since laid them
down, for a far-off waking. Cowper, the
melancholy Cowper, who sought to soothe
the sadness that consumed him, with seek-
ing out the beauties and the wonders of
creation, noticed the simple daisy, the
emblem of innocence, gathered by young

THE DAISY. 17

hands in the spring and playtime of the
year, when the villager went forth, with
all her train of little ones to seek for king
cups in the meadow, and to " prink their hair
with daisies." Shakspeare too, and Burns,
have spoken of it. Who has not read the
lament of Scotland's gifted son, when his
ploughshare turned up the modest crimson
flower, and laid its beauties in the dust?
Chaucer, the father of EngHsh poetry, he
who wrote of nature in those stormy times
when Hemy the Fourth and Richard battled
for the crown of England, loved to look
upon this lowly flower, to watch its unfold-
ings in the early morning, and its closings
up when night drew on.

" Of all the floures in the mede,
Than love I most these floures of white and rede :
Such that men called Daisies iu our town ;
To them I have so great affection,

c

18 THE DAISY.

That I get up, and walking in the mede
To seen this floure agenst the sunne sprede,
When it upriseth early by the morrow,
That blissful sight softeneth my sorrow.
And when that eve come on, I renne blithe,
As soone as ever the sunne ginneth west,
To seen this floure, how it well go to reste."

Thus, tlien, is the first darling of tlie
year immortalised. But there are higher
thoughts than those of poetic joys or sor-
rows, of childhood's sports, or old men's
commimings, that rise within us, when we
look upon the daisy. The daisy, in common
with all other plants, contains within her
that unchanging substance, called carbon,
which has never been obtained in a separate
state, of which the taste, the smell, and
colour are unknown. Infusible, and inde-
structible by the action of caloric ; it can,
therefore, neither be laid hold of, nor de-
tained, when the vegetable in which it

THE DAISY. 19

dwells, has fallen to decay; although ex-
isting, completely formed, in the tenderest
blade of grass, or the smallest flower that
opens to the sunbeams.

Who, in looking at the simple daisy, could
discern the unalterable carbon that dwells
within her ? who might conjecture that when
her flowers are seen no longer, and her
leaves have lost their greenness, withering
from off the parent stem, and seeming to
be lost for ever, there would arise from out
the decaying leaves, as a spirit from its
earthly tenement, a gas, a vapour, which
the eye may not behold, and which, either
hovering around the place from whence it
rose, or floating through the air, waits only
for the emerging of the daisy, or of some
herb or flower, from the parent earth, at
the return of spring ? Into these it becomes
absorbed, and then again its active mmistry
is seen in the developing of leaves and bios-

20 THE DAISY.

soms, wliicli arc destined as the months roll
on, to undergo a similar decay and renova-
tion.

Thus are we instructed by the daisy, in
common ^vith her kindred of wood or field,
to remember that one of the constituent
parts of both animal and vegetable bodies
remains unaltered, amid the changes and
decompositions which continually take place.
It follows, therefore, that though the pins
of the mortal tabernacle have been pulled
up, and the dust has returned to its kindred
earth, from one generation to another, yet
that the component parts are still unchanged,
ready to enter into a new and glorious com-
bination, whenever the fiat of Omnipotence
shall call them forth. Man may query in
his folly. How can the dead be raised up,
with what body do they come, when not a
trace of them remains ? To this there is
an answer, for the whole creation is filled

THE DAISY 21

with emblems. Invisible things, that relate
especially to our present state of being, are
made known by the things that are ; even
the shrubs and flowers which grow beside
our path-way, are faithful monitors, and,
either in their decay or renovation, suggest
to us thoughts of hope or consolation. Most
of them, when months have done their work,
grow weak in their decrepitude, and yielding
no longer flowers, nor yet leaves, with which
to gladden the place where they have grown,
die dovrn into the earth. Still they are not
lost, for again upspringing from the root or
seed, the same plant apparently, though not
the same, is seen, as if rejoicing in the con-
sciousness of its new existence. The young
herb or flower, that thus opens to the sun,
sparkling with the dews of morning, and
fresh from out its earthly bed, bids the
passer-by not to sorrow for those who are
departed, as one who has no hope, but rather

22 THE DAISY.

to see in its beauty, and its freshness, the
emblem of their rising up.

Mourn not then, child of sorrow,

As one who has no hope ;
But from each fair flower borrow

Thoughts, with thy grief to cope.

When stormy winds were sweeping

O'er paths by mortals trod ;
These little flowers were sleeping

In peace beneath the sod.

A voice thou hearest never,

But by its strong might known :

On mountains brown with heather.
In valleys reft and lone.

Call'd forth each fair flower sleeping,
Where crushing rains have been ;

Or fierce tornadoes sweeping.
Have marr'd the sylvan scene.

THE DAISY. 23

Now list ! the wood-lark singing,

The murmur of the rill ;
And lo ! sweet flowers are springing

Beside thy pathway still.

And thus, for Christ's dear sake, •

The lost, the lov'd shall come ;
When speaking thunders wake

The death clods of the tomb.

PURPLE SANDWORT.

Among the loose and arid sands,
The humble Arenaria creeps ;

Slowly the purple star expands,
But soon -within its calyx sleeps.

And those small bells so lightly ray'd
With young Aurora's rosy hue.

Are to the noontide sun display'd,
But close their folds ao:ainst the dew.

Smith.

Arenaria rubra. Purple Sandwort.

From the arid, sandy places, in which the Arenaria grows.

Opening Closing

In fine weather, When the sun declines

Early. From 4 to 6.

26

PURPLE SANDWORT.

'HE lark and the purple sandwort
are inseparably connected in the
herdsman's calendar. When the
modest little flower opens her petals in the
sunny morning, the lark springs from his
nest in the wild heath, arid pours forth his
full tide of song, to meet the rising sun.
She, too, seems to look after him, as if she
rejoiced in the opening day, though she has
no voice with which to join the universal
chorus that bursts forth from every crea-
ture in wood or field. Abroad at such an
hour in the stillness and the loveliness of
the early dawn, when not even the wakeful
labourer is moving, when no curling smoke
ascends from the cottage chimney, nor are
there any soimds of busy life to break upon

PURPLE SANDWORT. 27

the quiet of the scene, how solemn, how ex-
hilarating are the feelings of the mind ! All
then is still, as regards the busy, bustling
concerns of men. But the hum of insects
is abroad, early birds start forth from their
coverts in woods and hedges, the gush of
the rill, wliich, although it never ceases, is
scarcely audible at a later hour, is now heard,
as it goes sounding on its pebbly bed, bor-
dered with ferns and flowers, while the night
breeze is still lingering among the bushes
with a pleasant rustle.

Sandworts, whether stationed as the one
which Linnaeus added to the horologe of
Flora, on sandy plains or arid corn-fields,
whether growing on mountain-tops or by
the wood side, uniformly illustrate the beau-
tiful arrangement that prevails throughout
the vegetable kingdom. The sea-sandwort,
as its name indicates, is restrained to sandy
places on the coast, or to salt-water meadows.

28 PURPLE SANDWORT.

among which the sweet-scented southern-
wood and the ladies'-cushion are conspicuous.
The plantain-leaved prefers the shelter of
moist woods, in company with the lesser
stitchwort, and blue forget-me-not, among
moss and ferns, on those green and shady
banks, which arc rendered continually damp
by the little streamlets that ilow adowii
them. The thyme-leaved sandwort affects,
on the contrary, high and windy places. It
delights to open its small white solitary
flowers to the full glare of day, and may be
seen on cottage roofs or garden walls, or in
sandy and dry places, where almost every
other plant, except the stonecrop and the
nailwort, or perchance the little chickweed,
refuses to vegetate. The botanist seeks in
vain to find the media, or the vernal, grow-
ing on cottage roofs or walls. The one
thrives only in pastures at a short distance
from the sea, while the vernal sandwort is

PURPLE SANDWORT. 29

found in open places, where the reindeer
lichen, the wild thyme, or the stonecrop
covers the scanty soil. It may be gathered
in the neighbourhood of Llanberis and
Craig Lochart, beside the gushing waters of
Holywell, and generally in the northern
counties. It is seen likewise on the rubbish
of old lead mines, for the Creator of the
vernal sandwort has imparted to it the pe-
culiar property of resisting the deleterious
effect of metallic oxides.* Seeds blown at
random on those refuse heaps, perish in the
course of a short time; vegetable life cannot
exist in the baneful atmosphere that per-
vades them ; but those of the vernal sand-
wort have scarcely rested there before they
spring forth, and hence it happens not un-
frequently that small patches of vegeta-

* This curious fact was communicated by the Rev.
S. Pike Jones, author of " Botanical Tour," noticed in
" Withering's Arrangement," vol. ii. p. 552.

30 PURPLE SANDWORT.

tion are seen on the scorched and arid
blocks.

Very dissimilar is the habitat of the fine-
leaved sandwort. This plant, unlike its re-
lative, the vernal, seems unable to endure
the slightest atmospheric impurity. It grows
in sandy meadows and pasture-grounds, and
no where more profusely than in the corn-
fields that border Triplow Heath, where the
purest air of heaven blows fresh and free.
Malvern Chase is another of its favourite
haunts : there its delicate wliite flowers are
so numerous as to resemble a panicle ; it
is seen also among the stones and rubbish
of old quarries, and on rocks open to the
sun, where it frequently attains to the al-
titude of eight or nine inches. The moun-
tains of Fifeshire shelter, likewise, another
member of this unassuming family — the
level-topped sandwort. Beauties of no or-
dinary kind are obvious in this little j^lant.

PURPLE SANDWORT. 31

The root is zigzag, the better to entwine
itself in the interstices of the rocks or stones
among which it grows, and to draw from
thence all the moisture which heavy night-
dews or passing showers impart to the thirsty
soil. The delicate and slender leaves are
smooth, erect, and permanent, while the
taper-pointed calyx-leaves are remarkable
for the great breadth of their ivory -like
lateral ribs. The seeds when ripe are beau-
tifully toothed ; they look like wheels sup-
ported on a slender stalk. And as the level-
topped sandwort grows on the mountains of
North Wales, so does the fringed sandwort
affect those of Ireland. It has been gathered
from the limestone cHffs of a high mountain
adjoining Ben Bulben, in the county of
Sligo, where its white and spreading petals
often vary the sterile aspect of those high
regions. This plant is likewise admirably
constructed for its elevated solitude. The

32 PURPLE SANDWORT.

flowers are large and of the purest white ;
they are elevated on short stalks, and varied
with recurved and hoary excrescences, by
means of which, every particle of moisture
is absorbed for the nourishment of the up-
land plant: with the same obvious design
the calyx-leaves are oval and somewhat con-
cave.

The sea spurry has a different office to
perform from that of the fringed sandwort,
which thus vividly adorns the most rocky
and sterile regions; it points out the exist-
ence of salt-springs, however concealed, for
it seems unable to vegetate in soils that are
not full of salme particles, and hence its
purple flowers grow profusely in salt marshes,
and along the coast, where they seem to shed
a purple light in beautiful contrast to the
bright sparkle of the wild waves' play. The
small arctic sandwort is seen, on the contrary,
in sterile places, far above the surging of the

PURPLE SANDWORT. 33

ocean. It inhabits the highest northen re-
gions, and throws a drapery of verdure over
the brink of terrific precipices. Enterpris-
ing botanists who ascended the lofty range
of the Bredalbane sweep of mountains, dis-
covered it in places where the foot of man
has rarely trod. Professor Hooker, and Mr.
Murray, gathered it from off the rugged
flank of Ben Lawers. Dr. Greville, in his
lonely visit to Craigalleach, found it growing
there, and Mr. Carle discovered a profusion
of the same plant upon the sunny slope of
Maelgreadha, among huge masses of broken
stones. To such animals as frequent the
loftiest range of those high mountains, the
sandwort may perhaps afford a grateful re-
past ; or perchance some alpine bird may
stop in its upward flight to gather the fresh
seeds.

Thus in this small tribe consisting only of
twelve families, how obvious is the dissimi-

D

34< PURPLE SANDWORT.

larity which prevails in the places of their
growth, and in the offices for which they are
designed !

One species, as before mentioned, has the
peculiar power of resisting the deleterious
effects of the metallic oxides which usually
pervade the refuse heaps that are thrown out
of old lead mines, and is found in situations
usually destructive to vegetable life, where
no other plant may grow, and which every
"vvinged or creeping thing would otherwise
instinctively avoid.* There it may be seen,
occasionally, in solitary patches, though less
luxuriant than on the lofty heights of
Snowdon or Craig Lochart, and, by means
of its peculiar properties, some small insects
are sustained, and joyous creatures find a
store-house and a home beneath the shelter

* Mr. Winch remarked this plant on the Wcerdale
and Teesdale Moors, at an elevation of one thousand
to two thousand feet, and particularly on the rubbish of
old lead mines.

PURPLE SAMDWORT. 35

of its tufted branches ; and there also, they
can sip a pure nectarious liquor from out the
fountain of its star-like flowers, for the foun-
tain, although its secret stream rises from off
a deleterious surface, is offered pure to them.
Another of the tribe points out the vicinity
of salt streams, and thrives only in an at-
mosphere filled vdth saline particles ; where
seeds in general cannot vegetate, and where
even forest trees are unable to establish
themselves : there also it affords, no doubt,
both food and shelter to a variety of insects,
either winged or creeping, and which, hke
the plant on which they feed, can live only
in places where salt abounds. The plantain-
leaved is placed by its Creator in woods
and wet hedges ; the thyme -leaved grows
only on the roofs of houses, on walls, and in
sandy and dry places ; the media is seen
neither at a distance from the sea, nor yet
in places where the dashing of the waves is

36 PURPLE SANDWORT.

never heard; it afTects pastures on the coast,
and grows in company with the sea sand-
wort, on the Shell-coast in the Isle of
Sheppy.

IIow beautiful ! how beautiful ! to climb the tower-
ing height

Of Ilymalaya's a^vful brow, begirt with purest
light !

If mortal eye might dare to range a field so fair
and wide,

From zones that skirt the mountain's base, to
Sinde's* flowing tide.

How beautiful ! how beautiful ! the landscape wide

and fair.
The high palmetto's graceful shade, the citrons

rich and rare ;
The noble trees that girt the line, and reaching

further still,
Proud Europe's stately forest trees, that sweep o'er

dale and hill.

" Indian name for the Indus.

PURPLE SANDWORT. 37

How beautiful ! liow beautiful ! the landscape
spreading wide,

The glorious dome of Heaven on high ; beneath,
the azure tide.

Whose waves roll on to other realms, where stran-
ger trees are seen.

And daisy'd meads, with cowslips dight, or vales
of living green.

But not less beautiful than these, the sights and

sounds of spring ;
The coming back of summer birds, the joyous

songs they sing.
The flowers beloved, from year to year, that haunt

the self-same spot.
The breezy common, wild wood glade, the lonely

glen or grot.

Each have their place, and those which bloom, in

silent glade or glen.
Seek not to deck the cottage roof, nor yet the

paths of men ;

38 PUUPLi: SANDWORT.

A lid such as climb the mountain brow, or meet

the wild waves' spray,
Are never seen to grace the mead, where inland

breezes play.

Those breezes may, perchance, the seeds, as ran-
dom sowers bring.

To distant spots, where soothly meet, the gales
and showers of spring.

They may not thrive, when far away, from each
her bank or rill.

Where God has set the little flower to work her
Maker's Avill.

