THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. > 83 



Creator to teach us not only the necessity of numher- 

 ing our days, bat of exactly regulating our hours, so 

 as **to apply our hearts unto wisdom;" in other words, 

 of giving to each of the duties of life, their proper 

 time and season, so that the whole circle of our exis- 

 tence may be filled up by that variety of cares, or 

 employments which are assigned to us ; one closing and 

 another opening, and each with a different colour, to 

 mark the changeable character even of those minuter 

 portions of time into which our lives are daily divided. 

 A Flower-Dial thus constructed,* having each of its 

 hours marked by an appropriate plant, might be as use- 

 ful as a Sun-Dial. No more fitting motto could be 

 found for it, than that which a distinguished female pen 

 has suggested, — 



* *Twas a lovely thought to mark the hours 



As they floated in light away, 

 By the opening and the folding flowers, 

 That laugh to the Summer's day. 



* In a recent work entitled ' Conversations on Nature and 

 Art,' the reader will find the Linnaean list of plants, that may 

 be used for this purpose, with the times of their opening and 

 shutting. But in Loudon's Encyclopsedia of Gardening, p. 

 885, will be found a list of plants more generally accessible. 

 The Colvolvolus met with near the sea, opens between 5 and 6, 

 A. M, So also does the Dandelion. The Pimpernel, between 

 7 and 8, and the commdix Chickweed, between 9 and 10, 



