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And the bright waters,-they too hear thy call ;—
Spring, the awakener!-thou hast burst their sleep;
Amidst the hollows of the rocks their fall

Makes melody, and in the forests deep,
Where sudden sparkles and blue gleams betray
Their sudden windings to the day.

And flowers-the fairy-peopled world of flowers!
Thou from the dust hast set that glory free,
Colouring the cowslip with the sunny hours,
And pencilling the wood anemone :

Silent they seem, yet each, to thoughtful eye,
Glows with mute poetry.

But what awak'st thou in the heart, O Spring?
The human heart with all its dreams and sighs?
Thou that giv'st back so many a buried thing,
Restorer of forgotten harmonies!

Fresh songs and scents break forth where'er thou art―
What wak'st thou in the heart?

Vain longings for the dead!-why come they back
With thy young birds, and leaves, and living blooms?
Oh! is it not, that from thine earthly track

Hope to the world may look beyond the tombs ?
Yes! gentle Spring; no sorrow dims thine air,
Breathed by our loved ones there!

New Monthly Magazine.

The other summer birds of passage, which arrive this month, make their appearance in the following order: the ring-ousel; the redstart, frequenting old walls and ruinous edifices; the yellow wren, the swift, the whitethroat'; the grasshopper lark, the smallest of the lark kind; and the willow wren, which, as well as the house-wren, destroys many pernicious insects.

Various kinds of insects are observed in this month; as the jumping spider, seen on garden walls; and the webs of other species of spiders are found on the bushes, palings, and outsides of houses. The Iulus terrestris appears, and the death-watch beats early in the month. The wood-ant begins to construct its large conical nest. The shell-snail comes out in troops; and the stinging-fly and the red-ant appear. The mole-cricket is the most remarkable of the insect tribe seen about this time. The blue flesh-fly, and the dragon-fly, are frequently observed towards the end of the month. The cabbage butterfly, also, now appears. The black slug abounds at this season. (For the best mode of

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A curious account of the whitethroat may be seen in our last volume, p. 121./

destroying them, see T. T. for 1821, p. 129.) Of the beetle tribe now on the wing, the Scolytus destructor may be noticed for its extraordinary powers of injuring trees. The dung of animals, at this season, swarms with minute Coleoptera. Blaps mortisaga, supposed to be the Blatta of Pliny, is found, as early as April, in dark and damp places, in churches, cellars, kitchens, &c. It has a very fetid scent, and, like the death's-head moth, bas been regarded by the superstitious as an omen of misfortune. It is most tenacious of life. B. obtusa, so often confounded with B. mortisaga, is figured in Plate 148 of Mr. CURTIS'S British Entomology. B. sulcata, an Egyptian species, is employed by the Turks to alleviate pain of the ear, and to cure the sting of the scorpion. The Turkish women also cook this insect in butter, and eat it for the purpose of procuring that obesity so highly valued by their lords and masters.—For particulars of rare insects appearing in this month, see our last volume, pp. 124, 125.

If the weather be mild, particularly after a severe winter, it may be considered as highly congenial to vegetation and horticultural operations. Nothing can be more certain, than that a late spring is better than an early one: neither are exempt from the frosts of May, but these frosts do far less harm after a long and severe, than after a mild winter. The rapidity of vegetation is now astonishing and delightful; every morning marks a striking difference: and a shower operates like magic. The buds of horse-chestnuts and sycamores, and the blossoms of poplars and elms, are so far expanded as, at a little distance, to take the character of masses of colour; and this effect, though only to be successfully represented in painting by colours in oil, is one of the gayest and most charming in verdant landscape, it has all its own beauty, and all that hope and imagination can lend to it.

One of the botanical amusements of this season, is to watch the flowering of some of the more remarkable hardy exotic trees and shrubs. Among these, the Pyrus Japonica and Magnolia conspicua may be mentioned, as of great splendour and beauty. In the nursery of Messrs. Malcolm and Gray, at Kensington, there was, in April 1827, a Magnolia conspicua in flower, with 1100 blossoms on it, most of them as

large as the largest tulips, as white as wax, and of a honied fragrance. There are trees of the same kind at Wormlybury, Harringay, Sion Gardens, Cashiobury, and Kew, also worth seeing; and whoever has a garden, and can spare 7s. 6d., should possess a plant.

In this month, the sloe puts forth its elegant flowers; a host of others follow, among which may be named the ash, ground-ivy, and the box tree. The wild and garden-cherry, the plum, gooseberry and currant trees, the sycamore, the apricot, and the nectarine, are in flower. The blossoms of the apple and pear present to the eye a most agreeable spectacle, particularly in those counties which abound with orchards. The almond-tree, whose blush-colour blossoms make their appearance before any leaves are seen, is among the earliest of the flowering fruittrees, and forms a splendid ornament to the shrubbery in the months of March or April.-See a beautiful poem on this subject by Miss Landon, in T.T. for 1826, p. 115.