And thus, the simplest flower that drinks the

pearly dew of Heaven,
A gift to some wayfaring bird, or insect tribe, is

given.
A home, a store-house in the wild, or fountain

flowing ever,*
Where grateful creatures share refresh'd, the

love that faileth never.

* Water plant.

^ ^

4, F'

Hi. ^- I

;h,j,Ici, a>-i Jtijtb

THE DANDELION.

" Dandelion, with globe of down,
The school-boy's clock in every town ;
While the truant puiFs amain
To conjure lost hours back again."

Leontodon taraxacum. Common Dandelion.
From two Greek words, signifying a lion, and a tooth ; its
jagged leaves resembling such.

Opening Closing

About 7 in the morning. Early in the afternoon.

40

THE DANDELION.

EEK we now, in the crannies of old
P'^ ruins, and among the crevices of
untrodden pavements, for the dan-
delion, that cheerful-looking flower, which
none except young children care to gather,
because it is so common ; and yet it covers,
as with a carpet of the richest verdure
those deserted spaces, where once thronged
the great, the noble, and the gay, in days
when the now roofless walls rung with the
minstrel's strain. It thrives too, before the
door-ways of the humblest dwellings, and
seems to welcome the miserable to enter;
and there, also, it may be seen in tufts,
among the interstices of the lichen-dotted
walls, or bending occasionally from off" the

THE DANDELION. 41

thatch, as if it loved to embellish the dwell-
ings of the poor with its golden-coloured
flowers. Growing in dry or elevated places,
the leaves are admirably constructed, both
as regards their size and thickness, for im-
bibing moisture from the atmosphere. They
are likewise curiously hollowed out, like the
teeth of a large timber saw, and this for a
two-fold purpose, the one that grasses, and
such flowers, as the wild sorrel or the com-
mon wormwood, may spring up between the
openings: the other that the recurved form
of the wing-cleft leaves, may serve as spouts
for the retention of every rain-drop from
passing showers, and conveying it to the
root.

"While looking at wild or garden flowers,
I have often thought that they, like men,
have each an individual character; for who
is there that may not be considered as the
nucleus of a circle, whether occupying a

42 THE DANDELION.

high station, with power emanating from
him ; or whether welcomed to his sohtary
home by tlie one or two domestic animals,
which he has taught to serve him ? Thus
have the \dolet, the primrose, the forget-me-
not, histories and associations peculiar to
themselves, and applicable to no other of
their kind. The primrose recalls to mind
the Sicilian maiden, St. Agatha, who suf-
fered martyrdom by order of Quintianus on
the 5th of February 251, in the month when
that modest little flower peeps forth from
her hiding-place among the moss and fern.
The forget-me-not tells of the days of chi-
valry, when she was recognized throughout
civilized Europe, as an emblem of lasting
friendship or affection ; and who does not
associate with the

Violet blue, " that on the moss bank grows,"
those Floral games at which a golden

THE DANDELION. 43-

violet was awarded annually on IVIay-day to
the fortunate competitor in poetry ? Each
flower, however humble, is likewise a little
world to such winged creatui'es as nestle
among the flowers, or pasture on the leaves.
Such as frequent the violet or the primrose
would turn away from the golden disk and
jagged leaves of the cheerful-looking, yet
homely dandelion ; and the winged creatures
that find j)i'ovision and a home among her
tufts of verdure would not desert them for
the scented petals of more favoured flowers.
Those flowers nestle mostly on sunny banks,
or beside the streamlet's dash, and are ftft-
times transplanted to the garden border ; but
the dandelion sheds the beauty of her golden
light in places which all others seem in-
stinctively to avoid. No other plant is found
so constantly springing from the crevices of
untrodden pavements, or suspended Kke stars
of verdure from out the crannies of old

44 THE DANDELION.

ruins — such as I used to visit in my child-
hood, on the verge of a wild common, be-
girt with beech woods. The walls were
covered with a luxuriant drapery of ivy,
and the broken pavement with a profu-
sion of dandelions, which seemed as if
they strove to give a character of cheerful-
ness to the lonely spot, for they sprang
among huge docks and tufts of rank grass,
where immense elder-bushes intercepted the
cheerful sunbeams, when they sought to find
an entrance. The history of the decayed,
but once stately fabric, seemed unknown :
no 'one could tell even concerning its in-
habitants. Its large gable ends, and oriel
windows, were constructed according to the
improved style of architecture, which ge-
nerally prevailed in country mansions dur-
ing the reign of EKzabeth ; and yet there
was a character of strength and of se-
curity about the building, which indi-

THE DANDELION. 45

cated that its foundations had been laid
in troublous times. There grew the dan-
delion, the friend of fallen greatness, and
thither the children from the hamlet in the
valley would come up to gather its bright
flowers. Some plucked them because of their
golden hue ; others carefully filled their lit-
tle baskets with the leaves, because their
mothers liked them for an evening salad :
and when the village fete drew on, the
youngsters aided the music of the merry
dancers with a humble imitation of Pan-
dean pipes, made from the hollow flower-
stalks, fitted one into the other. But the
sphere, the globe-like sphere, that is the
glory of the dandelion ! How light ! how
elegant ! formed of small arrows, and every
seed with its own shaft and plume ! A tem-
pest is required to disperse the winged seeds
of the stately cedar to any considerable dis-
tance, but the breath of the zephyr resows

46 THE DANDELION.

those of tlie dandelion. I have often seen,
in autumn, the air filled with tlieni, now
sailing away into the woods, whither the
zephyrs carried them, or towards the ham-
let, where groups of merry children awaited
their arrival.

Or down the vale, beneath the mountain brow

Where giant beeches rear their ample pride,
And peaceful streamlets, scarcely heard to flow,

Refresh the glens, their murmiuring streams
divide.
When dashing, sparkling doAvn the wild hill's side.

They bid the vale with deepening verdure glow ;
Now, mid those ruin'd halls, the shades among,

With eddying play, as sport the zephyrs by ;
Those ruin'd halls, that braved in ages gone.

The storm or battle, woke the smile or sigh.

Where erst in youth, with flowing vestments dight,
The merry dancers led the joyous round,

W^hen gilded by the pale moon's trembling light,
Each massive turret cast a gloom profound.

THE DANDELION. 47

And ay, I ween, no happier wights were found

Than those who shared the hours of brief delight.
But now the ivy's mantling arms extend,

And twine luxuriant through the broken halls;
O'er the drear scene the waving bulrush bends.

And more than echoes moan along the walls ;
When some huge mass in ponderous ruin falls,

And prone to earth with thundering crash
descends.

If once a garden smiled those walls beside,

No garden flower now marks the drear domain.
If willing steps once cross'd the threshold wide,

No waiting friends invite those steps again.
All, all have past from life's uncertain day,

Unmark'd the sunbeam's gleam on dale or hill ;
But that wild flower, which loves the ruin grey.

Waits in her beauty, by the lone hearth still.
And still she seeks, with kind unceasing; aid.

To hide the fearful wreck which ruthless time
has made.

YELLOW GOAT'S-BEARD.

Broad o'er its imbricated cup,

The Goat's-beard spreads its golden rays ;
But shuts its cautious petals up,

Retreating from the noontide blaze.

Smith.

Tragopogon pratends. Yellow Goat's-beard.
Name derived from two Greek words, signifying a goat and
beard, which the down of the seed somewhat resembles.
Opening Closing

At 5 or 6 o'clock. At noon.

50

YELLOW GOAT'S-BEARU.

REEMINENT among such flowers
as open at certain hours of the day
is the yellow goat's-beard, which
spreads abroad its gaudy petals early in the
morning when the first rays of the bright
warm sun are reflected on the drops of dew.
There it stands in company with others of
its kind : a very common flower, a weed.
And yet witliin the root, and stem, and
leaves, what a beautiful and elaborate ma-
chinery, is everywhere discoverable ! Look
at the firm and rigid stem rising like a
column, slightly tinged with purple, up the
shaft of which run a number of longitudinal
tubes for the conveyance of sap, by means
of which, the whole plant is nourished.

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 51

Acted on by Kght and moisture, the sap
deposits in its progress not only various se-
cretions of different qualities and tastes, but
serves also to perfect and to embellish the
plant through which it flows. Heat, too, is
a powerful agent in propelling its ascent,
acting as a stimulant, and essential in the
production of the smallest leaf or flower.
Mechanical causes also operate, such as the
frequent screw-like forms of the spiral ves-
sels : the motion that wind imparts even to
such plants as creep upon the ground, and
the passage of air through the conducting
vessels. All this is obvious, but why is it
that among the crowding flowers that skirt
the border of every corn-field, so great a
dissimilarity is perceptible ? They are all
rooted in the same soil : the same warm
sun shines upon them ; the same showers
descend to fertilize them : yet one is yel-
low, another red, a thii'd is lightly tinted

5ii YELLOW GOAT S-BEARD.

witli purple, the petals of a fourth are va-
ried with stripes of white and lilac. The.
common yarrow is extremely fragrant, the
scent of the henbane is, on the contrary,
most unpleasant. The sweet and nutri-
tious roots of the goat's-beard have the
flavour of asparagus, while those of the
strong-scented lettuce, }deld an acrid and
bitter juice that resembles opium, and pos-
sesses its narcotic qualities. These effects
can be alone referred to the agency of the
vital principle, though this cannot to our
understanding explain them: they are evi-
dently the result of chemical depositions
and combinations, but we know not what
these depositions and combinations are, nor
the agents, nor the laws by which they
are produced and regulated. The root, too,
of the goat's-beard, how curious it is !
Formed on the principle of a wedge, it
penetrates readily into the earth, while

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 53

near it grows the elegant wood-sorrel, with
a jointed or granulated root, that answers
the piu'pose of a reservoir for retaining the
vital powers of the plant, during the season
when those powers are in a torpid state.
Each have an especial reference to the
habits of the plants, and each have within
them a set of vessels by means of which
they draw moisture from the parent earth.

The leaves and flowers have likewise their
own elaborate machinery, their own beauti-
ful arrangement : the one contributes to the
health and verdure of the plant : the other
is not only delightful to the eye, but con-
tains a variety of peculiar and elaborate se-
cretions, such as an elastic pollen, honey,
and an exquisitely volatile perfume.

The remarkable property, which is inhe-
rent in the yellow goat's-beard, and in other
meteoric flowers, of unfolding their petals
at certain hours, and of closing them again.

'>\ YELLOW GOAT S-BEARD.

and tliat often before the sun declines from
tlie meridian, may be ascribed to the agency
of tile spiral fibres. They appear like fine
cork-screw threads of a firmer texture than
the adjacent parts, and are readily distin-
guished when the stems or leaf-stalks, in
which they are enclosed, are carefully drawn
asunder. In some minute specimens, they
are, however, scarcely separable, and they
generally become firm and rigid, when their
ministry is no longer needed. By means
of these, all the indications of vegetable
life are invariably produced ; flowers open
in the moniing and close at night; leaves
turn to the air and light, and creeping
plants wind in their respective order ; such
too, as the yellow goat's-beard which ex-
pand or close their petals at fixed periods,
owe this remarkable deviation from the
general liabits of their kind, to the same
beautiful arrangement : heat and a strong

YELLOW GOAt's-BEARD. , 55

light produce a contraction of the spiral
wires ; the slightest diminution in either,
according to the fineness of the wires, ef-
fects a dilatation of them. Their position
also is important with regard to the move-
ments of such flowers, whether hy their
agency the petals shall he shut or opened,
as, in mechanics, the same spring may be
made to turn to the right or left, to open
or close a box.

The purple goat's-beard, or salsify, T.pos-
sifolius, in like manner, unfolds her petals
at a stated hour, and closes them at noon.
She affects meadows and pasture-lands, not
such as are varied with the pimpernel and
corn-flower, children of dry land, but where
the soil is boggy, and streamlets abound.
Dillenius noticed the flower, and her con-
gener, as growing around Carlisle and Rose
Castle, in Cumberland. Old Gerard ga-
thered them on the banks of the Calder,

56 YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD.

near Whalley in Lancashire, when lie visited
that neighbourhood.

Both the species are among the most re-
gular indices of the horologe of Flora, and
so invariably do they close their purple and
yellow petals at noon-day, that they are best
known by the familiar appellation of " go
to bed at noon." It is very pleasant to rest
awliile upon the bank where they are grow-
ing, to hear the rustling of the wind among
the aged trees that shade the sparkling
waters of Holy -well ;

To lay one down
Upon the thymy bank where wild flowers grow,
And the tall corn is rustling in the breeze,
Till Flora's clock, the goat's-beard, tells the hour,
And closing, says, — " Arise ! the noon is come."

Others which rank amongst Flora's watches
also grow there ; the corn sow-thistle, so
dear to weary labourers, because it follows

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 57

the sun's course and folds up its large
golden petals at noon-day ; the mouse-ear
hawkweed, that announces their breakfast-
hour ; and the scarlet pimpernel, which tells
them when their work is done. The plough-
man often leaves his horses to look on these
time-pieces of Nature's making, and harvest-
men love to sit by them when they rest from
their work at noon.

0 ! there are symbols which the world heeds not ;

Symbols of things unseen, which, in high heaven,
Are made much count of, though by man forgot ;

And yet to weary man in mercy given.
That he who toils beside the sedgy brink

Of some lone stream, 'mid flowers, or grass, or
ferns.
Plying his daily task, may soothly think

Of heavenly things, until his bosom bums
With holiest thoughts, pure as the gushing rill,
Or heaven's own whisp'ring wind, o'er dale and
hill.

58 YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD.

Ay, glorious symbols, by pure hearts descried,

Where plains extend, and vales of living green ;
Where flowers are opening on the lone hill's side,

Or, on the far-off moors, clear waters gleam ;
Reflecting those swift clouds by winds upheld,
Heaven's water urns, to gladden the parch'd
earth,
Showering their freshness ; with glad hearts be-
held
By grateful men ; for they the beauteous birth
Of flowers and fruits call forth, as year by year
Moves on, through boundless space, the bur-
den'd sphere.

Long years have past since first the herbless ball,
Was clothed with grass and trees, with shrub or
flower ;
Yet still the life then given, pervading all

That spring from root, or smallest seed, hath
power.
From leafless branches waving in the wind

To call forth leaves, and oft from out the ground

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 59

Flowers of gay hues, that yiehl, to cheer the mind,

Beauty, and fragrance breathing all around,
Such as blest Eden own'd in happier days.
When burst from sinless lips the great Creator's
praise.

Praise Him, all grass and herbs, the prophet said ;

All fruitful trees, sweet flowers, and cedars tall.
Such as from out the rents which time has made

On storm-beat cliffs ; or by the rushing fall
Of headlong waters in lone beauty smile.

Making each solitary place seem glad.
That sorrowing ones, perchance, who rest awhile

Having small hope, when all things seem most sad.
May cheer their hearts, as one* in days of yore,
On Afric's sands, and learn to doubt no more.

Ah why ! amid the countless hosts that bear
The name of Christ, baptized and honour'd men.

Lords of the vast creation, vast as fair,
Though powerless, as seem to mortal ken,

* Muno'o Park.

60 YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD.

While sin and death, unhallow'd guests, assail
All hearts, all homes, the thrones of mightiest
kings ;
Nestling amid the flowers, in hawthorn dale,
By murmuring streams, where sweet the wild
bird sings,
Marring all earthly joys, and seeking ever
To mar e'en Christ's own peace, which faileth
never 1

Ah why ! mid such as bear the hallow'd name.

