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which they open their blossoms. One expands at dawn of day; another species a few hours later; a third at midday; some in the early evening; and others, like the night-bloom ing cereus, when darkness has established her dominion Hence what are called the watches, or dials of the flowers, have been constructed - tables in which every hour of the day is filled up by the opening of some flower.

17.

""Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours,

As they floated in light away,

By the opening and the folding flowers,
That laugh to the summer's day.

"Thus had each moment its own rich hue,
And its graceful cup and bell,

In whose color'd vase might sleep the dew,
Like a pearl in an ocean shell."

HEMANS.

18. In all their vast variety of size, and form, and color; in the various odors which they exhale;20 in their wide dis persion throughout all climes; in their periods of repose; in their hours and seasons of blossoming and decay; and in their very frailty, flowers speak to the heart a varied language—a language that appeals to every condition and cir cumstance in life; they are full of instruction; and they cheer man's pathway from the cradle to the grave.

1 PROP'-A-GA-TED, caused to multiply or in-11 PRE-SENT', offer to the eye.

crease.

2 MAN'-I-FEST, plain; evident.

3 OR-GANS, the parts which perform the offices mentioned.

4 PET'-I-OLE, the foot-stalk of a leaf.

5 DÄH'-LIA (dahl'-yah).

12 COL'-UM-BĪNE.

13 PER-I-ANTH; it means, "about the flow.

er."

14 DIS-POSE', cause or occasion.

15 RU'-DI-MENTS, the beginnings; germs. 16 EX-PANDS', opens.

6 RE-PRO-DUC-TION, the act of producing 17 AN'-NU-ALS, plants that live but one

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7 NU-TRI-MENT, food; that which nourishes. 18 BI-EN'-NI-ALS, that continue two years. 8 Lus'-CIOUS (lush'-us), delicious.

9 CO-ROL-LA, the flower-leaves.

19 PER-EN'-NI-ALS, that continue more than two years.

10 ES-SEN'-TIAL, necessary; those which 20 EX HALE', send forth; emit.

constitute the flower.

LESSON XVIII.

HYMN TO THE FLOWERS.

1. YE bright mosaics'!' that with storied2 beauty
The floor of Nature's temple tesselate',3
What numerous emblems of instructive duty
Your forms create'!

2. 'Neath cloistered boughs, each floral bell that swingeth
And tolls its perfume on the passing air',
Makes Sabbath in the fields', and ever ringeth
A call to prayer';

3. Not to the domes5 where crumbling arch and column
Attest the feebleness of mortal hand',

But to that fane," most catholics and solemn,
Which God hath planned';

9

4. To that cathedral, boundless as our wonder,

Whose quenchless lamps the sun and moon supply', Its choir1o the winds and waves', its organ thunder', Its dome' the sky'.

5. There, as in solitude and shade I wander

Through the green aisles,11 or, stretched upon the sod,
Awed by the silence, reverently ponder12
The ways of God'-

6. Your voiceless lips, O flowers! are living preachers',
Each cup a pulpit', and each leaf a book',
Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers
From loneliest nook.13

7. Floral apostles' !14 that in dewy splendor

"Weep without woe, and blush without a crime',"
O may I deeply learn, and ne'er surrender,
Your lore15 sublime.

8. Were I, O God'! in churchless lands remaining',
Far from all voice of teachers or divines',
My soul would find, in flowers of thy ordaining',
Priests, sermons, shrines".

1 MO-SA'-1¤s, a collection of little pieces of glass, marble, etc., of various colors, joined together so as to represent the colors of painting. The flowers are here called mosaics.

2 "STO-RIED BEAU ́-TY" (stō'-rid), a beauty that speaks; furnished with stories.

3 TES'-SEL-ATE, cover with a mosaic work of flowers.

4 CLOIS'-TERED, pertaining to a monastery; secluded.

5 DOMES, cathedrals; places of worship. 6 AT-TEST', show; prove; make plain.

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LESSON XIX.

VEGETABLE REPRODUCTION-Continued.

STAMENS, PISTIL, FRUIT, AND SEEDS.

Fig. 16.

1. THE STĀMENS are situated, in a complete flower, next within the corolla. A perfect stamen consists of two parts, anther and filament. The former is analogous1 to the blade of a leaf, and the latter to the stem. In some cases stāmens are changed into pětals by cultivation, as is seen when what are called single flowers become double. The common white pond-lily affords a good il- Gradual Change of Stalustration of the change of stamens into pětals. The same may be traced in double roses, buttercups, and most double flowers.

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Stamens.

mens into Leaves.

