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Variety and Beauty of Flowers

WHAT a surprising variety is observable among the flowery tribes! How has the bountiful hand of Providence diversified these nicest pieces of his workmanship! Added the charms of an endless novelty to all their other perfections! A constant uniformity would soon render the entertainment tiresome, or insipid; therefore every species is formed on a separate plan, and exhibits something entirely new. The fashion spreads not from family to family; but every one has a mode of its own, which is truly original. The most cursory glance perceives an apparent difference, as well as a peculiar delicacy, in the airs and habits, the attitudes and lineament of every distinct class.

Some rear their heads with a majestic mein, and overlook, like sovereigns or nobles, the whole parterre. Others seem more moderate in their aims, and advance only to the middle stations; a genius turned for heraldry might term them the gentry of the border. While others, free from all aspiring views, creep unambitiously on the ground, and look like the commonality of the kind. --Some are intersected with elegant stripes, or studded with radiant spots. Some affect to be genteelly powdered, or neatly fringed; while others are plain in their aspect, unaffected in their dress, and content to please with a naked simplicity. Some assume the monarch's purple; some look most becoming in the virgin's white; but black, doleful-black, has no admittance into the wardrobe of spring. The weeds of mourning would be a manifest indecorum, when nature holds an universal festival. She would now inspire none but delightful ideas, and therefore always makes her appearance in some amiable suit. Here stands a warrior clad with crimson; there sits a magistrate robed in scarlet; and yonder struts a pretty fellow that seems to have dipt his plumes in the rainbow, and glitters in all the gay colours of that replendant arch. Some rise into a curious cup, or fall into a set of beautiful bells. Some spread themselves into a swelling tuft, or croud into a delicious cluster.--In some, the predominant stain softens by the gentlest diminutions; till it has even stole away from itself. The eye is amused at the agreeable delusion, and we wonder to find ourselves insensibly decoyed into a quite different lustre. In others, you would think the fine tinges were emulous of preeminence. Disdaining to mingle, they confront one another, with the resolution of rivals, determined to dispute the prize of beauty; while each is improved by the opposition into the highest viva city of complexion. Nor is the simplicity of the operation less astonishing, than the accuracy of the workmanship, or the infinitude of the effects. Should you ask, "where, and what are the materials which beautify the blooming world? what rich tints, what splendid dies, what slories of shining crayons, stand by the heavenly limner when he paints the robe of nature?" 'Tis answered, his powerful pencil needs no such costly apparatus. A single principle, under his conducting hand, branches out into a variety of the most varied, and most finished forms. The moisture of the earth, and of the circumambient air, passed through proper strainers, and disposed in a range of pellucid tubes; this performs all the wonders, and produces all the beauties of vegetation. This creeps along the fibres of the low spread moss; and climbs to the very tops of the lofty-waving cedars. This, attracted by the root, and circulating through invisible canals, this bursts into gems, expands itself into leaves, and clothes the forest with all its verdant honours. This one plain and simple cause gives birth to all the charms which deck the youth and maturity of the year. This blushes in the early Hepatica, and flames in the late advancing poppy. This reddens into blood in the veins of the mulberry, and attenuates itself into leafen gold, to create a covering for the quince. This breathes in all the fragrant gales of the garden, and weeps odorous gum in the groves of Arabia:-- So wonderful is our Creator in counsil, so excellent in working!

Here let me stand awhile, to contemplate this distribution of flowers through the several periods of the year. Were they all to blossom together, there would be at once a promiscuous throng, and at once a total privation;--we should scarce have an opportunity of adverting to the dainty qualities of half, and must soon lose the agreeable company of them all. But now, since every species has a separate post to occupy, and a distinct interval for appearing, we can take a leisure and minute survey of each succeeding set: we can view and review their forms, enter into a more intimate acquaintance with their charming accomplishments, and receive all those pleasing services which they are commissioned to yield; This remarkable piece of economy is productive of another very valuable effect. it not only places in the most advantageous light, every particular community, but it is also a sure provisionary resource against the frailty of the whole nation; or, to speak more truly, it renders the flowery tribes a sort of immortal corps; for, though some are continually dropping, yet by this expedient, others are as continually rising, to beautify our borders and prolong the eutertainment.

What goodness is this, to provide such a series of gratification for makind! both to diversify and perpetuate the fine collation! to take care that our paths should be, in a manner, incessantly strewed with flowers! And what wisdom, to bid every one of these insensible beings, know the precise jucture of their coming forth! insomuch that no actor on a stage can be more exact inperforming his part, can make a more regular entry, or a more punctual exit. Who emboldens the daffodil, to venture abroad in February, and to trust her flowering gold, with inclement and treacherous skies? Who informs the various tribes of fruit-bearing blossoms, that vernal suns, and a more genial warmth, are fittest for their delicate texture? Who teaches the clove to stay till hotter beams are prepared, to infuse a spicy richness into her odours, and tincture her complexion with the deepest crimson? Who disposes these beautiful troops in such orderly bodies, retarding some and accelerating others? Who has instructed them to file off with such perfect regularity, as soon as the duty of their respective station is over? and when oue detachment retires, who gives the signal for another immediatelp to advance? Who but that unerring Providence, which, from the highest thrones of angels to the very lowest degrees of existence, orders all things in "number, weight, and measure."