There is a difference between the first future, amabo, and I the future formed with the aid of the future participle, thus, amaturus sum. Amabo means I will or shall love, simply indicating a future act, without determining when, or the precise point in the future when the act will take place. Amaturus sum signifies I am about to love,—that is, I shall shortly love; intimating that the action signified in the verb is near at hand, is in the immediate future. Of the first future there is properly no subjunctive tense; the import, however, is expressed by combination, thus, amaturus sim (sis, sit, &c.), I may be about to love; amaturus essem, I might be about to love. The second future also is without a subjunctive mood. EXERCISES.-Form according to the model now given, that is, write them out in full, with all the parts in both Latin and English, these verbs,-laudo 1, I praise; vigilo 1, I watch; compăro 1, I procure. LESSONS IN GEOLOG Y.-No. IX. By THOMAS W. JENKYN, D.D., F.G.S. CHAPTER I. like two walls; and its upper surface also hardens, so as, with the two sides, to form a kind of tunnel through which the burning or incandescent matter flows. This peculiarity of the walls of a lava current is well known in Italy, and by this knowledge men are able to deflect the burning stream, and to turn it aside from its intended course. The people make a gash in one of the hardened sides of the current. At this gash the lava will issue out, and discontinue the course which it threatened to take. By this method many villages and towns have been saved from the destruction which menaced them. An instance of this took place in Italy a few years ago. The people of Campania saw a current of lava descending from Vesuvius which was likely to overwhelm their hamlet. They immediately went up to meet the fiery stream, attacked it on the side farthest from their direction, and turned the current towards Paterno. When the inhabitants of Paterno heard of this manoeuvre, they took up arms, arrested the operation, and caused the burning tide to take its own course. As such a hardened crust is a good non-conductor of heat, the melted matter within it takes a long time to cool. The lava which flowed from Etna in 1819, was, nine months after the eruption, in a state sufficiently fluid or molten, to move at the rate of a yard a day. There is an instance, in the same ON THE ACTION OF VOLCANOES ON THE EARTH'S CRUST mountain, of lava being in perceptible motion even ten years SECTION V. ON VOLCANIC PRODUCTS, OR THE MATERIALS ERUPTED FROM VOLCANOES. THE quantity of matter which volcanic fires abstract from the bowels of the earth, and throw up to the surface is enormous. It has been scientifically calculated, that a volcano has, in some instances, thrown up, even at a single eruption, more matter than if the entire mountain had been melted down to yield the supply. The question which must interest every geologist is, "Where does all this mass of matter come from?" Among the various productions of volcanoes may be enumerated, gases, aqueous vapours, lava, minerals, scoriæ, stones, ashes, sand, water, and mud. It is well known that volcanoes emit different kinds of gases, such as muriatic gas, sulphur combined with oxygen or with hydrogen, carbonic acid gas, and nitrogen, besides aqueous vapours. Several of the simple minerals, and some of the metals are found in the melted materials ejected by volcanoes, such as cominon salt, chloride of iron, sulphate of soda, muriate and sulphate of potassa, iron, copper, lead, arsenic, and selenium. The examination of these gases and minerals belong rather to chemistry than to geology. They are related to geology only as they give aid in the study of the mineral character of rocks. From the very nature of such mineral productions it was to be expected that volcanic substances should greatly vary in lithological character, from that of light ashes to that of compact and heavy crystalline rock. Nor is it a wonder that the quantity of mineral matter ejected is so great as it is, especially when you consider what a multiplicity of elementary substances are acted upon by the fires below, and how these elements in their fused state, strive to combine with each other in different ways and proportions. It has been ascertained that, within three square miles around Vesuvius, more specimens of the simple minerals have been found than on any other spot of the same dimensions. Of the 380 different species of minerals known to the celebrated Haüy, 82 had been found on Vesuvius alone. LAVA is a name given to any mineral matter melted in a volcano, and ejected in a stream over the rim of the crater. When the molten lava is consolidated by cooling, it receives fresh names, partly according to its mineral composition, and partly according to the slowness or rapidity of its refrigeration. Hence such names as scoriæ, cinders, pumice, basalt, trachyte, obsidian, &c. The melted lava may be boiling for years within the walls or cliffs of a crater, as has been represented in fig. 11 and fig. 15, without flowing over its edges. When lava swells above the edges of a crater, and