NATURAL OBJECTS NOTICED. 11 



and "yours and yours," she continues, as she ad- 

 dresses those of a more advanced age ; and in her 

 invocation 



" O Proserpina 

 For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall 

 From Dis's waggon " — 



she retains the same order, beginning with the daffo- 

 dil, and ending with the fleur-de-lis : 



" daffodils, 

 That come hefore the swallow dares, and take 

 The winds of March with beauty — violets, dim, 

 But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 

 Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses. 

 That die unmarried ere they can behold 

 Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady 

 Most incident to maids ; bold oxslips, and 

 The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds, 

 The fleur-de-lis being one !" 



I was thus led to examine the plays of Shakspeare 

 with respect to the notices of natural objects which 

 they contain, and I soon found that these notices 

 were much more numerous than I had expected. I 

 transcribed the passages containing them, under the 

 several heads which naturalists have adopted in their 

 classifications, and found, to my surprise, that they 

 occupied one hundred closely written pages of letter 

 paper. Of these, twenty-two pages related to the 

 mammalia ; sixteen to birds ; nine to reptiles and 

 fishes ; two to shells and minerals ; nine to insects ; 

 thirteen to trees, flowers, and fruits ; and twenty- 



