

FLORA'S LEXICON. 



113 



ASMINE, WHITE. Jasminum Officinale. 

 Class 2, DIANDRIA. Order : MONOGYNIA. 

 Though born beneath a summer sky, and 

 nourished by a kindlier soil than ours, yet 

 the pure, the fragrant, the modest, maidenly 

 Jasmine has become unto us as an old fami- 

 liar friend, and is now as well known, and 



as frequently seen climbing round the cottage-porch, as our own 



. jscious Honey-suckle. 



AMIABILITY. 



The free and sportive Jasmine-tree! 



O'er the lone captive's darksome cell, 

 How many a tale of liberty 



Could'st thou to his sad spirit tell! 

 Each slender tendril floating there, 



Laughing in sunshine, nursed by showers, 

 And gemming the perfumed air 



With winged wreaths of starry flowers. 



The captive saw the Jasmine-tree, 



Whose slight and fragile branches crept 

 Through the dim loop-hole steadily 



He sadly gazed on them, and wept; 

 Each wandering breeze their light leaves stirr'd, 



They look'd up to the glorious sky, 

 And, poised upon them, many a bird 



Trill'd forth its free wild melody. 



Perchance there grew a Jasmine-tree 



Beside his own ancestral hall, 

 Where he had loved, in childhood's glee, 



To watch its short-lived blossoms fall : 

 Alas ! how soon those blossoms died, 



When severd from their native stem! 

 Did not like early doom betide 



That captive? Drooped he not like them 1 



TWAMLET. 



