A LITERARY, SCIENTIFIC, AND INSTRUCTIVE FAMILY PAPER. 



Conducted by WILLIAM kidd, of Hammersmith,— 



Author of the Familiar and Popular Essa.ys on "Natural History;" "British Song 



Birds;" "Birds of Passage;" "Instinct and Reason;" 



" The Aviary and its Occupants," &c. 



"the OBJECT of our work is to make men WISER, without obliging them to turn over folios and 



QUARTOS.— TO FURNISH MATTER FOR THINKING AS WELL AS READING."— EVELYN. 



No. 12.— 1852. 



SATURDAY, MARCH 20. 



Price l%d. 



Or, in Monthly Parts, Price Id. 



NOTES FOR NATURALISTS. 



MARCH. 



March now is here. The voice of song 

 Is heard, and gardens brightly bloom ; 



Though stormy winds may sweep along, 

 Their sound inspires no moody gloom ; 



Though clouds, at times, perchance may lower, 

 We look beyond the present hour ! 



All vegetation, awakening from the tor- 

 por of its winter existence, is now gradually 

 developed, and will next month burst forth 

 into all its gaiety of life. Each plant, with 

 unerring order, advances into the fairy ranks 

 of Nature ; and each as it rises, fails not to 

 portray, by perpetual change, the bound- 

 less power and beneficence of its great 

 Creator. At the beginning of this month, 

 among the first indications of returning life 

 in the vegetable world, may be seen the 

 dark-tinted sprouts of culinary or spear- 

 mint (mentha viridis), and the buds of the 

 gooseberry and currant bushes, which soon 

 burst their scaly envelope, and show their 

 leaflets. 



The bullfinch now commences his ravages 

 upon the swelling buds ; and he is, conse- 

 quently, one of the doomed feathered tribe 

 that the horticulturist never spares. The 

 azure flowers of the hepatica, one of the 

 earliest offspring of the year, and those of 

 the laurel, are completely open. The leaves 

 of the damask rose (rosa centifolia), are 

 rapidly expanding ; and, thus awakened from 

 her winter's trance, she calls from us the 

 lay of Casimir : — 



Child of the summer, charming Kose, 



No longer in confinement lie ; 

 Arise to light, thy form disclose, 



Rival the spangles of the sky. 



The rains are gone, the storms are o'er, 

 Winter retires to make thee way: 



Come then, thou sweetly-blushing flower; 

 Come, lovely stranger, come away. 



The autumn-planted brocoli is now be- 

 coming fit for use. The yellow wall-flower, 

 " stained with iron-brown," ventures into 

 life and fragrance. Crocuses, crouching low 

 upon the bosom of the parterres, as though 

 afraid of the fickleness of the youthful year, 

 are now generally in flower, and some of 

 those which were the heralds of the tribe 

 begin to droop. The tunicate sprout of the 

 crown-imperial bursts from its earthen pri- 

 son ; thus, by degrees, " Fair- handed Spring 

 unbosoms every grace ; " and with her too 

 come the gardeners' foes, the weeds, which 

 are now advancing in growth and mischief, 

 in multitudes far "beyond the power of 

 botanists to number up their tribes." 



All hate the rank society of weeds, 

 Noisome, and ever greedy to exhaust 

 Th' impoverished earth ; an overbearing race, 

 That, like the multitude made faction mad, 

 Disturb good order, and degrade true worth. 



One of the foremost and most predatory of 

 these is the nettle {urtica urens). Hurtful 

 to, and despised as is this weed by the cul- 

 tivators of the soil, yet it is one of the com- 

 paratively few of the vegetable myriads of 

 which man has discovered the utility. In 

 the county of Salop, it is dressed and manu- 

 factured like flax into cloth ; this is likewise 

 the case in France, where too it is made into 

 paper : when dried, this plant is acceptable 

 to sheep and oxen. In Russia, a green dye 

 is obtained from its leaves, and a yellow one 

 from its roots. In the spring, every person 

 is aware that nettle-tops are made into a 

 salutary pottage ; and in Scotland they make 

 a rennet from a decoction of it with com- 

 mon salt, for coagulating their milk in the 

 making of cheese. A few flowerets of the 

 white violets {viola odorata), now make their 

 appearance, " emblems, expressive emblems, 

 of those virtues which delight to blossom in 

 obscurity." The swelling of the flower-buds 

 of the wall-fruit gives notice to the gardener 

 to prepare his matting, and the branches of 

 firs, for their protection, since Spring oft — 



Vol. I.— New Sekies. 



