112 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



VY. Hedera. Class 5, Pentandria. Or- 

 der: Monogynia. Faithful love secures 

 with a branch of ivy the quickly fading roses 

 which adorn the brow. Friendship has 

 chosen for its device an ivy which clothes a 

 fallen tree, with these words : — " Rien ne 

 peut rrCen detacher" In Greece, the altar 

 of Hymen was surrounded with ivy, a sprig- of which was pre- 

 sented by the priest to a new-married spouse, as the symbol of an 

 indissoluble knot. The Bacchantes, old Silenus, and Bacchus 

 himself were crowned with ivy. Ingratitude has sometimes been 

 represented by ivy, as when it attaches itself to a young tree it 

 confines the stem, and consequently prevents the free circulation 

 of the sap. The author of a French work has repelled this ca- 

 lumny. The ivy appears to him to be the emblem of eternal 

 friendship ; he says, " Nothing is able to separate the ivy from 

 the tree around which it has once entwined itself; it clothes the 

 object with its own foliage in that inclement season when its 

 black boughs are covered with hoar frost ; the companion of its 

 destinies, it falls when the tree is cut down. Death itself does 

 not detach it, but it continues to decorate with its constant ver- 

 dure the dry trunk it had chosen as its support. 



FRIENDSHIP. 



Though long the time since I my friend have seen, 



Though long to me his tongue hath silent been, 



Though absence, distance, and diverse pursuit 



Might seem to aim at Friendship's vig'rous root, 



Yet is the plant too tough" to own the pow'r 



Of life's poor, changing, transitory hour. 



No ! Friendship is a plant of heavenly birth, 



Constant its nature, and immense its worth, 



Its essence virtue, and is known to rest 



And glow most warmly in the virtuous breast ! 



Prattent. 



