Robert's tide. 121 



APRIL 30. St. Catharine of Sienna, virgin, 

 A.D. 1380. 



St. Maxiraus, martyr, 250. 



St. Sophia, virgin and martyr, in 3d cent. 



SS. James, Marian, &c. in Numidia, 259. 



St. Erkenwald, bishop of London, 7th cent. 



St. Ajutre, confessor, 1131. 



Obs, St. Catharine was born at Sienna in 1347. The accom- 

 plishment of her mind and body made her the darhng and delight 

 of all that knew her. In her childhood she consecrated her virgi- 

 nity to God by a private vow. She was visited with many painful 

 distempers ; amidst her pains it was her constant prayer that 

 they might serve for the expiation of her offences. She received the 

 habit of the third order of St. Dominic the eighteenth year of her 

 age. For tiiree years she never spoke to any one but to God and 

 her confessor. Whilst labouring to extend the obedience of Pope 

 Urban VI., she died at Rome on the 29th of April, 1380, being 

 thirty three years old. She was canonized by Pope Pius II. in 1461. 

 — Butler, 



Cowslips Primula veris in full flower. 



Toothwort Dentaria bulhifera flowers. 



Primrose Peerless Narcissus bijiorus flowers. 



From the 26th to the 30lh of April the Cowslips are observed to 

 arrive at the maximum of their flowering ; they begin with April 

 sparingly, and finish with ^lay. We have seen them called flowers 

 of St. Catharine, evidently the saint of today, from the time of their 

 flowering. We have already described them under our account of 

 26th of April, which is called Cowslip Day in our rustic calendars, 

 those short but simple annals of the poor, as Curtis called the 

 calendars of our antient husbandmen. 



The Toothwort is found wild near the Great Rocks, Tunbridge 

 Wells, whence it was introduced into gardens in Sussex and else- 

 where by the late T. F. Forster, esq. of VValthamstow. 'J'he Prim- 

 rose Peerless is one of the names of the Twoflowered Daffodil or 

 Narcissus. This plant blows a few days earlier than the Poetic 

 Narcissus. We have found it growing in great abundance in a field 

 at Lingfield, beside the road going to Godstone from Hartfield in 

 Sussex. 



Martlet Hirundo Urbica arrives. 



The Martlet or House Martin now arrives, and gets common by 

 the end of May. By the accession ot second and third broods 

 these birds in the course of the summer get very numerous ; but 

 their numbers in spring bear so small a proportion to those that go 

 away in autumn, that they must undergo some great annual devas- 

 tation. 



M 



