in his Preface to the Aonian Hours') is one of the sweetest and most refined enjoyments. The face of things and the mind's feelings have then a fresher aspect and a dearer sensation than at any other period of the year. It is only at the first starting of Nature from the repose of winter, that these emotions are forcibly excited; for after we have been accustomed but for a few weeks to the prospect of buds, and flowers, and the gladness of all things, the mind recedes into its habitual temper and tone of feeling. When these sensations are connected with other associations,-with the spot of our boyhood or our birth, or with the pleasures of maturer life, the charm becomes still stronger and sweeter; and we may truly say, as the Arabian prophet exclaimed of Damascus, This is almost too delicious!' Let our readers then, particularly our female friends, Rise betimes, while th' opal-coloured morn

In golden pomp doth May-day's door adorn,

and hasten to enjoy the exhilarating pleasures of a fine May morning. In the language of our friend HOWITT, who has written the following poem expressly for our volume, we would say to Phoebe, or HARRIET:

Away to the bosky glens!

Hie to the sedgy fens!

In the abele the spring-bird reneweth his lay:
The tree that was hoarest

Now blooms in the forest,

A way to the bosky dells,—hie thee away!

Where waters are flowing

Pure blossoms are blowing;

The laughing sun filleth the blue heavens with glee:
There are thousand birds springing,

A thousand notes ringing;

And all for the welcome of wanderers like thee.
O'er the herbs in the shady glen,

Over green bank and bough again,

Like the tears of blest meetings, lies sparkling the dew;
And the breeze of the heavens,

Which all nature enlivens,

With its own living gladness thy heart shall imbue.

Then away in the sunshine,

While spirit and health are thine;

These may not be calling thee onward to-morrow:
As the cloud from the mountain
Overshadows the fountain,

So comes in a moment the glooming of sorrow.
Or, if life in sereneness,

And long summer greenness,

Should wear like the oak of the forest away,
Yet dearer lives failing

Shall leave thee bewailing

That the flow'rs of thy spring-tide are gone to decay.
Oh! then, in thought's wanderings,
The heart's lovely ponderings,

What dreams will there linger 'midst prospects divine?
The beauty and sweetness

Of youth in its fleetness,

These still in the depths of thy bosom shall shine.
For the heart oft reposes,
Though fancy's flower closes,

Nor again to our afternoon sun is unfurled:
But youth is all lightness,

And the soul in its brightness

Dips its wandering wings in the dews of the world.

From that season of passion

"Tis alone that we fashion

The visions of holier and happier things:
And Faith to elate us

With joys that await us,

Must pluck the bright plumes from young Memory's wings.
Then away to the bosky glens!

Hie to the sedgy fens !

In the abele the spring-bird reneweth his lay.

The tree that was hoarest

Now blooms in the forest:

Away to the bosky dells,-hie thee away!

The latest species of the summer birds of passage arrive about the beginning of May. Among these are the goatsucker, or fern-owl, the spotted fly-catcher, and the sedge bird. In this and the following month, the dotterel is in season. Birds are still occupied in building their nests or laying their eggs. The parental care of birds at this period, in hatching and rearing their young, can never be sufficiently admired.

The lily of the valley now opens her snowy bells, and the flowers of the chesnut-tree begin to unfold; the tulip-tree has its leaves quite out; and the flowers of the Scotch fir, the beech, the oak, and the honeysuckle, climbing round its neighbours for support, are now in full bloom.

All the varieties of the strawberry, ' plant of my native soil,' open their blossoms, their runners extending on all sides. The mulberry-tree puts forth its leaves.

The insect tribe continue to add to their numbers. A few butterflies that have passed the inclement season in the chrysalis state, are seen on the wing early in May. And about the latter end of the month, the Papilio Machaon, or swallow-tailed butterfly, one of the most superb of the British Insects, makes its appearance. It is very local, but is abundant in the places where it is found, particularly in the fens of Huntingdon and Cambridge. The caterpillar is green, banded with black, and marked by a row of red spots: it feeds on various umbellate plants.

