O'er the cowslip's velvet head, These flowers furnish an abundant supply of honey to the bee; for "Rich in vegetable gold, From calyx pale the freckled cowslip born, Receives in amber cups the fragrant dews of morn." THE COWSLIP. MRS. SIGOURNEY. Good neighbour cowslip, I have seen the bee And shows some gain for every day he spends? THE COWSLIP. ANON. UNFOLDING to the breeze of May, And as the dewdrops gently fall, In princely halls, and courts of kings, But gems of every form and hue Man to his brother shuts his heart, Flings wide her stores o'er sea and land. Oh, Art is but a scanty rill COWSLIPS. MARY HOWITT. OH! fragrant dwellers of the lea, What can the blessed spring restore Of thickets, breezes, birds, and flowers; Of thoughts as cloudless as the hours; Oh! blessed, blessed do ye seem, With soul athirst for wood and stream, From the hot town, where mortal care And are ye here? and are ye here ? I care not that your little life Will quickly have run through, And the sward with summer children rife Keep not a trace of you. For again, again, on dewy plain, I trust to see you rise, When spring renews the wildwood strain, And bluer gleam the skies. Again, again, when many springs Upon my grave shall shine, Here shall you speak of vanished things To living hearts of mine. THE COWSLIP. MISS LANDON. THE Cowslip, that bending Of each glad hour's ending A CROCUS. (Cheerfulness-Hope.) CCORDING to some authors, these bright little "Come before the swallow dares, derive their name from a Greek word signifying thread, from the fact of their thread or filament being in such request for saffron dye. The Greeks fabled that Crocu, a beautiful youth, was transformed into this flower; as his lady-love, Smilax, was at the same time into a yew-tree. It is in England consecrated to St. Valentine. Bees are excessively fond of the crocus; and Moore thus alludes to this fact in "Lalla Rookh": "The busiest nive On Bela's hills is less alive, When saffron-beds are full in flower, Mrs. Howitt says of the purple crocus: "Like lilac flame its colour glows, Tender and yet so clearly bright, |