POETRY OF FLOWERS. 33 
which Nature, with a lavish profusion, showers 
at one time bud, blossom, and fruit. 
This beautiful symbol of inseparable love re¬ 
quires a whole twelvemonth to perfect its fruit, 
so that in the autumn of the year, when other 
trees and flowers are shedding their withered 
leaves and petals on the ground, the lovely ar¬ 
butus may be seen, with its rich red strawberry¬ 
like fruit—clusters of waxen-hued blossoms, 
their vine-colored stems, and its green leaves, 
resembling those of the bay—all flourishing in 
unstinted abundance, thus realizing the poetic 
fiction of fruit and flowers growing together. 
Surely this sweet emblem of a sweeter theme 
passed through the mind of Thomson, when, in 
his “ Seasons,” he talked of how 
“ Great Spring, before, 
Greened all the year; and fruit and blossoms blushed 
In social sweetness on the self-same bough.” 
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