THE ASH-TREE. 89 



Linnaeus proposed to construct a calendar for the guide of the 

 gardener and of the agriculturist, which would enable them, by 

 observing at what periods certain trees come into leaf, or certain plants 

 into blossom or fruit, to judge of the best times for sowing and planting, 

 and also for gathering in the crops. It stands to reason that if after a 

 few years' careful observation, a particular vegetable is found to succeed 

 best when the seed is sown at the time some particular flower is in 

 perfection, the recurrence of that period, the renewal of the perfection 

 of that particular flower, will mark the time when the vegetable in 

 question Avill again be most likely to be sown to advantage. In this 

 beautiful concord we should in time secure a certain guide to healthy 

 and prosperous operations, alike in field and garden, and should be able 

 to calculate exactly when to look for the results. " If we found," for 

 instance, says one who laboured hard to establish the fact, "that on 

 sowing peas or other seed when the gooseberry-bush blossomed, they 

 were ready for getting when the corn-marigold flowered, we might be 

 pretty sure that every succeeding year the same uniformity would 

 prevail, and by a little attention, the suitable times for all other such 

 operations would be determined." It is not only in reference to garden 

 and farm produce that such a calendar is at once possible and very 

 interesting. So exact is the agreement between the period in the leafing 

 and the flowering of trees and plants, that meeting with one kind, in 

 some fair and pleasant field, we are assured that in the woodland we 

 may now look with certainty for some other, each being an intimation 

 of the arrival of its companion. That such a correspondence exists 

 between the arrival and departure of migratory birds, and in their songs 

 and nest-building ; also in the hatching of certain insects, and the 

 appearance of certain flowers, has long been known to naturalists, and 

 many plants have been named from this beautiful harmony, the cuckoo- 

 flower for instance, and probably the wake-robin. By and bye, when men 

 learn to love nature as dearly as it deserves, these engaging truths will 

 all be marshalled, and almanacks will deal not only with the changes 

 of the moon, and the sun's rising and setting, but will become tables of 

 the sweet harmonies that. subsist between nature's cairn and pleasant 

 teachings and man's highest practical wisdom. It is impossible to 

 enter nature at any point, but we come at once upon something 

 useful to know ; and the knowledge of which increases our happiness. 



The particular place held by the ash in the sequence of arrivals 

 of first leaves was established by the celebrated Benjamin Stillingfleet, 

 who in Norfolk, in the year 1765, made out the following list of dates. 



