compared with the early-actually there was not enough. One of the party we detected-we almost think it was our friend of Madras-laying violent hands on some rather musty beef bones in the pantry, which the host had been ashamed to bring out.

Then came the dispersion. Some, unused to the exertion, must stop at the inn, some lagged on the road, some stopped at the half-way village; and a few only, with the professor and his veteran lieutenant, marched into town at ten o'clock, well tired, but well satisfied, and one at least of the party to remember the day as one of those green spots in life's retrospect, which, like a thing of beauty,

"Is a joy for ever."

But now the shade. Ere the next summer flowers were blossoming, some of the merry laughers of that excursion were laid low by fever caught in the study of their profession in the hospital wards; another year or two, and all were dispersed on their several roads of life. Short roads to some, very short. A West Indian appointment with one led to yellow fever and an early grave: one, at least, fell in the Khyber Pass under the knives of the Affghans; consumption and other diseases have claimed their victims, and Graham and Macnab fill respected graves; yet many live engaged in the successful exercise of their profession, and may sometimes lighten anxious thought by a recal of the botanical rambles of student days.

Perhaps our readers will accept our narrative as a practical exposition of the uses and pleasures of botanical pursuits. True, those engaged in the expedition were most, if not all, destined for the medical

profession: but why should not a band of young clergymen do the same? gather health and strength and pleasant thoughts-ay, and good illustrations, too, for their sermons, amid the glorious works, the beautiful material revelation of the Creator, whose other revelation it will be the business of their lives to carry forth to men. Nay, if we must add to the argument, did not He who gave us that revelation illustrate his own sermon the Sermon-by a reference to flowers ?

"Flowers! when the Saviour's calm benignant eye

Fell on your gentie beauty; when from you

That heavenly lesson for all hearts he drew,
Eternal, universal as the sky;-

Then in the bosom of your purity,

A voice he set as in the temple shrine;
That life's quick travellers ne'er might pass you by,
Unwarned of that sweet oracle divine.

And though too oft its low celestial sound
By the harsh notes of work-day care is drowned,
And the loud steps of vain, unlistening haste;
Yet the great Ocean hath no tone of power

Mightier to reach the soul in thought's hush'd hour
Than yours, meek lilies, chosen thus and graced."
MRS. HEMANS.

But we hear some reader remark, Why are these pleasures to be enjoyed only by young medical men or young clergymen? Surely others may band to

gether for the like purposes? And surely they may.

We would see the school class, the naturalist's club, the association of any kind, promoting alike their health, their good fellowship, their knowledge of the useful and of the beautiful in God's created works, by practically searching them out-not flowers-only, not one department of the kingdoms of Nature, but all. The formation of the earth, its rocks and stones and shells, as well as its plants and trees, its birds

and its insects-the study of these will give real improvement to the mind, quicken, as no other studies perhaps can, the powers of observation and of accurate perception. They will exercise the memory; and they ought to call forth, not only the intellectual but the reflective faculties, ascending till they reach the highest-veneration for the Supreme Being. Thus will the mind ascend from Nature to Nature's God. Like the angels in Jacob's vision, the thoughts first "ascending," will then "descend" laden with blessings.

Most unaccountable has been the neglect hitherto of the natural sciences as a part of the system of education in this country. The cry has been, "Cui bono?" "What profit are these things?" The remark, "It is all very well for medical men to learn them as a part of their profession; but the future clergyman must keep to his classics and mathematics, the intended merchant to his double and single entry." The time for such arguments has passed away never to return. Now it can be seen that the acquisition of a knowledge of classics and of natural science is not incompatible; nay, it is pretty well acknowledged, that some of the long dreary years which it has been the custom to devote to Greek and Latin may be allotted to the studies we advocate, with greater advantage to the general cultivation of the mind; that the intellectual education is no loser, the heart education has great gain. Moreover, it is every now and then found out that a good knowledge of natural science may become a source of profit pecuniarily to the merchant, or to the traveller, whom it enables to take advantage of circumstances which are hid from the eyes of the ignorant. Enough, let

us turn to our "Monthly Illustrations." As might be expected, the first months of the year offer but slight matter in the way of wild-flower blossomings; advantage, therefore, has been taken of this to give a few requisite directions respecting the collecting and preserving of plants; and in like manner, in the concluding months of the year, when

"The dead leaves strew the forest walk,

And withered are the pale wild flowers,"

we have chosen the time to tell our readers somewhat of the fruits and seeds, which are alike the harvest of the fowls of the air which sow not, reap not, nor gather into barns, and the great storehouse whence He who made them raises the "blooming wonders" of another summer.

Monthly Illustrations.

JANUARY.

Lo! when the buds expand, the leaves are green,
Then the first opening of the flower is seen;
Then come the humid breath and rosy smile,
That with their sweets the willing sense beguile;
But as we look, and love, and taste and praise,
And the fruit grows, the charming flower decays;
Till all is gathered, and the wintry blast

Mourns o'er the place of love and pleasure past."-CRABBE.

THE changes described by the poet are indeed full of interest and beauty, from the time when "the buds expand," and the "leaves are green," till the once bright foliage falls brown and withered before the "wintry blast." Few, perhaps, are so dull of mind as to be totally insensible to these changes in their general manifestations; but few, too few, have their minds awakened to the succession of beautiful and varied form which year by year adorns our fields and woods, our rocks and moorlands-nay, even our hedgesides and ditches; too few of those who have ample opportunity and leisure know, even by sight, much less by name, our commonest wild flowers; and yet there is not one of these, from the humblest weed that grows, that will not yield abundant scope for study, that does not exhibit perfection and beauty of structure that tell of its Divine Creator. Nothing, perhaps, astonishes an individual more, when first commencing the search for and study of our unculti