The name of Christ who won them for His own,
Bursts there no glorious chant of glad acclaim,

No cloud of incense rising to His throne 1
Scant flowers and fruits crown now the Christian
year;
Rank weeds spring up where roses ought to
blow ;
The prostrate vine, deplored with many a tear,

Its clusters bruised, its boughs defaced and low ;
Its fence broke down, the wild boar's ruthless power
Crushing with heavy tread each bud and flower.

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 61

And yet a nobler life than that which clothes
The meads with beauty, bids green leaves un-
fold
From leafless branches, through the wide world
flows ;
The world of baptized men, one mighty fold,
Which the Great Shepherd guards ; though reck-
less most
Of His surpassing love, who bade them live
E'en to his glory, as the heavenly host

His bidding wait, and do Him homage give :
That homage which the ransom'd earth shall yield.
When hateful Sin no more her power doth wield.

That nobler life hath from the Lord, the Giver

Of life, flow'd down, though oft in weakness seen.
From that blest moment, when beside the river.

Old Jordan's flowing river, one whose mien
Betoken'd much of sorrow, converse held

With a lone man, whose steps the desert trod ;
Holding high communings, yet oft beheld

Speaking to crowds of Him the incarnate God ;

G2 YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD.

Though seen as man by men, whose birth foretold
Prophets and gifted seers, in days of old.

The Lord of Life, descending as a dove,

On that meek head, wet with baptismal dew ;
In mystic guise, the gift of joy and love,

Patience and meekness, bodied to the few,
The few at most ; and next on chosen men,

In cloven tongues of fire, the Spirit's might
And power to speak, were seen by numbers then,

Who throng'd, and wonder'd at the glorious
sight,
Sign of the Spirit's presence. He who came
With cloven tongues of fire, and words of
flame.

Then holiest flowers and fruits in that choice
field

Of living trees, water'd and nurtured duly ;
Abundant increase to the Lord did yield.

Giving him homage due, and service truly.
Good deeds were done, and as a mighty stream.

Fresh, ever flowing, love went forth to all.

YELLOW GOAT's-BEARD. 63

Or as the dayspring's bright and gladsome beam,

Chasing the darkness that doth man appal ;
When those who walk'd in doubt, beheld the ray
Of heavenly truth, flash on their wilder'd way.

Where now those channels for the Spirit's might,

Whose living waters erst were seen to flow ;
Those piercing beams of pure celestial light,

Now choked with weeds — now dim and burnins:
low 1
The early rain hath ceased, and scant dew

Falls on the grass ; all herbs and pleasant flowers
Yield faint perfume ; yet soon shall bloom anew

This faded world ; for the swift-footed hours
Are whirling on a shatter'd world to meet

That glorious king, whose coming is at hand.
Who soon again shall tread with willing feet

The heights of Zion, with His waiting band
Of ransom'd ones ; first-fruits of those who sleep,
Waking to highest life, while thousands wake
to weep.

SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

" In every copse and shelter'd dell,
Unveil'd to the observant eye,
Are faithful monitors, who tell

How pass the hours and seasons by.

" The green robed children of the spring
Denote the periods as they pass :
Mingle with leaves. Time's rapid wing,
And bind with flowers his silent glass."

Anagallis arvensis. Scarlet Pimpernel.

Opening Closing

About 8 in the morning. Towards 4 o'clock.

66

SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

■'HREE species form the whole of
this small tribe. The scarlet is
found in corn-fields, and in sandy
places, in company with the gorgeous pop-
py. They alone, amid the infinite variety
of blue or white, or yellow, pink, or lilac
flowers, or blending each in their party-
coloured petals, are robed in scarlet. They
alone exhibit that vivid tint which, more
than any other, attracts the passer by ; the
one lifting up its gorgeous head amid the
tall stems of the rustling com ; the other
unfolding its beautiful corolla on the bosom
of the light green leaves that cover the dry
soil beneath. The scarlet pimpernel is, with
every one, a favourite flower : it is so small

SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 67

and delicate, and yet so brilliant ; and then,
as if aware of the admiration wliich it ex-
cites, it closes before rain in order the longer
to preserve its beauty from the injury of
the weather. Hence it has been called the
shepherd's weather-glass.

That pimpernel, whose brilliant flower
Closes against the approaching shower,
Warning the swain to sheltering bower.
From humid air secure.

This lovely little flower enlivens the south-
ern banks even in September, when its
petals continue open in fine weather from
about eight in the morning till four in the
afternoon, after which the blossom-leaves
gradually fold together, and the wandering
bee can no longer gain access to the sweet
nectarious cup within.

Every part of the scarlet pimpernel is,
in a microscope, singularly beautiful, and

68 SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

will amply repay the trouble of minute
investigation ; the seed-vessel is a globe,
divisible into two hemispheres ; the corolla
appears as if covered with spangles, the sta-
mens vsdth gold and purple, and the leaves
are elegantly spotted underneath. Nothing
can be more exquisite than the symmetry of
all its parts, nor more briUiant than the
colours with which it is invested and adorned.

The blue pimpernel, A. cerulea, is like-
wise seen in corn-fields, though less con-
spicuous than the scarlet. It affects also
the banks of running streams, as if it loved
to see its beautiful image reflected on the
mirror-like waters. Those who visit the
banks of the Tay, near Dehdne, may gather
a profusion of its flowers from amid tufts
of moss and fern that fringe their rugged
margin.

The bog pimpernel, on the contrary, is
never seen beside the streamlet's dash. It

SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 69

rather cheers the traveller in his dreary
course over the lone heath. The tribe ex-
tends like a pink carpet in many parts of
the Leas at Willesborough, in Kent, and are
not unfrequent on wet heaths, in watered
meadows and turfy bogs. Dehghting in the
purest air of heaven, they are seen, likewise,
on the open spaces of forest-land, where
streams steal silently and waste themselves
among the grass ; and he who climbs the
summit of high rocks may find them there,
for such plants as aifect damp places will
grow occasionally far up the rugged sides
of lofty mountains, at the base of which
lakes abound, and gathering mists keep moist
the places of their growth. And yet, though
thus delighting in free air and moisture, the
bog pimpernel approaches nearer than any
other kind of alpine plant to the vicinity
of London, and is seen in places where
the brilliant gentianella would refuse to ve-

70 SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

getate. The bogs of Hampstead Heath and
Ken-^vood are among its chosen haunts ; it
grows also at Soho, near Birmingham, and the
botanist, who in searching would look only
for such well-known plants as the little eye-
bright or sun-flower cistus, the wild thyme
or small cardamine, rejoices to recognize
the modest bog pimpernel lifting up its pale
pink flowers amid the heath. He, too, who
has left his far-off mountains for the din and
stir of tlie great city, where no familiar face
is seen amid the moving myriads that crowd
her streets ; he whose fondest affections are
associated with distant scenes, feels in look-
ing at it, as many felt, when in India a
little daisy, of which the seeds or roots had
been accidentally conveyed from England,
sprung up in that stranger soil. Weary
men walked thither to look upon the flower
which they had loved in childhood ; splendid
can'iages drove thither, that the riders in

SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 71

them might behold once more the daisy of
their father-land ; and bitter tears were shed
in looking at it ; for who can be indifferent to
the recollections of home and kindred, when
the heart, tired of its wanderings, longs to
be at rest ; and the distant and the departed
vividly arise before the mental view. Thus
feels the man, who has left his far-off moun-
tains, when, jaded with every-day endurance
of hard toil, he bends his way to the only
spot within his reach, of which the name
may recall somewhat concerning early days
and forsaken scenes, where the bog pim-
pernel loves to linger amid tufts of fern,
and the yielding moss. And thus, per-
chance, in some wild or beautiful solitude,
for such there are even in the neighbour-
hood of great cities, may thoughts arise
within his heart.

72 SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

The torrent is foaming,

Its waters are roaming,
Adown the deep glade by the side of the hill ;

Where the wild bird is singing.

And blue bells are springing.
And the cowslip and primrose are lingering still.

Ah ! linger ye yet.

With pearly dew wet,
No step o'er the green sod is speeding ;

And a few stars on high.

Still look down from the sky,
While the pomp of the night is receding.

Ye innocent flowers,

Beloved in bright hours.
Ere the young heart had yielded its gladness ;

I would gaze on ye still,

By the gush of the rill,
In the depth of my spirit's lone sadness.

SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 73

It is full sad to think,

As I gaze on the brink,
Of the stream, in its deep and fresh flowing ;

Of the primrose and blue-bell,

In my own native dell,
And of hours that with rapture were glowing.

0 ! the glee of those hours.

Young hands fiU'd with flowers,
True words in their freshness then spoken !

But the bright eyes that shone,

Are by tears dimm'd, or gone,
And the buoyant young spirits are broken.

They were broken too soon.

Few of those reach'd their noon,
Whose young steps on the green sod were springing ;

But I still am left.

Of those loved ones bereft,
To list to the birds' blithsome singing.

74

SCARLET PIMPERNEL.

She poureth her trill,

By the gush of the rill,
Mid the bloom of the blossoming May ;

The primrose and blue-bell,

Open still in the dell,
But the friends of my youth ! — where are they ?

Where, where are they ?

By our old church grey.
Some hearts have ceased their aching ;

Others were scatter'd wide,

Or whelm'd beneath the tide,
Sunk deep for a far-oflf waking.

Yet weep not, child of sorrow,

There cometh a bright morrow.
Gaze eastward, for its light is on the hills.

When the earth in glorious beauty,

Shall yield her solemn duty.
To Him, whose might the whole creation fills.

SCARLET PIMPERNEL. 75

Now the heart is weary,

And the wide world looketh dreary,
But there shall be no sorrow then.

Yea rather, heavenly gladness,

Chasing all forms of sadness,
From the hearts and the homes of men.

lUann.ild Itlxl,

WOOD SORREL.

The leanings
Of the close trees o'er the brim
Of a sunshine haunted stream,
Have a sound beneath their leaves.

Elizabeth B. Barrett.

Oxalis ascetosella. Wood Sorrel.

The generic name is derived from a Greek word signifying
sharp, in allusion to the acidity of its leaves.

Opening Closing

At sunrise. At sunset.

78

WOOD SORREL.

HOSE who delight to moralise
beside clear streamlets, leaping
and sparkling from among the
sheltering embrace of woods, may \isit the
vale of Dudcombe, contiguous to the old road
from Stroud to Cheltenham, beside the an-
cient moss-grown fence of Panslodge Wood.
I have seen many lovely spots ; with their
glens, and famiKar walks ; but none more
deserving of remembrance than the vale of
Dudcombe, embosomed amid hills and shady
coverts, among which an ample streamlet,
goes sounding on its way. Dudcombe was a
battle-place in years that are gone. There,
tradition says, the fierce Danes and Saxons
had many deadly conflicts, when struggling
to possess or to retain the ample hunting-

WOOD SORREL. 79

grounds and thickly-wooded valleys that
enriched the country of the Dobuni. In still
remoter ages, the Romans entrenched at a
short distance, and when their sons had
gained a settlement in Britain, spacious
villas arose upon the site of those rude vil-
lages in which our ancestors had dwelt. But
my thoughts are not with scenes of rapine,
I would rather speak concerning the well-
head of that clear stream, whose mellow
voice is heard far down the valley, even
when its course is concealed by the droop-
ing branches of such trees as border its
rapid course. Mosses, damp with glistening
spray, throng and crowd around the old
stone trough, into which the waters leap
from out the rocky bank. Tufts of ferns
and hart's-tongue bend into the stream,
when, flowing over the old trough, they
form a small lake, which often reflects the
summer moon, and the quivering branches

80

WOOD SORREL.

of young beeches which cast their shadows
on the pathway leading to the depth of the
rarely-trodden valley. On either side the
streamlet's course, grow the golden saxi-
frage, and wild white sorrel, earliest children
of the year ; companions often of the prim-
rose and the snowdrop, the cowslip and wild
hyacinth. GUmpses, however distant and
often vanishing, of scenes and objects en-
deared by remembrances associated with the
kindliest feelings of our nature, will ever
rise upon the mind more vividly, perchance,
when the every- day occurrences of life are
no longer blended vnth the harmonies or
subKmities of nature. In proportion as
sweet and soothing pictures of green and
pastoral valleys, bright flowers, and gushing
waters are no longer present to the view,
does that " inward eye which is the bliss of
soHtude,"* open on the unseen beauties of
* Wordsworth.

WOOD SORREL. 81

that world which is absent from the out-
ward. Memory still haunts that green and
wooded valley, with its sounding streamlet,
and song of birds answering one the other ;
and while tliinking of the mossy well-head,
with its ferns and flowers, I would take up
the language of the muse of Keble, and
point out to those who love lone places,
cheered with mosses and wild flowers,

" Lessons sweet of spring returning,"

with which the beautiful solitudes of Nature
are blended. For there ever breathes a soft-
ening and consoling influence from amid such
scenes, ministering, however feebly, to our
mental sorrows, and imparting, it may be,
a sacred calm and resignation to the bur-
dened and oppressed among life's pilgrims,
while it tends to exalt or to refine the re-
joicing spirit.

Keble, perchance, has visited that spot.

G

82 WOOD SORREL.

His brother is, or was, the pastor of a near
village ; and I have pleased myself with
thinking, that from beside the gushing
streamlet, where it flows from the rocky
bank into the old stone trough, Nature's
poet has gazed upon the lone and wooded
valley with its precipitous and sunny din-
gles. Poetry is one of heaven's choicest
gifts ; and thrice happy is the poet, who,
led by his Christian feeling, and the dis-
position of his mind, considers Nature in
all her beautiful changes, and associates
with her productions, thoughts of peace
and purity. To him the gushing rivulet
speaks in language inaudible to the dull
ear of common observation ; the rich hues
of eveningf have a voice which the mind
of the Christian poet only heareth, and in
the dewy freshness of the misty dawn, and
the "rich morning and silent evening lights,"
are joys to him with which a stranger inter-
meddleth not.

WOOD SORREL. S3

And those little flowers which grow there,
beside the waters, have they no language
in which to body forth the wonders of their
creation : speaking to the mind concerning
the tale which each one telleth of things
hidden from the eye of him who cares
not for them ? Assuredly they have. And
the botanist, as well as poet, has his own
peculiar sources of delight. Wherever his
wanderings may conduct him, amid the lone-
liness and greenness of a secluded valley,
over moorlands, or through cultivated fields,
he is equally at home. In all the changes
of the seasons, and in every vicissitude of
climate, he meets with friends, whom suc-
cessive years have brought to his acquaint-
ance, and who, though silent to the casual
observer, are ever eloquent to him.

The wild sorrel is a favourite among ma-
tin flowers, because its place of growth is
ever amid scenes to which the mmd recurs

84- WOOD SORREL.

witli unwfaried delight. Two only of the
tribe arc known to botanists. One, our
own wild sorrel, expanding its large white
petals, beautifully veined with purple, along
the borders of ancient woods, by streams,
and on heaths. The other, with small yel-
low blossoms, preferring waste and stony
places, and the sides of mountains.

