LADY TIDE. 95 



APRIL 4. St. Isidore, bishop of Seville, a.d. 606. 



St. Plato, abbot. 



Obs. St. Isidore is honored in Spain as the most illustrious doc- 

 tor of that church : upon the decease of St. Leander in 600, he suc- 

 ceeded him in the see of Seville. St. Isidore, to extend to posterity 

 the advantages which his labours had procured to the church, com- 

 piled many useful works, in which he takes in the whole circle of 

 sciences, and discovers a most extensive reading and a general ac- 

 quaintance of the ancient writers, both sacred and profane. He 

 departed this life on the 4th of April, in the year 636 ; his body was 

 interred in his cathedral, between those of his brother St. Leandev 

 and his sister St.' Florentina. His relics still remain at Leon, in 

 the church of St. John Baptist. 



Red Crown Imperial Corona imperialis rubra fl. 



Grape Hyacinth Hyacinthus racemosus flowers. 



This variety of fhe Crown Imperial is one of the most common, 

 and is now in full flower in early, and beginning to flower in late, 

 seasons. All the varieties, the red, the yellow, and the striped, are 

 magnificent plants, and constitute a great ornament to tlie early 

 spring border. Common garden mould, such as is everywhere to be 

 found, suits them very well, and they require no shelter from the 



f'OSt. 



The Grape Hyacinth and the Starch Hyacinth are both well 

 known to our English gardeners ; both are figured in Curtis' Bota- 

 nical Magazine. They have been found in flower a fortnight earlier, 

 but this is their average time of flowering. The Great Saxifrage 

 Sniifraga Crassifoiia now begins to flower. In 1822 it was earlier 

 by a week, and in 1825 a week later than this day. 



The Willow Wren Ficedula Salicum arrives now, and adds I'n 

 lively song to the earlier vernal birds. This is the yellowest bird of 

 the genus, and has been called the Yellow Wren ; it is more fre- 

 quently seen about Willows and in Osier beds than the other species, 

 and the genus has been named from thisci.cumstance. 



Today in 1828 will be Holy Friday, otherwise called Good 

 Friday, or the day on which the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is 

 commemorated : it is in every country a most solemn fast, and is the 

 l"st day but one of Lent. 



The custom of eating plain buns marked with a cross, and called 

 Hot Cross Buns, is very antient, and many particulars concerning it 

 maybe found in the Perennial Calendar, London 1824. 



In some of our Almanacks the name of St. Ambrose is errone- 

 ously inserted today. 



