Carna'tion, a fine and fragrant flower whose varieties of colour and luxuriance are innumerable. Class Decandria, order Digynia, genus Dianthus. THE infinite variety of flowers is not less a subject of admiration than their regular succession, and equally evinces consummate wisdom and design. This diversity is not discernible only in the different families of flowers, but it is to be seen in the individuals. In a bed of tulips or carnations, there is scarcely a flower in which some difference may not be observed in its structure, size, or assemblage of colours; nor can any two flowers be found in which the shape and shades are exactly similar. Flowers have not only furnished the poets with inexhaustible description, but the philosophers in every age with a variety of moral sentiments. Those who have gathered a rose, know but too well how soon it withers; and the familiar application of its fate to that of human life and beauty is not more striking to the imagination than philosophically and literally true. The following interesting account has been given by Sir John Hill of what appeared on examining a carnation. Its fragrance led me to enjoy it frequently and near; the sense of smelling was not the only one affected on these occasions; while that was satisfied with the powerful sweet, the ear was constantly attacked by an extremely soft but agreeable murmuring sound. It was easy to know that some animal within the covert, must be the musician, and that the little noise must come from some little creature suited to produce it. I instantly distended the lower part of the flower, and placing it in a full light, could discover troops of little insects frisking with wild jollity among the narrow pedestal that supported its leaves, and the little threads that occupied its centre. What a fragrant world for their habitation! What a perfect security from all annoyance, in the dusky husk that surrounded the scene of action! Adapting a microscope to take in at one view the whole base of the flower, I gave myself an opportunity of contemplating what they were about, and this for many days together, without giving them the the turbance. Thus I could discover their economy, 3, and their enjoyments. The microscope had occasion, what nature seemed to have denied of contemplation. The base of the flower exder its influence to a vast plain; the slender the leaves became trunks of so many stately cedars; hreads in the middle seemed columns of massy structure, pporting at the top their several ornaments; and the narrow spaces between were enlarged in walks, parterres, and terraces. On the polished bottoms of these, brighter than Parian marble, walked in pairs, alone, or in larger companies, the winged inhabitants; these from little dusky flies, for such only the naked eye would have shown them, were raised to glorious glittering animals, stained with living purple, and with a glossy gold that would have made all the labours of the loom contemptible in the comparison. I could at leisure, as they walked together, admire their elegant limbs, their velvet shoulders, and their silken wings; their backs vieing with the empyrean in its blue; and their eyes each formed of a thousand others, out-glittering the little planes on a brilliant; above description, and too great almost for admiration. I could observe them here singling out their mates, entertaining them with the music of their buzzing wings, with little songs formed for their little organs, leading them from walk to walk among the perfumed shades, and pointing out to their taste the drop of liquid nectar just bursting from some vein within the living trunk; here were the perfumed groves, the more than myrtle shades of the poet's fancy realized. Here in the triumph of their little hearts, they skipped from stem to stem among the painted trees; or winged their short flight to the close shadow of some broader leaf "All formed with proper faculties to share The daily bounties of their Maker's care.” NOTE. The night-flowering cereus (cactus grandiflorus) is one of our most splendid hot-house plants, and is a native of Jamaica and some other of the West India Islands. Its stem is creeping, and thickly set with spines. The flower is white and very large, sometimes nearly a foot in diameter. The most remarkable circumstance with regard to the flower is the short time it takes to expand, and the rapidity with which it decays. It begins to open late in the evening, flourishes for an hour or two, then begins to droop, and before morning is completely dead. Zo-ology, that branch of natural history which treats of animals. FEW departments of knowledge are more interesting than the natural history of animals, and the attention given to it in the present age furnishes the best evidence that its claims to notice begin to be fully estimated. In our own country the inducements to its cultivation are peculiarly strong, for our immense lakes, forests, and mountains, have as yet been but imperfectly explored by naturalists, and the little that is known of their productions leads to the belief, that they contain abundance to encourage and reward the labours of science. The study of Zoology is particularly advantageous to the young, from its direct tendency to cultivate one of the most useful habits of the mind, that of attentive observation of things of common and daily occurrence. Its objects are every where around us,-swimming in the waters, flying in the air, walking the earth, and burrowing beneath it. One set provides our food and clothing, another purloins and destroys them. Some attack, and others protect us. Their