INTRODUCTION. 
25 
of the trees and the murmuring of the swelling 
billows the soul seems to wing its way towards 
the realms of eternity, and the virtuous mind is 
impressed with a deeper consciousness of its moral 
dignity. This trait in the human mind is typified 
in the vegetation of the East, by a tree to which 
the Turks, Arabians, Persians, and Malays, give 
various names, and which we distinguish by the 
appellation of the Sorrowful Tree {Myctanthes 
arbor tristis, X.). It resembles the cherry-tree in 
form; but it is of much larger size. Its flowers, 
which resemble the orange blossom, are white, with 
a reddish tint at the bottom of the calyx, and their 
perfume is like that of the evening primrose. This 
tree possesses the peculiar property of blooming and 
emitting its delightful fragrance during the night. 
There are 
Plants that wake when others sleep; 
Like timid jasmine buds that keep 
Their odour to themselves all day, 
But, when the sun-light dies away. 
Let the delicious secret out 
To every breeze that roams about. 
fhe first bud of the Sorrowful Tree opens as 
2 
