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And smell eternal, form a juster claim,

Which gives the heavenborn Rose the lofty name,
Who having slept throughout the wintry storm,

Now through the opening buds displays her smiling form.
Between the leaves the silver Whitethorn shows

Its dewy blossoms, pure as mountain snows.
Here the blue Hyacinth's nectareous cell
To my charmed senses gives its cooling smell.
In lowly beds the purple Violets bloom,
And liberal shower around their rich perfume.
See, how the Peacock stalks yon beds beside,
Where rayed in sparkling dust and velvet pride,
Like brilliant stars, arranged in splendid row,
The proud Auriculas their lustre show:
The jealous bird now shows his swelling breast,
His manycoloured neck and lofty crest;
Then all at once his dazzling tail displays,
On whose broad circle thousand rainbows blaze.
The wanton Butterflies, with fickle wing,
Flutter round every flower that decks the Spring;
Then on their painted pinions eager haste,
The luscious Cherry's crimson blood to taste.

May 29. St. Cyril. St. Conon and Son. St. Maximinus. SS. Sisinnius &c. Martyrs.

CHRONOLOGY.-King Charles II. restored. On the 8th of May, 1660, Charles II. was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. On the 16th he came to the Hague; on the 23d he embarked with his two brothers for England, and landed at Dover on the 25th, where he was received by General Monk and some of the army. He was then attended by numbers of the nobility and gentry to Canterbury, and on the 29th he made his magnificent entry into London. This day is also his birthday.

In some parts of England it is customary for the common people to wear Oak leaves, covered with leafgold, in their hats, in commemoration of the concealment of Charles II. in a certain Oak, after the battle of Worcester. To this tree, not far from Boscobel House, the king and his companion Colonel Careless resorted, when they thought it no longer safe to remain in the house; climbing up by the henroost ladder, and the family giving them victuals on a nuthook.

"Not far from Boscobel House," says Dr. Stukeley, in his Itinerarium Curiosum, fol. Lond. 1724, Iter. iii. p. 57, "just by a horsetrack passing through the wood, stood the Royal Oak, into which the king and his companion, Colonel Carlos, climbed by means of the henroost ladder, when they judged it no longer safe to stay in the house; the family reaching them victuals with the nuthook. The tree is now enclosed in with a brick wall, the inside whereof is covered with lawrel, of which we may say, as Ovid did of that

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before the Augustine palace, mediamque tuebere quercum.' Close by its side grows a young thriving plant from one of its acorns. Over the door of the enclosure, I took this inscription in marble:

"Felicissimam arborem quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II. Deus O. M. per quem reges regnant hic crescere voluit, tam in perpetuam rei tantae memoriam, quam specimen firmae in reges fidei, muro cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Jana Fitzherbert.

"Quercus amica Jovi."

FLORA.-MOUSE EAR Hieracium Pilosella, which continues flowering through June, is now full out; often has a second blowing in Autumn. It is immediately recognized when flowering among Cats Ear, or any of the Apargias, by its paler or strawcoloured flowers, which, compared with similar plants, have a very elegant appearance.

COELUM.

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Prognostics of Weather and Horologe of Flora. To the numerous prognostics of weather which we have inserted in March 3 and 5, we add the following, only to be observed in the Spring and Summer time.

Chickweed.-When the flower expands boldly and fully, no rain will happen for four hours or upwards: if it continues in that open state, no rain will disturb the Summer's day when it half conceals its miniature flower, the day is generally showery; but if it entirely shuts up or veils the white flower with its green mantle, let the traveller put on his great coat, and the ploughman, with his beasts of draught, expect rest from their labour.

Siberian Sowthistle.-If the flowers of this plant keep open all night, rain will certainly fall the next day.

Trefoil. The different species of Trefoil always contract their leaves at the approach of a storm: hence these plants have been termed the Husbandman's Barometer.

African Marygold.—If this plant opens not its flowers in morning about seven o'clock, you may be sure it will rain that day, unless it thunders.

The Convolvulus also, and the Pimpernel Anagallis arvensis, fold up their leaves on the approach of rain: the last in particular is termed the Poor Man's Weather Glass.

White Thorns and Dogrose Bushes.-Wet Summers are generally attended with an uncommon quantity of seed on these shrubs whence their unusual fruitfulness is a sign of a severe Winter.

Besides the above, there are several plants, especially those with compound yellow flowers, which nod, and during the whole day turn their flowers towards the Sun, viz. to the East in the morning, to the South at noon, and to the West towards evening; this is very observable in the Sowthistle

Sonchus arvensis: and it is a well known fact, that a great part of the plants in a serene sky expand their flowers, and as it were with cheerful looks behold the light of the Sun; but before rain they shut them up, as the Tulip.

The flowers of the Alpine Whitlow Grass Draba Alpina, the Bastard Feverfew Parthenium, and the Wintergreen Trientalis, hang down in the night as if the plants were asleep, lest rain or the moist air should injure the fertilizing

dust.

One species of Woodsorrel shuts up or doubles its leaves before storms and tempests, but in a serene sky expands or unfolds them, so that the husbandman can pretty clearly foretell tempests from it. It is also well known that the Mountain Ebony Bauhinia, sensitive plants, and cassia, observe the same rule.

