by the storms and rain; and rosa semper florens, in all its summer beauty. Even that very delicate plant, so particularly obnoxious to frost, the potatoe (springing from the remnants of the summer crop) retains its verdure. The forest trees are become deciduous by the common provisions and ordinations of nature, rather than from the cold of the season: some creatures have not yet retired to their rest, as is customary upon the approach of winter. The naked race of slugs (limax agrestis and l. flavus), on account of their viscous covering, are less obnoxious to cold, and are yet crawling about in numbers, or merely sheltered for the day behind some decayed vegetation. The earth-worm, which commonly retires beyond the penetration of the frost, is yet feeding near the surface, without any symptom of torpidity. But the snails, particularly helix pomatia and helix aspersa, being very sensible of cold (particularly the first species), had retired early, having discharged a slimy matter, which soon indurates to a horny hardness, and closes up the mouth of the shell: having no perspirable pores to admit the air, they endure our winters uninjured, behind the shelter of some stump or stone, where they adhere to each other in large bodies. During the whole of these seasons, though the rain poured down almost nightly and daily, yet, at intervals, a most lovely day appeared, in all its exhilarating splendour, the thermometer ranging from 62° to 70°: and all nature presented so cheering an aspect, that we forgot, for a time, the proverbial fickleness of our climate. The same ingenious correspondent, in a letter of last April (1822), says, Our greenhouse plants that were left in the borders have in great measure withstood, uninjured, the whole of our winter and spring months; and large succulent geraniums, in situations by no means remarkably favourable, have retained their foliage, and are now putting out their summer shoots with a vigour equal to those in the shelter of our greenhouse. Perhaps so mild a winter, and which this last circumstance particularly indicates, has not occurred for a great length of time. The year 1761 is mentioned, by old Peter Collinson, as being remarkably temperate: he says, "the autumnal flowers were not gone before spring began in December with aconites, snowdrops, polyanthuses, &c. and continued without any alloy of intervening sharp frosts all January, except two or three nights and mornings: a more delightful season could not be enjoyed in southern latitudes. In January and February my garden was covered with flowers."" The evergreen trees with their beautiful cones, such as firs and pines, are now particularly observed and valued. The oak, the beech, and the hornbeam, in part, retain their leaves, and the ash its keys. The common holly (ilex aquifolium), with its scarlet berries, is now conspicuous, as is the pyracanthus with its bunches or wreaths of fiery berries on its dark green thorny sprays; and those dwarfs of the vegetable creation, mosses, and the liverwort (lichen), now, as in the preceding month, attract our notice, and will amply repay the trouble of examination. The close of this month, and with it the close of the year, will ever afford subjects for serious, and, let us hope, for pleasing reflection. The contemplative man will naturally look around him, and view the surface of the earth so much changed in its aspect, and invested with a sickly and a deathlike character; —but in vain will he seek to discover into what secret recesses are retired those pleasing, and variegated, and multiplied forms, with which were so lately associated our hopes of plenty, our sensations of beauty and beneficence. Amidst all this change of form, this annual passing away, are there no traces of permanency to be found? Is there nothing (observes Mr. Gillespie) that meets our eye, or chal - lenges our reflection, of which it may be predicated that it remains unchanged in the midst of renewal and decay, that it is uninfluenced by season, that it is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever? Yes; those very laws by which the ever-recurring change is regulated are themselves UNALTERABLE. What occurs at this season, in the kingdoms of animated nature, has occurred of old, and will assuredly still continue to occur; and whilst individuals are continually perishing, the immortality of the race is perpetually maintained. The seeds of many plants, and the eggs of many insects, are now buried in the earth; but, the season of concealment over, and the influence of light and of heat again fully established, and we shall behold (only without surprise, because experience has made it familiar to us) the animal and vegetable kingdoms repeopled; the shell which incrusted and preserved the suspended energies of life, shall burst; and from the grave of the year shall assuredly reascend every tribe, and species, and variety of animation! The SEASONS; a Hymn. By Richard Ryan. Oft have I seen the laughing SPRING But Spring soon fled, and SUMMER then Was by her hand with verdure crowned. Sweet Summer too, alas! was doomed But Autumn's sun soon ceased to burn, Declared that WINTER and his Urn In viewless, icy car was nigh. When Winter came, the gorgeous sun Now sunk in Winter's joyless tomb. Thus blooming is life's early spring, Rich o'er my youthful cheeks doth breathe; And soon, to deck this gladsome brow, Autumn her holiest sweets will wreathe. Yet, ere dim Winter's gloomy birth, And quit this vain world for the tomb. That spans the world from pole to pole. At morning's light, LORD of all space, I'll praise thee, and at close of ev'n; Then lend me, LORD, some ray of grace, To light my trembling steps to Heav'n. Angus, W. 286 FOR 1823. ing, scarce in 1821, 203—in 1822, Birds eggs, variety of, 149 of prey, their rapacity, 154 Blights, cause of, xviii Blood, shower of, xliii Bloomfield, Rob. 145, note Annunciation of B. V. M. 63-feast Blossom in Feb., lines on, 53 of, at Rome, 63-65 Ant, Ivi Aphides, XXXV Aphis rosa, xxxvi Apparitions, belief in, 91-lines on, 92 fools, 89 Aries, described, 294 Ascension Day, 126 ASTRONOMICAL OCCURRENCES in Bats, utility of, 31 Bean, king of, 5 Bird of passage, lines on, 305 Birds, migration of, 303-307-con- Botany, remarks on, 184 British Insects, see Insects Burney, Rear-Admiral, 319 Butterfly, mazarine blue, xliv- Byron, Lord, 13 lxv peculiarity of this genus, Carling Sunday, 60 Eve, ceremonies on, at Naples, 339 persica, xxxvii Coleman's jubilee, 284 Coltsfoot, remarkable fact concern- gregating of, 308, 330-migrat-Conception of B. V. M. 336 |