LADY TIDE. 91 



MARCH 31. St. Benjamin, deacon and martyr, 

 A.D. 424. 

 St. Acacius, bishop and confessor, in 250. 

 St. Guy, confessor. 

 St. Balbine. 



Obs. St. Benjamin was a deacon of the Christian Church in 

 Persia, and suffered martyrdom in the forty years' persecution which 

 followed the destruction of the Pyraeum by Bishop Abdas, about 

 the year 424. 



St. Acacius was Bishop of Antioch in Phrygia. He is celebrated 

 for a detailed and excellent confession of the faith by which he 

 obtained the favour of Decius, and was suffered to call himself a 

 Christian publicly in 251. 



St. Guy, called in Germany Witen, was Abbot of Pomposa near 

 Ferrara, and died in 1046. 



Sweet Tulip Tulipa suaveolens flowers. 



This plant is also called the Van Thol Tulip : it flowers in our 

 houses in February, and now begins to blow in the open ground, 

 where when planted in large beds it has a pleasing effect, from its 

 brilliant red colour. It is followed in April by the Clarimond TuHp, 

 and at length by the famous Standard Tulip, of which there are so 

 many varieties and names. We have often been much gratified in 

 visiting the large nursery grounds about London at this time of year 

 during the intervals of fine spring weather. Large and well cleared 

 beds of Sweet and of Clarimond Tulips, of Hyacinths, of Dogstooths, 

 and of Narcissuses, bordered with Crocuses of several colours, 

 Hepaticas, and Hellebores, still remaining, and a variety of early 

 herbaceous plants, have a very pleasant effect when gently quiver- 

 ing in the clear March gales. 



To the early Sulphur Butterfly, already some days out, is now 

 added the Tortoiseshell, the lo, and the Peacock Butterfly, and 

 some others who come out by degrees. 



Child of the Sun ! pursue thy rapturous flight, 



Mingling with her thou lov'st in fields of light ; 



And where the flowers of Paradise unfold 



Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold. 



There shall thy wings, rich as an evening sky, 



Expand and shut with silent ecstasy ! 



Yet wert thou once a worm, a thing that crept 



On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb, and slept ! 



And such is man ; soon from his cell of clay 



To burst a seraph in the blaze of day ! 



Rogers, 



