188 
FLORAL POESY. 
Earth’s cultureless buds ! to my heart ye were dear 
Ere the fever of passion, or ague of fear, 
Had scathed my existence’s bloom ; 
Once I welcome you more, in life’s passionless stage, 
With .the visions of youth to revisit my age, 
And I wish you to grow on my tomb. 
CYPRESS. 
{Mourning.) 
“The cypress is the emblem of mourning.”—S hakspeare. 
A COOBDINGr to Ovid, this tree was named after 
Cyparissus, an especial favorite of Apollo. He 
had accidentally slain his pet stag, and was so sorrow- 
stricken that he besought the gods to doom his life to 
everlasting gloom ; and they, in compliance with his 
request, transformed him into a cypress-tree. 
“When, lost in tears, the blood his veins forsakes, 
His every limb a grassy hue partakes ; 
His flowing tresses, stiff and bushy grown, 
Point to the stars, and taper to a cone. 
Apollo thus : ‘ Ah ! youth, beloved in vain, 
Long shall thy boughs the gloom I feel retain ; 
Henceforth, when mourners grieve, their grief to share, 
Emblem of woe, the cypress shall be there . 5 ” 
