pre-eminence, anthera, or flower. It contains the pollen, which term means in Latin the very fine dust in a mill. Some conceive this dust to be infinitesimally small eggs or seeds, or rather organick particles, molecules; others compare it to the seminal fluid in animals. This pollen, or fecundating power is very conspicuous in the tall white garden lilly. This powder is collected by the bees; and is formed, by some secret process in their bodies, into wax; which is a singular species of vegetable oil, rendered concrete by a peculiar acid in the insect. The pistillum, which is the Latin word for a pestle, stands in the centre of the flower: this term has been adopted, from the fancied resemblance of a pestle in a mortar. It is placed on the germen, or seed bud; its summit is called stigma, and, in many flowers, resembles that bone of the arm, denominated the os humeri; but its form varies in different kind of flowers. The surface of the stigma is covered with a glutinous matter, to which the fœcundating powder of the antheræ adheres. The germen is then the base of the pistillum, and contains the rudiments of the seed, which in the process of vegetation, swells and becomes the seed vessels. It answers to the ovarium, or rather uterine apparatus of animals. The pericarpium is the germen, grown to maturity, or the plant big with seed. The receptacle is the base, which connects the before mentioned parts together. Fructification is a very significant term: it is derived from fructus, fruit; and facio, to make: we are not entirely satisfied with the definition, which our great master has given of this compounded word; he says, it is a temporary part of plants appropriated to generation, terminating the old vegetable, and beginning the new. ; We have just described the seven parts of fructification when recapitulated, they are in order, as follows: (1) The calyx. (2) The corolla. (3) The stamina. (4) The pistillum. (5) The germen or pericarpium. (6) The seed; and (7) the receptacle. Having described the seven several component parts of that curious offspring of a plant, denominated a flower, we have now leisure to make a few remarks on the whole composition. We cannot readily believe, with most botanists, that the petals, or to take them collectively, the corolla, have no other use, in the vegetable economy, than merely to cover and guard the sexual organs. It militates against one of the most conspicuous laws of nature, where we never see a complicated contrivance, for a simple end or purpose; but always the reverse. There is a breathing, or pulmonary system, in every vegetable; an artery belongs to each portion of the corolla, which conveys the vegetable blood to the extremities of the petal, there exposing it to the light and to the air, under a delicate membrane, which covers the internal surface of the petal, where it often changes its colour, as is beautifully seen in party coloured tulips and poppies.* The vegetable blood is collected at the extremities of, what Darwin calls, the coral-arteries, and is returned by correspondent veins, exactly as in the green foliage. It is presumed, that this breathing, and circulating structure, has, for its end, the sustenance of the anthers and stigma; as well as for the secretion of honey, wax and es * Sce Darwin's Phytologia. sential oil, and for perfecting the prolifick powder. The poetical author of the "Botanick Garden," imagines, that, as the glands, which secrete the honey, and the wax, and which perfect the pollen, and prepare and exalt the odoriferous essential oil, are generally attached to the petals, and always fall off and perish with it, it is an evidence that the vegetable blood is elaborated, or oxygenated in this pulmonary system of the flower, for the express purpose of these important secretions. I leave to the philosophick botanist to determine, whether there be more of hypothesis than demonstration in this assertion. We should, however, bear in mind this fact, that as the green leaves constitute the organs of respiration to the leafbuds, so the bractes perform the same office to the flower buds. Assuredly there are few things in nature, that delight the eye and regale the smell, like what Milton calls, "the bright consummate flower." Some of them far exceed the finest feathers, the most brilliant shells, or the most precious stones, or costly diamonds. This appears to have been the judgment of the learned and tasteful, in all ages. The term flower, has been always used to express the most excellent and valuable part of a thing; it is synonimous with embellishment, or ornament; it is used to express the prime, acme or perfection, of an individual in the animal kingdom, as well as the most distinguished and most valuable mental acquirement, as the flower of the army, the flower of chivalry. To say, that "he cropt the flowers of every virtue," is to express all that can be conceived of human perfection. * cation, botanists mean, not only the evanescent flower, but the green or imperfect fruit, for they cannot well be separated, as a growing plant like a living animal, remains not the same, but is continually changing; hence fructification is defined by Linnæus to be a temporary part of vegetables, terminating the old vegetable and beginning the new. The perfection of the vegetable consists in its fructification; the essence of the fructification consists in the flower and fruit; the of the essence flower consists in the antheræ and stigma; and the essence of the fruit consists in the seed, and the essence of the seed consists in the corculum, which is fastened to the cotyledon, and the essence of the corculum consists in the plumula, which is the punctum vite of the plant itself, very minute in its dimensions, but capable, by the combination of extrinsick caloric with its innate oxygen of increasing like a bud to infinity. From this view of the produce of fructification, the disciples of Linnæus have learnt the following principles; 1st. That every vegetable is furnished with flower and fruit; there being no species where these are wanting. 