flows down the declivities of the hill, it does not spread itself on all sides as a flood of water would, but it moves in a tall half-rounded mass, not very unlike the engravings that you have seen of a tubular bridge. The sides of this moving body of lava harden so to form something after the eruption. This deserves your notice, on account of a very remarkable fact, and a fact which may help to resolve some difficult problems in the examination of ancient rocks. In 1828 a large mass of ice, several hundred square yards in extent, was found in Mount Etna lying under a bed of lava, which had covered it while flowing in a melted state. How could this be? You can imagine that rain-water, or drifted snow, might freeze into a glacier at the elevation of ten thousand feet, which was the height at which this ice was found. This bed of ice was formed in a large hollow, while the volcano was in a state of rest. But, when the burning lava flowed over the ice, how is it that the ice did not melt? It is probable that the bed of ice had been previously covered by a thick shower of volcanic ashes. As such a layer of ashes is also a good non-conductor of heat, it prevented the ice from melting: and after the bed of lava had cooled over it, it continued to preserve the ice in an unmelted state. The truth of this theory is established by facts which occur about Ætna in the present day. In the higher regions of that mountain, the shepherds, in order to provide a supply of water for their flocks during summer, are in the habit of sprinkling beds of snow with a layer of volcanic sand, a few inches thick, and this is found to be an effectual means of preventing the sun from melting until it is wanted. The term SCORIÆ or cinders, is applied to the fragmentary slags of lava which are ejected into the air, and then settle around the volcano. The structure of these cinders is owing entirely to the influence of the external air, and not to any special difference of material in composition. Whether lava flows like a stream, or is thrown up in jets, it cracks and becomes porous, as soon as it is acted upon by the atmospheric gases. The result is, that the pieces or fragments become cellular or vesicular, that is, a mass full of small rounded holes, as may be seen in any specimens of pumice and lava. If lava is cooled under great pressure, it becomes compact, and even crystalline as in trap, trachyte, &c. During an eruption, masses of STONE are frequently thrown up into the air. Where do these stones come from, and come unmelted? When the little islet, called Graham's Island, rose in the Mediterranean, near the coast of Sicily, in 1831, its crater ejected pieces of dolomite rock, and fragments of limestone; and also masses of some pounds weight of Silurian Lock. In the awful eruption of Tomboro, in Sumbawa, an island in the Molucca group, which took place in 1815, stones fell very thick-some of them as large as two fists, but most of them only of the size of a walnut. In a museum at Naples, are exhibited specimens of the various stones which have been ejected from the crater of Vesuvius. Several of these specimens are fragments of the limestone which prevails in the district, and these limestone specimens contain organic remains in them. These specimens prove that the vent of the volcano goes lower down than the limestone bed, and that the melted matter thrown up rubs against the sides of this rock, rends and tears portions of it off, and throws them up into the surface. These limestone specimens are found to be impregnated with magnesia, an element which entered it while it was being heated in this volcanic crucible. In fig. 20, you see how the vent of a crater passes through various beds of rock, such as A, B, C, D, E, F, some of which are fossiliferous, and others are of the more ancient class. The upper stratum, A B, is formed by the ejected matter which has been thrown up on all sides from the volcano. for Besides stones, it is found that volcanoes discharge a vast quantity of ASHES, which darken the air for hours, and sometimes many days, and which in their fall occasion great damage to agriculture, and to villages and towns. These dry and hot ashes are probably only lava pulverised or turned into powder by friction. It has been conjectured A a b by e some that they originate in the kind of bladdered f froth which may have once rested on the surface of the incandescent matter while cool gist in accounting for the bones and skeletons of extinct species of animals which are found in the ashes of ancient volcanoes, such as are found in Avergne, in France. Many naturalists think that it was by such a shower of ashes that Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed, and that this accounts for the perfect preservation of even the most fragile articles found amid those fossil cities. Some remarkable facts connected with the structure of these ashes deserve to be noticed. When Graham Island rose in the MediterFig. 