The China Aster. 217 



But what is here 1 The Pimpernel, 



Drooping with close-shut eye — 

 True sign, so village sages tell, 



Of storm and tempest nigh — 

 But sure such bright and glorious sky, 



Shall know no cloud to-day, 

 O then thy darkling prophecy 



Give to the winds away, 

 And own, whilst thou yon heavens dost view, 

 For once thou hast not read them true. 



Despite my taunt the precious flower 



Still closed its petals bright, 

 And soon the storm, with voice of power 



Show'd its forebodings bright. 

 'Tis ever thus — some sudden blight, 



When most we dream of joy, 

 Does on the shining prospect light 



To mar it and destroy. 

 Oh ! when like this poor flower shall I 

 Discern aright life's changing sky 1 



Moral of Flowers. 



The China Aster. 



This is a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Polygamia Su- 

 perflua. Its characters are : — calyx imbricate, inferior scales 

 commonly spreading; egret simple, pilose ; receptacle generally 

 deep pitted. Specific characters : leaves ovate, coarsely toothed, 

 stalked, the cauline leaves sessile, cunnate at the base ; stem 

 hispid ; branches in simple heads. The numerous family of 

 radiated flowers were named Aster from the Greek term for Star. 

 The French call this autumnal flower Reine Marguerite. 

 Queen Daisy, and not Queen Margaret, as it is generally trans- 

 lated, Marguerite being their name for star-like Daisy. The 

 Chinese generic term for this flower is Keangnamfa. The Euro- 

 pean parterres are indebted to the missionary Father d' Incar- 

 ville, for the gay robe which this various colored flower throws 

 over them during the latter months of Flora's reign — he having 

 sent the seeds from China to the Royal Garden of Paris, where 

 the plants produced only simple flowers of one uniform color, 



