With hooked thorns encircled, smiles diffuse

O'er many a tufted hedge or village path.

Less common, to their natal soil attached,
There are, who, on the Median hills apart,

* With simpler foliage clothe their modest stems,
And bow their golden blossoms to the breath
Of Heaven, unnoticed by the distant world.
Nor does the Austrian bramble oft arrest

The eye of devious loiterer. On hills

Remote, nor frequent, the Hibernian plant

185

190

Courts the rough gales that sweep a northern sky; 195 And imitates the dame retired, who loves

Her scant and modest home, the rising grove

Her own hand planted, and the plots secure,
Where Daphne, or the gay Azalea, rears

189. Simpler foliage.-Rosa berberifolia; "The Berberry-leaved Rose." It is sometimes called Rosa simplicifolia. See the Note.

192. Austrian.-A variety of Rosa lutea. Jacquin considers it as a distinct species, and calls it Rosa bicolor. Hort. Vind. t. 1.

194. Hibernian.-Rosa Hibernica, a new species, lately discovered in the North of Ireland, by Mr. Templeton; figured and described in the Transactions of the Dublin Society. It has pear-shaped seed-vessels.

Its blushing coronet: no dreams by day,

No weary watch by night, disturb the course

Traced by her downy hours, from envy far,
And all the allurements of a syren world.
And such are blessed; to whom the distant roar
And conflict of the earth, no more resounds,
Than do the lashings of the angry main

To anchorites, whose solitary cells

Peer o'er the precipice and pathless rocks

Of Montserrat. Oh happy! who can lead

200

205

The docile twigs, and teach the clustering buds 210

To adorn the summer seat, where solitude

And peace can fearless catch the morning breeze,

And listen to the murmuring stream beneath!

Oh more than happy! whom domestic love

Culls from the restless crowd, for whom he strews

A thornless bed, and shelters from the world!

A few the shade and moister air prefer,

216

But most the sunny bank. In richer soils

Let, with the musk, the clustered roses feast;

O'er barren steeps let eglantine arise.

220

On Scotia's shore her prickly shrub inhales
The misty gale, and loves the idle spray,
Which, in her playful mood, fair Amphitrite
Throws o'er the rocky margin of her realm.
The burnet-leaved and pompone let the shade
Protect; but give the air full liberty

To wave the proud Batavian, who, from times
Remote, a noble ancestry asserts,

The boast of courts, and Macedonian bowers,

By Gordius or by Midas consecrate

To orgian revelries: as lovely now

225

230

Though common, peeping, with each gentle breeze, Through cottage casement or o'er rustic pale.

221. Prickly shrub.-Rosa spinosissima, "The Scotch Rose." A native of the sea-shores of the British islands.

225. Burnet-leaved.-Two plants bear this name; Rosa pimpinellifolia of Linnæus, now considered a variety of Rosa spinosissima; and Rosa lucida, of Wildenow, called by gardeners "The Great Burnetleaved;" the double flowering variety of which is very ornamental, and thrives best in shade.

225. Pompone.-See l. 143, and Note.

227. Batavian.-Rosa centifolia; "The hundred-leaved Rose." See the Note.

The Chinese, freely quaffs the air impure
Of cities; but not so, the damask buds,
That, with successive chaplets, crown the brow
Of autumn, whom the gale and rural hill
Delight; not so, the daughters delicate
Of India or Japan, with tapering leaf,
Or congregated flowers, who fear the blast
Of hyperborean winters, and demand
The close protection of the glassy dome.

When, hardened into wood, the browner stem

Errs from her office, and neglects to rear

235

240

The infant bud, let sharpened steel remove

245

The callous limb, and, to the greener shoot,

234. Chinese.-Applicable to either sort of ever-blowing Rose.

235. Damask buds." The Monthly Roses," which are varieties of Rosa Damascena, or "The Damask Rose;" and which, by proper pruning, will produce a succession of flowers, till very late in the year.

239. Tapering leaf, or congregated flowers.—Rosa longifolia, and Rosa multiflora, two species of Japanese plants, not yet cultivated in this country; but which, as well as the Indian Rose, Rosa Indica, would require a green-house. Rosa multiflora, it is said, has been cultivated in France. "Cette espèce diffère considerablement de tous les autres rosiers, par ses petites fleurs paniculées et par ses peduncules vèlus." Guillemeau.

Give liberty and food. So prejudice,
Or habits, nursed by nature, prone to ill,
Obstruct the useful current of the soul,

Till active wisdom lops the nocent part.
Thus, may succeeding months renew their pride,

• And tender blossoms brave a wintry sky.
All do not love the knife; forbear to prune,
Incautiously, the mossy stem, that opes

250

255

Its vermil beauties 'gainst the southern wall,
And courts, with graceful bend, each passing nymph.

When, near the surface, creeps the fibrous train Of animated roots, the bark throws up,

To light and air, the hesitating bud:

Soon, in their mother's shade, the tender brood 260
Wave their soft heads, and catch the healthy breeze;
Thence, safely moved, and parents of a grove.
Thus, on the oozy shore, the polyp tribe,

• Or sertularias, teem with growing young,
And vegetate, through all their bloodless frame.

But when, the deeper roots, with no return, Descend; then, must the amputated branch

265