20. ranean, in 1831, Dr. Davy mentions a shower of ashes which fell. In the substance of these ashes, he found fibres like vegetable fibre, and which had the smell of a burning sea weed, This has led to the conjecture that as sea-water entered the submarine The vent of a volcano passing through various strata, and wearing away fragments ing under diminished pressure. were volcano, fibres of weeds sucked in with it. There is another fact more remarkable still. On Sept. 2, 1845, a Danish ship was sailing in 61 north latitude, a thick cloud was seen to approach the vessel from the N. W. in the direction of Iceland. The sails and the deck were immediately covered with ashes. These ashes had come from the volcano, Mount Hecla, which was in a state of eruption on that day. This volcano was 533 miles from the ship, so that the ashes must have travelled at the rate of 46 miles per hour. The Fig. 21. These ashes are sometimes like impalpable powder, but, in other instances, very heavy as a mass. During the eruption of Tomboro, in Sumbawa, in 1815, the ashes which fell, were so heavy as to crush and destroy several houses even at forty miles distance from the crater. Also at sea, to the west of Sumatra, some thousand miles off from Tomboro, the ashes and cinders fell so thick as to float two feet deep on the surface of the sea, and render the passage of ships extremely difficult. In other instances, the ashes were so light and subtile as that, notwithstanding an awning made to cover the deck, they lay in heaps of a foot in depth on many parts of the vessel, and several tons were thrown overboard. Mud volcanoes, as seen by Humboldt at Turbaco, in New Grenada. 1835 there was an erup- famous Professor Ehren- There are volcanoes which eject WATER, or whose craters are filled with it. The greates part of the vapour discharged by volcanoes is purely aqueous. It is this vapour when condensed by cold air that forms the springs which are on the sides of volcanic mountains. But, besides this aqueous vapour, there are cases in which water is a volcanic pro duct. It has been argued by many that water acts an important part in the eruptions of volcanoes, since, of 300 volcanoes on the globe, two-thirds are situated in islands, and the greater part of the other third are either on the borders of the sea, or not far from the coast. There are, however, some volcanoes, such as those in Mexico and in Central Asia, which are very far from the sea. Near Seminara, in Calabria, an earthquake opened a chasm in which a lake was formed 1785 feet long, and 937 broad. It was called Lago del Tolfilo. The inhabitants of the district, from fear that the miasma from such a lake would be prejudicial to their health, tried to drain off its waters by means of canals. Their work proved vain, for the lake was found to be constantly filling from springs which issued at the bottom of the chasm. In 1811 the volcanic island, afterwards called the Sabrina, was observed to rise from the sea near St. Michael, at the Azores. Its erater shot up cinders 700 or 800 feet above the level of the sea. These cinders were followed by an immense column of smoke. It began to rise in June. On the 4th of July it was high enough above the sea to form an island about a mile round. In its centre was a crater full of hot water, which discharged itself over one of the edges into the sea. blazed to a great height for three hours. Then, for about twenty-four hours, they continued to burn about three feet above the crater from which the mud was ejected. Near a village called Baklichi the flame rose so high as to be seen twenty-four miles off. Large fragments of rock were thrown to a great distance round. These, as we have seen in fig. 20, must have been torn from the cavities of the strata beneath. At Damak, in the province of Samarang, in the island of Java, there is a similar mud volcano, where the mud is of high temperature. At Girgenti, in Sicily, and at Sassueto, in Northern Italy, they are also found under the name of Salses. LESSONS IN ENGLISH.-No. XI. By JOHN R. BEARD, D.D a common error. One of the most singular products of a volcano is MUD. When the aqueous vapours from the crater are condensed by the cold atmosphere, heavy rains are produced, which fall upon BEFORE proceeding further with these prefixes we may now expose the volcanic dust on the sides of the mountain, and form a current of mud called by the Italians "lava d' aqua," or aqueous lava, an enemy much more dreaded than a stream of melted lava. It is disputed by some geologists whether it was not by such a flood of volcanic mud, rather than by volcanic showers, that Pompeii was destroyed. This, her, is only mud on the surface of volcances. It is generally thought that words have severa disconnected significations. Several significations many words. have, but these significations are all allied one with another. And they are allied one with another in such a way that a genealogical connexion runs through them all. I mean that the second ensues from the first, and conducts to the third. The meanings of words In some volcanic districts mud is found to ooze occasionally flow from a common source like the waters of a brook. That from the ground. Near Laureana in Calabria, the swampy common source, or parent-signification, is, in