10.

As o'er the fabled fountain hanging still;
Nor broad carnations, nor gay-spotted pinks;
Nor, shower'd from every bush, the damask rose;
Infinite numbers, delicacies, smells,
With hues on hues expression can not paint-
The breath of Nature, and her endless bloom.
Hail, Source of Being! Universal Soul
Of heaven and earth! Essential Presence, hail !
To Thee I bend the knee ; to Thee my thoughts,
Continual, climb; who, with a master-hand,
Hast the great whole into perfection touch'd.
By Thee the various vegetative tribes,
Wrapped in a filmy net, and clad with leaves,
Draw the live ether, and imbibe the dew;
By Thee disposed into congenial soils,
Stands each attractive plant, and sucks, and swells
The juicy tide; a twining mass of tubes.
At Thy command the vernal sun awakes
The torpid sap, detruded in to the root
By wint'ry winds; that now in fluent dance,
And lively fermentation, mounting, spreads

All this innumerous-colored scene of things. -THOMSON. 1 A0'-RO-GÉNS, see p. 196.

1 9 “FATHER-DUST," the pollen of plants. 2 THAL'-LO-GENS, see p. 202.

See Fourth Reader, p. 223. 3 LI'-CHENS, see p. 202.

10 NAR-CIS-SUS. According to Grecian fable, 4 CRYP-TOG'-A-MOUS, see p. 196.

Narcissus was a beautiful youth, who, see5 VÈR'-NAL, pertaining to the spring.

ing his image reflected in a fountain, and 6 A-NÉM'-0-NE, the wind-flower.

becoming enamored of it, pined away till " AU-RÏC'-U-LA, a beautiful species of prim he was changed into the flower which bears rose.

his name. 8 RA-NUN'-CU-LUS, the crowfoot.

11 DE-TRŪ'-DED, driven or thrust down.

MAY FLOWERS.
“Blessed be God for flowers;
For the bright, gentle, holy thoughts that breatne
From out their odorous beauty like a wreath

Of sunshine on life's hours."

The welcome flowers are blossoming

In joyous troops revealed;
They lift their dewy buds and bells

In garden, mead, and field.
They lurk in every sunless path

Where forest children tread,
They dot like stars the sacred turf

Which lies above the dead.
They sport with every playful wind

That stirs the blooming trees,
And laugh on every fragrant bush

All full of toiling bees ;
From the green marge of lake and stream,

Fresh vale and mountain sod,
• They look in gentle glory forth,

The pure sweet flowers of God.-LYONS.
I'll teach thee miracles! Walk on this heath,
And say to the neglected flower, “Look up,
And be thou beautiful!” if thou hast faith

It will obey thy word. - BARRINGTON.

FIRST DIVISION OF THE VEGETABLE KING

DOM. EXOGENS.

[The four most important physiological peculiarities of this great natural division are, 1st. The plants are Exogenous, or outward growers. (See Fourth Reader, p. 176.) 2d. The leaves are net-veined. 3d. The flowers are mostly quinary or quaternary—that is, they have five or four sepals, petals, and stamens, or some power of those numbers-rarely ternary, 4th. The embryo has two cotyledons; that is, the plants are dicotyledonous. Other peculiarities will be noticed under the different families which compose the divi. sion.]

LESSON IV.-THE ROSE FAMILY.
[EXOGENOUS? or DICOTYLEDONOUS;2 Angiosperms;3 Polypetalous.4)

1. Ro'sa gallica, French rose, xi. 12, pk., 3 f., Jn.-Jl., France. 2. Ro'sa damascena, Damask rose, xi. 12, r., 3 f., Jn.-Jl., Levant. 3. Ro'sa musco'sa, Moss rose, xi. 12, r., Jn.-Jl., S. Europe. 4. Ro'sa cinnamo'nea, Cinnamon rose, xi. 12, pk., 6 f., My., Europe. 5. Fraga'ria grandiflo'ra, Wild-pine strawberry, xi. 12, w., 1 f., Ap.-My., $. Am. 6. Ru'bus occidenta'lis, Am. raspberry, xi. 12, w., 5 f., My.-Jn., N. Am. 7. Spiræ'a salcifo'lia, Willow-leaved spiræa, or Queen of the Meadow, xi. 5, w., 3 f., Jn.-Au., N. Am. 8. Spiro'a ulmifo'lia, Elm-leaved spiræa, xi. 5, w., 3 f., Jn.-JI., S. Europe. 9. Spirae'n, tomento'sa, Hard-hack spiræa, xi. 5, r., 3 f., Au.-S., N. Am.

For explanation of the characters used in connection with the botanical description, see close of the Table of Contents.

How much of memory dwells amid thy bloom,

Rose' ever wearing beauty for thy dower'!
The Bridal day-the Festival—the Tomb- .

Thou hast thy part in each, thou stateliest flower'!

Therefore with thy soft breath come floating by

A thousand images of Love and Grief,
Dreams, fill'd with tokens of mortality',

Deep thoughts of all things beautiful and brief.

Not such thy spells o'er those that hail'd thee fir t

In the clear light of Eden's' gulden day' ;
There thy rich leaves to crimson glory burst,

Link'd with no dim remembrance of decay.
Rose' ! for the banquet gathered, and the bier;

Rose'l colored now by human hope or pain;
Surely where death is not-nor change, nor fear,

Yet may we meet thee, Joy's own Flower, again !—Mrs. HEMANS. 5. At the head of the exogenous, or outward growing plants, having covered seeds, and many petals or flower leaves, may be placed the Rose family, which is conspicuous for the beauty of some of its members, and the utility of others. It not only includes the rose proper, but the beautiful spiræas of our lawns and gardens; the hawthorn, which is employed in hedges; the strawberry, the raspberry, and the blackberry; and also such fruits as the apple, pear, quince, almond, peach, plum, and cherry.

