F OVULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
300 
habitant of still and lonely places ; for when a silence 
hung over the unexplored depths of our woodland fast- 
nesses, it was still there. 
It was one day, after a weary flight from a far-off foreign 
shore, that Love alighted with a sprig of graceful Fuchsia 
in his hand, and, sitting down beneath the shadow of a 
gigantic oak in a lonely forest-glade, he took up the 
broad-leaved Fern to fan and cool himself, for the air 
around was hot. 
Then throwing it down across his bow, he stretched 
himself upon the green-sward, and, playing idly with one 
of his arrows, he thoughtlessly cut down the blue Hare- 
bells and tall white Daisies which grew around him with 
the point of his weapon, until startled from his musing 
and listless mood by the sound of the bugle-horn, and the 
baying of dogs in the distance, he sprang up hurriedly 
from his velvet couch, gathered together his bow and 
arrows, and the handful of flowers at random, and flew 
off into another solitude, far away from the clamorous din 
of the hunters. 
It was then that his eye first alighted upon the group 
of flowers which he had in his hand. On the broad, 
green background of the Fern rested the sky-dyed Hare- 
bells; before these, like a cluster of stars, spread the 
white Daisies ; while over all drooped the scarlet cups of 
the Fuchsia in elegant festoons : and he smiled as he 
looked at the graceful finish which the drooping Fuchsia 
gave to the wild-flowers that represented Innocence and 
Retirement, and the broad Fern that grew up of its own 
accord, a true image of Old Sincerity. 
Through the dew of many a spring morning, ere the 
sun had climbed above the summit of the distant hill, 
while only the skylark beat the blue and vaulted dome 
of heaven, and with her song wakened the sleeping land- 
scape, had Love wandered forth alone, to watch the 
Daisies unfold; and so deeply was he enamoured of their 
innocence, he all day long had often sat upon the sloping 
hill-side, that he might behold them wave to and fro — 
now turning their golden bosses towards the sun, then 
bending forward and showing the green cup from which 
sprang each pink and pearly rim that starred them round 
like a halo of light. 