Unwilling to speak again concerning the
beautiful conformation of roots and leaves,
flowers and their calices, which are con-
spicuous in different plants ; of their air-
vessels, and sap-vessels, and the colours and
the fragrance by which they are distin-
guished ; I shall revert solely to the curious
fact, that as white is peculiarly calculated
for reflecting heat, such flowers as open
early in the spring, or are assigned to damp
and shady places, are imiformly invested in
this pure and simple colour. The com-
mon snow-drop, white archangel, wood ane-

WOOD SORREL. 85

mone, lily of the valley, and wood sorrel,
offer familiar instances. Light shades of
rose and azure, and various tints of yel-
low, are also common to the spring. Sum-
mer flowers, on the contrary, are generally
of bright hues. He who passes through a
corn-field often observes with pleasure the
purplish red flowers of the corn-cockle, to
which is given the elegant name of Agro-
stemma, from two Greek words, signifying
a field and coronet, as if the garland of the
field. Among the standing corn also, uprises
the red poppy, from which the drapery bee
cuts the hangings of her cell. Nor less
obvious are the large yellow flowers of the
corn-marigold, giving a brilliancy to the
fields, and following the sun's course with
unwearied assiduity ; the charlock, too, or
wild mustard, with its bright yellow petals,
cheering the traveller when hasting to shel-
ter himself from a coming shower, with

86 WOOD SORREL.

the tliouglit of sunbeams breaking from
among the driving clouds. So sun-like is
the effect produced by the glow of that
bright flower. Among the standing corn,
and contrasted with the rich brown ears,
the cyanus, or corn-flower, has its own pe-
culiar beauty, a coronet of sky-blue florets,
every floret a fairy vase, in the depth of
which is secreted a sweet nectar for bees
and butterflies. This flower is named Cya-
nus, after a young devotee of Flora, who de-
lighted to linger in tlie fields, and to weave
garlands of richly tinted flowers. And those
flowers common to the summer months uni-
formly absorb the sunbeams without re-
flecting them in any considerable degree.
Its own pure tint, therefore, may be as-
sociated with the wild wood sorrel, as af-
fording a sure indication of the season of
its flowering, and place of growth ; an in-
dication which never fails, wherever the eye

WOOD SORREL. 87

of the botanist is able to observe the na-
tural growth of plants in wild and uncul-
tivated regions, as affording, also, one of
those interesting facts wliich has an especial
reference to the often repeated thought that
every plant has some truth to enforce, which
the wise would do well to learn.

Eloquently, and yet most truly, has some
talented writer, when referring to the lec-
tures of that poet, whose sacred melodies
are associated in my mind with Dudcombe's
streamlet, and matin flower, spoken of the
frequent reference made by the Redeemer
to his works, while instructing his disci-
ples ; of the soothing influence, too, which
they seemed to impart to his own feelings.
Our Lord, said he, uniformly availed liimself
of natural objects in his teaching, — the lily
that neither toiled nor spun ; the field wliite
to harvest ; the seed sown by the husband-
man ; the sun reddening the western clouds ;

88 WOOD SORREL.

the fig-tr6e and the mustard-tree, the herbs
of the field and the birds of the air, all mi-
nistered to the holy lessons which he taught.
Our Lord loved rural scenes and rural life.
The house of Bethany overlooked a deli-
cious landscape ; He wandered among corn-
fields ; He sat down by the wells ; He fed
multitudes in places where there was much
grass ; He meditated in a garden during his
life ; He was buried in one after his death.
What do we learn from this practice of our
Master ? We learn that the retirements of
nature are calculated to cherish or to restore
that sweet composure of the thoughts, which
is the charm, as it ought to be, the dis-
tinction, of the religious character. Even
after His resurrection, a hallowed with-
drawal of Himself from tlie tumult and stir
of active life, became conspicuous. It was
along the still path of the village of Em-
maus, that the declining sunset reflected the

WOOD SORREL. 89

footsteps of the Holy Traveller, with the
sorrowing disciples. Nature seemed to be
thus presented to compose and soothe the
heart, though not to engage it.*

* Observations on the Lectures of Professor Keble
considered, Avith a particular reference to some of the
Latin poets. " Frazer's Magazine," August, 1844.

EVENING PRIMROSE.

Fair flower, that shun'st the glare of day,

Yet lov'st to open, meekly bold,
To evening's hues of sober grey,

Thy cup of paly gold.

I love at such an hour to mark

Thy beauty greet the night-breeze chill,

And shine, 'mid shadows gathering dark,
The garden's glory still.

For such 'tis sweet to think the while,

When cares and grief the breast invade,

Is friendship's animating smile

In sorrow's darkening shade.

Barton.

CEnotlicra biennis. Evening Primrose.

From two Greek words, one signifying wine, the other im-
bued with it : the root having a vinous scent when dried.

Opening Closing

At sunset. At 5 or 6

in the morninjj.

92

EVENING PRIMROSE.

'BROAD when evening has closed
in, and giant trees, shone on by the
bri^^lit moon, cast their strange
mysterious-looking shadows on the grass;
when the bat is wheeling by, and the glow-
worm with her tiny lamp is seen progressing
through the grass : abroad at such an hour,
who could recognise in the deep glen or quiet
valley, in the still meadow or heathy moor,
those bright scenes which delighted him
but a short time before ? How still, how
solemn, and yet how peaceful is the witch-
ing hour of deep midnight, when the glo-
rious stars are keeping their watch on high ;
and when the earth is covered as \vith a
mantle of silence and of obscurity ! I have
often looked within the garden range for

EVENING PRIMROSE. 93

flowers that grew there in all their fragrance
and their beauty before the sun had set,
but have not found them ; and so it is in
the green meadow, or beside the road. You
may not see a daisy in the grass, nor yet
a single hawkweed on the bank ; the bril-
liant goat's-beard has folded up its petals,
and the dandelion, that loves to cover the
interstices of broken pavements with its
ample disks, is no longer visible. Night
with her broad shadows has not veiled them,
for there are flowers which yet look the
pale moon in her face, and some few there
are, that open only when the day has closed
in. They open, that such insects as love
the night, warmly-coated moths, and ephe-
mera, may drink and be refreshed, when
all other vegetable fountains have ceased
to flow, or when the guardian petals, by
which they are surrounded, have folded up
to keep them safe from all intruders. I

91" EVENING PRIMROSE.

have seen the evening-primrose, or the even-
ing-star, as the plant is sometimes called,
gradually expand her primrose-tinted leaves,
looking fairer, and becoming larger, and per-
fuming the vagrant breezes as they passed,
while other flowers were closing ; till at
length when the moon had risen, or, per-
haps, only stars looked do\vn from their
high stations in the heavens, this fragrant
flower had tlu'owni open all her stores, and
busy creatures might be seen repairing thither
as to a nightly banquet. Those who pass
through one of the wildest portions of the
vale of Clwyd, may see this favourite flower
growing in great luxuriance, and attaining
to the height of several feet, on the road-side
between Denbigh and Ruthin. It was seen
there, by a youthful botanist* who has ceased
from among the living, during the summer
solstice, when the nights are neither light
* Mr. W. Christy.

EVENING PRIMROSE. 95

nor dark ; and the spot wherein it grew was
much to be remembered, for the moon was
full, and the mists of night veiled, as with
a light transparent vapour, all the loveliest
features of the landscape. The river was
heard to rush along, as with a congregated
roar, the rocky banks and trees assumed a
sterner character, and far away, for pro-
minent objects could be dimly seen in the
bright moonbeams, uprose, as from a sea
of vapour, the deserted walls of old Ruth-
ven's haunted tower ; but no one could dis-
cern, in looking at them, that the halls were
lonely now, or that the night-wind was free
to find an entrance through the broken win-
dows. They stood forth as if restored to
their ancient state, for the friendly moon-
beams showed not the rents of ruin. Here
then, in one of the loveliest portions of the
vale of Clwyd, grew the evening primrose,
with its fragrant and large yellow flowers,

96 EVENING PRIMROSE.

around which night-moths and ephemera
were gathering. Dusky looking, yet beau-
tiful and evanescent creatures, often the
birth of the noon-day, attaining their full
maturity at that still hour, when the even-
ing primrose opens her yellow-tinted petals,
as if to welcome back the twilight ; a star
of earth, shining alone for them, and guiding
their insect steps or wings, when other
flowers have folded up their petals, and are
gone to rest. She awaits the moment when
the sun withdraws his beams, for the sinking
of his orb behind the hills, while yet a golden
light is seen to linger on their heights, and
gorgeous clouds are waiting in the place of
his withdrawing ; the sinking of that orb
is a sure signal for the opening of her fra-
grant corolla. Unlike all others that watch
for his arising, or seem to follow his go-
ings in the heavens with devoted fondness,
this nun-like flower opens not till he is

EVENING PRIMROSE. 97

gone. She loves to keep her vigils by dim
twilight, or beneath the beams of the cold
moon, and then, as if like Charity, doing
her good deeds in secret ; when all other
eyes, save those of Him who made her, are
closed in sleep, she gives both food and a
sweet nectareous juice to many weary ones,
who would perish but for her timely aid. He
who watches by the evem'ng primrose, when
the night is dark and sultry, when neither
moon nor stars are visible, and wayfaring
creatures could not find their way to her
hospitable petals, may see a phosphoric light
gleaming from this favourite flower. When
not a tree nor rock can be discerned, nor
yet the road, though known, might be safely
travelled, she emits a pale light from all
her hmidred flowers, and looks as if illu-
minated for a hohday. You may then see,
more clearly than even in the bright moon-
shine, how the stem, and leaves, and petals,

H

98 EVENING PRIMROSE.

arc covered with grateful creatures, some
returning from the lighted petals, where
they have fed, or been refreshed, at the
vegetable fountains, to take their rest among
the leaves ; others hurrying up the stems ;
and others again assembled in the corollas.*
All, and each, are either thickly coated, or
else enwrapped in down or feathers, the
better to resist the heavy dews of night.

The same extraordinary phenomenon has
likewise been observed in other phosphoric
plants, and in certain mosses that grow
within the moist and cavernous recesses of
Dartmoor ; in places where Druid steps
have trodden, and where our remotest an-
cestors found a home.f Did we know, con-

* Stated on the authority of Dr. Jcnncr and Mr. Pursh,
the latter referred to in " Withering's Arrangement of
British Plants/' vol. ii. p. 473, edition of 1830.

+ This curious fact is noticed by the Rev. R. Park
Welland, and adverted to in " Witliering's Arrange-
ment," vol. ii. p, 473.

EVENING PRIMROSE. 99

cerning those plants and mosses, the little
which has yet transpired with regard to the
evening primrose and its nightly visitors,
we should, no doubt, discover that the phos-
phorescent light in each, is kindled with the
same beneficent design ; that it shines forth
to answer the purpose of a lamp on the
lone heath or in the cavern, to guide the
steps of fainting insects to their nightly
food. I have looked on those insects, either
winged or footed, when, in the early morn-
ing, they have been found asleep among the
grass and shrubs ; and while looking at them
I have thought, though man cares not for
such feeble creatures, and might crush them
as the moth, their Maker cares for them.
He has made them perfect in all their parts,
it may be to teach us, that He who thus
provides for the wandering night ephemera,
giving to them a fountain and a light when

100 EVENING PRIMROSE.

the sun withdraws his rays, watches over
even the minutest concerns of life.

Oh ! the spirit of Christ is grieved,
When man doth take no heed

Of the wild, yet wondrous things,
Which he giveth for an hour of need.

Let the lone and weary wanderer.

Who hath no dwelling nigh.
Gaze on this nightly flower,

While the stars keep watch on high.

Mark well each brimming fountain.

The light in each fairy hall ;
The joyous things that hasten

To the banquet spread out for all.

Let him ask, if indeed it can be.

That the Power whom none may scan,

Careth more for these feeble beings.
Than his trusting creature, Man 1

CHICKWEED.

Heaven wills, that simple things should give
Lessons to teach us how to live.

Stellaria media. Common Chickweed.

From Stella, a star : descriptive of the star-like, or radiated
appearance of the blossom.

Opening Closing

At 9 in the morning. At noon.

102

CHICKWEED.

^? WEARY man toiled up the rocky
side of the Table Mountain at the

Cape, resolved to ascend her loftiest
elevation, and to look down on the strange
landscape which lay extended at its base.
Strange, no doubt to him, where date and
palms, orange-tree and plantains, lifted their
tall heads among fields of pulse or sugar-
canes, who had seen only the corn-fields
and pastiire-lands of his o^\^l country. That
weary man was Henry Martyn, and when
he sat down to rest in the steep ascent,
sad at heart, and ready to faint with think-
ing of the mighty undertaking in which he
was engaged, a httle flame-coloured flower
of extraordinary beauty met his eye : it

CHICK WEED. 103

grew in a small hollow among rough stones,
sheltered from the sun's fierce rays, and
played on by the fresh mountain breezes
as they passed. " That little flower," wrote
H^nry, in a letter to a friend, " made me
forget my sorrows : thoughts of hope and
peace, of gladness and security, were awak-
ened by it, and I went on my way re-
freshed."

The remembrance of tliis anecdote arose
within me, when looking on the dismantled
walls of a once spacious dwelling, I observed
the wonderful construction of the common
chickweed, which had rooted itself in the
interstices. There its tiny blossoms un-
folded among tufts of lichens and small
ferns, and presented a continued repast to
such wayfaring birds as passed that way in
their flight to the spacious apple orchards
that covered the slope of the green valley.
There, too, its native character remained

104 rillCKWEED.

unaltered, either by soil or climate, a mo-
dest little flower which few might care to
look upon, if they had not learned some-
what concerning its beauty or its worth,
and how the hand of Him who made it, has
stamped upon its pale green leaves, cha-
racters which those who love to hear and
speak of Him may read, and which in
reading, will make their hearts to glow with-
in them. What sees the stranger in passing
by ? A small and insignificant looking weed,
covering the top of an old wall, or spring-
ing from interstices where the mortar has
fallen out between the stones. WTiat sees
the botanist in this simple weed ? An ob-
ject of great interest ; formed especially for
the place which it is designed to fill ; a me-
mento of the care of its Creator, and not
of the plant only, but of numerous winged
creatures that depend upon the ripening of
its seeds for their support. Winds may

CHICKWEED. 105

shake it in passing by, and heavy storms
may beat upon it, but there it grows, re-
newed from year to year, and covering the
herbless stones with a pleasant verdure.
Yet not as a single plant, opening at one
season or period of the day, and failing at
another ; each of its polished stems upholds
a bud, in different stages of verdure or of
decay. In some, the starry white corollas
are fully exposed to the sun ; in others,
which also stand upright, the white petals
havjs fallen off, and the four-sided and light
green capsules appear conspicuous ; in others,
again, the stalk assumes a curved form, and
the capsule bends towards the earth. Look
at it when thus reversed, what a curious
shape ! what a wonderful arrangement !
Growing frequently on the summit of high
walls, or in places exposed to fierce winds
and heavy showers, a peculiar provision is
required for the protection of the seed.

106 CIIICKWEED.

Observe, therefore, a small penthouse formed
by the capsule, for the capsule in this plant
is permanent ; it may not wither and fall off
like that of th"^ poppj or corn-flower, which
does not require its assistance. Thus pro-
tected, the seed-vessel continues reversed
during a few days ; at the end of which
the stem straightens, and uplifts the seed-
vessel to the influence of the sun. Here,
then, another process is discoverable : the
capsule splits into six small di\dsions at the
top ; through which both air and light are
freely admitted to the enclosed seeds. When
their active ministry is finished, and the
seeds are fully ripe, the stem bends again,
and empties, as from an urn, the innumer-
able seeds upon the earth. Thus does every
single stem change its position at least four
times, to suit the different stages of growth
or of decay. Upright, when first tlie sim-
ple flower is unfolded to the light, with its

CHICKWEED. 107

tiny mirror-like petals, so arranged as to
catch and to reflect every wandering sunbeam.
Bending, when the perfecting of the seeds
seems to require a downward position ; or,
perhaps, if it be allowable to hazard a con-
jecture, which, as regards the vegetable eco-
nomy in this respect, must be conjectural, the
capsule is reversed because the plant grows
on dry places, where little moisture can be
imbibed by the roots, in order that its vessels
may draw in more copiously the heavy night-
dews which descend at the season of its
flowering. But when the influence of the
sun is especially required to ripen the fully-
formed seeds, the stem gradually straightens,
and the heav}'- laden seed-vessel is held up
to catch its beams. Thus it remains till
again gradually resuming its downward po-
sition the seeds are deposited in the earth.

