HOLY FLOWERS. 



BY MARY HOWITT. 



Mindful of the pious festivals which our church pre- 

 scribes, I have sought to make these charming objects of 

 floral nature, the time-pieces of my religious calendar, and 

 the mementoes of the hastening period of my mortality. 

 Thus I can light the taper to our Virgin Mother on the 

 blowing of the white snow-drop, which opens its floweret 

 at the time of Candlemas; the lady's smock, and the 

 daffodil, remind me of the Annunciation ; the blue hare- 

 bell, of the Festival of St. George ; the ranunculus, of the 

 Invention of the Cross ; the scarlet lychnis, of St. John 

 the Baptist's day ; the white lily, of the Visitation of our 

 Lady ; and the Virgin's bower, of her Assumption ; and 

 Michaelmas, Martinmas, Holyrood, and Christmas, have 

 all their appropriate monitors. I learii the time of day 

 from the shutting of the blossoms of the Star of Jerusalem 

 and the Dandelion, and the hour of the night by the stars. 



A FRANCISCAN. 



Ah ! simple-hearted piety, 

 In former days such flowers could see. 

 The peasant, wending to his toil, 

 Beheld them deck the leafy soil ; 



81 



