118 THE POETRY OF FLOWERS 
twig shoots forth to the height of a tall tree all garnished with 
flowers. Others exalt themselves like the cactus, bristling 
with thorns. Others again are marbled, and seem like serpents 
creeping upon the earth. 
Brydone saw the ancient city of Syracuse entirely covered by 
great aloes in flower; their elegant branches giving to the 
promontory which bounded the coast, the appearance of an en¬ 
chanted forest. 
These magnificent and monstrous members of the vegetable 
kingdom are also found in barbarous Africa. There they grow 
upon the rocks in arid and sandy soil, in the midst of that burn¬ 
ing atmosphere in which scarce aught but tigers and lions can 
breathe alive. 
For rich Imagination’s jewelled wand, 
With living forms can fill the lonely hall; 
With glorious bloom, enwreath the desert-sand, 
An d crown again, with sculpture’s grace, the ruined tem¬ 
ple’s wall! 
f. s. o. 
INTOXICATION. 
VINE. 
The grateful juice of the vine has been given to cheer the 
heart of man, but alas! it is too often used as the excitement 
to unseemly revelry, where men degrade themselves to the 
condition of the brutes, over which they were created lords. 
