The native American., 1838-04-07

giant sacrifices to become possessors OF new
conquest; we will endeavor to justify the friends
OF these flowers in prediction which they so
richly deserve.
2. PLEASURES WHICH THE CULTIVATION
OF TULIPS AFFORD.
1t is difficult, in fact, not to yield TO feeling
of admiration at the aspect of these chosen flow
ers which the amateur has collected. and to which
Nature seems to have distributed, with a liberal
hand, all the treasures of her rich pallet; but
when even a more minute examination adds to
these causes, the regularity of their superb chap
let, the symmetry of their staining, the virgin soft
ness OF their petals, the enthusiasm OF the adj
mlrer may appear to us yet as strange; ior IN all
the affections, there are secrets oi which those
who are indifferent vainly seek the key, and which
those alone who experience them can explain.
Thus we will not undertake to analyze the
gradual sensations through which our amateur has
passed, whose vigilant eye has watched, from
year to year, each one of his Tulips in the differ
ent phases of their development; but, simple
witness, we will endeavor to observe him at the
moment when the sweetest enjoyments repay HIM
Tor SO much care and solicitude.
The days have arrived when he can contem-
plate his cherished flowers in all their splendor
and glory; abandoned to his enthusiasm, see him
first embrace their populous ranks with glance
which seems to become naughty from the pomp
with which they are surrounded. He soon de-
votes to each one of them more marked aten-
ton; he examines in their most delicate shades
the contrasts of this one, the undulated plumes Of
another; there are few amongst them which do moi
afford him new beauties which he had not as yet
perceived, and which his practsed eyes have just
discovered. n aho all abandon
which have become his pride, and are the objects
of his predilection; for it is upon them he has
built the hope of new family.
AT this moment radiant sun lends to their tints
a reflection more vivid; gentle breeze springs
up; all wave gently together, as it were upon Sc
many movable colonades, their capitals streaked
with purple, ivory and azure; all bend gracefully
one to another, approach, retire to approach anew,
and retire yet again; their colors cross, combine
or become confused together. In this spectacle
Of these wonderful contrasts, which the rays Of
light have multiplied under thousand shapes,
our -admrer in mute silence, fances that he sees,
in this rapid exchange of chaste embraces, some
of those happy mixtures which he seeks SO eager
y, and perhaps Nature has just fulfilled one of its
vows! perhaps mysterious hymen has just been
consunlmated in the bosom of one Of these flow
ers, that desired combination which has passed
before his eyes only as a dream of his imagna-
ton, as brilliant optical illusion.
But if we add to the pleasures produced by the
cultivation Of Tulips, the intellectual enjoyments
to which their ingenious nomenclature lends a
new charm, how much the passion of certain per-
sons for them would seem to be well founded!
In fact, sometimes it is the smiling fictions ol
mythology which are revived in these, which have
borrowed their from the fables of antiquity;
sometimes the more serious souvenirs of history
which seem to claim in those witnesses reviving
without end to attest them. Some are honored
with the name of the great man to whom they
were consecrated, others with that of the celebrated
woman who did not scorn their homage. Love,
friendship, gratitude have also found in them more
than once faithful interpreter. There is not one
in fine which does not represent to the mind an
ingenious emblem, or which is not for the heart a
source of sweet "reminiscences.
It is thus, for the instructed and philosophical
amateur, choice collection of Tulips becomes a
kind of brilliant gallery where, every spring, the
ingenious pictures of fable beside those of history
unfold themselves; an album traced on the veum
of flowers, where he comes to refresh his recol-
lections, and where those to whom nature has
not given his tastes, would be jealous perhaps Of
his being able thus to read. Happy then are
those to whom this cultivation affords at the same
time salutary relaxation and means of agreea-
bic emotions! Alas! an ample number Of DESC
lating passions torment and distract the heart of
man; cannot place be left for those things which
may amuse and console him?