forms are continually before our eyes, and their voices always sounding in our ears. In order to treat clearly of the animal kingdom, it is ne cessary to consider it according to some method of arrangement, by which those animals which most resemble one another are connected together for the convenience of description. This arrangement is founded upon their form and structure, and separates them into various divisions and subdivisions, according to their degree of similarity, and the points in which their structures correspond. Such a system of arrangement is called a classification of the animal kingdom; and an accurate acquaintance with the principles on which it is founded will be of great assistance to the student of natural history. All animals are divided in the first place into two grand divisions, namely, into vertebral, embracing those that have a spine, or vertebres, and into invertebral, comprehending all FIRST CLASS OF ANIMALS. 213 those that are destitute of a spine, or vertebral column. The vertebral animals are subdivided into four classes, and the invertebral into five. (See Appendix.) Each of the classes is divided into a greater or less number of orders, distinguished by some important, clear, and remarkable peculiarities of conformation and structure, which are common to all the animals included under each of them. Orders are subdivided into genera. These comprehend animals that have a general external resemblance to each other, a kind of family likeness. Genera are made up of species. Each distinct kind of animal constitutes a species, and they are known from one another by their size, colour, form, and various other circumstances of external appearance. Each kind of animal, then, constitutes a distinct species; a number of species taken together form a genus; those genera which have important and well defined points of resemblance in structure and conformation common to all, are placed together in an order; whilst upon a similar principle, but more extensive in its application, these orders are marshalled into separate classes. QUESTIONS-1. What are the inducements to the study of Zoology in our own country? 2. Why is this study advantageous to the young 3. Upon what is a classification of the animal kingdom founded? 4. What are the first two grand divisions? 5. How are these subdivided? 6. What are classes? 7. Orders? 8. Genera? 9. Species? 10. Give a general definition of species, genus, order, and class. 11. What are the nine classes of the animal kingdom? 12. How many and what are the classes according to Linnæus? [NOTE. In the exercise of reading, the words included in parentheses and italicized should be passed over. They are placed in the lessons that the attention of pupils may be particularly directed to them. Pupils should mention them in answering the questions.] LESSON 96. The first Class of Animals (Mammalia.) THE animals of this class are distinguished for a more perfect bodily structure, for more varied faculties, more delicate sensations, a more elevated intelligence, and greater capability of improvement by imitation and education, than those of any other. It is to this class that man, considered as an object of natural history, properly belongs. He is arranged with the animals of this class, because he nearly resembles them in structure and organs, though raised in reality far above them by the possession of intellectual and moral powers almost infinitely superior. The structure of an animal is always found to correspond to its character, mode of life, and food; and those, therefore, which have a similar structure, resemble one another to the same extent in other particulars. From the formation of the anterior extremities of an animal, we may judge of the degree of address of which he is capable, and of the kind of motions he is able to perform; and from the structure of his teeth, what is the nature of his food. Thus, the fore-feet of animals may be either enveloped in hoofs, or armed withi claws, or furnished with slender nails; and the perfection of the sense of touch will be in proportion to the delicacy of these organs respectively. Thus too, there are three kinds of teeth; the incisive or cutting teeth, the canine or lacerating teeth, and the molar or grinding teeth; but all animals have not each of these kinds of teeth, nor are they of the same shape and formation in all animals. It is principally from a regard to these parts, that naturalists have proceeded in the arrangement of this class of animals. The orders thus formed are nine in number. (See Appendix.) Of the first order (Biman'a) man is the only example. In point of adroitness, skill, and address, the structure of his body and the faculties of his mind give him great advantages over other animals. In consequence of his erect position, he has the free use of his hands, and his arms have unincumbered and various motions in every direction. There are several distinct races of mankind inhabiting different portions of the earth, which differ one from another more or less in form, in features, in complexion, and in character. The cause of these varieties has never been satis. factorily pointed out. They have been attributed to climate, to situation, and to manner of life, but none of these circumstances appear sufficient to produce them, and we therefore still remain in ignorance on the subject. But notwithstanding the differences in man, he maintains every where a decided rank, far above that of any other animal. He is the only one which has the power of communicating its thoughts and feelings by articulate speech; the only one which can |