SUMMER WINDS. Up the dale and down the bourne, O'er the meadows swift we fly; Now we sing, and now we mourn, Now we whistle, now we sigh. By the glassy, fringed river, Through the murmuring reeds we sweep; 'Mid the lily-leaves we quiver, To their very hearts we creep. Now the maiden rose is blushing Through the blooming groves we rustle, Down the glen, across the mountain, Bending down the weeping willows, There of idlenesses dreaming, G. DARLEY. THE HOLLY-TREE. O READER! hast thou ever stood to see The eye that contemplates it well, perceives Order'd by an intelligence, so wise As might confound the Atheist's sophistries. Below a circling fence its leaves are seen, No grazing cattle through their prickly round But as they grow where nothing is to fear, I love to view these things with curious eyes, And moralize : And in this wisdom of the Holly-tree Can emblems see, Wherewith perchance to make a pleasant rhyme, One which may profit in the after-time. Thus, though abroad perchance I might appear Harsh and austere, To those who on my leisure would intrude Reserv'd and rude; Gentle at home amid my friends I'd be, Like the high leaves upon the Holly-tree. And should my youth, as youth is apt, I know, Some harshness show, All vain asperities I day by day Would wear away, Till the smooth temper of my age should be And as when all the Summer trees are seen The Holly-leaves their fadeless hues display But when the bare and wintry woods we see, So serious should my youth appear among So would I seem amid the young and gay That in my age as cheerful I might be SOUTHEY. The Common Holly, Ilex Aquifolium, has long been esteemed for its great beauty, glittering,' as Evelyn observes, "with its armed and varnished leaves, and blushing with its natural coral." This and other evergreens have for ages been used to decorate and enliven our houses and churches, during the dreary season between Christmas and Candlemas. The lower leaves of this plant are wavy, strongly armed with spines, while the upper ones are entire, terminated with a single prickle. This difference in the foliage has been pleasingly noticed by our Poet, Southey, in the above delightful poem.-The uses of prickles in shrubs are thus enumerated by the excellent John Ray."To secure them from the browsing of beasts, as also to shelter others that grow under them. Moreover, they are hereby rendered useful to man, as if designed by Nature, to make both quick and dead hedges." The uses, which Pliny notes, are, "Lest the greedy quadruped should browse upon them, the hand wantonly seize them, the careless footstep tread upon them, or the perching bird break them."-Nat. Hist., xxii. 6. The benevolent Grahame adds another great use of thorny shrubs, which these naturalists have omitted,-it is this, they protect the small birds from the attacks of their stronger neighbours. SWEET-SCENTED FLOWERS. Go mingle Arabia's gums Go With the spices all India yields: Let Pæstum's all-flowery groves Go catch the light zephyr that roves Where the wild thyme and marjoram grow. Let every pale night-scented flower, To enhance the rich breath of the morn. All that art, or that nature can find, THE BARN OWL. WHILE moonlight, silvering all the walls, The little beast within his stretch Then starts,—and seizes on the wretch ! BUTLER. "If this useful bird, Strix Flammea," says Mr. Waterton, "caught its food by day, instead of hunting for it at night, mankind would have ocular demonstration of its utility in thinning the country of mice, and it would be protected and encouraged everywhere. It would be with us what the Ibis was with the Egyptians."-Mag. of Nat. Hist., vol. 5. It has obtained the name of the Screech Owl from its cries, which are repeated at intervals, and rendered loud and frightful from the stillness of the night. It is on this account considered among the superstitious a bird of unwelcome omen. Shakspeare observes, It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Macbeth, iv. 2. Mallet, in his Edwin and Emma, prettily introduces it : Now homeward, as she hopeless went, The blast blew cold, the dark owl scream'd WOODLAND SCENERY. His task had Giles, in fields remote from home; |