RASS. Gramen. Class 3, TRIANDRIA. Order: DIGYNIA. It will be admitted that what is the most useful, is in nature the most common; and of all vegetable productions, what is there more common than grass? It clothes the earth with a verdant carpet, and it yields food,-nay, it

"grows for the cattle," in obedience to the Creator's word.

UTILITY.

"Tis pleasant, on the steep hill-side,
Where lies in view the prospect wide
Of cultured farm, with interchange
Of tilth and pasture, cot and grange,
At ease the careless limbs to stretch
Beneath the broad o'er-arching beech,
And, lighted by the sky serene,
Mark the full hay-field's varied scene.
Here, as the swarthy mowers pass
Slow through the tall and russet grass,
In marshalling rank from side to side,
With circling stroke and measured stride,
Before the scythe's wide-sweeping sway
The russet meadow's tall array

Falls, and the bristly surface strows

With the brown swathe's successive rows.

And then the toiling horses strain,

Slowly to move the ponderous wain.
From pile to pile the slow wain goes,
And still at each more lofty grows;
While the stout swains below supply
Fresh fardels to the swains on high,
Heaps upon heaps the grassy load:
Thence, lumbering o'er the homeward road,
It swells, adorn'd with trophied bough,
The rich compact, or treasured mow.

MANT.

AREBELL. Hyacinthus non-scriptus. Class 6, HEXANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. This beautiful little flower is a native of Persia ; but is found in most parts of Europe. Our woods in the Spring present a lively appearance, from the mixture of their azure blue

bells among the pale yellow primroses, and the many different-tinted heaths, so tastefully intermingled by the hand of Nature. It is called Harebell from its generally growing in those places frequented by hares: the flower varies in colour and beauty; some being completely white, and others much resembling the poorer kinds of hyacinths; but they have longer and narrower flowers, not swelling at the bottom; the bunch of flowers is likewise longer and bends downwards. The fresh roots of this plant are said to be poisonous; the juice is mucilaginous, and in the time of Queen Elizabeth was used as starch.

SUBMISSION.

Sweet flower! though many a ruthless storm
Sweep fiercely o'er thy slender form,
And many a sturdier plant may bow
In death beneath the tempest's blow,
Submissive thou, in pensive guise,
Uninjured by each gale shalt rise,
And, deck'd with innocence, remain
The fairest tenant of the plain:
So, conscious of its lowly state,
Trembles the heart assail'd by fate;
Yet, when the fleeting blast is o'er,
Settles as tranquil as before;

While the proud breast no peace shall find,
No refuge for a troubled mind.

ANON.

AZEL. Corylus Avellana. Class 21, MoNCCIA. Order: POLYANDRIA. There was a time when men were not united by any common tie. When the mother would deprive her son of the wild fruit with which

he wished to appease his hunger, and if misfortune united them for a moment, the sudden sight of an oak laden with acorns, or a beech covered with beech-mast, rendered them enemies.

According to ancient mythology the gods had pity on the human race. Apollo and Mercury exchanged presents, and came down upon the earth. The god of harmony received from the son of Maïa a tortoise shell, of which he had made a lyre, and gave in return a branch of hazel, which had the power of making virtue beloved, and of re-uniting hearts divided by hatred and envy. Thus armed, the two sons of Jupiter presented themselves to men. Apollo first sang that eternal wisdom which had created the universe; filial piety and patriotic love were brought into action, by his eloquence, to unite the human race; and commerce he made the bond of the world. His last thought was the most sublime, for it was consecrated to the gods; and he told mankind that they might become equal with the gods by deeds of love and beneficence.

Ornamented with two light wings, and serpents entwining themselves around it, the hazel wand, presented to the god of eloquence by the god of harmony, is still, under the name of Mercury's wand, the symbol of peace, commerce, and reconciliation.

RECONCILIATION.

And see,

As yet unclothed, the Hazel-tree
Prepares his early tufts to lend
The coppice first fruits; and depend
In russet drops, whose cluster'd rows,
Still closed in part, in part disclose,
Yet fenced beneath their scaly shed,
The pendent anther's yellow head.

MANT.

into his verses:

EART'S EASE. Viola Tricolor. Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The tints of this flower are scarce less varied than the names that have been bestowed upon it. That of pansy is a corruption of the French name, pensée, thought.

Leigh Hunt introduces the heart's-ease

The garden's gem,

Heart's-ease, like a gallant bold,

In his cloth of purple and gold.

Phillips observes that the most brilliant purples of the artist appear dull when compared to that of the pansy; our richest satins and velvets coarse and unsightly by a comparison of texture; and as to delicacy of shading, it is scarcely surpassed by the bow of Iris itself.

THINK OF ME.

Frolick virgins once these were,
Overloving, living here;

Being here their ends denied,
Ran for sweethearts mad, and died.

And their losse in blooming yeares,
For their restlesse here-spent houres,
Gave them heart's-ease turn'd to flowres.

HERRICK.

And there are pansies, that's for thoughts.
SHAKSPEARE.

And thou, so rich in gentle names, appealing
To hearts that own our nature's common lot;
Those, styled by sportive fancy's better feeling

'A Thought,'The Heart's Ease,' or 'Forget me not.'

BARTON.