to the tenderness of their nursing: like them, by living hardily, they may be fitted to bear the common chances of life. In the plant, this nervous sensibility is encouraged for its singularity; it is pity there should not be the same reason for encouraging it in the human species.

If the roots shoot through the pot at the bottom, the plant should be turned out, the roots be pared close, and then replaced in the same pot, or a larger, if necessary; but they do not thrive so well in large pots. Great caution must be observed in watering them; they must have little water at a time, but must not be suffered to remain quite dry.

Many persons have endeavoured to ascertain the cause of the sensibility of these plants, but it has never yet been clearly explained. The degree varies in the different kinds: some will only contract their leaves on being touched; others will bend and recede, as it were courteously to acknowledge your approach; as that which is termed the Humble-plant.

"that courteous tree

Which bows to all who seek its canopy."

T. MOORE.

"Looke as the Feeling-plant, which learned swaines

Relate to growe on the East Indian plaines,

Shrinkes up

his dainty leaves if any sand

You throw thereon, or touch it with your hand."

W. BROWNE

The most irritable part of the plant is in the foot-stalk, between the stem and the leaflet. During the night they remain in the same state as when touched in the daytime; yet, if touched then, will fold their leaves still closer.

When any of the upper leaves are touched, if in falling they touch those below them, these also will contract and fall; so that by touching one another, they will continue to fall for some time. Mimosas are very common in the

woods of Brazil: of one of the species, of which the wood is very light, the Indians make their canoes

*.

A species of the Mimosa, called the Egyptian Mimosa, or Egyptian Acacia, produces the gum-arabic. It is a native of Egypt and Arabia, and, in its own countries, grows to a considerable size. This tree was called by Theophrastus, an Acanthus; and is spoken of by Virgil under the same name, in the second Georgic:

"Quid tibi odorato referam sudantia ligno

Balsamaque, et baccas semper frondentis acanthi ?”

GEORGIC 2.

Why should I mention the balsam which sweats out of the fragrant wood, and the berries of the ever-green acanthus ?"

MARTYN'S TRANSLATION.

In this passage he is supposed to refer to the Egyptian Mimosa.

In the fourth Eclogue, where anticipating a golden age, he speaks of the Acanthus as one of the plants which the earth is to bear without trouble:

"At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu,

Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus,
Mistaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho."

"Meanwhile the earth, sweet boy, as her first offerings, shall pour thee forth every where, without culture, creeping ivy with ladies-glove, and Egyptian beans with smiling acanthus intermixed.”

DAVIDSON'S TRANSLATION.

In the third, where he wreathes the Acanthus round the handles of Alcimedon's cups, and in the fourth Georgic, where he places it in the Corycian's garden, he alludes to the herb Acanthus, commonly called, from its roughness,

See Prince Maximilian's Travels in Brazil. This author speaks of these Mimosas as growing to a size even colossal, and diffusing a delicious perfume; which, together with that of the magnificent creeping plants generally interwoven with their branches, attracts a great number of butterflies and humming-birds, which hover about them like bees.

Branca-ursi, or Bear's-breech. This Dryden has translated Bear's-foot, which is a very different plant; a species of Helleborus.

As this last passage applies, in a general as well as particular manner, to the work now before us, we will quote some lines from Dryden's translation. It immortalizes an old acquaintance of the poet's, who was a gardener:

"Now did I not so near my labours end,

Strike sail, and hastening to the harbour tend,
My song to flowery gardens might extend.
To teach the vegetable arts, to sing

The Pæstan roses, and their double spring;
How succory drinks the running streams, and how
Green beds of parsley near the river grow;
How cucumbers along the surface creep,
With crooked bodies, and with bellies deep.
The late narcissus, and the winding trail
Of bear's-foot, myrtles green, and ivy pale:
For where with stately towers Tarentum stands,
And deep Galæsus soaks the yellow sands,
I chanced an old Corycian swain to know,
Lord of few acres and those barren too,

Unfit for sheep or vines, and more unfit to sow:
Yet, labouring well his little spot of ground,
Some scattering pot-herbs here and there he found,
Which cultivated with his daily care,

And bruised with vervain, were his frugal fare.
Sometimes white lilies did their leaves afford,

With wholesome poppy-flowers to mend his homely board:

For, late returning home, he supped at ease:

The little of his own, because his own, did please.

