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MY BEST DAYS ARE PAST, 203 
has misled the wisest men; and it required all 
the experience of Haller to dissipate the vain 
superstitions of the ignorant. 
The flower has neither leaves nor stalks. A 
long tube, white as ivory, is its only support ; 
the flowers die off in October, and leave no 
external appearance of seeds. “ These lie 
buried all the winter within the bulb _ sini 
spring they grow up on a fruit-stalk, and are 
ripe about the time of hay-harvest.” “ As 
this plant blossoms late in the year, and pro- 
bably would not have time to ripen its seeds 
before winter, Providence has so framed its 
structure, that it may be performed at a depth 
within the earth, out of the reach of the usual 
effects of frost; and as seeds buried at such a 
depth are known not to vegetate, a no less ad- 
mirable provision is made to raise them above 
the surface when they are perfected, and to sow 
them at a proper season.’? It thus mingles 
its fruits with the flowers of spring, and its 
flowers with the fruits of autumn ; at all times 
the lambs shun it, and the young shepherdess 
becomes melancholy at the sight of it; so the 
melancholy-hearted oft weaves a wreath of its 
pale blue flowers, consecrating it to the memory 
of happy days which have fled to return no more. 














