FLORA DOMESTICA. 



Where the ragged robin stood 



With its piped stem streaked with jet. 

 And the crow-flowers, golden-hued, 



Careless plenty easier met." 



Page 1ST. 



In his Descriptions of Rural Life and Scenery, he gives 

 this flower for a goblet to the fairies : 



" And fairies now, no doubt, unseen 



In silent revels, sup, 



With dew-drop bumpers toast their queen 

 From crow-flowers' golden cup." 



Savage speaks of the king-cup in a complimentary way, 

 but rather stiffly ; with something of the air of a beau 

 trying to say a fine thing to a vain woman, whom he does 

 not much admire : 



" King-cups beneath, far-striking colours glance, 

 Bright as the etherial glows the green expanse. 

 Gems of the field ! the topaz charms the sight 

 Like these, effulging yellow streams of light." 



Tournefort says that the chief ornaments of the Seraglio 

 gardens at Constantinople are Ranunculus-flowers, but that 

 the Turks neglect almost every thing in their gardens but 

 melons and cucumbers. They eat the latter in great quan- 

 tities, sometimes like apples, without even peeling them ; 

 sometimes cut into pieces and thrown into a basin of sour 

 milk. Thevenot says that they are very much superior to 

 ours; that they are eaten raw as well by the Christians as 

 the Turks, and may be eaten in any quantities with im- 

 punity. 



cup ; neither does he mean the ragged-robin, for that is here expressly 

 distinguished from them : probably he means the arum, or lords-and- 

 ladies. 



Since the above was written, we have been informed that the poet 

 alludes to the wood orchis, one of the many flowers named after the 

 cuckoo, from appearing at the same time. 



