254 LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. 
some for our pleasures, or as monitors for our gui- 
dance. Some she gives to be the playthings of our 
childhood, to form wreaths for us in youth, to afford 
us delicious fruits and refreshing shade in every 
period of life. Are we melancholy, the willow in- 
vites us by soft murmurs ; are we disposed to love, 
the myrtle offers us its flowers ; are we rich, the 
horse-chestnut furnishes its superb umbrage ; are we 
sorrowful, the Yew seems to say to us : "Be of good 
cheer ; grief desolates the heart, as I desolate the soil 
that supports me : it is as dangerous to man as my 
shade is to the weary passenger !" 
