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autumn are greatly reduced before spring, by guns, nets, and traps.

All is vigour and activity in the vegetable kingdom in this month, and the most patient observer of nature is almost bewildered by the countless profusion of interesting objects.

Towards the middle of the month, the spiked willow (spirea salicifolia), jessamine (jaminum officinale), hyssop (hyssopus officinalis), and the bellflower (campanula), have their flowers full blown. The campanula patula is a beautiful lilac bellflower, found very generally on heaths and dry banks, and worth cultivating in gardens, for ornament. It flowers through the greater part of this month and the next. The wayfaring tree, or guelder rose, begins to enrich the hedges with its bright red berries, which in time turn black. The Virginian sumach (rhus typhinum) now exhibits its scarlet tufts of flowers upon its bright green circles of leaves. The berries of the mountain ash turn red. The lavender (lavendula spica) is in flower. In this and the following month, the purple loosestrife (lythrum salicaria) ornaments the sides of ponds and brooks, and, by its tall spike of blue flowers, gives a rich appearance to the cooling retreats of river banks: it is intermixed with the meadowsweet (spiraa ulmaria), the spicy fragrance of which scents the surrounding air.

A sensitive plant in a garden grew,

And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light,
And closed them beneath the kisses of night.

And the spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the spirit of love felt every where;

And each flower and shrub on earth's dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wint'ry rest.

But none ever trembled and panted with bliss
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness,

Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want,
As the companionless sensitive plant.

The snowdrop, and then the violet,

Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,

And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.

Then the pied wind-flowers, and the tulip tall,
And Narcissi, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess,
Till they die of their own dear loveliness.

And the Naiad-like lily of the vale,

Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen
Thro' their pavilions of tender green.

And the hyacinth purple, white and blue,
Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew
Of music so delicate, soft, and intense,
It was felt like an odour within the sense.

And the rose, like a nymph to the bath addrest,
Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast,
Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air
The soul of her beauty and love lay bare.
And the wand-like lily, which lifted up,
As a Mœnad, its moonlight-coloured cup,
Till the fiery star, which is its eye,
Gazed thro' clear dew on the tender sky.
And the jessamine faint, and sweet tube-rose,
The sweetest flower, for scent, that blows;
And all rare blossoms from every clime,
Grew in that garden, in perfect prime.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

The enchanter's nightshade (circæa lutetiana); the Yorkshire sanicle (pinguicula vulgaris); the water horehound or gypsy wort (lycopus europaeus), the great cat's tail, or reed mace (typha latifolia), often introduced into aquatic scenery as a graceful addition, by the most celebrated painters; the common nettle (urtica dioicia); the goose grass (asperula galium); the fringed water-lily (menyanthis nymphoides); solanum belladonna, dulcamara and nigrum; the asparagus, and some species of rumex; with buck-wheat (polygonum fagopyrum), the seeds of which are extremely nutritious and wholesomeand a variety of other plants, may be almost said to

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bloom, fade, and die, within the present month.The dianthus, or pink and carnation tribe, grace the gardens of all; while their allies, the several species of lychnis, cerastium, and spergula, add beauty to the fields, and glow with every hue and shade of colorific radiance. The rhodiola rosea is also in bloom, the dried root of which emulates the odour of the rose-a flower it were almost sacrilege to name, without some poetical tribute to its peerless beauties.

-As a sweete rose fairely budding forth

Bewrayes her beauties to th' enamoured morne,
Until some keene blast from the envious North.
Killes the sweet bud that was but newly borne,
Or else her rarest smells delighting

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Towards the end of the month, the flowers of the laurustinus (viburnum tinus), and the burdock (arctium lappa), begin to open; and the elecampane (inula helenium), the amaranth (amaranthus caudatus), the great water plantain (alisma plantago), and water mint (mentha aquatica), have their flowers full blown. The mezereon (daphne mezereon), which in January cheered the eye with its flowers without leaves, and regaled the smell, now displays its scarlet berries through its bright green leaves.

The meadows begin to whiten, and the flowers that adorn them are mowed down. The corn gradually

assumes a yellow hue, and the colours that decorate the rural scene are no longer so numerous. Corncockle (agróstemma githago) is in flower, and reminds the farmer to pull it from among his crop of wheat, lest it spoil his sample and deteriorate the bread.

As summer advances, the vocal music of the groves is lessened, and in this month may be said to cease altogether if we except the chirping of the wren and two or three small birds. This is not the case, however, in South America, as appears by the poet's account of Summer in that wonderful country.

SUMMER was in its prime;-the parrot-flocks
Darkened the passing sunshine on the rocks;
The chrysomel and purple butterfly
Amid the clear blue light are wand'ring by;
The humming-bird, along the myrtle bowers,
With twinkling wing, is spinning o'er the flowers;
The woodpecker is heard with busy bill,

The mock-bird sings-and all beside is still.
And look! the cataract that bursts so high,
As not to mar the deep tranquility,
The tumult of its dashing fall suspends,

And, stealing drop by drop, in mist descends;

Through whose illumined spray and sprinkling dews,
Shine to the adverse sun the broken rainbow hues.
Check'ring, with partial shade, the beams of noon,
And arching the grey rock with wild festoon,
Here, its gay net-work, and fantastic twine,
The purple cogul threads from pine to pine,
And oft, as the fresh airs of morning breathe,
Dips its long tendrils in the stream beneath.

There, through the trunks, with moss and lichens white,
The sunshine darts its interrupted light,

And, 'mid the cedar's darksome boughs, illumes,
With instant touch, the tori's scarlet plumes.
Just heard to trickle through a covert near,
And soothing, with perpetual lapse, the ear,
A fount, like rain-drops, filtered thro' the stone,
And, bright as amber, on the shallows shone.
Intent his fairy pastime to pursue,
And, gem-like, hovering o'er the violets blue,
The humming-bird, here, its unceasing song
Heedlessly murmured all the summer long,

And when the winter came, retired to rest,
And from the myrtles hung its trembling nest.
No sounds of a conflicting world were near;
The noise of ocean faintly met the ear,
That seemed, as sunk to rest the noontide blast,
But dying sounds of passions that were past;
Or closing anthems, when, far off, expire
The lessening echoes of the distant choir.

BOWLES.

Insects now take the place of the feathered tribe, and, being for the most part hatched in the spring, they are now in full vigour. Gnats and flies buzz around us, the grasshopper chirps his merry note, and the dew-moth and butterfly appear. Flying ants quit their nests.

The bee still pursues his ceaseless task of collecting his varied sweets to form honey for his destroyer, man. This industrious insect, however, will sometimes retaliate, and wreak a dreadful vengeance on his tyrant. (See our last volume, p. 218.)

In this and the following month, numbers of the shrew-mouse (sorex) may be seen lying in the footpaths dead, or in a dying state.

About the middle or end of July, pilchards (clupea pilchardus) appear in vast shoals, off the Cornish coast; but, in the year 1821, there was so great a deficiency of fish, that the inhabitants of Cornwall were led to suppose that the pilchards had deserted the coast altogether. Of the quantity of fish annually taken in the county, it is impossible to give any specific statement. Sometimes the aggregate amount will not exceed 15,000, and at other times it exceeds 50,000, and even 70,000 hogsheads. The price also is still more variable. During the war, when the Italian ports were shut, pilchards have been so low as 15s. per hogshead; but in the year 1815 they procured £5 5s. The number of pilchards contained in each hogshead is equally variable, much depending upon the size of the fish; 3000 or 3500 may be considered as the average

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