LILY OF THE VALLE\ 



less chastity is there recorded, than Susannah, the White 



Lily. 



LILY OF THE VALLEY {Cojivailaria majalis).— 

 Return of Happiness. 



" Fair flower, that, lapt in lowly glade, dost hide beneath the greenwood 

 shade, 



Than whom the vernal gale 

 None fairer wakes, on bank or spray, our England's Lily of the May, 

 Our Lily of the vale !" — Bishop Mant. 



This greatly admired flower loves the recesses of our 

 valleys, the shade of oak-trees, and the banks of flowing 

 streams. From the early days of May she unfolds her ivory 

 flowers, and scatters their fragrance around. Then the 

 nightingale forsakes our hedges and our thickets, and seeks 

 in the forest glade a companion, a loneliness and an echo 

 which responds to his song ; led by the perfume of the Lily 

 of the Valley, the lovely bird soon finds an agreeable asylum ; 

 there he takes up his abode, where he celebrates, in most 

 melodious notes, solitude and love, and the flower which, in 

 each succeeding Spring, proclaims to him the Return of 

 Happiness. 



Shelley calls our flower a Naiad, — 



" The Naiad-like Lily of the Vale, 

 Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale, 

 That the light of its tremulous bells is seen 

 Through their pavilions of tender green ;" 

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