Who shall even dare

To say we sprang not there

And came not down, that Love might bring one piece of heaven the

Oh! pray believe that angels

From those blue dominions

[more1?

Brought us in their white laps down, 'twixt their golden pinions.

LEIGH HUNT.

LESSON VIII. THE CACTUS FAMILY.
[EXOGENOUS or DICOTYLEDONOUS; Angiosperms; Polypetalous.]

1. Cac'tus hexago'nus, Four-angled cactus, xi. 1, w., 35 f., Jl.-Au., S. Am. 2. C. speciosis'simus, Beautiful cactus, xi. 1, cr., 3 f., Jl., S. Am. 3. C. flagellifor'mis, Creeping or Snake cactus, xi. 1, pk., 6 f., M.-Jn., Peru. 4. C. opuntia, Prickly-pear cactus, xi. 1, y., 2 f., Jl.-Au, Mexico. 5. C. curassa'vicus, Pin-pillow cactus, xi. 1, y., 6 f., Jn.-J., S. Am. 6. C. peres'kia, Gooseberry cactus, xi. 1, w., 5 f., O.-N., W. Indies. 7. C. phyllanthoi'des, Winged cactus, xi. 1, pk., 2 f., Jn., W. Indies. 8. Echinocac'tus mammillarioi' des, Melon cactus, xi. 1, y. and r., 6 in., JL-Au., Chili.

Mammilla'ria caespito'sa,

1. Wno hung thy beauty on such rugged stalk',
Thou glorious flower'?

Who poured the richest hues,
In varying radiance, o'er thy ample brow,
And, like a mesh, those tissued stamens laid
Upon thy crimson lip'?

Lone, o'er thy leafless stem,

Thou bidd'st the queenly rose, with all her buds,
Do homage, and the green-house peerage bow
Their rainbow coronets."-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

2. Thus beautifully writes an American poetess of a beautiful flower of the rough

a Cactus flower of the Up cactus family. And this family is exclusively American, not one of its eight hund

per Missouri.

red species having ever been found, as native, in any other part of the world. The name by which the kinds of cactus common in the Northern and Middle States are known, is prickly pear. The absence of leaves in most of the species, and the presence of very showy flowers, render this family remarkable. The plants consist chiefly of a fleshy stem, sometimes globular or egg-shaped, sometimes cylindrical, triangular, and even flat, but always armed with prickles.

3. The cactus is found abundantly in Mexico, and is painted on the flag of the Mexicans, and stamped on their money; Of its many species, the night-blooming cereus2 is perhaps the most remarkable, not so much on account of its large white flower, although that is sometimes nearly a foot in diameter, as for the season of its unfolding its beauties, the short time which 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.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

"Now departs day's garish' light

Beauteous flower', lift thy head'!
Rise upon the brow of night!

Haste, thy transient lustre shed'!
Night has dropp'd her dusky veil-
All vain thoughts be distant far,
While, with silent awe, we hail
Flora's radiant evening star.

See to life her beauties start;

Hail! thou glorious, matchless flower'!
Much thou sayest to the heart

In this solemn, fleeting hour.

Ere we have our homage paid',

Thou wilt bow thy head and die';
Thus our sweetest pleasures fade',
Thus our brightest blessings fly.

Sorrow's rugged stem, like thine',

Bears a flower thus purely bright;
Thus, when sunny hours decline,
Friendship sheds her cheering light."

9. Other species of the cactus, more delicate in structure than the famous cereus2 already described, a few of them leafy, some of them creeping plants, and most of them remarkable for their beauty and fragrance, also bloom in the night season; and it is one of these which has been made the medium, by a gifted writer, of conveying the following beautiful moral:

10.

UNPRETENDING WORTH.

Come, look at this plant, with its narrow, pale leaves,
And its tall, thin, delicate stem,

Thinly studded with flowers-yes, with flowers-there they are;
Don't you see, at each joint there's a little brown star'?
But, in truth, there's no beauty in them'.

bell

11.

12.

13.

So you ask why I keep it-the little mean thing'?
Why I stick it up here, just in sight'?

'Tis a fancy of mine. A strange fancy, you say.

No accounting for tastes-in this instance you may cancer
For the flower. But I'll tell you to-night, a

Some six hours hence, when the lady moon
Looks down on that bastioned wall,

When the twinkling stars glance silently
On the rippling surface of the sea,

14.

And heavy the night dews fall

Then meet me again in this casement niche,
On this spot-nay, do not say no,

Nor question me wherefore; perhaps with me
To look out on the night, and the bright broad sea,
And to hear its majestic flow.

Well, we're met here again, and the moonlight sleeps
On the sea and the bastioned wall;

And the flowers there below-how the night wind brings
Their delicious breath on its dewy wings;

But there's one, say you tweeter than all

15 What is it? the myrtle or jessamine'?*
Or their sovereign lady, the rose' ?-

Or the heliotrope, or the virgin's bower'?
What'! neither'? Oh, no, tis some other flower,
Far sweeter than any of those.

Far sweeter'? And where think you groweth the plant
That exhaleth that perfume rare'?

Look about, up and down, but take care, or you'll break y
With your elbow that poor little thing that's so weak.

Why, 'tis that smells so sweet, I declare'!

Ah ha! is it that'? Have you found out now
Why I cherish that odd little fright'?

All is not gold that glitters, you know,

And it is not all worth makes the greatest show,
In the glare of the strongest light'.

