Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/374

240 For never rain or dew

Such fragrance drew

From plant or flower—the very doubt endears

My sadness ever new,

The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee.

Mignionette owes nothing of its fame to outward show or splendour of attire, few flowers being robed more soberly; but the uncloying sweetness of its perfume, and its abundant growth, render it one of our best garden treasures. It should be the emblem of those whose beauty and excellence are found in the mind instead of the face.

External loveliness may well be imaged by the gay and brilliant flowers with which the modest Mignionette is grouped in the illustration. The is one of the most elegant of our common annuals; but it is devoid of fragrance, and is of very short duration. A summer's day finds it withered ere noon; and each morning decks it with new blossoms, to bask a few brief hours in the sunshine, then shrivel, fall, and pass away. But it would ill become me to disparage the beauty of this fair and favourite flower; the great profusion and luxuriance of its blossoms amply compensating for their short-lived beauty; and when many stems are intertwined, the variety of colour is extremely gay and ornamental.

My own fond love for Wild Flowers is by this time so well known by my readers, that they will not marvel when I mention the common as being, in my estimation, the most beautiful of all the Convolvuli. It is so very graceful—so lavish of both bloom and foliage—so