THE SWEET TEA 
117 
for the eye to look upon; roses, lilies, irises, rhododen- 
drons, and a hundred others, blooming all as if tliey 
were so vigorous, as well as beautiful, that they were 
not destined to remind us of fragility and change. 
“All that's bright must fade," has been sung over many 
a withered flower, once of sweet promise, and been 
sighed by many a mourner over some monument of 
human decay, and long as earth shall last its truth 
must be echoed even by the most hopeful of us ail. The 
rain has fallen during night, and with the wind, beaten 
upon the heads of the flowers, and the lilies are snapped, 
and the tuberose lies soiled upon the ground, and some 
summer's days must elapse before the garden will resume 
its wonted loveliness. But amidst the devastation of 
the flower-beds, the sweet pea is still throwing its vigor- 
ous stems with twin leaflets and its winged clusters over 
the arbutus, and clinging with such tenacity, that the 
storm has not riven it, and budding in such profusion 
among the dark leaves and branches of the tree, and so 
greeting the passer-by with its odours, that even he who 
was little charmed with flowers, might pause to admire 
it, and think perhaps, that the arbutus was the parent of 
its delicate butterfly-shaped blossoms. 
The sweet pea (Lathyrus odordtus) flnds admission 
into almost every garden, and flings its flexile branches 
over the shrubs, or clasps the sticks placed on the beds 
bv the gardener for climbing plants. It is valued ever}- 
whene for its light and airy form, and for its sweet 
odour. It grows wild in the south of Europe ; and in 
Sicily, that land of sunny skies and flowering turfs, it is 
very abundant. It was introduced from that island into 
England many years since. 
Another species of pea, generally called the everlasting 
broad - leaved pea (Lathyrus latifolius) has, during late 
years, become no less common than the sweet pea, and 
makes a handsome ornament for the trellis-work of a 
veranda, intermingling with the scented clematis or the 
jessamine. Those who delight in a summer arbour, often 
avail themselves of its showy and abundant blossoms, 
which fade less quickly than do those of many other 
plants. But it is still more often seen with the honey- 
suckle growing against the whitewashed wall of the cot- 
