192 
FIR TREE.—VERVAIN. 
THE FIR-TREE. 
The fir-tree rears its head upon the loftiest mountains 
and in the coldest regions of the earth, without the aid of 
man. The resinous juices of this tree defy the rigorous 
frost to congeal its sap, while its filiform leaves are well 
adapted to resist the impetuous winds, which beat with 
violence on the lofty situations where fir-trees are found. 
Towering firs in conic forms arise, 
And with a pointed spear divide the skies. 
PRIOR. 
THE VERVAIN. 
It were well if botanists would attach a moral idea to 
every plant they describe; we might then have an uni¬ 
versal dictionary of the Sentiment of Flowers — generally 
understood, — which would be handed down from age to 
age, and might be renewed, without changing their cha¬ 
racters, every succeeding spring. 
The altars of Jupiter are overthrown; those ancient fo¬ 
rests, that witnessed the mysteries of Druidism, exist no 
longer; and the pyramids of Egypt shall one day disap¬ 
pear, buried, like the sphinx, in the sands of the desert; 
but the lotus and the acanthus shall ever flower upon the 
