244 
and receiving admiration as a right; the other, gentle, 
unaffected, humble, and blessed with all the unobtrusive 
loveliness of simplicity and innocence. Every Flower may he 
so read; nor is the study an idle or unprofitable one, for it 
induces us to read Nature, that God-wiitten hook, open to 
every eye, creed, and comprehension-—that universal language, 
in which the Creator addresses his creatures—that eternal 
and exhaustless source of knowledge, devotion, and enjoyment, 
whose study is a labour of love, which no adverse circumstances 
can wholly inteiTupt. 
The showy and magnificent flower of the large Tiger- 
lily occupies the chief place in the following plate, and both 
the grand outline of its fine form, and its very brilliant colour, 
deserve our admiration. The great length of the filaments, and 
their elegant shape, with their dark powdery anthers, add a re¬ 
markable feature to this superb flower, which is more beautifully 
spotted than any other of its tribe, and each mark being 
raised from the surface of the curved petal in a kind of bas- 
relief gives it a singularly rich appearance. 
The Autumn Crocus, whose modest tint of lilac is a 
striking contrast to the splendid Lily, is now one of our wild 
flowers. It is supposed to have been brought originally from 
the East, where its bulbous roots are in high esteem as eat¬ 
ables. It was introduced into England by Sir Thomas 
Smith in the reign of Edward the Third, and first planted 
at Walden in Essex, which, from the rpiantity of saffron 
