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arbitress of fashion, and to use the words of the author, is one of those modern wives, who are "just not vicious, and just not mad." · Lady Rosalvan, a prey to those harpies with whom she had so imprudently connected herself in her better days, expires, after giving herself up to inebriety, before she attained her forty-second year; while a tear to her sad

fate and memory falls from the eyes of Adela alone.

William Hampden and his wife obtain, at length, forgiveness from Sir Thomas Forrester, and are reconciled to the worthy Dr. Hampden; and the animosity between Julius Clɛveland and Lord Ennerdale is succeeded by a friendship almost enthusiastic.

THE NEW SYSTEM OF BOTANY,

WITH PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF FLORA, &c. &c. &c,

HAVING thus proceeded through that soon afterwards; for its present name is of part of the present series which is merely || Greek derivation, being called by them ornamental, we must not forget the old thread- || Amydalos, from Amuchas, signifying a line or bare, yet valuable adage of utile et dulce, and furrow, of which there are many on its surshall therefore now mix utility with orna- face. ment, in delineating a few particulars of the

ALMOND,

a tree too elegant to have escaped the notice of our Avonian bard, who seems not to bave allowed even rare novelties to pass without drawing from them a parable or a simile. In Shakespeare's time both almonds and parrots were great rarities, yet such was the force of his imagination, such the acuteness of his observation, such the powers of his memory, that the extreme fondness of the bird for the fruit is put by him into the mouth of Thersites, in his Troilus and Cressida, thus shewing his own information, but so far caught napping as to commit an anachronism, for though almonds were knows in Greece perhaps at the siege of Troy, yet parrots did not make their appearance there for many centuries afterwards. This, by the way is a hint to future commentators, for we believe that all the past and present have let the anachronism slip without notice.

Thersites, alluding to the supposition of Troilus having deserted the fair Cressida, immediately endeavours to turn the information to his own account, and says, "Patroclus will give me any thing for the intelligence of this W--, The parrot will not do more for an almond, than he for a commodious drab."

The almond, however, if not known to the Greeks at so early a period, must have been so

The same name was adopted afterwards by the Romans, when they began to cultivate it; yet that period must have been during the time of the empire, for in the period of the republic they were a foreign article, and Cato calls them "Greek nuts."

Now, however, in Italy, this tree has become a great object of cultivation; for thence it has spread into the southern parts of France, and both in the plains of Dauphiné and mountains of Provence, has been raised in extensive plantations.

Its introduction into Spain and Portugal may have been from the coast of Barbary, where it is a native; and it is also originally indigenous in the eastern parts of Asia, as far as China. With us, however, its cultivation is not particularly an object, as far as regards its fruit, but it is still highly valuable as an ornamental, whether raised in shrubberies, or brought forward in small clumps upon the lawn. Even in this climate it begins in a genial March to display its delicate purple bloom, nor does it always require mild weather, as its blossoms appear before the leaves of many other trees. At this period, whether surrounded by the verdant buds of spring, or affording a contrast to the yet leafless branches, it is altogether as elegant an object as ornamental horticulture can pre. duce.

The common almond with us has two varieties, the kernels of the one being sweet, of the other bitter; yet both are often found on the same tree. It sometimes happens, however, that an early spring may bring them out sooner than usual; but then their produce is but trifling compared to what comes from a later blow, when their fruit make an elegaut addition to the desert, if green, but will not keep.

The Amygdalus includes seven species, with the peach; but the almonds are only six; these are, common, double flowering dwarf, common dwarf, hoary dwarf, silver-leaved, or Oriental, and the Almond of Cochin China.

Their class is ICOSANDRIA MONOGYNIA, and their natural order Pomacea. In generic character the calyx has the perianth one leafed, tubulous, quinquifid, deciduous, the divisions spreading and obtuse. The corolla consists of five petals, concave, obtuse, oblong, ovate, and inserted in the calyx; and the anthers are simple. The pistil has a roundish villose germ; its style is simple, with a stigma head, and is as long as the stamen. The pericarp consists of a large roundish viilose drupe, with a longitudinal furrow. The seed consists of an ovate, acute, compressed nut, with prominent sutures on each side; its outside is reticulated with furrows, and dotted with several holes.

In essential character the calyx is quinquifid and inferior, aud the petals are five; the drupe has a shell perforated with pores, and the skin is pubescent.