The beech, the larch, and the elm, are now in full leaf. The larch also exhibits its red tufts or flowers, which soon expand into cones, and the fir tribe show their cones also. Many lovely flowers are showered from the lap of April; among them may be named jonquil, anemoné, ranunculus, polyanthus, and the crown-imperial. The double-white, the yellow, and some others of the earlier tulips, are fully opened in this month; but the more illustrious varieties will not blow for some weeks.

On PLANTING a TULIP-ROOT.
Here lies a bulb, the child of earth,
Buried alive beneath the clod,
Ere long to spring, by second birth,
A new and nobler work of GOD.

"Tis said that microscopic pow'r

Might through its swaddling folds descry
The infant-image of the flow'r,
Too exquisite to meet the eye.

This, vernal suns and rains will swell,
Till from its dark abode it peep,
Like Venus rising from her shell,
Amidst the spring-tide of the deep.

Two shapely leaves will first unfold;
Then, on a smooth elastic stem,
The verdant bud shall turn to gold,
And open in a diadem.

Not one of Flora's brilliant race
A form more perfect can display;
Art could not feign more simple grace,
Nor Nature take a line away.

Yet, rich as morn of many a hue,

When flushing clouds through darkness strike,

The tulip's petals shine in dew,

All beautiful,—but none alike.

Kings, on their bridal, might unrobe

To lay their glories at its foot;

And queens their sceptre, crown, and globe,
Exchange for blossom, stalk, and root.

Here could I stand and moralize;

Lady, I leave that part to thee:

Be thy next birth in Paradise,
Thy life to come, eternity!

MONTGOMERY.

The yellow star of Bethlehem in woods; the vernal squill among maritime rocks; and the woodsorrel, are now in flower. This and the wood ane

moné have both white blossoms, and inhabit shady woods. The marsh-marigold flowers early in the spring, and its brilliant blossoms make a very ornamental appearance in moist meadows, and about rivers and brooks.

The hedge banks are now studded with primroses, the bright yellow of whose flowers, beautifully contrasted with the surrounding green of the budding trees, offers a most agreeable spectacle to the lover of Spring scenery. Other flowers which adorn our fields at this time are the checquered daffodil, the lady-smock, the hare-bell, and the cowslip.

We subjoin some observations on the different times at which flowers appear, and on their exquisite odours, from Dr. Drummond's First Steps to Botany1.

The time, at which flowers appear, varies according to their species, and hence we have some in blow, of one kind or another, throughout the year. The hour of day, also, at which they expand is various. Some burst from their confinement in time to meet the dawn; some, as the water-lily, do not expand until noon; and others, not till the western star sweetens with her beams the soft and dewy hour of twilight. Other plants, again, expand their flowers only in the night: such is the great night, flowering Cereus, which spreads its large blossoms for a few hours, and then they close to open no more. Flowers often, however, expand and close repeatedly; and we find that their time of shutting is as regular as that of unclosing. In general, like

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The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping,

they shut with his sinking beam, and open again to congratulate his morning ray. Some close regularly at mid-day, in every kind of weather, and on this account the Goat's-beard is vulgarly called John go to bed at noon;' others shut later, of which the Forked marvel of Peru is an example. It is, by the Dutch, at the Cape of Good Hope, called Vieruurs-bloem, that is, 'four o'clock flower,' because it invariably closes at that time. The same name is also given by the Malays to another plant, but it, instead of shutting, opens at four in the afternoon, and as regularly closes at four in the morning.

Flowers, in general, are very sensible to changes of weather, and shut up altogether, or partially, during rain, or when the sky is

This correct and elegant little work is entitled to the warmest commendation from every lover of botany, inasmuch as it is eminently calculated to facilitate the study of this interesting science among young persons. To the beginner it is invaluable; his path is here literally strown with flowers, the subject being continually enlivened and illustrated by numerous attractive wood-cuts (judiciously interspersed with the text), which are not only faithfully, but beautifully executed. Dr. Drummond's Botany, indeed, has already reached a second edition; and, from its being adapted to the use of both sexes, we have no doubt, that it will very soon supersede every similar work on the subject. As Botany is, or ought to be, a branch of general instruction in most respectable seminaries, particularly in those appropriated to females, we strongly recommend this work to the notice of superintendants of education. We are sure, we shall have their best thanks for pointing out to them such an estimable and attractive book.

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