FLORAL POESY. 
And some said it was Happiness, 
And some said if was Spring, 
And some said it was Grief and Tears, 
And many such a thing ; 
But still the little flower bloomed, 
And still it lived and throve, 
And men do it call ‘‘ Summer Growth,” 
But angels call it “ Love!” 

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THE LILY OF THE VALLEY. 
(Return of Happiness.) 
‘Be thy advent the emblem of all I would crave.” 
ERNARD BARTON. 
HE Lily of the Valley, sometimes called the May 
Lily, and in some country villages Ladder to 
Heaven, in the floral languages of Europe is emblema- 
tic of the return of happiness, doubtless in allusion to 
the season of the year when it puts forth its blossoms. 
Keats was very fond of it, and says: 
‘‘No flower amid the garden fairer grows 
Than the sweet lily of the lowly vale, 
The queen of flowers.” 
And further on 
‘¢ Valley-lilies, whiter still 
Than Leda’s love.” 
In that enchanted garden where the sensitive plant 
grew, Shelley lovingly placed 
‘‘ The naiad-like lily of the vale, 
Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale, 
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen 
Through their pavilions of tender green,” 


