Root short, white within. Stem solid, one tenth to half an inch high; thick as a crow or goose-quill. Pileus thin, cupped, rather elastic, but brittle; deep carmine colour within, buffy underneath, with mealy granulations.— Withering.

THIS is the P. epidendra of Bull and Sowerby. It is one of the most beautiful of the Fungus tribe, and is found, late in the autumn and very early in the spring, on decayed sticks, in woods and damp hedges, putting forth its crimson cups to receive the pelting of many a pitiless storm, while

"As yet the trembling year is unconfirmed."

E'er lingering winter wings his flight
The gay Peziza springs to light,
Before the throstle's vernal song
Is heard the bursting sprays among,
Or o'er the land the south wind sighs,
And bids the slumb'ring flowers arise.
Lo, bending to the mossy bed,
With all thy crimson cups o'erspread,
The nymph of spring, with rosy lips,
The dew-drop from thy chalice sips,
And pledges in thy ruby bowl

The coming hour, whose mild control
Shall soon array the wintry scene
With flow'ry wreaths and foliage green.

Breathe softly now, ye gentle airs!
Nature her genial feast prepares,
And not within the wine-cup glows
So rich a boon as she bestows.

Come ye, to whom her haunts are known,
And claim her treasures as your own;
Come, and beneath the morning beam,
See how a thousand goblets gleam
With draughts of liquid opal fill'd
From some ethereal urn distill'd,
While every gift the opening day
Unveils before you, seems to say:
Come ye, and in the woods and fields
Drink the pure nectar nature yields.
The feast she spreads is simple, chaste,
It palls not on the wearied taste;
Sweet as Arabia's spicy breeze,
Like fragrant gums of eastern trees,
That long retain their rich perfume,
And spread their odours round the tomb,

The joy that nature freely gives,
Long in delightful memory lives;
And o'er the grave of vanish'd hours
Sheds forth afresh the scent of flowers.

Andromeda polifolia.

Marsh Cistus.

Wild Rosemary.

Decandria Monogynia.

Calyx with five divisions. Blossom more or less egg-shaped. Mouth five-cleft. Capsules five-celled. Seeds few.

Umbel of few flowers, terminating. Blossom nodding. Leaves alternate, strap spear-shaped, edges rolled back.Withering.

LINNAEUS NAMING THE ANDROMEDA.

THE Swedish sage admires, in yonder bowers,
His winged insects and his rosy flowers;
Calls from their savage haunts the woodland train
With sounding horn, and counts them on the plain :
So once, at Heaven's command, the wanderers came
To Eden's shade and heard their various name.

CAMPBELL.