60 
THE MORAL OF FLOWERS. 
accordant is its fine, faint perfume with its shrinking 
nun-like beauty ! Altogether it seems 
-“ Chaste as the icicle, 
Which hangs on Dian’s temple.” 
Who has not longed, on a warm spring day, 
•-“ When the sun 
Shakes from his noon-clay throne the scattering clouds, 
To seek the hank where flowering elders crowd, 
And, scatter’d wild, the lily of the vale 
Its balmy essence breathes ? ” 
There are twelve species of this beautiful genus, 
natives of Europe and North America: five of which, 
C. verticillata, C. polygonatum, C. latifolia, C. multi¬ 
flora, and C. majalis, are indigenous to our island. 
Of the latter, the most beautiful of the tribe. Sir J. E. 
Smith states, “ there are varieties with double or with 
purple flowers, sometimes seen in gardens, but not of 
easy cultivation, and far less elegant than the wild 
kind, which is among the most favourite of our native 
flowers.” 
I believe I have taken a poetical licence in choosing 
this lily as the one alluded to by our Saviour, when he 
said, “ Consider the lilies of the field how they grow.” 
