DONIS. Flos Adonis. Class 13, POLYANDRIA. Order: POLYGYNIA. Adonis was killed, while hunting, by a boar. Venus, who, for his sake, had relinquished the joys of Cythera, shed tears for the fate of her favourite. They were not lost; the earth received them, and immediately produced a light, delicate plant, covered with flowers resembling drops of blood. Bright and transient flowers, too faithful emblems of the pleasures of life, ye were consecrated by Beauty herself to painful recollections!

PAINFUL RECOLLECTIONS.

Full twenty years have pass'd away, since thou, beloved one! With darkening eye to heaven upraised, the last time bless'd thy son;

And meekly closing thy thin hands, with mine between them press'd,

Fled, with my name upon thy lips, to thine eternal rest.

My first, my last, my only friend!-if aught the ransom'd know
Of the dark thoughts and sinful deeds that stain the world below,
How hath thy gentle spirit grieved, as but a mother's can,
To see thy precepts to the boy, neglected by the man!

But no; thou art beatified!-on yonder radiant shore,
The sins and sorrows of thy child can trouble thee no more;
And if, in thy refulgent home, thou thinkest of me now,
'Tis with my childhood's innocence yet beaming on my brow!

So would I have thee see thy son, the wreck'd of passion's storm,
With prematurely wrinkled brow, pale cheek, and stooping form,
To thy soul's gaze, immortal one! would ever present be,
The same fair child of guileless heart, that gamboll'd at thy knee.
THE KNICKERBOCKER.

LMOND. Amygdalus. Class DRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. Fal an affecting origin on this tree. that Demophoon, son of Theseus dra, in returning from the siege was thrown by a storm on the Thrace, where then reigned the Phyllis. The young queen graciously received the p in love with him, and became his wife. When recalled by his father's death, Demophoon promised to return in and fixed the day. The affectionate Phyllis counted of his absence, and at last the appointed day arrived. N she repaired to the shore; but, losing all hope of his re dropped down dead with grief, and was turned into an tree. Three months afterwards, Demophoon returned whelmed with sorrow, he offered a sacrifice at the se appease the manes of his bride. She seemed to sympat his repentance: for the Almond-tree, into which she transformed, instantly put forth its flowers, and prove last effort that true love, "strong as death," is incapable of

INDISCRETION.

Like to an almond-tree, mounted high
On top of green Selinis, all alone,
With blossoms brave bedecked daintily;
Whose tender locks do tremble every one,

At every little breath that under heav'n is blo

SPENSER

According to Moore, the Almond blossom is the emb hope

The hope, in dreams of a happier hour,
That alights on Misery's brow,
Springs out of the silvery almond-flower,

That blooms on a leafless bough.

In ancient times, the abundance of blossom on this tr considered as the promise of a fruitful season.

LOE. Class 6, HEXANDRIA. Order: MoNOGYNIA. The aloe is said to thrive best in the desert, and is only attached to the soil by a very slender fibre. Its taste is very sharp and bitter. So sorrow drives us away from the world, detaches our hearts from the earth, and fills them with bitterness. This plant derives its support almost entirely from the air, and assumes very singular and fantastic shapes. Le Vaillant found many species very numerous in the deserts of Namaquoise; some of them six feet long, which were thick and armed with long spines. From the centre of these a light twig shoots forth to the height of a tall tree, all garnished with flowers. Others exalt themselves like the cactus, bristling with thorns. Others, again, are marbled, and seem like serpents creeping upon the earth. Brydone saw the ancient city of Syracuse entirely covered by great aloes in flower; their elegant branches giving to the promontory which bounded the coast, the appearance of an enchanted forest. These plants also prosper well in our gardens. The collection in the museum of Paris is said to be the most complete in the world.

These magnificent and monstrous members of the vegetable kingdom are also found in barbarous Africa. There they grow upon the rocks in arid and sandy soil, in the midst of that burning atmosphere in which scarce aught but tigers and lions can breathe and live. Let us bless Providence, then, for raising in our climate verdant bowers over our heads, and for spreading under our feet the soft carpet of grass, ornamented with saffron, violets, and daisies.

GRIEF.

Besides, you know,

Prosperity's the very bond of love;

Whose fresh complexion, and whose heart together,

Affliction alters.

SHAKSPEARE.

MARANTH. Amaranthus. Class 21, MoNÆCIA. Order: PENTANDRIA. The amaranth is one of the latest gifts of autumn, and when dead its flowers retain their rich scarlet colour. The ancients have associated it with supreme honours; choosing it to adorn the brows of their gods. Poets have sometimes mingled its bright hue with the dark and gloomy cypress, wishing to express that their sorrows were combined with everlasting recollections. Homer tells us, that at the funeral of Achilles, the Thessalians presented themselves wearing crowns of amaranth.

IMMORTALITY.

Milton, in his gorgeous description of the court of heaven, mentions the amaranth as being inwoven in the diadems of angels

With solemn adoration down they cast

Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold;
Immortal amaranth, a flower which once

In Paradise, fast by the tree of life,

Began to bloom; but soon for man's offence

To heaven removed, where first it grew, there grows,

And flowers aloft, shading the fount of life,

And where the river of bliss through midst of heaven
Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream,

With those that never fade.

Pope mentions this flower in his Ode for St. Cecilia's day; imagining it to be found in celestial bowers;—

By the streams that ever flow,
By the fragrant winds that blow
O'er the Elysian flowers;
By those happy souls that dwell
In yellow meads of asphodel,
Or amaranthine bowers.

MERICAN COWSLIP. Primula Veris. Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The elegant stem of a single root of this plant springs from the centre of a rosette of large leaves couched on the earth. In April it is crowned with twelve pretty flowers with the cups reversed. Linnæus has given it the name of " Dodecatheon," which signifies "twelve divinities," a name, perhaps, somewhat too extravagant for a small plant so modest in its appearance. An American writer says of them, in their indigenous soil, that they resemble a cluster of bright yellow polyanthuses. "Our gold cowslips," he adds, "look like a full branch of large clustering king-cups; they carelessly raise themselves on their firm stalks, their corollas gazing upward to the changing spring sky, as they grow amidst their pretty leaves of vivid green. They adorn almost every meadow, and shed a glow of beauty wherever they spring."

YOU ARE MY DIVINITY.

At such an hour, thine image, brought
By Memory to the passive eye,
Would blend with every gentle thought
Of dwellers in the distant sky,
And float, in airy seeming, by,
Fit princess of the sylphid crowds,
Born of the wealth of Fantasy
In her own heaven of Summer clouds,
Where ever laughing sunbeams shine
On eyes as calm and bright as thine.
J. R. CHORLEY.

-Cowslips wan that hang the pensive head.
MILTON.

Anxious cares the pensive nymph opprest,
And secret passions labour'd in her breast.

POPE.