THE JONQUIL. 



he neglects the insect which resorts to it, the bird which 

 enhvens it, the quadruped which feeds upon its foHage and 

 reposes under its shade. Mark, for instance, the Jasmine of 

 Virginia, with its beautiful verdure and purple flowers. It 

 still remains a stranger amongst us. We always prefer to it 

 our lovely honeysuckle, from which bees delight to sip the 

 honey, off which the goat browses its foliage, and which supplies 

 its fruit to myriads of blackbirds, warblers, chaffinches and 

 goldfinches. We do not doubt but that the rich Virginian 

 Jasmine would equal these attractions in our eyes if we could 

 see it enlivened b}' the humming-bird of Florida, which, in 

 the vast forests of the new world, makes choice of its beau- 

 tiful foliage in preference to all other shelter. It builds its 

 nest in one of the leaves, which it rolls up like a trumpet ; 

 it finds its food in its red flowers, which resemble in shape 

 those of the foxglove, whose nectareous glands it sips from ; 

 it conceals within them its little body, when the appearance 

 is as of an emerald set in coral, and it sometimes goes in so 

 far as to allow of its being caught. This little bird is the life 

 and the soul, the perfection of the flower which cherishes it ; 

 separated from its aerial guest, this elegant twiner is like a 

 desolate widow who has lost all her charms. 



THE JONQUIL {Narcissus jonquilla). — DESIRE. 



Thomson writes of " Jonquils of potent fragrance," a 

 quality which several poets have noted. Thus Prior, — 



"The smelling tuberose and Jonquil declare 

 The stronger impulse of the evening air," 

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