VENUS'S LOOKING-GLASS. 



The varied colours run ; and while they break 

 On the charmed eye, th' exulting florist 'marks 

 With secret pride, the wonders of his hand." 



and then Kleist asks, 



" Who thus, O Tulip ! thy gay painted breast, 

 In all the colours of the sun hath drest ! 

 Well could I call thee, in thy gaudy pride. 

 The queen of flowers ;" 



but alas ! it has not her fragrance ; rather we may say of it, 



" Yet no delicious scent it yields, to cheer the garden or the fields. 

 Vainly in gaudy colours drest, 'tis rather gazed on than caressed." 



VENUS'S LOOKING-GLASS {Campanula Speculum).— 

 Flattery. 



This is a pretty annual border-flower of great beauty, 

 which, from May to August, opens its shining purple flowers 

 in our fields so soon as the sun sheds his golden light upon 

 them. If clouds should intercept his rays, then the sensitive 

 petals close themselves as at the approach of night. A 

 fanciful fable tells us that Venus let one of her mirrors fall 

 upon the earth. A shepherd found this bijou, and looking 

 upon it, as it had the power of reflecting an image more 

 beautiful than the reality, he forgot his mistress, and cared for 

 nothing but to admire himself in the glass. Cupid, fearing 

 the consequences of so great an error, broke the glass and 

 transformed the pieces into this pretty Campanula, which 

 has ever since borne the name of Venus's Looking-glass. 