2d. That there is no fructification without anthera, stigma, and seed. 3d. That the antheræ and stigma constitute a flower, whether the petals, or corolla be present or not. 4th. That the seed constitutes a fruit, whether there be a pericarpium or not.† Linnæus's theory of fructifica * Fructification comprehends the now state of the flower, and the futurition of the fruit. + See Lee's epitome of the works of By the expressive term of fructifi- Linnæus. Chap. ix. tion is this; he supposes, that the medullary part of a plant, that is to say, the pith, must be joined with the external, or cortical part, for the purpose of producing a new one. If the medulla be so vigorous as to burst through its containing vessels, and thus mix with the cortical part, a bud is produced, either on the branches or the roots of vegetables; otherwise the medulla is extended till it terminates in the pistillum, or female part of the flower; and the cortical part is likewise elongated, till it terminates in the antheræ, or male part of the flower; and then the fecundating dust, from the latter, being joined to the prolifick juices of the former, produces the seeds, or new plants; at the same time, the inner rind is extended into the petals or corolla, and the outer bark into the calyx.* This view of a plant will illustrate the assertion in a former number, that the seven essential parts, discoverable in the section of a trunk of a tree, may be discerned in its blossom. Plants, more especially, "the bright consummate flower," SPIRITS ODOROUS BREATHE. On what does this agreeable odour depend? The chemists say, on the oil; but this is not going far enough. The agitation of this mter must be postponed to next month. * See Darwin, p. 83. SKETCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. THE university of Glasgow owes its origin to the literary zeal of William Turnbull, who, in the year 1450, when he occupied the episcopal chair of this see, laid the foundation of the institution, by establishing a teacher of theology, and three professors of philosophy. From this, its infantile state, the progress of the college was, in the first instance, slow, but uniform. New professorships were created, as the advancing state of literature indicated a necessity for such additions to the establishment; while the more general diffusion of science, effected by this and other academical institutions, reciprocated the advantage in the powerful stimulus which it gave to the vigour and activity of their exertions. During the last forty years, the progress of the college has been more than usually rapid. The celebrity attached to the names of several of the professors has attracted students from every part of the kingdom; and the instructions of Adam Smith, of Reid, of Anderson, and Miller, have been sought for and received with an eagerness proportioned to their merits. This prosperity continues to the present day with unabated vigour; the number of students is annually increased, and the size of many of the lecture rooms is now found completely inadequate to the purposes for which they were originally designed. The chairs of the university still continue to be occupied by men of learning and talent; the dependence of whose interests on their exertions, gives the fairest pledge of the future progress and utility of the institution. The college buildings are situated in the High street of Glasgow, at a distance of a quarter of a mile from the cross which forms the centre of the city. Though displaying few of the ornamental beauties of architecture, they nevertheless inter est the stranger by their venerable and classick appearance; while their general arrangement entitles them to the more appropriate praise of convenience and usefulness of structure. The front which they present to the street is 110 yards in length, and has an elevation of three stories. At the northern extremity is a gateway, leading to an area or court of considerable extent, in which are situated the houses of the different professors: a corresponding gateway, at the other extremity, conducts to the house of the principal. The grand entrance to the college is through a large gate in the centre of the building, surmounted by the royal arms. This leads to a flagged court, 88 feet in length and 44 in width; on one side of which is a broad stone staircase, conducting to the faculty hall, a large and splendid room, in which the professors meet, for the transaction of the private business of the college. Passing forwards through another gateway, we come to a second area, 104 feet in length and 80 in breadth. This is surrounded by the different lecture rooms of the university; a passage to those on the upper stories being formed by staircases, placed in circular turrets, projecting from the building. On the outer side of this area, and on the second story, is the common hall of the college; a large, but gloomy and inelegant room, in which the publick meetings of the students are held, and divine worship is performed every sabbath