MONTHLY C^LE^'DAR. .303 



of flowers^ not the less welcome that they hold out promise of a fruitful 



autumn. 



*• All Nature stirs : slugs leave their lair ; 

 The bees are stirring ; birds are on the wing ; 

 And Winter, slumbering in the open air, 

 Wears on his smiUng face a dream of Spring.'* 



830. The elm-trees are now assuming their new and graceful garment of 

 eaves, the blossoms of the horse-chestnut are expanding in their fan-like sheath, 

 and the cone-shaped terminations of the lilac are swollen almost to bursting in 

 every shrubbery. Many wild auriculas are now in flower, the double fm'ze is now 

 in all its brightness, and the wild hyacinths abundant in many a wooded dell. 



" Shade-loving Hyacinth, thou com'st again, 

 And thy rich odours seem to swell the gale." 



Thrice welcome, then, thou laughing, romping, joyful, hopeful April ! Thy 

 bright genial smile unlocks the cold grasp of winter, and the biting, shivering 

 winds of ]\Iarch are forgotten as we bask ourselves among thy warm and cheerful 

 beams. Beautiful emblem of childhood and youth, strange co-mixture of smiles 

 and tears, joys and sorrows, mh*th and melancholj^ — great fosterer of growth — 

 come in all thy cheerful gaiety, in all thy fascinating loveliness, in all thy 

 vivifying power, and chase away the thin, haggard, care-worn, woe-begone 

 face of winter from our gardens, and bid our sorely-tried shrubs, trees, and 

 flowers, live a new and beauteous life. During this month, in the language of 

 Dickens, slightly altered, a celestial presence brightens everything. After 

 thy quickening showers, the cornfields, hedgerows, checkered roofs, steepled 

 churches, leaping streams, gladdened gardens — all spi-ing out of the gloomy 

 darkness, smiling. Birds sing sweetly, flowers raise their drooping head.«, 

 fresh scents arise in the air, and a rainbow spirit of all the colours that 

 adorn the earth and sky, spans the whole arch with its triumphant glory," — 



" Muttering magic and playing earth-spells. 

 Mixing her charms over woodlands and bowers, 

 Throwing her seeds in, and taking out flowers. 

 Nursing the blooms that she seeth not fade, 

 For she passeth away ere a bud has decay'd." 



831. The variations in the temperature are still very great, the thermometer 

 ranging from 75° to a degree or two below the freezing-point in the meridian 

 of London ; the mean maximum of an average of ton years being 57'82° in 

 the atmosphere, and the mean minimum being 35 "SS" ; the temperature being 

 lowest at sunrise ; there being, on an average of ten years, six frosty nights in 

 the month. An unusual fall of rain in April is supposed to indicate a dry 

 season for the harvest. 



§ 2.— Flower-Gakden and Sheubberies. 



832. Garden pursuits, at all times so pleasant and delightful, now become 



fascinating in the extreme. New features of interest and fresh scenes of 



beauty open around us every day, and the teeming earth heaves with its 



myriad births of vegetable life. The great spirit of life encircles the whole 