Who, that looks upon one of these small
seeds, brown, and rough, and thickly coated.

108 CHICKWEED.

could imagine that a plant would emerge
from out of it, perfect in every part, and
lia\diig a most curious and elaborate ma-
chinery, adapted to all the purposes of vege-
table life ? one set of vessels constructed for
drawing up moisture from the roots, or for
imbibing it from the atmosphere, and for
diffusing it in the character of sap, to every
little leaf, and bud, and blossom : another set,
by means of which greenness is given to the
leaf, and whiteness to the flower, nourish-
ment is imparted to the opening bud, and
the mysterious process of its growth, and its
perfection, is can'ied on ; that there are
also within the stalk and stem, a multitude
of spiral wires, in order that the stem may
bend when needed, or recover its rigidity,
when the purpose of its bending is accom-
plished ? Yet these, and very many more,
are curiously enwrapped within the simple
chickweed !

CHICKWEED. 109

This little plant is another of Flora's
watches ; and here, also, the spiral wires
come in aid. By means of them, the starry-
white corolla opens early in the morning,
and closes about four in the afternoon. The
upper leaves too, which grow sitting in pairs
on the stem, opposite one the other, and
from the bosom of which issue the branches
and flowering stalks, each of the latter bear-
ing one bud, close over them, when the night
draws in, and form a canopy imper\'ious to
the rain ; insects are thus also effectually ex-
cluded, and the tender flower sleeps securely
till the morning. Sleep, how wonderful it
is ! What a mighty change passes over this
busy, busthng world, during those darksome
hours when all the concerns of life are still !
The heart of that man must be insensible to
the finest emotions of our natm*e, who does
not feel somewhat of awe steal over him
when abroad at that still season : alone, a

110 CHICKWEED.

conscious and a ^vaking being-, wliile every
thing, whether animate or inanimate, is
slumbering around; — men upon their beds,
unconscious even of their names, — the cattle
sleeping on the grass, — the birds among the
branches, — all humming insects still; — no
sound except the torrent's rush, or the nmr-
mur of the night wind in the trees ; or,
perchance, at intervals the starthng whoop
of the solitary owl. Plants, too, are sleep-
ing. Flowers that shone forth in all their
fragrance and their loveliness when the sun
was high, fold up their petals, and are often
so enwrapped by the leaves as to become
invisible. The heads of others are inclined
towards the earth ; and not a few close their
beautiful corollas, as if to protect them from
the depredations of such insects as love the
night.

CHICKWEED. Ill

" Averse from evening's chilly breeze,
How many close their silken leaves,

To save the embryo flowers I
As if, ambitious of a name,
They sought to spread around their fame,
And bade the infant buds proclaim
The parent's valued powers."

All this is done by means of the spiral
fibres ; and their agency is equally conspicu-
ous in causing the flowers to shut up be-
fore the coming of a storm. He who passes
by, and sees the numerous little white co-
rollas of the chickweed fully expanded, may
go on his way in safety : he need not fear
the coming of a storm, for some hours at
least. If, on the contrary, the flowers do
not open freely ; if the guardian leaves, still
seem unwilling to forego their watch, let
him hasten home, for the rain will soon fall.
The efiect in both cases is produced by the
extreme susceptibility of the spiral fibres,

112 CHICKWEED.

and their liability to be affected by atmo-
spheric changes.

There grows not, there blooms not, on mountain,

rock, or wall,
A choicer flower than this, which men the chick-
weed call.
A weed for chicken truly, for " little birdies," too,
Who trust their Maker's bounty, the dreary winter

through.
Look on that chickweed, mourner, and list the

grateful strain
Of her who sings to praise Him, 'mid driving wind

and rain.
That warbling creature hath not, nor fields, nor

hoarded corn ;
And yet she sweetly singeth, the leafless boughs

among.
Her clear voice is telling from out the lonely tree.
That He who feeds the lone one doth surely care

for thee.

CHICKWEED. 113

Her plumes are rudely ruffled, the day is nearly

gone,
But she heeds not, she fears not, and still she

singeth on :
0 weep not thus, poor mourner ! the storm shall

pass away ;
For me sweet spring is coming, for thee a brighter

day.

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED.

" See Hieracium's various tribe

Of plumy seed, and radiate flowers,

The course of time their blooms describe,

And Avake or sleep appointed hours."

Hieradum pilosella. Mouse-ear Hawkweed.

From a Greek -word, signifying a hawk ; and suggested by
the mixture of black and yellow in some species, resembling
the colour of a hawk's eye.

Opening Closing

At 8 o'clock. At 4 or 5 o'clock.

116

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED.

► HE hawkwced. AVhat a lovely little
flower ! This, too, is one of Flora's
watches ; it often grows on a dry
bank, in company with the scarlet pimpernel,
and the small blue forget-me-not, the wild
thyme, and marjoram. Bees and butterflies,
and " many-coloured things," close and open
their bright wings on its golden disk ; they
fly away and visit other flowers ; but they
soon return, as if miwilUng to quit the bur-
nished resting-place on wliich they first re-
posed.

The hawkweed ! what shall I say respect-
ing it; or rather, where shall I begin? for it
has much of beauty and utility, that ought
not to be hastily passed by. Observe its
golden-coloured petals. Those petals show

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 117

forth its joy, as Pliny elegantly observed
with regard to the blossoms of large trees,
in producing which, they seem to vie with
one another, seeking apparently to attract
the admiration of all who look upon them.
In this simple plant the corolla has its o^\^l
specific use, and is not less distinguished for
the delicacy and the brilliancy of its tints,
than for the functions which it is designed to
fulfil with regard to air and light. Its office
is likewise in a great degree analogous to
wings, being composed of a variety of small
yellow florial leaves, that waft the flower up
and down in the air ; it serves also to protect,
occasionally, the interior from rain, or ex-
cessive heat, to indicate the vicinity of that
sweet nectareous juice, from which honey
is produced, and to accommodate the ga-
therers with a resting-place or shelter, while
employed in their grateful labours. Ob-
serve, also, the admirable construction of

118 MOUSE-EAR IIAWKWEED.

tliL- little florets, seated upon one com-
mon receptacle, and inclosed in the same
calyx. Each of these florets, is embel-
lished with an ivory-looking shaft or pillar,
passuig through a cylinder, which appears
as if supported by five recurved pillars, of
which the heads or anthers, form the cy-
linder, and contain within them a fine and
subtile powder. Yet though apparently a
subtile powder, the pollen, for so the
dust is called, presents, when magnified,
an infinite variety of small cases inclosing
a still more subtile powder ; and not even
the flakes of snow, that fall in winter, are
more singularly varied. The pollen of the
common red crane'sbill, is a perfect glo-
bule, that of the marsh-mallow resembles the
wheel of a watch, in the pansy it is trian-
gular, in the narcissus kidney-shaped. But,
however, varied or dissimilar, they each re-
main entire till acted upon by heat or mois-

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 119

ture, when they suddenly expand, and dis-
charge a fine and elastic powder. The
powder, when thus disengaged from the
anthers, is immediately absorbed into the
pointal, and hence the seeds, by a process
inconceivable to us, are rendered capable
of ripening. Emblem of the pouring forth
of mind to mind, the fulness of the one
imparted to the other, causing the germ of
reason to expand, and the mental faculties
to attain perfection. Emblem, too, of the
gliding in of wisdom from above, which de-
scending like the dew, or imbibed like the
subtile vapour that pervades alike the mag-
nificent magnoha or the humble hawkweed,
calls forth those fruits or blossomiS which
are peculiar to their tribe.

Those wdio care not for the wonders of
creation may think that flowers which grow
on rocks or in desert places, are of little*
worth. But it is not so. Even the lone-

I;i0 MOUSE-EAR IIAWKWr.KD.

liest ilowir, tlic- ilowt-r, ])frclianco, on which
the cyt' of inaii may never rest, sown hy the
wind on the k>dffe of some bold precipice or
in the far off wilderness, has myriads of
active beings swarming round it. Beautiful
creatures, likewise, which no human eye
may look upon, yet perfect in their kind,
are attracted by the shelter wliich the lone
flower yields them, and are nourished by its
beauty, rendering in return those treasures
beneficial to the plant itself, which would
othenvise continue as unprofitable as hoarded
gold to the miser.

The months in which the common hawk-
weed expands its yellow-tinted petals to the
sun are those of beauty and luxuriance.
Almost every other flower is then open,
and all kinds of insects are abroad. Bees
are seen in quest of honey or farina, with
'which to construct their waxen cells ; you
may hear their pleasant hum us they hasten

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 121

from one blossom to another, loaded witli
yellow dust ; gay-coated insects seem dancing
on the sunbeams, as if in quest of a per-
petual spring ; and butterflies emulate the
colours of those splendid flowers, on which
they shut and open their gorgeously tinted
wings. And yet, though seemingly intent
on merely varying their sources of delight,
they have all and each, a duty to perform
in the magnificent museum which they are
designed either to embellish or to benefit.
Functions are carried on by them, which,
although presented to the senses in their
effects, the mind is unable to comprehend.
And not more truly does one part of an
exquisite piece of machinery fit into the
other, than the structure of even the smallest
flower is adapted to the winged creatures
that frequent it ; and those winged creatures
to the simple flower, their fit dwelling-place,
"The little insect's world of joys or cares."

122 MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED.

The common liawkwced has many kindi-ed.
Some p^row on mountain tops ; others in
quiet valleys at their base ; some hide them-
selves among long grass : others, again,
love the margin of clear streams. The Al-
pine hawkweed Avill only thrive in moist
ground on the sides of mountains, where
streamlets gush forth, and fall %%ith a plea-
sant munnur into the vale below ; or else
where springs abound, and spread themselves
among the herbage, where the foot of the
passer by is made wet when he sets it down :
although from the dense growth of the short
grass, and upland plants, he may not discern
the boggy nature of the soil. This species of
hawkweed grows, therefore, on the mountain
of Ben-na-Caillich, in the Isle of Skye, and
on Rhiwr Glyder, about one hundred yards
above the Lake of Llyn y Cvrm ; those cloud-
capt mountains, down the sides of which
streamlets ooze forth continually. The

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 123

creeping hawkweed, a less aspiring plant,
although it sluinks from the heights of lofty
mountains on which tempests beat, and loud
winds make their mournful music, often as-
pires to somewhat of an elevated station. It
has been seen equally on the sides of Fair-
field Mountain, near Rydall, in Westmore-
land ; as in watery places, beside Coxbench
Wood, in Derbyshire. The narrow-leaved,
the orange, and the slu'ubby, the rough-
bordered, and the wood, the shaggy, and
the glaucous, with all their numerous re-
latives of heath and field, have each their
assigned locality. They are rarely seen in
the same place ; or if they grow contiguous,
they do not blossom at the same season
of the year ; so beautiful and unbroken is
the order that everjnvhere prevails. The
narrow-leaved, that lovely mountain plant
which tourists delight to gather on the
sunny flanks of Dalehead, not far from the

124 MOUSF.-EAK HAWKWEKD.

waters of (jrasiiierc, iluwcrs in July; the
orange, which unfolds its golden-coloured
petals in the same niontli, enlivens the
depth of solitary woods ; the shrubby is
seen on wood-sides and hedge-banks. The
rough - bordered, of which the glaucous
under-green of the dark leaves sufliciently
distinguishes it, beautifully varies the deep
woods of southern Scotland, and those of
Perthshire and Durham. The shrubby,
w'liich grows generally in the woods of Bri-
tain, opens its numerous flowers at seven in
the morning, and warns the weary herds-
man or woodcutter to rest from his labour,
when its petals begin to close at one or
two. The wood-hawkweed seems to linger
where the footsteps of men, great it may
be in their day, and renowned in past ages,
have once trodden. Fine sjoccimens have
been gathered on the old Roman camp, near
Newberry, and from off the walls of Dud-

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 125

ley Castle, while the Lawsoni, or glaucous
hairy hawkweed, with its fringed leaves
and large and handsome lemon-coloured
flowers, still grows upon the rocks beside
the rivulet between Shap, and Anna- well,
in Westmoreland. They grew there, at least
one hundred years since, when my ancestor
gathered their bright flowers from ofl" the
margin's brink, and heard the pleasant mnr-
mur of the streamlet, which flows, as then
it flowed, reflecting and partaking the love-
liness of all around. Thomas Lawson has
long passed from among the li%ang, but
tufts of the small flower that bears his name
are growing still in the same sequestered
spot. It may be that on such a spot, so
lone and rarely visited, some wanderer might
thus apostrophise the simple hawkweed :

]QG MOISE-EAR IIAWKWEED.

What dost thou here in tliis wilJ wild spot,

Where no curling smoke is seen
Wreathing at eve from the turf-cutter's cot,

Nor children's steps have been ?

The cry of the curlew alone is heard,

With the splash of the lonely rill ;
But the cheerful song of the wayfaring bird,

Soundeth not from the wood-crown'd hill.

For no wood-crown'd hill with its waving trees,
Hath a place on the wide wide plain ;

Nor the whispering voice of the evening breeze,
Murmurs low 'mid the ripening grain.

But the gusty wind is careering now,
And the storm-clouds are driving fast ;

And responds the creak of an old oak bough,
To the roar of the angry blast.

Methought as I stood in this moody eve.
While the storm-clouds were riding high,

That words from the lone flower seem'd to breathe
As the breath of the summer wind's sigh.

MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED. 127

Ask me not, why aloue in this wild wild spot,

Where no blossoming roses smile,
My days glide on, and my lonely lot

Seems strange in the sea-girt isle !

Rather seek to know, why a simple flower

Mid the stones of the heath must remain ;
Where the winds are loud, and the pitiless shower

Beateth oft on the wide, wide plain.
My lot is low, but the stones of the moor.

Were my cradle when life was young ;
The dew bathed me oft in its fountain pure,

And the soft wind my lullaby sung.
I am part of a whole, a link in the chain

That bindeth creation together ;
The same dew, the same air, the same light must
sustain

Man's life, as the brown mountain hether.

No flower of the meadow, no herb of the field.
No tree from the wood might replace me ;

My duty is small, yet the service I yield.
Is too great, for thy hand to displace me.

128 MOUSE-EAR IIAWKWEED.

^ly haunt is not where the roses bloom,
And the nightingale warbles her tale.

To cheer the lone depth of the forest gloom,
Is mine, or the stone-clad vale.

There are dwellers thine eye rarely heedeth.
That the blasts of the heath must endure ;

They have fears all, or wants all, which needeth
A shelter or home on the moor.

Then think not the heath-loving flower,
Has been placed by her Maker in vain.

The weak creatures called forth by His power *
It is mine, through His will, to sustain.

'-^t.

^

GLOBE-FLOWER.

Praised be the mosses soft,

In earth's pathway very oft ;

And the thorns which make us think,

Of the thornless river brink,

Where the heavenly tread !
Praised be thy sunny gleams,
And the storm that worketh dreams

Of calm unfinished.

