OUSE-EAR, SCORPION-GRASS. Myosotis Palustris. Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. This plant, so celebrated in German love-song, under the emblem of Vergis: mich nicht," has hence been made! to signify "forget me not," by all the son net writers of Europe.

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"Where time, on sorrow's page of gloom
Has fix'd its envious lot,

Or swept the record from the tomb,
It says-Forget-me-not."

FORGET ME NOT.

The blue-eyed Forget-me-Not, beautiful flower,
Half-woo'd and half-stolen, I brought from her bower,
By the bright river's brink, where she nestled so low,
That the water o'er stem and o'er leaflet might flow;
As if, like Narcissus, she foolishly tried

To gaze on her own gentle face in the tide.

Half inclined, half reluctant, the flower bade adieu
To the friends left behind in the dell where she grew;
And a few shining drops, from the river-spray flung,

Like tears of regret on her azure eyes hung;

But I kiss'd them away, as a lover had done,
In joy that my fair river-beauty I'd won.

TWAMLEY.

Remember thee?

Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,
That youth and observation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter.

SHAKSPEARE.

YRTLE. Myrtus. Class 12, ICOSANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The oak has ever been consecrated to Jupiter,-the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva,—and the myrtle to Venus. Among the ancients the myrtle was a great favourite, for its elegance, and its sweet and glossy evergreen foliage. Its perfumed and delicate flowers seem destined to adorn the fair forehead of love, and are said to have been made the emblem of love, and dedicated to beauty, when Venus first sprang from the sea. We are informed by mythological writers that when the fair goddess first appeared upon the waves, she was preceded by the houris with a scarf of a thousand colours, and a garland of myrtle.

LOVE.

See, rooted in the earth, her kindly bed,
The unendanger'd myrtle, deck'd with flowers,
Before the threshold stands to welcome us!

Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!

WORDSWORTH.

Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed
Around a younger brow!

WORDSWORTH,

In peace, love tunes the shepherd's reed;
In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;

In halls, in gay attire is seen;

In hamlets, dances on the green;

Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,

And men below, and saints above;
For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

SCOTT.

Love the sense of right and wrong confounds,
Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds.
DRYDEN.

ARCISSUS, FALSE. Narcissus Pseudo. Class 6, HEXANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The flowers of this plant very often fail. It is a native of our meadows, but is cultivated with great care in Holland, and exported thence under the name of Phoenix, or Soleil d'or. After tending the forced plant

with much care, we are surprised to find that we possess in it nothing better than the false narcissus.

DELUSIVE HOPE.

As rising on its purple wing
The insect queen of eastern spring,
O'er emerald meadows of Kashmere,
Invites the young pursuer near,

And leads him on from flower to flower,
A weary chase and wasted hour,
Then leaves him, as it soars on high,
With panting heart and tearful eye:
So beauty lures the full-grown child,
With hue as bright and wing as wild;
A chase of idle hopes and fears,
Begun in folly, closed in tears.

BYRON.

On life's gay stage, one inch above the grave,
The proud run up and down in quest of eyes;
The sensual, in pursuit of something worse;
The grave, of gold; the politic, of power;
And all, of other butterflies, as vain.

YOUNG.

How must a spirit, late escaped from earth,
The truth of things new blazing in its eye,
Look back, astonish'd, on the ways of men,
Whose lives' whole drift is to forget their graves!
YOUNG.

ARCISSUS. Narcissus Poeticus. Class 6, HEXANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The poet's narcissus exhales a very agreeable perfume; it bears a golden crown in the centre of its pure white petals, which expand quite flat, the stem slightly inclining to one side. The cup or nectary in the centre, which is very short, is frequently bordered with a bright purple circle, and sometimes the nectary is edged with crimson.

Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, tells us of the fate of the lovely and coy Narcissus. A thousand nymphs loved the handsome youth, but suffered the pains of unrequited love. Viewing himself in the crystal fount, he became enamoured of his own image.

EGOTISM.

How beautiful art thou, my winter Flower!
Lifting with graceful pride thy stately head,
Heavy with its rich crown of pearl and gold:-
Thou sheddest on the air such soft perfume,
That I could deem 't was incense, gently flung
Before thy beauty's shrine by some fair sprite
Enamour'd of thy maiden loveliness.
The hyacinth and violet entwined

Have scarce so sweet an odour.

Thanks, my Flower,

My gentle, kind companion - for to me

Thy silence is most eloquent:- I love
Thy quiet steadfast gaze, as, o'er my desk,

The long day through thou hast seem'd watching me,
And ever and anon, in glancing up,

I still have met thy calm unchanging look
Reminding me, in silence, of the friend
Whose gift thou wert to me.

TWAMLEY.

IGHT BLOOMING CEREUS. Cactus Grandiflorus. Class 12, ICOSANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The night-flowering Cereus, or Cactus grandiflorus, is one of our most splendid hot-house plants, and is a native of Jamaica and some other of the West India Islands. Its stem is creeping, and

thickly set with spines. The flower is white, and very large, sometimes nearly a foot in diameter. The most remarkable circumstance with regard to the flower, is the short time which it takes to expand, and the rapidity with which it decays. It begins to open late in the evening, flourishes for an hour or two, then begins to droop, and before morning is completely dead.

Hail! thou glorious, matchless flower!
Much thou sayest to the heart,
In the solemn, fleeting hour.

Ere we have our homage paid,

Thou wilt bow thine head and die;
Thus our sweetest pleasures fade,
Thus our brightest blessings fly.

Sorrow's rugged stem, like thine,

Bears a flower thus purely bright;
Thus, when sunny hours decline,
Friendship sheds her cheering light.

ANON.