THE POETRY OF FLOWERS. 
115 
CELERY LEAYED CROWFOOT.— Ingratitude. 
Clare thus alludes to its ungrateful qualities:— 
I wander out and rhyme; 
What hour the dewy morning’s infancy 
Hangs on each blade of grass and every tree, 
And sprents the red thighs of the humble bee, 
Who ’gins betimes unwearied minstrelsy ; 
Who breakfasts, dines, and most divinely sups 
With every flower save golden butter-cups,— 
On whose proud bosoms he will never go, 
But passes by with scarcely “ How do you do ?” 
Since in their showy, shining, gaudy cells, 
Haply the summer’s honey never dwells. 
And Shakspeare, denouncing filial ingratitude, makes 
King Lear indignantly exclaim :— 
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, 
More hideo.us when thou showest thee in a child 
Than the sea-monster! 
THE DAHLIA.— Endurance. 
Martin writing of the Dahlia’s endurance of various 
climates, thus speaks:— 
Though severed from its native clime, 
Where skies are ever bright and clear, 
And Nature’s face is all sublime, 
And beauty clothes the fragrant air, 
H 2 
