286 FLORA DOMESTICA. 



With wholesome poppy-flowers, to mend his homely board : 



For, late returning home, he supped at ease : 



The little of his own, because his own, did please. 



To quit his care, he gathered first of all 



In spring the roses, apples in the fall : 



And when cold winter split the rocks in twain, 



And ice the running rivers did restrain, 



He stripped the bear's-foot of its leafy growth, 



And, calling western winds, accused the spring of sloth. 



He therefore first among the swains was found 



To reap the product of his laboured ground, 



And squeeze the combs with golden liquor crowned. 



His limes were first in flower ; his lofty pines 



With friendly shade secured his tender vines ; 



For every bloom his trees in spring afford, 



An autumn apple was by tale restored. 



He knew to rank his elms in even rows, 



For fruit the grafted pear-tree to dispose, 



And tame to plums the sourness of the sloes. 



With spreading planes he made a cool retreat, 



To shade good fellows from the summer's heat. 



But, straitened in my space, I must forsake 



This task, for others afterwards to take." 



The Acanthus was one of the most favourite ornaments 

 of the Greeks ; and, as is well known, makes the princi- 

 pal figure in the capital of the Corinthian column ; the idea 

 of which is said to have been suggested by the accidental 

 sight of a basket overgrown by Acanthus, with a tile on it. 



Martyn's notes to Virgil's Georgics contain some very 

 interesting remarks on both the kinds of Acanthus men- 

 tioned by that poet ; and he quotes a passage from Vi- 

 truvius, on the origin of the use of the Acanthus in archi- 

 tecture : " This famous author tells us, that a basket 

 covered with a tile having been accidentally placed on the 

 ground, over a root of acanthus, the stalks and leaves 

 burst forth in the spring, and, spreading themselves on the 

 outside of the basket, were bent back again at the top by 

 the corners of the tile. Callimachus, a famous architect, 

 happening to pass by, was delighted with the novelty and 



