Page:Rural Hours.djvu/160

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140
RURAL HOURS.

been called Caractacussia, or Chlodovigia, it would have been sung by knightly troubadours and minstrels, in every corner of feudal Europe? Can you fancy this flower, “so yong, so fresh of hew,” to have delighted Chaucer, under the title of Sirhumphreydavya, or Sirwilliamherschellia, or Doctorjohnsonia? Can you imagine the gentle Emilie, in the garden gathering flowers—

To make a sotel garland for her hed,
While as an angel, hevonlich, she song:—”

Can you imagine this gentle creature, or any other, of whom it might be said,

Her cheare was simple as bird in bower,
As white as lilly, or rose in rise:”

Can you picture to yourself such maidens, weaving in their golden tresses, Symphoricarpus vulgaris, Tricochloa, Tradescantia, Calopogon? &c., &c. Or conceive for a moment some Perdita of the present day, singing in her sweetest tones:

“Here's flowers for you—
Pyxidanthera, Rudbeekia, Sclerolepis,
Escholtzia, that goes to bed with the sun,” &e., &c.

Fancy her calling for fragrant blossoms to bestow on her young maiden friends: “Spargonophorus, Rhododendron, Sabbatia, Schizea, Schollera, Schistidium, Waldsteinia, and the tall Vernonia, Noveborences,” &c., &c. Do you suppose that if she had gone on in that style, Florizel would have whispered: “When you speak sweet, I'd have you do it ever?” No, indeed! he would have stopped his ears, and turned to Mopsa and Dorcas. Fancy