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With all the beauties in the vallies bred,
Wild mint, that's born with myrtle crowns to wed,
And Jove's own flow'r, that shares the violet's pride,
Its want of scent with triple charm supplied.

RAPIN ON GARDENS.

The name given it by the Italians is flammola, the little flame;-at least, this is an appellation with which I have met, and it is quite in the taste of that ardent people. The French are perfectly aimable with theirs :-they call it pensée, a thought, from which comes our word pansy :

'There's rosemary,' says poor Ophelia; that's for remembrance ;-pray you, love, remember; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.' Drayton, in his world of luxuries, the Muse's Elysium, where he fairly stifles you with sweets, has given, under this name of it, a very brilliant image of its effect in a wreath of flowers :-the nymph says,

Her damask roses, white and red,
Out of my lap first take I,
Which still shall run along the thread;
My chiefest flow'r this make I.
Amongst these roses in a row,

Next place I pinks in plenty,
These double-daisies then for show;
And will not this be dainty?

The pretty pansy then I'll tie,

Like stones some chain enchasing ;
The next to them, their near ally,
The purple violet placing.

NYMPHAL 5th.

Milton, in his fine way, gives us a picture in a word,- The pansy freaked with jet.' Another of its names is love-in-idleness, under which it has been again celebrated by Shakspeare, in the Midsummer Night's Dream.' Oberon says to Puck:

Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell:-
It fell upon a little western flower,-

Before, milk-white,-now purple with love's wound,

And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.

Fetch me that flow'r, the herb I showed thee once:
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.

The butter-cup (ranunculus bulbosus) spreads over the meadows; the cole-seed (brassica napus) in cornfields, bryony (brionia dioica), and the arum, or cuckoo-pint, in hedges, now show their flowers.

The female glow-worm (lampyris noctiluca) is seen on dry banks, about woods, pastures, and hedgeways, exhibiting, as soon as the dusk of the evening commences, the most vivid and beautiful phosphoric splendour, in form of a round spot of considerable

size.

The marine plants which flower this month, and which are chiefly found on sea-shores and in the crevices of rocks, are, buck's horn (plantago coronopus), which flowers the whole summer; burnet saxifrage (pimpinella dioica), sea arrow-grass (triglochin. maritimum) on muddy shores; the clammy lychnis (lychnis viscaria); the cerastium tetrandrum ; scurvygrass (cochlearia), sea-kale (crambe maritima) on sandy shores; the sea cabbage (brassica oleracea), the sea stork's bill (erodium maritimum), the slender bird's foot trefoil (lotus diffusus), the mountain fleawort (cineraria integrifolia) on chalky cliffs; and the sedge (carex arenaria) on sea-shores.

When we survey the plants of the sea, how discernible is that Wisdom which hath provided for their subsistence and safety in that element! Such as have broad leaves, and would be forced from their station by tides or storms, if their roots were fixed into an earthy bottom, are fastened by the root to weighty stones and pebbles; where, instead of being driven about at random by the agitations of the water, they lie safe at anchor. That they may not be bruised by lying prostrate on the ground, they are rendered pow

erfully buoyant, and kept in an erect position, by means of large vesicles of air, variously disposed about their leaves or their stalks, as the difference of their form and structure may require. A similar provision for their preservation is observable in many of the plants which grow upon the land. Such as are tender and flexible, and apt to trail upon the ground, are furnished with spiral tendrils, or other like means, by which they lay hold of other plants that are firm and upright.

The leafing of trees, which is, usually, completed in May, takes place in the following order: (1) The willow, poplar, alder, and other aquatics; (2) The lime, sycamore, and horse-chesnut; (3) The oak, beech, ash, walnut, and mulberry; but the whole of the third number are not in full leaf till next month. Mr. Stillingfleet, in his. Tracts (p. 142), gives the following as the order of the leafing of trees and shrubs, as observed by him, in Norfolk: January 15, honey-suckle. March 11, gooseberry, currant, elder. April 1, birch, weeping-willow; 3, raspberry, bramble; 4, briar; 6, plum, apricot, peach; 7, filberd, sallow, alder; 9, sycamore; 10, elm, quince; 11, marsh elder; 12, wych elm; 13, quicken tree, hornbeam; 14, apple tree; 16, abele, chesnut; 17, willow; 18, oak, lime; 19, maple; 21, walnut, plane, black poplar, beech, acacia robinia; 22, ash, carolina poplar.

