166 OBSERVATIONS UPON THE ORANGE TREE. 



" The garden of Proserpina this hight, 

 And in the midst thereof a silver seat 

 With a thick arbour goodly overdight, 

 In which she often used from open heat 

 Herself to shroud, and pleasures to entreat 

 Next thereunto did grow a goodly tree, 

 With branches broad dispread, and body great, 

 Clothed with leaves that none the wood mote see, 

 And loden all with fruit, as thick as thick might be. 



" The fruit were golden apples glistening bright, 

 That goodly was their glory to behold, 

 On earth like never grew, ne living wight 

 Like ever saw ; but they from hence were sold 

 For those which Hercules with conquest bold 

 Got from great Atlas' daughters; hence began, 

 And planted there, did bring forth fruit of gold, 

 And those with which th' Eubcean young man wan 

 Swift Atalanta, when through craft he her outran. 



" Here also sprang that goodly golden fruit, 

 With which Acontius got his lover true, 

 Whom he had long time sought with fruitless suit ; 

 Here eke that famous golden apple grew, 

 The which among the gods false Ate threw, 

 For which th' Idsean ladies disagreed, 

 Till paitial Paris dempt it Venus' due, 

 And had (of her) fair Helen for his meed, 

 That many noble Greeks and Trojans made to bleed." 



Spencer's Fairy Queen. 



u Her lover's genius formed 



A glittering fane, where rare and alien plants 

 Might safely flourish : where the citron sweet 

 And fragrant orange, rich in fruit and flowers, 

 Might hang their silver stars, their golden globes, 



On the same odorous stem ." 



Mason's English Garden. 



Mrs. C. Smith speaks of the Orange-tree in her lines addressed to 



