38 
AMIABILITY. 
its beauty. In a word, they please, because 
nature has made them amiable. 
The jasmine seems as though it had been 
created to express the quality of amiability. 
When first introduced into France by some 
Spanish navigators, about 156'0, it was greatly 
admired for the lightness of its branches and 
the delicate lustre of its star-like flowers. 
It was deemed necessary to place a plant so 
elegant and apparently tender in the hot¬ 
house. It was then tried in the orangery, 
where it grew marvellously well; and at length 
it was exposed in the open ground, where 
now it grows as freely as in its native soil, 
braving the most rigorous winters without 
requiring any care or attention. 
The flexible branches of this odoriferous 
shrub may be trained according to our plea¬ 
sure. It will climb our palisades, and weave 
itself around our trellised arches, and cover 
the dead wall with an evergeen tapestry, and 
run gaily along our terraces and our walks. 
It is also obedient to the scissors of the gar¬ 
dener, who forms it into bushy shrubs or 
grotesque figures ; and, in every form, it 
lavishes upon us an abundant harvest of 
flowers, which perfume, refresh, and purify 
the air in our groves. 
Then how serene! when in your favourite room, 
Gales from your jasmines soothe the evening gloom. 
CRABBE. 
