FLOWERS. Is there a heart so sere as not to feel Pleasures innumerable o'er it stead, In sweet surroundings of earth's lovely flowers, Which cheer and elevate man's saddest hours. Sweet messages from heaven they convey, Through perfumed breath they sing their God-taught-lay, Root firmly bedded in the active sod, And eye turned upward to their Father God. Pure gems of earth are beauteous to behold, Set in the royalty of burnished gold; But what is their dead beauty, to the glow Of living, loving glory which flowers show? Kind angel messengers to earth they seem, Suggestive of hopes radiant, evergreen, And of a future blossoming above, In an eternal home of blissful love. Types of what earthly love is meant to be, Struggling through labours to existence free. Then putting on a fragant outgrowth, rife With joy for others, through true flowering life. Sweet influences borne on angel wing, These odorous blossoms to the sad heart sing, Diffusing added zest to joyful mirth, And spreading ripening gladness through the earth. The perfume of a flower, a touch, a tone, Oft waken memories of dear days gone, Wherein an atmosphere of earthly bliss, A plighted love was sealed with thrilling kiss. Who has not treasured some poor faded flower? In token of a radiant, love lit hour, When life was one delicious joyful dream, Ere we had learnt "things are not what they seem." Sweet rose! in sunlit robes of beauty rare, Which loads with fragrance the enraptured air, Reposing gracefully on verdant stem, Thou art of all earth's flowers the choicest gem! Well has our country done in making thee