all cases, one that soil of two ravines became filled with calcareous matter, which denotes some object of sense, for objects of sense were named oozed out of their respective sides just before the shock of an before other objects. Our first duty then is to ascertain the physiearthquake was felt in that district. This mud flowing down- cal meaning of a word. From that meaning the other meanings ward from both ravines, at last became united, formed one flow as by natural derivation. Those secondary or derivative stream, increased in force, and was a mud river 225 feet wide significations then can scarcely be termed meanings; they are not and 15 feet deep. In its progress it overflowed a flock of goats, so much meanings as modifications of the primary import of the and tore up trees, which it carried on its bosom like the masts root. Certainly they are not independent significations Thus of small boats. When the mud became dry it was reduced in viewed, words have not two or more senses, but in the several cases depth to about seven feet, and it was found to contain frag-the one sense is varied and modified. Even in instances in which opposite meanings are connected with the same word, the filiation may be traced, as both Jacob and Esau sprang from the same stock. I will take an example in the word prevent, Prevent means both to guide and to hinder, to lead to, and to debar from. The opposition is sufficiently decided. Yet these two opposed meanings are only modifications of the root-sense of the word. First I will exhibit the diversity and then explain it. Prevent, signifying to guide, aid forward: ments of earth of iron colour. I have now to call your attention to a real mud volcano, as represented by Von Humboldt, see fig. 21. Near Carthagena, in New Grenada, South America, there is a high hill called Popa. To the south-west of this hill there is a village district called Turbaco. In the midst of a thicket of palms is a marshy ground called Los Volcancitos. The tradition of the inhabitants is, that this ground was once all in flames, but that the fire had been extinguished by a monk who sprinkled the place with holy water. Since then the fire volcano has become a watery one. The volcancitos are about 15 or 20 in number, stand in cones from 19 to 25 feet high, and measure around their bases from 78 to 85 feet each. On the top of each of these volcancitos is an aperture or depression from 15 to 30 inches in diameter, and filled with water, through which air-bubbles are constantly escaping, as seen in fig. 21. In other parts of the ground there are apertures for such escape of air, but which are not surrounded by cones. The cones have, no doubt, been raised by the clayey mud contained in the fluids, and the dull sound, which precedes every ebullition in the water of the cone, indicates that the ground is hollow. It seems that each crater receives its supply of air and gas from separate channels. These little craters are always filled with water, even in the driest seasons. The temperature of the water is not higher than that of the atmosphere. These mud volcanoes originate with earthquakes, and their rise is accompanied with subterranean detonations and with jets of flame. Their diminished action supplies us with a specimen of the perpetual though subdued activity of the interior of the earth. The muddy water seems at the first obullition to have been of a high temperature, but afterwards the temperature becomes lower. This fact implies that the vents, which at first communicated with deep-lying strata of great heat, have, by some means, become obstructed or choked up, and that the vents of the cooler water do not rise from any great depth below the surface. These mud volcanoes are found in different parts of the globe. In the Caspian Sea, on the peninsula of Abscheron, is situated the mud volcano of Jokmali. It was formed November 27, 1827. At first flames sprang up from the soil, and Caret. "Where our prevention ends, danger begins." either stop or moderation, must needs exhaust his spirits."-Reliq. "Which though it be a natural preventive to some evils, yet without Wottonianae. "Physick is either curative or preventive; preventive we call that which preventeth sickness in the healthy."-Brown, "Vulgar Errors." "Prevent us, O Lord, by thy grace," means "aid us forward." "Preventive of sickness," signifies that which causes sickness not to come. There is the contrariety. Now for the explanation. Prevent is made up of two Latin words,-namely, prae, before, and venio, I come or go. Now, you may go before a person for two opposite purposes. You may go before him in order to guide, aid, and conduct him onward; or you may go before him to bar up his way, to hold him back, to prevent his advance. And as either of these two purposes is prominent in the mind of the speaker, so the word is used by him to signify, to guide, or to hinder. The proper meaning, then, of prevent is, to come before: hence, 1, to guide, or, as a natural consequence, 2, to aid; or again, i, to obstruct, and as a natural consequence, 2, to stop, &c. And how the moral and spiritual imports come out