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platonic love. 
flowers, and sweet and fresh verdure, seems 
to prolong the spring. The nightingale loves 
to confide its nest to this new inhabitant of 
our climate ; the lovely bird, assured by the 
long and strong thorns which protect its fa¬ 
mily, sometimes descends upon the lowest 
branches of the tree, to make its ravishing 
notes the better heard. 
The acacia has been made the emblem of 
domestic beauty by an anonymous writer, who 
thus speaks of it: — “ Tints of the white, the 
golden, and the red rose are beautifully inter¬ 
mingled with the rich blossoms of the acacia. 
It is found in the most retired places, and it 
blooms the fairest in the closeness of its own 
foliage. It loves the mossy rock and the soli¬ 
tary grove, and pines away in the gay garden 
and crowded parterre. Nourmahal sings, 
Our rocks are rough, but smiling there 
The acacia waves her yellow hair, 
Lonely and sweet, nor loved the less 
For flowering in a wilderness — 
Then come — thy Arab maid will be 
The loved and lone acacia tree. 
There could be no fitter emblem of a beautiful 
woman flourishing in the retirement of her 
home, secluded from the vanities of ‘ crowded 
life,’ and adorning with her bloom the abode 
of domestic affection.” 
