Each succeeding week pours forth fresh beauties from the lap of Flora, and furnishes the botanist with new sources of delight. Golden tufts of crocuses, expanding their corollas to receive the genial warmth of the sun, interspersed with pink and blue hepaticas, and the garden daisy, with its little tufts of crimson velvet, united with the blossoms of last month, greatly ornament our flower borders. The alpine wall-cress is still in bloom; the mezereon puts forth its leaves; and the primrose peeps from the retreating snows of winter: it forms a happy shade of distinction between the delicate snowdrop and the flaming crocus.

Daffodils, yellow auriculas, coltsfoot, with its brilliant golden and sometimes pink or silvery stars, and hounds-tongue, are in blossom about the middle of the month. The American cowslip, with its beautiful rose-coloured blossoms, growing in thick branches in the form of a cone, flowers in March. The charming violet, whose attractions have been the theme of many a poetic effusion, makes her appearance this month, but not in full perfection, for the chill winds of March are not very congenial to the expansion of so delicate a blossom.

From the Latin of BUCHANAN.

With violets, fragrant herbs, let none presume
To crown the summit of my lowly tomb;
Nor grace the spot where my remains are laid,
With the tall pyramid's majestic shade.
Rather let him whose proffered love would claim
The festive honours of fair friendship's name,
While life remains, each kind attention show,

And, ere too late, what friendship asks, bestow.
For when the shears of fate have cleft in twain-
Embitt'ring thought!-sweet life's delusive chain,
I care not then, should thorns their blossom shed
'Mid the wide ruins of my charnel bed.

D. NILLIRN.

If the weather be mild, the rich hyacinth, the noble descendant of the modest harebell-the sweet

H

narcissus, delicately pale, and some of the early tulips, are now in bloom. The peach and the nectarine begin to show their elegant blossoms.

Protected from the inclemency of the weather by our green-houses, roses, hyacinths, heliotropes, and geraniums, are now in full blossom, regaling the senses with their varied hues and rich perfumes.

In this month, black ants are observed; the blackbird and the turkey lay; and house pigeons sit. The greenfinch sings; the bat is seen flitting about; and the viper uncoils itself from its winter sleep. The wheatear, or English ortolan (Sylvia oenanthe), again pays its annual visit, leaving England in September. Those birds which have passed the winter in England now take their departure for more northerly regions; as the fieldfare, the red-wing, and the woodcock.

On the 20th, the vernal equinox takes place, and all nature feels her renovating sway, and seems to rejoice at the retreat of winter.

The general or great flow of sap in most trees takes place in this month; this is preparatory to the expanding of the leaves, and ceases when they are out. The ash now puts forth its grey buds; and the hazel and the willow exhibit some signs of returning life in their silky, enfolded catkins. The leaves of the thornless rose and of the hawthorn are gradually becoming determinate. The field daisy is now seen scattered over dry pastures'. This pretty flower, the poet's darling, from Chaucer to Wordsworth and Montgomery, has claimed for itself many an elegant tribute: the following is from the pen of our kind and valued correspondent, the REV. WM. FLETCHER, Master of the Grammar School at Woodbridge in Suffolk, and deserves to be placed with some of the

See a beautiful 'Tale of the Daisy,' in a clever little volume, entitled 'Fairy Favours;'-we have much pleasure in recommending this book as a delightful present for young persons of both sexes.

best pieces that have been written on the subject: it is now, for the first time, presented to the public.

To the DAISY.

Little flow'r with starry brow,
Slumb'ring in thy bed of snow;.
Or with lightly tinged ray,
Winter gone and storms away,
Peeping from thy couch of green
With modest head and simple mien ;
How I love to see thee lie

In thy low serenity,

Basking in the gladsome beam;
Or, beside some murm'ring stream
Gently bowing from thy nest,
Greet the water's silver breast.,
Or 'mid fissure of the rock,
Hidden from the tempest's shock,
Vie with snowy lily's bell-
Queen and fairy of the dell.

Thee nor wind nor storm can tear
From thy lonely mountain lair ;
Nor the sleety, sweeping rain,
Root thee from thy native plain.
Winter's cold, nor summer's heat,
Blights thee in thy snug retreat;
Chilled by snow or scorched by flame,
Thou for ever art the same.
Type of truth, and emblem fair
Of virtue struggling through despair,
Close may sorrows hem it round,
Troubles bend it to the ground,
Yet the soul within is calm,
Dreads no anguish, fears no harm;
Conscious that the hand which tries
All its latent energies,

Can, with more than equal pow'r,
Bear it through temptation's hour;
Still the conflict, soothe its sighs,

And plant it 'neath congenial skies.

The planting and sowing of FOREST TREES is generally concluded in this month. The mixing of firtrees with oaks (except in very sheltered situations) is now frequently adopted by the planter.-See our last volume, p. 81.,

In March, trouts begin to rise, and blood worms appear in the water. The clay hair worm is found at the bottom of drains and ditches (see T. T. for 1823, p. 85), and the water-flea may be seen gliding about upon the surface of sheltered pools.-See T. T. for 1824, p. 88. Bats now issue from their places of concealment. Peas appear above ground; the sea-kale (Crambe maritima) begins to sprout. The male blossoms of the yew-tree expand and discharge their farina. Sparrows are busily employed in forming their nests. Young otters are produced, and young lambs are yeaned this month.

The equinoctial gales are usually most felt, both by sea and land, about this time; and now may we exclaim with Ariel, in her beautiful song, in the delightful Il Pastore Incantato, lately published:-

I would not be compelled to ride

Over this stormy sea,

For all the gold that misers hide
Under the hawthorn tree.

I would not be obliged to run

Upon this sharp sleet air,

To be made monarch of the Sun,
Without a monarch's care.

My life upon this wind or wave

I should not deem secure;

But, ah! what will not mortals brave,

Led on by fortune's lure?

Yet if but one small tear 'twould dry

On the lid of a maiden fair,

I'd climb these waves, though mountains high,
And skim the sharp sleet air.

The brimstone-coloured butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni), which lives throughout the winter, is usually seen in March. It is found in the neighbourhood of woods, on fine and warm days, enjoying the beams of the noonday sun. Some of our most beautiful butterflies belonging to the genus vanessa, as V. atalanta, Io, Polychloros, and Urticæ, are seen in this month; and the Antiopa, or Camberwell beauty, has once been captured at this season.

Thy spangled wings aloft to see

I' th' sunbeams shining.

For ance like me, in times gane round,
A grovelling worm thou swept the ground;
Yet now where bonniest flowers are found,

Blithsome thou fleetest,

Disporting thro' life's sunnie round

'Mid joys the sweetest.

And sae may I, when death's cauld blast
Youth's withered flowerets low shall cast,
When (earthborn woes and cares all past)

Life's bonds shall sever,

In heaven a seraph burst at last,

And burn for ever?

APRIL.

APRIL derives its name from aperire, to open, because the earth then appears to open to new productions. Venus was its tutelar divinity. On the 1st was a festival in honour of Venus. The Romans presented her baskets of flowers adorned with myrtle. On the 12th, the Cerealia, which continued eight days. Taurus is the sign of this month, to