which by right he should never have questioned-the English king's right to homage for the English honours held by the Scottish king. But this pretext for invasion was unhappily much strengthened by the disgraceful treaty of Falaise, already mentioned.

Up to December, 1174, there had never been a question of homage for more than the Anglo-Scotch possessions, but in that year Henry II. of England took ample revenge for the injury William the Lion had done him by fomenting his domestic troubles, and by entering into engagements with the king of France adversely to the interests of England. William was captured in a foolhardy combat into which his courage precipitated him at Alnwick, and being brought to Northampton, was kept close prisoner till he would agree to the terms imposed by Henry. These terms included not only the render of homage for Northumberland and Cumberland, but for the whole of Scotland, over which kingdom Henry was to be acknowledged Lord Paramount. At York the homage was rendered, so eager was the Scotch king to be free, so eager was the Scotch nation to see him so. Soon after Henry II.'s death, Richard Cœur de Lion renounced the claim which had been wrung from William in captivity, and the kings of Scotland were remitted, so far as that kingdom was concerned, to the same position they had held before the treaty of Falaise.

But the right to homage survived, in the estimation at least of ambitious and interested men, the renunciation of it, and Edward I. availed himself of the first opportunity to re-assert his right in the most absolute and positive way.

else than detailed accounts of those scenes in which the heroes commemorated in the ballads took part. The border land, indicated by the Cheviot Hills, and extending from Berwick-onTweed, on the one side, to the Solway Frith on the other, was a theatre of never-ending war. The Scotch Earl Douglas was guardian of the border on the Scottish side, and the Percys, Earls of Northumberland, were wardens of the Marches on the English side; and these noblemen, without waiting for any ceremonious declaration of war, were wont, whenever they felt disposed to the exercise, to try conclusions for the honour of their country, themselves, their lady-love, or anything or anybody else, to open unexpectedly a little war on their own account. Thus does Shakespeare make Prince Henry (afterwards Henry V.) speak of Percy, "the Hotspur of the north; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife, 'Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.' 'O my sweet Harry,' says she, 'how many hast thou killed to-day?' 'Give my roan horse a drench,' says he, and answers 'Some fourteen," an hour after; a trifle, a trifle.'" Lesser chiefs, living in strongholds, some of which remain to this day, followed suit; and, moved by less noble instincts-by hunger, by greed, by bloodthirstiness pure and simple-inflicted enormous injury in their expeditions, which often extended far into the limits of either country. The damage done by these freebooters was not confined to the death and destruction which ever marked their advance or retreat; it was impossible that any sense of security, or that any of those national blessings which are attendant upon it, could have place while such things were done; and each new raid only furnished material for new disturbances by arousing in the minds of the spoiled a spirit of revenge and a sort of lust for retaliation, which were the fruitful source of bitter troubles to be. There was always war upon the border, which was a nursery for soldiers, and where the discipline among those who were nominally in the king's service must have been pretty severe. At least it must have been so in the time of Henry VIII., if we may judge from the order which was sent from the Privy Council to the general commanding in the north, when the Council wanted to punish Alderman Reed, citizen of London, for refusing to subscribe to a forced loan. The alderman was sent down to Sir Ralph Ewer, Henry's general, with a letter in which Sir Ralph was directed, in order to punish the man for resisting an illegal tax, to subject him to "the strong discipline militar of the northern war." Though war was constantly going on at the border, it was, unfortunately, not confined to it. Whenever the Plantagenet kings of England had time; whenever they had no other big foe on hand-no Frenchmen, Flemings, or Spaniards to fight; whenever they had an exchequer that would bear the cost; whenever they wanted to divert into a foreign channel activity and energy that would have been troublesome to them at home, they picked a quarrel with the King of Scotland, and invaded his kingdom. Pretexts were never wanting, whether they arose out of incidents connected with the border warfare, or whether they had an origin more general and national, and the war, when undertaken, was always of the bloodiest and most ruinous kind, both to assailant and defender. One pretext there was to which a semblance of right attached, after the treaty made at Falaise in Normandy, in December, 1174, between King William of Scot-point for any of his enemies who chose to make an alliance with land and Henry II. of England, a pretext of which the kings of England always availed themselves when all other excuses failed. The Scottish kings were nominal lords of Cumberland and Northumberland, by virtue of a grant made in Anglo-Saxon times by the earl of those parts, and for the two counties the king of England required his royal neighbour to do homage and swear to be his liegeman. Whenever this demand, because made roughly by design, or because it was disputed, was not complied with, the English king declared his vassal contumacious, and led an army into his territory to reduce him to obedience. Sometimes the fortune of war inclined to one side, sometimes to the other; but the more frequent course was for the English king or his lieutenant to march a certain distance into Scotland, killing, burning, and destroying en route, and then the Scotch having taken to the hills, whither the enemy could not follow them, but from which they could easily annoy and harass the enemy, the English troops would return, with little to compensate them for having gone so far into a poor and unsubdnable country. Sometimes the Scotch king procured that the English should retreat by conceding the point

