JUNE FLOWERS AND PLANTS. Plants in Blossom. WILD. Forget-me-Not, Myosotis palustris "The noise as of a hidden brook, In the leafy month of June, That to the silent woods all night Singeth a quiet tune."-ANCT. MARINER. There is a very remarkable difference in the leafing of our shrubs and trees. Some, like the elder, Sambucus nigra, showing leaf as early as January, others, as the gooseberry, Ribes grossularia, about the beginning of March; others, as the oak, Quercus robur, not till May, while the acacia, or locust tree, Robinia pseud-acacia, is not in full leaf until about the beginning of June. A similar difference as to time is observable in the blowing of flowers, a circumstance which is one of the wonders of the creation, little noticed, because of common occurrence; though it ought not to be overlooked on account of its being familiar, since it would be as difficult to be explained as the most stupendous phenomenon of nature. CULTIVATED. Rye, Secale cereale Greek valerian, Polemonium cæruleum Garden poppy, Papaver somniferum The blowing of the two sorts of crocus, the vernal and the autumnal, which differ so remarkably in their time of blowing, though botanically they are only varieties of the same species, is thus piously alluded to by a poet, Say, what impels, amidst surrounding snow WHITE. The wild plants which are in blow in the greatest profusion in the fields, are the various species of grass, as well as the cultivated species of corn, which botanists rank among the grasses. Those who have paid no attention to botany may wonder when we tell them, that grass has a flower no less complete in its several parts than a rose or a lily; but so it is. The young botanist, on taking up a spike or panicle of grass may be disappointed in the expectation of distinguishing the several parts of the flower, as the flower may not be quite expanded. When it is in full blow, the chaff will be found to be double, the | berry bushes, and deer will eat the outer or flower cup (calyx) consisting of two leaflets, one large and bluntly oval, the other smaller and flat; the inner or corolla also consisting of two parts or petals. In every species of grass and corn there is a simple unbranched stem, straight, hollow, and jointed or knotted at certain intervals. At each of the joints a single leaf surrounds or sheaths the stem to some distance, and then spreads out into a long narrow surface of equal breadth, all the way till it approaches the end, when it invariably narrows off to a point. prickly furze, and the still more prickly holly. Dr. Darwin observed that the lower branches of the holly trees in Sherwood forest put forth prickles, while the high branches were clothed with leaves without prickles; and he fancied these prickles would save the lower branches from the depredations of the deer; but deer will eat the prickly as well as the smooth leaves. The thistle is fed upon by a great number of insects, particularly by one of our largest and most beautiful butterflies, called by collectors the painted lady, Cynthia Cardui. Thistles are not, therefore, so useless as at first sight they may appear to be, but form a link in the great chain of the creation. Some botanists have puzzled themselves to ascertain which of the several species of thistles is the national plant in the royal arms of Scotland. Some suppose it to be the cotton thistle, Onopordon Acanthium, though it does not appear to us how this could well be, as the The cat's-tail grass, Phleum pratense, is one of the most common, and may be found in various soils and situations, and assuming in consequence a considerable difference of appearance. In moist meadows, the spike is sometimes four inches in length, while in dry, poor soils it is often not more than half an inch, or even less. On the tops of walls, where it may occasionally be seen, or on dry, barren heaths, the stem, instead of rising up-cotton thistle is not, we believe, a native of right, is procumbent, while the roots, instead of being fibrous, and spreading freely, grow knotty and jointed, like those of couch-grass, Triticum repens. If this dwarfed, knotty-rooted grass be transplanted from the wall top, or the heath, into the rich deep soil of a garden, the stem will become erect and tall, and the spike will, in the following season, be from six to eight times longer. Scotland, or if it is, it is very uncommon; yet it is kept in many gardens in the north, and shown as the true Scots thistle. The plant usually shown in English gardens as the Scots emblem is the milk thistle, Carduus Marianus, whose leaves are irregularly blotched with white, as if milk had been spilled upon them. The Romish legends, indeed, state that this was actually caused by some of the milk The thistle, by the way-side, though a of the Virgin Mary having fallen by troublesome weed in cultivated ground, accident on one of those thistles, and that is not without considerable interest to ever after all the species exhibited the the botanist, while it furnishes the sub- marks of the spilled milk. This species is ject of allusions to the moralist. The a native of Scotland, as we have ourselves flowers are aggregate, or compound, occasionally found it wild there, though it like those of the daisy, described on page is by no means so common as it is in 187 of the "Visitor" for May last; but some parts of England. It is not at all the flowers of the thistle are different in likely, that so uncommon a plant should form from those of the daisy. One of have been chosen as a national emblem; the circumstances worthy of attention, besides it does not much resemble the as connected with the thistle, is, that it is thistles usually figured in the Scottish eaten by the ass, even apparently in arms, which are greatly more like the preference to any other herbage, which common spear thistle, C. lanceolata, and we might imagine to be more palatable still more like the musk thistle, C. as provender. One reason of this may nutans, a very abundant plant in some be found, perhaps, in