of the physical, is also seen in the diverse applications of the word; for, as we have just read of preventive medicine, so in divinity you may read of "prevenient grace." These remarks, illustrations of which occur in what has just preceded, and will occur in what is about to follow, may serve to show you that language must be studied genealogically. Indeed every word has a history; and in the dictionaries, every account E, of Latin, or rather Greek origin, in the forms e, ef, ex, denotes out of, as in egress (e and gradior, Lat. I walk), a walking out; excess (ex and cedo, Lat. I go), a going beyond, that is, too far; effect (ef and facio, Lat. I do), a thing made out, produced; a esult. that a disease is in-born, native to the soil; epidemic that it is very Thy worth, thy life, but he that hath liv'd so." Donne. Equi, of Latin origin (aequus, equal), denoting equality, forms part of several words; as, equipoise (equi and peser, Fr. to weigh; pendere, Lat. to hang), equity; equivocal (equi and vox, Lat. a voice). "Faith-here's an equivocator that could swear in both the scales E. "All occasions must be taken of sending forth pious heavenly against either scale; who committed treason enough in God's sake, yet ejaculations to God."-Bishop Hall. could not equivocate to heaven; oh, come in equivocator."-Shaks Ex. The ecolesiastical courts possessed the power of pronounc-peare, " Macbeth." ing excommunication; and that sentence, besides the spiritual consequences supposed to follow from it, was attended with immediate effects of The person excommunicated was shunned the most important nature. by every one as profane and impious; and his whole estate, during his lifetime, and all his moveables, forever were forfeited to the crown."-Hume, "History of England." Ef." Two white sparry incrustations, with efflorescencies in form of shrubs, formed by the trickling of water."--Woodward," On Fossils." En is a prefix found in the English, the French, and the Greek languages. Into the English it appears to have come from the Latin, through the French. Many words of Latin origin have passed through the French into the English. En is the form in Greek. In Latin, en becomes in. In French both en and in are used. The same is the case with the English. Though en and in are the same particle, it may be advisable to handle them separately, in order that their respective usages may become apparent. En is found in the forms en, em. The prefix signifies in or into. e. g., Es, of French origin (Lat. e, ex), is in English found in words borrowed from the French, as in escalade (es and scala, Lat. « ladder), a scaling (of a city), escape (Fr. eschapper, to get away), escheat (Fr. escheoir, to fall due), a forfeit, eschew (Fr. eschever, to shun), escutcheon (es and scutum, Lat. a shield). "Hence without blushing (say whate'er we can) Cawthorn. Eu, of Greek origin, signifying well, occurs in euphony (eu and phoné, Gr. a sound), euthanasia (eu and thanatos, Gr. death), a happy death; the eu in eunuch is a part of the word; eunuch being from euné, in Greek, a bed; eunuchs were chamberlains. Men were made eunuchs by the jealousy of Eastern despots. They were also made so, in order to give them a contro-alto voice. The latter fact is well alluded to in this quotation: "Our present writers, for the most part, seem to lay the whole stress in their endeavours upon the harmony of words; but then, like eunuchs, "He (Samson) rises and carries away the gates wherein they thought they sacrifice their manhood for a voice, and reduce our poetry to be like to have encaged him."--Bishop Hall. echo, nothing but a sound."-Lansdown, "Peleus and Thetis." Ever, of Saxon origin, signifying always, is seen in everlasting, So in encamp, encase, enchain, enchant, enclose (or inclose), endenic (en and demos, Gr. a people), peculiar to a district. En evermore; evermore appears in the older writers as evermo. sometimes has an intensive or augmentive effect on the verb of "I shall readily grant that the words for ever and ever-lasting do not which it forms a part; as in encourage, enfeeble, enkindle (candle), always, in Scripture, signify an endless duration."-Barrow," Sermous." encrease (increase), encumber (incumber, from the French enExtra, of Latin origin, with the meaning out of, appears in combre, Lat, cumulus, a heap). extraneous, out of (not belonging to) the subject; extraordinary extra and ordo, Lat. order), out of the usual order. Encumber'd soon with many a painful wound, Rowe, "Pharsalia." There is a tendency to substitute i for e in many words. This tendency deserves encouragement, if only for the sake of uniformity. Enter, coming from the Latin (intra, within) through the French (entre, between, among), is found in enterprise (enter and Fr. prendre, Lat. prehendere, to take, to take hold of), an undertaking; also in enterment (in and terra, Lat. the earth), now more common as interment. It is found also in entertain (Fr. entretenir, Lat. inter and tenere, to hold). "His office was to give entertainment And lodging unto all that came and went, Not unto such as could him feast againe, And double quite for that he on them spent ; But such as want of harbour did constraine, Epi, a prefix of Greek origin, signifying upon, as epidemic, upon or ove: (widely spread over) a people. Endemic declares For, of Saxon origin, whose original is probably found in the German ver, which denies and reverses the action expressed in the verb, occurs in forbid (not to bid, that is to bid not). "Rather how hast thou yielded to transgress The sacred fruit forbidd'n." Milton, " Paradise Lost." Fore, a different word from the preceding, of Saxon origin (vor, Germ. in advance; vorwarts, Germ. forwards), appears in foretell, forecast, forefathers, forehead. "The foreknower is not the cause of all that are foreknown."