I'll leave thee, and to pansies come;
Comforts you'll afford me some:

You can ease my heart, and do

What love could ne'er be brought unto."

If the poet means to play upon the word pansies also, he was surely singularly fortunate, that when love frowned upon him, his thoughts should give him so much comfort. He tells us the origin of another of its names:

"It was at the noon-tide hour

A lady reposed in a bower,
Where shaded between

The branches of green,

Blossomed and blushed a fair flower;

Not a pinion was moved, nor a breeze was heard,

As with curious hand the lady stirred

The leaves of this unknown flower.

She saw in its cradling bloom
A cherub with folding plume,
And a bow unstrung,
And arrows, were flung

O'er the cup of this opening flower:
And the lady fancied she much had need
Of the light of wakening eyes to read
The name of this unknown flower.

She placed it too soon to her breast,

And the cherub was charmed from his rest;

Then he winged a dart

At the lady's heart,

From the leaves of this treacherous flower.

Ah, cruel child! said the lady; I guess,

Too late, that Love-in-Idleness

Is the name of this unknown flower."

Spenser includes the Heart's-ease among the flowers to

be strown before Queen Elizabeth:

Strow me the ground with daffadowndillies,
And cowslips, and king-cups, and loved lilies:
The pretty pawnce,

And the chevisaunce,

Shall match with the fair floure-de-lice."

Pansies make a part of the wreaths brought by the grateful shepherds to the nymph Sabrina,

"That with moist curb sways the smooth Severn stream.

the shepherds at their festivals

Carol her goodness, loud in rustic lays,

And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils."

"The

"The delicacy of its texture, and the vivacity of its purple, are inimitable," says the Countess, in le Spectacle de la Nature. softest velvet, if set in competition with this flower, would appear to the eye as coarse as canvas.'

Yet, in another part of this work, the same flower is represented as an humble one which makes no figure, but diffuses an agreeable odour.

It has already been observed, that only the larger kinds have any scent: thus many persons, judging from the smaller, have thought them all scentless. The difference of opinion on this point may be seen in several of the above quotations.

Dryden, in his translation of a passage in Virgil's Pastorals where the poet speaks of sweet herbs in general, introduces the Pansy; but expressly to distinguish it from a fragrant plant:

"Pansies to please the sight, and cassia sweet to smell."

There is a species of Heart's-ease called the Great Flowering-a native of Switzerland, Dauphiny, Silesia, and the Pyrenees-which is very similar to the common

kind, but that it has more yellow in it; and another, called the Yellow Mountain Heart's-ease, of British growth, which, notwithstanding the name it bears, is as often purple and yellow, or even purple alone, as all yellow.

It would be an impertinence to attempt to describe the Heart's-ease; therefore let us proceed at once to the treatment of this little favourite. The roots may be purchased so cheaply, and the flowers of these will be so much finer than any that are sown at home, that this will be much the best way of procuring them. At a nursery, or at CoventGarden flower-market, six or more may be had for a shilling, all of them covered with flowers and buds. They love the sun, but must be liberally watered every evening to replenish the moisture, which it will consume.

It is said somewhere that the Heart's-ease is sacred to Saint Valentine. It must be confessed to be a choice worthy of that amiable and very popular saint; for the flower, like love, is painted in the most brilliant colours, is full of sweet names, and grows alike in the humblest as well as the richest soils. Another point of resemblance, too, may be added, that where once it has taken root, it so pertinaciously perpetuates itself, that it is almost impossible to eradicate it. The poet Herrick tells us, too, that

"Frolick virgins once these were,
Over-loving, living here;
Being here their ends denied,
Ran for sweethearts mad, and died.

Love, in pity of their tears,

And their loss in blooming years,

For their restless here-spent hours,

Gave them heart's-ease turned to flowers."

ERICINE.

НЕАТН.

ERICA.

OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

In some parts of England Heath is called Ling, probably from the Danish, lyng: in Shropshire, Grig, from the Welsh, grûg: in Scotland, Hather, or Heather; which, like the English Heath, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon, hæth.-French, la bruyere; lande; la brande; le petrole.-Italian, Erica, Macchia, Scopina, Sorcelli, Brentoli.

"THIS genus," says Mr. Martyn, "has, within the compass of a few years, risen from neglect to splendour. Every one remembers that Mr. Pope marks it with contempt, at the same time that he celebrates the colour of the flowers:

'E'en the wild heath displays its purple dyes.'

“Mr. Millar, so late as the year 1768, makes mention of no more than five; four of which, as being wild, he consigns to oblivion."

There are now some hundred species; of which many require the heat of a stove, and very few of them are hardy enough to bear this climate unsheltered. The species from the Cape are many of them very beautiful.

All Europe, and the temperate parts of the vast Russian empire, abound with Heath. The Common Heath, which is little regarded in warmer climates, is used for a variety of purposes in the bleak and barren Highlands of Scotland, and in other northern countries. The poor people use it as thatch for the roofs of their huts, and construct the walls with alternate layers of heath, and a kind of cement made of black earth and straw. The hardy Highlanders frequently make their beds with it. In the Western Isles it affords a dye. Woollen cloth boiled in alum water, and afterwards in a strong decoction made from the green tops and flowers of this plant, becomes of a beautiful orange

colour. Brettius relates, that a kind of ale brewed from these young tops was much used by the Picts: and it is said to be still an ingredient in the beer in some of the Western Isles. In many parts of Great Britain besoms are made of this Heath; and it is an excellent fuel. The flowers are either a kind of rose-colour slightly tinged with purple, or they are quite white. Bees collect a great quantity of honey from them.

This kind, the Fine-leaved, the Cornish, the Ciliateleaved, the Many-flowered, the Irish, and the Cross-leaved, are hardy, and will bear the open air. The latter is very handsome, and blows twice in the year.

The White Three-flowered Tree Heath, the Portugal, and the Purple Mediterranean, are not very tender, but must be sheltered in severe frost.

The following kinds may stand in the open air in the summer, and be housed about the end of September:

These are all beautiful; but an attempt to enumerate all that are so would be vain. The earth about the roots of a Heath should be as little stirred as possible; and they should be seldom and sparingly watered.

"The Erica here,

That o'er the Caledonian hills sublime

Spreads its dark mantle, (where the bees delight
To seek their purest honey) flourishes,
Sometimes with bells like amethysts, and then
Paler, and shaded like the maiden's cheek
With gradual blushes-other while, as white
As rime that hangs upon the frozen spray.
Of this, old Scotia's hardy mountaineers