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relation as he would read a chapter in the Bible. The value of the 

 matter induces no kind of self-esteem. 



We have often thought how much good might be done by cir- 

 culating addresses like this throughout the length and breadth of the 

 land. Every Mechanics' Institution in particular should have a 

 copy, to serve as a model for members about to address their neigh- 

 bours and friends. 



We select for quotation a botanical passage, to show how agreeable 

 and interesting the most common phenomena become when observed 

 by appreciating eyes, and recorded by an unassuming and graphic 

 describer. 



" In spring our woods and groves are gay with the lovely blue 

 hyacinth, and with the varied shades of pink and white of the wild 

 anemone ; their colours contrasting finely with the pale yellow of the 

 primrose, and the brilliant golden stars of the Ficaria. In few dis- 

 tricts, perhaps, do the road-sides and field-hedges offer to the eye of 

 the traveller a greater variety than our own. Violets, blue and white, 

 and of various intermediate shades ; the periwinkle, that lovely har- 

 binger of spring ; the wild endive, with its scraggy branches, and its 

 large starry Mowers of almost caerulean blue; the Canterbury bell, 

 the red and white Lychnis, the everlasting pea, the liquorice vetch, 

 the curious leafless yellow vetchling, the borage, that favourite of the 

 honey bee, with its bright flowers, as singular in form as beautiful in 

 colour; the white, and red, and yellow nettles ; the delicate, pendant 

 blue flowers of the harebell, waving with the slightest breeze ; and the 

 clear white stars of the stitchwort. Nor must we forget a plant which 

 ornaments our banks, and greatly attracts the admiration of strangers 

 1 — the viper's bugloss. The more minute plants are also well worth 

 notice. In earliest spring, and frequently from amidst the snow, the 

 little Draba verna studs our banks, and opens its tiny white flowers. 

 It varies greatly in size in different situations ; from five or six inches 

 in height to so dwarf-like a form, that its leaves, flower-stalk, and 

 flowers would not together exceed perhaps one-third or one-half of 

 an inch ; and the whole plant, root and all, might rest upon a three- 

 penny piece without overspreading its margin. There is also that 

 curious little plant, the Adoxa moschatellina, with its slender stalk 

 and its crown of five l-ound flowers, placed close together so as to 

 form a hollow cube, reminding one of the locking of the warriors' 

 shields of old. Our hedges are garlanded with the wild vine with its 

 graceful tendrils, the large white bells of the climbing Convolvulus, 

 and with the w T ild Clematis ; also known by its pretty names of ' Vir- 



