84 THE WILD HYACINTH. 



the dusky husk that surrounded the scene of action ! Adapting a micro- 

 scope to take in at one view thewliole base oftlie flower, I gave myself 

 an opportunity of contemplating what they were about, and this for 

 many days together, without giving them the least disturbance. Thus 

 1 could discover their economy, their passions, and their enjoyments. 

 The microscope on this occasion had given what nature seemed to have 

 denied to the objects of contemplation. Tiie base of the flower ex- 

 tended itself under its influence to a vast plain ; the slender stems of 

 tlie leaves became trunks of so many stately cedars ; the tiireads in the 

 middle seemed columns of massy structure, supporting at the top their 

 several ornaments, and the narrow spaces between were enlarged in 

 walks, parterres, and terraces. On the polished bottoms of these, 

 brighter than Parian marble, walked in pairs, alone or in larger com- 

 panies, the winged inhabitants ; these from little dusky flies (for such 

 only the naked eye would have shown them), were raised to glorious, 

 glittering animals, stained with living purple, and with a glossy gold 

 that would have made the labour of the loom contemptible in the 

 comparison. 



" I could at leisure, as they walked together, admire their elegant 

 limbs, their velvet shoulders, and their silken wings ; their backs 

 vying with the empyrean in its blue, and their eyes, each formed of a 

 thousand otheis, outglittering the little planes on a brilliant, above 

 description, and too great almost for admiration. I could observe 

 them here singling out their favourite females, courting them with the 

 music of their buzzing wings with little songs formed for their little 

 organs, leading them from walk to walk among the perfumed shades, 

 and pointing out to their taste tiie drop of liquid nectar just bursting 

 from some vein within the living trunk. Here were the perfumed 

 groves, the more than mystic shades of the poet's fancy realized ; here 

 the happy lovers spent tiieir day in joyful dalliance, or, in the triumph 

 of their little hearts, skipped after one another from stem to stem 

 among the painted trees, or winged their short fliglits to the close 

 shadow of some broader leaf, to revel undisturbed in the heights of all 

 felicity." 



THE WILD HYACINTH. 



" And all about grew every sort of flowre, 

 To which sad lovers were transformde of yore ; 

 Fresh Hyacinthus, Phojbus' paramoure 

 And dearest love." 



" Tlie melancholy Hyacinth, that weeps 

 All night, and never lifts an eye all day." 



In the last year's volume of this Magazine there appear some interest- 

 ing remarks on raising hybrids of this lovely spring ornament, and the 

 approaching season of its bloom induces me to forward some historical 

 particulars relative to it. 



The Hyacintli.so celebrated in the songs of the poets, from the time 

 of Homer to the present day, is made hieroglyphical of play, or games, 



