WEET PEA. Lathyrus Odoratus.

Class 17, DIADELPHIA. Order: DECANDRIA. The sweet pea is a native of Ceylon and of Sicily. Its fragrance is thought to resemble a mixture of the orange-flower and the rose. Itrichly merits the appellation of sweet. The form of the flower is peculiarly graceful.

DEPARTURE.

Put by thy work, dear mother;
Dear mother come with me,
For I've found within the garden,
The beautiful sweet-pea!

And bending on their stalks, mother,
Are roses white and red;

And pale-stemm'd balsams all a-blow,
On every garden-bed.

Put by thy work, I pray thee,

And come out, mother dear!

We used to buy these flowers,

But they are growing here!

Oh, mother! little Amy,

Would have loved these flowers to see;Dost remember how we tried to get

For her a pink sweet-pea?

Dost remember how she loved

Those rose-leaves pale and sere?

I wish she had but lived to see
The lovely roses here!

Put by thy work, dear mother,

And wipe those tears away! And come into the garden

Before 't is set of day!

HOWITT.

WEET SULTAN, or CENTAURY. Centaurea Moschata. Class 19, SYNGENESIA. Order: FRUSTRANEA. This honey-smelling flower, from the Persian fields, as well as "the corn-flower blue," of our own arable lands, is made the happy emblem of felicity.

Oh! happiness of sweet retired content,

To be at once secure and innocent.

DENHAM.

FELICITY.

All the good we have rests in the mind;
By whose proportions only we redeem
Our thoughts from out confusion, and do find
The measure of ourselves, and of our powers:
And that all happiness remains confined
Within the kingdom of this breast of ours.

DANIEL.

That happiness does the longest thrive,
Where joys and griefs have turns alternative.
HERRICK.

"Tis with our souls

As with our eyes, that after a long darkness
Are dazzled at th' approach of sudden light;
When i' th' midst of fears we are surprised
With unexpected happiness; the first
Degrees of joy are mere astonishment.

DENHAM.

On earth he first beheld Our two first parents, yet the only two Of mankind in the happy garden placed, Reaping immortal fruits of joy and love, Uninterrupted joy-unrivall'd love.

MILTON.

WEET WILLIAM. Dianthus Barbatus. Class 10, DECANDRIA. Order: DIGYNIA. This is a species of pink, a native of Germany. It is much cultivated in our rural gardens, and on account of the brilliancy of its flowers and its agreeable fragrance is deservedly a great favourite with children. The firmness and solidity of its bunches of flowers make it a safe plaything for them.

CHILDHOOD.

Sporting through the forest wide;
Playing by the water-side;
Wandering o'er the heathy fells;
Down within the woodland dells;
All among the mountains wild,
Dwelleth many a little child!
In the baron's hall of pride;
By the poor man's dull fireside:
'Mid the mighty, 'mid the mean,
Little children may be seen,
Like the flowers that spring up fair,
Bright and countless, everywhere!

In the far isles of the main;
In the desert's lone domain;
In the savage mountain glen,
'Mong the tribes of swarthy men;
Wheresoe'er a foot hath gone:
Wheresoe'er the sun hath shone
On a league of peopled ground,
Little children may be found!

Blessings on them! they in me
Move a kindly sympathy,

With their wishes, hopes, and fears;

With their laughter and their tears;

With their wonder so intense,

And their small experience!

HOWITT.

YCAMORE. Acer Pseuda-platanus. Class 23, POLYGAMIA. Order: MONCIA. There are two varieties of the sycamore tree, one with broader leaves, and one of which the leaves are variegated. The timber is very close and compact, easily cut, and not liable either to splinter or to warp. Sometimes it is of uniform colour, and sometimes it is very beautifully curled and mottled. In the latter state, as it takes a fine polish, and bears varnishing well, it is much used for certain parts of musical instruments.

WOODLAND BEAUTY.

Nor less attractive is the woodland scene,
Diversified with trees of every growth,

Alike, yet various. Here the grey smooth trunks
Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine
Within the twilight of their distant shades;
There, lost behind a rising ground, the wood
Seems sunk, and shorten'd to its topmost boughs.
No tree in all the groves but has its charms,
Though each its hue peculiar, paler some,
And of a wannish grey; the willow such,
And poplar that with silver lines his leaf,
And ash, far stretching his umbrageous arm;
Of deeper green the elm: and deeper still,
Lord of the wood, the long-surviving oak.
Some glossy-leaved, and shining in the sun,
The maple, and the beech of oily nuts
Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve
Diffusing odours: nor unnoted pass
The sycamore, capricious in attire,

Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet

Have changed the wood, in scarlet honours bright.

COWPER.

YRINGA, or MOCK ORANGE. Philadelphus. Class 12, IooSANDRIA. Order: MoNOGYNIA. This fragrant flower is made the emblem of memory, because when once we inhale its penetrating odour, it continues to dwell on the sense for a considerable time.

MEMORY.

Hail, memory hail! in thy exhaustless mine,
From age to age unnumber'd treasures shine!
Thought and her shadowy brood thy call obey,
And place and time are subjects to thy sway!
Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone,
The only pleasure we can call our own.

ROGERS.

Lull'd in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts are link'd by many a hidden chain;
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads rise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies!
Each, as the various avenues of sense
Delight or sorrow to the soul dispense,
Brightens or fades; yet all, with magic art,
Control the latent fibres of the heart.
As studious Prospero's mysterious spell
Drew every subject-spirit to his cell;