takes away from their natural aspect, except for the purpose of displaying the internal parts of some one or two of their flowers for ready observation.

"Dried specimens are best preserved by being fastened with weak carpenter's glue to paper, so that they may be turned over without damage. Thick and heavy stalks require the additional support of a few transverse slips of paper, to bind them more firmly down. A half sheet of a convenient size should be allotted to each species.

"One great and mortifying impediment to the perfect preservation of an herbarium, arises from the attacks of insects; to remedy this inconvenience, I have found a solution of corrosive sublimate of mercury in rectified spirits of wine, about two drachms to a pint, with a little camphor, perfectly efficacious, applied with a camel-hair pencil when the specimens are perfectly dry, not before; and if they are not too tender, it is best done before they are pasted, as the spirit extracts a yellow dye from many plants, and stains the paper. A few drops of this solution should be mixed with the glue used for pasting. The herbarium is best kept in a dry room, without a constant fire."

SIR JAMES EDWARD SMITH'S Introduction to Botany.

THE MARYGOLD.

WHEN with a serious musing, I behold
The grateful and obsequious marygold,
How duly, every morning, she displays
Her open breast when Phœbus spreads his rays;
How she observes him in his daily walk,

Still bending tow'rds him her small slender stalk;
How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns,
Bedewed as 'twere with tears, till he returns;
And how she veils her flowers when he is gone,
As if she scorned to be looked upon

By an inferior eye; or did contemn
To wait upon a meaner light than him :
When this I meditate, methinks the flowers
Have spirits far more generous than ours,
And give us fair examples to despise,
The servile fawnings and idolatries

Wherewith we court these earthly things below.
Which merit not the service we bestow.
But O, my God! though grovelling I appear
Upon the ground, and have a rooting here
Which hales me downward, yet in my desire
To that which is above me I aspire,
And all my best affections, I profess
To him that is the Sun of Righteousness.
Oh! keep the morning of his incarnation,
The burning noontide of his bitter passion,

The night of his descending, and the height
Of his ascension,-ever in my sight,
That imitating him in what I may,
I never follow an inferior way.

WITHERS.

TO THE CROCUS.

LOWLY, sprightly little flower!
Herald of a brighter bloom,

Bursting in a sunny hour,
From thy winter tomb.

Hues you bring, bright, gay, and tender,
As if never to decay;

Fleeting is their varied splendour,—
Soon, alas! it fades away.

Thus, the hopes I long had cherished,
Thus, the friends I long had known,
One by one, like you, have perished;
Blighted I must fade alone.

Belfast.

R. PATTERSON.

LE LODE DEGLI POMI.

L'ALMA, verde odorata e vaga pianta
Che fu trovata in ciel, che'l pome d'oro
Produsse, onde poi fu l'antica lite
Tra le celesti Dee, c'al terren d'Argo,
Partori mille affanni, e morte a Troia;
Quella ch'entr'ai giardin lieti e felici
Tra le ninfe d'Esperia in guardia avea
L'omicidial serpente; ond' a Perseo
Fu tanto avaro alfin l'antico Atlante,
Ch'ei divenne del ciel sostegno eterno
Dico il grallo limon, gli Auraci e i cedri,
Ch'entr'ai fini smeraldi, al caldo, al gielo
(Che primavera è loro ovunque saglia,
Ovunque ascenda il sol), pendenti e freschi
Ed acerbi e maturi an sempre i pomi
Ensieme i fior che'l gelsomino e'l giglio
Avanzan di color; l'odore è tale,
Che l'alma Cyterea se n'impie il seno,
Se n'Inghirlanda il Erin.

ALMANNI DEL. COL.

LINES TO A YOUNG LADY,

WITH VERSES ON A VARIETY OF FLOWERS.

SOME lines on many a garden flower,
And native wildling too, I send ;
Trifles like these assume a power

To please, when offered by a friend.

Flowers are the brightest things which earth
On her broad bosom loves to cherish;
Gay they appear as childhood's mirth,
Like fading dreams of hope they perish.

In every clime, in every age,

Mankind have felt their pleasing sway; And lays to them have decked the page Of moralist, and minstrel gay.

By them the lover tells his tale,

They can his hopes, his fears express; The maid, when words or looks would fail, Can thus a kind return confess.

They wreathe the harp at banquets tried, With them we crown the crested brave; They deck the maid-adorn the brideOr form the chaplets for her grave.