46 



FEBRUARY. 



a sight truly English. It is in accordance with 

 our ideas of home-comfort and elegance. If 

 we are to believe travellers,, in no country is 

 the domestic culture of flowers so much at- 

 tended to as in this. I trust this will always 

 be a prevailing taste with us. There is some- 

 thing pure and refreshing in the appearance of 

 plants in a room ; and watched and waited on, 

 as they are, generally, by the gentler sex, they 

 are links in many pleasant associations. They 

 are the cherished favourites of our mothers, 

 wives, sisters, and friends not less dear, and 

 connect themselves in our mind with their 

 feminine delicacy, loveliness, and affectionate 

 habits and sentiments. 



February is so called from the Roman custom 

 of burning expiatory sacrifices, Februalia ; the 

 Saxons called it Sprout-kele, because the kale, 

 or cabbage began to sprout ; and also Solmo- 

 nath, or pancake-month, because cakes were 

 offered to the sun. 



Various signs of returning spring occur at 

 different times in February. The wood-lark, 

 one of our earliest and sweetest songsters, often 



