But gems of every form and hue
Are glittering here in morning dew;
Jewels that all alike may share
As freely as the common air:
No niggard hand, or jealous eye,
Protects them from the passer by.

Man to his brother shuts his heart,
And science acts a miser's part;
But nature, with a liberal hand,
Flings wide her stores o'er sea and land.
If gold she gives, not single grains
Are scatter'd far across the plains;
But lo, the desert streams are roll'd
O'er precious beds of virgin gold.
If flowers she offers, wreaths are given
As countless as the stars of heaven:
Or music-'tis no feeble note
She bids along the valleys float;
Ten thousand nameless melodies
In one full chorus swell the breeze.

Oh, art is but a scanty rill
That genial seasons scarcely fill.
But nature needs no tide's return
To fill afresh her flowing urn:
She gathers all her rich supplies
Where never-failing waters rise.

though so safely lodged, would, after all, be lost to the purpose for which all seeds are intended. Lest this should be the case, a second admirable provision is made, to raise them above the surface when they are perfected, and to sow them at a proper distance: viz. the germ grows up in the spring upon a fruit-stalk, accompanied with leaves. The seeds now, in common with those of other plants, have the benefit of the summer, and are sown upon the surface. The order of vegetation externally is this. The plant produces its flowers in September; its leaves and fruit in the spring following."

Another intelligent writer, Gilbert White, author of the "Natural History of Selborne," after remarking on the singularity of the vernal and the autumnal crocus opening their blossoms at such different seasons of the year, notwithstanding the great similarity in the general character and appearance of the flowers, thus concludes his observations:

"Say what impels, amid surrounding snow
Congeal'd, the Crocus' flamy buds to glow?
Say what retards, amidst the summer's blaze,
The autumnal bulb till pale declining days?
The God of seasons, whose pervading power
Controls the sun, or sheds the fleecy shower:
He bids each flower the quickening word obey,
Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay."

Common Daisy