hat the triangular glass, which was
dedicated to Venus in her temple at Paphos, contained in it a line
bending spirally round a cone with a certain degree of curviture;
and that this pyramidal outline and serpentine curve constitute the
principles of Grace and Beauty.]

Soft cords of silk the whirling spoles reveal,
If smiling Fortune turn the giddy wheel;
But if sweet Love with baby-fingers twines,
130 And wets with dewy lips the lengthening lines,
Skein after skein celestial tints unfold,
And all the silken tissue shines with gold.

Warm with sweet blushes bright GALANTHA glows,
And prints with frolic step the melting snows;

[_Galanthus._ l. 133. Nivalis. Snowdrop. Six males, one female. The
first flower that appears after the winter solstice. See Stillingfleet's
Calendar of Flora.

Some snowdrop-roots taken up in winter, and boiled, had the insipid
mucilaginous taste of the Orchis, and, if cured in the same manner, would
probably make as good salep. The roots of the Hyacinth, I am informed,
are equally insipid, and might be used as an article of food. Gmelin, in
his History of Siberia, says the Martigon Lily makes a part of the food
of that country, which is of the same natural order as the snowdrop. Some
roots of Crocus, which I boiled, had a disagreeable flavour.

The difficulty of raising the Orchis from seed has, perhaps, been a
principal reason of its not being cultivated in this country as an
article of food. It is affirmed, by one of the Linnean school, in the
Amoenit. Academ. that the seeds of Orchis will ripen, if you destroy the
new bulb; and that Lily of the Valley, Convallaria, will produce many
more seeds, and ripen them, if the roots be crowded in a garden-pot, so
as to prevent them from producing many bulbs. Vol. VI. p. 120. It is
probable either of these methods may succeed with these and other
bulbous-rooted plants, as snowdrops, and might render their cultivation
profitable in this climate. The root of the asphodelus ramosus, branchy
asphodel, is used to feed swine in France; and starch is obtained from
the alstromeria licta. Memoires d'Agricult.]

135 O'er silent floods, white hills, and glittering meads
_Six_ rival swains the playful beauty leads,
Chides with her dulcet voice the tardy Spring,
Bids slumbering Zephyr stretch his folded wing,
Wakes the hoarse Cuckoo in his gloomy cave,
140 And c