NARCISSUS OF THE WILLOW. 81 



people, who feared to disturb one of them, lest they should 

 incur the vengeance of the fairies. The rose chafer's apparent 

 sovereignty over the ant-hill would have naturally therefore 

 invested him, in Hibernian eyes, with the dignity of Kings of 

 Fays, and have made him, in consequence, an object of 

 propitiatory homage. 



Although we have enlarged on the idea, we are not the first, be 

 it here observed, who has been bold enough to recommend " a 

 nasty beetle '' to the notice of the ladies. John Curtis, the cele- 

 brated botanist and entomologist, selects from another family 

 of the same order, the Cera/mbyx moscliatus, or musk beetle, as 

 a worthy object of their observation, and as one amongst others 

 whose keeping would afford " a rational amusement in the con- 

 templation of nature's works " a small sallow or willow, planted 

 in a garden pot, would afford, he says, a suitable station for 

 this brilliant and graceful creature. As regards elegance of 

 figure we must confess, freely, that our "Love among the 

 Roses" must resign the palm to this "Narcissus of the Willow," 

 often imaged in the glassy streamlet. In richness of enamelled 

 bravery, green, and gold, and purple, the recommended favourites 

 are much upon a par ; but there is one personal and peculiar 

 charm possessed by "he of the willow" over "he of the rose," 

 from whom, however, we cannot help supecting, that the 

 former must once have slily filched it. This gift, or stolen 

 jewel of attraction, which may very likely turn the scale at once 

 in its possessor's favor, is none other than a delicious perfume, 



