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L>06 
LITERARY NOTICES. 
the reader of the princess, rouse themselves out of their morning's sleep ; and the whole palace, considering that 
the morning sun gleams so brightly to-day from the lofty sky through the coloured silk curtains, curtails a little 
of its slumber. At twelve o'clock the prince, at one his wife and Carnation, have their eyes open in their flower- 
vase. "What awakes late in the afternoon at four o'clock is ODly the red Hawkweed and the night watchmen as 
cuckoo-clock, and these two only tell the time as evening clocks and moon-clocks. From the hot eyes of the 
unfortunate man who, like the Jalap plant {MirabiUs Jalapa), first opens them at five o'clock, we will turn our own 
in pity aside. It is a rich man who has taken the jalap, and who only exchanges the fever-fancies of being griped 
with hot pincers for waking gripes. I could never know when it was two o'clock, because at that time, together 
with a thousand other stout gentlemen, and with the yellow Mouse-ear, I always fell asleep ; but at three o'clock 
in the afternoon, and at three in the morning. I awoke as regularly as though I was a repeater. Thus we mortals 
may be a flower-clock for higher beings, when our flower- leaves close upon our last bed; or sand-clocks, when 
the sand of our life is so run down that it is renewed in the other world ; or picture-clocks, because, when our 
death-bell here below strikes and rings, our image steps forth from its case into the nest world. On each event 
of the kind, when seventy years of human life have passed away, they may perhaps say, ' "What ! another hour 
already gone ! how the time flies !' 
" The closing of flowers also follows a periodical law. Most flowers close during darkness. Some close even 
in day-light. Thus the Salsafy shuts up its head of flowers about mid-day, and the Chicory about four in the 
afternoon. Many flowers are affected by the nature of the day as regards moisture, dryness, cloudiness, or 
clearness. In cloudy and rainy weather, the flowers of the Scarlet Pimpernel, called Poor-man's "Weather-glass, 
remain closed. So also do the heads of flowers of the Daisy, Dandelion, and other composite plants. By this 
means the essential organs of the flower are protected from injury. The direction of the flowers of some plants 
seems to be influenced by the sun's rays ; and the name Girasole or Sun-flower, was given from an impression 
that the heads of flowers inclined towards the part of the heavens where the sun was shining. This does not, 
however, appear to be the case with the Sun-flower as grown in this country. 
"The diurnal periods in flowering are alluded to by the poet in the following lines : — 
*' In every copse and sheltered del!, 
Unveiled to the observant eye, 
Are faithful monitors who tell, 
How pass the hours and seasons by. 
" The green-robed children of the spring 1 
Will mark the periods as they pass, 
jU ingle with leaves Time's feathered wing, 
And bind with flowers his silent glass. 
" See Hieracium's various tribes 
Of plumy fruit and radiant flowers, 
The course of time their blooms describe, 
And wake and sleep appointed hours. 
" Broad o'er its imbricated cup 
The Goatsbeard spreads its purple rays, 
But shuts its cautious florets up, 
Retiring from the noontide blaze. 
" On upland shores the shepherd marks 
The hour when, as the dial true, 
Cichorium to the lowering lark 
Lifts her soft eyes serenely blue. 
" Thus, in each flower and simple hell 
That in our path betrodden lie, 
Are sweet remembrancers, who tell 
How fast the winged moments fiy ! " 
Fleming's Temperature of the Seasons, and its Influence on Inorganic Objects, and on Plants and 
Animals (Johnstone & Hunter). — It has often been remarked that the best books are those which 
lead people to think : this is one of them. The object of the author is to draw the attention of 
general readers to familiar phenomena resulting from the variations of daily and annual temperature, 
and other influences affecting the development and appearances of organic as well as inorganic 
objects. Many of the facts noticed are indeed common-place ones; the author has chosen for 
illustration the everyday occurrences of rural life ; and a desire to connect these with the causes 
which produce them has led him to restrict his illustrations, in general, to phenomena of easy access, 
so that " the perusal of the volume may serve to recall many hitherto neglected observations, 
suggest relations previously unperceived, and unfold order and harmony in scenes where all was 
indistinct, because a thick mist overshadowed them. That the contemplation of the subject here 
briefly handled is calculated to furnish a healthy and pleasing occupation, and raise the mind to 
Him who hath appointed the times and seasons, is a statement which the author unreservedly 
makes, as the result of no inconsiderable experience." A volume upon a subject of this kind, from 
the pen of Professor Fleming, whose name has been so long distinguished in the annals of British 
natural history, deserves wide circulation, as it cannot fail to prove eminently instructive to all who 
are in the habit of observing natural phenomena; while to those whose eyes are not open to the 
everyday operations of nature it will reveal a new world, pregnant with instruction, and calculated 
to awaken thought in every mind. To the cultivator this work must prove very useful ; altogether, 
it forms a most convenient popular manual of meteorology, and will do much to dispel the 
prevalent idea that that branch of science merely consists of thermometrical and barometrical statistics, 
■ — for many really interesting investigations are embraced by meteorology besides the important 
and useful ones to which we have alluded. — L. 
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