Mr. SAMOUELLE, in his directions to the Entomological Collector, says, as soon as the white-thorn is in leaf, the hedges should be well beaten ;—the season for taking caterpillars now commences, from which most of the Lepidoptera are obtained, and this is by far the best method, as the insects are generally perfect, and the specimens very fine. Great attention should be paid to the larvae, and they should be supplied with fresh food, and moist earth kept at the bottom of their cages.'-Introduction to British Entomology, p. 315.

Field crickets, the chaffer or may-bug, and the forest fly, which so much annoys horses and cattle, are now seen. The female wasp appears at the latter end of the month, and the swarming of bees takes place. The garden now affords rhubarb, green apricots, and green gooseberries, for making pies and tarts.

In this month, the orchis will be found in moist pastures, distinguished by its broad, black spotted leaves, and spike of large purple flowers. The walnut has its flowers in full bloom.

The banks of rills and shaded hedges are ornamented with the pretty tribe of speedwells, particularly the germander speedwell, the field mouse-ear, the dove's-foot crane's-bill, and the red campion, the two first of azure blue, and the two last of rose colour, intermixing their flowers with attractive variety. The country is now in perfection, every bush a nosegay, all the ground a piece of embroidery. The air, indeed, is enriched with native perfumes, and the whole creation seems to smile; on each tree we hear the voice of melody, and in every grove there is a concert of warbling music. Now let us seek

The populous forests thick with life,

Which (deep and cool as Faunus ever knew)
Are haunted only by melodious strife

Of birds or insects, when the year is new,
Feeding upon the fragrant summer dew.

The green

And beautiful hue of youth on every flower

And herb where Spring's betraying steps have been-
The bright leaves sparkling in a sunny shower,—
Music on every bough, and life in every bower:
The plover's shrilly whistle-the quick call
Of pheasants in their devious wanderings,
The heifer lowing from the distant stall,
And sudden flutter of the wild bird's wings,
Invisible in passing-sunrise-springs
Whose crystal gushings momently engage
The babble of an echo-these are things
Too mean, or far too lovely for a Sage

With whom delight is crime, and solitude a cage.
But I not so have read the leaf of life

In Nature's volume.

Hush! for the most shy Pheasant leaves the brakes
To bask her beauteous plumage in the sun,
Which, as in love with its bright colours, makes
A hundred brilliant Irises of one.

Autumn is past: the desolating gun

Haunts not her dreaming sleep; she now may tread, A princess, through the halls she wont to shun, Silence around, and verdurous domes o'erhead, More high exalt her crest, her whirring pinions spread. Aonian Hours.

The lilac, the barberry, and the maple, are now in flower. At the latter end of the month rye is in ear; the mountain-ash, laburnum, the guelder-rose, clover, columbines, with their singular and fantastic nectaries,—the alder, the wild chervil, the wayfaring tree, or wild guelder-rose, and the elm, have their flowers full blown.

Many fine plants are in flower, both in artificial climates and the open garden. The American tribes flower in great numbers during this month, as Magnolias, Azaleas, Vacciniums, &c. We saw in the last week of April, in Malcolm and Gray's Nursery, Kensington, one of the finest Youlan Magnolias in flower we ever beheld. It was a standard of a conical shape, about twenty feet high, and in an open, unsheltered part of the garden. It was covered with tulip shaped blossoms of a pure white, and exceedingly fragrant. Each blossom was as large as that of a Van Thol tulip, and their perfume was sensibly felt for a circumference of many yards. Hundreds of lovers of gardening, if they were aware of the beauty of this plant, would possess a specimen, for a greater ornament no shrubbery could posThere is not a country gentleman, who, were he to see such a plant, would not have one of them, coute qui coute; but as gentlemen necessarily rely on their gardeners for selecting plants and trees, and as this tree is but of recent introduction, it is unknown to most gardeners in place. Young gardeners recently become masters, and now coming out as such, will recommend it; but, still, this shows that scarcely any new plant can become general throughout the country in less than half a century from its first introduction. A gardener takes a place