Shown in this flowery troop, over the garden dispers'd; any a name dost thou hear assign'd; one after another Falls on thy list'ning ear, with a barbarian sound. None resembleth another, yet all their forms have a likeness; Therefore, a mystical law is by the chorus proclaim'd; Yes, a sacred enigma! Oh, dearest friend, could I only Happily teach thee the word, which may the mystery solve! Closely observe how the plant, by little and little progressing, Step by step guided on, changeth to blossom and fruit! First from the seed it unravels itself, as soon as the silent Fruit-bearing womb of the earth kindly allows Its escape, And to the charms of the light, the holy, the ever-in-motion, Trusteth the delicate leaves, feebly beginning to shoot. Simply slumber'd the force in the seed; a germ of the future, Peacefully lock'd in itself, 'neath the integument lay, Leaf and root, and bud, still void of colour, and shapeless; Thus doth the kernel, while dry, cover that motionless life. Upward then strives it to swell, in gentle moisture confiding, And, from the night where it dwelt, straightway ascendeth to light. Yet still simple remaineth its figure, when first it appeareth; And 'tis a token like this, points out the child 'mid the plants. Soon a shoot, succeeding it, riseth on high, and reneweth, Piling-up node upon node, ever the primitive form; Yet not ever alike: for the following leaf, as thou seest, Ever produceth itself, fashioned in manifold ways. Longer, more indented, in points and in parts more divided, Which. all-deform'd until now, slept in the organ below, So at length it attaineth the noble and destined perfection, Which, in full many a tribe, fills thee with wondering awe. Many ribb'd and tooth'd, on a surface juicy and swelling, Free and unending the shoot seemeth in fullness to be; Yet here Nature restraineth, with powerful hands, the formation, And to a perfecter end, guideth with softness its growth, Less abundantly yielding the sap, contracting the vessels, So that the figure ere long gentler effects doth disclose. Soon and in silence is check'd the growth of the vigorous branches, And the rib of the stalk fuller becometh in form. Leafless, however, and quick the tenderer stem then up-springeth, And a miraculous sight doth the observer enchant. Ranged in a circle, in numbers that now are small, and now countless, Gather the smaller-sized leaves, close by the side of their like. Round the axis compress'd the sheltering calyx unfoldeth, And, as the perfectest type, brilliant-hued coronals forms. Thus doth Nature bloom, in glory still nobler and fuller, Showing, in order arranged, member on member uprear'd. Wonderment fresh dost thou feel, as soon as the stem rears the flower Over the scaffolding frail of the alternating leaves. But this glory is only the new creation's foreteller, Yes, the leaf with its hues feeleth the hand all divine, And on a sudden contracteth itself; the tenderest figures