182 



THE LEAFING AND FLOWERING OF PLANTS. 



[1852. 



were borne back in triumph by an Anglo-Indian army, in the 

 memory of every on3 who listens to nie ; when this Mahmoud 

 was about startmg on one of bis twelve expolitions to ludi", he 

 demanded of Ismael, a tribut.iry Seljiikiau chief, who dwelt in 

 the tenitoi-y of Bokbar:i, " How many men he could furnish for 

 military service ?'' " If you send," replied Isiiiael, " one of these 

 arrowsinto our camp, fifty thousand of your servants will mount 

 on horseback." " And if that number,'' continujd Mahmoud, 

 " be not sufficient ? " " Send this secoird arrow to the horde of 

 Balik, and you will find fifty thousand more." " But," said the 

 Gazuevide monarch, " If I should stand in need of the whole foice 

 of your kindred tribes ?" " Despatch my bow," was the last reply 

 of Ismael, " and as it is circulated around, the summons will be 

 obeved by two hundred thousand horeemen." Such was the 

 prooress made by this race, in numbei-s and power, that after the 

 overthrow of the Gazuevide dynasty by the Seljukian Turco- 

 mans, we find them, in the year 1050, attacking the Roman 

 Empire in the East. Gibbon says, that the Empire was assaulted 

 by an unknown race of barbarians, who united the Scythian 

 valour with the fanaticism of new ]iroselytes, and the arts and 

 riches of a powerful monarchy. The myriads of Turkish hoi'se 

 overspread a frontier of six hundred miles from Tauris to Arze- 

 roum, and the blood of 130,000 Christians was a grateful sacrifice 

 to the Arabian Prophet. Only about 250 yeare before this, in 

 the year 721, the Riding nations, the followers of the false 

 prophet of Mecca, had possessed themselves of the whole southern 

 shore of the Mediterranean, from Palestine to the pillai-s of 

 Hercules; had crossed over into and conquered almost the whole 

 of the Spanish Peninsula, ar.d ad.anced into France so far as 

 Tours, when in one of the decisive battles of the world, the con- 

 flict of Tours, the ]\Iahometans were utterly routed by Charles 

 Martel. The fight lasted for seven days, and the contempora- 

 neous historiaris'declare that 350,000 of the Mahometan invaders 

 perished on the field, umler the iron maces of the gigantic 

 Teutons, brought bv Martel from beyond the Rhine to aid the 

 Prankish Monarch." From the Hegira, almost to this day, this 

 restless race of horsemen has troubled the Christian world, 

 whether under the name of Arab, Moor, Turk, Turcoman or 

 Ottoman, the last bloody repulse having been given to them by 

 John Sobieski under the walls of Vienna in 1663. As we shall 

 see hereafter, the history of this race is most intimately connected 

 with that of the hoise-^ Arabia being the country in which that 

 animal, until very modern times, has attained the highest stand- 

 ard of excelleiieo. With respect to this nation of hoi-semen — the 

 Saracens and their successors, the Turks and the Ottomans — there 

 are some most extraordinary prophecies in the Revelations of St. 

 John; and so perfectly borne out by the event, that it may not 

 be out of place to notice them. The words of the prophecy are 

 tliese : — " And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the 

 earth — and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the 

 earth have power — and it was commanded them that they should 

 not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing — neither 

 any tree — but only those men who have not the seal of God 

 in their foreheads — and to fl' em it was given that they should 

 not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months." 

 A vei-se or two after, the sacred writer continues : — " And the 

 sha])es of the locusts were like hoises prepared unto battle, and 

 on their heads were as it were crowns like gold — and their foces 

 were as the faces of men — and they had hair as the h.air of 

 women — and their teeth were as the teeth of lions — and they 

 had breast-plates, as it were breast-plates of iron — and the sound 

 of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses run- 

 ning to battle." " One woe is past, and behold there come two 

 more woes hereafter." And then we have the further description : 

 " Anil the number of the army of the horsemen were two hun- 

 dred thousand — and I heard the number of them — .and thus I 

 saw the hoi-ses in the vision, and them that sat on them — having 

 bre.'i't-plates of fire, and of jafinth and brimstone — and the heads 



of the horses were as the heads of lions, and out of their mouths 

 issued fire and smoke and brimstone — by these three was the 

 third part of men killed by the fire, and by the smoke, and by 

 the brimstone which issued out of their mouths." 



The locusts spoken of in the introductory verse allude, without 

 doubt, to the clouds of Saracen horsemen \\hich, like those in- 

 sects in number and in the ravages which they made, ovei-spread 

 the whole boundary of the Roman Empire in the East for 

 upwards of 150 years. The prophecy with respect to the green 

 gr.ass, the green things and tree^ that no one should do them 

 any injury, was most remarkably verified ; for the Caliph, Hassan 

 Abubekei-, the successor of Mahomet, when his army was about to 

 start on the Persian campaign, issued an order to his army in 

 these words : — " Destroy no palm trees, nor burn any fields of 

 corn ; cut down no fruit trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only 

 such as you kill to eat." The order concludes : — " You will find 

 another sort of people that belong to the synagoge of Satan, who 

 have shaven crowns, be sure you cleave their skulls." The 

 Bedawee followers of the prophets especially detested monks. 

 The five months dui-ing which this torment was to last, may be 

 explained in two difterent ways — five prophetic months are ex- 

 exactly 151 yeare, or it may mean the five months of each 

 summer, durmg which the supply of forage in the field enabled 

 lai'ge armies of cavalry to be kept in motion. The crowns like 

 gold, may lefer to the superb jewelled turbans, invariably worn 

 by the Saracen warriois; their faces are described as being like 

 the faces of men — that is, fierce and bearded, while their long 

 hair was carefully preserved, and plaited like the hair of women. 

 Their breast-plates were like breast-plates of iron — an evident 

 allusion to the shirts of bright steel mail univereally worn by the 

 Saracen and Turkish cavalry, to be seen to this day on the per- 

 sons of the Circassian and other Eastern horsemen. The sound 

 of their wings as the sound of manv chariots, is a most poetic 

 and graphic description of the noise which accompanies the rapid 

 advance of a large body of cavalry. The vast numbers of the 

 Saracen and Turkish hordes is expressed by the indefinite ex- 

 pression, " two hundred thousand thousand." Scarlet, blue and 

 yellow, fire, jacinth and brimstone, have ever been the favourite 

 coloure of the sons of Islam. The fire, smoke, and brimstone 

 which issued out of their mouths, by which the third part of 

 men were slain, may, and doubtless does, allude to the fire-arms, 

 their coming into general use, and which the Ottoman Turks 

 constructed of unusual size. 



(To be contimicd.) 



Observations on the liCafing and Floweiing of Plants. 



It is exceedingly desirable that a system of observations should 

 be established throughout Canada, similar to those which are 

 now being carried on with such curious results in the neighbour- 

 in"- States, having for their object the leafing and flowering of 

 plants. The Canadian Institute would be glad to receive from 

 any of their members or others, any assistance in the shape of 

 observations that they may be able to aftbrd ; the more numerous 

 the observers, the better results may be expected, as it is only by 

 comparing several observations from different places, that erroi-s 

 and variations arising from locality may be eliminated. In order 

 to assist those who may be willing to commence such observa- 

 tions, the following list of native and natur.alized plants luas been 

 prepared, containing principally those which are to be found in 

 the neighbourhood of Toronto, and only those which are 

 sufficiently common to be readily observed. The times of flo«-or- 

 ing have been added, as far as known to the writer, they may of 

 course vary slightly. The list is by no means a complete one, 



