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century under the name of tulipa, obviously derived from tuliband, which, in the Turkish language, signifies a turban.

It is well known that in Holland the tulip became, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the object of a trade unparalleled in the history of commercial speculation. From 1634 to 1637 inclusive, all classes in all the great cities of Holland became infected with the tulipomania. A single root of a particular species, called the Viceroy, was exchanged, in the true Dutch taste, for the following articles-2 lasts of wheat, 4 of rye, 4 fat oxen, 3 fat swine, 12 fat sheep, 2 hogsheads of wine, 4 tuns of beer, 2 tons of butter, 1000 pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes, and a silver beaker,-value of the whole 2500 florins..

These tulips afterwards were sold according to the weight of the roots. Four hundred perits (something less than a grain) of Admiral Leifken, cost 4400 florins; 446 ditto of Admiral Vonder Eyk, 1620 florins; 106 perits Schilder cost 1615 florins; 200 ditto Semper Augustus, 5500 florins; 410 ditto Viceroy, 3000 florins, &c. The species Semper Augustus has been often sold for 2000 florins; and it once happened that there were only two roots of it to be had, the one at Amsterdam, and the other at Haarlem. For a root of this species one agreed to give 4600 florins, together with a new carriage, two grey horses, and a complete harness. Another agreed to give for a root twelve acres of land; for those, who had not ready money, promised their moveable and immoveable goods, houses and lands, cattle and clothes. The trade was followed not only by mercantile people, but also by the first noblemen, citizens of every description, mechanics, seamen, farmers, turf-diggers, chimney-sweeps, footmen, maid-servants, old clothes-women, &c. At first, every one won, and no one lost. Some of the poorest people gained, in a few months, houses, coaches and horses,

and figured away like the first characters in the land. In every town some tavern was selected which served as a change, where high and low traded in flowers, and confirmed their bargains with the most sumptuous entertainments. They formed laws for themselves, and had their notaries and clerks.

These dealers in flowers were by no means desirous to get possession of them; no one thought of sending, much less of going himself to Constantinople to procure scarce roots, as many Europeans travel to Golconda and Visipour to obtain rare and precious stones. It was in fact a complete stock-jobbing transaction. Tulips of all prices were in the market, and their roots were divided into small portions, known by the name of perits, in order that the poor as well as the rich might be admitted into the speeulation: the tulip root itself was out of the questionit was a non-entity; but it furnished, like our funds, the subject of a bargain for time.

During the time of the tulipomania, a speculator often offered and paid large sums for a root which he never received, and never wished to receive. Another sold roots which he never possessed or delivered. Often did a nobleman purchase of a chimney-sweep tulips to the amount of 2000 florins, and sell them at the same time to a farmer, and neither the nobleman, chimney-sweep, nor farmer, had roots in their possession, or wished to possess them. Before the tulip season was over, more roots were sold and purchased, bespoke, and promised to be delivered, than in all probability were to be found in the gardens of Holland; and when Semper Augustus was not to be had, which happened twice, no species perhaps was oftener purchased and sold In the space of three years, as Munting tells us, more than ten millions were expended in this trade, in only one town of Holland.

The evil rose to such a pitch, that the states of Holland were under the necessity of interfering; the buyers took the alarm; the bubble, like the South

Sea scheme, suddenly burst; and as, in the outset, all were winners, in the winding up, very few escaped without loss '.

Some persons are so fond of odoriferous plants and flowers, as to have them in their bed-chamber. This, however, is a dangerous practice, many of them being so powerful as to overcome the senses entirely. Even plants that are not in flower, and have no smell, yet injure the air during the night, and in the absence of the sun, by impregnating it with nitrogen and carbonic acid gas; although in the daylight they rather improve the atmosphere, by yielding oxygen gas.

A melancholy proof of this occurred in October, 1814, at Leighton-Buzzard, in Bedfordshire. 'Mr. Sherbrook having frequently had his pinery robbed, the gardener determined to sit up and watch. He accordingly posted himself with a loaded fowling piece in the green-house, where it is supposed he fell asleep, and in the morning was found dead upon the ground, with all the appearance of suffocation, evidently occasioned by the discharge of mephitic gas from the plants during the night 2.'