Elizabeth B. Barrett.

Trollius EurojxEtis. Globe-flower, or Gowlans.

The name given by Gesner, who thus Latinized the German
word trol, spherical ; descriptive of the globular form of the
flower.

In its wild state
Opening Closing

At sunrise. When the sun

withdraws his beams.

134 GLOBE-FLOWER.

no lieavy- laden waggons creek along the
road : but, instead of these, are the song of
the soaring lark, and the merry descant of
early birds, answering one the other, the
grasshopper's shrill note, the gush of waters,
and soft whisperings of winds among the
masses of huge stones covered with wild
thyme and heath. And when the sun arises
higher, the sound of distant sheep-bells,
and the bleating of flocks are heard among
the hills.

A meadow with its flowers, to which
bees come humming, ever presents a pleas-
ing object to the eye ; green lanes, with
ferns and mosses, have their own peculiar
beauty ; downs on which cattle graze impart
an hilarity to the mind ; but nowhere does
the eye rest with such a fulness of delight
as on broken ground skirting a ' rapid
streamlet, while beside it and among the
masses of stone, upspring such flowers as

GLOBE-FLOWER. 135

delight in the purest air of heaven, or
such as open to the sun while their roots
are bathed in the stream. The globe-flower,
as just noticed, was one of these, mingled
with marsh-marigolds, bog pimpernels, large
flowered willow herbs and lilies of the val-
ley, luxuriant as those which grow on the
bank, and among the eddies of a rivulet
that flows beside the rocky pathway, leading
from Harlech's ruined tower. Other flowers
were likewise seen in the same wild spot.
Here and there bright blossoms of the
gorse still lingered ; heaths grew in all their
beauty and luxuriance, the bright yellow
stone-crop covered large masses of broken
stones ; the eye-bright and heart's-ease, those
delicate little flowers which, like true hap-
piness, seem to rejoice in being concealed,
were half hidden among tufts of grass ; the
lesser bind-weed entwined the scarlet stalks
of the red sorrel, like a thyrsus of living

136 GLOBE-FLOWER.

green, while the shepherd's needle, with its
small white flowers, the cowslip, and blue
bell, bladder scorpion, and St. John's wort,
varied the sterile soil.

The charm of association is familiar to
every cultivated mind. Whether remote or
near, it is ever a chief source of pleasure
or emotion, and when the objects which
awaken our remembrances are miited with
the beautiful or picturesque in nature, the
effect is proportionably increased. How un-
speakably important then, is the blending
of religious thoughts and feelings with all
that is verdurous and lovely in this beau-
tiful creation, with those noble trees that
shade us from the noonday heat, with such
bright flowers as spring beside our pathway,
that when the mind begins to weary, and
the cares of life press heavily, our inmost
being may be refreshed with thoughts of
peace and love ! Ancient heathens well

GLOBE-FLOWER. 137

knew the effect produced by such associa-
tions. Apollo, with his quiver and golden
bow, was brought to the remembrance of
his worshipers, when the beams of the
rising sun irradiated the blue and misty
scenery of the horizon. Naiades were fabled
to hold their courts in the clear depths of
crystal waters, or to haunt beside forest
wells. Cornfields were peopled with ima-
ginary deities, that presided over the corn
in every stage of growth and preparation.
Forest-trees were fabled to be indwelt by
dryads and hamadryads, and fawns were
everywhere beheved to tread " the sunny
soil with resounding feet." The young
child, born of pagan parents, whose heart
had not as yet been corrupted by that
unhallowed system which substituted ima-
ginary, and too often evil beings in the
place of Him, who alone is the one object
of all true worship, knew nought of the

138 GLOBE-FLOWER.

undcr-cuvrcnt of corruption which flowed
beneath the flowers of old imagination. And
I can readily believe that many a young
mind rejoiced, while gathering bright gar-
lands for idol worship, in the fond hope
of performing a sacred duty. Those days
have passed by, and the shadowy forms of
pagan superstition haunt no longer the green
and flowery banks of streamlets, England's
fields of corn, or forest walks : the flowers
which grow beside our paths are no longer
consecrated to unhallowed rites, beneath
the blaze of golden temple-lamps. But
while forgetting these, and rejoicing in the
light of better days ; why are not sweet
odours from the flowers of thought, blended
with the beauty and the fragrance of na-
tural objects ? Why are not those glimpses
of the wonders of creation, which seem to
shed a light and gladness in beholding them,
brought before the minds of youth ? As-

GLOBE-FLOWER. 139

sociated, too, with love and reverence for
Him who has created and upholds them,
that man may find pure symbols of His
beneficence ever present to the mind, in
unison with all that is most lovely in
the fair creation, with clear streams and
breezy uplands, with green hills smiling
in the distance, resounding woods, and
rustling trees, with the opening morn,
and the dews of evening, that the heart
may gladden in beholding them ! Works
of art, however rare and splendid, cannot
yield for any length of time the delight
which is continually excited by the emerg-
ing: of flowers from out their winter dwell-
ings, as the year advances in its course.
Coming up, it may be, with the smiling
faces of returning friends, and seeming to
look cheerfully on all around. Pure as the
young child's spirit, they are the first ob-
jects of infantine delight. Children, too.

140 GLOBE-FLOWER.

love to gather and to bear them in their
hands to those Avhom most they love. The
old man who walks abroad in a fine spring
morning, when the air is balmy with the
sweet scent of honeysuckles and wild roses,
feels his heart expand with joy. The flowers
that meet his view may perhaps remind him
of the gladsome days in which he looked
upon them with friends who have long since
departed. Melancholy is blended with such
thoughts, but it is a melancholy that bids
fair to render the heart better. The flowers
of spring and autumn have faded and re-
appeared, during many successive seasons
since he gathered them with bounding steps
on the sunny grass, and they may seem as
emblems of his own mortality. He may sigh
to think that all flesh is but as grass ; the
goodliness thereof as a flower of the field;
yet they still remind him, that as the love-
liness of nature is restored, according to the

GLOBE-FLOWER. 141

promise of spring-tide and of harvest, so
shall the dead awake from the darkness of
the grave to light and immortality. Such
are the reflections that may arise within
the. minds of those who are verging to the
close of life ; standing, as it were, on the
confines of two worlds ; looking back to the
mistiness and gloom, the temptations and
mercies of their past existence ; forward to
the blazing thrones and the golden harps
of heaven's choirs, at the glorious morning
of the resurrection. Such are the hopes
which belong to declining age, breathing as
sweet odours from the shore to weary voya-
gers. But youth is the season for active and
decided virtue — trials too; for the young
combatant in life's arena has ever to con-
tend with constant and unwearied enemies ;
unseen, yet near him; powerful, yet seem-
ing powerless ; ever watching to hint unholy
thoughts; to lure him from straight paths

142

GLOBE-FLOWER.

into those which lead astray. He has need,
therefore, to derive incentives for encourage-
ment from every object which his Heavenly
Father has given as sources of innocent en-
joyment, or as prompting to active duty.

True it is that the Holy Scriptures reveal
only one unfailing source of strength, but the
garden of creation teaches much ; and there
is a small still voice which speaks through-
out all nature, which teUs that God is ever
present, and which invites to hallowed and
divine communion. When the sweet spring
is ushered in with fleecy clouds and warm
sunbeams, bright rainbows and glittering
showers ; when the song of birds is heard,
and mifrozen streams leap sparkling adown
the banks, what joyous feelings elevate the
mind ! Delightful is it, then, to walk abroad
when sights and sounds of gladness are
around us. The saddest heart foregoes its
sadness for a small moment, and the grateful

GLOBE-FLOWER. 143

spirit bounds upwards to the Source of all
good. Nature then is beauty to the eye,
and music to the ear ; fragrance, too, for the
air is perfumed with the scents of primroses
and hawthorns. Yet all this beauty, and
melody, and fragrance, are but as voices in
the mighty anthem, which is begun by those
who are invisible, and which continually ce-
lebrates the greatness and the benevolence
of God. " All thy works praise thee," said
the Psalmist, when, in a strain of unequalled
eloquence, he calls upon the hosts of heaven,
the stars of light, the great waters, and
stormy winds, mountains, and all fruitful
trees, cattle, and flying fowl, to join with
him in praises to the Great Jehovah, whose
glory is above the heavens and the earth.
The mind of him who has not been taught
to acknowledge the Creator in things created,
is unequal to comprehend the beauty and
magnificence of the material system ; the

144 GLOBE-FLOWER.

loveliness, too, of lesser things, and the pure
lessons wliich are taught by every opening
leaf or flower. The spacious vault of heaven
is not to him as the temple of the Living
God, nor from earth's great altar does the
incense of thanksgiving continually ascend.
Far otherwise are tlic thoughts and aspira-
tions of the Christian. He feels, indeed,
that the curse still presses hea\dly on nature ;
that his mind is often bowed dovm. and
weary, that he cannot praise his Maker as
he ought to praise Him ; but he rejoices
in the hope that the hour is hastening on,
when the curse shall pass away ; when the
whole creation, freed from the oppression
which now enthralls it, shall rejoice in the
consciousness of dehverance.

WATER LILY.

" Mark where transparent waters glide,
Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed ;
There, cradled on the dimpling tide,
Nymphaea rests her lovely head.

" But conscious of the earliest ray,

Though night mists veil the lake or land.
She hastes to greet the orient day,
And bids her peerless sweets expand.

" Till the bright day star to the west
Declines, in ocean's surge to lave ;
Then folded in her modest vest,

She slumbers on the rocking wave."

Charlotte Smith.

Nymphma alba. White Water Lily, or Water Can.
A name derived from being found in the fabled haunts of water
nymphs.

Flowers Flowers

Rise and open as Close as the sun

the sun arises. declines.

146

WATER LILY.

HOSE who love to walk beside
the Little bays and inlets of al-
pine lakes, at that glorious hour
when the rising sun lights up a purple glow
on the mountains' tops, may see the elegant
water-lily gradually imfolding her splendid
white or pinkish flowers :

" The water hly to the light
Her chahce rears of silver bright."

Emulating her sister lily, the sacred Lotus
of the Nile, she arises from off the water,
and throws back her petals as the sun gains
an ascendency ; till at length she is seen
floating on the bosom of the lake, and beau-
tifully reflecting the warm beams of the
meridian sun. Thus calmly floating, whe-

WATER LILY. 147

ther on the bosom of a native lake, or whe-
ther on the waters of the Nile, whether
bearing the familiar appellation of the water-
can, or that of the sacred Lotus, the white
lily and her congener are everywhere dis-
tinguished for their surpassing beauty ; now
gently heaving, as the waters heave beneath
them, now shaken by the breezes that sweep
freshly across the stream, and now stationary,
when the sun is at its height, and the mir-
ror-like surface of the lake reflects the gran-
deur of the mountains by which it is en-
circled. Water insects find a shelter among
their ample leaves, a place of refuge when
sudden storms disturb the waters, and rain-
drops begin to fall, that might crush them
by their weight. There is much in each
of these lovely flowers to excite the ad-
miration of the most incurious ; their snowy
whiteness, their watery home, the sparkling
bubbles of pure oxygen gas that are copi-

148 WATER LILY.

ously evolved from the leaves, and which
shine like diamonds in the sunbeams; the
bright insects that sport around, and the
reflection of their flowers in the tranquil
mirror on which they frequently repose !
But there are other things than these to
speak of, and to admire ; less obvious, in-
deed, but not less curious or less expressive
of His goodness who called the water-lily
into being. Those pure and ample petals,
which delight us by their beauty, are ar-
ranged like concave mirrors, white, and
highly burnished for the purpose of reflect-
ing the full power of the sunbeams on the
yellow stamens, and of counteracting the
effects that might other\\ise result from the
humid atmosphere in which the lily grows.
The leaves too, how curious they are ! Un-
like those of land plants, the under surface
is more thickly coated than the upper, in
order to prevent their exquisite machinery

WATER LILY.

149

from being injured by constantly remaining
on the water. The reverse of this is seen
in all such trees, or plants, or flowers, as
grow on land. In each, the upper surface
is thickly or slightly varnished, according to
the places of their growth, or their exposure
to wind and rain. The delicate green leaves
of such plants as open in warm weather ;
for example, the vine, the rose, or honey-
suckle, look as if a brush lightly dipped
in varnish had passed over their upper sur-
faces, while those of the laurel or the bay,
the holly or the common ivy, are richly
varnished on both sides, because they are
liable to be shaken up and down by eddy-
ing winds, and are consequently exposed
to the action of heavy rains.

The lily is open at noon day, with her bril-
liant petals and bright yellow anthers ; but
gradually as the sun declines from his me-
ridian height, so gradually shuts up the

loO WATER LILY.

flower. Raised from out her watery bed,
expanded and kept open by the stimulus of
light, no sooner does that exciting cause
begin to lessen, than the lily closes ; and
when the last faint rays of the setting sun
have faded from off the lake, the flower has
folded up her petals. Then, having lost her
buoyancy, she sinks by her own weight into
the stream, which closes around her like a
curtain, and the lily is no longer seen. He
who delights in the solitude of nature, to
walk beside a mountain lake when the moon
is up, and every glen and mountain is veiled
with slight wreathing mists, would seek in
vain for his favourite flower. He might
have thought to see her looking full towards
the glorious moon, pale, yet lovely, and
reflecting her cold beams, as the moon her-
self reflects the beams of the sun, his witness
in the heavens, that though unseen by man,
he is shining still. The bright sun will call

WATER LILY. 151

that lily forth again to clothe the waters
with fresh beauty ; but when the seeds are
ripe the purpose of her growth is finished.
Where the petals and the leaves have floated,
the heavy seed-vessel may be upborne no
longer; the leaf-stalks which arose from out
the bottom of the lake, presenting a canopy
of leaves and flowers to the action of the
sun and wind, with all their exquisite me-
chanism, for the purposes of life and nu-
triment have done their work. Pressed
down by the terminating weight, they sink
gradually, and in sinking bring down with
them the ponderous and many-celled globes
containing seed. The globes then decom-
pose into a gelatinous mass, and the dis-
engaged seeds become deposited therein. If
the bed of the mountain lake, or river, be
rich in soil, the vegetable decomposition
serves to enrich it still more : if pebbly, the
gelatinous mass forms a nucleus around the

15Si WATER LILY.

seeds, in which they may quickly germinate.
When this is done, a bulbous root, de-
scending from each little seed, fixes itself
in the soil or among the pebbles, and forth
from each, springs up a leaf-stalk, which
often rises to a considerable height from out
the bosom of deep waters. And thus, from
year to year, the lakes and rivers of this,
and other countries are beautifully varied
with the floating globules of the water-lily.

That peerless lily to the light
" Her chahce rears " of purest white ;
And bees, and many coloured things,
With dappled coats and glittering wings,
Unceasing hum the leaves among,
As if to swell the matin song
That rises now from vale and glen,
From warbling birds and grateful men.
Each little insect's world of care,
Perchance of visions, fond as fair,

WATER LILY. 153

Of cherish'd homes and infant race,
And all that charms their natal place.
But who, in truth, may guess or tell
What thoughts those tiny bosoms swell 1
Oh ! I could sit beside the brink
Of that bright lake, and soothly think
Of Him who made the mountain high,
Yet bends on earth a watchful eye ;
Who bade the flower of peerless white
Uplift her petals to the light.
That stand like burnish'd pillars round
To guard from harm her fairy ground,
Where summer creatures love to dwell.
And sip from out the brimming well ; *
The well, though full and brimming ever.
Yet leaping o'er its margin — never.
Fair flower ! thou art not made in vain !
Nor yet to grace that watery plain ;
Nor yet, that living things may dwell
Within thy bounds, beside thy well.

