but it is doubtful whether he alludes to the species called the Mock-orange:

"The sweet syringa, yielding but in scent
To the rich orange; or the woodbine wild,
That loves to hang on barren boughs remote
Her wreaths of flowery perfume."

Some readers have supposed Mason's meaning to have been, yielding in scent but to the rich orange, &c.—and even then, he can scarcely be thought to do justice to the Syringa, if he means this species.

The lilac tree is called Syringa by the botanists, but has no connexion with this Syringa. Cowper mentions both, and the lines are so much to the purpose here, that although a part of the passage has been quoted in another part of the work, we must be allowed to repeat it:

66 Laburnum, rich

In streaming gold; syringa, ivory pure;
The scentless, and the scented rose; this red,
And of an humbler growth, the other tall,
And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable`yew,
Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf
That the wind severs from the broken wave;
The lilac, various in array, now white,

Now sanguine, and her beauteous head now set

With purple spikes pyramidal, as if

Studious of ornament, yet unresolved

Which hue she most approved, she chose them all.”

It is very singular that Cowper makes no mention of the fragrance of the Syringa. Nothing can be more just than his description as far as it goes; but its exquisite beauty deserved more lingering over: had it been less beautiful, probably, more might have been said of its sweetness. Few flowers are more worthy of a poet's pen.

TAGETES.

CORYMBIFERÆ.

SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA.

This genus comprises the African and French Marygolds of the gardeners.-French, oeillet d'Inde [Indian pink]; rose d'Inde [Indian rose]; fleur de Rome [flower of Rome]; l'Africaine [the African].— Italian, tagete; garofano Messicano [Mexican pink]; garofano Africano [African pink]; garofano Turchesco; garofano d'India; fior di morto [death-flower].

THE African and French Marygolds belong to the genus Tagetes, so named from Tages, the grandson of Jupiter, and son of Genius, who first taught the Etruscans the art of divination.

The colour of the French Marygold varies from a bright yellow to a deep red orange-colour, and is often variegated with both. The scent is disagreeable: it flowers from the beginning of July until the frost checks it.

Of the African Marygold there are several varieties, also differing in colour. One is sweet-scented, and Parkinson observes "that it has the smell of a honeycomb, and is not of that poisonful scent of the former kinds.”

These plants should be raised in a hot-bed; but are well worth purchasing for their rich and beautiful colours. They may be brought into the open air early in May, and will continue a long time in beauty; but both are annuals. They may be treated as the Common Garden Marygold.

CORYMBIFERA.

TARCHONANTHUS.

AFRICAN FLEABANE.

SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA ÆQUALIS.

ALL the species of this plant are from the Cape of Good Hope. The shrubby kind is the handsomest. The flowers are of a dull purple, and make little show: they begin to

blow in the autumn, and continue to the end of the winter. The leaves, which are on all the year, are downy, and white underneath: they smell like bruised Rosemaryleaves.

This plant may be increased by cuttings planted in May they should be kept within doors till the end of June; and all the plants, young and old, should be in the house from October till May. They should be shifted into fresh earth every year, and when requisite into larger pots.

All the species may be treated in the same manner : they are very thirsty plants, and must be allowed plenty

of water.

TOBACCO-PLANT.

NICOTIANA.

SOLANEE.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

This genus is named from Jean Nicot of Nismes, agent from the King of France to Portugal, who procured the seeds from a Dutchman, and sent them to France. Tobacco, from the island Tobago. The French have many names for it; as, le tabac; nicotiane; petum, from its first introducer; herbe du grand prieur; herbe à la reine [the queen's herb]; Medicée [from the queen's family name]; buglosse antarctique; panacée antarctique [southern all-heal]; herbe sainte; herbe sacrée [holy herb]; herbe propre à tous maux [herb fit for all diseases]; jusquiame de Perou [Peruvian henbane]; herbe de Tournabon; herbe de St. Croix; herbe de l'ambassadeur.—Italian, tabacco; ternabona.

THE Tobacco-plant is admitted into flower-gardens chiefly for its symmetrical growth, and luxuriant foliage; and some of the kinds are very handsome. The Broadleaved Virginian or Sweet-scented Tobacco grows to the height of three or four feet; the leaves are ten inches long, and three and a half broad, and the blossoms of a deep purple.

This plant is usually raised in a hot-bed; but if sown in

March, and kept grow very well.

within doors for a month or two, it will Early in May it may be gradually inured to the open air; and, at the end of the month, may be removed carefully, with the ball of earth attached to it, into a large pot. It will require frequent watering; in small quantities while young, but when grown pretty strong should have it plentifully as well as often. The flowers will appear in July, and continue till the frost stops them.

Tobacco is cultivated in the open fields in many parts of the continent; and might, doubtless, be grown to advantage in England, if it were not prohibited by act of parliament, under a heavy penalty, and the charges of pulling it up, which may be done by any justice of the peace. This prohibition, which was made for the encouragement of our American colonies, still continues in force, though the colonies are lost. Small attempts at planting Tobacco have been made from time to time, which promised success.

A plantation in the seventeenth century being found to thrive, Cromwell, probably at the desire of the Americans, is said to have sent a troop of horse to trample it down*.

The smoking of Tobacco is said to have been first introduced into England by Sir Walter Raleigh. In the house where he lived, at Islington, are his arms, with a Tobacco-plant on the top of the shield. Tobacco has been highly panegyrised by the poets: one now living indeed goes great lengths in its praise:

"For thy sake, tobacco, I

Would do any thing but die,
And but seek to extend my days
Long enough to sing thy praise."

C. LAMB.

Spenser bestows on it the epithet divine: Belphabe finds the Squire Timias wounded:

See Miller's Gardener's Dictionary.

"Into the woods thenceforth in haste she went,
To seek for herbs that mote him remedy;
For she of herbs had great intendiment,
Taught of the nymph, which from her infancy
Her nursed had in true nobility:

There, whether it divine tobacco were,

Or Panachæa, or Polygony,

She found, and brought it to her patient dear,

Who all this while lay bleeding out his heart-blood near."

Some have been as warm in the censure of Tobacco as others have been in its praise: Cowper calls it a "pernicious weed," and is very severe upon it. Our Scotch king, James I., is well known to have entertained a great aversion to the use of this plant, and even proceeded so far as to write a book against it, under the title of A Counterblast to Tobacco; in which the royal author informed his subjects that smoking, or to use the language of the day, taking tobacco, "is a custome loathsome to the eye, hatefull to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs; and in the blacke stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bottomlesse." Many temporary ebullitions of spleen of this monarch against Tobacco are on record: among others, his declaration that if he were to "invite the devil to dinner, he should have three dishes; a pig; a pole of ling and mustard; and a pipe of Tobacco for digesture." It must be owned, that on its first introduction, our ancestors carried its use to an enormous excess, smoking even in the churches, which made Pope Urban VIII., in 1624, publish a decree of excommunication against those who used such an unseemly practice'; and Innocent XII., in 1690, solemnly excommunicated all those who should take snuff or tobacco in St. Peter's church at Rome.