MIMOSA. 285 



" At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, 

 Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus, 

 Mistaqne ridenti colocasia fundet acantho." 



ee Meanwhile the earth, sweet boy, as her first offerings, shall pour 

 thee forth every where, without culture, creeping ivy with ladies-glove, 

 and Egyptian beans with smiling acanthus intermixed." 



DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION. 



In the third, where he wreathes the Acanthus round the 

 handles of Alcimedon's cups, and in the fourth Georgic, 

 where he places it in the Corycian's garden, he alludes to 

 the herb Acanthus, commonly called, from its roughness, 

 Branca-ursi, or BearVbreech. This Dryden has translated 

 BearVfoot, which is a very different plant ; a species of 

 Helleborus. 



As this last passage applies, in a general as well as par- 

 ticular manner, to the work now before us, we will quote 

 some lines from Dryden^s translation. It immortalizes an 

 old acquaintance of the poet's, who was a gardener : 



" Now did I not, so near my labours' end, 

 Strike sail, and hastening to the harbour tend, 

 My song to flowery gardens might extend : 

 To teach the vegetable arts ; to sing 

 The Peestan roses, and their double spring ; 

 How succory drinks the running streams, and how 

 Green beds of parsley near the river grow ; 

 How cucumbers along the surface creep, 

 With crooked bodies, and with bellies deep ; 

 The late narcissus, and the winding trail 

 Of bear's-foot, myrtles green, and ivy pale: 

 For where with stately towers Tarentum stands, 

 And deep Galsesus soaks the yellow sands, 

 I chanced an old Corycian swain to know, 

 Lord of few acres, and those barren too, 

 Unfit for sheep or vines, and more unfit to sow : 

 Yet, labouring well his little spot of ground, 

 Some scattering pot-herbs here and there he found, 

 Which, cultivated with his daily care, 

 And bruised with vervain, were his frugal fare. 

 Sometimes white lilies did their leaves afford, 



