Page:The Romance of Nature; or, The Flower-Seasons Illustrated.djvu/380

246 The Spartan Mirtle, whence sweete gumb does flowe;

The purple Hyacinthe, and fresh Costmarie;

And Saffron, sought for in Cicilian soyle;

And Lawrell th' ornament of Phœbus' toyle.

Fresh Rhododaphne; and the Sabine flower,

Matching the wealth of th' ancient Frankincence;

And pallied Yvie, building his own boure;

And Box, yet mindful of his olde offence;

Red Amaranthus, lucklesse Paramoure;

Oxeye still greene, and bitter Patience,

Ne wants there pale Narcisse, that, in a well

Seeing his beauty, in love with it fell.

The flower and fruit of the, or Strawberry-tree, are represented in the following plate. We have few shrubs which contribute so much and so constantly to the adornment of our gardens and lawns as this. Its deep glossy ever-green leaves are alone beautiful; but when in Autumn these are gemmed with its clusters of delicate flowers, and the richly-hued ripening fruit (which is a year in attaining maturity, and so appears with the succeeding blossoms), I know few objects so beautiful as a fine Arbutus. At the famed lakes of Killarney, the abundance and magnitude of these splendid trees constitutes one of the great charms of that fairy region.

The spray, from which my illustration was made, ripened its many-tinted berries under the shelter of Warwick Castle, where the Arbutus trees, in the great court, are truly magnificent.

The last subjects of my pencil, in this small