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FLORA’S LEXICON.
LEMATIS, ENGLISH. Clematis Vitalba. Class 13, Polyandria. Order: Prentagynia. This is called Traveller’s Joy! “I do not know,” says Miss Twamley, “its origin further than that the beauty of the plant is cheering to far travellers, clothing as it does the wayside hedges and banks.” It is, however, a sweet, kindly old-fashioned name.
TRAVELLER’S JOY.
Who gave to thee that name,
So full of homely and most pleasant thought?
Its charm might win renown
For many a thing with far less beauty fraught.
So full of homely and most pleasant thought?
Its charm might win renown
For many a thing with far less beauty fraught.
There’s something in it tells
Of wanderings ended brightly;—of the close,
’Mid old familiar scenes,
Of the tired wayfarer’s amount of woes.
Of wanderings ended brightly;—of the close,
’Mid old familiar scenes,
Of the tired wayfarer’s amount of woes.
Wert thou the humblest flower
That we e’er scorn with that rude term, “a weed,”
Thy name would unto me
For kindly thought and pleasant fancies plead.
That we e’er scorn with that rude term, “a weed,”
Thy name would unto me
For kindly thought and pleasant fancies plead.
But thou art beautiful,
And our sole native of thy graceful band,
Which we so prize, and seek,
In varied form and hue, through many a land.
And our sole native of thy graceful band,
Which we so prize, and seek,
In varied form and hue, through many a land.
How often have I paused,
A joyous traveller, in sooth, to cull
A garland of thy flowers,
When with faint sweets the sun had fill’d them full.
A joyous traveller, in sooth, to cull
A garland of thy flowers,
When with faint sweets the sun had fill’d them full.
Twamley
