vulgaris, or milk-wort, "Rogation flower" of bygone times, its winged flowers varying from deep lilac, to purple, pink, and pure white; one of the prettiest of our native wildlings. Less widely diffused, but still common to hill grounds, the white blossoms and fine leaves of the Arenaria verna or sandwort, in some places almost carpet the ground like turf. Nowhere does this little plant grow in greater perfection than on Arthur's Seat, near Edinburgh. Almost have we overlooked the common bugle, or Ajuga reptans, one of the labiates, resembling slightly the ground-ivy, but with a much more erect and stouter square stem, which is conspicuous amid. the grass of the moist pasture or wood, when its purple labiated flowers, and purple upper leaves, show themselves towards the end of May. specimen, however, will not be complete without one or more of the creeping scions which the plant sends out among the grass. Some of the rarer species of orchis blossom this month; but they are generally so conspicuous, that they are well known to those in whose neighbourhood they occur, and our May catalogue has already extended to its utmost limits. Many of the plants we have noticed are as beautiful, nay, more so, than numbers which find a place in the gay flower-border; and when found, far more prized will they be than the brightest blossom offered ready to the hand from the bounds of cultivation.

Your

JUNE.

"The grass is wet with shining dews,

Their silver bells hang on each tree,

While opening flower and bursting bud

Breathe incense forth unceasingly.”—MOTHERWELL.

SUMMER! Full summer have we now in its beauty and in its freshness: some, perhaps, of our Spring friends have faded; the elongated leaves of the snowdrop and primrose, the seed-vessels of the violet, tell us that their reign of beauty is over for another season; but the numbers of the "past and beauteous sisterhood" are too few, their places are too abundantly filled, to let us mark the change: we can see only the overflowing vegetation of the young Summer, the full leaf on the tree, and such wealth of flowers, that not the longest of the "bonny days of June" will suffice for excursions.

Last month we noticed one or two of the umbelbearing plants, or Umbellifera, which might then be found in blossom; now, in June, we have many more examples of this most important family. In few districts can we go far "a-field," without meeting with the true hemlock, the Conium maculatum, or spotted conium; so called from its stem being marked, maculated, with dark purple spots. Persons generally are in the habit of calling nearly all umbel-bearing, plants hemlock: the true hemlock may be known at once, and with certainty, from its being the only British umbelliferous plant with a smooth spotted stem. Moreover, it is further recognisable by its deep green, large, beautifully cut leaves, and by the smell, resembling that of mice, which the plant exhales when

bruised. The hemlock is an excellent type of its family. Examine its flowers, or those of any other of the umbelliferæ, which you can scarce now fail to recognise, and you will find them all more or less approaching in form and construction to the example -Fig 132. There is a small scarcely perceptible calyx-five petals, often with an inflected point-five stamens and two styles crowning the more or less ribbed and furrowed carpels or seed-vessels. What a non-botanical person would call the seed of an umbelliferous plant-Fig. 132 -is composed of two distinct carpels; which, when ripe, separate down the central line. These carpels, if cut across-Fig.132—will be found to contain between each pair of ribs, little canals, or vittae, which are filled with essential oil. Such seeds as the caraway, the dill, &c. &c., all belong to umbelliferous plants, and their cha

Fig. 132.

3

racteristic properties depend upon the oil contained in their vittæ. We will not attempt to enter into

the distinctive features of the umbelliferous plants which we may encounter in our walks, for the reason that such descriptions would afford but little aid; but nevertheless, the botanist or collector should endeavour to collect and to discriminate, if possible, with the aid of a Flora, the different species he meets with; when well preserved, the umbelliferæ, with their beautiful divided leaves, make some of the

As a general

prettiest specimens of the herbarium. rule, it is observed that umbelliferous plants which grow in damp situations as their usual habitat are poisonous, and that those which are found in dry places are more generally useful aromatics. To the above, however, the aromatic angelica, used as a candied sweetmeat, is an exception; it grows in watery places.

Taking leave of our umbelliferous friends, we encounter this month many members of another equally important and extremely handsome family, the Leguminous tribe, often called the Papilionaceous, from the fancied resemblance of its pea-blossomed flowers to the form of the butterfly. We all know the flower of the common peaFig. 133-with its standard -1-its wings-2-and its keel-3-which last incloses the stamens and style, that style forming the future legume or pod. Having se

Fig. 133.

lected our type of the family, we cannot go far without meeting with some of the other members; we shall find them all, in Britain at least, with the same conformation. Let us turn to the clovers, a goodly connexion in themselves. Here, at our feet, is the common Dutch or white clover (Trifolium repens), and not far off the purple Trifolium arvense; towards the dry roadside we may gather one or more of the bright yellow-blossomed species. This species too, with its zigzag stems and purple blossoms, the Trifolium medium, you cannot mistake; look at them, and will find them all papilionaceous, or pea-like,

you

only the flowers are collected into heads, and the leaves trefoil. Like trefoiled plants generally, the

clovers were considered by our forefathers to be antagonistic to evil and evil things; especially were they thought to be "noisome" to witch and wizard, the united trine of the leaflets doubtless connecting the ideas with what was sacred. Close by the hedge the yellow meadow vetchling, or everlasting pea, the Lathyrus pratensis, gives us yet another example of a leguminous papilionaceous flower; and here, climbing in the hedge itself, we find one of our handsomest vetches, the Vicia cracca, or tufted vetch, with its crowded succession of bright lilac-purple blossoms, which are imbricated over one another, as if each sought to protect its fellow. We have a good many British vetches and vetchlings; but these pea tribes, like our umbelliferous friends, have so strong a family likeness, that any but a scientific description would scarce enable our reader to discriminate them. Collect all you can, nevertheless, and get them named as and when you can. You are certain to gather in some corn-field, where its presence is often too abundant for the farmer, a tiny little vetch-like plant, very slender and delicate, with wee pale blue flowers. You have the tare, or Vicia hirsuta, its little pods containing a couple of seeds; albeit, you will not distinguish this plant from its twin brother, whose chief distinction is a four-seeded pod. If you get on some dry gravelly or hill pasture, look for a leguminous plant, with its light purple flowers in a head like a trefoil, but larger individually and collectively, seeming as if much too large for the plant. It is the milk vetch, or astragalus-very different from ano