270 ON TUE LOVE OF FLOWERS. 



" Till moruing dawn, and Lucifer -withdraw 

 His beamy chariot, let not the loud bell 

 Call forth thy negroes from their rushy couch : 

 And ere the sun with mid-day fervor glow. 

 When every broom-brush opes her yellow flower, 

 Let thy black labourers from their toil desist : 

 Nor till the broom her every petal lock, 

 Let the loud bell recall them to the hoe. 

 But when the jalap her bright tint displays, 

 When the solanum fills her cup with dew, 

 And crickets, snakes, and lizards 'gin their coil, 

 Let them find shelter in their cane-thatched huts." 



Grainger's Sugak-cane. 



This poetical mode of reckoning time was used by Adam in Para- 

 dise : 



" As in a shady nook I stood behind, 

 Just then returned at shut of evening flowers."' Paradise Lost. 



Shakspeare counts time, also, by the succession of the seasons : 



" To me, fair friend, j'ou never can be old. 

 For as j'ou were when first your eye I eyed. 

 Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold 

 Have from the forest shook three summers' pride ; 

 Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned. 

 In process of the seasons have I seen 

 Three Aprils' perfumes in three hot Junes bnmed, 

 Since first I saw you fresh which yet are green." 



The same mode was used by that young poet — in losing whom we 

 have lost so much fine poetry tliat he could not but have written — ■ 

 Keats : 



." Many and many a verse 1 hope to write, 

 Before the daisies, vermeil- rimmed and white, 

 Hide in deep herbage ; and ere yet the bees 

 Hum about globes of clover and sweet peas, 

 I must be near the middle of my story. 

 O may no wintry season, bare and hoary, 

 See it half-finished ; but let autumn bold, 

 With universal tinge of sober gold, 

 Be all about me when I make an end." Endymion. 



The fashion, so long prevalent in this country, of adorning the hair 

 witli artificial flowers, is in some countries improved upon by the use 

 of the natural. Tiiunberg describes it as a common custom in Batavia ; 

 and Southey, speaking of the women of Paulista, in Brazil, says, 

 " Flowers were an indispensable part of tlie female head-dress, a natural 

 fashion in a land where the sweetest flowers blossom in all seasons ; but 

 the beauty of the costume was destroyed by the odious custom of 

 wearing powder, with which the Paulista Avomen of all ages loaded 

 their heads." Again, he says : " When a stranger is introduced to a 

 Brazilian lady, it is an act of courtesy in her to take a flower from her 

 head and present it to him, and he is expected to return the compliment 

 in the course of his visit." 



In some parts of Germany the ladies wear natural floAvers, particularly 

 the beautiful blue corn-flower ( Centaurea Cyamis). 