* Nectary, or honey cup, in which many flowers
secrete a sweet juice.

154 WATER LILY.

But aye, that erring man may look
And read, as from an open book,
Of Him who, when on earth he trod,
Drew oft from flowery brake, or sod,
Or warbling bird, in glade or glen.
Lessons of truth for anxious men.

GREAT BINDWEED.

The lark sings loud, and the throstle's song

Is heard from the depth of the hawthorn's dale ;
And the rush of the streamlet the vales among,

Doth blend with the sighs of the whispering gale.
But this little flower, the road beside,

Speaks low to the mind of the passer-by ;
While the whispering wind in his airy ride,
Says, look, to that flower, the hedge-row's pride,

She doeth her day's task lovingly.

Convolvulus sepium. Great Bindweed.
The specific name is derived from convolvo, to twine around :
sucli being the habit of these plants.

Opening Closing

At sunrise. In the evening.

156

GREAT BINDWEED.

ACH flower telleth its own tale,
■ g^ always good, often beautiful, and
never failing to give the passer-
by some useful hint at least, and such as
may help him onward in life's journey.
Hear, among others, the thoughts which
the wild convolvulus may suggest, when,
speaking to the mind, she discourses con-
cerning quiet duties and daily actings, which
have nought of this world's glory to com-
mend them.

Set often as a light upon a hill, as a
symbol by the dusty road ; now gracefully
twining round the stalks of corn, now climb-
ing the tall bushes, and holding forth her
white trumpet- shaped flowers, in their own
singleness and beauty. None of her sisters

GREAT BINDWEED. 157

in mead or hedge-bank are more widely
scattered ; she may be seen on heaps of rub-
bish, in company with those simple grasses
which Linnaeus knelt beside, when looking
at them, and praised the Lord for having
made. And often, when twining beside the
cottage window, she seems, while shaken by
the fresh morning air, to motion the sleep-
ing inmates to arise. Come forth, ye sleep-
ing ones, for thus the Muse interprets her
soft voice ; a glorious light is spreading
on the hills, and the stars are bHnking,
and already the lark is seen upspringing
from among the gorses on the moor ; those
mountain gorses, which teach men to be
strong, however pricked and encompassed
with sharp trials, like their own bright thorn-
encompassed blossoms, wliich look cheerful
when the snow and hail beat heavily upon
their sterile growing-places ; which teach
gladness, when no outward sources of glad-

158 GREAT BINDWEED.

ness are apparent; tokens upon the bleak
hill's-side, even in chill winter, that beauty
is ready to burst forth ; Mountain gorses
teaching as from an academic chair, cano-
pied with the blue heavens,* that, although
placed high, they shun not to live low upon
the ground to shelter many a sweet songster
that soars from amid their thorny citadels
to bear his song towards the rising sun ;
or, perchance, the timid leveret or the conies,
feeble folks, which have no other hiding-
places ; mountain gorses resembling those
holy men who sit in heavenly places as
beacons to the world, being seen from far,
yet disdain not to mingle with the lowly,
and give shelter to many a weak and feeble
one, who have no song with which to thank
them.

But the convolvulus has a different sta-

* Vide Miss Barrett's beautiful lines to the Mountain
Gorse, " Poems," vol. ii. p. 281.

GREAT BINDWEED. 159

tion in the vegetable world. Her place
is lowly, and she has not to bear the stern-
ness of winter storms ; therefore she is not
enwrapped in strong fibres, and roughly
coated, nor is she fenced and guarded with
sharp thorns. But her leaves are green
and spreading, and her petals pearly white,
and he who passes by her often hngers to
observe her symmetry and beauty. Lovely
indeed she is, and the botanist may recount
concerning her, that she has an assigned
duty wliich no other flower could fulfil.
One day comprises her short life, but in
that one day no work which she has to
do is left undone ; and wonderfully is she
constructed for the doing of that work.
Her trumpet-shaped corollas are designed
to reflect the rays of the sun, and, like
highly polished mirrors directed to one focus,
convey as much heat as possible to the in-
terior. Those who are interested in the

160 GREAT BINDWEED.

beautiful economy of the vegetable world,
may discern by this simple token, that the
convolvulus is designed for places open to
the wind or to grow beneath the shade of
trees. She is endowed, too, with an in-
stinctive motion, by which she is enabled
to obviate many local inconveniences ; to
rise from out her lowly or thickly tangled
place of growth, by twining round the stems
of neighbouring shrubs or trees. This fa-
culty she possesses in common with the red-
berried bryony, which often wanders over
stony banks, and forms a beautiful drapery
of lively green, with the hop, and lady's-
seal, and others equally aspiring ; but while
in several species the voluble stems twine
around their neighbour plants, from east
to west, the spiral stems of the convolvulus
tmni from west to south-west. Such com-
passes of Nature's making, have proved un-
erring guides to travellers when journeying

GREAT BINDWEED. 161

in pathless solitudes. An hospitable flower is
she. The Phalaena Elpenor and Sphinx Con-
volvuH, or Unicorn Moth, are her frequent
guests. The former is provided with a long
and pliant proboscis, rolled up in concentric
circles under the chin, and capable of being
extended above three inches in length. The
trunk consists of joints and muscles, divided
at the termination into two capillary tubes,
and by means of this the Unicorn Moth
readily obtains the sweet juice which exudes
from the nectary of the corolla. A matin-
flower, too, is she, unfolding when the sun
arises, and closing when the shadows of the
trees begin to lengthen on the grass ; hint-
ing it may be, in unison with other open-
ing and closing flpwers, with the matin and
even-songs of grateful birds, concerning du-
ties which few remember, or, perhaps, cai-e-
lessly fulfil.

M

16^ GREAT BINDWEED.

Matins and even songs, why are ye forgotten ?
Ringing tliroughout all time. On earth, in air,
O'er waters murmuring, or through glen or valley,
Some notes are heard, swelling at mom or eve
With louder descant when all else is still ;
Save such calm sounds as silence loves to hear :
Be they of whispering winds or tuneful birds,
Heard loudest when the young day looketh forth
Above the hills, and stars begin to blink ;
And twilight and her mists slowly withdraw
From off the grey hills, and the groves and streams :
Or when she cometh back, with all her train
Of dews and wreathing mists, and kindling stars
Studding the heavens — though pale and dimly

seen.
Oh ! then the vespers that glad birds may sing
Are heard in all their fulness, warbling thanks
To Him who made them ; whose sustaining hand
Upholds their little lives, and bids them range
'Mid groves, o'er plains, by streamlets, making glad
The solitary places, where all sounds
Are hush'd as midnight, saving winds and streams.

GREAT BINDWEED. 163

And then their matin songs are surely sung,

When day comes back and stilly night is gone ;

Past to eternity, e'en with the days

Of countless ages from the birth of time.

0 ! I have heard those birds, when all was still ;

When dews lay heavy, and the deep lone vale

Look'd as an inland lake enwrapt in mist ;

From which the neighbouring hills and waving

woods
Rose as high banks, and the more distant hills,
Gleam'd with a golden light, while from the

groves
Came warbling voices, pouring forth a strain.
The muse interprets, of warm grateful thanks
To Him who kept them through the live-long

night,
When prowlers walk'd the earth, or climb'd the

trees —
The trees, their homes, on whose high waving

boughs
They slept in peace, unharm'd, then sallying

forth

164 GREAT BINDWEED.

With earliest dawn to hymn their Maker's praise.
Hark to the sound of whispering winds at eve,
Rustling among the branches ; or at morn,
When scarce the wakeful lark his matin sings,
Soaring and warbling from amid the heath.
Till lost in mid air ! Stirring winds are then
Heard in the woods, e'en like the solemn sound
Of weltering waves that idly onward roll
Over smooth sands, unchafed by barrier rocks,
]\Iaking a soothing murmur. He who roves
Through shady lanes, where overhead the rose
Droops in its beauty, and the tiny lamps
Of glow-worms kindle in the mossy banks,
May hear those vesper sounds among the trees.
And oft in autumn, when the sun is set.
And twilight lingers still o'er dale and plain.
As loth to let the night usurp her place,
May hear soft winds, sporting the woods among.
Or 'mid the corn, causing those rustling sounds
Which seem as if the ears themselves had life.
And would form words expressive of that praise
The Psalmist calls on all inanimate things

GREAT BINDWEED. 165

To body forth ; — the sun, the moon, the stars,
Fire, and all hail, snow, vapours, stormy winds,
Mountains, and fruitful trees, to praise the Lord ;
Those rustling sounds do seem to bid the heart
Forego its sadness, and all haunting cares
To keep their distance ; murmuring at still eve,
Breathing of peace and hope, most solemn they ;
And he who hears them longs to hear again
Those sounds unearthly, which advancing morn
Nor noon may share in ; for all matin sounds
Cease when the air grows warm, and frequent steps
Are on the green turf; or along the road
The ponderous waggon creaks upon its way.
But those who list such matins, vespers too,
Nature's pure chant, must rise while drowsy men
Rest on their beds, while yet no curling smoke
Wreathes from the cottage, while the watch dog's

bay
Is silent, and a few dim stars on high
Still linger in the blue expanse. And then
His walk at eve must be when bustling sounds

166 GREAT BINDWEED.

Of life liave ceased, and the soft fresh gale
Is fragrant with sweet scents of balmy flowers.
And aye, amid the sounds of morn, at eve
Of winds and streams, and warbling voices heard
'Mid glens and glades, making a grateful chorus.
There is a noiseless vesper, and a matin,
That ceaseth never in those pleasant months,
When he who walks abroad may see around him
Symbols of heavenly things recurring ever ;
The dews, the silent dews, at morn or eve,
That gem the green sod, cheering all on earth.
Be they, or flowers or buds, green blades or corn.
All are refresh'd. That same pure heavenly dew
Is silent, changeless, stealthy ; yet without it
All life must fail, all gladsome things be silent.
All flowers must wither, and the hot parch'd
earth • '

Become e'en as a desert. Why, 0 man.
Why dost thou fail to render that pure worship
All nature yields ? Why on thy drowsy bed
Dost thou still sleep, when matin birds are singing

GREAT BINDWEED. 167

And flowers are opening, and the pleasant wind
Is breathing round thee, and the doors are open
Of sacred fanes where holy men have knelt
On sabbath days, and oft, on week days too ?
Not mourning now the hours they loved to yield
To Him who saved them, who nor toil nor time
Spared for his brethren's sake, when on this earth
His weary steps were seen, and oft his tears
Fell fast for those who scorned his lowly guise.
Years have past since, and blessed ones have risen
From off this earth, and they are waiting now
The break of that glad morn, which soon shall rise
On sleeping, dreaming thousands ; ay, on those
Who dream no more, whose beds no kind hand

makes,
No friend sits by, the lone, the dark, the chill,
Where all are equal, most forgotten lie
By those who loved them ; for the gates of death
Are oft oblivious, and few care to think
Of those whose spirits wait, and fondly hope.
For that bright morn, when He who came to save

168 GREAT BINDWEED.

This woe-fraught world shall surely come again,
And take it for his own, and hurl from hence,
Those hated guests, twin brothers, death and sin.
And he, the foul one, who has reign'd long
Prince of the air, a murderer from the first.
But destined soon to quit the ransom'd earth.
And hear the shout that waits his hurling forth
To fire and chaos, and the pit that hath
No bottom where the foot may find a hold.
Oh then, loud songs shall burst from glade and

glen !
But not as now, matins and vesper songs.
Alone of birds, or whispering winds, or streams,
Heard loudest, when all sounds of life are still ;
Or, perhaps, a few lone voices chanting forth
His praise who made them, in few fanes at

best ;
But songs displacing groans, and gladsome chaunts
Taking the place of wailings, and bright smiles
Instead of sighs ; and children's happy voices.
Blended with harpings loud, and songs of birds,

GREAT BINDWEED. 169

Striving to sing as loud as men can chant.
And strange sounds from glad creatures, murmur-
ing, blissful;
Expressive of the fulness which all hearts
Do share in ; one glad universal chorus
Of love, and holiest gratitude arising
From off the ransom'd earth, which gladly breaketh
Into most glorious songs, and is at rest.

PASQUE-FLOWER.

Hail to thee, lovely flower

On the wide moor's lonely breast ;
Awake at the star-lit hour,

When the skylark leaves her nest !

Aiiemone Pulsatilla. Pasque-flower.
Generic name derived from a Greek word, signifying the wind :
being readily agitated by the slightest breeze ; specific from
the season of flowering, about Pasque time, or Easter.

Opening Closing

Verj' early in the morning. At even-tide.

172

PASQUE-FLOWER.

PENING to the changing skies of
April sits the wild anemone, or
Wl pasque-flower, in her upland so-
litude, alone, in all her beauty : for no sister
hath she on her long floral stalk. What
doeth she there, a solitary flower, now with
driving storms and the hollow moaning of
wild winds ; and now with the rainbow cir-
cling over her, and rain drops on the grass
around her, glittering and waving in the
glorious sunbeams as they struggle through
the clouds ? Sitteth she not there as the
harbinger of sunbeams and soft showers,
noting that the nightingale, sweetest of Bri-
tish songsters, is about to build her nest;
that the cuckoo and the wryneck, with the
numerous family of swallows, swifts, sand-

PASQUE-FLOWER. 173

martins, and the " temple-haunting martlets"
— welcome birds — are close at hand; that
the orange-tipped butterfly, frequenting the
borders of woods and shady lanes, will soon
be here in company with the small white
and cabbage butterflies, younger sisters of
the vernal butterfly, the earliest of the year,
which braves the winds of March and flits
among the yellow blossoms of the gorse ?
She heralds, too, the constellations rising in
their turn ; and he who sees her thus watch-
ing the clouds and sunbeams as they come
and go, may look when evening has closed
in for the appearing of Serpentarius towards
the east ; for Anser, Lacerta, Stellio, and
Libra, with its beautiful collection of bright
twinkling stars, on the echptic ; and when
the nights are clear,

" That milky way
Which nightly as a circling zone thou seest
Powder'd with stars."

174 PASQUE-FLOWER.

The soaring lark finds her awake in the gray
morning, when the flowers on tlie heath are
sleeping around, and all is still as midnight.
The lark sings to her, and she watches his
upward progress, soaring and warbHng, till
he seems but as a speck in the firmament of
heaven.

Fond bird, that swift on duteous wing,
Preced'st the shadowy paths of spring.
When first around our changeful skies,
Renew'd her soft'ning lustres rise.
That fondly fram'st the cradhng sphere,*
As genial breathes the rolling year ;
Resigned in gloom of wintry hours.
For Thebes, or Nilus' sultry towers.
Like thee, within this sorrowing breast,
Affection reigns a halcyon guest,
Leads the gay dance of sprightly joys,
That life's relenting gleam employs.
But ne'er from distant shores awhile
Inconstant woos a wayward smile,

* Alluding to the peculiar construction of aswallow's nest.

PASQUE-FLOWER. 175

Ah no ! whate'er reverse may prove,
'Tis mine, unchanging, still to love.
To love — but 0 ! what mortal name
Can bind to earth the soaring flame 1
Mj Saviour, whom in Heaven, like Thee,
Or whom on earth, beloved may be ?
0 ! grant, that as, on punctual wing,
This gentle bird precedes the spring ;
As buds unfold, and flowers appear,
And beauty crowns the grateful year ;
So, constant at thy temple gate,
My soul renew'd may soaring wait.
And bear with grateful heart to heaven,
Each gift thy gracious hand has given.

