POETRY OF FLOWERS. 49 
The longer thou suest 
The colder I grow; 
There—take my last answer; 
Cansthearit? ’Tis— No! 
BUTTERCUPS. 
Ranunculus, acris . . . Class 13; Order 3. 
RICHES.—MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD. 
Beautifully does the poet Robert Browning 
call these emblems of riches li the buttercups , 
the little children’s dower.” Of all the mingled 
sad and sweet memories of childhood, what is 
recalled more vividly than that feeling of being 
the possessor of boundless wealth, as, amid the 
glowing fields of gold which these wild flowers 
spread around us, we have—to quote from Eliza 
Cook— 
“ Stood like an elf in fairy lands, 
With a wide and wistful stare, 
As a maiden over her casket stands, 
’Mid heaps of jewels beneath her hands, 
Uncertain which to wear.” 
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