AND FLOWERS OF POETRY. 117 
Who breathes her softest, sweetest sigh, 
Whene’er the sun is bright above. 
Let clouds obscure, or darkness veil, 
Her fond idolatry is fled ; 
Her sighs no more their sweets exhale — 
The loving eye is cold and dead. 
Canst thou not trace a moral here, 
False flatterer.of the prosperous hour? 
Let but an adverse cloud appear, 
And thou art faithless as the flower! 
Should foes assail me, 
Or friendship fail me, 
I’ll ne’er bewail me, 
I trust in thee ! 
Why should I sorrow ? 
Thou ’It smile to-morrow, 
And still I ’ll borrow 
My light from thee! 
f. s. o. 
IMAGINATION. 
ALOE. 
The aloe is said to thrive best in the desert, and is only at¬ 
tached to the soil by a very slender fibre. Its taste is very 
sharp and bitter. This plant derives its support almost entire¬ 
ly from the air, and assumes very singular and fantastic shapes. 
Le Vaillant found many species very numerous in the deserts 
of Namaquoise; some of them six feet long, which were thick 
and armed with long spines. From the centre of these a light 
