214 



SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



The Laurustiiius is one of the tasteful trees that 

 gathered around Orpheus to hsten to his lyre : 



" There stood a mountain on whose towering head. 

 Wide, void of shade^, a gi'assy meadow spread. 

 Here_, while harmonious as his radiant sire, 

 Orpheus reclined, and struck his golden lyre. 

 Trees, gathering round, his godlike power bespoke; 

 The poplar tall, the wide-expanding oak, 

 J oin the soft teil, and first the meadow reach ; 

 The brittle hazel next, the mountain beech ; 

 The wild-ash, hewn in spears when clarions stir 

 Assembled chiefs to war ; the knotless fir : 

 The lotos red, in marshy lowiands found ; 

 The tree of heavenly Jove, with acorns crowned : 

 The plant w^hose smiles Apollo sought in vain ; 

 The mottled maple, and the genial plane ; 

 The tamarisk; the willow, whose green locks 

 Trail o'er the stream ; the ever-verdant box ; 

 The flowery myrtle ; the green-berried tine ; 

 The tendrill'd ivy, and the branching vine ; 

 The sable pitch-tree with expanded root ; 

 The slender cherry, red with nodding fruit ; 

 The lofty elm with, creeping vines o'erspread ; 

 The bending palm that graces victory's head; 

 And that rough tree whose branching foliage nods,. 

 Loved by the mighty mother of the gods. 

 Since youthful Attis, to her fondness blind. 

 Slept in its core, and hardened in its rind. 



* * * * * * . 



****** 

 Such were the trees that ow^n'd the magic sound." 



Dr. Orger's Ovid, book x. 



Few of our poets have noticed this beautiful shrub : it 

 is mentioned in Dodsley's Agriculture as finely contrast- 

 ing with the laburnum and the dapJuie iiiezcrcon : 



