72 



SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



But Virgil describes its foliage as rather thin : 



" Muscosifontes, et somno mollior herba, 

 Et qua vos rard viridis tegit arbutus umbra, 

 Solstitium pecori, defendite" Eel. viL 



"Ye mossy fountains, and grass softer than sleep, 

 And the arbutus which covers you with its thin shade, 

 Keep off the solstitial heat from my cattle." 



This prince of poets recommends the twigs 

 as a^Vvinter food for goats : 



"jubeo Jrondentia capris 



Arbuta sufficere" 



" Supply your goats with the leafy arbutus.'* 



He also writes 



" Arbutece crates, ct mystica vannus lacchi." 



" Wattles of the strawberry tree, and the mystic van 

 of Bacchus." 



If we lay aside the works which the an- 

 cients have written on vegetation, to read 

 nature itself, we cannot be less delighted ; for 

 there is not, says an elegant poet, 



"a tree, 



A plant, a leaf, a blossom, but contains 

 A folio volume. We may read, and read, 

 And read again, and still find something new, 

 Something to please, and something to instruct. 1 ' 



It is on this account that we would wish to 

 see the study of botany more generally culti- 

 vated, which gives, as it were, an additional eye 

 to those who walk either amongst the native 