Not small the praise the skilful planter claims
From his befriended country. Various arts
Borrow from him materials. The soft beech,
And close-grained box, employ the turner's wheel,
And with a thousand implements supply
Mechanic skill. Their beauteous veins the yew
And phyllerea lend, to surface o'er

The cabinet. Smooth linden best obeys
The carver's chisel; best his curious work
Displays in all its nicest touches. Birch-
Ah! why should birch supply the chair? since oft
Its cruel twigs compel the smarting youth
To dread the hateful seat? Tough-bending ash

Gives to the humble swain his useful plough,
And for the peer his prouder chariot builds.
To weave our baskets the soft osier lends
His pliant twigs: Staves that nor shrink nor swell,
The cooper's close-wrought cask to chesnut owes.
The sweet-leaved walnut's undulated grain,
Polished with care, adds to the workman's art
Its varying beauties. The tall, tow'ring elm,
Scooped into hollow tubes, in secret streams
Conveys for many a mile the limpid wave;
Or from its height, when humbled to the ground,
Conveys the pride of mortal man to dust.
And last the OAK, king of Britannia's woods,
And guardian of her isle! whose sons robust,
The best supporters of incumbent weight,
Their beams and pillars to the builder give;
Of strength immense: or in the bounding deep
The loose foundations lay of floating walls,
Impregnably secure.

DODSLEY.

In reference to an observation made in our last volume (p. 244), respecting the plantation and growth of the oak, it is, we think, but justice to His Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests, to state, that we have had the satisfaction of perusing their last Triennial Report,' and we willingly bear testimony to their meritorious and unceasing labours in performing the important duties entrusted to their care. The inclosure of the different forests; the various nurseries established for oak plants; the measures adopted generally for the growth of navy timber; the numerous experiments instituted to ascertain its durability; their patient investigation, and beneficial results; are equally creditable to the science and industry of the Commissioners. They have not 'let pass'

The fair occasion to remotest time

Their name with praise, with honour to transmit!
So shall their country's rising fleets to THEM
Owe future triumphs; ;—so her naval strength,
Supported from within, shall fix her claim
To ocean's sovereignty; and to her ports
In every climate of the peopled earth

Bear commerce; fearless, unresisted, safe.
Let then the great ambition fire your breast,
For this your native land; replace the lost
Inhabitants of her deserted plains.

Let Thame once more on Windsor's lofty hills
Survey young forests planted by your hands.
Let fair Sabrina's flood again behold

The Spaniard's terror rise renewed.

And Trent,
From Sherwood's ample plains with pride convey
The bulwarks of her country to the main.

In this month, the grass is commonly grown so as to afford a good bite for sheep and cows. In parishes which are not inclosed, or, though inclosed, where there is a common, the herd generally go upon it on Old May Day, and continue till Old Michaelmas. The herd in a parish of a moderate size will consist, perhaps, of a hundred. The office of herdsman, like most offices of emolument, is often in great request, and much interest is made to obtain it. He has about six shillings a head for the season, and has one boy to assist him, found by the parish; but, if he wants another, he has to find him himself. The herd goes out between four and five o'clock in the morning, when the herdsman blows his horn, as he passes along the street, as a signal for the cows to be turned out of the yards. They return between six and seven, when the horn again sounds as a signal for the farmyard gates to be opened to admit

the balmy-breathing kine.' There is generally much confusion among the herd, for the first two or three days, till they have determined their respective strength and precedence. One particular cow usually becomes the leader of the whole herd.

1

The juices of the young springing grass contribute

The officers on board the Spanish fleet, in 1588, called the Invincible Armada, had it in their orders, if they could not subdue the island, at least to destroy the Forest of Dean, which is in the neighbourhood of the river Severn.

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