It must be observed that the principal difference between the fruit of the almond and the peach, consists in the one being covered with a dry skin, and the other with a delici ous pulp, whilst the difference between this genus and that of prunes is only in the pube. scence of the skin, the pores of the shell not being constant, nor indeed even the pubescence. With us the common almond seldom grows higher than twenty feet, but we have sometimes extraordinary instances of the spreading of its branches. It is not easy to distinguish its leaves from those of the peach,

except on a close examination, when the lower serratures of the almond leaf appear to he glandular. We may also notice that the leaves of the peach proceed from the extremities of the shoots above, but never below the flowers; whilst in the subject of the present lecture, the leaves spring both above and below. In other respects their leaves bear a strong resemblance in all the various shades frors the pale whiteness of the snow-drop, to the vermeil blush of the apple-blossom.

The sweet, or Jordan almond, is scarcely to be esteemed a tree of English cultivation; yet may be raised from the imported fruit, will even bear and preserve its distinctions, as will another species called Stativa, but this is sickly and tender.

The double flowering dwarf almond is a beautiful variety for cultivation; but the smallest species is the common dwarf, which in the southern parts of Russia grows about six feet high, but further to the northward scarcely exceeds a span. This diminutive genus ornaments the banks of the Volga, and is found in great abuadance in Calmuck Tartary: but in the first of these habitats its growth is said to be suppressed by the annual fires which are made for agricultural purposes in the vast plains watered by that river. With us it has been in cultivation since the latter part of the seventeenth century, and is much esteemed as a flowering shrub, when intermixed with others.

It is a curious fact that almonds, though so frequent at our desserts, are yet poisonous in a certain degree. If eaten plentifully the produce sickness; and a simple water impreg nated with their volatile parts has been known. to cause death in brute animals; nay, it is said that cordial spirits flavoured by them have been found highly deleterious. It has been supposed that this very great deleterious activity, however, arises from the bitterness, or flavour proceeding from a certain noxious matter which is in a great measure neutralized whilst united with the farinaceous substance, but set at liberty by distillation.

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FINE ARTS.

Illustrations of the Graphic Art;

EXEMPLIFIED BY SKETCHES FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUM AT PARIS.

PORTRAIT BY VAN DYK.

THIS is quite a domestic portrait. He seems merely a happy contented husband; he is newly and and closely shaved; the blue tint of his black beard is seen upon the skin; the light spreads upon his cheek, and there produces relief by the simple, yet almost insensible gradation of half-tints, which conduct the eye from the luminous point even to the deepest shade, without the local colouring appearing altered in the slightest degree.

This cheek is a model of what art can do, without employing far-fetched inventions, and without factitious contrasts; for here, as in the works of nature herself, the common eye does not perceive those deep shades which prompt to the question "Why is this so dark?" a question which excites the pity and contempt of the artist, and yet shows at the same time that art itself is in fault, for this question has never been asked with respect to the effects of natural light and shade.

ALEXANDER SCAGLIA.

This portrait has in general, by the admirers of Van Dyk, been considered as a companion to that of Cardinal Bentivoglio already given. The characters of the two subjects of the pencil are indeed the same. Each was a statesman and an ecclesiastic; but then, says the Parisian critic, this is of the second order, this is the curate and the secretary of legation; Bentivoglio has the air of giving commands-this of receiving them! This head is reflective he thinks deeply on what is said, but he is not the first speaker-he is standing in another's presence, but the Cardinal is sitting at home. This then is quite another character-his habits and disposition are different, and in this consist the skill and judgment of the artist: he has not drawn a Captain like a King, nor has he painted a simple canon like a dignitary of the church; this is fact, painting in character.

The general tone of this picture is also more tranquil than the other, the light is less bril

We must even open the eyes of the adept, liant, and there is less of that intentional and

well appled glitter. That, however, has not obliged him to give less of the pencil's labour to the head; here the stuffs are perfectly

in order to make him observe these shades even in nature herself, these demi-tints which she employs nevertheless in such a manner as never to give rise to the foregoing ques-beautiful; every thing is said, every thing is

tion.

The attitude and expression of this picture are rather less simple than its tone of colouring, and it does not gain by repeated examination. The man seems to be in the act of conversing; but all action in a picture, says the critic, has the evil of being permanent! It is not natural that a man should be always employed the same way. That is to say, it is unpleasant every time we look at a man's picture to see him engaged in the same act; when on the other hand, we can always easily conceive him en

expressed, without departing in the slightest degree from the blackness of the general tint; but then it is Van Dyk alone who could have overcome the difficulty.

After all it must be confessed that there is a defect in the general arrangement. The figure comes too near the frame; the feet touch it below; and this brings it too far forward; it is, in short, like a man stopping upon the threshold of a door and being framed in the door-way.

This painting was taken to Paris from the gaged in a state of repose of indefinite prolon- || church of the Recollets at Antwerp, and has gation!!!

been engraved in half-length by Paul Pontius.

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