Far, far from hence, your feet unhallowed take, Today sweet Concord has the ruling power. FLORA.- NOBLE LIVERWORT Anemone Hepatica flowers about this time, or even sooner, in very mild seasons, and continues all the Spring. There are three principal varieties, the Purple, the Blue, and the White Hepatica, and they are sometimes double. Coming early, they are a desirable acquisition in gardens, and when growing in batches, their flowers make a rich glow at a distance, when the borders are comparatively bare of blooms. The root has a fancied resemblance to the liver, which our forefathers regarded as a natural indication that this plant might be medicinally useful in diseases of that viscus. The same delusive notions gave rise to the names of Pilewort, Wartwort, and others. About this time the Scented Coltsfoot or Shepherd of Edonia goes quite out of flower, and its leaves begin to grow strong, and the root to spread. Why this highly fragrant Plant has received the name of Shepherd of Madonna or properly Edonia, it is difficult to guess. Edon was and is a mountain of Thrace, and that country, and from it, in poetry, northern climes in general, are sometimes called Edonia. Thus Virgil, in Aeneid. xii. 365: Huic comitem Asbuten conjecta cuspide mittit: Ac velut Edoni Boreae cum spiritus alto Insonet Aegaeo, sequiturque ad littora fluctus, Qui venti incubuere; fugam dant nubila coelo. But why should this plant, a native of Italy, derive a name from Thrace? We have only been able to discover the words Shepherd of Edonia in one instance of a popular song, which, having obtained a copy of, we insert: The Shepherd of Edonia. The shepherd of Edonia being weary of his sport, He drank of the cold brook, and eat of the tree, As he walked out on one evening so clear, A heavenly sweet voice sounded soft in his ear, He stopped a moment to hear her discourse, O he knew not what ailed him, but feared it was love. His heart being revived, unto her he said, I was never surprised before by a maid, When first I beheld you from love I was free, But now you have stolen my poor heart from me. February 21. St. Verda, V. M. and others. rises at vI. 51'. and sets at v. 9'. Terminalia.-Rom. Cal. FLORA.-PARTICOLOURED CROCUS Crocus versicolor flowers. This must be distinguished from a variety of the Yellow Spring Crocus, figured in Bot. Mag. 1111. The Terminalia, celebrated this day in ancient Rome, were feasts in honour of Terminus, the God of Bounds, represented as having a head, but no limbs nor organs of motion; indicating thereby, that the limits of property being once fixed, were immoveable. The worship of this Deity was first introduced by Numa Pompilius, in order to make the people respect the Landmarks of each other. Terminus had a Temple on the Tarpeian Rock, where, as fable goes, he refused to resign the site of it to Jove himself, who desired a Temple there, and was at length forced to build it collaterally. Hence Ovid, in 'his Fasti, observes : Terminus ut memorant veteres inventus in aede The Romans used to assemble near the bounds of their property, and trace them, similar to the parochial perambulations which now take place on Holy Thursday. Property has, in every stage of Society, been highly respected and protected by the law; and "cursed is he," says the Psalmist," who moveth his neighbour's landmark." The natural propensity to appropriate certain things to oneself, is the real foundation of property, and is an instinct common to man and animals; see an elaborate account of this feeling, and its material Organs in the Brain, in Gall and Spurzheim's Organology. We shall amuse our readers today, after this digression, by inserting another of the much esteemed songs of Ariel, from Shakespeare's Tempest: Ariel's Song. Where the bee sucks, there suck 1, In a cowslip's bell 1 lie; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly, Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. At this time of year, Winter Gardens, or those composed of Evergreens, and adorned with Greenhouses, prove to us the value of planting our grounds for recreation with Shrubs that do not cast their leaves: for if clear warm weather happen at this time of year, we may, in such gardens, enjoy a temporary Summer. An annual writer observes: "Although the cheerful scenes of a great city, its glittering shops, passing thousands, and countless attractions of every kind, draw many from the country at this season, there are even now rural sights and rural sounds, which have much to charm the eye, the ear to please, particularly "If now the Sun extends his cheering beam, And through thin mist each object looks more fair. There dark green pines, behind, their boughs extend, And laurels mix their glossy oval leaves; And gilded holly crimson fruit displays, And white viburnum o'er the border strays. Where these from storms the spacious greenhouse screen, There crystal sashes ward the injurious cold, While striped geranium shows its tufts of red, February 22. St. Margaret of Cortona, Penitent. CHAIR OF ST. PETER at Antioch. St. Peter, before he went to Rome, founded the See of Antioch, an event which has been celebrated on this day ever since the year 354, if not earlier. St. Margaret of Cortona was converted from a vicious life, by seeing the corpse of her gallant lie putrid at her feet. See Butler's Lives, ii. 203. FLORA. DAISY or HERB MARGARET Bellis perennis is now seen in the meadows, and opens its pleasing flowers here and there in warm days in the evening Daisies close their flowers. Chaucer is perhaps the first that takes notice of the Horologium Florae, or opening and shutting of flowers at a particular time of the day. He thus speaks of the Daisy, and of the length of time in which it blows: As she that is of all flouris the floure, For as methought among her notis swete Which Dryden, in his own numbers, thus renders: And then the Band of Flutes began to play, To which a Lady sung a Virelay; The Daisy is so sweet when she begun The troops of Knights and Dames continued on And soothed my Soul, that it was Heaven to hear. The above notice of the Horologium Florae remind us of the able observations on this singular property of plants of the celebrated Linnaeus, on which we quote some remarks from the Calendar of Flora, Fauna, and Po топа : "On the Periodical Phenomena of Plants. "A phenomenon exists in plants which I have never seen fully treated of in any work on the physiology of vegetables, and on which I shall therefore offer a few observations. I allude to the periodical opening and shutting of flowers, and their particular causes. For example, some flowers are open all day, while others expand only in the evening. There are likewise noctiflorous plants, which close their flowers in the morning. In the above cases the degree of heat might be alleged as the exciting cause of the expansion of the flowers: but this will not hold good with regard to other vegetables, which open and shut their blooms at stated hours of the day, or at certain distances of time before changes of weather. In these latter cases we must look for some other cause of the phenomenon, perhaps to some electrical changes in the state of the atmosphere. In order, however, that facts may precede theory, I shall first notice a few of the particular phenomena. The Helianthus annuus exhibits a phenomenon which we can most clearly ascribe to the solar rays; namely, that of turning its flowers towards the sun; being directed eastward in the morning, south at noon, and westward in the evening. The name of Sunflower has, however, no connexion with this circumstance. The generality of flowers open at sunrise, and close in the evening. The Evening Primrose oenothera biennis opens at sunset, and closes before midnight. Most of the syngenesious plants are periodical, and have certain times of day for opening and shutting. The Tragopogon pratensis, or Yellow Goatsbeard, opens in the morning, and shuts at noon. The Tragopogon porrifolius does the same. The Hippochaeris radicata, and several others of this family, shut their flowers about three o'clock in the after noon. The Four o'clock Flower is also well known, and is nearly as regular as a watch. The Pimpernel does not open its flowers in the morning when rain is coming, and has become thereby an indicator of the ensuing weather. Hence there seems to be some particular periodical influence exerted on certain plants in the course of the day, and on others casually, in particular weather. In general I have remarked that the syngenesious and composite flowers are most under the influence of the former. What this influence consists in is unknown; neither has any conjecture been made, unless that of the electric state of the air varying at stated periods of the day; but the |