314 POPULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
They elected a new May Queen, by cutting a quantity 
of sprigs from a rose-bush, amid which only one bud was 
placed ; this, together with the sprays which contained 
only leaves, was concealed in the palm of the hand, 
while the stalks or stems only were left visible, and she 
who was fortunate enough to draw out the rose-bud was 
proclaimed Queen of the May, and placed upon the 
flowery throne which her sovereign sister had just abdi- 
cated. 
Alas ! this innocent old English holiday has now ail but 
passed away ; no one now serenades the sweet slug-a- 
beds ’’ in the early morning as they did in the days of 
Herrick, bidding them rise up and put “ on their foliage, 
and come forth like the spring-time, fresh, and green, 
and sweet as Flora,’' and not stop to adorn themselves 
with jewels, for the dews of morning were w'aiting to cover 
them all over with pearls. There is no longer that devo- 
tion which gave to each house a bough ; May-day and 
May-games are but like flowers thrown into the sea of 
Time, and cast by the waves upon the long, straggling 
shores, below the dim cliffs, whose heights are only over- 
looked by Memory. 
THE STORY OF CUPID AND PSYCHE. 
In that primitive and patriarchal age when wealth con- 
sisted in the possession of flocks and herds, and the early 
fathers pitched their tents and made their homes wherever 
the sweetest pasturage could be found for their cattle, or 
the clearest streams went murmuring along through the 
breadth and length of the sweetest pastoral scenery — it 
was then that Love, during his pilgrimage to the shrines 
of the flowers, chanced to alight in one of those green 
valleys which opened out every way beyond the long 
avenues of venerable oaks that threw their shady arms 
over the smooth and flowery plains of Arcadia. Below 
the oaks spread many a long underwood of fragrant 
Acacias, of every hue which the queenly Rose wears 
through the endless changes of her diversified attire, from 
the deep crimson to the warm white, as it deepens up- 