day. The general appearance of this second area is striking; and the imposing effect of the scene is heightened by the presence of the students, arrayed in their gowns, either repairing to the several classes, or assuming the Peripatetick character, and discussing the several topicks of literature and science, as they lounge in groupes along the court. A gateway, much too nar row and undignified for its situation, passes under the common hall, and leads to a third area, which, though less regular than the second, displays considerably more grandeur of general effect. One side of it is formed by the Hunterian Museum, an elegant edifice, lately erected, under the superintendance of Mr. Stark, for the reception of the valuable collection of the late Dr. Hunter. The college library, which occupies another side, is likewise a modern building. The number of volumes contained in it exceeds thirty thousand; in the arrange. ments for the circulation of which, among the students, much liberality and judgment have been displayed. Behind this third area is the college garden, an extensive piece of ground, well wooded, and laid out with considerable taste. It is intersected by a stream, which, though flowing through academick groves, has certainly no claim to the character of the "puiror electro amnis ;" the neighbourhood of manufactures producing a contamination of its waters, which effectually defeats all the purposes of ornament, while it has possibly denied existence to many a poetick lay, which the lively enthusiasm of youth might otherwise have poured forth on its banks. The government of the university is constituted by a Lord Chancellor, a Lord Rector, a Dean of Faculty, the Principal, and the Faculty of Professors. The Chancellorship is a permanent office, at present occupied by the Duke of Montrose. The appointment of the Lord Rector is annual, and is vested in the professors and publick students; the votes of the former having no other superiority than that derived from the influence natural to their situa ous. tion. The mode of procedure in this appointment is somewhat curiThe election is determined not directly by the individual votes, but by a majority of classes, into which the voters are divided, according to their respective places of nativity. The decision in each of these classes, which are five in number, is made by individual votes, and these several decisions are afterwards brought together, and the result of the election determined accordingly. The person to be proposed for the office, is previously fixed upon by the faculty of professors; and this choice is almost invariably confirmed by his election; though usually not without considerable opposition from the students of a turbulent and riotous character. The Lord Rector is required to be present at a certain time after his election, to go through a number of trifling and unessential ceremonies, specified in the statutes of the college. The situation of Principal is a permanent one, under the patronage of the crown, and is connected with a salary of 6001. per annum. The duties annexed to the office are few, comprising little more than an attendance upon the different publick meetings, and examinations of the college. The present Principal is Dr. Taylor, one of the ministers of the city. The Professorships of Glasgow are fourteen in number. They are supported partly upon the funds of the college, which, arising from landed property in the town and neigh bourhood, are now extremely valuable, and partly upon the fees derived from the students. The former source of emolument, though considerable, is not sufficient to induce a languor in the exertions of the professors, or to render them indifferent to the reputation and success of their respective classes. The fees Vol. V. No. IV. Y are usually smaller than those taken at Edinburgh; in few instances exceeding two guineas; to some courses of lectures not being more than a guinea and a half. The divinity students at Glasgow, are entirely exempted from the payment of fees, on which account, a much larger salary is annexed to the theological chair, than to any other in the university. The general scheme of education at Glasgow is more systematick, and connected with a greater number of academical forms and distinctions, than that adopted in the Edinburgh college. Of the classes.conducted by the different professors, there are five, to which the epithet publick is distinctively applied, and which may be said to constitute the basis of the whole institution. These are the Latin, Greek, Logick, Moral Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy classes; composing, in the order in which they have been mentioned, the curriculum, or complete course of college education. The student, who enters upon this course, is obliged, by the laws of the university, to devote one session of six months to each of the publick classes; during which period, he is subjected to a strict attendance upon the daily lectures and examinations, and is required to compose a certain number of exercises or essays, upon subjects connected with the particular studies of each class. He is likewise much more completely controuled by the general forms and restraints of college discipline, than the students who have not entered upon this course of publick education. He is obliged, in the first instance, to go through the ceremonies of matriculation, and afterwards to attend all the publick meetings which are held in the common hall of the college. As a compensation for these restrictions, he is allowed to |