stem. The flower grows at the extremity of each stem or branch, and is of a bright yellow colour, and from two to three inches in diameter. The flower-cup consists of five unequal egg-shaped spreading pieces, quite smooth. The flower is formed of five oblong egg-shaped petals, entire generally, but occasionally cut into lobes. The stamens grow in five sets. The filaments are long, slender, unequal, and have small reddish anthers, which seem to have suggested the fanciful notion of the following couplét :—

"Hypericum was there, the herb of war,

Pierced through with wounds, and seamed with many a scar."

The large flowered St. John's Wort (Hypericum calycinum) is of the Linnæan class Polyadelphia, and order Polyandria; and of the Natural order Hypericinæa.

SUCCORY.

Cichorium; Linn. La chicorée; Fr. Die cichorie; Ger. Suikerey ; Dutch. Cicoria; Ital. Achicoria; Sp. Zikorija; Russ.

IN early spring we are drawn forth from home by the increasing warmth of the sun, and delight to take our walks when his genial influence is enlivening the entire aspect of nature. But, as the season advances and spring retires at the approach of summer, we feel a growing indisposition to walk for pleasure during the heat of the day. If we walk along the public road, every vehicle that passes by raises a cloud of dust, by which we find ourselves surrounded, and are compelled to breathe the loaded atmosphere. If we perambulate the fields, the scorching sun sends forth his piercing rays upon our devoted head.

If we

ramble by some river's side, perchance the rippling waves reflect his glittering beams with such intenseness that our eyes are forced to withdraw themselves from the cooling stream, and turn upon the parched landscape. We rejoice, in all these cases, to find our way to some favoured spot, where the greensward has a shadow cast upon it by some overhanging tree. Yet we prefer to this the evening stroll, when the sun shines with diminished power upon our island. Then we can perceive the green foliage stirring gently beneath the breath of zephyrs, and we can look upon the clear blue sky, without having our eyes distressed, as at other times of the day, with the brightness of the light. We can then sympathize

with Dale, when he describes the evening and the setting sun :

"How lovely is the still clear brow of eve

When heaven is bathed in brightness, and the fold
Of many a floating cloud doth interweave

Its silvery vesture with celestial gold

To wreathe its sinking monarch! Bards have told
Of regions radiant with eternal day;

But ne'er, oh! ne'er did mortal eye behold

Such hues of beauty, or so pure a ray,

As now yon parting sun, yon varied skies display.

But who can paint thee, thou majestic orb!
Robed in thy setting lustre, whose broad light
Millions of meaner splendours doth absorb,
Lost in thy beams, though in thy absence bright;
Thou movest like a giant in thy might
From conquest on to glory. Thou dost shine
Meet image of thy Lord, the infinite!

The pure! the gracious! Of His works divine

To shadow best His praise, transcendant sun! is thine."

And, as we saunter along, we reflect with thankful hearts on the peculiar blessing we enjoy in having the twilight of a summer's night. Then the heat and sometimes oppressive brightness of the broad day is past away; the sun has set; but still his light beams upon our happy land. The dark shades of night prevail not o'er his potent influence. A soft religious light still renders every object visible, and the blue ethereal sky is unspotted by a single cloud, except perchance here and there, suspended a degree or two above the horizon, we see a few transparent snowy cloudlets, edged about their margins by thin laminae of gold. Oh! how • lovely are such evenings as these! How beautiful

the thought which such an evening has produced in the mind of Professor Wilson

"A cloud lay cradled near the setting sun,

A gleam of crimson tinged its braided snow;
Long had I watched the glory moving on

O'er the still radiance of the lake below.
Tranquil its spirit seemed and floated slow!
Ev'n in its very motion there was rest;
While every breath of eve that chanced to blow,
Wafted the traveller to the beauteous west.-
Emblem, methought, of the departed soul!
To whose white robe the gleam of bliss is given;
And by the breath of Mercy made to roll

Right onward to the golden gates of heaven,
Where, to the eye of Faith, it peaceful lies,
And tells to man his glorious destinies."

How calm the appearance of an evening like this! How soothing its influence, after the cares and toils of a busy day!

We add Milton's description of "Evening in Paradise," leaving the reader to compare the ideas of the pieces we have quoted, and their respective merits :—

Now came still Evening on, and Twilight gray
Had in her sober livery all things clad;
Silence accompanied; for beast and bird,
They to their grassy couch, these to their nests,
Were slunk, all but the wakeful nightingale :
She all night long her amorous descant sung;
Silence was pleas'd: now glow'd the firmament
With living sapphires: Hesperus, that led
The starry host, rode brightest, till the Moon,
Rising in clouded majesty, at length
Apparent queen, unveil'd her peerless light,

And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw.

It is as we take these summer evening walks in the months of July and August, that we observe the bright

blue flowers of the wild Succory. On road sides, sometimes, their stems are nearly denuded of leaves, and the surrounding herbage is scorched by the midday heat, and its wretched appearance is made more so by the coat of dust which lays thickly upon it. In such situations, we look upon this pretty flower with a feeling akin to pity, rather than admiration. But when we find it in the borders of fields, and in waste places, remote from dusty roads, there we must admire the wild Succory. And that it deserves our admiration is well attested by the fact that it has been thought worthy, by many, to have a "local habitation" in the flower garden.

The wild Succory is a perennial, and especially delights in a gravelly or sandy soil. It has a fleshy tapering root, well filled with a milky fluid. Its stem grows erect to the height of two or three feet, is round and furrowed, branched and leafy, and rough with rigid hairs. The leaves are bright and rough, the lower ones runcinate, or somewhat saw-shaped, from four to six inches long, and gradually tapering into a footstalk. The lobes of the leaves are either entire or toothed, The upper leaves are considerably smaller than the lower, sessile, less lobed and toothed. The floral leaves are linear, or lanceolate, swollen at the base, and amplexicaule, or embracing the stem. The flowers are large, of a beautiful bright blue colour, and grow in pairs, sometimes several together; they are occasionally sessile, otherwise on short footstalks. The florets are linear, blunt, and five-toothed at the end.

We have observed the plant frequently about Cambridge. Dr. Bromfield, in a valuable paper communicated to that excellent repository of botanical information, "The Phytologist," says that the wild Succory is