August 8. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
840 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
n 
M 
D 
W 
AUGUST 8—14, 1854. 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
R.&8. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
af. Sun. 
Day of 
Year. 
8 
Tu 
Lebia crux minor. 
30.192—30.151 
75-47 
N.E. 
*6 
35 
Rises. 
© 
5 
24 
220 
9 
W 
Colymbetes agilis. 
30.260—30.230 
72—43 
N.E. 
— 
37 
33 
8 a 41 
15 
5 
16 
221 
10 
Th 
Ceratophytum Latreillii. 
30.322—30.247 
72—4 7 
N.E. 
— 
39 
32 
8 
59 
It) 
5 
s 
222 
11 
F 
Cryptopliagus cellaris. 
30.288—30.145 
75—46 
S.E. 
— 
40 
30 
1 9 
14 
>7 
4 
59 
223 
12 
S 
Cryptopkagus populi. 
30.195—30.117 
68—54 
N.E. 
— 
42 
28 
2 
29 
18 
4 
49 
224 
13 
Sun 
9 Sunday after Trinity. 
30.143—30.047 
67—52 
N.E. 
— 
43 
26 
9 
44 
19 • 
4 
39 
225 
14 
M 
Cryptophagus denticulatus. 
30.015—29.950 
64—51 
E. 
— 
45 
24 
10 
0 
20 
4 
28 
226 
Meteorology of the Week.—A t Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest and lowest tern- 
pcraturesof these days are "4.3° and 51.2° respectively. The greatest heat, 93°, occurred on the 10th in 1842 ; and the lowest cold, 32°, on the 
13th in 1839. During the period 110 days were fine, and on 79 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
(Continued from page 239.') 
Dhaba muralis : Wall Whitlow Grass ; Speelwell-leaved 
Whitlow Grass ; Speedwell Grass. 
Description. —This is an annual and very unlike all our 
other species. Root tapering. Stem erect, alternately 
branched, unless very weak, from the base, from six to 
eighteen inches high, leafy, rough, with minute starry hairs. 
Radical leaves several, depressed, reversed - egg - shaped, 
tapering at the base ; those of the stem scattered, stalldess, 
and stem-clasping, heart-shaped; all strongly toothed, and 
clothed with short, either simple, forked or star-grouped, 
hairs. Flowers very numerous, small, in a little dense tuft, 
soon lengthened out into an extremely long cluster of 
spreading pouches, whose stalks are either smooth or hairy. 
Calyx generally smooth; but occasionally hairy. Petals 
white, reversed-egg-shaped, entire. Style scarcely any. 
! Stigma blunt, very small. Pouch about half the length of 
its stalk, elliptical, bluut, flat, even and smooth, with six or 
eight seeds in each cell. 
Time of flowering. —April and May. 
Places where found. —On the shady sides of walls, and of 
limestone mountains. It is rare. 
History .—Ray, we think, was the first who discovered it to 
be a British plant. He says—“ It is not uncommon on the 
mountain sides of Craven, in the eastern part of Yorkshire ; 
I found it also in Italy, mid-way between Lucca and Pisa, 
and in France, near Montpelier.”— (Hist. Plantarum, i. 790.) 
It was then called by some botanists Thlaspi veronica folio j 
and by others, Bursa pasloris major loculo oblongo (Larger 
I Shepherd's Purse, with oblong pouch).— (Smith. Martyn. 
■ Hay.) 
That the study of Natural Science, especially of Botany, 
is increasing and prevailing must be a subject for re¬ 
joicing to every one who knows, or reflects, upon the 
fact, that wholesome occupation of the mind is the best 
guardian of virtue. Never did school text contain a 
more assured truth than that which records that “ Idle¬ 
ness is the parent of vice and of all idleness the worst 
is idleness of mind. Wholesome mental occupation, 
as wo have said, is the best guardian of virtue, and 
among such wholesome occupation there are many 
degrees of excellence, but none, certainly, more excellent 
than the study of plants. Every one must have felt 
this from the day when they read “Eyes and no Eyes,” 
in “The Evenings at Home,” down to the hour when 
they are gaining deeper knowledge of Botany, whether 
systematic or physiological. 
If we were asked by a parent what taste is most 
desirable to be fostered in a child, we should reply—the 
love for plants. There is no drawback in that affection. 
It is inexpensive, innocent, available in all situations— 
in affluence is a delight, in poverty a comfort and a 
profit; for the garden of the plant-lover is always best 
cultivated. No season can occur in which Botany is 
unavailable: the herbarium and the microscope are 
quite as much a resource in foul weather, as are 
botanical rambles during sunnier times. Nor is this 
all; for though the days are gone when God walked 
with man in his garden, yet God still walks there, 
though unseen, and Botany best reveals the impress of 
His fingers, and the traces of His loving carefulness of | 
plants. It is there that we can best appreciate with the 
child, after the summer shower, “ that God had been 
watering bis flowersand it is there we can feel most 
fully the vanity of man’s frippery, when compared with 
“ the Lilies of the field.” 
When wo commend especially Botany as a study, wc 
No. CCCVL, You. XII. 
