"Oh! friendly to the best pursuits of man, Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace," are tastes and studies of this description, when cultivated as the amusement, not the business of life, and kept in due subserviency to higher and more useful pursuits. Botany appears to be peculiarly adapted to the study of ladies, as it tempts them to the enjoyment of air and exercise, which though the best friends to health and beauty, the most effectual remedies for nervousness and ennui, are yet very generally neglected by the flowers of the human race. It is a science, too, within the range of female acquirement, and is repugnant to neither humanity nor elegance. Entomology is cruel; mineralogy and geology difficult and laborious; conchology expensive; but botany is both cheap and easy, healthful and innocent, open to the pursuit of all, and requiring only just so much study and attention as may awaken interest, and occupy without wearying the mind. It is favourable, also, to the acquisition of habits of inquiry and observation, and sends the eye constantly abroad on expeditions of discovery. It is not a botanist "who can travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, all is barren;" on the contrary, wherever a blade of grass appears, he is on the watch for rarity or beauty, and seldom returns from a ramble without some novelty to relate, some treasure to display. We know there are those who assert that the Linnæan system of botany is unfit for the study of innocence and modesty; but the accusation is a reproach to the mind of him who makes it, and savours of the spirit which in heathen days polluted the festivals of Flora. Those only who were already immodest could have first suggested the idea; for, to the good and the pure, it sounds monstrous and unintelligible. But, "the putrid spider converts that to poison which the bee works to honey ;" and it is thus that man has, at different times, debased and injured all he has touched, and lowered the most glorious pursuits to the level of his own corruption. Music, fit amusement for angels, has ministered to voluptuousness; painting to the grossest impurity; poetry has forgotten its noble nature to sing of forbidden things; and even botany, a study which unfolds the wonderful economy of nature, displays its beautiful regularity, and is conversant with those lovely and harmless things, the flowers of the field, conveys to some unhappy minds thoughts most unlike the pureness of the lily, or the sweetness of the rose. There are minds, however, of a different stamp, minds which adorn and enrich all they touch, which can learn wisdom from a flower, piety from a blade of grass, can find " sermons in stones, and good in every thing." The man thus happily gifted, walks forth into the fields-the daisy, "wee, modest, crimsontipped flower," the eye-bright, with its painted blossom, the golden tormentil, or the blue hare-bell spangles the turf on which he treads; while the hedges are covered with the clusterings of the wild rose, the garlands of the convolvulus and honeysuckle, or starred with the English geranium, the bright hypericum, or the fairy scorpion-grass. Astonished by the profusion of beauty, the wantonness of ornament which meet him wherever he turns his eyes, he asks their use and design, his heart rises in wonder and praise to the throne of the Great Creator, and he is answered. On minuter inspection, how much of amusement and instruction may be derived from the study of flowers, that study in which Israel's wisest monarch delighted, he who "spoke of trees from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall." The daisy, insignificant as it apparently is, (yet immortalized by the pen of Dryden, and graced by the song of Burns) becomes, on closer observation, an expanse of wonders, a cluster of miracles. Scores of minute blossoms compose its disc and border, each distinct, each useful, each delicately beautiful. The convolvulus and honey-suckle appear to the careless eye to twist in a similar manner round every thing in their neighbourhood; but the botanist discovers that they are governed by different laws, the former always twining itself according to the apparent motion of the sun, the latter in a contrary direction; and when busy man attempts to alter this arrangement, he invariably injures, and perhaps destroys the plant. The heath, so common in the northern parts of this kingdom, valuable to the poor as a substitute for more expensive fuel, and to the sportsman as a cover for grouse, affords to the botanist a striking instance of the care extended by Providence towards his creatures. Its seed is the food of numerous birds, in regions where other sustenance is scarce, and the vessels which contain it are so constructed as to retain their contents for a considerable length of time, instead of discharging them when they become ripe. Indeed, the more we study, the closer we observe the operations and provisions of nature, the greater will be our wonder, the higher our admiration. Every separate plant has doubtless its own history, its distinct uses, its peculiar inhabitants; and, like St. Pierre's strawberry, may furnish a study too diffuse, too deep, for the life of an individual. The physiology of vegetables is a most curious and entertaining branch of the science of botany; and, owing to the great improvement of our microscopes, may be pursued to an extent far beyond the most sanguine hopes of former students. In some recent experiments, the growth of wheat was actually rendered visible to the eye; a bubble of gas was seen to dart forth, carrying with it a portion of vegetable matter, which instantaneously formed into a fine tube, and one fibre was completed. In short, with instruments like our's, what may we not hope to accomplish in studies, unexhausted and inexhaustible as are those of nature. History, biography, geography, may no longer furnish scope for novelty; even fancy's wide domain may be filled to repletion; but the botanist, the chemist, and the geologist, have employment before them for centuries to come, and long, indeed, will it be ere they can have cause "to weep for new worlds to conquer." For those whose travels do not extend beyond lands, where Withering can guide them, there is space enough for study, discovery, and delight; but he who visits other climates, or is enabled by opportunity and wealth to rear their productions on British ground, has of course a wider field for research and admiration. We do not know a more delicious and enchanting spot than a green-house, filled with the blossoms and the perfumes of "the lands of the