This bud of welcome to thee we give,-- Bid its unborn sweets in thy bosom live; It shall charm thee from all a stranger’s pain, Reserve, suspicion, and dark disdain: A race in its freshness and bloom are we; Bring no cares from a worn-out world with thee. _Mrs. Sigourney._ JUNIPER.... _Protection_. The Juniper has been the favourite of Superstition. The ancients consecrated the shrub to the Furies. The smoke of its green roots was the incense which they offered in preference to the infernal gods; and they burned its berries during funerals to ban malign influences. In some parts of Europe, the peasant still believes that the perfume of Juniper berries purifies the air, and drives evil spirits from his humble cot. The Juniper is made to signify protection, on account of the defensive qualities ascribed to it by superstition, and the shelter its drooping branches afford to small animals which are hard pressed by the hunters. * * * * * I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed; But let me that plunder forbear, She will say, ’twas a barbarous deed. “For he ne’er could be true,” she averred, “Who could rob a poor bird of its young;” And I loved her the more, when I heard Such tenderness fall from her tongue. _Shenstone._ HAZEL.... _Peace--Reconciliation_. Fable gives the following account of the origin of the signification of the Hazel. There was a time when men were at constant war with each other, and could not be restrained from cruelty and revenge by any tie of kin. The gods at length took pity on them. Apollo and Mercury made presents to each other, and descended to the earth. The god of harmony received from the son of Maia the shell of a tortoise, out of which he had constructed a lyre, and gave him in exchange a Hazel stick, which had the power of imparting a love of virtue and of reconciling hearts divided by envy and hate. By the power thus given him, Mercury taught men the love of peace, and of home and country, and made commerce the bond of nations. Adorned with two light wings, and entwined with serpents, the Hazel rod given to the god of eloquence by the god of harmony is still, by the name of caduceus, the emblem of peace, commerce, and reconciliation. * * * * * Oh then that wisdom may we know, Which leads a life of peace below! _Sprague._ * * * * * Peace, sweet peace is ever found In her eternal home on holy ground. _Mrs. Embury._ * * * * * And see, As yet unclothed, the Hazel tree Prepares his early tufts to lend The coppice first-fruits; and depend In russet drops, whose clustered rows, Still closed in part, in part disclose, Yet fenced beneath their scaly shed, The pendent anther’s yellow head.