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vegetates and all that breathes, as in a vegetable fleece, capable of preserving her less gifted children from the effects of the intense cold, and keeping them warm upon her maternal bosom.

LAURUSTINUS.

I DIE IF NEGLECTED.

THIS pretty plant, which is the gift of Spain, is the ornament of our shrubberies in winter, appearing in full leaf and flower at a time when other plants are stripped of theirs. Neither the scorching breath of summer nor the cold blast of winter can despoil it of its charms: at the same time, assiduous care is necessary to preserve it. The emblem of constant and delicate friendship, it always seeks to please, but dies if neglected.

CORNEL CHERRY-TREE.

DURABILITY.

THE Cornel Cherry-tree grows no higher than eighteen or twenty feet. It is of very slow growth, but lives for ages. It blossoms in spring, but its bright scarlet berries are not ripe till winter.

The Greeks consecrated this tree to Apollo, no doubt because that god presided over the productions of the mind, which require much time and reflection-a charming emblem, intimating to those who were desirous to cultivate letters, eloquence, and poetry, that, before they can earn the laurel crown, they must long wear that of patience and meditation.

After Romulus had marked out the bounds of his rising city, he threw his javelin on the Mount Palatine. The weapon, made of the wood of the Cornel Cherry-tree, stuck fast in the ground, took

root, grew, threw out leaves and branches, and became a tree. This prodigy was considered as the happy presage of the power and duration of the infant empire.

LAUREL.

GLORY.

THE Greeks and the Romans consecrated Laurel crowns to every species of Glory. With these they adorned the brows of warriors and poets, of orators and philosophers, of vestals and emperors. This beautiful shrub grows abundantly at Delphi, on the banks of the river Peneus. There its aromatic and evergreen branches shoot up to the height of the loftiest trees; and it is alleged that by means of some secret virtue they avert lightning from the spots which they adorn.

According to ancient fable, the fair Daphne was the daughter of the river Peneus. Apollo fell in love with her, but she, preferring virtue to the love of the most eloquent of the gods, fled in order to avoid the seducing magic of his words, Apollo pursued, and was on the point of overtaking her, when the nymph invoked her father, and was changed into a Laurel. The god, finding that it was an insensible tree that he held clasped in his

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