CALENDAR FOR MAY , 
23 
at which it is kept, and which, therefore, can be better done by every one for 
his own locality, than by any one attempting to generalize it. The weather 
is a very important study to all cultivators, and parties interested in plants ; and, 
therefore, we shall take occasion to treat as often and as extensively of its 
philosophy as our limits will permit—the more so, that it is a subject very open 
o quackery. 
CALENDAR FOR MAY. 
The reader will have the kindness to consider the present calendar as a 
mere skeleton of the subjects which future ones are intended to embrace, 
and also as a guide to himself if he is disposed to assist us in giving proper 
extent, interest, and value to this department. 
It must be borne in mind, too, that calendars, whether of flowers in bloom, 
of work to be done, or of any thing else, vary, with situations, with soils, with 
modes of treatment, and with the characters of different years ; so that a plant 
which is described as blooming most generally in the May of one year, may 
do so in the June or the April of another. 
WILD FLOWERS. 
These are, upon the whole, rather backward this year, though they are very 
promising. Among the principal are the Speedwells ( Veronica ), with their 
delicate blue flowers, abundant both upon the plains, and to a considerable 
height upon the hills ; the early Grasses, and conspicuous among them the 
Vernal Grass ( Anthoxanthum odoratum), which gives so sweet a perfume to 
hay ; the Wild Blue Hyacinths, the Lily of the Valley, and various other 
bulbous-rooted plants; the common Meadow Saffron ; numerous Saxifrages, 
and Stitchworts ; the various wild Ranunculi, or Crowfoots, which are yellow or 
white, and some of the white ones ornament the pools of water; the Carex or 
Sedge family, which are very numerous ; the various tribes of Willows, with 
their downy catkins; six or seven species of Orchis; several of the smaller 
Trefoils; the Cronetbills; the Fumitories; the Broom; most of the Violet 
tribe ; and many of the flowering-shrubs which come later or earlier according 
to the character of the season. 
In future, this and the other departments will be restricted to the more cha¬ 
racteristic wild flowers, and some account of their favourite habitats and soils 
will be given. In fact, the object will be to give an outline of the floral 
character of the month in so far as it can be represented in few words. For 
May, this is less essential than for the later months, because all the gay world 
is in town in May, and the working world in the country too busy for 
attending much to wild flowers. 
BORDER FLOWERS AND SHRUBS. 
The herbaceous border flowers which bloom best in May, are those which 
have some analogy to the wild flowers of the same season. Many of the 
early bulbs are still in perfection; and the foreign and cultivated members of 
the Primrose family add great interest to the borders, if judiciously blended 
with those more highly coloured flowers which are to come later in the season. 
