MAY. Ill 



tion costs not an effort, but to the desolate and 

 the weary, how immense is the happiness thus 

 prepared in the wilderness ! Who does not re- 

 collect the exultation of Vaillant over a flower 

 in the torrid wastes of Africa ? A magnificent 

 lily, which, growing on the banks of a river, 

 filled the air far around with its delicious 

 fragrance, and, as he observes, had been re- 

 spected by all the animals of the district, and 

 seemed defended even by its beauty. The 

 affecting mention of the influence of a flower 

 upon his mind in a time of suffering and de- 

 spondency, in the heart of the same savage 

 continent, by Mungo Park, is familiar to every 

 one. 



In the East flowers are made to speak the 

 language of sentiment. The custom of embel- 

 lishing houses and garnishing tables with them 

 is unquestionably eastern. Perhaps the warmer 

 countries of Europe are less in the use of them 

 than they were formerly. Boccaccio talks of 

 them being disposed even in bed-chambers : 

 " E nelle camere i letti fatti, e ogni cosa di 

 fiori, quali nella stagione si potevano avere. pi- 

 ena :" and at the table of the narrators of the 

 Decameron stories, as " Ogni cosa di fiori di 

 ginestra coperta." In England they are much 

 less used than on the Continent, and much less 

 than they were by our ancestors. On May- 