It was at this juncture that the most popular heroes in Scottish history came upon the stage, and it was at this period that the Scottish nation began to show forth that spirit of enthusiastic patriotism which has been their chief characteristic ever since. The alliances which the Scots made with France, and from time to time with other occasional enemies of England, were only short-lived, and were entered into by those enemies quite as much in their own particular interests as out of a desire to do a service to Scotland. Indeed, though the first thing a Continental prince did, when about to declare war on England, was to secure the help of the Scots, so as to make a diversion of the English forces in his favour, the same prince was ever unwilling to help the Scots when their interests alone were concerned. Foreign alliances were therefore of little use to Scotland, and alone it was felt she was no match for her powerful southern neighbour-no match, that is to say, as France was a match-either in wealth, population, or resources. But when the element of desperation was added to the contest, when the Scots had the alternative of subjection or freedom, it was felt by the Scots at least, whatever other men thought, that they were fully equal to the warlike game, for they were ready to fight to the death, every man of them, rather than lose the "liberty that was dearer to them than life."

Such were the men, such was the spirit which Edward L proposed to himself to conquer. That great warrior and statesman looked with an evil eye upon the existence of an independent kingdom so close to his own. He saw in it a refuge for all the insurgent spirits, and there were plenty of them, among his own subjects, and saw in it also an excellent assailing the Scots. He could not bear to be at the mercy of the Scots for the safety of his northern boundaries, and he believed. probably, that the demoralising and injurious border warfare could be stopped only by abolishing the difference of jurisdiction which was the cause of the warfare. Add to this the desire for conquest and possession which seems to be natural to all princes of any worth, and we have a fair notion of the motives which induced King Edward to set about the conquest of the kingdom of Scotland.

The foundation, flimsy though it was, upon which he rested his claim, has been already pointed out. Let us see the occasion of which he availed himself to put his claim forward.

When Alexander III. died in 1284, Margaret, his granddaughter, known in history as the Maid of Norway, was sole and undoubted heir to the Scottish throne. She was a child at the time, and Edward I. conceived the idea of marrying her to his own son Edward, and so to join the two kingdoms. Arrangements were made for that purpose by consent of the barons of Scotland, safeguards being insisted on, however, for the due preservation of the distinct privileges and immunities of the Scotch

nation At Bingham, in July, 1290, the conditions of the marriage and of the international union were agreed upon; there seemed to be opening a fair prospect of concord and prosperity for the whole island, when the Maid of Norway unexpectedly died, and the union of the nations was postponed for nearly three centuries and a quarter.

With Margaret's death the line of Alexander III., on which the Scottish crown had been settled, became extinct, and the crown was to be won by him who could show the closest connection with the Scotch royal family.

LESSONS IN BOTANY.-XIV. SECTION XXV.-UMBELLIFERE, OR APIACEAE: THE UMBELLIFEROUS, OR PARSLEY TRIBE. PERHAPS there does not exist a natural family of vegetables more distinctly marked than this. Their general aspect alone, without going into anatomical minutiae of structure, is almost sufficient to distinguish them; nevertheless, we will indicate the botanical characteristics of this great natural order.

Characteristics: Calyx adherent to the ovary; petals, five, inserted upon an epigynous disc; æstivation valvular, involute; stamens, five, alternate with the petals; ovary, inferior, two-celled uniovular; ovule, pendent, reflexed; styles, two; carpels separating at the base; seed, dicotyledonous; leaves, alternate, simple, often divided, petiolate, in an involucre. The word epigynous, the only one in the preceding description of the characters of the Umbellifera that we have not met with before, means "growing on the summit of the ovary," from the Greek (ep'-i), upon, and yuvn (gu'-ne), a

woman.

Such are the precise botanical characteristics by which the umbelliferæ, or umbrella-bearers, as we may call them, are known; but, we repeat, their aspect is almost enough to distinguish them from other plants; not but that a few plants of other orders bear umbels, and many seem to bear umbels without doing so; but, generally speaking, the aspect of an umbelliferous plant is sufficient to characterise it.

