The flowers are inodorous, and of a delicate rose colour. The plant is perennial, and the ornamental character of the flowers long ago induced cottagers to transplant it into their gardens, where it is a common favourite, and if planted in a rich soil and in a moist situation, the flowers frequently become double.

The specific name, Flos-cuculi, that is, Cuckoo-flower, was given to this plant, in common with many others blooming at the same time, because at the season of its flowering the cuckoo is first heard to repeat its monotonous, though welcome cry-though singular and curious cry-so peculiar, so clear, that when we hear it we listen to hear it repeated, and when the bird ceases for awhile, we fancy that it still sounds in

our ears.

"O blithe New-comer! I have heard,

I hear thee and rejoice.

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,

Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass,

Thy two-fold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,

At once far off, and near.

Though babbling only to the vale,

Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome darling of the Spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird, but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery;

The same, whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry

Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Through woods and in the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget

That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be

An unsubstantial, faery place;

That is fit home for Thee!"

WORDSWORTH.

There is one species of Lychnis remarkable on account of its dioecious and different coloured flowers. It is called L. dioica, and because some plants bear white flowers and others red, authors have, in some instances, made them distinct species. This distinction has been made, apparently, in consequence of its being observed that the red flowers have their petals with deeper, narrower, and more spreading lobes, and the capsules rounder, with the valves recurved; the white flowers have less spreading lobes, the capsules are ovate connate, and the valves erect teeth. These distinctions are, however, by no means constant, and do not seem to justify the separation of the two into distinct species.

In the Linnæan system the Meadow Lychnis is placed in the class Decandria, and order Pentagynia; and in the Natural system in the order Caryophylleœ.

SPEEDWELL.

Veronica; L. Véronique; Fr. Der ehrenpreiss; Ger. Eerenprys; Dutch. Veronica; It., Sp., and Port. Weronika; Russ. Ærenpriss; Dan.

CLOTHED in rich cerulean blue, we observe the Germander Speedwell blooming abundantly in various localities, beneath hedges, among ground ivy and nettles; in pastures, among daisies and buckbean; by the side of flowing rivulets, contrasting itself with the golden crowfoot; and in moist, boggy places, with brooklime and cotton grass. In such places do we see it, almost daily, in the months of May and June; and one evening long ago we admired it more than usual, as we strolled along the bank of a pretty brook where it was growing in masses among the thick grass, together with buttercups and the great white ox-eye (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum). To be sure it was a lovely evening, the moon was nearly at the full, and the heavens around her were cloudless; the air was still, and all the feathered tribe had ceased from song except the nightingale, whose full and plaintive note fell in all its richness upon the ear, recalling to our mind those elegant lines of Virgil, which express a thought so beautiful in language which has never been surpassed :

"Qualis populea morens Philomela sub umbra
Amissos queritur foetus; quos durus arator
Observans nido implumes detraxit: ut illa
Flet noctem, ramoque sedens miserabile carmen
Integrat, et mostis lata loca questibus implet.”

We have never seen this passage worthily translated,

*Georg. lib. iv. 1. 511.

but as we cannot insert them without some lines in our own tongue, which shall convey their meaning, though it may be with but a faint notion of their beauty, we give the following:

So mourning 'neath the trembling poplar's shade,
The nightingale bemoans her absent young,
Which some hard-hearted rustic, noting well,
Drew from their nest, unplumed: now she, distressed,
Weeps through the night, and, perching on a branch,
Repeats her mournful song; and with sad plaints
Fills up the grove extended far and wide.

How appropriately has the poet chosen the poplar tree; the gentle murmur produced by the ever trembling motion of its leaves being a fit accompaniment to the chanting of a mournful note.

The Germander Speedwell, which is included in our group, has an undivided stem, with egg-shaped leaves, placed opposite and nearly without footstalks; the flowers, which are numerous, have footstalks about half an inch long, and are ranged singly along the stem; the petals are of a beautiful blue, streaked with darker veins, sometimes purple, lilac, or whitish, the base being downy; and the whole plant more or less hairy. The petals close and envelope the stamens and pistils, in cloudy or rainy weather. This singular property, which Linnæus called the sleep of plants, is observable in many other flowers, which throw open their petals under the sun's influence, and close them when his rays are withdrawn.

This species of Speedwell becomes a very ornamental flower for the border, when planted in a rich soil, and in a shaded, cool situation, where it continues to flourish and bloom considerably beyond its usual time of

flowering.

Under these circumstances it becomes an annual, and if treated as such, it is equal in attraction to many of the choicest exotics.

The common Speedwell (V. officinalis) is frequent in pastures, on hedge banks, in woods, and on heaths, and is found in flower from May to August. Its stem is from three to twelve inches long, the flowers growing in clusters at the extremity of each branch. They are blue when expanded, but the buds are of a pale flesh colour. On the moors near Sheffield the flowers are found fleshcoloured, but in every other respect, in all material points, the plant is similar to that with blue flowers, in company with which it grows in that locality. The properties of this species are astringent, but medicinally it is of no value, though formerly it was considered useful as a pectoral against coughs and asthmatic affections.

Brooklime (V. Beccabunga) has a procumbent or floating stem, and is found in abundance by the moist banks of streams and in bogs; it begins to flower in May, and blooms in perfection in the two following months. The leaves are ovate, opposite and nearly sessile, and from their bases the flower-stalks spring, and are covered by a cluster of small pretty blue flowers. Its singular specific name is a Latinized form of its German name, Bachbunge; bach meaning a rivulet : in Yorkshire and in Norfolk, a beck Boc, in AngloSaxon.

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In the Linnæan system the Speedwell is included in the class Diandria and order Monogynia; and in the Natural system it belongs to the order Scrophularineæ.