‘AUGUST 


SHEN an inscrutable Providence has 
Adit fixed the bounds of one’s habitation 
( Ui during the major part of the year 
o 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 
225 
