FLORA'S LEXICON. 147 



=il 



YRTLE. My r lus. Class 12, Icosandria. 

 Order: Monogynia. The oak has ever 

 been consecrated to Jupiter, — the laurel to 

 Apollo, — the olive to Minerva, — and the 

 myrtle to Venus. Among the ancients the 

 ^ myrtle, was a great favourite, tor its ele- 

 gance, and its sweet and glossy evergreen 

 foliage. Its perfumed and delicate flowers seem destined to 

 adorn the fair forehead of love, and are said to have been made 

 the emblem of love, and dedicated to beauty, when Venus first 

 sprang from the sea. We are informed by mythological writers 

 that when the fair goddess first appeared upon the waves, she 

 was preceded by the houris with a scarf of a thousand colours, 

 and a garland of myrtle. 



LOVE. 



See, rooted in the earth, her kindly bed, 

 The unendanger'd myrtle, deck'd with flowers, 

 Before the threshold stands to welcome us ! 



Wordsworth. 



Fall, rosy garlands, from my head ! 



Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed 



Around a younger brow ! 



Wordsworth. 



In peace, love tunes the shepherd's reed ; 



In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; 



In halls, in gay attire is seen; 



In hamlets, dances on the green; 



Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, 



And men below, and saints above ; 



For love is heaven, and heaven is love. 



Scott. 



Love the sense of right and wrong confounds, 

 Strong love and proud ambition have no bounds. 



Dryden. 



