ATMOSPIIEUICAL CHANGES INDICATED BY PLANTS. 13 



with the colour of hisitanica, it would be a lovely addition to this 

 tribe. 



TuUpa Sylvestris. — This, our native type of <in extensive genus, 

 is, as its name implies, a native of the woodlands. I believe that, iu 

 common with Tulipa Ckisiana, it changes its position by forming 

 bulbs at the extremity of long fibrous roots, descending from tlie old 

 root. It flowers a month earlier than the garden sort, and is con- 

 siderably smaller, of a pale yellow or canary colour, having the ex- 

 terior of tlie three outside petals, or calyx, greenish. It is a delicate 

 looking plant, and is particularly interesting as belonging to the 

 British tlora. 



I have transferred Orchis latifolia from a ditch to a bed in my 

 garden, which is considerably lower than the surrounding ones, and 

 it has succeeded admirably. All the Orchids are worth trying. 

 Saxifruga oppositifoiia, with its lovely little pinkish-lilac flowers, 

 produced in March, is also a very desirable plant for a rockery or 

 flower-bed. Many others might be enumerated ; however, I will not 

 at present trespass further on the pages of the Cabinet, but hope 

 some one will favour me, and its numerous other readers, with articles 

 on this subject, and that my humble efforts may be the means of in- 

 ducing some competent person to take it in hand, when I trust in a 

 brief space of time to see our too long neglected native plants occu- 

 pying their proper position in every garden throughout the land. 



ATMOSPHERICAL CHANGES INDICATED BY PLANTS. 



BY ANAEL. 



" Closed is the pink-ey'd Pimpernel, 

 'Twill surely rain ; I see with sorrow, 

 Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow." — Jenner, 



An attentive observer of .'nature gathers many a useful lesson and 

 many a practical observation from objects, that, to the vain or ordinary 

 observer, are allowed to occur unheeded ; and whilst our scientific 

 men are exploring the solar system, to unravel the mystery of the 

 many aerial phenomena, and predict the changes that are daily and 

 hourly occurring, it is pleasing to remind the more modest lover of 

 nature, that beneath his feet, and surrounding him on every side, are 

 objects replete with information and interest, affording many singu- 

 larly beautiful and curious facts connected with the changes of the 

 weather. The vegetable kingdom was the calendar in which the great 

 Linnseiis examined as a directory of the seasons, and which he exhorted 

 his countrymen to observe, with all care and diligence, as the surest 

 guide by which to direct their operations in the field and garden. 

 '' Why," says Pliny, (^Nat. Hist., b. xxiii., ch. 25,) " does the hus- 

 bandman look up to the stars, of which he is ignorant, whilst every 

 hedge and tree point out the season by the fall of their leaves?" A 

 circumstance indicating the temperature of the air in every climate, 

 showing whether the season be early or late, and constituting an uni- 