-Hammond. In forgive (Germ. vergeben), the idea seems to be that of giving away, giving without a return, giving freely, and hence to pardon (Fr. pardonner; in low Lat. perdonare). Cowper. "Not soon provoked, however stung and teased, And if perhaps made angry, socn appeased; She rather waves, than will dispute her right, And injured makes forgiveness her delight." Hept, of Greek origin (hepta, seven), forms the first syllable of heptagon (Gr. gonia, an angle), that which has seven angles, and consequently seven sides; and heptarchy, a seven-fold govern ment. "Seven independent thrones, the Saxon heptarchy, were founded by the conquerors.”—Gibbon. LESSONS IN BOTANY.-No. XI. CLASS XIV.-DIDYNAMIA. Plants bearing flowers with Four Stamens, of which the two outer are longer than the rest. IN this class there are two orders :-I. GYMNOSPERMIA. Seeds naked, never more than four. II. ANGIOSPERMIA. Seeds in a capsule. ORDER I. GYMNOSPERMIA. they emit when spring comes, is scarcely sensible. The ground-ivy may be easily recognised by one peculiarity: its flowers grow in threes between the stalk and the leaf. Few animals, except impelled by hunger, will touch this plant, and to horses it is said to be injurious. The white dead-nettle, or white archangel, stands about a foot high, its stems being covered with short deflected hairs; the leaves are veiny and hairy, and the flowers, which appear in May and June, large, white, and hairy; but individual flowers may be procured at all seasons. The plant grows among rubbish, and by hedges, walls, and road-sides. It is something like the true nettle, but its rings of white flowers at once distinguish it, as the blosodour; but it is said to be used as a table-vegetable in Sweden. soms of the true nettles are all green. It has a very disagreeable There is a variety with purple flowers and spotted leaves, called the spotted dead-nettle; and besides this, there is the red, the cutleaved, and the hen-bit dead-nettle. Seeds naked, never more than four. The common bugle is so hardy a plant that its blue blossoms will sometimes venture to unfold themselves amidst the dreariness of January, though not with the vigour of a more genial season. In May it may readily be found in woods and moist pastures, and varies with a pale lilac or even white blossom. The stem is erect, but the creeping shoots issuing from it distinguish the species, Among the old names of this plant is that of the sicklewort, or Of the hemp-nettle there are several kinds. The red hempcarpenter's herb; it being supposed that when the labourer or the nettle has a stem about a foot high, with opposite branches; its roseworkman was cut by a sickle or any other sharp instrument, the coloured flowers, spotted with crimson and white, and growing in plant would tend to heal the wound. In France they associated dense whorls, and appearing in August and September. The plant The pale yellow with it another plant as similarly efficacious: "He needs neither grows in gravelly fields, and among rubbish. physician nor surgeon who hath bugle and sanicle." But the proflowers, with a large, cleft, upper-lip, or the downy-hemp nettle, verb of our continental neighbours is wrong, as the latter flower is are found in sandy corn-fields in July and August. The common absolutely injurious. There are three other species of the bugle: hemp-nettle, growing in cultivated grounds, hedges, and waste the pyramidal bugle, growing in dry heathy pastures in the high- places, has flowers in June and July, with a purple upper-lip, and lands of Scotland, and flowering in June; the Alpine bugle, a nearly equal three-lobed lower one, variegated with white and growing on mountains in Carnarvonshire, Derbyshire, and Dur-purple; while in the latter month, the large-flowered hempham, and flowering in July; and the yellow bugle, which flowers nettle, with its yellow corolla, grows among corn. in April and May, and grows in sandy fields in England. The latter is often called the ground pine, and is not uncommon in Kent and Surrey. The stem of the wood germander is about a foot and a half high, the leaves are wrinkled, and the corolla of a pale yellow. The plant grows in woods, and also in the clefts of rocks and among rubbish, and flowers in July. So bitter is the whole plant, that it is said it might be used instead of hops, in making beer. Very bitter also is the water germander, with its branched stems, its hoary leaves, and