THE HOG-HOSE. 
73 
“ Yes ! gazing on thee now, 
Those scenes beloved can memory draw 
When simple childhood’s hat of straw 
Shaded my careless brow : 
And round it cluster’d many a wreath 
Of blossoms wild and sweet as thou, 
And lighter was the heart beneath 
Than it is now.” 
In the days when flowers Avere given as marks of 
distinction on various occasions, a single rose Avas 
awarded by Clemens the Isaurian, who instituted the 
floral games, as the prize of eloquence. 
Some authors imagine that it was from this shrub 
the croAvn of thorns Avas made * ; be that as it may, 
the thoughtful wanderer, Avhilst vieAving its beauty and 
inhaling its fragrance, will not forget that 
“ Many a moral hangs upon its thorn ; ” 
* The Latin monks aver that the crown of thorns was made of Lycium 
spinosum (Boxthom); others give this mournful distinction to Bhamnus 
spina Christi (Buckthorn), thence called Christ’s thorn. But Hasselquist, 
who very happily illustrates Scripture by his observations, thinks that 
the Naba, or Nabka, of the Arabians is the tree which furnished this 
crown, offering as a reason for his conjecture, that “ this plant has many 
small and sharp spines, well adapted to give pain; and, as the leaves 
much resemble those of ivy, perhaps the enemies of Cln-ist chose a plant 
similar to that with which emperors and generals were wont to be 
crowned, that there might be calumny even in the punishment,” 
