THE QUINCE TREE.

I HAD a little comely cot,

As neat as cottage well could be;
And near it rose a garden-plot,

Where flourished one delightful tree;
Ah! 'twas a tree of trees to me!

Its crooked branches o'er my head,
Waved wide, an arched canopy;
And its bright leaves benignly spread
A fan of green embroidery,
That shaded all my family.

It was a screen from wind or sun,
A veil from curiosity;

And when its summer bloom was gone,
We still could feast with social glee,
On its autumnal fruitery.

E'en Winter oft has seen it gay,

With fretted frost-work spangled o'er; While pendants drooped from every spray, And crimson budlets told once more,

That Spring would all its charms restore !

But I have left that comely cot,

Where blossoms now my favourite tree!

And I possess an ampler spot,

Which boasts of more variety,

And more enraptures all but me.

ALTERED FROM PARK'S FILBERT TREE.

THIS elegant species of rose-bush, a native of Europe, was first cultivated in England in the year 1596. According to the Hortus Cantabrigiensis, there are fifty-eight species of the Rose, of which the moss rose is perhaps the most beautiful. This species rises in our English gardens from four to five feet; but in Persia it grows to much greater perfection. Many of the roses, though so much cultivated in our gardens, are far from being distinctly characterised; those denominated varieties are extremely numerous, and often permanently uniform; and the specific differences are, in many respects, so inadequate to the purpose of satisfactory discrimination, that it becomes difficult to say which are varieties only.

In no part of the world is the rose so much esteemed as in Persia, where they hold a festival in honour of this flower.