PROSERPINA. 



given to the heaths, with beautiful application of the context, 

 in our English translation of Jeremiah xvii. 6 ; but I find the 

 plant there named is, in the Septuagint, Wild Tamarisk ; the 

 mountains of Palestine being, I suppose, in that latitude, too 

 low for heath, unless in the Lebanon. 



5. But I have drawn the reader's thoughts to this great 

 race of the Oreiades at present, because they place for us in 

 the clearest light a question which I have finally to answer 

 before closing the first volume of Proserpina ; namely, what 

 is the real difference between the three ranks of Vegetative 

 Humility, and Noblesse the Herb, the Shrub, and the 

 Tree? 



6. Between the herb, which perishes annually, and the 

 plants which construct year after year an increasing stem, 

 there is, of course, no difficulty of discernment ; but between 

 the plants which, like these Oreiades, construct for them- 

 selves richest intricacy of supporting stem, yet scarcely rise a 

 fathom's height above the earth they gather and adorn, be- 

 tween these, and the trees that lift cathedral aisles of colossal 

 shade on Andes and Lebanon, where is the limit of kind to 

 be truly set? 



7. We have the three orders given, as no botanist could, in 

 twelve lines by Milton : 



" Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flowYd 

 Op'ning their various colours, and made gay 

 Her bosom smelling sweet ; and, these scarce blown, 

 Forth flourish'd thick the clust'ring vine, forth crept 

 The swelling gourd, up stood the corny reed 

 Embattel'd in her field ; and th' humble shrub, 

 And bush with frizzled liair implicit : last 

 Rose, as in dance, the stately trees, and spread 

 Their branches hung with copioiis fruits, or gemm'd 

 Their blossoms ; with high woods the hills were crown'd ; 

 With tufts the valleys and each fountain side ; 

 With borders long the rivers." 



Only to learn, and be made to understand, these twelve 

 lines thoroughly would teach a youth more of true botany 

 than an entire Cyclopaedia of modem nomenclature and de 



