76 
DELUSIVE HOPE. 
ture teaches us how to love and how to please; 
art is unnecessary here. Those who employ 
it are always perfidious and dangerous. 
The flowers of the datura, like the nocturnal 
beauties just named, languish beneath their 
sombre and drooping foliage, while the sun 
shines; but at the approach of night they put 
forth, and are reanimated. Then they dis¬ 
play their charms and unfold those immense 
bell-shaped petals which nature has formed 
of ivory and stained with purple, and to which 
she has confided a perfume that attracts and 
invigorates, but is so dangerous, that it pro¬ 
duces ebriety and hysterics, even in the open 
air, on those who respire it. 
DELUSIVE HOPE. 
FALSE NARCISSUS. 
The flowers of this plant very often fail. 
It is a native of our meadows, but is cultiva¬ 
ted with great care in Holland, and returned 
to us under the name of Phoenix, or Soleil 
d’or. After tending the forced plant with 
much care, we are surprised to find that we 
possess in it nothing better than the false 
narcissus. 
