Home › F › Flowers-Thorn

Flowers-Thorn: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations

Unloved, the sunflower, shining fair, Ray round with flames her disk of seed, And many a rose-carnation feed With summer spice the humming air.— TENNYSON — In Memoriam. CI.

But one, the lofty follower of the Sun, Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves Drooping all night; and, when he warm returns, Points her enamoured bosom to his ray.— THOMSON — The Seasons. Summer. L. 216.

Sweet Basil. Ocymum Basilicum. I pray your Highness mark this curious herb: Touch it but lightly, stroke it softly, Sir, And it gives forth an odor sweet and rare; But crush it harshly and you'll make a scent Most disagreeable.— LELAND — Sweet Basil.

Thistle. Cnicus. Up wi' the flowers o' Scotland, The emblems o' the free, Their guardians for a thousand years, Their guardians still we'll be. A foe had better brave the de'il Within his reeky cell, Than our thistle's purple bonnet, Or bonny heather bell.— HOGG — The Flowers of Scotland.

When on the breath of Autumn's breeze, From pastures dry and brown, Goes floating, like an idle thought, The fair, white thistle-down; O, then what joy to walk at will, Upon the golden harvest-hill!— MARY HOWITT — Corn-Fields.

Thorn. Cratægus. There is a Thorn, -it looks so old, In truth, you'd find it hard to say How it could ever have been young, It looks so old and gray. Not higher than a two years child It stands erect, this aged Thorn; No leaves it has, no prickly points; It is a mass of knotted joints, A wretched thing forlorn. It stands erect, and like a stone With lichens is it overgrown.— WORDSWORTH — The Thorn.