CANDY TUFT. 



CANDY TUFT {Iberis semperflorens). — INDIFFERENCE. 



This small shrub is an evergreen, and throughout the year 

 we find it bearing its white and scentless bloom. When 

 he collects the seeds, the gardener must put aside the flowers 

 which cover them. In bearing fruit it does not fade, but 

 preserves its leaves and flowers even in decay. The seasons 

 appear to pass by this plant without affecting it. How 

 different to the changes in nature generally, which beautiful 

 spring produces : — 



" See the young, the rosy Spring, gives to the breeze her spangled wing; 

 While virgin graces, warm with iVIay, fling roses o'er her dewy way ! 

 The murmuring billows of the deep have languished into silent sleep ; 

 And mark ! the flitting sea-birds lave their plumes in the reflecting wave ; 

 While cranes from hoary winter fly to flutter in a kinder sky. 

 Now the genial star of day dissolves the murky clouds away ; 

 And cultured field, and winding stream, are sweetly tissued by his beam. 

 Now the earth prolific swells with leafy buds and floweiy bells; 

 Gemming shoots the olive twine, clusters ripe festoon the vine ; 

 All along the branches creeping, through the velvet foliage peeping, 

 Little infant fruits we see nursing into luxury!" — Moore's Anacreon. 



Not so with the very cold and impassible Iberis, wherefore 

 Eastern beauties made it the emblem of Indifference. They, 

 indeed, are thought to have been the first inventors of the 

 language of flowers, a language for the first time put pro- 

 minently before the fair ladies of England, by Lady Mary 

 Wortley Montague, who sent a Turkish love-letter from Pera 

 to one of her friends in England, which contained the 

 following floral emblems : — 



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