PREFACE. xxxix 



To which the humming hee 



Keeps ceaseless company, 



Flying solicitous from flower to flower, 



Tasting each sweet that dwells 



Within their scented bells ; 



Whilst the wind sways the forest, bower on bower, 



That evermore, in drowsy murmurs deep, 



Sings in the air, and aids descending sleep." 



WIFFEN'S GARCILASSO. 



< From sapling trees, with lucid foliage crown'd, 

 Gay lights and shadows twinkled on the ground : 

 Up the tall stems luxuriant creepers run, 

 To hang their silver blossoms in the sun ; 

 Deep velvet verdure clad the turf beneath, 

 Where trodden flowers their richest odours breathe ; 

 O'er all the bees with murmuring music flew 

 From bell to bell, to sip the honied dew." 



MONTGOMERY. 



The climate of this country is not, perhaps, the most 

 favourable for the production of flowers ; yet we have a 

 power of enjoying those we have, which inhabitants of 

 warmer climates often have not. In the East, it is true, the 

 country is adorned with the most magnificent flowers, 

 springing up spontaneously and abundantly ; whole fields 

 are brilliant with tulips, anemonies, and roses ; but the 

 bright sun, which gives them life and beauty, forbids man 

 to walk abroad during many hours in the day, from its in- 

 sufferable heat. Persia is, perhaps, supereminently the 

 country of flowers, of the rose in particular. Japan, too, 

 has magnificent flowers ; which, to be able to enjoy, the 

 people have a quantity of them within doors. The Japanese 

 are passionately fond of flowers, and frequently name their 

 women from them. In Constantinople they are very much 

 neglected. Tournefort remarks, that the Turks take little 

 care of their gardens in general, bestowing their attention 

 almost entirely upon their melons and cucumbers. 



