ST. DUNSTAN AND THE DEVIL. St. Dunstan, as the story goes, On lord mayor's day, in 1687, the pageants of sir John Shorter, knt. as ford mayor, were very splendid. He was of the company of goldsmiths, who, at their own expense, provided one of the pageants representing this miracle of St Dunstan. It must have been of amazing size, for it was a "Hieroglyphic of the Company," consisting of a spacious laboratory or workhouse, containing several conveniences and distinct apartments, for the different operators and artificers, with forges, anvils, hammers, and all instruments proper for the mystery of the goldsmiths In the middle of the frontispiece, on a rich golden chair of state, sat ST. DUNSTAN, the ancient patron and tutelar guardian of the company. He was attired, to express his prelatical diguity and canonization, in a robe of fine lawn, with a cope over it of shining cloth of gold reaching to the ground. He wore a golden mitre beset with precious stones, and bore in his left hand a golden crosier, and in his right a pair of goldsmith's tongs. Behind him were Orpheus and Amphion playing on melodious instruments; standing more forward were the cham of Tartary, and the grand sultan, who, being "conquered by the christian harmony, seemed to sue for reconcilement." At the steps of the prelatical throne were a goldsmith's forge and furnace, with fire, crucibles, and gold, and a workman blowing the bellows. On each side was a large press of gold and silver plate. Towards the front were shops of artificers and jewellers all at work, with anvils, hammers, and instruments for enamelling, beating out gold and silver plate; on a step below St. Dunstan, sat an assay-master, with his trial-balance and implements There were two apartments for the processes of disgrossing, flatting, and drawing gold and silver wire, and the fining, melting, smelting, refining, and separating of gold and silver, both by fire and water. Another apartment contained a forge, with miners in canvass breeches, red waistcoats and red caps, bearing spades, pickaxes, twibbles, and crows for sinking shafts and making adits. The lord mayor having approached and viewed the cu riosity of the pageant, was addressed in Devil. St. Dunstan, A SPEECH BY ST. DUNSTAN. Waked with this musick from my silent urn, Are types of rule and order all the year. In these white robes none can a fault descry, Since all have liberty as well as I : Nor need you fear the shipwreck of your cause, Snap, thus, I have him by the nose ! CHRONOLOGY. 1536. Anne Boleyn, queen of Henry VIII., fell a victim to his brutal passions by the hands of the executioner. 1692. The great sea battle off la Hogue. FLORAL DIRECTORY. Monk's hood. Aconitum Napellus. May 20. St. Bernardin of Sienna, A. D. 1444. St. ON BEING CONFINED TO SCHOOL ONE The morning sun's enchanting rays While wildly warbling from each tree, VOL. I. [Enter Devil. But for me no songster sings, But, ah! such heaven-approaching joys And till death should stop my lays, In the "Perennial Calendar," Dr Forster with great taste introduces a beautiful series of quotations adapted to the season from different poets:— Lucretius on Spring and the Seasons, translated by Good. Then light-winged Zephyr, harbinger beloved; Hone, on Ancient Mysteries. Then Heat succeeds, the parched Etesian breeze, Milton makes the most heavenly clime to consist of an eternal spring From Atherstone's Last Days of Herculaneum. : The little ray-crowned daisy peeps beneath, Of youth and early love. From Spring, by Kleist Who thus, O tulip! thy gay-painted breast Well could I call thee, in thy gaudy pride, The queen of flowers; but blooming by thy side Her throne surrounded by protecting thorn, And smell eternal, form a juster claim, Which gives the heaven-born rose the lofty name, Who having slept throughout the wintry storm, Now through the opening buds displays her smiling form. Its dewy blossoms, pure as mountain snows. The jealous bird now shows his swelling breast, The wanton butterflies, with fickle wing, : Prognostics of Weather and Horologe unfolds them, so that the husbandman of Flora. FOR SPRING AND SUMMER. From the "Perennial Calendar." Chickweed. When the flower expands boldly and fully, no rain will happen for our hours or upwards: if it continues in .hat open state, no rain will disturb the summer's day: when it half conceals its miniature flower, the day is generally showery; but if it entirely shuts up, or veils the white flower with its green mantle, let the traveller put on his great coat, and the ploughman, with his beasts of drought, expect rest from their labour. Siberian sowthistle.-If the flowers of this plant keep open all night, rain will certainly fall the next day. Trefoil.-The different species of trefoil always contract their leaves at the approach of a storm: hence these plants have been termed the husbandman's barometer. African marygold.