150 SYLVA FLORIFERA. 



language sufficient, to do justice to a plant 

 that has been denominated the daughter of 

 heaven, the glory of the spring, and the orna- 

 ment of the earth ? 



As it is the most common of all that com- 

 pose the garland of Flora, so is it the most 

 delightful. Every country boasts of it, and 

 every beholder admires it ; poets have cele- 

 brated its charms without exhausting its eu- 

 logium, for its allurements increase upon a 

 familiarity, and every fresh view presents new 

 beauties, and gives additional delight. Hence 

 it renovates the imagination of the bard, and 

 the very name of the flower gives harmony 

 to his numbers, as its odours give sweetness 

 to the air. 



To paint this universal emblem of delicate 

 splendor in its own hues, the pencil should 

 be dipped in the tints of Aurora, when arising 

 amidst her aerial glory. Human art can 

 neither colour nor describe so fair a flower. 

 Venus herself feels a rival in the rose, whose 

 beauty is composed of all that is exquisite 

 and graceful. 



It has been made the symbol of sentiments 

 as opposite as various. Piety seized it to 

 decorate the temples, whilst Love expressed 

 its tenderness by wreaths, and Jollity revelled 

 adorned with crowns of roses. Grief strews 



