132 FLORA'S LEXICON. 



OTOS. Lotus. Class 17, Diadelphia. 

 Order: Decandria. A favourite plant 

 among the ancients, who frequently refer 

 to it in their poetry and mythology. The 

 definition of Lotos in the Greek Lexicon, 

 says Mrs. Wirt, is this, " A tree whose 

 fruit is so sweet that foreigners, having 

 tasted of it, forget their own country"— whence the proverb, to 

 have eaten of the Lotos, is applied to those who prefer a foreign 

 country to their own. 



Its flower is the emblem of estranged love ; its leaf of recan- 

 tation. 



ESTRANGED LOVE. 



That anxious torture may I never feel, 



Which, doubtful, watches o'er a wandering heart. 



O who that bitter torment can reveal, 



Or tell the pining anguish of that smart ! 



In those affections may I ne'er have part, 



Which easily transferr'd can learn to rove: 



No, dearest Cupid! when I feel thy dart, 



For thy sweet Psyche's sake may no false love, 



The tenderness I prize lightly from me rove I 



TlGHE. 



In want, and war, and peril, 

 Things that would thrill the hearer's blood to tell of, 

 My heart grew human when I thought of thee — 

 Imogine would have shudder'd for my danger — 

 Imogine would have bound my leechless wounds — 

 Imogine would have sought my nameless corse — 

 And known it well — and she was wedded — wedded — 

 Was there no name in hell's dark catalogue 

 To brand thee with, but mine immortal foe's? 

 And did I 'scape from war, and want, and famine, 

 To perish by the falsehood of a woman. 



Maturin. 



