few would look for them-on the back of its stiff pointed leaves.

The broad-leaved wood-rush, with its hairy leaves, may now be gathered in woods; and the hare-tail cotton grass, which in summer ornaments the barren moor with its fleecy looking heads of cotton wool, also blossoms in March. These may not attract the eye at first sight, but they will repay an attentive examination, for

"Not a flower

But shows some touch in freckle, streak, or stain,
Of His unrivalled pencil.

There is not one but

Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould,

An emanation of the indwelling life,

A visible token of the upholding loves,

That are the soul of this wide universe."

upon us.

APRIL.

"The little brooks run on in light,
As if they had a chase of mirth;
The skies are blue, the air is warm,
Our very hearts have caught the charm
That sheds a beauty over earth."

MARY HOWITT.

APRIL-showery, sunshiny, "proud pied" April-is March yielded a few early blossoms, spite of its cold winds; but this month we have flowers in earnest, and the botanist and collector must begin in earnest, otherwise he will be overwhelmed with the rapid succession of "bells and flowrets of a thousand hues" that almost now force themselves upon his attention; mayhap, before that attention was awakened, he passed them by unheeded. A few short precepts must be added to the directions

given last month for collecting and preserving. The first is from the golden rule-Do as you would be done by. If you find a plant that you have reason to think is uncommon, take of it sufficient for specimens for yourself, and if need be for friends, but do not be greedy over it; do not strip a habitat, but leave a few specimens for other collectors, and some for seed. Never, if possible, delay longer than twenty-four hours in putting your collected plants to dry. They will, certainly, if it is necessary-as when Sunday intervenes-keep longer than the above time fresh, either in the tin collecting-box, or in water; but delay is better avoided when possible. Remember always to keep a fresh specimen for examination, if the plant is a new one to you, and make a point, if you can, of ascertaining its name, and noting this down, along with the time and place of gathering. These are little points which, unattended to at the time, are apt to be neglected altogether, and, at some future time, to be regretted.

After plants have been dried, they require mounting and arranging. The way in which they are mounted must of course depend partly upon the pecuniary means of the collector. To be so in the best manner, each species should be placed separately upon half a sheet of white paper, the same size as that recommended to be used for drying. It is usual to place one, or at most two specimens of the same species of plant, on the single half-sheet: but to put different species together is better avoided, unless indeed the expense of paper is a great object. The plants are attached to the paper, either by light touches of strong gum mucilage on various parts of

the stem and leaves, or by strips of paper gumméd down over them. The latter plan is the more troublesome, but so far preferable that, if need be, it permits the specimen to be removed uninjured. The kind of paper used, of course, will depend upon what can be afforded, but the size ought not to be less than that mentioned above. During the botanical season that is, while plants are being gathered and preserved the collector may be content with transferring them when dry to their clean paper, along with their names, places of growth, &c., leaving the completion of the mounting, and the arrangement, to the time when

"The pomp of groves and garniture of fields"

has given place to the cold barrenness of winter. For the next six months at least, the wealth of summer flowers will amply occupy both our space and our readers' leisure, if they betake themselves to the pastime, or scientific pursuit, whichever they like to call or make it, of collecting and examining the wild flowers of their native soil.

Primroses: how many a hedge-bank and burn-side is made gay with these "earliest nurslings of the spring!""The rathe " "The rathe" (early) primrose, as Milton calls it. They have been blooming sparingly, on sheltered banks, perhaps for weeks, but now the thick tufts of their blossoms give real "evidence that spring is come" at last. The primrose is an excellent example of a plant with a regular monopetalous corolla, or, in simple language, of a symmetrical flower all in one piece, in contradistinction to those, like the wallflower, in which the petals of

the flower are separate; or to those, like the deadnettle, foxglove, &c., in which, although in one piece, the flower is irregular. The blossoms of the primrose, apparently scattered among the leaves, all spring from one point in the centre of the tuft; and if we can imagine the various flower-stalks or peduncles uniting before reaching the base of the tuft, so that they should form a common foot-stalk, we should have a raised umbel of blossoms, like the cowslip or oxlip-which last, indeed, may almost be considered as a cross between the former and the primrose. Moreover, the polyanthus of our gardens, which has its blossoms elevated on a common footstalk, is simply a variety of the primrose. The primrose makes a pretty dried specimen at first; but in the course of time the flowers will turn perfectly green; and the same occurs with the cowslip, which is now coming forward in profusion in English pastures; in Scotland it is much less frequent. The primrose affords such an ex

cellent example of a perfect flower, that we may take advantage of it to consider the arrangement of the various parts. At Fig. 123 is represented the section of a primrose blossom. 1, is the expanded limb of the corolla, which in this case ends in a tube-2. This tube encloses the seed-vessel-6-from the top of which arises the style, capped by its globular stig

6

Fig. 123.

ma

-4. Within the tube are the five stamens-5the whole being surrounded by the calyx-3-and supported on the flower-stalk or peduncle-7. Pull to pieces the first primrose flower you meet with, and compare the parts; do the same with the first cowslip. Pretty favourite as the primrose is, both its leaves and flowers are rejected by all our grazing animals, pigs excepted. It seems, however, that it is not altogether despised by man, or at least woman, as an article of diet, for very lately we met with a receipt for a primrose pudding!

Companions of the primrose,

"Gleaming like amethysts in the dewy moss,"

the sweet-scented violets, the most welcome flowers, perhaps, of an English spring, are now, where they do occur, scattered in lavish profusion, not only gleaming blue like the amethysts, but in many places white. The flower of the violet-Fig. 124— contains the same parts, but differently arranged and not less beautiful, as the symmetrical primrose. The

2

Fig. 124.

five divisions of the violet blossom are distinct from one another, and differ in shape one from the other; the lower one presenting-1what is called, in botany, a spur. The stamens will be found connected together, and two of them with curious spur-like appendages. On the flower-stem of the violet, we have an example—2—of what are called bracts. Although we have eight species of British