the remaining twenty letters are called consonants, because they cannot be distinctly sounded unless a vowel be added to them.

But to return to the parts of speech. The word Noun is derived from the Latin word nomen, which means a name. Hence we describe a noun as signifying the name whether of person, place, thing, or quality; the name of anything which can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, felt or understood; anything which we can think of or speak about: I will give examples.

NAMES OF THE NOUNS.

Of Persons, as William, George, Mary, Sarah, Mr. Davis, Mrs. Price.

Of Places, as Kensington, France, Spain, Cambridge, India. Of Things, as a knife, a fork, a plate, a dish, a boat, a ship. Of Qualities, as sharpness, bluntness, brittleness, whiteness, swiftness.

Of Objects which can be seen, as a horse, the moon, the sun, the stars, a procession, a spade, a rake, a hoe, lightning. Of Things that can be heard, as thunder, music, bellowing, barking, braying, singing, sound, noise.

Of Things that can be smelt, as a stink, stench, odour, fragrance, perfume.

Of Things that can be tasted, as acids, sweets.

Of Things that can be felt, as heat, cold, pain, pleasure, grief, joy, sickness, death.

Of Things that can be thought of or talked about, either real or imaginary, as a friend, a foe, a frost, a fog, a failure, a blight, a plague, the crops, peace, plenty, the war, famine, industry, charity, religion, eternity. The characteristic of the noun is this-it gives of itself a distinct idea or object of thought-thus, of the words from, horse, just, alas, she, defy, and cannon, the only ones that present a picture to the "mind's eye" are horse and cannon, these, therefore, are called nouns, but the others do not belong to this class.

There are various kinds of nouns. In the sentence "Horse is an animal," animal is a comprehensive term or the genus including the species horse; animal is therefore a generic, and horse a specific noun. There are also other divisions of nouns :-Nouns of multitude, as an army, navy, class, tribes, societies, communities, herds, flocks, the laity, the clergy, are also called collective, because any of them conveys to the mind the idea of many; Derivative nouns, or nouns which are derived from other nouns, as the word citizen from city, Roman from Rome, artist from art; Verbal nouns, or

nouns derived from verbs, as learning from the verb to learn, walking from the verb to walk, leaping from the verb to leap, printing from the verb to print. Compound nouns, as school-girl, horse-man, pen-knife, are so designated because every such noun is composed of two or more words. Nouns are generally divided by grammarians into proper and common. Proper nouns are such as are applied to individual persons or things only, such as Dublin, Ireland, Victoria. Common nouns are applicable to whole classes of persons or objects, as city, island, queen. A noun may in general be distinguished by making sense of itself, as a book, the sun, an apple, temperance, industry, chastity.

To nouns belong gender, number, and case, and they are all of the third person when spoken of, and of the second when spoken to, as "Blessings attend us on every side; be grateful children of men!" that is, ye children of men. Gender is the distinction of nouns with regard to sex. There are three genders, the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter. The masculine gender denotes animals of the male kind, as a man, a cock, a bull. The feminine gender signifies animals of the female kind, as a woman, a hen, a cow. The neuter gender denotes objects which are neither males nor females, as a field, a house, a garden. Some substances naturally neuter are, by a figure of speech, converted into the masculine or feminine gender, as when we say of the sun he is rising, and of a ship she sails well.

Son. Lindley Murray says that the masculine gender is commonly given to nouns which are conspicuous for the attributes of containing or bringing forth, or which are peculiarly beautiful and amiable. Upon these principles the sun is said to be masculine; and the moon, being the receptacle of the sun's light, to be feminine. The earth is generally feminine. A ship, a country, a city, are likewise made feminine, being receivers or containers. Time is always masculine, on account of its mighty efficacy. Virtue is feminine, from its beauty and its being the object of love. Fortune and the Church are generally put in the feminine. Nouns are of two numbers, the singular and the plural. The singular number expresses but one object, as a chair, a table. as a chair, a table. The plural number signifies more objects than one, as chairs, tables. Some nouns, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the singular form, as wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride; and others are used as plural numbers only, as bellows, scissors, snuffers, tongs, ashes, riches, spectacles, cattle, victuals, &c. Some words are the same in both numbers, as deer, sheep, swine. Some nouns, when used in a plural sense do not take a plural form, as ancestry, nobility,

community, gentry, &c. Nouns ending in any of the five following terminations s, sh, ch (when pronounced soft), x, and o (when preceded by a consonant), form their plural by adding es to the singular-thus, brush, brushes; church, churches; box, boxes; hero, heroes; when ch is pronounced hard, and when o is preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by adding s; thus, monarch, monarchs; folio, folios. When a noun ending in y is to be formed into the plural, s is added if the y is preceded by a vowel; but if a consonant goes before the y, then the y is changed into ies; thus in boy there is a vowel before the y, we therefore add s, boys; but in duty there is a consonant before the y, the plural therefore is duties. Nouns ending in for fe generally form the plural by changing the for fe into ves, thus, leaf, leaves; knife, knives. Nouns derived from dead or foreign tongues for the most part retain their original plurals: thus from the Latin we have

As a preface to the study of Geology, I will read to you a communication which was published in the Gardener's Journal on Christmas- day 1847, and which was written by my friend Mr. John Spencer, gardener to the Marquis of Landsdown, Bowood.

