The Orchis Tribe. 159 



Uplift, proud Sunflower, to thy favorite orb, 

 That disk, whereon his brightness seems to dwell, 



And as thou seem'st his radiance to absorb, 

 Proclaim thyself the garden's sentinel. 



Bernard Barton. 



And when along the rising sky, 



Her god in brighter glory turned, 

 Still there her fond observant eye, 



And there her golden breast she turned. 



When calling from their weary height, 



On western waves his beams to rest, 

 Still there she sought the parting sight, 



And there she turned her golden breast. 



But soon as night's invidious shades, 



Afar his lovely looks had borne, 

 With folded leaves and drooping head, 



Full sore she grieved as one forlorn. 



Such duty in a flower displayed, 



The kind observers smiled to see, 

 Forgave the pagan rites it paid, 



And loved its fond idolatry. 



In the Encyclopedia of Plants, the editor follows the above 

 poetical notion, but its falsity is so fully known, and as we have 

 spoken of the error before, we may leave the subject. Our 

 plate represents one of the largest and most brilliant of the Sun- 

 flower species, perfectly similar to the one Gerard has described 

 in the preceding pages. 



The Orchis Tribe. 



The class Gynandria, to which this tribe belongs, is perhaps 

 the most curious of all the curious classes Linnams presents to 

 us ; the ostensible character from which the name is derived, is 

 the insertion of the stamens upon the pistil ; but these organs are 

 so different generally, in both shape and color, from those we 

 commonly see, that with a few exceptions their total absence 

 would be imagined by one unacquainted with these facts. 



