TO AN APRIL FLOWER.

BY

GEORGE

GREY.

Ay, thou art welcome ! the rough winds are rushing

Over a stormy sea, and darken'd earth; And not a sister flower is kindly blushing

To greet the violet in its humble birth.

Now the black clouds through the wide heavens are

sweeping, And big drops patter on the leafless tree; In giant wrath the unchain’d waves are leaping,

And dashing on the broad shores angrily.

Now from his throne the monarch sun is gleaming,

And the pavilion'd clouds with joy are bright ; While the calm sea in quiet splendor beaming,

Spreads its broad mantle of rejoicing light.

Then thou, sweet flower, to life art gladly springing,

By some lone fountain, or untrodden green, With modest love to thy seclusion clinging,

To live in solitude, and die unseen.

Thus many a heart in this wide world is breathing,

Nursed in life's sunshine, ard its tempest hours, Living in peace, to few kind friends bequeathing

A memory pure as thine, most dear of flowers.

STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY.

If we could open and intend our eye,
We all, like Moses, should espy
Even in a bush the radiant Deity.

Cowley.

BY F. W. P. GREENWOOD.

The love of nature, and the knowledge of natural history, are two different and distinct things, though the one frequently leads to the other. We may admire the objects of nature fervently and sincerely, and yet know nothing about them beyond their form and color, and some of their most obvious properties. But we can hardly make ourselves acquainted with the construction, the organization, the habits and the classification of these objects, without admiring them also, and admiring them the more. This is the superiority of those who know, over those who merely love nature. And yet it has not been uncommon for the lovers of nature to look down on men of natural science as narrow-minded, technical plodders, without enthusiasm, without soul; the former, forgetting that it might be a more intense and abiding love of nature than their own, which led the latter to investigate, to collect, to arrange, or, as they please to term it, to plod and be technical. Another thing which the general lovers of nature are apt to forget, is, that they who study nature minutely, observe

many things which are wholly overlooked by others, and therefore as they see more, must admire and love more, simply because they have more to adınire and love. When they who love nature, entertain so true and constant a love, that they begin to study nature ever so slightly, they will from that moment be convinced that study is the fruit of love, and will be ashamed that they ever disparaged study, if in moments of uninstructed presumption they ever did.

I will speak first, of the advantages of an acquaintance with natural history to those who are in situations where the works of nature, rather than of men's hands, are around them. Let us take for example, the case of those who retire from the city into the country, during the warm season, when the city is languid and panting, and the country is in all its pride. Motives of different kinds induce the removal. Some are operated on by a sense of uneasiness and a love of change ; others by the force of habit imperceptibly acquired; others by a regard for health ; and others by the authority of fashion, the poorest motive of all. But in general it is a desire to escape from heat and dust, to freshness, verdure and freedom, which leads men out from the close streets into the open fields. The sense of escape, and the enjoyment of pure air, and the sight of growing things, and the sounds of whispering trees, flowing waters and singing birds, are for a few days, pleasure and occupation enough. But is it so after those few days are past ? It is to a small number, perhaps ; though the delight of that small number would be greatly enhanced by knowledge. But the majority become listless and

uneasy again. The wild flowers spring up and blossom with all their wonted beauty; the trees, waters and birds, join in melody as sweetly as before. Why are they not seen and heard as at first? Where is the charm that made them to be seen and heard, and felt ?

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?' The pleasure is gone, because there was no intelligent observation to detain it. The interest dies away, because it was not kept alive by knowledge and study. The view has been superficial, comprising only the more general and obvious features of the landscape, and the eye has been soon satisfied with seeing. The fields have been looked upon as verdant or flowery carpets merely, and though that is a poetical way of regarding them, who can be interested long by the sight of a carpet, however splendid and varied its colors? The flowers come and go, according to their times and seasons; they bear the distinctive marks of their separate families ; they have their peculiar habits and various properties, and uses; but all these sources of pleasure are unvisited, and to the uninstructed eye they are undistinguished flowers; flowers the last month, and flowers this, or rather a confused mass of coloring, taking the place of snow and death in the spring of the year, and giving place to death and snow in the winter. A walk through the roads, lanes and meadows of the country, soon becomes by repetition as uninteresting, and indeed more so, than a walk through the well known streets and squares of the city. The shelter of the house is less frequently quitted, day by day, because

it is now too warm to go out, and now too windy, and now too wet. In short, the country grows very dull.

Am I not truly, and not at all too strongly describing the experience of numbers; of many, even, who think they love nature and the country, and who do so, if love means an admiration extremely transient and easily tired? But this love would have ripened into true love, if the proper means had been taken. This admiration would have become fixed and abiding, if it had been placed on the foundations of observation and science. Let any one branch of natural history be attended to, botany, ornithology, entomology, and only leisurely attended to, according to one's entire convenience, and nature wears a more attractive aspect, and is seen with other eyes. Every walk discloses some new beauty. You are among friends, whose qualities you know, and whose characters you esteem. Acquaintances peep out from under the stone walls, or sing to you from the trees, or buzz among the bushes. You learn to address them by their names, their christian and sir-names; and you ascertain their periods of arrival and departure ; and some particulars of their business ; and you bid them welcome when they appear in their gaiety and freshness, and when, poor transitory things, they fade or fly away, you bid them farewell. And, perhaps, as you do so, your thoughts recur to other beings, much nearer to yourselves, who come as sweetly and as joyously, and who go as sadly and as soon.

And is it not something to know what plants are medicinal, and what are used in the arts, and what are innocent, and what are poisonous ? Is it not something