ILLmolS HUKTI CULTURAL SOCIETY. 297 



Then' above the slumbrous rivers, bi^'her tlian the white clouds ko. 

 Looking out upon the ocean from the silence and the snow, 

 While the generations vanish and the haunted moonbeams shine 

 Ghastly througli the moss-gray l)ranches, waves the stately Lambert pine- 

 Here, transferred into my acres, into glorious life they spring. 

 Round their stems, through all the winter, feet of little snow-birds cling. 

 Ami the nests of singing roliins with the swinging branches swing. 

 .Standing near, and shooting sunward, till its top seems piercing through 

 To the gulfs and central secrets of the heaven's unsounded blue. 

 Bathing its enormous foliage in the billows of the sun, 

 Towers the peerless Gigantea, stately tree-of Washington. 



Uazzle, o: august Tantheon I shine, Athenian Parthenon .' 

 Xever nobler piles have slept beneath the kisses of the moon ; 

 With your gates of bronze, and i)omi) of flashing dome, and marble coluniu. 

 And your every nook with phantoms of departed glory solemn; 

 Kise, () I monoliths of Luxor I from your graves of >ellow sand. 

 And beside the Seine and Tiber tower above a wondering land. 

 Yet your domesiuid pointed columns, glittering shafts of polished stone. 

 Are 1\> THESE but noisy rills beside the rushing Amazon. 

 They were green when in the rushes laid and moaned the Hebrew chiUI; 

 They were growing when the granite of the pyramids was piled, 

 Gree)i when Funic hosts at Cauna' bound the victor's gory sheaves. 

 And the grim and numgled Komans lay around like autumn leaves: 

 From their tops the crow was calling when the streets of Home were grass. 

 And the brave Three Hundred with their bodies blocked the rocky pass: 

 In their boughs the owl was hooting when upon the Hill of Mars 

 Paul rung out the coming judgment, pointing upward to the stars- 

 Here, with loving hand transplanted, in the noonday breeze they wave. 

 And by night in silent seas of silver-arrowed moonbeams lave. 



8andy phiins of Arizona, granite steeps of Colorado, 

 Valleys lying cool and dim within the A.lleghenies" shadow, 

 1 lillsides of Nevada, tangled with a web of nu)nstrous ^■ines, 

 Treasures more than golden lend me— rarest firs and noblest pines. 

 Lend my Table mountain, hooked, glorious Jlontezuuui pines. 

 From where winds that blow from Cyprus roll with many a hollow moan 

 I'ound the cliffs and clanging gorges of the glittering Lebanon, 

 Whence the bronze<l slaves of Hiram to the Sacred Jlountain bore 

 < ioodly beams and fragrant limbers, wood for wall and roof and door, 

 1 have brought my giant cedars with my western pines to stand. 

 Glorious with their whispered memories, with the nuirch of victors, grand; 

 Grand with worlds of sweet traditions, and with histories sublime. 

 Downward borne from trampled cities and the mouldy vaults of Time- 

 Golden Jubilees across the gulf of hungry centuries blown. 

 With the trail and purple rustle of the robes of Solomon. 



Where the Kio Grande's fountains leap like panthers from the mountains 

 To the vales that sleep below, leaning over gulfs enormous. 

 The resplendent Strobiformis* waves amidst eternal snow— 

 From its rocky throne transplanted, here it drops its giant cones. 

 Thrilling all the winds of evening with its grand ^F^olian tones. 



*The strobifuruiis is the largest pine of New Mexico, growing on the highest mountains and reaching a height of 100 

 or 180 feet. Its name implies that it stroii^ily resembles the well known white pine or Finus sfrobus- The co/ics aro ten 

 inehes long iind iihoimd with resin. The sngar pine is a remarkable species found on the sandy plains westward of the 

 Kocky mountains. A sweet, resinons juiee plentifully exudes from the t^ee, ils trunk attains a height of L'lO feet and not 

 unfretiuently a diameter of .'JO Jeet Its branehe^ are pendulous and form an open pyramidal head, the lea\es from four 

 to five inche.'i long; the cones are pendulous from the extremities of the branches and wlieii mature sixteen inches long. 

 The seeds are lar^e, oval and winged and form quite an important article of food among the Indians. The Montezuma 

 pine grows at the height of 11,0(X) feet on the mountains of .Viexico The Sabine pine is a noble Califoruian species, 140 

 feet high and remarkable for its large heavy cones; the nut is large and edible. Its appearance is peculiar and it ia 

 30* 



