V.

    I see from this proud airy height
    A lovely Lilliput below! 
    Ships, roads, groves, gardens, mansions white,
    And trees in trimly ordered row,[092]
    Present almost a toy like sight,
    A miniature scene, a fairy show!

VI.

    But lo! beyond the ocean stream,
    That like a sheet of silver lies,
    As glorious as a poet’s dream
    The grand Malayan mountains rise,
    And while their sides in sunlight beam
    Their dim heads mingle with the skies.

VI.

    Men laugh at bards who live in clouds—­
    The clouds beneath me gather now,
    Or gliding slow in solemn crowds,
    Or singly, touched with sunny glow,
    Like mystic shapes in snowy shrouds,
    Or lucid veils on Beauty’s brow.

VIII.

    While all around the wandering eye
    Beholds enchantments rich and rare,
    Of wood, and water, earth, and sky
    A panoramic vision fair,
    The dyal breathes his liquid sigh,
    And magic floats upon the air!

IX.

    Oh! lovely and romantic Isle! 
    How cold the heart thou couldst not please! 
    Thy very dwellings seem to smile
    Like quiet nests mid summer trees! 
    I leave thy shores—­but weep the while—­
    GEM OF THE ORIENTAL SEAS!

D.L.R.

HENNA.

The henna or al hinna (Lawsonia inermis) is found in great abundance in Egypt, India, Persia and Arabia.  In Bengal it goes by the name of Mindee.  It is much used here for garden hedges.  Hindu females rub it on the palms of their hands, the tips of their fingers and the soles of their feet to give them a red dye.  The same red dye has been observed upon the nails of Egyptian mummies.  In Egypt sprigs of henna are hawked about the streets for sale with the cry of “O, odours of Paradise; O, flowers of the henna!” Thomas Moore alludes to one of the uses of the henna:—­

    Thus some bring leaves of henna to imbue
    The fingers’ ends of a bright roseate hue,
    So bright, that in the mirror’s depth they seem
    Like tips of coral branches in the stream.

MOSS.

MOSSES (musci) are sometimes confounded with Lichens.  True mosses are green, and lichens are gray.  All the mosses are of exquisitely delicate structure.  They are found in every part of the world where the atmosphere is moist.  They have a wonderful tenacity of life and can often be restored to their original freshness after they have been dried for years.  It was the sight of a small moss in the interior of Africa that suggested to Mungo Park such consolatory reflections as saved him from despair.  He had been stripped of all he had by banditti.