sun." The warm air conveys the choice and exquisite odours to the scent, the sight is ravished by the tastefully mingled tints and noble foliage of the aristocracy of plants; and a luxurious sensation of languor and enjoyment steals gradually over the frame. Here, too, double flowers, which the strict botanist terms monsters, but in which the florist takes peculiar pride, are displayed; and man is permitted by Providence to amuse himself by diversifying and embellishing nature, while the springs of life and vegetation are kept mysterious and inaccessible. Our Saviour's words, "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow," acquire additional force and peculiar beauty, when we remember that they were suggested by the sight of the splendid amaryllis lutea, a species of lily which abounds in the land of Palestine. Who does not feel their emphasis, when he imagines our blessed Lord standing on the mount, from whence his divine sermon was delivered, surrounded by an attentive and wondering throng, whom he is urging to lay aside unnecessary cares, and trust in the bounty of their heavenly Father; and then sees him pointing towards those glorious lilies which decked the surrounding plain, and deducing from their beauty, exceeding the pomp of kings' attire, lessons of simplicity in dress, freedom from vain or excessive cares, and dependance on Almighty protection. 66 The study of Botany has afforded illustration to another passage in holy writ. In 2. Kings, vi. 26, we read that, during a severe famine in Samaria, a cab of dove's dung" was sold for twenty pieces of silver. What this article of food might be, had long puzzled the commentators, when the father of botany suggested that it was probably the root of the ornithogalum or Bethlehem star, which affords to this day a pleasant and nutritious aliment to the lower orders in Judea. Its English name was given on account of its prevalence in Palestine, and its ancient one, ornithogalum,' literally signifies bird's milk. When to this we add that its blossoms, of a greenish white, resemble at a little distance the dung of birds, the conjecture of Linnæus becomes still more probable, and a curious elucidation appears to be afforded of an obscure passage of Scripture. Enough has been said to establish the claim of botany to the favour of the elegant and the wise, as a pursuit both healthful and innocent, profitable and pleasant. Linnæus, to whom every botanist must say, as Dante said to Virgil, "Tu duca, tu Signor, e tu Maestro," is intelligible in his original garb to but few ladies; but there are many excellent works in our own language which will lead them farther than the generality will choose to follow. Eve, as described by the hand of Milton, "walked forth among her fruit and flowers, to visit how they prospered;" and we cannot imagine an employment better adapted to Paradise, or recommend a more graceful and pleasing occupation to Eve's fair daughters. The good and sagacious Owen Feltham has said, that "to have a mind which delights in innocent employment, is daily rising to content and blessedness." Those, therefore, who have opened to us new sources of rational amusement, and like Linnæus, Ray, Tournefort, and Withering, have been our pioneers on the road of science, deserve our grateful acknowledgments and affectionate remembrance. In the absence of more valuable gifts, let us pay them with appropriate offerings : "Manibus date lilia plenis, Purpureos spargam flores." TO A FRIEND ON HER BIRTH-DAY. Of that so famous land of Faery, Where quaintest spirits weave their spells unseen, Than to be happy still as thou hast been. M. THE CENSUS. We have received divers epistles respecting the Census, which Parliament has so judiciously ordered to be taken for the benefit of the infant science of Political Economy. All of them contain severe strictures upon that measure, for what reason it was at first difficult to conjecture: one of them inquired if we did not think the proceeding impious, and whether Parliament, being actuated by the same motive which prompted King David on a similar occasion, would not draw down the same punishment upon this nation which was inflicted upon the Israelites? Another solicited us to inform the writer, whether we did not believe that Government had availed itself of a state of peace to try if the country could not afford to make an addition to the numbers of the militia. Some of these letters, if published, would infallibly put us into the hands of the Attorney-general; for they charge our rulers with nullifying Magna Charta, and dragging forth and violating family secrets and social confidence. Others, abusing Mr. Vansittart, without mercy, lay all to the score of taxation, and breathe downright sedition. We therefore recommend the Home Department to be active; to double the centinels in the park; reinforce the police offices; and put the City light-horse on the alert. We should not think this recommendation complete, if we did not hint at a farther and most important precaution, that all routs or assemblies at houses of persons of either sex, living in a state of "single blessedness," whether high or low-whether at Saint Giles's or Saint James's, should be narrowly watched by the Bowstreet patroles, so that suspected characters might be arrested, in case of alarm, at a moment's notice. Having thus done our duty as good citizens, and handed over the inflammatory letters to the proper authorities, we shall enable our readers to judge from what quarter we feel an apprehension of danger, by the sequel. The real cause of discontent, among the parties to whom we allude, seems to be the forced disclosure of certain personal secrets, which are generally deemed sacred and inviolable among particular classes, and the knowledge of which, being made general, must operate greatly to wound l'amour propre of the classes in question. It is contended that a clause should have been inserted in the Census-act, to prevent such disclosures where they might be injurious to individuals, upon due proof being offered thereof in the shape of affidavit, or otherwise. The following extract from a communication relative to the grievance complained of, will throw some light on the business, and put our readers in the possession of facts. The writer's name is Ebenezer Wigginbottom, parishclerk, school-master, and shop-keeper, of Bungay in Suffolk, where he has been lately employed in making the Populationreturns. We number Mr. Wigginbottom among our correspondents, in the department of deaths and marriages; and the good man generally accompanies his monthly communications with |