There are human flowers, full many, I trow,4
As unlovely as that by your side,
That a common observer passeth by
With a scornful lip and a careless eye,

In the heyday of pleasure and pride.

But move one of these to some quiet spot.
From the midday sun's broad glare,

Well I think I have jouner hat

Where domestic peace broods with dove-like wing,
And try if the homely, despised thing

May not yield sweet fragrance there.

Or wait till the days of trial come,

The dark days of trouble and woe,

When they shrink and shut up, late so bright in the sun;

Then turn to the little despised one,

And see if 'twill serve you so.

And judge not again, at a single glance,

Nor pass sentence hastily.

There are many good things in this world of ours,

Many, sweet things and rare, weeds that prove precious flowers,
Little dreamt of by you or by me.-MRS. SOUTHEY.

1 €ŎR ́-0-NET, a little crown.

2 CE'-REUS (se'-rûse), in two syllables.

19 GAR'-ISH, gaudy; splendid.

4 TROW, suppose or think.

out.

Equivalent to, "Do you ask, "What is it'? the myrtle or jessamine'?" etc., similar to the questions in the eleventh verse; and therefore they take the rising inflection.

LESSON IX.-LEGUMINOUS AND UMBELLIFEROUS PLANTS. [EXOGENOUS OF DICOTYLEDONOUS; Angiosperms; Polypetalous.]

10

Umbelliferous Family.

3

Leguminous Family.

1. Lupi'nus peren'nis, Wild lupine, xvi. 10, b., 18 in., My.-J., N. Am. 2. Erythri'na herba'cea, Herbaceous corol-tree, xvi. 10, s., 3 f., Jn.-S., Carolina. 3. Robin'ia pseu'do aca'cia, Locust-tree, xvi. 10, pu., 40 f., My.-Jn., N. Am. 4. Mimo'sa sensiti'va, Sensitive plant, xv.10, pk.,18 in., A.-S., Brazil. 5. Hæmatox'ylon Campechia'num, Logwood, x. 1, y., 20 f., J.-J., S. Am. 6. Indigo'fera stric'ta, Upright indigo, xvi. 10, pu., 3 f., Jl.– Au., C. Good Hope. 7. Dau'cus caro'ta, Wild carrot (also cultivated), v. 2, w., 3 f., Jn.J., Europe. 8. Sium latifolium, Water parsnip, v. 2, w., 3 f., Jl.–Au., N. Am. 9. Cơnium macula'tum, Poison hemlock, v. 2, w., 4 f., Jn.-Jl., Europe. 10. A'pium graveo'lens, Garden celery, v. 2, w., 4 f., Jn.-Au., Europe.

2

1. THE leguminous or pod-bearing plants comprise a large family, highly useful to mankind, and some of whose species are familiar to all. They are characterized either by a papilionaceous corolla or a leguminous fruit. The pea, the bean, locust, clover, and lupine are familiar examples in northern regions; and the acacias, mimosas, logwood, rosewood, sandal - wood, coroltrees, and indigo plants, in tropical

1. Legume of pea, open. 2 and Countries. Many of the valuable gums and balsams of commerce, medicines,"

3. Papilionaceous corollas.

and coloring materials are obtained from this numerous family.

2. As objects of ornament, many of these plants are possessed of unrivaled beauty, and are favorites in our green-houses; but it is in tropical countries that they appear in their greatest splendor. There, flowers of the corol-tree, of the deepest crimson, fill the forests, and climbing plants of every hue hang in festoons from branch to branch; the acacias, with their trembling airy foliage, and often truly golden flowers, cast a charm over even the most sterile regions of the tropics; while the pastures and meadows of the same latitudes are enameled with the flowers of myriads of hedysarums, and animated by the wonderful motion of the mimosas, or sensitive plants.

3. Who has not read Shelley's beautiful little poem, beginning,

"A sensitive plant in a garden grew,

And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it spread its fanlike leaves to the light,
And closed them beneath the kisses of night."

The sensitive plants, often cultivated in gardens as objects of curiosity, shrink from the touch, and make a variety of movements under the varying influences of shade and sunlight, like beings endowed with rational life.

Weak with nice sense, the chaste mimosa stands,
From each rude touch withdraws her timid hands;
Oft, as light clouds o'erpass the summer's glade,
Alarm'd she trembles at the morning shade,
And feels, alive through all her tender form,
The whisper'd murmurs of the gathering storm;
Shuts her sweet eyelids to approaching night,

And hails, with freshen'd charms, the rosy light.-Darwin.

The cause of the peculiar motions of these plants has been a subject of much investigation, but the question still continues to be asked, without any very satisfactory answer,

Whence does it happen that the plant which well
We name the sensitive, should move and feel?
Whence know her leaves to answer her command,

And with quick horror fly the approaching hand?-PRIOR

4. The umbelliferous plants, also a large family, mostly natives of temperate regions, and distinguished for their umbel or umbrella-shaped flowers, like those of the carrot, present some very strange contrasts of character. While in their

Such as gum Arabic, produced by the acacia Arabica; gum lac; gum Senegal; gum tragacanth; gum kino; balsams of copaiva and Peru; and a hedysarum which produces

manna.

b The senna of commerce; licorice; cowitch, which consists of the stinging hairs of the pods of a plant; etc.

• Brazil wood; logwood; red sandal-wood; indigo, etc.