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 1 
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 
