ARROW-HEAD.

Sagittaria; L. Saggittaire; Fr. Das pfeilkraut; Ger. Pylkruid; Dutch. Saetta; Ital. Saeta; Sp. Setta; Port. Bossai; Jap. Strelnaja; Russ. Piilurt; Dan.

"A truce to thought! and let us o'er the fields,
Across the down, or through the shelving wood,
Wind our uncertain way. Let fancy lead,
And be it ours to follow and admire,
As well we may, the graces infinite
Of Nature. Lay aside the sweet resource
That winter needs, and may at will obtain,
Of authors chaste and good, and let us read
The living page, whose every character
Delights, and gives us wisdom."

HURDIS.

WITH feelings like those which Hurdis describes above, the lover of nature always rambles through fields, and downs, and woods. He sets out without any determined route before him, but as he walks, something attracts his notice, and he fancies that if he proceeds, he may find what he is in search of. Along hedge-rows, by the winding banks of rivers, along the rough margins of brooks, and the still rougher banks of ditches in fens, he wends his way, sure to find something to gratify his taste. And among the various aquatic plants which attract his attention in the spring, neither the least prominent, nor the least numerous, is the Arrow-head, its long, broad, and singularly marked leaves sometimes covering the surface of the water, Long time are these leaves visible before there is any appearance of the flower. Weeks and months pass away before the scape begins to give any promise of a

flower. It is a very comman plant in marshy places, both in England and Ireland, and is said to be one of the most widely distributed of all plants. It is met with commonly in Siberia, China, Japan, Virginia, and in all parts of Europe. It is one of the handsomest of British aquatic plants. The tuber abounds in starchy matter, and we are told the inhabitants of China and Japan use it as an article of food, and that, consequently, the plant is cultivated to a considerable extent. The roots are, as might be expected when cultivated, much larger in size in those countries than they ever attain to with us.

The fibrous roots of this plant proceed from a large globular fleshy tuber, putting out bulbiferous runners ; the whole plant is smooth, with somewhat milky juice. The leaves of the plant are several, of a perfect arrowshape, growing on long cellular triangular footstalks. Each leaf has two straight lanceolate lobes at the base; the terminal one lanceolate, frequently obtusely pointed. The leaf is of a fine green on the upper surface, paler beneath, with pale veins. The simple scape terminates in numerous distant whorls, consisting of three flowers each. The whorls spring from the axis of an ovate membraneous bractea, each flower being on a stalk of greater or less length. The lower whorls are fertile, the upper barren. The deciduous petals are white, roundish, obtuse, with a short purple claw. The plant is perennial, flowering in the months of July and August, when oft

"The morning flowers display their sweets,

And gay their silken leaves unfold,

As careless of the noontide heats,

As fearless of the evening cold.

"Nipped by the wind's unkindly blast,
Parched by the sun's directer ray,

The momentary glories waste,

The short-lived beauties die away."

WESLEY.

The common Arrow-head (Sagittaria sagittifolia) is of the Linnæan class Monacia, and order Hexandria; and of the Natural order Alismacea.

THE CORN COCKLE.

Agrostemma; W. La nielle; Fr. Der raden ;

Ger. Koornvlam ;

Dutch. Agrostema; Port. Drema; Russ. Firletka; Pol.

"Sweet scenes of youth, to faithful memory dear,
Still fondly cherished with the sacred tear,
When, in the softened light of summer skies,
Full on my soul life's first illusions rise!
Sweet scenes of youthful bliss, unknown to pain!
I come to trace your soothing haunts again,

To mark each grace that pleased my stripling prime,
By absence hallowed, and endeared by time;
To lose amid your winding dells the past—
Ah! must I think this lingering look the last?
Ye lovely vales, that met my earliest view!

How soft ye smiled, when Nature's charms were new!
Green was her vesture, glowing fresh and warm,
And every op'ning grace had power to charm;
While, as each scene in living lustre rose,
Each young emotion waked from soft repose.

As every prospect opens on my view,

I seem to live departed years anew;
When in these wilds a jocund, sportive child,
Each flower self-sown my heedless hours beguiled;
The way bret-leaf,* that by the pathway grew,
The wild-briar rose, of pale and blushful hue,
The thistle's rolling wheel, of silken down,
The blue bell, or the daisy's pearly crown,

The gaudy butterfly, in wanton round,

That, like a living pea-flower, skimmed the ground."

LEYDEN.

THE love of our father-land is a feeling which is common to all. The attachment to his native clime is

* Waybread, or Waybred; the greater common plantain (Plantago major).

so powerful in man, that he never voluntarily leaves it. The country which gave him birth may not yield sufficient to maintain its sons, and then, when there is scarcity, men will leave it in search of a less populous land, where the produce is more than the inhabitants can consume. But even in such cases there is a latent hope of returning. In many this hope is openly expressed and indulged in. Expatriation is looked upon only as a means whereby an ample provision may be secured for the later years of life, to be spent "at home." Many there are, who from early years are destined to spend the prime of life beneath burning suns, that they may become enriched with foreign gold, one day to be brought home and enjoyed. Many there have been who have accomplished this destiny, and obtained the desired end. The same hopes, the like purposes, send men from one part of Britain to another. There is no room at home. The pasture is bare. The provision is insufficient for all the sons even of a wealthy man. Some must sally forth, and seek to share in the abundance of other places. Many remain where they go. Many occasionally revisit the scenes of their childhood; the land in which the happy hours of youth, unconscious of the cares and the sorrows of the world, were spent. And with what feelings they revisit them, Leyden has well described. Such visits. are attended by feelings of joy and sorrow commingled. There is the old parish church, within the sacred precincts of which, a man's forefathers slumber; within whose holy walls he has joined in worship with those who where dearest to him; there are the old chesnut trees, or lime trees, or the dark and sable yew, which o'ershadow the resting-places of the dead. Where