30 The Pink. 



walks it should have liberty to climb the trees, and hang its 

 wreaths from branch to branch ; and where the ivy gives verdure 

 to the bare trunk, there should the Woodbine display its blos- 

 som and shed its odors. It is the emblem of Bonds of Love. 

 This whole tribe of plants belongs chiefly to the temperate re- 

 gions. They are generally bitter, and rather active or nauseous 

 in their properties ; some few bear eatable fruit. 



It was a tendril of the Woodbine that bound the fig leaves 

 around Adam and Eve, which, when cast off, after they left it, 

 took root and sprouted ; that it was in there we have Milton's 

 authority. 



Let us divide our labors ; thou where choice 



Leads thee, or where most needs ; whether to wind 



The woodbine round this arbor, or direct 



The clasping ivy where to climb; while I 



In yonder spring of roses, intermixed 



With myrtle, find what to redress till noon. 



The Pink. 



This plant also is the type of a natural order, the Caryophyl- 

 lacea?, which are herbs with opposite entire leaves, destitute of 

 any appendages at their base, the stems swelling out at the 

 knots ; flowers are regular ; calyx of four or five sepals or cup- 

 leaves ; the corolla or blossom of the same number, sometimes 

 wanting ; stamens as many or twice as many as the petals ; 

 styles or stigmas two or five, distinct; capsule two or five-valved, 

 or opening only at the- apex by twice as many valves as stigmas. 

 The primitive Pinks are simply red and white, emitting a fra- 

 grant odor ; but cultivation has altered the shades and doubled 

 the petals, and we have them now from a delicate rose color to 

 a perfect white, and from 8: deep red to a brilliant scarlet ; in 

 many varieties, opposite colors on the same flower. This gar- 

 den Pink has become associated with the memory of a grandson 

 of Louis the Fifteenth, the young Duke of Burgundy. Some 

 flatterers tried to persuade him that Nature obeyed his will, by 

 proving, that Pinks which he had planted came up in a single 

 night, and by removing the pots and substituting others, really 



