266 The Sliadow of a Flower. 



The Shadow of a Flower. 



BY MRS. HEMANS. 



'Twas a dream of olden days, 

 That art, by some strange power, 



The visionary form could raise 

 From the ashes of a flower. 



That a shadow of the rose, 



By its own meek beauty bowed, 



Might slowly leaf by leaf unclose, 

 Like pictures on a cloud. 



Or the Hyacinth to grace, 

 As a second rainbow spring, 



Of summer's path a dreary trace, 

 A fair, yet mournful thing ! 



For the glory of the bloom, 

 That a flush around it shed, 



And the soul within, the rich perfume, 

 Where are they 1 fled, all fled. 



Naught but the dim faint line, 

 To speak of vanished hours, 



Memory, what are joys of thine 1 

 Shadows of buried flowers. 



Bushy Geranium. — The entire art of making these bushy, so 

 as to cover the pot and be a dwarf at the same time, consists in 

 judiciously stopping the plant, which is no more nor less than 

 pinching off the end, or, as it were, pinching the heart out ; but 

 this should not be done until there are two pair of leaves, be- 

 sides the parts to be pinched off. This stopping induces side 

 shoots directly, and the pots have to be looked over occasionally, 

 to see that none of the side shoots grow too vigorously ; if any 

 are found doing so, they must be pinched off so as to keep the 

 plant in form. 



