the last mentioned, in spring, or in autumn; they will require shelter from hard frost. The two last may also be increased by parting the roots in autumn. The common-yellow is an indigenous plant, and if in a tolerably dry soil, will bear frost itself: a little straw over the roots will suffice for 8. In Worcestershire the common yellow toadflax is called butter-and-eggs. It has leaves somewhat similar to flax, and on that account is named toad-flax, flax-weed, and wild flax. Its juice, mixed with milk, is used as a poison for flies; and water distilled from it is said to remove inflammation in the

eyes.

11, 12, may be increased by cuttings, planted in the summer in a light unmanured soil. They must be removed into the house in October, and brought out again about the end of April, or early in May.

ARBOR-VITÆ.

THUJA.

CONIFERE.

MONECIA ADELPHIA.

The origin of this name, which signifies the tree of life, does not appear, though it seems to have reference to the tree mentioned in the book of Genesis.—French, l'arbre de vie ; cedre Americain [American cedar].-Italian, albero di vita; tuja.

THE Arbor-vitæ is a native of Siberia and Canada, where it is very plentiful. Being the strongest wood in Canada, it is there used for enclosures and palisades, for boats, and the floors of rooms. It is reckoned one of the best woods for the use of the lime-kiln; and besoms made of its branches are carried over Canada by the Indians for sale. When fresh, they have a very agreeable scent, which is perceptible in houses swept with them. The leaves have medicinal properties. In England the wood is used for bowls, boxes, cups, &c.

This tree is sometimes called the white cedar. It be

gins to flower about May. A young plant may be procured from a nursery as soon as its education is so far advanced that it may be introduced to the world with propriety. It will thrive well in a pot for many years: but the best species for this purpose is the Chinese Arbor-vitæ, which does not grow too large for a pot. It will bear our climate in all its seasons, only requiring to be watered occasionally in dry weather.

Thunberg speaks in very warm terms of admiration of a species of Thuja which he found common in Japan. "One of the handsomest and largest trees," says he, "was the superb and incomparable Thuja dolabrata, which was planted every where by the road side. I consider this tree as the handsomest of all the fir-leaved trees, on account of its height, its straight trunk, and its leaves, which are constantly green on the upper, and of a silver-white hue on the under part. As I did not find it in flower here, nor any of its cones with ripe seed in them, I therefore used my endeavours to procure, through the interpreters and others of my friends, a few seeds and growing plants of it, which I afterwards sent to Holland by the first conveyance*."

According to this author's account, the tree he speaks of appears worthy to have inherited its ancestor's station in paradise. That ancestor, however, was a very different tree from the one which now bears the title. The original tree of life is described by Milton:

His far more pleasant garden God ordained;
Out of the fertile ground he caused to grow
All trees of noblest kind for sight, smell, taste;

And all amid them stood the tree of life,
High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit

* Thunberg's Travels, vol. iii. p. 160.

D

Of vegetable gold; and next to life,

Our death, the tree of knowledge, grew fast by,
Knowledge of good bought dear by knowing ill."

Spenser differs in his description of the tree of life: let the reader judge between them. Certainly the fruit now called the forbidden fruit best agrees with Milton's description. It is about the size of a cocoa-nut, shape of an orange, and the colour of a lemon. Spenser makes the fruit an apple :

"There grew a goodly tree him fair beside,
Loaden with fruit, and apples rosy red,
As they in pure vermilion had been dide,
Whereof great vertues over all were read;
For happy life for all which thereon fed,
And life eke everlasting did befall:

Great God it planted in that blessed sted
With his almighty hand, and did it call

The Tree of Life, the crime of our first father's fall.

"In all the world like was not to be found,

Save in that soil, where all good things did grow,
And freely sprong out of the grateful ground,

As uncorrupted nature did them sow,
Till that dread dragon all did overthrow.
Another like fair tree eke grew thereby,

Whereof whoso did eat, eftsoons did know
Both good and ill: O mournful memory!

That tree through one man's fault hath done us all to die.

"From that first tree forth flowed, as from a well,

A trickling stream of balm, most sovereign
And dainty dear, which on the ground still fell,
And overflowed all the fertile plain,

As it had dewed been with timely rain:

Life and long health that gracious ointment gave,
And deadly wounds could heal, and rear again
The senseless corse appointed for the grave."

FAIRY QUEEN, b. i. c. 2.

ERICINEÆ.

ARBUTUS.

DECANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Strawberry-tree.-French, le fraisier en arbre, l'arbre à fraises, both similar to the common English name: the fruit is called arbouse, arboise, or arboust.—Italian, arbuto, albatro, albaro, corbezzolo, from the fruit called corbezzola. By Pliny the fruit is called unedo; because it is so bitter that one only can be eaten at a time.

THIS is called the strawberry-tree, from the resemblance of its fruit to a strawberry. Although it attains a considerable size, it is frequently grown in pots, and will bear transplanting very well. For this operation, April is the most favourable time; the cultivator taking care to preserve the earth about the roots, and to shade them from the mid-day sun, when newly planted.

As the leaves of the Arbutus remain all the winter, and in spring are pushed off by the shooting of new ones, the tree is always clothed. In June the young leaves are extremely beautiful; in October and November it is one of the most ornamental trees we have; the blossoms of the present, and the ripe fruit of the former year, both adorning it at the same time. There is an Arbutus now in the garden (in October) before my window, more lovely than I can find language to express. When other trees are losing their beauty, this is in its fullest perfection; and realises the exuberant fiction of the poets,-bearing at once flowers and fruit :

"Co' fiori eterni eterno il frutto dura
E mentre spunta l'un, l'altro matura.

"Nel tronco istesso, e tra l'istessa foglia
Sovra il nascente fico invecchia il fico:
Pendono a un ramo, un con dorata spoglia,
L'altro con verde, il nuovo e'l pomo antico.
Lussureggiante serpe alto, e germoglia
La torta vite, ov' è più l'orto aprico:

Qui l'uva ha in fiori acerba, e qui d'or l'ave
E di piropo, e già di nettar grave."

TASSO, canto xvi. stanza 10 and 11.

"There is continual spring, and harvest there
Continual, both meeting at one time;
For both the boughs do laughing blossoms bear,
And with fresh colours deck the wanton prime,
And eke at once the heavy trees they climb,
Which seem to labour under their fruit's load:
The whiles the joyous birds make their pastime
Amongst the shady leaves, their sweet abode,
And their true loves without suspicion tell abroad."
SPENSER'S FAERIE QUEENE.

"Great Spring, before,

Greened all the year: and fruits and blossoms blushed
In social sweetness on the self-same bough.”

THOMSON'S SPRING.

"the leafy arbute spreads

A snow of blossoms, and on every bough
Its vermeil fruitage glitters to the sun."

ELTON.

This tree is a native of Greece, Palestine, and many other parts of Asia; of Ireland, and of many parts of the south of Europe. In Spain and Italy the country-people eat the fruit, which is said to have been a common article of food in the early ages. Virgil recommends the young twigs for goats in winter :

"Juheo frondentia capris

Arbuta sufficere."

It was used in basket-work :

"Arbuteæ crates, et mystica vannus Iacchi."

Arbutus and oak formed the bier of the young Pallas,

the son of Evander :

"Haud segnes alii crates et molle pheretrum

Arbuteis texunt virgis et vimine

querno,

Extructosque toros obtentu frondis inumbrant."

VIRGIL, ENEIS, lib. xi.