6. The leaves of all plants in the rose family are alternate, and the flowers, in their wild state, are regular, with five petals, as may still be seen in the wild brier, which is one of our wild roses. The hundred-leaf roses, cabbage roses, and all roses with more than five petals, have probably had their stamens changed to petals by cultivation. The artificial or cultivated roses-as likewise all plants which have been changed in the same manner-have to be propagated from cuttings, roots, or buds, as they do not produce perfect seeds.

7. In some parts of India roses are extensively cultivated for the manufacture of rose-water, and the ottar or oil of roses, the former being used chiefly by the natives at their festivals and weddings, when it is distributed largely to the guests as they arrive, and sprinkled with profusion in the apartments. On the banks of the Ganges roses are cultivated in fields of hundreds of acres; and it is said their delightful odor can be scented at a distance of seven miles. The pure ottar of roses, so delicious for its fragrance, is not unfrequently sold for twenty or thirty dollars an ounce.

" The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem
For that sweet odor which doth in it live.
The canker6 blooms have full as deep a dye
As the perfumed tincture of the roses,
Hang on such thorns, and play as wantonly
When summer's breath their masked buds discloses.
But, for their virtue', they have naught but show';
They live unmoved', and un respected fade-
Die to themselves': sweet roses' do not sol;

Of their sweet deaths' are sweetest odors made." 9. Persia has been styled, pre-eminently, the “Land of Roses ;" for not only are the gardens, even of the common people, full of these flowers, but, in the flowering season, their

10.

rooms are constantly ornamented with them, and mattresses are made of their leaves for men of rank to recline upon. A festival, also, is held, called the Feast of Roses, which lasts the whole time they are in blossom.

A happier smile illumes each brow,

With quicker spread each heart unc.oses,
And all is ecstasy-for now

The valley holds its Feast of Roses;
That joyous time, when pleasures pour
Profusely round, and in their shower
Hearts open, like the season's rose,

The floweret of a hundred leaves,
Expanding when the dew-fall flows,

And every leaf its balm receives. -MOORE. 11. “Poetry is lavish of roses. It heaps them into beds, weaves them into crowns and garlands, twines them into arbors, forges them into chains, adorns with them the goblet used in the festivals of Bacchus, plants them in the bosom of beauty-nay, not only delights to bring in the rose itself upon every occasion, but seizes each particular beauty it possesses as an object of comparison with the loveliest works of nature." “As soft as a rose-leaf,” as “sweet as a rose,” “ rosy clouds," “ rosy cheeks,” “rosy lips,” “rosy blushes,” “rosy dawns,” etc., are expressions so familiar that they have almost become the language of daily life.

12. The wild rose, one species of which is the wild brier, or eglantine, has been made the emblem of“Nature's sweet simplicity” in all ages. It forms one of the principal flowers in the rustic's bouquet.? It is not loved for its fair, delicate blossoms only; but its fragrant leaves, which perfume the breeze of dewy morn, and the soft breath of eve, entitle it to its frequent association with the woodbine or honeysuckle.

". The wild rose scents the summer air,

And woodbines weave in bowers,
To glad the swain sojourning there,

And maidens gathering flowers. 13. The standards of the houses of York and Lancaster had for emblems the wild rose; the white rose being used to distinguish the partisans of the former, and the red those of the latter.

" Thou once wast doomed, Where civil discord braved the field,

To grace the banner and the shield." 14. It is said that the angels possess a more beautiful kind of rose than those we have on earth; and the poet Cowley, in one of his poems, represents David as seeing, in a vision, a number of angels pass by, with gilded baskets in their hands, from which they scattered flowers :

Some', as they went', the blue-eyed violets strew';
Some, spotless lilies in loose order threw,
Some did the way with full-blown roses spread',
Their smell divine', and color strangely red':
Not such as our dull gardens proudly wear,
Whom weathers taint, and winds' rude kisses tea..
Such, I believe, was the first rose's hue,
Which, at God's word, in beauteous Eden grew;
Queen of the flowers that made that garden gay,

The morning blushes of the spring's new day.-COWLEY. 15. The origin of the red color of the rose has been fancifully accounted for in various ways. By the Greeks, the rose was consecrated to Venus, the goddess of Beauty; and ancient fable attributes its red color to a drop of blood from the thornpierced foot of the goddess,

“Which, o'er the white rose being shed,

Made it forever after red." Its beautiful tint is poetically traced to another source by a modern poet:

As erst in Eden's blissful bowers,
Young Eve surveyed her countless flowers',
An opening rose of purest white
She mark'd with eye that beam'd delight';
Its leaves' she kissed, and straight it drew

From beauty's lip the vermeile hue.-J. CAREY. 16. Perhaps no one of the roses is more prized for its beauty than the elegant moss rose. The flowers are deeply colored, and the rich mossiness which surrounds them gives them

a luxuriant appearance not easily described. The origin of this mossy vest has been thus explained by a German writer.

The angel of the flowers one day
Beneath a rose-tree sleeping lay-
That spirit, to whose charge is given
To bathe young buds in dew from heaven.
Awakening from his slignt repose,
The angel whispered to the rose,
“O fondest object of my care,
Still fairest found where all is fair,
For the sweet shade thou hast given me,
Ask what thou wilt, 'tis granted thee."
Then said the rose, with deepened glow,
"On me another grace bestow."
The angel paused in silent thought-
What grace was there the flower had not?
'Twas but a moment-o'er the rose
A veil of moss the angel throws-

And, robed in Nature's simplest weed',
Moss Rose.