To quit his care, he gathered first of all

In spring the roses, apples in the fall:

And when cold winter split the rocks in twain,

And ice the running rivers did restrain,

He stripped the bear's-foot of its leafy growth,

And calling western winds, accused the spring of sloth.
He therefore first among the swains was found
reap the product of his laboured ground,

Το

And
squeeze the combs with golden liquor crowned.
His limes were first in flower; his lofty pines
With friendly shade secured his tender vines,

For every bloom his trees in spring afford,
An autumn apple was by tale restored.
He knew to rank his elms in even rows,
For fruit the grafted pear-tree to dispose,
And tame to plums the sourness of the sloes.
With spreading planes he made a cool retreat,
To shade good fellows from the summer's heat;
But, straitened in my space, I must forsake
This task, for others afterwards to take."

The Acanthus was one of the most favourite ornaments of the Greeks; and, as is well known, makes the principal figure in the capital of the Corinthian column; the idea of which is said to have been suggested by the accidental sight of a basket overgrown by Acanthus, with a tile on it.

Martyn's notes to Virgil's Georgics contain some very interesting remarks on both the kinds of Acanthus mentioned by that poet; and he quotes a passage from Vitruvius, on the origin of the use of the Acanthus in architecture: "This famous author tells us, that a basket covered with a tile having been accidentally placed on the ground, over a root of acanthus, the stalks and leaves burst forth in the spring, and spreading themselves on the outside of the basket, were bent back again at the top by the corners of the tile. Callimachus, a famous architect, happening to pass by, was delighted with the novelty and beauty of this appearance; and, being to make some pillars at Corinth, imitated the form of this basket, surrounded with acanthus, in the capitals. It is certain there cannot be a more lively image of the capital of a Corinthian pillar than a basket covered with a tile, and surrounded by leaves of brank-ursine, bending outward at the top."-Others say that the acanthus of the architects is a different species, though of the same genus with the brank-ursine.

Virgil again mentions an Acanthus as forming the pat

tern upon a mantle which had belonged to Helen; and Theocritus, as a relievo upon a pastoral prize-cup :

"And all about the cup a crust was raised

Of soft acanthus."

But these Acanthuses either will not bear our climate, or they strike their roots too deep for potting; so that, however interesting they are rendered by classical association, it is in books we must enjoy them, if we would enjoy them at home.

MINT.

MENTHA.

LABIATE.

DIDYNAMIA GYMNOSPERMIA.

Supposed to be named from Mentha, a daughter of Cocytus, who was changed into this herb by Proserpina in a fit of jealousy. (See Anemone.)

MINT may seem to belong rather to a kitchen or a physic, than to a flower garden; but besides its medicinal and culinary uses, Spear-mint is esteemed by many persons for the scent; and for this scent, and the quickness of its growth, it is often grown in pots, although as a flower it is of no value. This mint is called in French, menthe verte [green mint]; menthe d'Angleterre [English mint]; menthe Romaine [Roman mint]; menthe de Nôtre Dame [Our Lady's mint]: in Italian, erba Santa Maria [the Holy Mary's herb]. The flower, such as it is, is of a dark purple; the leaves are handsome, and, when they grow luxuriantly, have a cool and refreshing appearance. Preparations from several of the species are used in medicine; as Pepper-mint, Spear-mint, Pennyroyal, &c.

An infusion of Spear-mint is used as a substitute for tea; the young leaves are eaten in salads, and some eat them in the same manner as the leaves of sage, with bread and butter.