ROSS OF JERUSALEM. Lychnis Viscaria. Class 16, Decandria. Order: Pentandria. This flower, has been frequently named Cross of Jerusalem, in most of the European languages, the French calling it
croix de Jérusalem; the Spanish, cruces de Jerusalem; the Italians, croce di Cavaliert; the Germans, Hierosolymorum flos; the Portuguese, cruz de Malta; all tending to dedicate it to religion, and as it appears to have been introduced by the crusaders, we present it as the emblem of religious enthusiasm.
DEVOTION.
The maid who kept
In her young heart the secret of his. love,
With all its hoarded store of sympathies
And images of hope, think ye she gave,
When a few years their fleeting course had run,
Her heart again to man?
In her young heart the secret of his. love,
With all its hoarded store of sympathies
And images of hope, think ye she gave,
When a few years their fleeting course had run,
Her heart again to man?
No! no! She twined
Its riven tendrils round a surer prop,
And rear’d its blighted blossoms towards that sky
Which hath no cloud. She sought devotion’s balm,
And, with a gentle sadness, turn’d her soul
From gaiety and song. Pleasure, for her,
Had lost its essence, and the viol’s voice
Gave but a sorrowing sound. Even her loved plants
Breathed too distinctly of the form that bent
With hers to watch their budding. ’Mid their flowers,
And through the twining of their puerile stems,
The semblance of a cold, dead hand would rise,
Until she bade them droop and pass away
With him she mourn’d.
Its riven tendrils round a surer prop,
And rear’d its blighted blossoms towards that sky
Which hath no cloud. She sought devotion’s balm,
And, with a gentle sadness, turn’d her soul
From gaiety and song. Pleasure, for her,
Had lost its essence, and the viol’s voice
Gave but a sorrowing sound. Even her loved plants
Breathed too distinctly of the form that bent
With hers to watch their budding. ’Mid their flowers,
And through the twining of their puerile stems,
The semblance of a cold, dead hand would rise,
Until she bade them droop and pass away
With him she mourn’d.
Sigourney.