the Rose; and Miss Landon intimates in some very pretty verses her preference for the former:

"Why better than the lady rose

Love I this little flower?

Because its fragrant leaves are those

I loved in childhood's hour.

Though many a flower may win my praise,
The Violet has my love;

I did not pass my childish days
In garden or in grove.

My garden was the window seat,
Upon whose edge was set

A little vase-the fair, the sweet-
It was the Violet.

It was my pleasure and my pride;-
How I did watch its growth!

For health and bloom what plans I tried,
And often injured both!

I placed it in the summer shower,

I placed it in the sun;

And ever at the evening hour,

My work seem'd half undone.

The broad leaves spread, the small buds grew,
How slow they seem'd to be!

At last there came a tinge of blue,-
'Twas worth the world to me!

At length the perfume fill'd the room,
Shed from their purple wreath;
No flower has now so rich a bloom,
Has now so sweet a breath.

I gather'd two or three-they seem'd
Such rich gifts to bestow!
So precious in my sight, I deem'd

That all must think them so.

Ah! who is there but would be fain

To be a child once more;

If future years could bring again
All that they brought before?

My heart's world has been long o'erthrown;

It is no more of flowers ;

Their bloom is pass'd their breath is flown;
Yet I recall those hours.

Let nature spread her loveliest,
By Spring or Summer nurst:
Yet still I love the Violet best,

Because I loved it first."

Dr. Deakin, in "Florigraphia Britannica," gives a very elaborate account of the construction of the Violet, exhibiting the "admirable adaptation of its various parts to the fulfilment of the offices assigned to them by the wisdom of the Great Parent of all things."

The white variety is of equal fragrance with the purple, and in some districts grows as abundantly. In the Linnæan system the Violet belongs to the class Pentandria, and order Monogynia, and in the natural system to the order Componaceæ.

As is the case with a great number of wild flowers, the Violet becomes double by cultivation, and this change is accompanied by increased fragrance. This does not, however, make the charms of the cultivated Violet equal to those of the wild flower.

THE PRIMROSE.

Primula; W. La primevère; Fr. Die schlüsselblume; Ger. SleutelPrimula veris; Sp. Primavera ;

bloem; Dutch. Primavera; Ital. Port. Bukwiza; Russ.

"In dewy glades

The peering primrose, like sudden gladness,
Gleams on the soul-yet unregarded fades :-
The joy is ours, but all its own the sadness."

H. COLERIDGE.

As we take our rural rambles, in the earliest days of Spring, we are ever and anon coming within view of the pale Primrose, lying in rich contrast upon its beautifully formed leaves, which are oblong egg-shaped, and whose surfaces appear to have been embossed by deeply-cut dies of elegant workmanship. We usually find them growing in clusters, now in the shade of a grove, now on a sloping mossy bank, rising from the road side and overhung by the branches of some lofty tree; and again on the moist margin of a bubbling brook, where they seem to bask in the mild sun-beams, and enjoy their brief existence in the highest degree; -but, wherever it is that we come unexpectedly upon them, we feel a "sudden gladness gleaming on the soul," at the sight of these cheerful attendants on the path of the infant year; we feel another gush of that "renewed life" which the poet Carrington enjoyed, when he escaped from his almost ceaseless toil to Dartmoor, the wilderness of Devonia,

At all its thousand fountains? Who can bathe

His brow in thy young breezes, and not bless

The new-born impulse which gives wings to thought
And pulse to action?"

Yes, though we are surrounded by the cheering aspect of hedges and trees showing their swelling buds bursting into beauty, and by birds of every kind carolling forth their joyous song, and we inhale the pure, the balmy breath of the vernal season, a fresh impulse is given to the already intense enjoyment of existence, when we meet with groups of these lovely flowers unfolding their pale-yellow petals to our delighted eyes.

The Primrose is, indeed, one of the chief ornaments of Spring; of that season which pastoral poets in all ages have loved to celebrate in their lays. Nor can we be surprised at this, when we consider that a true poet always admires nature, that he delights to ramble through field and woodland in search of her hidden treasures, where, in shady pastures and inclining banks, in the months of March, of April, and of May, he finds our favourite blooming in abundance.

Shakspeare has made the Primrose a funereal flower. In "Cymbeline" we find Arviragus addressing the supposed dead body of Imogen in these words:

"With fairest flowers,

Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele,

I'll sweeten thy sad grave. Thou shalt not lack

The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor the

Azured harebell, like thy veins; no, nor

The leaf of eglantine, whom, not to slander,

Out-sweetened not thy breath."

We must confess, however, that it is not associated in

our mind with melancholy thoughts, but with pleasurable sensations, as the sure sign of approaching Summer, when the whole earth is clothed with richest verdure; when, glancing round upon the undulations of hill and dale, the eye rests on ripening "kindly fruits," which, first springing forth spontaneously at the command of the Omnipotent Creator of the universe, continue by his gracious permission to yield their increase for the use of man. We fully sympathize with Carrington, when observing that

"Amid the sunny luxury of grass

Are tufts of pale-eyed primroses, entwined

With many a bright-hued flower, and shrub that scents
The all-voluptuous air."

And 'twas but yesterday that we beheld in a shady grove of ancient trees, tufts such as these, mingling their pale hues with the deep rich purple of the sweetscented violet; both were there in great abundance, the one pleasing the eye with its sulphur-coloured flower, the other greeting the senses with its fragrance; and as we looked upon them, we thought of Bidlake's address: