THE LIME. 49 



thing, which shall be the happier and the richer for it, as a rule, I say, 

 that beautiful law is here again exemplified and declared, and even the 

 weed and unconsidered wild-flower, things that seem useless, become 

 houses of refuge. See how the little fishes hide their silver coats 

 among the water-flags ! See how the lizards of the seaside sandhills, 

 emerald-green and tawny-grey, agile as thought, quick-eyed and docile 

 as love, dart to the speary grass that grows like a mimic wheat-field in 

 those wild and trackless deserts! "Deserts" did we say ? When a 

 thousand forms of life, brilliant beetles, cased in armour of bronze and 

 crimson ; fairy-like butterflies, whose wings are azure above, and beneath 

 dotted with jewels ; birds that lift up cheering voices, and lay down 

 pretty feathers ; when the golden -flowered and fragrant galiurn, and 

 the milk-white cups of the grass-of-Parnassus, make a desert, then let 

 the haunt of the lizards receive this name in England always thought- 

 less, and usually unjust. 



By its Buds the lime-tree may be told in earliest spring. While 

 those of the oak are ovoid and amber-tinted, and those of the beech 

 like little brown spikes, those of the lime are short and thick, and of a 

 decided reddish-colour. They nicely illustrate the facility with which 

 accurate botanical knowledge may be secured at seasons when many 

 people think that botany is impossible, because there are "no flowers." 

 True, it is by the flowers and fruit that the last and most intimate 

 knowledge is gained; but to neglect the buds and other early and 

 anticipative parts, is to behave as if the study of man consisted only in 

 the contemplation of his maturity, and the golden preparations that 

 make childhood were unworthy of note. Nothing can be known, even 

 approximately, unless it be watched during development. The best part 

 of the history of life is that of its changes, for wherever life is normal 

 and progressive, as all life was intended to be, every change must needs 

 be marked by something new, and relatively more beautiful than any 

 event or state that has yet been registered. Life that is not so 

 characterized, is miscalled ; it is decay, and not vitality, the grave that 

 is ahead, and not the fruitage life was always intended to receive. 

 Think back only the last seven years of your existence ! Can he who 

 during the lapse of those seven years has not gained alike in faith in 

 the Infinite Wisdom and Goodness, in love of the beautiful in God's 

 works and the human heart, in the estimation of his friends, and in his 

 own self-respect, be said to have lived ? I trow not. Changes he must 

 needs have experienced, but -changes that do not elevate must needs 

 degrade. 



