“The number of flowers is now sensibly diminished. Those that flower newly are nigella, zinnias, 
polyanthuses, love-apples, mignionette, Michaelmas daisies, auriculas, asters, or stars, and China- 
asters. The additional trees and shrubs in flower are the tamarisk, altheas, Venetian sumach, pomegranates, 
the beautiful passion-flower, the trumpet-flower, and the virgin’s bower, or clematis, which is such a quick 
and handsome climber. But the quantity of fruit is considerably multiplied, especially that of pears, 
peaches, apricots, and grapes. And if the little delicate wild flowers have at least withdrawn from the hot 
sun, the wastes, marshes, and woods are dressed in the luxuriant attire of ferns and heaths, with all their 
varieties of green, purple, and gold. A piece of waste land, especially where the ground is broken up into 
little inequalities, as Hampstead-heath, for instance, is now a most bright as well as picturesque object; all 
the ground, which is in light, giving the sun, as it were, gold for gold. Mignonette, intended to flower in 
the winter, should now be planted in pots, and have the benefit of a warm situation. Seedlings in pots 
should have the morning sunshine, and annuals in pots be frequently watered. 
The garden blooms with vegetable gold, 
And all Pomona in the orchard glows, 
Her racy fruits now glory in the sun, 
The wall enamour’d flower in saffron blow's, 
Gay annuals their spicy sweets unfold, 
To cooling brooks the panting cattle run : 
Hope, the forerunner of the farmer’s gain, 
Visits his dreams and multiplies the grain. 
It may not be out of place here to notice that singular property of seeds by which they are preserved 
in the ground for ages. It appears from certain circumstances, that when they are buried below that par- 
ticular depth at which they feel the influence of the atmosphere and consequently vegetate, they are 
in a state of preservation which may and does often continue for centuries — perhaps, for aught we 
know to the contrary, to the end of the world, if undisturbed ; certainly, however, to an amazing extent of 
time. By this beautiful law of the all-wise Creator, the vegetable tribes are never likely to be lost. How- 
ever cultivation or carelessness may tend to extirpate certain species, their seeds lie in myriads in the trea- 
sury of the earth, and some event such as we sometimes witness, the lowering of a hill, the cutting of a 
single turf, exposes them to the action of the air, and forth they spring. Thus it is that farmers are fre- 
quently surprized on ploughing up a field that has lain in lea beyond the memory of man, to see a plentiful 
crop of various and unusual plants spring up. So I have observed in Sherwood Forest, that where turf is 
pared, henbane is almost sure to exhibit itself, though none has been seen in the neighbourhood for years. 
Many instances of this kind have no doubt attracted the attention of all curious lovers of Nature. 
Says Howitt, “I must not omit to notice the splendid appearance of the Harvest Moon. The cir- 
cumstance of this moon rising several nights successively almost at the same time, immediately after sunset, 
has given it an importance in the eyes of the farmers ; but it is not the less remarkable for its singular and 
splendid beauty. No moon during the year can bear any comparison with it. At its rising it has a cha- 
racter so peculiarly its own, that the more a person is accustomed to expect and to observe it, the more it 
strikes him with astonishment. I would advise every one who can go out in the country, to make a practice 
of watching for its rising. The warmth and the dryness of the earth, the clearness and balmy serenity of 
the atmosphere at that season, the sounds of voices borne from distant fields, the freshness which comes 
with the evening, combine to make the twilight walk delicious; and scarcely has the sun departed in the 
west, when the moon in the east rises from beyond some solitary hill, or from behind the dark rich foliage 
of trees, and sails up into the still and transparent air -in the full magnificence of a world. It comes not as 
in common, a fair but flat disc on the face of the sky, — we behold it suspended in the crystal air in its 
greatness and rotundity; we perceive the distance beyond it as sensibly as that before it; and its apparent 
size is magnificent. In a short time, however, it has acquired a considerable altitude — its apparent bulk has 
diminished — its majestic grandeur has waned, and it sails on its way calmly beautiful, but in nothing dif- 
fering from its usual character.” 
