LOVE IN A PUZZLE, LOVE IN A MIST, DEVIL IN A BUSH, OR GARDEN FENNEL FLOWER. Nigella Damascena.

Natural Order Multisiliquæ. Ranunculacea, Juss. A Genus of the Polyandria Pentagynia Class.

THE neglect of the poets with regard to this singular flower has been amply compensated by the attention of the nomenclators of plants, as in addition to the names, which head the history of this floral curiosity, we find it sometimes called Gith, Bishop's-wort, and Saint Catherine's flower.

We meet with the same success in our researches in the French language, which offers a long list of names but not a single couplet. It is frequently called Cheveux de Vénus, Venus's Hair, Patte d'araignée, Spider's Claw, Barbe Bleue, Bluebeard, &c.

The name of Nigella is given to this plant from the blackness of the seeds. That of fennel-flower is now nearly obsolete, although it gives a better idea of the plant than any other English name, since the blue petals of this flower are surrounded by linear leaflets similar to the foliage of the Fen

nel plant. We presume it was called Devil in a Bush from the crooked horn-shaped capsules being encompassed by the branching leaves described; and Love in a Puzzle, from this pretty flower being seated in a cheveux de frise of linear foliage: we therefore make it the emblem of embar.

rassment.

The Nigella is a native of the south of Europe, where it grows amongst the corn in the same manner as the blue corn bottle-flower grows with us. It was cultivated in our gardens as long back as 1570, and Gerard speaks of it with double flowers in 1597: thus Love in a Puzzle seems to have been as common in the reign of our virgin queen as it has been in later times, and as it was of old amongst the gods themselves, if we may believe Anacreon.

One day, the Muses twined the hands
Of baby Love with flow'ry bands;

And to celestial Beauty gave

The captive infant as her slave.
His mother comes with many a toy,

To ransom her beloved boy;
His mother sues-but all in vain-
He ne'er will leave his chains again.
Nay, should they take his chains away,
The little captive still would stay:
"If this," he cries, "a bondage be,
Who could wish for liberty!"

MOORE'S Translation.

Love in a Puzzle is easily propagated, as many besides the gardener can tell us. It flourishes

equally in the garden of the courtier and the cottager, for wherever the seeds are thrown this entangling plant is sure to spring up.

Miller recommends the seed of the Nigella to be sown in March; and observes that, where the soil is dry and the situation sheltered, some seeds may be sown in August as soon as ripe, as these plants not only blossom earlier, but produce finer flowers.

MIGNONETTE. Reseda Odorata.

Natural Order Miscellaneæ. Capparides and Resedacea, Juss. A Genus of the Dodecandria Trigynia Class.

The fragrant weed,

The Frenchman's darling.

COWPER.

Vos qualités surpassent vos charmes.

Ir is not yet an age since this fragrant weed of Egypt first perfumed the European gardens, yet it has so far naturalized itself to our climate as to spring from seeds of its own scattering, and thus convey its delightful odour from the parterre of the prince to the most humble garden of the cottager.

In less than another age, we predict (without the aid of Egyptian art) that the children of our peasants will gather this luxurious little plant amongst the wild flowers of our hedge-rows.

The Reseda Odorata first found its way to the South of France, where it was welcomed by the name of Mignonette, Little-darling, which was found too appropriate for this sweet little flower to be exchanged for any other. By a manuscript note

in the library of the late Sir Joseph Banks, it appears that the seed of the Mignonette was sent in 1742, by Lord Bateman, from the Royal Garden at Paris, to Mr. Richard Bateman, at Old Windsor; but we should presume that this seed was not dispersed, and perhaps not cultivated, beyond Mr. Bateman's garden, as we find that Mr. Miller received the seed from Dr. Adrian van Royen, of Leyden, and cultivated it in the Botanic Garden at Chelsea, in the year 1752. From Chelsea it soon got into the gardens of the London florists, so as to enable them to supply the metropolis with plants to furnish out the balconies, which is noticed by Cowper, who attained the age of twenty-one in the year that this flower first perfumed the British atmosphere by its fragrance. The author of the Task soon afterwards celebrates it as a favourite plant in London ;

the sashes fronted with a range

Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed.

The odour which this little flower exhales is thought by some, whose olfactories are delicate, to be too powerful for the house; but even those persons, we presume, must be delighted with the fragrance which it throws from the balconies into the streets of London, giving something like a breath of garden air to the "close-pent man," whose avocations will not permit a ramble beyond the squares