OPLAR, BLACK. Populus Niger. Class 22, DICECIA. Order: OCTANDRIA. This tree is consecrated to Hercules, who, according to the fable of the ancients, wore a crown made of its foliage when he descended into the infernal regions. This fable accounts for the different shades which the leaf has on either side in the following manner. The leaves on the side next the head of Hercules preserved their natural colour, or, some say, received that dim and pallid hue from the moisture on his brow; while those on the other side, being exposed to the smoke and vapour of the dismal regions he was visiting, were tinged with a darker shade, which they still retain.

COURAGE.

The poplar is by great Alcides worn.

VIRGIL.

The brave man seeks not popular applause,
Nor, overpower'd with arms, deserts his cause;
Unshamed, though foil'd, he does the best he can,
Force is of brutes, but honour is of man.

Whate'er betides, by destiny 't is done,

DRYDEN.

And better bear like men, than vainly seek to shun.

DRYDEN.

Be not dismay'd-fear nurses up a danger;

And resolution kills it in the birth.

PHILLIPS.

The human race are sons of sorrow born;

And each must have his portion. Vulgar minds
Refuse or cranch beneath their load: the brave
Bear theirs without repining.

MALLET.

OPPY. Papaver. Class 13, POLYANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The poppy yields a narcotic juice in considerable quantity, which is frequently administered to procure sleep and relieve pain; on this account, it has been made the symbol of consolation. The ancients, who regarded sleep as the great physician, and the great consoler of human nature, crowned the god of sleep with a wreath of poppies.

CONSOLATION OF SLEEP.

Man's rich restorative; his balmy bath,
That supples, lubricates, and keeps in play
The various movements of this nice machine,
Which asks such frequent periods of repair.
When tired with vain rotations of the day,
Sleep winds us up for the succeeding dawn;
Fresh we spin on, till sickness clogs our wheels,
Or death quite breaks the spring, and motion ends.
YOUNG.

Sleep's dewy wand

Has stroked my drooping lids, and promises
My long arrear of rest; the downy god
(Wont to return with our returning peace)
Will pay, ere long, and bless me with repose.
YOUNG.

The noon of night is past, and gentle sleep,
Which friendly waits upon the labour'd hind,
Flies from the embraces of a monarch's arms;
The mind disturb'd denies the body rest.

Kind sleep affords

SLADE.

The only boon the wretched mind can feel;

A momentary respite from despair.

MURPHY.

DRIA.

RIMROSE. Primula. Class 5, PENTANOrder: MONOGYNIA. The saffron tufts of the primrose announce the return of spring, when we see the snowy mantle of retiring winter ornamented with embroidery of verdure and of flowers. The season of hoar frost has passed, but the bright days of summer have not yet arrived. The period is emblematical of a lovely girl just passing from childhood to youth.

EARLY YOUTH.

By the soft green light in the woody glade,
On the banks of moss where thy childhood play'd,
By the household tree through which thine eye
First look'd in love to the summer sky;
By the dewy gleam, by the very breath
Of the Primrose-tufts in the grass beneath,
Upon thy heart there is laid a spell,
Holy and precious-oh! guard it well!

Yes! when thy heart in its pride would stray
From the first pure loves of its youth away;

When the sullying breath of the world would come
O'er the flowers it brought from its native home;
Think thou again of the woody glade,

Of the sound by the rustling Ivy made.
Think of the tree at thy father's door,

And the kindly spell shall have power once more.

No smiling knot

TWAMLEY.

Of early primroses, upon the warm,

Luxuriant, southern bank appears, unmark'd

By him.

CARRINGTON.

YRUS JAPONICA. Pyrus Japonica. Class 12, ICOSANDRIA. Order: TRIGYNIA. The brilliant colours and woody growth of the Pyrus Japonica make it contrast strikingly with the pale and fragile snow-drop, near whose modest bells this superb native of Japan may often be seen. The buds and flowers of brightest crimson, with their golden-coloured anthers, come peering out through the snow-wreaths that lie lightly upon their trained stems. The white and pink varieties of the Pyrus Japonica are also very beautiful, but have not the rich and glowing splendour of the crimson, which, from its hardiness, is more worthy of our esteem than most of our foreign acquisitions, that generally require the shelter of the green-house.

THE FAIRIES' FIRE.

Ha! are they out?

My summer friends, the fairies? Surely not;
Yet who but they have lit these tiny fires,
That gleam and glow amid the wintry scene?
Yes, here they are, aweary of the storms,
And wrecking winds, and pinching frosts, that keep
Within their darksome prison-house of earth
The gay and spendthrift flowers; here they are,
Lighting their ruddy beacons at the sun
To melt away the snow. See, how it falls
In drops of crystal from the glowing spray,
Wreathed with deep crimson buds- the fairy fires.
And now that there is something bright on earth,
The clouds are driven from the clear blue sky,
And heaven is bright'ning too. Serene and calm,
The very air is hushed into repose,

That not a breath may ruffle the young flowers,
Now gently waking into life and light.

TWAMLEY.

UAMOCLIT. Ipomoea. Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The name Quamoclit is an Indian one, used by the botanists Plumier and Tournefort as generic, but by Linnæus only as a specific name of a pretty species of Ipomoea, sometimes called busybody. It is a native of the East Indies.

BUSYBODY.

O, he's as tedious

As is a tired horse, a railing wife;

Worse than a smoky house: -I had rather live
With cheese and garlic, in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me,
In any summer-house in Christendom.

This is a slight unmeritable man,
Meet to be sent on errands.

SHAKSPEARE.

And though we lay these honours on this man,
To ease ourselves of divers slanderous loads,
He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold,
To groan and sweat under the business,
Either led or driven, as we point the way;
And having brought our treasure where we will,
Then we take down his load, and turn him off,
Like to the empty ass, to shake his ears,
And graze in commons.

SHAKSPEARE.

A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fe.low.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

I am a feather for each wind that blows.