468 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 15. 
else’s power, and she loitered so much on the road to a 
second marriage, that her suiter faded and died, and she 
remains still a widow. I have already sketched the melan¬ 
choly tale of J. B., whose hoarded stacks were devoured with 
mice and rats. He was the man. 
Some months ago, Mrs. Roberts became seriously ill, so 
much so that she kept her bed. An inward fever devoured 
her; she was racked with pain, exhausted with weakness, 
and her life was despaired of. In this condition, it was 
natural to suppose her poor worldly mind would be aroused 
to call upon God; Avlien perishing things were passing 
away, she might be anxious to possess riches which could 
not be snatched from her. But no; she could not be aroused 
to feel the state of her soul; she could not see its darkness, 
or its disease ; she was satisfied that all was well. She was 
very desirous to recover, very dissatisfied with the doctor, 
and not pleased with what she thought neglect on the part 
of some other persons ; but she had no higher considerations 
than these on her sick bed; and some kind neighbours, who 
waited upon her, were pained and grieved to find all their 
efforts to awaken her to spiritual things were utterly vain. 
Nothing marks more clearly the character of a person 
than the way they are spoken of in sickness and death. A 
I man may pass without much notice while he is alive and 
well, but let him lie down in a sick-bed, and you find out his 
worth in public estimation directly. The sorrow, or the in¬ 
difference of his neighbours, lets you into his real character 
at once ; and nothing is more sad than to hear of sickness 
without a blessing breathed over it. 
No one lamented the probable loss of poor Mrs. Roberts. 
Many were sorry for her, but no one was sorry for them¬ 
selves or others. There were no widows to make lamen¬ 
tations, or to “ show the coats and garments ” she had 
made. There was, really, only one individual who spoke of 
her kindly. It is not necessary that a person should do 
more than their means warrant; it is not necessary that 
alms should be given, and gifts multiplied, to buy an 
honoured name; because, nine times out of ten, such things 
cannot be done, even by those whose hearts are full of love 
to men. But when a person is really kind and benevolent, 
a thousand kindnesses and benevolences will flow daily 
around them, and make them pleasant to their fellow- 
creatures, so that their loss will be felt and lamented by all. 
l’oor Mrs. Roberts ! her good things had not been scattered 
around; her heart had not been enlarged towards her poorer | 
brethren ; and she had even requited the attentions of her ! 
superiors very unhandsomely. 
It has pleased the Lord of mercy to raise her again from ! 
her sick bed ! The day of grace lias not yet closed upon 
her; she has time afforded her, and those who have most 
kindly waited upon her, without fee or reward, are well fitted 
to set before her “ the things that belong unto her peace,” 
if she will but hear them. She is able again to creep out 
into the world, but the very people she has lived among did 
not know her again when they first saw her; her face was 
that of a stranger to them, so greatly is she changed. 
Readers ! can this be called rest, or peace ? It is a proof 
of the long-suffering of the Lord, but it. is not happiness. 
Oh ! that,the raising up of the body may lead to the raising 
up of the soul, and then her “ peace will be as a river.” 
Money can give no comfort, nor, indeed, can all the works 
of the law give pardon and peace, if we laboured ever so 
hard to do them. There is hut one work which can give us 
peace, and rest, and save our souls alive. May it please the 
God of all grace to enable us, readers, as well as her, to do 
it. What is this one work? The Word of the Lord shall 
tell us. 
“ Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of 
God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” 
SEA WEEDS.—No. 9. 
SUB-CLASS 2. 
Rhodospermeie or. Cera mtat.e s. 
(Continued from page 408.) 
The exquisitely beautiful plants contained in this second 
great division of the Marine Algfe are. very numerous and 
lorm a large proportion of the whole. They vary in colour, 
from the finest rose, or even scarlet, to purple and reddish- 
brown ; and it is a curious fact, that the finest colours are 
developed in deep pools, or where the plants are shaded by 
the large Melanosperms. A labouring man, who is much 
interested in all branches of Natural History, and is now de¬ 
voting some of his leisure hours to the study of sea plants, 
gives me an interesting account of his having discovered the 
beautiful rosy Dclesseria sang uine a growing on rocks covered 
by about five or six fathoms of water w r ken the tide is full. 
He can only visit these rocks at very low ebb tides, and even 
then he has to rvade in water about three feet deep. He l 
describes the rocks as covered by a crust of sand resembling 
a honey-comb, and filled with a kind of worm, with many feet 
or suckers. He says, that the Dclesseria looks beautiful when 
waving to and fro in the water, contrasted with the dark 
green and olive weeds. The shell-fish moving about in all 
directions, so numerous as to remind him of the people in a 
large town, all seeming to have a portion of work to do, and | 
all in the greatest hurry imaginable. Then it struck this 
energetic naturalist that it was a strange thing how many j 
men had lived all their lives in the neighbourhood of these 
wonders of the creation without once looking aside to notice 
them; and he thanked God for giving him a desire to in¬ 
vestigate the works of His hands. 
He speaks of another of the red weeds, whose habitation 
is also in deep water, growing on very soft sand, or rather 
mud—this is Grijfithsia setacca; and it must be in great pro¬ 
fusion, for he says, that when covered by the sea the bank 
looked like blood! It is of a full, rich red, and has some 
remarkable properties, which I shall mention when I des¬ 
cribe it. I now proceed to 
ORDER 7.—RHODOMELACEiE. 
“ Red or brown sea-w r eeds, with a leafy or filiform areolated 
or filiform frond, composed of polygonal cells.”— Harvey. 
ODONTHALIA.— Lyngh. 
From two words signifying a tooth and a branch. 
1. On ox tit alia dentata (Toothed).—Root a hard disk, 
with irregularly branching winged fronds of a deep red, 
becoming almost black as the plant advances in age, but 
forming very beautiful specimens when young, and adhering 
well to paper, which it does not do late in the season. 
“ Frond branching, spreading, the branches distichous, 
alternately pinnatifid, pinnulse toothed at their apex; cap¬ 
sules ovate, pedunculate, panicled, in axillary clusters.”— 
Grev. I believe this may be considered as a northern weed. 
I have beautiful specimens from Arran and Saltcoats. 
2. RHODOMELA.— Ag. 
From two words signifying red and black. 
1. Riiodomela lycopodioides (Lycopodium - like).— 
“Frond cylindrical, elongated, mostly simple, densely clothed 
with finely divided bushy ramuli, intermixed with the seta 
ceous remains of a former series at their base.”— Greville, 
