the good fortune to find them, watch, before you gather, how prettily its slender stems and small ovate leaves rest upon their mossy bed-not less prettily will the plants rest on the paper of your herbarium, if you preserve it well, and it is worth preserving. You cannot fail, either, to mark the family likeness to the larger and better known scarlet pimpernel of our corn-fields, which is said, by closing its brilliant blossoms, to give timely notice of summer rain. How shall we enumerate all the

"Bright gems of earth in which perchance we see,
What Eden was, what Paradise may be,"

that yet await our June wanderings? Here are the
grasses in scores,
but these we leave till next month.
The wild roses crowd the hedges, but all know
the roses, and their different species we dare not
enter upon;
neither upon the brambles; all we can
say is, gather them, dry them, and have them named
as well as possible; but they are often puzzling, even
to the discrimination of the practised botanist. The
potentillas are near connexions of both, and belong
to the family of the Rosaceæ. The creeping Poten-

tilla reptans, with its yellow flowers, long creeping stems, and palmated leaves, and the Potentilla anserina-silverweed, or cinquefoil-are the species now most commonly met with in blossom. The latter has yellow flowers also; its much-divided pinnate leaves are remarkable for their silvery gloss on the under-side. Sharing the hedges with the roses, and supporting its long weak stems, rough palm-shaped leaves, and white green veined flowers, by means of its spiral tendrils, we find the bryony (Bryonia dioica), the only British plant which belongs to the

gourd tribe. It scarcely occurs in Scotland. Stop one moment from the pursuit of more showy flowers, to examine the plantains (Plantago). All know the plants: one species at least (Plantago major) they gather for their pet birds, when its long-spiked heads are in seed. Let us take the equally common ribwort plantain, of which the black cylindrical heads are now conspicuous everywhere, hanging out from each little floret of which the head is composed, four long stamens-Fig. 135. Examine the plant closely, and you will find it pret

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tier in detail than it appears in mass. Each little floret-Fig. 135, 1-is very perfect in itself; and if you open one up which is not fully expanded-3-you will find the long filaments2 of the stamens curiously doubled up in the packing, as represented. Our handsomest plantain (Plantago media) is conspicuous from its long silvery pink-looking spikes. In some countries the presence of the plantains in pasturcs is thought to give richness to the milk of the cows. We must not overlook the yellow rattle (Rhinanthus crista galli), for ere long its seeds will be rattling in its quickly-ripened seed-vessel. Its compressed, dark yellow, beaked corolla, and the purple spotting of its smooth stem, will introduce it to you.

Fig. 135.

The meadow rue (Thalic.rum), and the pheasant's

eye (Adonis), the one with its yellow, the other with its bright scarlet flowers, again remind us of Ranunculaceae; and on waste ground, especially if newly turned up, as on railway embankments, we have, with their flowers of mingled red and black, the Fumitories, of which, do what you will, you will find it difficult to make neat specimens, their cut and doubly-cut leaves are so inextricably confused together. Cruciferous friends meet us in the form of charlocks, wild mustard, &c.; and we now find the different species of Euphorbia, or spurges, with their acrid milky juice famed as a wart remedy. You must look for their stamens and pistils separate. Under the hedge-sides, the scarlet Lychnis diurna, and the white Lychnis vespertina so fragrant in the evening, are commonly found, and twining above them, probably, one or both of the bindweeds, better known as convolvulus, whether the small pink or the large handsome white. Nearly allied to the Lychnis, the Silene inflata, or bladder campion, is to be recognised by its blown-up calyx, which, however, is also found in the Silene maritima. Neither must we forget the various geraniums, or crane's-bills, alluded to more in detail last month nor our old friends the composite flowers, represented by the handsome purple goatsbeard, or by the numerous genus of Hieraceum, or hawkweed, which so many mistake for dandelion.

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But here we must stop. Many a bright wild flower of "blessed form and dye" are we forced to leave unnoticed, in this month of floral abundance; but that is no reason why our readers should leave them to "blush unseen.' Nay, let them find them for themselves; we must not tell them all, but let somewhat remain for expectation.

دو