188 WILD FLOWERS. 



those gaudy strangers, for the sweet and beau- 

 tiful productions of our own woods and fields 

 possess, in themselves, all that the heart or the 

 imagination can require in a flower ; wandering 

 amid them we may say, with MILTON : 



" Now gentle gales 



Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense 

 Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole 

 These balmy spoils." 



HELIOTROPE. 

 THERE is a flower whose modest eye 



Is turned with looks of light and love, 

 Who breathes her softest, sweetest sigh 



Whene'er the sun is bright above. 



Let clouds obscure, or darkness veil, 



Her fond idolatry is fled ; 

 Her sighs no more their sweets exhale, 



The loving eye is cold and dead. 



Canst thou not trace a moral here, 



False flatterer of the prosperous hour ? 



Let but an adverse cloud appear, 

 And thou art faithless as the flower. 