Besides affording prognostics, many plants also fold themselves up at particular hours, with such regularity, as to have acquired particular names from this property. The following are among the more remarkable plants of this description:

Goatsbeard.-The flowers of both species of Tragopogon open in the morning at the approach of the Sun, and without regard to the state of the weather regularly shut about noon. Hence it is generally known in the country by the name of Go to Bed at Noon.

The Princesses' Leaf, or Four o'Clock Flower, in the Malay Islands, is an elegant shrub so called by the natives, because their ladies are fond of the grateful odour of its white leaves. It takes its generic name from its quality of opening its flowers at four in the evening, and not closing them in the morning till the same hour returns, when they again expand in the evening at the same hour. Many people transplant them from the woods into their gardens, and use them as a dial or a clock, especially in cloudy weather.

The Evening Primrose is well known from its remarkable properties of regularly shutting with a loud popping noise, about sunset in the evening, and opening at sunrise in the morning. After six o'clock, these flowers regularly report the approach of night.

The Tamarind tree Parkinsonia, the Nipplewort Lapsana communis, the Water Lily Nymphaea, the Marygolds Calendulae, the Bastard Sensitive Plant Aeschynomene, and several others of the Diadelphia class, in serene weather, expand their leaves in the daytime, and contract them during the night. According to some botanists, the Tamarind tree enfolds within its

leaves the flowers or fruit every night, in order to guard them from cold or rain.

The flower of the Garden Lettuce, which is in a vertical plane, opens at seven o'clock, and shuts at ten.

A species of serpentine Aloes, without prickles, whose large and beautiful flowers exhale a strong odour of the Vanilla during the time of its expansion, which is very short, is cultivated in the imperial garden at Paris. It does not blow till towards the month of July, and about five o'clock in the evening, at which time it gradually opens its petals, expands them, droops, and dies. By ten o'clock the same night, it is totally withered, to the great astonishment of the spectators, who flock in crowds to see it.

The Cerea, a native of Jamaica and Vera Cruz, expands an exquisitely beautiful coral flower, and emits a highly fragrant odour, for a few hours in the night, and then closes to open no more. The flower is nearly a foot in diameter; the inside of the calyx, of a splendid yellow; and the numerous petals are of a pure white. It begins to open about seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and closes before sunrise in the morning.

The flower of the Dandelion possesses very peculiar means of sheltering itself from the heat of the Sun, as it closes entirely whenever the heat becomes excessive. It has been observed to open, in Summer, at half an hour after five in the morning, and to collect its petals towards the centre about nine o'clock.

Linnaeus has enumerated fortysix flowers, which possess this kind of sensibility: he divides them into three classes. 1. Meteoric Flowers, which less accurately observe the hour of folding, but are expanded sooner or later according to the cloudiness, moisture, or pressure of the atmosphere. 2. Tropical Flowers, that open in the morning and close before evening every day, but the hour of their expanding becomes earlier or later as the length of the day increases or decreases. 3. Equinoctial Flowers, which open at a certain and exact hour of the day, and for the most part close at another determinate hour.

On Flora's Horologe, by Charlotte Smith.
In every copse and sheltered dell,
Unveiled to the observant eye,

Are faithful monitors, who tell

How pass the hours and seasons by.
The greenrobed children of the Spring
Will mark the periods as they pass,
Mingle with leaves Time's feathered wing,
And bind with flowers his silent glass.

Mark where transparent waters glide,
Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed;
There, cradled on the dimpling tide,
Nymphaea rests her lovely head.

But conscious of the earliest beam,
She rises from her humid nest,
And sees reflected in the stream
The virgin whiteness of her breast,

Till the bright Daystar to the west
Declines, in Ocean's surge to lave;
Then, folded in her modest vest,

She slumbers on the rocking wave.

See Hieracium's various tribe,

Of plumy seed and radiate flowers, The course of Time their blooms describe, And wake or sleep appointed hours.

Broad o'er its imbricated cup

The Goatsbeard spreads its golden rays, But shuts its cautious petals up, Retreating from the noontide blaze.

Pale as a pensive cloistered nun,
The Bethlem Star her face unveils,
When o'er the mountain peers the Sun,
But shades it from the vesper gales.

Among the loose and arid sands
The humble Arenaria creeps;
Slowly the Purple Star expands,
But soon within its calyx sleeps.

And those small bells so lightly rayed
With young Aurora's rosy hue,
Are to the noontide Sun displayed,

But shut their plaits against the dew.

On upland slopes the shepherds mark
The hour, when, as the dial true,
Cichorium to the towering Lark

Lifts her soft eyes serenely blue.

And thou, "Wee crimson tipped flower,"
Gatherest thy fringed mantle round
Thy bosom, at the closing hour,

When nightdrops bathe the turfy ground.

Unlike Silene, who declines

The garish noontide's blazing light;
But when the evening crescent shines,
Gives all her sweetness to the night.

Thus in each flower and simple bell,
That in our path betrodden lie,
Are sweet remembrancers who tell
How fast their winged moments fly.

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