"A wreath that cannot fade, of flowers, that blow
With most success when all besides decay."

COWPER.

New-York:

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR

BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS, 200 MULBERRY-STREET.

1856.

св

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1855,

BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District

of New-York.

WOR4 FEB 36

Introduction.

WHO does not love flowers? So pure, so bright, so beautiful they are, they seem to reflect the smiles of Heaven. The infant presses them eagerly to its lips, and the old man, bending toward the grave, gazes with delight on their graceful forms and gorgeous colors. The village school-boy, amid his gleeful frolics, stops to pluck the sweetly-opening bud; and the Mayday queen exults in bearing on her brow the roseate crown. Other ornaments are fancied or contemned, according to the varying circumstances of wealth, position, or caprice. But flowers are universal ornaments. The forestmaidens amid savage tribes, and the noble damsels attendant on England's queen, are alike

enchanted by their fragrance and their hue. The rose and the honey-suckle climb alike upon the undressed corners of the rude cabin, and upon the costly lattices of titled wealth. The same flowers give their perfumes to the lonely chamber of the solitary widow, and to the glittering saloons of festive mirth. They vie with the diamond on the brow of bridal beauty, and they bloom on the grave where loved ones sweetly sleep. They are Heaven's universal gifts to the poorest of the poor, and yet "Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Poetry has many resemblances to flowers. Its flow of measured words, its sententious form and fanciful imagery, strongly impress the memory and interest the fancy. And when, as in rhyme, there is a recurrence, at regular intervals, of similar sounds, the pleasure is enhanced, especially to the youthful mind. Who has not noticed the facility and fondness with which children remember poetic stanzas? Who does not, even in age, remember those simple nursery rhymes which are singularly diffused in some form in almost every land? And how