yield us with submission to his guidance, accepting meekly the chastisement he finds needful to the effecting of his gracious purposes. And in that which rests with us, in the doing on our part what his declared will requires we know, alas! how much within us stands still opposed to this-our habits, our passions, and the seeming interests of this world-our self-indulgence, and indolence, and earthliness-persuasion, and temptation, and example-all will come in to the battle. But whatever be our failures in the struggle, certain it is that God's will must be of more account to us than all of these, or any other thing that can be opposed to it. And how sincere, and how earnest, and how often, must go up the prayer, that our Father's will may prevail, even against ourselves, compelling us to yield to it, and enabling us to do it.

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

THE STUDY OF NATURE.

BOTANY.
(Continued from page 231.)

CLASS 3.-TRIANDRIA-3 STAMENS.

OUR third Class of Botanical subjects, Triandria, is distinguished as the two former, by the number of Stamina in each flower. It is divided into four Orders, determined by the number of Pistils: the first Order, Monogynia, containing the flowers of one Pistil; the second, Digynia, of two; the third, Trigynia, of three; and the fourth, Enneagynia, of nine Pistils. We have no trees of this Class, and but a few, among our native plants, of what we usually call flowers-the greater part, and those very numerous, being the Rushes, Flags, and Grasses that clothe our landscape with undying green, and like the even back-ground of a beautiful picture, give

repose to the eye and relief to the more prominent beauties of the scene. The pale Primrose that opens in our

hedges to the first spring sunshine, would be but a cold and sickly object, were it not for the young grass that shoots forth to imbed it. And when every flower, and almost every leaf, has withdrawn itself from the icy touch of a long winter, the grass and the green rush remain to tint the faded landscape and keep up the promise of better days. But it is for other qualities than beauty this class of vegetables is distinguished. Minutely examined, their parts are exquisitely and most curiously formed, while their delicate and fragile texture excites in the mind the idea of skill and difficulty in their formation, even more than in that of their more splendid neighbours. Yet nature claims not for them the palm of beauty in general-we neither transplant them to our gardens nor choose them for our bosoms. But to that which Providence has made the least beautiful in the vegetable world, has been assigned in general the most extensive utility. While the Rose and the Tulip are but the embellishments of our garden, the Cabbage and the Potatoe are articles of every-day use-so while the azure blue, and the brilliant pink, and the dazzling yellow of our hedge-flowers, seem but the superfluity of charms with which nature decks our world, the plants that are clad in russet green, or scarcely-tinted olive, are those on which our very existence is made to depend.

ORDER I.-MONOGYNIA-1 PISTIL.

In this first Order of our third Class we have a few very beautiful flowers; and being among those with which we are most familiar, we shall find little difficulty in discovering them. The Valeriana, Valerian, is so common in our gardens, that on finding it wild we shall probably at first sight detect its affinity to our old acquaintance. But the Red Valerian having usually one Stamen only, we may be misled as to the class in which we are to seek it. This is an irregularity that occurs sometimes, though

not very frequently, in distinct species of certain Genera, and yet does not entitle us to separate them from the family to which they evidently belong. In another of the Valerians we have the Pistils and the Stamens on separate plants, a circumstance, as we have mentioned before, of frequent occurrence. We are not aware of any other difficulty or peculiarity that needs to be explained in this Genus. One of its species, the Valeriana Officinalis, is much valued as a medicine.

The Bryonia, Bryony, or Wild Vine, is but of one species, obscure in the flower, but in its wreaths of red berries, and tasteful winding branches, most extremely beautiful. In this state we are probably all acquainted with it, though we may not have observed it in the flower; as the berries are beautiful in the hedges late in the year when almost without other ornament.

With the Crocus, Saffron, we are all familiar, and therefore need not pause to consider it. It is the first budding beauty of our gardens, and as a wild-flower not uncommon, though we believe confined to certain districts. From the summits of the Crocus Sativus is collected the article we call Saffron.

The Iris, Flag, or Fleur de Luce, with its large and splendid flowers, is equally well known to us. The yellow species is very common in marshy ground.

The specimen of this class we have selected for our plate, is the Ruscus Aculeatus, a plant sufficiently common to be easily procured, and remarkable for the manner in which the flower grows from the centre of the leaf. We find it in the hedges, a large and shrub-like plant, of no particular beauty, and difficult to gather from the thorny points of the leaves. Examining it, we find the flower in the centre of each leaf; but as the Stamens and Pistils are usually on different plants, we must examine several ere we can determine it to be of the Class Triandria, Order Monogynia. This decided, we wish to determine the Genus. We find the flower composed of six small leaves, which being all green, are considered as the