TREMBLING GRASS. 



"So mourning 'neath the trembling poplar's shade 

 The nightingale bemoans her absent young, 

 Which some hard-hearted rustic, noting well, 

 Drew from their nest, unplumed : now she, distressed. 

 Weeps through the night, and, perching on a branch, 

 Repeats her mournful song ; and with sad plaints 

 Fills up the grove extended far and wide." — 



Favourite Field Flowers. 



TREMBLING GRASS {Briza media).— ¥-RlYOlATY. 



French shepherds call this plant, A mourette, perhaps 

 because of its pleasant and varied appearance. They look 

 upon it as the emblem of a slight and transient attachment ; 

 for a lover is suspected of insincerity if he presents his 

 inamorato with a bouquet bound together with this grass. It 

 is, however, one of the prettiest of our grasses, and a bunch of 

 them in a vase is a most pleasing ornament. 



TREMELLA. — Resistance. Opposition. 



This is a gelatinous plant, which has engaged the attention 

 of the learned, but has hitherto withstood all their researches. 

 It was celebrated among alchemists, who made use of it in 

 preparing the philosopher's stone and the universal panacea ; 

 regarding it as an emanation from the stars. Some have 

 supposed these gelatinous substances to be the ejected pellets 

 of herons after feeding on frogs ; others have regarded it as 

 an animal. It seems to have transformed itself into many 

 analogous plants, as if determined to elude the inquiries of 



