And bids the many-plumed warbling throng I With bees, — how sweet, but ah ! how keen their sting. 
Burst the fresh blossoms with their songs, He with five flowerets tips thy ruthless darts, 
“ He bends the luscious cane, and twists the string | Which through five senses pierce enraptured hearts.” 
Translation by Sir William Jones. 
But we will leave this dangerous land, and wander through the ever blooming vales of Japan. Let us deck 
ourselves with her gorgeous lilies, — her Japonicas, — her flowers so beautiful that even the ladies are named 
from them. Where’er we roam we shall find that nature strews the earth with flowers. 
We proceed to take a brief survey of the habits of flowers. Many flowers open their petals in the 
morning, and close them in the evening; yet all do not open or close at the same hour. Plants of the same 
species are pretty regular to an hour in equal temperatures; hence the daily opening and shutting of the 
flower has been called Horologium Florae. 
It has been very truly observed that flowers were the first playthings of Linnaeus; whose motto was, 
Tantus amor florum. 
This devoted lover of flowers carefully noticed the sensibility of plants, and composed a horologe of flowers. 
The list is given in his “Philosophia Botanica,” which, however, is only valuable to us in giving the names 
of plants which open and close at stated periods, as the time given is for the meridian of Upsal, and we 
must, therefore, in order to form one for Britain, make our own observations. For the use of our friends 
we have given a list of twenty-four (all of which may be easily procured,) extracted from that magnificent 
and useful work, the Encyclopedia of Gardening, by J. C. Loudon, Esq., and by observation of the fol- 
lowing plants also, the ingenious reader may be enabled to add to the number, — many species of convol- 
vulus and campanula, the marvel of Peru, or belle-de-nuit, broom, tulips, cress, hibiscus, yellow lily, white 
water lily, and dianthus. 
DIAL OF FLOWERS. 
DIAL OF FLOWERS. 
TIME OF OPENING. 
h. m. 
Yellow Goat’s Beard 
.. .. *T. P. 
3 
5 
Late-flowering Dandelion . . 
. . Leon S. 
4 
0 
Bristly Helminthia 
.. .. H.E. 
4 
5 
Alpine Borkhausia 
.. .. B.A. 
4 
5 
Wild Succory 
. . . . C. I. 
4 
5 
Naked Stalked Poppy 
. . . . P. N. 
5 
0 
Copper-coloured Day Lily . . 
.. .. H.F. 
5 
0 
Smooth Sow Thistle 
.. .. S.L. 
5 
0 
Alpine Agathyrsus 
5 
0 
Small Bind-weed 
5 
6 
Common Nipple Wort 
.. .. L.C. 
5 
6 
Common Dandelion 
. . . . L.T. 
5 
6 
Spotted Achyrophorus 
.. .. A.M. 
6 
7 
White Water Lily 
.. .. N.A. 
7 
0 
Garden Lettuce 
Lac. S. 
7 
0 
African Marigold 
. . . . T. E. 
7 
0 
Common Pimpernel 
.. .. A. A. 
7 
8 
Mouse-ear Hawkweed 
.. .. H.P. 
8 
0 
Proliferous Pink 
. . . . D.A. 
8 
0 
1'ield Marigold 
.. .. Col. A. 
9 
0 
Purple Sandwort 
.. .. A. P. 
9 
10 
Small Purslane 
.. .. P.O. 
9 
10 
Creeping Mallow 
.. .. M.C. 
9 
10 
Chickweed 
.. .. S.M. 
9 
10 
TIME OF CLOSING. 
ti. m. 
Helminthia echioides 
. . . . B. H. 
12 
0 
Agathyrsus alpinus 
.. .. A. A. 
12 
0 
Borkhausia alkina 
.. .. A.B. 
12 
1 
Leontodon serotinus 
. . . . L. D. 
12 
0 
Malva caroliniana 
.. .. C.M. 
12 
1 
Dianthus prolifer 
. . . . P. P. 
1 
0 
Hieracium pilosella 
.. .. M.H. 
2 
0 
Anagallis arvensis 
. . . . S. P. 
2 
3 
Arenaria purpurea 
.. .. P.S. 
2 
3 
Calendula arvensis 
.. .. F.M. 
3 
0 
Tagetes erecta 
. . . . A. M. 
3 
4 
Convolvulus arvensis 
.. .. S.B. 
4 
5 
Achyrophorus maculatus . . 
.. .. S. A. 
4 
5 
Nymphsea alba 
.. .. W.WLL. 
5 
0 
Papaver nudicaule 
. . . . N. P. 
7 
0 
Hemerocallis fulva 
.. .. C.D.L. 
7 
8 
Cichorium intybus 
. . . . W. S. 
8 
9 
Leontodon taraxacum 
.. .. C.D. 
8 
9 
Tragopogon pratensis 
9 
10 
Stellaria media 
.... C. 
9 
10 
Lapsana communis 
.. .. C.N. 
10 
0 
Lactuca stativa 
. . . . G L. 
10 
0 
Sonchus lsevis 
. . . . S. T. 
11 
12 
Portulaca cleracea 
.. .. S.P. 
11 
12 
* These are the initial letters of the Latin names of the plants . 
The time here stated is from noon to night. 
Among the poets we often meet with allusions to floral dials. 
The dial, hid by weeds and flowers, 
Hath told, by none beheld, the solitary hours. — Wilson. 
Young Joy ne’er thought of counting hours, 
'Till Care, one summer’s morning, 
Set up, among his smiling flowers, 
A dial by way of warning. — M urray. 
What a wide field for the imagination is displayed in the succeeding quotation from Hartley Coleridge. 
We might fancy ourselves luxuriating in a garden of roses, where “every flower that blows” would add to 
our felicity ; where the most agreeable and delightful companions were assembled to pass the hours in heed- 
less pleasure, — where no care, — no sorrow, — no unpleasant recollections of past disappointments, — of hopes 
destroyed, — or the overthrow of anticipated happiness, — are allowed to interrupt our joy, and mar the 
beauty of the enchanted scene. Alas ! these are but day-dreams scattered by a breath. The rude realities 
of life — the continual frustration of long-cherished designs, — and the constant blighting, if not extinction of 
our fondest hopes, — all prove how utterly fallacious are the projects on which unassisted man attempts to 
construct a durable felicity. 