the structure of parts of Scotland, as around Edinburgh the papilla of the ass's tongue, or the and Glasgow. The truth seems to be, thickness of the cuticle that covers them, that we may as well try to find the living which require the stimulus of the prototype of the unicorn in the royal prickles of the thistle, in the same way arms, as the national species of the thistle, as peacocks are fond of cayenne, and we which is a heraldric, and not a botanical of pepper and horse-radish. Goats in species. It would, in our opinion, be no this way will eat the shoots of goose-less vain to inquire which is the true bo tanical species of the English rose, or the | tion, has only five petals, with a great Irish shamrock, or the French fleur-de-lis. number of stamens, and their yellow anThe goat's-beard, Tragopogon pra- thers filling the space between the base tense, is another plant with aggregate of the petals and the pistil. In the flowers, which is not uncommon on ditch- double roses, on the other hand, instead of banks and in pastures, though it is sel- five petals, the number of petals is indedom found in great numbers in one spot. finite; these occupying the place where This plant is remarkable for the circum- the stamens are situate in the single stance of the flowers shutting up about rose. The common cabbage rose has noon; and hence it is often provincially been called the hundred-leaved rose from called Go-to-bed-at-noon. Flowers of the time of Pliny, nearly two thousand various species shut up at various times of years ago, till the present time, on the the day, pretty regularly about the same supposition apparently of there being a hour, opening with equal regularity; hundred petals in each rose. It is not though this sometimes depends on the known among gardeners what is the state of the weather, for such flowers as cause of the multiplication of the petals the pimpernel, Anagallis arvensis, do in double roses, and other double flowers; not open at all in moist, cloudy weather; but all double flowers are at first procured and hence the open or shut state of these from seed, and never, so far as is known, flowers is deemed a very good natural from cultivating the roots of single flowhygrometer to indicate the weather for the ering varieties, by manuring them highly day. Venus' looking-glass, a common and the like; though, on the contrary, garden annual, is another flower similar double flowering plants sometimes come in this respect to the pimpernel. to blow single by being grown in poor soil, or neglected to be transplanted, which is indispensable to keep roses in the best state for flowering. Not only flowers, but leaves also have their daily periods of changing their expansion, as may be observed in the leaves of the acacia, and of the scarlet-runner, Phaseolus multiflorus ; the leafits of the leaves closing up and partially drooping, much in the same way as the leaves of the sensitive plant do when it is touched. The mechanism, by which these changes are effected, has occasionally engaged the attention of scientific men; but they have found it too difficult to arrive at satisfactory conclusions, so far do the contrivances of Divine wisdom exceed the ingenuity of man-" It is past finding out." Amongst the chief beauties of the garden this month, are the lily and the rose -the queen of flowers-which is yearly gaining more favour among florists, in proportion to the varieties, now amounting to above one thousand, that have been produced by cultivation. The changes are in the colours, in the form, and in the sizes, and in the multiplicity of petals. Linnæus and his followers are of opinion, that all double flowers ought to be considered as monsters; but the term is surely unhappy, for whatever is monstrous is calculated to excite disagreeable rather than pleasant feelings; and yet there can be no doubt that double flowers, and particularly double roses, are more beautiful than single ones; of which the common double moss-rose is a well-known example. The wild rose, unaltered by cultiva The most uncommon colour among roses is yellow, though the yellow roses are not varieties but distinct species, which besides are so difficult to manage in our climate, that they do not usually blossom well, and this only when attended to with great horticultural skill. Neither this nor any of the sorts of roses thrive well near towns, probably on account of the smoke. Roses differ almost as much in smell as in colour; some of them possessing their peculiar odour in a high degree, while others have it so faintly as scarcely to be distinguishable. It is the petals of the rose which give off the fine aroma, while in many other flowers the petals are scentless, and the odour arises from the anthers or the nectaries. If we do not greatly mistake, this is the case with the white lily, as well as with the poet's lily, Narcissus poeticus, which blows in May, and is the sort usually called the white lily in Scotland. The tall white lily, Lilium candidum of the English gardens, has a blossom in form of the orange lily, with petals large, or larger, while the anthers are large, and of a golden-yellow colour. The scent of this lily is very agreeable, but it is apt to be too powerful for persons of a weak and nervous temperament, in whom it often gives rise to headachs. as The nature of the scent. of flowers is not well understood, though it must arise from very minute particles diffused from the flower through the air, and thence conveyed to the organ of smell. Chemists have attempted, but hitherto without success, to make some investigation of the constituents of aroma. The extreme fineness of the particles is proved by the fact, that a piece of musk which has been for years diffusing its aroma, does not sensibly lose any thing considerable of its weight. One of the most universally cultivated garden flowers in bloom this month is the Greek valerian, Polemonium coeruleum, very often called Jacob's ladder, probably from the regular ladder-like steps of the winged