its pale-purple corolla. It grows in wet meadows, and flowers in July and August. Nor less bitter is the wall germander. Its stems are nearly erect, about a foot high, with rounded corners, leaves fringed, and crimson flowers. This plant grows on old buildings, and flowers in July. In July and August the flowers of the common cat-mint may be observed in hedges and waste places growing in spikes. They are white, and have the lower lip dotted with crimson. The leaves are stalked, and heart-shaped; the stems are two or three feet high; and the whole plant is soft and downy. Of its smell cats are extravagantly fond. Whorls of six dull-red flowers, appearing in July and August, adorn the hedge woundwort, which grows among rubbish and by hedge-walls, and sometimes rises to the height of three feet, with leaves veined and hairy. The hair or down of this and other plants serves to protect them from heat and cold, and is also of use state that one species of wild bee knew what materials would slowly to some insects. Kirby and Spence, the eminent entomologists, conduct heat long before the celebrated experiments made as to them by Count Rumford. It goes to the species called the downy woundwort, and to plants of similar structure, scraping off the wool, rolling it into a ball, and then sticking it to the plaster that covers its cells. This plant grows in hedges and by roadsides; its stems are two feet high, and its corolla of a light purple. We have altogether six native species of woundwort: the name applied to them being descriptive of the healing power which they were supposed to have. Gerard mentions applying the marsh woundwort in more than one instance with good effect. ORDER II. ANGIOSPERMIA. There are no fewer than seven species of broom-rape. The greater broom-rape grows on gravelly soil, on the roots of broom and furze. Its stem, about a foot high, is erect, dusky, fleshy, covered with short glandular, hairs, and scattered lance-shaped erect scales. It has a spike of about twenty flowers, with a purplish-brown corolla, which appears in June and July. The broomrape looks at a glance like a withered plant. Of mint, a different plant, there are not fewer than ten kinds. Horse-mint grows in moist, waste ground, and has pale purple flowers in August and September. The spear-mint is so called on account of its leaf being narrower, and more like a spear or spike than the other varieties. It grows in watery places. Its stems are two or three feet high; its whorls of pale purple flowers appear in August. Peppermint is said by the French botanists to have been One of the most elegant and showy of our native plants is the found only in this country. It has a smooth purple stalk, and foxglove. Its numerous large, pendulous, crimson flowers, or purple flowers which appear in August and September. This plant elegantly-mottled bells, and hairy within, appear in dry hilly pascannot be mistaken, from its penetrating smell, and more pungent tures, on the steep banks of rivers, and in rocky and other places, glowing taste, sinking, as it were, on the tongue, which is followed in June and July. The leaves, when carefully dried and powdered, by a very agreeable sensation of coldness. The distilled water and or made into an infusion or a tincture, is used in medicine. It is essential oil of peppermint are used in a variety of cordial and dangerous when used ignorantly, but in small and repeated doses medicinal preparations. Pennyroyal was likewise considered very it is very useful, lowering the pulse in an extraordinary manner. effective. Gerard says, "If this herb be dried and taken to sea it will Many an artist has selected this showy plant as a special ornament purify corrupt water without hurting those who drink it." It has to his picture. been regarded as very useful when water is not good, on land. The old herbalist describes it also as a valuable medicine. This plant grows in moist heaths and pastures in England, and the south of Ireland; has a light purple corolla, externally hairy, and flowers in September. One plant has been thus poetically and graphically described :- Its anther's cross-like form of white." Ground-ivy grows by old walls, hedges, and road-sides, and flowers in April and May, but frequently before these months, the leaves may be found clustering, though the aromatic odour which Six kinds of it are well known to botanists. The flowers of the The toad-flax, like many other plants, partakes of great variety. ivy-leaved toad-flax, of a pale purple with a small portion of yellow, appear from May to November, growing on old walls. The stems of the plant are round, smooth, and leafy; the leaves alternate, stalked, and shining. It is often hung up in a flowerpot from the ceiling of a cottage, while the long stems hang down all around it. In hedges and on the borders of cornfields, a stem may be frequently observed in August and September, with large sulphur-coloured blossoms; it is the yellow toad-flax. Its hue leads country people to call it "butter and eggs:" while the foliage of the plant has on it that seagreen bloom which is known as the glaucous tint. |