270 
FABLES OF FLOWERS. 
THE PET PLANT. 
ANON. 
A florist a sweet little blossom espied, 
Which bloom’d like its ancestors by the road¬ 
side ; 
Its colours were simple, its charms they were 
few, 
Yet the flower look’d fair on the spot where it 
grew;— 
The florist beheld it, and cried “ I’ll enchant 
The botanical world with this sweet little 
plant— 
Its leaves shall be sheltered and carefully 
nursed, 
It shall charm all the world though I met 
with it first. 
Under a hedge.” 
lie carried it home to his hot-house with care, 
And he said, “ tho’the rarest exotics are 
there, 
My little pet plant, when I’ve nourish’d its 
stem, 
In tint and in fragrance shall imitate them ; 
Though none shall suspect from the road-side 
it came, 
