88 PASQUE? 



MARCH 28. SS. Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, 

 mm. A.D. 260. 

 St. Sixtus III. pope, in 418. 

 St. Gontran, king and confessor. 



Obs. SS. Priscus, Malchus, and Alexander, were living a re- 

 cluse life of austerity in the deserts, when they all agreed to go to 

 Caesarea, and declare themselves Christians ; for which act they 

 were tortured, and then exposed to wild beasts, then the Roman 

 custom of tliat period. 



Lesser Leopardsbane Doronicum Plantigineum fl. 



I find the Lesser Leopardsbane recorded as first flowering today, 

 though I have generally found it later, and indeed it is usually a month 

 later than the greater species ; the leaf is larger and the flower 

 smaller : both are hardy perennials, and their yellow syngenecious 

 flowers have a gay appearance in spring. 



The word Calthifloha is marked against this day in the Caten- 

 darium Nnturale, and alludes to the flowering of the Marsh Marigold 

 Caltha palustris, which in warm situations and early seasons is now 

 beginning to blow. For many years we have noticed this plant in 

 flower in the end of March in the marshes about Lea Bridge in 

 Essex. In Sussex it flowers rather later. Its brilliant yellow 

 flowers have a fine effect at a distance, as it grows in clusters by the 

 sides of ditches, pools, and rivers. It is a plant well calculated to 

 ornament streams that lun through gardens, and will require a moist 

 situation near water and a rich earth. More particulars of this 

 plant will be found below. 



The budding of the trees, shrubs, and hedges, is now daily be- 

 coming more and more manifest. Witliin a few miles of London 

 there is a great difference in the periods of germination. North of 

 London, in Hertfordshire, and even just above Highgate, the trees 

 are near a fortnight later than in the basin of London, and they are 

 a week later than at London in the clay soils of Sussex. The pre- 

 sent year 1827 the season is particularly backward for most tribes of 

 plants, nevertheless some of the bulbous roots have come to their 

 time, and are in flower, as Hyacinths ; while others, as Great Joa- 

 quils and Daffodils, Croci and Snowdrops, were much retarded. 



