FLORA'S LEXICON. 



19 



MERICAN COWSLIP. Primula Veris. 

 Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: MONOGY- 

 NIA. The elegant stem of a single root of 

 this plant springs from the centre of a ro- 

 sette of large leaves couched on the earth. 

 In April it is crowned with twelve pretty 

 flowerg with the cups reversed. Linnaeus 

 has given it the name of " Dodecatheon," which signifies " twelve 

 divinities," a name, perhaps, somewhat too extravagant for a 

 small plant so modest in its appearance. An American writer 

 says of them, in their indigenous soil, that they resemble a clus- 

 ter of bright yellow polyanthuses. " Our gold cowslips," he 

 adds, " look like a full branch of large clustering king-cups; they 

 carelessly raise themselves on their firm stalks, their corollas 

 gazing upward to the changing spring sky, as they grow amidst 

 their pretty leaves of vivid green. They adorn almost every 

 meadow, and shed a glow of beauty wherever they spring." 



YOU ARE MY DIVINITY. 



At such an hour, thine image, brought 



By Memory to the passive eye, 

 Would blend with every gentle thought 



Of dwellers in the distant sky, 



And float, in airy seeming, by, 

 Fit princess of the sylphid crowds, 



Born of the wealth of Fantasy 

 In her own heaven of Summer clouds, 



Where ever laughing sunbeams shine 



On eyes as calm and bright as thine. 



J. R. CHORLEY. 



Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head. 



MILTON. 



Anxious cares the pensive nymph opprest, 

 And secret passions labour'd in her breast. 



POPE. 





