OX. Buxus. Class 21, MONŒECIA. Order: TETRANDRIA. This tree is made symbolical of a Stoic, on account of the firmness of its wood, which, like the Stoics of old, cannot be warped. The box was formerly a favourite ornament for gardens, being planted in hedges and borders, which were

STOICISM. CONSTANCY.

O foolishness of men! that lend their ears
To those budge doctors of the stoic fur,
And fetch their precepts from the cynic tub,
Praising the lean and sallow abstinence.

MILTON.

How goodly looks Cytorus, ever green,

With boxen groves.

DRYDEN.

Nor box, nor limes, without their use are made,
Smooth-grain'd and proper for the turner's trade;
Which curious hands may carve, and seal
With ease invade.

I have won

VIRGIL.

Thy heart, my gentle girl! but it hath been
When that soft eye was on me; and the love
I told beneath the evening influence,
Shall be as constant as its gentle star.

WILLIS.
Why have I not this constancy of mind,
Who have so many griefs to try its force.
ADDISON.

Proud of her birth (for equals he had none),
The rest she scorn'd, but hated him alone;
His gifts, his constant courtship, nothing gain'd,
For she, the more he loved, the more disdain'd.

DRYDEN.

ROOM. Genista. Class 17, DIADELPHIA. Order: DECANDRIA. We presume that this plant has been made the emblem of neatness from the uses to which it is constantly applied. In our country villages, and throughout the country, it is known to every thrifty housewife as affording besoms for sweeping, whence originated the name of "broom" for those domestic cleansers.

There are many useful species of it. "The broom," says Mr. Martyn, "converts the most barren spot into an odoriferous garden."

NEATNESS.

On me such beauty summer pours,
That I am cover'd o'er with flowers;
And when the frost is in the sky,
My branches are so fresh and gay,
That you might look at me and say,
This plant can never die.

The butterfly, all green and gold,

To me hath often flown,

Here in my blossoms to behold

Wings lovely as his own.

WORDSWORTH.

Hypericum, all bloom, so thick a swarm

Of flowers, like flies, clothing her slender rods,
That scarce a leaf appears; mezereon too,
Though leafless, well attired, and thick beset
With blushing wreaths, investing every spray;
Althea, with the purple eye; the broom,

Yellow and bright, as bullion unalloyed

Her blossoms.

COWPER.

Sweet blooms genista in the myrtle shade.

DARWIN.

RYONY. Bryonea Dioicia. Class 21, MoNOECIA. Order: TRIANDRIA. The name Bryony, and the botanical one, Bryonea, are derived from a Greek word meaning to push forth, or grow rapidly. The root grows to an enormous size; in former times of ignorance and superstition, cunning impostors made use of it in their pretended miraculous doings, and sometimes artfully contrived to make the root grow sufficiently like the human figure to be supposed a magical resemblance. They effected this by placing a mould of the shape required round the roots of a healthy young Bryony plant, fastened with wires; and such is the rapid growth of the root, that the image would be formed in one summer.

PROSPERITY.

The slender Bryony that weaves
His pale green flowers and glossy leaves
Aloft in smooth and lithe festoons;
And crown'd compact with yellow cones,
'Mid purple petals dropp'd with green,
The woody nightshade climbs between.

MANT.

-Nightshade's purple flowers,
Hanging so sleepily their turban'd heads,
Rested upon the hedge; and Bryony,
So lavish of its vinelike growth, o'erhung
And canopied the flowers; while soften'd gleams
Of sunlight, falling through the leafy screen,
Shed a faint emerald tinge upon them all.

TWAMLEY.

Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear;
But seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near.

WEBSTER.

4

UTTER-CUP. Ranunculus Eris. Class 13, POLYANDRIA. Order: POLYGYNIA. This plant contains many virulent qualities, which are said to affect cattle, especially sheep, and particularly the root, which has the property of inflaming and blistering the skin. Shakspeare mentions it as the cuckoo

Nettles, cuckoo-flowers,

Darnell, and all the wild weeds.

And Clare, the Northamptonshire poet, alludes to its ungrateful qualities in some lines on the "Eternity of Nature:" detailing his morning's walk, he says,

I wander out and rhyme;

What hour the dewy morning's infancy

Hangs on each blade of grass and every tree,
And sprents the red thighs of the humble bee,
Who 'gins betimes unwearied minstrelsy;
Who breakfasts, dines, and most divinely sups,
With every flower save golden buttercups,-
On whose proud bosoms he will never go,
But passes by with scarcely how do ye do,'
Since in their showy, shining, gaudy cells,
Haply the summer's honey never dwells.

INGRATITUDE.

I served thee fifteen hard campaigns,

And pitch'd thy standards in these foreign fields;
By me thy greatness grew; thy years grew with it,
But thy ingratitude outgrew them both.

DRYDEN.

He that's ungrateful, has no guilt but one;
All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.

He that doth public good for multitudes,
Finds few are truly grateful.

YOUNG.

MARSTON.

AMELLIA, or JAPAN ROSE. Camellia Japonica. Class 16, MONADELPHIA. Order: POLYANDRIA. This splendid genus of flowers received its name from Geo. Joseph Kamel, whose name is written Camellus in Latin, a Jesuit, writer of a botanical work. It was introduced into England about the middle of last century, and has become a great favourite with florists, both in that country and the United States. There are many very splendiù varieties to be found in the gardens and conservatories of Philadelphia.

MY DESTINY IS IN YOUR HANDS.

In pleasure's dream or sorrow's hour,
In crowded hall or lonely bower,
The business of my soul shall be,

For ever to remember thee!

MOORE.

Oh magic of love! unembellish'd by you

Has the garden a blush or the herbage a hue?

Or blooms there a prospect in nature or art,

Like the vista that shines through the eye to the heart?

That happy minglement of hearts,

MOORE.

Where, chang'd as chemic compounds are,
Each with its own existence parts,

To a new one, happier far!

MOORE.

Oh what, while I could hear and see
Such words and looks, was heaven to me?
Though gross the air on earth I drew,
'Twas blessed, while she breath'd it too;
Though dark the flowers, though dim the sky,
Love lent them light, while she was nigh.

MOORE.