-If this plant opens not its flowers in the morning about seven o'clock, you may be sure it will rain that day, unless it thunders. The convolvulus also, and the pimpernel anagalis arvensis, fold up their leaves on the approach of rain: the last in particular is termed the poor man's weather-glass. White thorns and dog-rose bushes.Wet summers are generally attended with an uncommon quantity of seed on these shrubs; whence their unusual fruitfulness is a sign of a severe winter. Besides the above, there are several plants, especially those with compound yellow flowers, which nod, and during the whole day turn their flowers towards the sun viz. to the east in the morning, to the south at noon, and to the west towards evening; this is very observable in the sowthistle sonchus arvensis: and it is a well-known fact, that a great part of the plants in a serene sky expand their flowers, and as it were with cheerful looks behold the light of the sun; but before rain they shut them up, as the tulip. The flowers of the alpine whitlow grass draba alpina, the bastard feverfew parthenium, and the wintergreen trientalis, hang down in the night as if the plants were asleep, lest rain or the oist air should injure the fertilizing dust. One species of woodsorrel shuts up or doubles its leaves before storms and tempests, but in a serene sky expands or can pretty clearly foretell tempests from it. It is also well known that the mountain ebony bauhinia, sensitive plants, and cassia, observe the same rule. Besides affording prognostics, many plants also fold themselves up at parti cular hours, with such regularity, as to have acquired particular names from this property. The following are among the more remarkable plants of this description: Goatsbeard. The flowers of both species of tragopogon open in the morning at the approach of the sun, and without regard to the state of the weather regularly shut about noon. Hence it is generally known in the country by the name of go to bed at noon. The princesses' leaf, or four o'clock flower, in the Malay Islands, is an elegant shrub so called by the natives, because their ladies are fond of the grateful odour of its white leaves. It takes its generic name from its quality of opening its flowers at four in the evening, and not closing them in the morning till the same hour returns, when they again expand in the evening at the same hour. Many people transplant them from the woods into their gardens, and use them as a dial or a clock, especially in cloudy weather. The evening primrose is well known from its remarkable properties of regularly shutting with a loud popping noise, about sunset in the evening, and opening at sunrise in the morning. After six o'clock, these flowers regularly report the approach of night. The tamarind tree parkinsonia, the nipplewort lapsana communis, the water lily nymphaea, the marygolds calendulae, the bastard sensitive plant aeschynomene, and several others of the diadelphia class, in serene weather, expand their leaves in the daytime, and contract them during the night. According to some botanists, the tamarind-tree enfolds within its leaves the flowers or fruit every night, in order to guard them from cold or rain. The flower of the garden lettuce, which is in a vertical plane, opens at seven o'clock, and shuts at ten. A species of serpentine aloe, without prickles, whose large and beautiful flowers exhale a strong odour of the vanilla during the time of its expansion, which is very short, is cultivated in the imperial garden at Paris. It does not blow till towards the month of July, and about five o'clock in the evening, at which time it gradually opens its petals, expands them, droops, and dies. By ten o'clock the same night, it is totally withered, to the great astonishment of the spectators, who flock in crowds to see it. The cerea, a native of Jamaica and Vera Cruz, expands an exquisitely beautiful coral flower, and emits a highly fragrant odour, for a few hours in the night, and then closes to open no more. The flower is nearly a foot in diameter; the inside of the calyx, of a splendid yellow; and the numerous petals are of a pure white. It begins to open about seven or eight o'clock in the evening, and closes before sunrise in the morning. The flower of the dandelion possesses very peculiar means of sheltering itself from the heat of the sun, as it closes entirely whenever the heat becomes excessive. It has been observed to open, in summer, at half an hour after five in the morning, and to collect its petals towards the centre about nine o'clock. Linnæus has enumerated forty-six flowers, which possess this kind of sensibility: he divides them into three classes.-1. Meteoric flowers, which less accurately observe the hour of folding, but are expanded sooner or later according to the cloudiness, moisture, or pressure of the atmosphere. 2. Tropical flowers, that open in the morning and close before evening every day, but the hour of their expanding becomes earlier or later as the length of the day increases or decreases. 3. Equinoctial flowers, which open at a certain and exact hour of the day, and for the most part close at another determinate hour. On Flora's Horologe, by Charlotte Smith. In every copse and sheltered dell, Unveiled to the observant eye, Are faithful monitors, who tell How pass the hours and seasons by. The green-robed children of the Spring Will mark the periods as they pass, Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed; Till the bright Daystar to the west Of plumy seed and radiate flowers, The Goatsbeard spreads its golden rays The Bethlem Star her face unveils, The humble Arenaria creeps; But soon within its calyx sleeps. But shut their plaits against the dew. And thou, "Wee crimson tipped flower," The garish noontide's blazing light; Gives all her sweetness to the night. That in our path betrodden lie, How fast their winged moments fly. Dr. Forster remarks that towards the close of this month, the cat's ear hypocharis radicata is in flower every where; its first appearance is about the 18th day. This plant, as well as the rough dandelion, continues to flower till after Midsummer. The lilac, the barberry tree, the maple, and other trees and shrubs, are also in flower. The meadow grasses are full grown and flowering. The flowers of the garden rose, in early and warm years, begin to open. On a Young Rosebud in May, from the A Kose, that bloomed the roadside by, |