"Whilst the various items that compose the education of gardeners are rapidly extending themselves, the study of the science of geology does not appear to have been sufficiently insisted on, and yet there are so many important points in it necessary for a gardener to become acquainted with, that I have no hesitation in affirming geology ought to be studied as an integral part of a gardener's acquirements. In this light, a practical knowledge of the science is considered indispensable to the education of the engineer and the agriculturist -and what can gardening be considered but an epitome of both sciences combined? Still we find but few gardeners know anything of its laws, or even its elementary principles. Yet the capabilities of soils, and their various modifications, may be

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traced to their geological position; hence, independently of its merits as an inductive science, and as upholding to us the harmony and union which has ever characterised Creative Wisdom, I must beg to claim for it in its practical adaptation to our daily wants, and the great assistance it will afford us in carrying on outdoor operations, a place alongside of physiology and chemistry, in the education of those gardeners who wish to become acquainted with the most useful auxiliaries of their future success.

My principal object is to draw the notice of young gardeners to its importance, and to the intimate connection that exists between a knowledge of the various qualities of soils, and their most extended and successful cultivation.

Neither space nor time will permit me going into detail in the present paper; I may, however, mention as an illustration of these remarks, the operation of draining (become so all-important of late), which can never be successfully undertaken without a certain acquaintance with geological laws. In the course of my own experience I have seen hundreds of pounds expended fruitlessly in draining, when a few lessons in geology would have prevented the outlay, or rather remedied the evil. Again, stones, either for building purposes or road-making, well-sinking, the formation of lakes and ponds, and in fact all operations connected with the removal of earth and the formation of new groundwork, may be mentioned as requiring some geological knowledge-or, at any rate, this knowledge would greatly assist to their successful prosecution."

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The foregoing advice, given by Mr. Spencer, whom I have known for more than twenty years, and who is an example in himself how, by perseverance and intelligence, a young man attain to eminence and become an ornament to his profession, has induced me to give you some lessons on the subject. All I require is your attention, when I am sure the subject will unfold itself in a manner to excite your curiosity to know more and more of the magnitude and sublimity of the objects of which it treats. Every step we take in this new path of discovery opens more extended views, and produces more exalted conceptions of the power, wisdom, and prescience of the great Author of nature; whether we consider the magnificence of the objects presented to the mind, or their admirable arrangement for benificent and often very remote consequences. Indeed, those who, prompted by a healthful and rational curiosity, consult the great volume of nature which the Creator has laid open to our inspection, must prepare their minds for the most astounding announcements, as every page is replete with wonders, surpassing fable, and yet true

of which geology alone affords innumerable instances. In the history of human events, we read the occurences of a few thousand years-geology reveals the records of a long succession of ages which it has pleased the Divine Author of nature should precede the creation of man; during which, operations were going on which effected great changes in the physical condition of our planet, and in both vegetable and animal existence; changes which, there can be no doubt, in the prescience of the Divine mind, were providentially preordained for the existence and accomodation of the present inhabitants of the earth, and especially for man, the last and noblest work of Creative wisdom.

When we contemplate the magnificent spectacle which the surface of the earth exhibits to our view-its investing mantles of air and water, its continents and islands diversified with mountains, hills, rocks, valleys, and plains, covered for the most part with an abundant and beautiful vegetation, affording support and the means of enjoyment to an almost endless variety of living things, from the enormous whale and bulky elephant to innumerable tribes of insects and animalculæ, discoverable only by the most powerful glasses, which appear to succeed each other in a constant order of successive generations from the earliest period of recorded time, we may well suppose that we behold in the vast inanimate masses the character of unchangeable stability and duration, and in their living inhabitants the limits on our globe of Creative wisdom and beneficence. These impressions will, however, soon be removed by an attentive and searching inspection for when we penetrate beneath the present lifesustaining surface of the strata (layers or beds of rock), we are soon convinced that what we had hitherto regarded as an unchangeable condition of things, presents only the last chapter of a most eventful history, and that these strata of which the surface of the earth is principally composed are so many monuments of its past history, on which are recorded in unmistakeable characters successive changes of the relative position of land and sea, and corresponding mutations in living forms which now no longer exist; whose remains are entombed in the strata, and are so numerous as to constitute a very large portion, and, in some instances, almost their entire mass. From these remains we learn that our globe has been peopled at very remote periods by numerous races of animals, and covered by plants differing widely from those which now occupy its surface; that each of these races, after continuing for awhile, has gradually disappeared and given place to others. The greater part of those animals whose remains have been handed down to us were shell-fish and