LOVE OF FLOWERS. 69 



fair as their own untainted minds: and I think 

 that it is early flowers which constitute their first 

 natural playthings ; though summer presents a 

 greater number and variety, they are not so fondly 

 selected . We have our daisies strung and wreathed 

 about our dress ; our coronals of orchises and 

 primroses ; our cowslip balls, &c. ; and one appli- 

 cation of flowers at this season I have noticed, 

 which, though perhaps it is local, yet it has a 

 remarkably pretty effect, forming for the time one 

 of the gayest little shrubs that can be seen. A 

 small branch or long spray of the white-thorn, 

 with all its spines uninjured, is selected; and on 

 these its alternate thorns, a white and a blue violet, 

 plucked from their stalks, are stuck upright in 

 succession, until the thorns are covered, and when 

 placed in a flower-pot of moss, has perfectly the 

 appearance of a beautiful vernal flowering dwarf 

 shrub, and as long as it remains fresh is an object 

 of surprise and delight. 



No portion of creation has been resorted to by 

 mankind with more success for the ornament and 

 decoration of their labours than the vegetable 

 world. The rites, emblems, and mysteries of re- 

 ligion ; national achievements, eccentric masks, 

 and the capricious visions of fancy, have all been 

 wrought by the hand of the sculptor, on the 

 temple, the altar, or the tomb ; but plants, their 

 foliage, flowers, or fruits, as the most graceful, 

 varied, and pleasing objects that meet our view, 

 have been more universally the object of design, 



