AUGUST 



HEN an inscrutable Providence has 

 fixed the bounds of one's habitation 

 during the major part of the year 

 within city walls, a brief annu- 

 al outing, most salutary for mind and body, and 

 to be accepted with all thankfulness, is yet apt 

 to become an annual aggravation as well, for 

 one who has an ambition to utilize the occasion 

 for the prosecution of either botany or ornithol- 

 ogy, inasmuch as he finds himself, at the con- 

 ventional season for such recreation, quite in the 

 condition of the dog that eats only the crumbs 

 that fall from Nature's bountiful table ; or, if we 

 vary the figure, and dignify him with the po- 

 sition of an invited guest, he fares no better, as 

 he finds that in sitting down at the table in mid- 

 summer, he comes to the feast rather " between 

 the courses" — the roast-beef has been cleared 

 away, and nothing else brought on. 



Botany knows less of times and seasons than 

 ornithology, for inflorescence is continuous, even 



