cubus is related by Dr. Odier, of Geneva, in which the flowers of cardamine proved efficacious after several 
other anti-spasmodic medicines had failed. We are told by Greeding, who exhibited it in large doses, that 
he experienced but one instance of its good effects out of a great number of cases. At present they are 
seldom used. They are said to be slightly diuretic and diaphoretic, but have otherwise little sensible opera- 
tion. The leaves were formerly considered antiscorbutic. The dose of the flowers when dried and pow- 
dered, is from half a drachm to two drachms, given from two to four times in the twenty-four hours. 
Off. The Flowers and Leaves. 
April is full of the beauteous evidences of Spring. March has enough of them to make us grateful, but 
April, with her profusion of white and green, of her songs, and her bright little wings, confirms the promise. 
She may be said to have four charming manifestations of nature’s wealth to herself, — the blossoming of the 
fruit trees, and leafing of the trees in general, the return of the singing birds, and the re-appearance of the 
butterflies. She is the elder and slenderer sister of May, dressed in more virgin apparel, and her fingers are 
dabbled with wet ; but her colder cheek has still a bloom on it, and she prepares the country for her buxom 
sister with a world of good will. 
“ I never walk abroad at this season of the year, without feeling a sort of silent rupture in observing 
the gradual progress of vegetation ; and fancying that every thing around me is susceptible of happiness. 
(e The productions of the vegetable kingdom excite in many but little interest, and they even deem them 
beneath the consideration of a philosophic mind. Yet the flowers of the earth can raise our thoughts to 
God, as effectually as the stars of heaven. He is their Creator, and surely nothing which he has made is 
undeserving the attention of a finite being. 
“ The rapid or gradual unfolding of a leaf, or flower, is scarcely less wonderful, when properly consi- 
dered, than the formation of a world. 4 Let there be light,’ said the Eternal, 4 and there was light.’ He 
commanded 4 that the earth should bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and the fruit-tree 
yielding fruit ; and it obeyed him.’ Each was affected by the fiat of Omnipotence; and shall man, weak 
man ! to-day crawling on the earth, to-morrow consigned to oblivion, carelessly or scornfully disregard the 
minor wonders of creation, — the flowers of the field ! They are beautiful, and infinitely varied ; they have 
neither voice nor sound, yet they silently proclaim the guardian care of their Creator. Who can fully com- 
prehend the skill with which they are contrived, for the hand which made them is divine ! What art can 
imitate their tints and delicate proportions ; for though they toil not, neither do they spin, Solomon in all 
his glory was not arrayed like one of them ! 
44 The celebrated Herschel has conjectured that new worlds are continually forming, and he founds his 
opinion on the different aspects, and annually changing condensation of the nebulae ; some of them having 
gradually become less extended, till nuclei were formed in the midst, and assumed the appearance of fixed 
stars. This overpowering idea fills the mind with silent awe ; yet the progress of vegetation continually 
proceeds around us, without exciting sentiments of either surprise or admiration : it is on our right hand 
and on our left, before us and behind us ; but we perceive, or rather we regard it not. 
“ 4 But wandering oft, with brute unconscious gaze, 
Man marks not God, marks not the mighty hand, 
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ; 
Works in the secret deep ; shoots, streaming, thence, 
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the spring : 
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves, 
With transport touches all the springs of life.’ 
44 Virgil has elegantly given to the vernal season the epithet of blushing, as the shoots and buds of trees 
assume a ruddy appearance previously to throwing out their leaves. This is particularly observable in the 
beech. Nothing can be more striking than the effect produced by this interesting tree, when the bright 
blue sky, unbroken by a cloud, is seen through the waving branches, spangled with buds of various kinds ; 
some of a light bronze colour, others clothed with silvery down, whilst here and there a light green leaf is 
just beginning to appear. 
44 The gradual formation and expanding of a leaf is one of the most beautiful processes in nature. It 
has been investigated with the assistance of a solar microscope, and is described by Mrs. Ibbetson, whose 
elaborate researches are well deserving of attention.” 
