FLORA’S LEXICON.
43
IRD-CHERRY. Prunus Padus. Class 12, Icosandria. Order: Monogynia. The bird-cherry is indigenous in most parts of Europe; it even opens its fragile flowers to the nipping air of Russia and Siberia. It abounds in the northern counties of England, and is profusely scattered among the woods, and on the borders of the mountain torrents of Scotland. In these natural fastnesses, where it is more likely to escape the stroke of the axe, it often rises to the height of fifteen feet from a stem eighteen inches in diameter, and spreads its branches to a considerable distance.
HOPE.
Time was, when shadowy eve
Was dearer to my heart than smiling morn,
And than the lovely garlands Spring doth weave,
The faded hues by pensive Autumn worn.
Was dearer to my heart than smiling morn,
And than the lovely garlands Spring doth weave,
The faded hues by pensive Autumn worn.
’T was in my youthful prime,
When life itself pat on the look of Spring;
Ere Care, that ever tracks the steps of Time,
Seem’d other than a visionary thing.
When life itself pat on the look of Spring;
Ere Care, that ever tracks the steps of Time,
Seem’d other than a visionary thing.
Untouch’d by real grief,
E’en from its own excess of joy, my heart
In fancied ills would ofttimes seek relief,
And sport with Sorrow’s yet unvenom’d dart.
E’en from its own excess of joy, my heart
In fancied ills would ofttimes seek relief,
And sport with Sorrow’s yet unvenom’d dart.
But now, when every sigh
Is fraught, alas! with meaning full and deep;
When Hope resigns her seat to Memory,
And leaves me o’er her vanish’d dreams to weep:
Is fraught, alas! with meaning full and deep;
When Hope resigns her seat to Memory,
And leaves me o’er her vanish’d dreams to weep:
Oh! now I turn away
From Autumn’s sered wreaths to Spring’s gay bloom;
Those all too sadly mind me of decay,
These bid sweet Hope once more her sway resume.
From Autumn’s sered wreaths to Spring’s gay bloom;
Those all too sadly mind me of decay,
These bid sweet Hope once more her sway resume.
Anon.
