







THE BOUQUET. 
CALLA. ETHIOPICA. 
ARUM ETHIOPICUM. 
Feminine Modesty. 

In flowers and blossoms love is wont to trace 
Emblems of woman’s virtues and her grace ; 
Both pure, both sweet, both formed with curious 
skill, 
The quaint analogy surprises still. 
Hence rose a mystic tongue, which I know not, 
Or with love’s other language, have forgot; 
At ‘thirty,’ one may gaze on rose and lily, 
Nor grow poetic, amorous, nor—silly. 
Yet, fair exotic! by this single rule, 
That thy name speaks thee of the ‘ Beautiful,’ 
(A race by ancient gods and modern men 
Alike adored,) thou shouldst engage my pen: 
The more, that thy chaste hue of modest white 
Evokes the thought of one as pure, as bright ; 
On whose fair brow most legibly is writ 
What more enchants than beauty, grace, or wit; 
Of that with thy fresh circling leaf of green, 
(An artless robe, adapted to thy mien,) 
Henceforth in Flora’s reign the emblem be, 
And bear the name of Female Modesty. 





















CREESE. 
