X 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

 -^ MONTHLY CALENDAB. 



^ 



^^:^/^^.: 



§ 1. — Aspect of the Month. 



1360. It is now summer everywhere ; 

 in the deep woods, beneath the shady 

 hedgerows, even in dell and dingle, 

 where twilight reigns at noonday, the warm 

 breath of summer penetrates, — the fertilizing 

 showers have fallen. The fragrance of the mea- 

 dow-sweet mingles with the aroma of the sweet- 

 scented briar and of new-made hay. On flowery 

 banks and hedgerows the graceful convolvulus 

 climbs and flowers. The wild briony throws its 

 glossy tendrils round everything it comes near. 

 Wherever the eye alights, the ground is covered with flowers : — 



" Here mantling snug: beneath a verdant veil. 

 Bright creepers draw their horizontal trail ; 

 Wide o'er the bank the slender tendril bends, — 

 Adown the bank the rooty fringe depends." 



1361. The month of July is the hottest in the whole twelve, the mean tem- 

 perature being 61°, although the thermometer ranges from 82°, and sometimes 

 falls to 42°. This high temperature is chiefly occasioned by the increased 

 radiation of heat at the earth's surface : in consequence, the nights are much 

 warmer than those of June. A period of rainy weather usually occurs about 

 the middle of the month, accompanied by thunder-storms, which have given 



