MARCH. 
53 
this end. Wherever they are placed it should be a position that is cool and 
dry ; a warm or damp place will do them harm. I put six bulbs into glasses 
about the second week in September, and about the third week in October I 
started six others. Despite the favourable start of the first batch, the second 
are earliest in flowering. The whole group has occupied the same position, 
and have been subjected to the same mutations of atmosphere. The second 
half-dozen are evidently earlier-flowering kinds than their competitors which 
started in the race before them. 
Outside my window, in the box of Crocuses I mentioned in my first paper, 
I have the dwarf golden variety, known as Cloth of Gold, in flower. But a 
few days ago, and the kindly rays of the sun, daily gaining strength as winter 
slowly yet surely changes into spring time, came over the buildings opposite, 
and, tempering the gentle western breeze, called up the birds to life and action. 
In response to the summons there issued forth from the emerald circlet of 
grassy lances, forming a kind of regal body-guard, tiny golden blossoms, that 
opened their auriferous cups to catch the vivifying influence of the sun’s rays. 
A day or two after, and then a dread change:— 
“ A sombre foreshadowing borne on the blast— 
The woods had a rumour that prophesied death.” 
The cold breath of the north, the whirled flakes of snow, and the binding 
frost, have played sad havoc with my gentle messengers of spring, and, broken 
and shrivelled, they seem to mourn their premature advent and their approach¬ 
ing decay. Their colleagues calmly wait the fitting time to issue forth in their 
spring attire, when the forces of winter shall have given place to more genial 
agents of nature. Quo. 
BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS. 
Lesson III. 
The subject of this lesson shall be the little Herb Robert (Geranium 
Robertianum, jig. 1), which is so abundant in all woods and hedgerows. Select 
a flower which is not yet expanded. You see first of all an exterior envelope, 
composed of five leaves ; these leaves are of a purple colour, and on their 
external surface they are bristling with white hairs. If you tear them off one 
after the other, you will meet with a second envelope, formed by five pretty 
rose-coloured leaves, slender towards the base, rounded at the top, and over¬ 
lapping each other like the tiles of a roof. It will be easy to detach them 
without tearing them. 
When you have thus exposed the parts which these leaves protect,‘you 
will see ten stamens or dust-bearing bodies ( Jig . 2), of which five are much 
smaller than the others ; the filaments are flattened, and at their base they are 
slightly united together. The dust-pouclies, which we shall now distinguish 
by the name of anthers , are of a vinous red, and in place of hooding the 
summits of the filaments, as in the Wallflower, they are attached to it by the 
middle of their back. Split the seams of these small pouches, and you will 
perceive in their interior the fecundating dust, which we shall henceforth call 
the pollen, yellow, and the grains are larger than those of the Wallflower. 
Now tear off these ten stamens from the support on which they are placed, 
and you will find the central organ containing the seeds. It will be pretty 
difficult to study it thoroughly on account of its great youth; but you can 
observe it in a more developed stage in taking flowers which have been some 
time developed. There you will see the five leaves of the flower, which are 
spread out in the form of a star, and are not slow to fall offi In the middle of 