Smiling-, smiling to the changing skies of
April, sits the wild anemone, pre-eminent
among her sisters of the heath, associated
with the birds and wandering butterflies of
spring, and her welcome constellations, look-
ing down from amid the clouds, when all
seems dark on earth. But the sunbeams

176 PASQUE-FLOWER.

and the showers will soon perfect her ma-
tron beauty, and then he who passes by
may see small feathery seeds, waiting only
for a passing breeze to waft them from off
the downy receptacle, round which the pe-
tals circled. And here it may, perhaps, be
well to speak concerning the wonderful
arrangement of the vegetable kingdom, by
means of which, each seed has its own pe-
cuhar facilities for finding a lodgment in the
earth. Every seed, then, consists of four
different parts, the cotyledon or seed-lobe,
the heart or corculum placed within the
seed-lobe, the eye or hilum, a sort of ex-
ternal scar, and, lastly, the seed-coat or
arillus. Each of these dissimilar parts has
a separate function to perform, and is es-
sential to the development of even the
smallest seed. The cotyledons nourish the
young plant when it expands within the
earth ; they furnish, Hkewise, the first leaves.

PASQUE-FLOWER. 177

and frequently accompany the ascending
stem, when it emerges to the light, chang-
ing from white to a light green tint; and,
as if un\\illing to forego the duties of their
subterraneous life, they perform occasionally
the office of leaves for a short time to
the infant plant, and then decay. This pe-
culiarity is very obvious in the garden bean.
The heart, or corculum, is very elegant in
its expansion, changing often from a feath-
ery appearance to a tuft of leaves, which
gradually rises upwards, and when the na-
ture of the plant renders unnecessary the
farther ministration of the seed-lobes, it
accompanies the stem. The heart, too,
contains within itself the rudiments of fu-
ture leaves; equally in the minuter as the
larger kinds, in the garden bean and acorn
as in the chervil and the hemp, the tobacco,
of which one hundred and twelve weigh
only a single grain, and the white poppy,

N

178 PASQUE-FLOWER.

which is computed to contain in its urn-
shaped seed-vessel, tliirty-two thousand seeds.
Those of the cm-rant afford familiar objects
for the microscope ; the ligneous parts of
the future plant are readily discovered with
the aid of a magnifier. In those of the
white water-lily, or can, the Nymphsea of
ancient botanists, from being found in the
fabled haunts of water njmiphs, the embryo
leaves are so clearly developed, that it is
even possible to discover to what kind ot
plant the seeds belong. In examining those
of the trembling grass, a perfect plant be-
came apparent, with its small branching root,
and tiny blades of grass. Seeds of the straw-
berry, in like manner, present the appear-
ance of strawberries in miniature.
" Lo ! on each seed, within its slender rind,
Life's golden threads in endless circles wind.
Maze within maze the lucid webs are roll'd,
And, as they burst, the Uving flame unfold.

PASQUE-FLOWER. 179

The pulpy acorn, as it swells, contains
The oak's vast branches in its milky veins ;
Each ravell'd bud, fine film, and fibre line
Traced with small pencil on the small design :
Grain within grain successive harvests swell.
And boundless forests slumber in a shell."

Three imperishable agents, pervading alike
the majestic frame of man, as the smallest
blade of grass ; ministering to the green-
ness of the hills, and the blue mistiness
of the distant mountains, are essential to
the development of seeds. Atmospheric
air, heat, and moisture, are everywhere dis-
coverable. Oxygen gas, Kkewise, an ingre-
dient in our atmosphere, is absorbed by
seeds in vegetating. Hence, to cite a fa-
miliar instance, it happens not unfrequently,
that if lettuce-seed is sown in separate pots
of earth, the one open to the air, the other
in the exhausted receiver of an air-pump,
the seeds contained in the former soon be-

180 PASQUE-FLOWER.

gin to vegetate, and shoot to the height of
at least two inches in about three weeks;
but in the latter none appear. Still the
vital power continues unimpaired; requir-
ing only to be stimulated by the ministry
of heat and moisture ; and thus it would
have remained dormant, yet existing, if ages,
instead of days, had passed over it. If the
imder soil of old botanic gardens is thrown
up, species reappear wliich have been unseen
in the same spot within the memory of man ;
earth, likewise, taken from a considerable
depth is often covered with young plants.

Very curious, too, is that dormant faculty
within a seed, which urges the young root
in a direction opposed to the stem : that,
while the stem presses upward, the root
goes downward, with its own elaborate and
beautiful machinery, its sap-vessels and ab-
sorbing vessels, to draw moisture from the
earth. The descent of one, and the up-

PASQUE-FLOWER. 181

rising of the other, are doubtless occasioned
by the agents already mentioned, acting
equally on the root and leaf-bud, and caus-
ing an ascent and elongation : the one de-
signed to fix a plant or tree firmly in its
place of growth ; the other, with its flowers,
or leaves, or fruit, to minister to the delight,
or to the wants of man, yielding seed after
its kind, and embellishmg the surface of the
earth. The loss or preservation of that vi-
tal principle, concerning which I have just
spoken, is equally curious and worthy of
remark. The seeds of many garden flowers
and culinary plants lose their vegetative
power in the course of a short time. Others
may be exposed to all seasons, and great
vicissitudes of climate, and even continue
buried for ages beneath the soil, till an ex-
posure to the air and light enables them to
bud forth.

In northern latitudes, two tempestuous

182 PASQUE-FLOWER.

seasons, the vernal and autumnal equinoxes,
materially assist in the dispersion of seeds.
Summer breezes, or fierce winds, are to
them as winged steeds, bearing them over
moors and mountains to the destined place
of their growth. Tornadoes are often re-
quired to drive forth from out the dark
pine-forests of northern regions their firmly
adhering cones. Spring gales disperse over
the fields of Britain seeds from such dry
stems as have remained in sheltered places
dui'ing the winter months. Others which
ripen in the summer, arc upborne by breezes
which scatter them in lanes and meadows.
Hence it happens not unfrequently that the
seeds of mosses, and those of different flowers,
are conveyed to high places on which a
thin and meagre soil has been deposited by
the decay of crustaceous lichens, whence
they spring forth, and clothe the arid soil
with a luxuriant vegetation.

PASQUE-FLOWER. 183

Beautiful is it to observe the infinite
variety of means by which the same pur-
pose is effected. The seeds of at least fifty
genera are furnished with prickles, hooked
at the end; these adhere to such animals
as either frequent or graze the places of
their growth, and are conveyed to distant
parts. The chamois, bounding from rock
to rock, on the mountains of Carniola,
Greece, and Carpathia, conveys to the Al-
pine regions of Switzerland and Savoy, the
flowers which cover his native soil. Ante-
lopes, spread nearly over the whole of Africa,
partially in Eastern Europe, and through-
out the plains of Western, Middle, and
Southern Asia, bear from one region to
another the prickly seeds which have ad-
hered to their fur. Seeds belonging to a
hundred and thirty-eight species are either
vdnged, or else provided with downy ap-
pendages, wliich render them both light

184 PASQUE-FLOWER.

and buoyant, and cause them to float upon
the air when scarcely any wind is stir-
ring. In others, the capsules open when the
seeds are ripe, and dislodge them with a
sudden jerk. And how very beautiful are
those winged or curiously constructed seeds
which the winds rock in their green cradles
before bearing them away! Those of the
common dandelion seem like fairy shuttle-
cocks ; others may be compared to feathers ;
others, again, rise on slender stalks, with one
minute groove fitting into the other, or rest
like small diadems on the maternal calyx,
as if unwilling to forego their hold. Those
of the carhne thistle are tiny darts, headed
with a plume. Ossian remarked the rapid
dispersion of seeds, when, many ages since,
he observed in his own mountain home,
among rocks and cataracts, the singular con-
struction and elegant appearance of this
little seed floating over the wild heath, or

PASQUE-FLOWER. 185

"borne upwards by the wind. " Zephyrs,"
said he, " are sporting on the plain and
pursuing the thistle's beard."

Flowers delight the eye with their con-
struction or their beauty ; but not less in-
teresting are the capsules of different plants,
treasuring up the future riches of the ve-
getable kingdom, and placed on footstalks,
that they may be the more exposed to the
action of the wind. And in these, what
infinite variety ! Some are barrel-shaped,
others are like octagon boxes, a few are
egg-shaped, some are round, and covered
with lids ; others, again, may be compared
to a balloon with its boat attached. The
seed-vessel of the common poppy resem-
bles a Roman urn, and it is more than pro-
bable that the forms of many ancient vessels,
such as pitchers and goblets, may have been
suggested by differently shaped capsules.
Wlien the rich crimson petals begin to

186 PASQUE-FLOWER.

fade, the seed-containing vessel is completely
closed ; by degrees the cover becomes gra-
dually elevated, till it presents the appear-
ance of a beautiful little dome, supported
by a circular range of pillars, and affording
as many separate openings for the escape
of the imprisoned seeds. Nor less deserv-
ing of attention is that change of position
in the calyx-supporting stems, for the more
ready dispersion of the treasures which they
contain. Of this the chickweed and the
cyclamen offer famihar instances. In one
the stalk gradually twists itself spirally down-
wards till it reaches the ground, and even
penetrates the earth ; cradling the seeds,
and most probably yielding nourishment
from the parent plant ; as, when sown, they
uniformly refuse to vegetate. The other, to
wliich Linnaeus gave the name of Dode-
catheon, signifying twelve heathen deities,
from the singular elegance of its construe-

PASQUE-FLOWER. 187

tion, presents, on the contrary, a very dif-
ferent appearance. The bending flower-
stalk becomes gradually erect, the pitcher-
shaped capsules are upturned to the sun,
and the seeds remain till fully ripe, when
the capsules begin to open, and the seeds
are scattered by the wind.

The pasque-flower which gave rise to
these remarks, grew on a common amongst
wild thyme and juniper, sheltered towards
the east by an ancient wood, and watered
by a streamlet which now hurried impetu-
ously on, and now flowed calmly among
corn fields and meadows, reflecting and par-
taking the beauty of all around, till whirl-
ing again in troublous eddies, its mellow
voice was heard sounding through the vale.
Common objects and familiar scenes ever
awaken the deepest interest. He who stood
on that wild common might remember it in
far-off scenes ; for the old wood had its

188 PASQUE-FLOWER.

own deep beauty ; the shadows of drooping
branches, beech or hazel, played upon the
stream that flowed beneath them ; and in
the distance, " the green pastoral farm came
out into the light," and such sounds as
awaken thoughts of rural Hfe were borne
upon the breeze. I have often stood there,
in all tlio loveliness of a fine spring morn-
ing, when dew was on the grass, and the
sky-lark up in air, and the bleating of sheep
was heard upon the common. In autumn,
too, it was my favourite resort ; for then, far
as the eye could reach, swept the resound-
ing woodlands, with the solemn sound of
waving branches and contending winds, and
the richness of their glowing tints. Then,
too, the air was filled with thistle-down,
and the fioating seeds of the dandelion and
the pui-ple goat's-beard ; and on the dancing
waves of the bright stream floated the seeds
of different water plants, and such as fell

PASQUE-FLOWER. 189

from the bordering trees. Those of the
water-fennel which grew there, resembled
small canoes, hollowed in the middle, and
raised at both ends into a prow ; those of
the bull-rush were constructed like a lob-
ster's egg ; and what I have frequently ob-
served on the ripples of that small stream,
when autumn seeds fell from the bordering
flowers, or were carried thither by the wind,
occurs on a large scale throughout the ve-
getable kingdom.

In countries which have never been brought
into cultivation, where native forests extend
to the water side, and the cliffs are covered
with overshadovdng foliage of native growth,
the seeds of such plants and trees as grow
beside them are generally adapted for float-
ing on the water. The kernels of the ma-
ritime pine are enclosed in capsules re-
sembling small bony shoes, notched on the
under side, and covered on the upper vdth a

190 PASQUE-FLOWER.

cuticle not unlike a ship's hatch. Like the
shoes of the fabled hero of fairy-land, they
are those of speed and silence, passing over
the surface of the billows, and journeying
on by day and night, amidst storms and
waves, where no human foot would dare to
follow them. The fruit of the great gourd
is contained in capsules resembling bottles ;
that of the cocoa and hazel in small casks
which are capable of floating with the cur-
rents from one hemisphere to another. The
berries of the royal pimento, common to the
shores of Lousiana, are encrusted with wax,
and are thus enabled to resist the effect of
salt water.

" No star have they to guide their course
Or Tyrian cynosure,"

or pilot to guide them over the boundless
ocean. Yet still they journey on, aided by

PASQUE-FLOWER. 191

the winds and waves, till they arrive at the
places of their destination.*

Thus have I essayed to blend with the
unassuming- pasque-flower, blooming on her
native heath, thoughts that may, perchance,
incline the heart to explore, still farther, the
wonders of creation. An harbinger is she
of flowers and green leaves ; she heralds
the coming back of birds and butterflies, and
the rising of glittering constellations. But
more than this, she is mseparably connected,
not only by a bond of union with the earth
and air, but is linked to that invisible chain
of beings which holds the universe together
in the bond of coeval existence.

What learn we from this ? Ancient poets,
beneath the quivering boughs of silver-barked
birch-trees, surveying nature as a glorious
temple, peopled with imaginary beings,
erected altars to them on the sunny turf,
* " Wonders of the Vegetable Kingdom."

192 PASQUE-FLOWER.

or beneath the shade of oracular trees. Had
the light of natural history shone on them,
as it shines on us, they would have seen
only in the beautiful construction of a sim-
ple flower, fresh causes of belief in the mi-
nistry and presiding care of thoughtful genii.
But the Christian poet, borrowing from all
natural objects some fresh incentive to ac-
tive duty, might look upon the flower of
the heath, and remember, in the beautiful
words of a gifted writer, that " any Christian
spirit working kindly in its little sphere,
will find its mortal life too short for its vast
means of usefulness."

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KEY to KNOWLEDGE; or, Things in Common Use simply
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STORIES of EDWARD and his LITTLE FRIENDS. With 16

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CONVERSATIONS on AS-
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THE HISTORY of PRINCE
LEE BOO. New Edition,

MORE TALES for IDLE
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NINA, an Icelandic Tale. By
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py," &c. New Edition.

RHODA ; or. The Excellence of
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SPRING FLOWERS and the
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WELCOME VISITOR, or The
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One Shilling each xvith Coloured Plates, or in cloth, \s. 3J.

1. The Almiabet of Goody
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2. Cinderella ; or, The Little
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4. Costumes of Different
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5. The Cries of London.

6. Tlie Courtship, ;^L4RRIAGE,
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1 1 . Dame Trot and her Cat.

12. The History of the Apple
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25. A Peep at the Stars, in
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27. Kings of England. Part II.

28. Peter Piper's Practical
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33. Take Your Choice; or.
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34. ToAiMY Trip's Museum of
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35. Tommy Trip's do. Part IL

36. Tommy Trip's Museum of
Birds. Part I.

37. Tommy Trip's do. Part II.

38. Walks with Ma.mma ; or,
Stories in "Words of One Syl-
lable.

39. Whittington and his Cat.

40. The Word Book ; or,
Stories chiefly in Three Letters.

This book it DUE on the last
date stamped beiow.

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