134 
at nine in the morning and closed their petals at 
three in the afternoon. 
When Mary heard that different flowers opened 
at each hour of the day, she wished she had a 
Flora’s clock,* it would be so much prettier to say 
“ half past Marygold,” than “ half past nine.” 
“We love the Sun,” said they, “and turn our 
eyes to him through all his course. We even im¬ 
prison his rays, which we pour forth upon the dark 
night in luminous sparks. And yet we are made 
an emblem of painful thoughts. We are often 
wreathed with Poppies and sent to the afflicted, to 
say, £ I allay your pain.’ I am sorry we represent 
the pain, and yet I think,” said one Marygold, “ that 
I had rather be myself than a Poppy. The con¬ 
serve that is made of our flowers will cure the trem- 
* A Flora’s dial may be planted in the grass, or in a garden, by 
placing the flowers at the proper points around a large dial-plate. The 
engraving in this volume may serve as a model for such a dial. 
