36 WILD FLOWERS OF 



looked at ; and most certainly, if evergreens are ever 

 beautiful, it must beat this denuded season, when 

 their aid in the shrubbery and the landscape is the 

 only redeeming feature that presents itself. Hence 

 the EVERGREENS now so prominently visible in gar- 

 dens and plantations, have been thus allegorically 

 distributed in the following lines of a poem conse- 

 crated to this early portion of the reign of two-faced 

 Janus- 



" O'er the lover 



I'll shake the berry'd mistletoe, that he 



May long remember Christmas : to the son 



Of boasting war, I'll give the holly-leaf, 



And its red berries', such he'll find its meed, 



A little show of pomp, and many thorns. 



I'll give the poet ivy ; for, like it, 



Around the ruin'd pile he ever clings, 



Adorns the loneliest spot with fancy's charms, 



And props the tott'ring column in his rhymes. 



I'll give the scholar fir -, for he must be 



Like it for ever green, erect, and firm, 



And with his needles of philosophy 



Contemn the snows of life. Here's darkling yew, 



The mourner must have that, who seeks the shade, 



And hides his melancholy head in caves, 



Or by the sandy beach, utt'ring aloud 



His dull soliloquies, unseen, unknown. 



Here's laurel for the school-boy."* 



How beautiful now the various firs, cypresses, and 

 cedars ; how imposing the lonely though sepulchral 

 yew in its frondal magnificence ; how reviving the 

 laurel, laurustinus, bay, holly, ivy, and even mistletoe, 

 high nestled up among the trees with its milk-white 

 berries. The latter, to young and frolic notions not 

 incompatible with the season, requires experimental 



Christmas ; a Masque for the Fire Side. 



