210 PROSERPINA. 



the flux of fiery sands, bind the rents of tottering crags, 

 purge the stagnant air of cave or chasm, and fringe with 

 sudden hues of unhoped spring the Arctic edge of re- 

 treating desolation. 



On the other hand, the trees which, as in sacred dance, 

 make the borders of the rivers glad with their proces- 

 sion, and the mountain ridges statelier with their pride, 

 are all expressions of the vegetative power in its accom- 

 plished felicities ; gathering themselves into graceful 

 companionship with the fairest arts and serenest life of 

 man ; and providing not only the sustenance and the in- 

 struments, but also the lessons and the delights, of that 

 life, in perfectness of order, and unblighted fruition of 

 season and time. 



9. ' Interitura ' yet these not to-day, nor to-morrow, 

 nor with the decline of the summer's sun. We describe 

 a plant as small or great ; and think we have given ac- 

 count enough of its nature and being. But the chief 

 question for the plant, as for the human creature, is the 

 iN umber of its days ; for to the tree, as to its master, the 

 words are forever true " As thy Day is, so shall thy 

 Strength be." 



10. I am astonished hourly, more and more, at the 

 apathy and stupidity which have prevented me hitherto 

 from learning the most simple facts at the base of this 

 question ! Here is this myrtille bush in my hand its 

 cluster of some fifteen or twenty delicate green branches 

 knitting themselves downwards into the stubborn brown 



