188 
is too long to insert the whole; but one of the stanzas, 
immediately bearing on the subject, we cannot forbear 
quoting: — 
‘‘ Thrice welcome, little English flower! 
To this resplendent hemisphere, 
Where Flora's giant offspring tower 
In gorgeous liveries all the year; 
Thou, only thou, art little here, 
Like worth unfriended and unknown. 
Yet to my British heart more dear 
Than all the torrid zone.” 
In another stanza of the same poem the splendid 
monotony of India is strikingly contrasted with the 
freshness and variety which characterise both the cli¬ 
mate and productions of England. Instead of period¬ 
ical returns of dry and wet weather, we have showers 
and sunshine throughout the year; instead of trees 
chiefly evergreens, and which, in consequence, even 
if the climate permitted it, could display but little 
change of tint, ours are mostly of a description which 
show the alternations of season. The freshness of 
spring, the splendour of summer, the gorgeousness of 
autumn, and the desolation of winter, are all exhibited 
by our British sylva. When we consider, too, that 
