good names, could not be passed in review before somebody with a genius for christening, as the creatures did before Adam in paradise, and so have new names given them, worthy of their creation.

8. Suppose flowers themselves were new! Suppose they had just come into the world, a sweet reward for some new goodness, and that we had not yet seen them quite developed; that they were in the act of growing; had just issued, with their green stalks, out of the ground, and engaged the attention of the curious. Imagine what we should feel when we saw the first lateral stem bearing off from the main one, or putting forth a leaf. How we should watch the leaf gradually unfolding its little graceful hand; then another, then another; then the main stalk rising and producing more; then one of them giving indications of astonishing novelty -a bud! then this mysterious bud gradually unfolding, like the leaf, amazing us, enchanting us, almost alarming us with delight, as if we knew not what enchantment were to ensue, till at length in all its fairy beauty, and odorous voluptuousness, and mysterious elaboration of tender and living sculpture, shone forth

"The bright consummate flower!"

9. Yet this phenomenon, to a person of any thought and lovingness, is what may be said to take place every day; for the commonest objects are wonders at which habit has made us cease to wonder, and the marvelousness of which we may renew at pleasure, by taking thought.

10. Last spring, walking near some cultivated grounds, and seeing a multitude of green stalks peeping forth, we amused ourselves with imagining them the plumes or other head-gear of fairies, and wondered what faces might ensue;

and from this exercise of the fancy, we fell to considering how true, and not merely fanciful, those speculations were; what a perpetual reproduction of the marvelous was carried on by nature; how utterly ignorant we were of the causes of the least and most disesteemed of the commonest vegetables, and what a quantity of life and beauty, and mystery, and use, and enjoyment, was to be found in them, composed of all sorts of elements, and shaped as if by the hands of fairies.

LEIGH HUNT.

22. BRING FLOWERS.

BRING flowers, young flowers for the festal board,
To wreathe the cup ere the wine is poured;
Bring flowers! they are springing in wood and vale;
Their breath floats out on the southern gale;
And the torch of the sunbeam hath waked the rose,
To deck the hall where the bright wine flows.

Bring flowers to strew in the conqueror's path!
He hath shaken thrones with his storiny wrath,
He comes with the spoils of nations back,
The vines lie crushed in his chariot's track,
The turf looks red where he won the day;
Bring flowers to die in the conqueror's way!
Bring flowers to the captive's lonely cell;
They have tales of the joyous woods to tell, -
Of the free blue streams and the glowing sky,
And the bright world shut from his languid eye.
They will bear him a thought of the sunny hours,

And the dream of his youth; - bring him flowers, wild

Howers

Bring flowers, fresh flowers, for the bride to wear!
They were born to blush in her shining hair.
She is leaving the home of her childhood's mirth,
She hath bid farewell to her father's hearth;
Her place is now by another's side;

Bring flowers for the locks of the fair young bride !

Bring flowers, pale flowers, o'er the bier to shed,
A crown for the brow of the early dead!

For this through its leaves hath the white rose burst,
For this in the woods was the violet nursed!

Though they smile in vain for what once was ours,
They are love's last gift; — bring ye flowers, pale flowers.

Bring flowers to the shrine where we kneel in prayer;
They are nature's offering, their place is there!
They speak of hope to the fainting heart,
With a voice of promise they come and part;
They sleep in dust through the wintry hours,

They break forth in glory; - bring flowers, bright flowers.

FELICIA HEMANS.

ed'i-ble, fit to eat.

23. — THE FRUIT.

ex-pe'di-ents, contrivances.

ash'ioned [-und], formed, shaped.

filo'ret, separate little flower of an
aggregate flower.
in-dis-pen'sa-ble, quite necessary.

1. It is not alone the delicious grape, the grateful apple, the luscious pear, the clustered cherries, the tart currants, the golden orange, the sweet blackberries, the refreshing melon, the blooming peach, the purple plum, the suu-fed

strawberries, or whatever other products of the plants we may deem good to eat, that are entitled to the name of fruit. The very mention, the very thought of fruit, brings to our minds an ever-welcome idea of something not only wholesome and pleasing to the taste, but at the same time beautiful; for all fertile flowers, on whatever plant they may grow, merge eventually into fruit. That fruit may not be edible; it may be bitter, it may be sour, it may be as dry as a chip, or it may even be poisonous, it is still fruit. It is fruit to the plant, if not to us.

2. The seed, we may say, is the infant offspring of the plant, by means of which in the course of nature it perpetuates its kind. The flower is the first step in the formation of the fruit. The plant opens to the sunshine a charming expression of form and color in the budding flower. Nursing in its bosom the growing germ, the flower usually sheds its gay attire, throws off its petals, its ribbons, and its tassels, and in a sober, motherly way devotes itself to the one great task of cherishing, perfecting, and guarding the seed.

Are

3. In fact, the flower, which at first seemed but a transport of joy, now shorn of its bridal ornaments, has become the substantial fruit. That fruit is the guardian of the seed, within which sleeps the infant plant; and according to the needs of that seed will the fruit be fashioned. the seeds to be carried far and wide? ten to one the fruit is furnished with a plume, a sail, or a wing, by which to be wafted through the air, or with hooks to cling to passing animals, or with some other contrivance to effect conveyance.

Or if the seed inside be provided with a sail, the fruit will open and let the little seed go forth and seek its for

tune by itself. Endless are the expedients by which the seed and the fruit seek to perpetuate the kind of plant from which they spring.

4. We may look at the well-known fruit-head of the

DANDELION HEAD.

dandelion, which is the prettiest little airy-like silken ball that could be imagined. Doubtless, it has not occurred to everybody what this beautiful sphere, so common in the meadows and by the roadsides, really is. Previous to this sphere, and in the place of it, was the flower, the wellknown yellow dandelion, which belongs to the composite family.

5. The dandelion is not really one flower,

but a circled group of many small flowers or florets. These are surrounded by an outer circle of green leaflets, which bend down when the florets have changed into fruits, allowing them to radiate in every direction from the core in the center. The whole ball is made up of many small fruits, each of which is a single seed inclosed in a thin cover, surmounted by an elevated circled plume.

6. Blow on this lovely little sphere, and away will fly the little tufted fruits, some one way and some another. If there is any breeze stirring, there is no knowing how