Mackerel (scomber, scomber) are taken in great abundance in this month. Such is sometimes the profusion of this fish, that a single boat has been known to take 120,000. The price on the spot, to those who purchased them for sale, was half a guinea per thousand. Nothing can be more interesting and pleasing to the eye than to see them, just caught, brought to shore by the fishermen, and spread, with all their radiancy, upon the pebbles of the beach, at the first rays of the rising sun; but they are no sooner

I See Professor Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. iii, p. 1; vol, i, p. 43; the Quarterly Review, vol. xiv, p. 408; and an elegantly written paper on Gardening, in the Contemplative Philosopher, vol. i, No. xxvii..

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2 Dr. Curry on Apparent Death, p. 181, second edit.

taken out of their element than they die: the following lines allude to this peculiarity :—

When motionless he lies flat on the strand,
Ah! what avails, that Nature's skilful hand
Had decked his glossy cheeks with silv'ry light,
Mixed to the changing hues of opal bright;
That on his back, with sable ribands graced,
His native waves seem curiously traced;
That, chased in purest gold, his sparkling eyes
Reflect the moving features of the skies;
If vital air supplies him not with breath,

And what gives life to others, gives him death?

The maritime plants which flower this month, are, the sea-barley (hordeum maritimum), sulphur-wort (pucedanum officinale), and loose sedge (carex distans), in salt marshes; the sea-plantain (plantago maritima), among rocks on the sea-coast; the slenderleaved buffonia (buffonia tenuifolia), and the tassel pond-weed (ruppia maritima), in salt water ditches. To these may be added, the common alkanet (anchusa officinalis), the narrow-leaved pepperwort (lepidum ruderale), and the Roman nettle (urtica pilulifera), in sea wastes; the black salt-wort (glaux maritima), on muddy shores; the sea-chickweed (arenaria peploides), and the common sea-rocket (bunias cakile), on sandy shores; and the perfoliate cabbage (brassica orientalis) among maritime rocks.

Among numerous other vegetables, the produce of the kitchen garden, in this month, we may observe The martial pea,

In column square arranged, line after line

Successive; the gay bean, her hindmost ranks
Stript of their blossoms; the thick-scattered bed
Of soporific lettuce; the green hill

Covered with cucumbers.

Having already given the two elegies of the Swallows' and Goldfinches,' by Jago (see pp. 128, 158), we shall complete the series of these elegant poems

1

See M'Quin's Description of 300 Animals, p. 261.

by subjoining the BLACKBIRDS,' an Elegy, equally pleasing with the other productions of this ingenious poet.-See Dr. Aikin's opinion of their merit, at p. 127.

The BLACKBIRDS; an ELEGY.

The sun had chased the mountain snow,
His beams had pierced the stubborn soil,
The melting streams began to flow,

And ploughmen urged their annual toil:
'Twas then, amid the vocal throng

Whom nature waked to mirth and love,
A blackbird raised his amorous song,
And thus it echoed through the grove:
'O fairest of the feathered train!

For whom I sing, for whom I burn,
Attend with pity to my strain,

And grant my love a kind return.
"For see, the wintry storms are flown,
And zephyrs gently fan the air;
Let us the genial influence own,
Let us the vernal pastime share,
"The Raven plumes his jetty wing,
To please his croaking paramour;
The Larks responsive carols sing,
And tell their passion as they soar :
'But does the Raven's sable wing
Excel the glossy jet of mine?
Or can the Lark more sweetly sing,
Than we, who strength with softness join?
'Olet me then thy steps attend!

I'll point new treasures to thy sight:
Whether the grove thy wish befriend,
Or hedge-rows green, or meadows bright.
'I'll guide thee to the clearest rill,
Whose streams among the pebbles stray;
There will we sip, and sip our fill,
Or on the flowery margin play.

'I'll lead thee to the thickest brake,
Impervious to the school-boy's eye;
For thee the plastered nest I'll make,
And to thy downy bosom fly.

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