SPIDER OPHRYS. 



Though no warm or inurniuring zeph\r fan thy leaves with bahny wing, 

 Pleased we hail thee, spotless blossom, Herald of the infant Spring. 



White, as falls the fleecy shower, thy soft form in sweetness grows ; 

 Not more fair the valley's treasure, not more sweet her lily blows. 

 Drooping harbinger of Flora, simply are thy blossoms drest ; 

 Artless as the gentle virtues mansioned in the blameless breast." 



So pleasing is the appearance of the Snowdrop, when she 

 pierces through, and expands her flower over, the snow ; she 

 seems to cast a smile upon the severity of winter, and to say 

 to us, " I am come to cahii your fears ; I am come to console 

 you in the absence of bright days, and to reassure you of 

 their return !" 



SPIDER OPHRYS {0. ^^m;///'m^).— Skill. 



Idmon of Colophon was in great repute as a dyer. He 

 liad a daughter Arachne, whose skill in weaving was such 

 tliat in her pride she challenged Minerva to a contest in the 

 art of weaving. Arachne wove a piece of cloth of so much 

 beauty that the goddess could not find any fault in it, but 

 t(jre it into pieces, at which the weaver was so grieved that she 

 hung herself The rope was transformed into a cobweb, and 

 Arachne into a s])ider, from which we infer that man learnt 

 the weaving art from the spider, and first apph'ed it in Lydia. 

 1 he flower is a remarkable production of Nature, being one 

 of those where slie has j:)roduced in the vegetable kingdom, 

 an imitation (jf anim.il life. Here we see, as it were, upon a 

 plant the 



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