AND FLOWERS OF POETRY.' 169 
ORACLE. 
DANDELION. 
Linnjeus has given the dandelion a deserved place in the hor¬ 
ologe of Flora. It is one of the plants that may be most cer¬ 
tainly depended upon as to the hour of opening and closing its 
flowers. 
The flower, if we well examine it, we shall discover to 
be fully as handsome as the fine garden anemone; and it only 
needs to be as rare, to be prized as much. This plant blossoms 
early in the spring, and continues through the summer. 
Thine full many a pleasing bloom 
Of blossoms lost to all perfume ; 
Thine the dandelion flowers, 
Gilt with dew, like sun with showers. 
Clare. 
The dandelion flower is used for Love’s oracle. If you are 
separated from the object of your affection, gently detach one 
of these transparent spheres ; each little feather that composes 
it is charged with a tender thought. Turn toward the spot in¬ 
habited by your beloved; blow softly, and every little winged 
traveller, like a faithful messenger, shall bear your secret hom¬ 
age to her feet. If desirous of knowing whether the object so 
dear thinks of you now you are absent, blow again, and if there 
remain one tuft, it is a sign you are not forgotten. But the sec¬ 
ond charm should be done with care; blow very gently ; for at 
any age, even at that age which is most congenial to love, it is 
not well for our peace that we should too rudely disperse the 
pleasing illusions which embellish life. 
Miss Landon wrote some very beautiful lines on seeing an 
illustration of the garden-scene in Goethe’s Faust, where Mar- 
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