



H 188 FLORAL POESY. 
Harth’s cultureless buds ! to my heart ye were dear 
Ere the fever of passion, or ague of fear, 
Had scathed my existence’s bloom ; 
hI Once I welcome you more, in life’s passionless stage, 
With the visions of youth to revisit my age, 
And I wish you to grow on my tomb, 
CYPRESS, 
(Mourning.) 
‘*'The cypress is the emblem of mourning.”—-SHAKSPEARE. 
CCORDING to Ovid, this tree was named after 
Cyparissus, an especial favorite of Apollo. He 
had accidentally slain his pet stag, and was so sorrow- 
stricken that he besought the gods to doom his life to 
everlasting gloom ; and they, in compliance with his 
request, transformed him into a cypress-tree. 

‘* When, lost in tears, the-blood his veins forsakes, . 
His every limb a grassy hue partakes ; 
His flowing tresses, stiff and bushy grown, 
Point to the stars, and taper to a cone. | 
Apollo thus : ‘Ah! youth, beloved in vain, ) 
Long shall thy boughs the gloom I feel retain ; | 
Henceforth, when mourners grieve, their grief to share, 
Emblem of woe, the cypress shall be there,’ ” 
