36 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



says Professor Lindley, " in places like the hard 

 dry Karroos of the Cape of Good Hope, where 

 rain falls only for three months in the year ; 

 in the parched plains of Barbary, where the 

 ground is rarely refreshed by showers, except 

 in the winter ; and on the most burning shores 

 of tropical India, beyond the reach of the tide, 

 and buried in sand, the temperature of wliich 

 rises to 180°, bulbous-rooted plants are enabled 

 to live and enUven such scenes with periodical 

 beauty." The succulent stems and leaves of 

 other plants of the sandy deserts afford a simi- 

 lar provision, by their power of absorbing and 

 retaining the dews which water the desert; 

 and shall we not say with the psalmist, " Oh 

 that men would praise the Lord for his good- 

 ness, and for his wonderful works !" The igno- 

 rant Hottentot knows not how to till his land, 

 nor will its arid soil admit of culture. He cares 

 not to provide beyond the morrow, yet is he 

 cared for by the God who feeds the fowl of 

 the air, and instructs the bird of the wilder- 

 ness. 



And now every day the garden-trees seem to 

 produce more young buds, and the buds are 

 expanding so ftiSt, notwithstanding the easterly 

 Avinds, and the blights Avhich they bring with 

 them, that there will be shade enough by the 

 time when the sun shall drive lis to seek it. The 

 winds yet whistle shrilly through some half- 

 clad branches, but Nature seems to be rejoicing, 

 and to be gradually putting on her strength 

 and beauty ; and the green of the half- expanded 