Taking for our example a specimen of Fool's Parsley (Ethusa Cynapium,

What, then, is the fruit of an umbelliferous plant? We hear frequently enough of carrot, parsley, celery, and carraway seeds, but we do not hear of carrot, parsley, celery, and carraway fruits. Nevertheless, all these are fruits, not seeds. The real seed is embedded within the structure of a surrounding mass, as we found to be the case in the apple and pear. There the surrounding mass is fleshy and easily separable; here it is hard and firmly adherent; therefore the so-called seeds of umbel liferous plants are fruits of the kind which botanists denominate by the term achonium. All these fruits separate naturally when ripe, or admit of ready separation into two parts, and they are all furrowed; moreover, the nature and direction of these furrows differ in each species; of the order, consequently, they are an important means for enabling the botanist to distinguish umbelliferous species. The two grand peculiarities, then, of the umbelliferous tribe are, first, the presence of umbels; secondly, the inferior fruit separable into two portions. Why did we select a sprig of Fool's Parsley, as a specimen to illustrate the tribe Umbelliferee when so many more readily obtainable plants

existed ? For this reason: to show in what respect Fool's Parsley, which is poisonous, may be distinguished from the culinary parsley.

If the reader examines each terminal umbel of the Fool's Parsley, he will recognise at the base of it three leaflike things, which are bracts, and which, when they are arranged as we find them in umbelliferous plants, constitute each set an involucre. The student will observe that in the Ethusa Cynapium, or Fool's Parsley (Fig. 138), these bracts all point outwards, by which characteristic sign may the Fool's Parsley be distinguished not only from common parsley, but from all wild umbelliferous plants.

Whilst treating of these bracts, which in Umbellifera constitute the involucrum, the reader's attention may as well be directed to certain modifications of form which bracts are capable of assuming. Thus, in the oak they grow together and give rise to the acorn cup (Fig. 87, p. 341); in the pine-apple they grow together, become fleshy, and constitute the part we eat; in the fir-cone they constitute the scales; in Umbellifera, however, they assume the appearance of leaves, which, indeed, is their general or normal aspect. With regard to the physiological and chemical characteristics of the Umbellifera, they may be stated to depend on the presence either of an odorous volatile oil, or a poisonous matter. Everybody is aware how agreeably odorous are the so-called carraway seeds; everybody is aware of the poisonous nature of the hemlock; and the noxious character of the Fool's Parsley has already passed under notice. Umbelliferous plants may, therefore, be designated in general terms as suspicious plants, comprehending, however, a far greater number of innoxious than noxious species; the latter may be generally discovered by their agreeable, the former by their disagreeable odour.

Fig. 138), we shall find the floral part 136. BLOSSOM, LEAVES, AND FRUIT OF THE SAPUCAYA
to consist of a compound umbel; that
TREE (LECYTHIS OLLARIA).
is to say, little umbels attached to the

stems which constitute large ones (Vol. I., page 217, Fig. 66).
We shall find, both in the small and large umbels, that the
petioles, or flower-stalks, shoot forth from points exactly opposite
each other, otherwise the structure would not be an umbel. Take,
for example, the elder-tree. A general examination of its flower
would lead one to suppose that the elder was an umbelliferous
plant; but, on examining it more attentively, the petioles do not
branch off at a point exactly opposite each other; hence the in-
florescence of the elder-tree is not that of an umbel, but of a
eyme. Nevertheless, in the geraniums, and some other plants,
the inflorescence is really umbelliferous; hence the existence of
an umbel is not quite sufficient for the botanist to rely upon in
the discrimination of a plant belonging to the natural order
Umbelliferæ. Let us, therefore, examine some of the remaining
characteristics enumerated at the beginning of this description.
If we examine the flower of a parsley plant, we shall discover
that the calyx is almost absent. The petals, five in number,
spring from a narrow line or border. There are five stamens,
each arising from between two petals.

As in the apple, the ovary in an umbelliferous plant is inferior -that is to say, it appears below the calyx and corolla, inasmuch as the latter springs from above it.

|

In certain species of this natural order the innocent and the noxious principles are combined. This is the case in the wild celery, which in this condition is a rank plant, altogether unfitted for food. The change which ensues when celery is culti vated in gardens we are all aware of; but the reason of that change merits a few remarks. Garden celery, as the reader knows, is carefully buried in the earth, not only its root, but much of its stem being totally deprived of light. Under this treatment, the buried portion of the plant becomes etiolated or bleached; becomes, in point of fact, botanically considered, diseased; that is to say, the poisonous secretion of the plant is no longer elaborated, the odorous principle alone being formed. A consideration of the nature and effects of etiolation leads us

to a correct appreciation of the functions which those parts of vegetables exposed to the air and sun, especially leaves, are destined to perform, and points out the necessity of giving vegetables abundant air and light, if we would have them bring forth their natural productions. To stimulate those natural productions is, in most cases, the main object of agriculture and horticulture; occasionally, however, as in the example of celery, the ob

ject kept in view is the reverse of this.

