


io 
76 DELUSIVE HOPE. 
proach of this enchantress! Nature teaches us 
how to love and how to please; art is unne- 
cessary here. Those who employ it are always 
perfidious and dangerous. 
The flowers of the datura, like the nocturnal 
beauties just named, languish beneath their 
sombre and drooping foliage while the sun 
shines ; but at the approach of night they put 
forth, and are reanimated. Then they dis- 
play their charms and unfold those immense 
bell-shaped petals which nature has formed of 
ivory and stained with purple, and to which she 
has confided a perfume that attracts and inyi- 
gorates, but is so dangerous, that it produces 
ebriety and hysterics, even in the open air, on 
those who respire it. 
weencrrnn 
DELUSIVE HOPE. 
FALSE NARCISSUS. 
Tue flowers of this plant very often fail. It 
is a native of our meadows, but is cultivated 
with great care in Holland, and returned to us 
under the name of Pheenix, or Soleil d’or. After 
tending the forced plant with much care, we are 
surprised to find that we possess in it nothing 
better than the false narcissus. 

