leaves. It is a native of this country, but is rarely to be met with in a wild state, no doubt because when it is found, the roots are so frequently transplanted into gardens. We once found it growing below the rock called the Lover's Leap, near Buxton, in Derbyshire, the flower being of a colour which we have never seen in gardens; namely, a rich purplish blue, somewhat like that of the sweet violet, but not quite so dark; whereas the garden varieties are more purely blue, without any shade of purple, though they vary much in the depth of the colour; and some are pure white. In the same way the columbine, Aquilegia vulgaris, of which we once found a large patch growing wild in Ireland, near Cork, was of a colour between yellow and white, which we have never observed in the garden varieties, though they are very much disposed to vary in colour. The greater uniformity in the colours of wild flowers, as well as of wild animals, is a very remarkable circumstance; but the illustration thereof would lead us beyond the space which we can at present afford. OSTRICH EGGS. J. R. IT has been thought that the ostrich, after depositing its eggs in the sand, this remarkable bird generally leaves them to be hatched by the genial rays of the sun; but the following facts will show the erroneousness of such an opinion, although maintained by some who have confidently assumed the character of historians. 66 "On approaching the nest," says the Rev. J. Broadbent, we saw the female ostrich sitting upon it; and though she had been disturbed before by the Hottentot, she remained till we were very near, and then ran off at the report of two guns which were fired. The ground was sandy for several miles round, and covered with thinly scattered bushes. There lay a great number of loose ostrich feathers about the nest, which appeared to have come off the female while sitting, and she had the naked appearance which domestic fowls have at such times. "The eggs were forty-two in number, including two which had been taken away, and were arranged with great apparent exactness. Sixteen were close together in the middle of the nest; and on these the ostrich was sitting when we arrived; they were as many as she could cover. The remaining twentysix were placed very uniformly in a circle, about three or four feet from those in the middle. The eggs which were in the circle we found to be quite fresh, at which I expressed my surprise. The Hottentot informed me that these had been provided by the ostrich against the hatching of those in the middle, when she would break them, one after another, and give them to her young ones for food; and that by the time they were all disposed of in this manner, the young ostriches would be able to go abroad with their mother, and provide for themselves such things as the desert afforded. This fact affords as fine an instance of animal instinct, and as striking an illustration of a superintending Providence, as perhaps the whole circle of natural history is capable of furnishing. "During the time that we continued beside the nest, which must have been near an hour, for the Hottentots kindled a fire, and broiled some of the eggs, the ostrich remained at a short distance, looking towards us; and there we left her. The eggs weighed three pounds each, and measured seventeen inches in circumference. We took the greater part of the fresh ones. Seven were as many as I could conveniently carry. One of the Hottentots ingeniously contrived to carry a great number, by pulling off his trowsers, tying up one end, and filling them with eggs."-Kay's Caffraria. THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS OF Ar the time of the introduction of canals into Great Britain, rail-roads were in a state of relative. insignificance, compared with the character which they at present assume. They have, however, been progressively improving; and, since the application of steam power to drag the carriages upon them, they have attained such value, as to entitle them to the most serious attention of the public. The idea of forming smooth surfaces for carriage wheels to roll upon, is not of modern origin; but no horse could draw with advantage on a smooth pavement; hence, in Florence, where the wheel-tracks are paved with hard marble, wrought smooth and level, the horse-paths are of ordinary paving. At an early period, a similar advantage was obtained in our own country, at the collieries of Newcastle, by putting down rails of hard wood for the wheels of wagons to run upon; and more recently rails of cast-iron have been employed, and with more advantage, being much harder and more durable than even the marble wheel-tracks of the Italians. By using iron, we obtain a smooth, hard, and even surface, at an expense comparatively small, and the moving power has very little more than the friction of the axis to contend against. A carriage moving under such circumstances, bears the nearest analogy to a body impelled on the smooth surface of ice, where it is well known that the velocity which may be given by a small power is immense; what the rails want in smoothness, being compensated for by the use of wheels. These important advantages of rail-roads were foreseen some years ago, by Dr. Thomas Young; for he concludes his notice of them in these remarkable words :"It is possible that roads paved with iron may hereafter be employed for the purpose of expeditious travelling, since there is scarcely any resistance to be overcome, except that of the air, and such roads allow the velocity to be increased almost without limit." Speed and certainty of conveyance are of such primary importance in commerce, that a small increase of expense to obtain them is not a material object. Also the certainty of supply must tend much to diminish the fluctuation of prices, and remove those alternations of glut and scarcity which are perpetually occurring in the markets, from contrary winds, frosts, floods, etc. Every thing which tends to render the conveyance of goods certain, must lessen their |