2. The top of the stamen, called the anther, is almost always yellow, and contains a yellow powder, called pollen, which, falling upon the pistil, presently to be described, causes the development3 of the germs and the formation of the seed. When the stamens and the pistil grow on different plants, each forming only half of a perfect flower, it is necessary that the plants should grow near each other, so that the pollen, wafted by the wind, may reach the other half of the flower, or no seed will be formed.

3. The PISTIL Occupies the centre of the flower, being surrounded by the stamens and petals. Its parts are three, ovary, style, and stigma. The ovary occupies the lower part, and incloses a cavity in which the germs of the seed are developed, and finally matured into fruit. The style is usually in the form of a slender thread or column, tapering up from the ovary. The stigma, which is the upper part or termination of the style, receives the pollen from the anthers, and communicates with the germ through a tube in the style.

4. The term FRUIT is much more extensive in its application, speaking botanically, than in common language. The name is given to the enlarged ovary containing the seed, and consists of two parts, the seed and its covering. Fruits, like flowers, exhibit a great variety of forms; for, while some are

soft and fleshy, others are hard and stone-like, and some are dry; some grow in irregular masses, like the blackberry, and others in a multiples form, like the mulberry and the pine

cone.

5. The SEED is the reservoir of the most nutritious part of the vegetable, often containing twenty times more nourishing material than any other part of the plant. As might therefore be expected, a great portion of the food of man and animals consists of seeds. The quantity of Indian corn raised annually in the United States is about six hundred million bushels, and probably there is an equal quantity of other grains. Besides, large quantities of seeds are raised for the purpose of making various oils. In fact, the farmer is mainly engaged in collecting a practically useful herbarium" within his barns and granaries; and he ought, of all men, to feel an interest in botanical knowledge.

6. The value of agricultural products in the United States for the year 1850 was estimated at one billion six hundred million dollars, all of which came out of the earth or its atmosphere in the form of vegetation. It is true that wool, live-stock, milk, and butter, are included; but the whole passed through the laboratory of vegetable life. About five hundred million dollars worth of the above products was composed of various seeds or grains. The land cultivated to produce such an enormous product was less than one hundred million acres.

7. The periods of germination of seeds are various. Some, as oats, rye, and wheat, will germinate, under favorable circumstances, in a single day; while mustard, turnip, and the bean require three days. Lettuce requires four days; melon and cucumber seeds germinate in five days, barley in seven, cabbage in ten, and parsley in fifteen days. The almond and peach require a year; and many seeds of trees do not germi nate under two years.

8. The vitality10 of seeds is wonderful. It has been related, and extensively copied, that healthy plants of wheat have been raised from grains found in a mummy case not less than three thousand years old. A recent and valuable book asserts that, "had the wheat crop been at any time entirely

destroyed, this invaluable grain would have been restored to us from seeds preserved for more than three thousand years in the folds of an Egyptian mummy." But Prof. Asa Gray, an eminent American botanist, says "that the asserted cases of such germination9 will not bear examination; and that those best qualified to judge utterly disbelieve not only the asserted fact, but also the possibility of any such occurrence."

9. At the Dublin meeting of the British Association, Dr. Steel stated that he had planted many seeds obtained from Egyptian mummies, but always failed to obtain any indications11 of their vitality.10 But Dr. Moore, of the Dublin Botanic Garden, related an instance in which he had succeeded in producing a new species of leguminous12 plant from the seeds obtained from a vase discovered in an Egyptian tomb.

10. It is not certain that the seeds planted by Dr. Moore were as old as he supposed, but it is well known that the seeds of leguminous12 plants, such as beans and peas, will retain their vitality10 about fifty years, and that various seeds of grasses germinate after a period of eight years. Seeds packed in air-tight cans soon lose their vitality. They seem to keep best wrapped up in brown paper, or other porous13 material.

11. It is often related that strange plants spring up in earth that has been removed from far below the surface in digging wells. One instance which has found its way into the books is the following. In Maine, some well-diggers were sinking a well at a distance of forty miles from the sea; when at the depth of twenty feet they found a stratum14 of sand, similar to that of the sea-beach, but unlike any known in the vicinity of the well.

12. The sand was scattered about on the soil, and in a year or two a great number of small trees appeared where the sand had been strewn.15 The trees were different from any growing in the neighborhood, but like trees growing on the sea-shore. It was supposed that these trees, known as the beach plum, must have sprung up from seeds which were in the stratum1 of sea-sand, and had remained dormant16 till brought to the surface.

13. At a meeting of the British Association, Dr. Cleghorn stated that after the burning or clearing of a forest in India,

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