The odorous principle in certain Umbelliferæ is of a resinous character; thus assafoetida is the produce of an umbelliferous plant growing in Persia. Opoponax and ammoniacum, both so valuable in medicine, are also the produce of umbelliferous plants.

Many of the Umbellifera contain sugar, so like that of the cane in every respect that sugar-loaves may be made of

it. Thus the presence of sugar may be recognised by the taste in the root of the carrot and the parsnip; also, in the root of celery, although less evidently. Indeed, sugar may be regarded as a pretty general concomitant of the umbelliferstructure; even in the juice of the poisonous hemlock it may be discovered by chemical tests.

ous

It would be a needless task to occupy space in pointing out the

various uses of

umbelliferous 137. BLOSSOM OF PARSLEY, ENLARGED.

seeds, flavour

SECTION XXVI.-MYRTACEE, OR THE MYRTLE TRIBE. Characteristics: Calyx, adherent; petals, in number equal to the divisions of the calyx, inserted on a disc around the throat of the latter; æstivation imbricated, rarely absent; stamens, ordinarily indefinite; ovary, usually two to six-celled, pluriovular, or containing many ovules; ovules, pendulous, reflexed or curved; style, simple; fruit, dry, or a berry; seed, dicotyledo

138. FOOL'S PARSLEY (ETHUSA CYNAPIUM). 139. DIDISCUS CERU.
LEUS. 140. FLOWER OF DIDISCUS CERULEUS, ENLARGED. 141. SECTION OF BLOSSOM AND OVARY OF
MYRTLE. 142. TRANSVERSE SECTION OF OVARY OF MYRTLE. 143. THE COMMON MYRTLE (MYRTUS
COMMUNIS). 144. BLOSSOM AND LEAF OF THE CLOVE-TREE (CARYOPHYLLUS AROMATICUS). 145. FRUIT OF

THE CLOVE-TREE,

nous, exalbumi

nous.

Such is the long list of general characters by which botanists recognise a plant of this great natural order; nevertheless, myrtles, like many other members of the vegetable world, have a sort of physiognomy of their own, more easily recognised than described. Perhaps the fragrant odour diffused by these beautiful plants is one of their most prominent characteristics. All the substance of a myrtle is more or less saturated with this odorous matter. Now we find it assumes its great est power in the bark, now in the flower buds, now in the leaves; but it is everywhere present more or less. Supposing the reader to have before him a leaf of the common myrtle, he need not be told that the leaf is odorous, especially when crushed between the fingers. Now, in what does the odour consist, and where does it come from? This, like the greater number of odorous principles furnished to us by the vegetable king

our pastry and confectionery; carrots and parsnips are amongst | dom, is a volatile oil, and in the myrtle leaf it is secreted the most favoured articles of our food; even the noxious hemlock yields a valuable medicinal substance, conia; and the resinyielding umbel-bearers pour forth their treasures in great profusion. By far the greater number of this family have white flowers; some, like the fennel, have yellow flowers, and a few have blue ones. Of the latter kind are most of the Eryngo genus, and the beautiful Didiscus Caruleus, of which we now give a representation (Fig. 139).

by specific organs, denominated glands. If a myrtle leaf be held between a candle, or other source of light, and the eye, these little glandular bodies will be seen like so many specks; it is within these glands that the volatile oil remains encased. Glands are not necessary for the secretion of volatile oil, nor are they necessarily confined to leaves. They exist in large quantities in the skin of members of the orange tribe, and it is from them that the inflammable volatile oil is emitted when a piece

of orange peel is squeezed between the fingers. Although the characteristic of agreeable odour is a very good common sign by which we may be justified in expecting that a plant may, in certain cases, belong to the Myrtacea, nevertheless it is a very loose sign when taken apart from others. We can only arrive at a correct botanical comprehension of the Myrtacea by studying some of the generic characters that have been mentioned in our preceding list.

If the specimen of common myrtle under examination be a sprig, not a single leaf, the student, before he lays it down, should observe that the leaves are opposite, not alternate (Fig. 143). Let us now examine the flower. The particular species under consideration has a calyx of five divisions, and there are also five petals, but in certain species these floral parts are generally four. The stamens are numerous, as will be readily observed; and the reader need not be told at this period of our labours that it is necessary to ascertain whether these stamens grow from the calyx or the receptacle. They grow from the calyx, as will be readily distinguished. The ovary is inferior; it contains three little cells, and each cell contains many ovules; and it shoots up a single style, which terminates in a small stigma so very minute that it cannot be seen by the naked eye.

Figs. 141 and 142 are representations of a vertical section of the flower and ovary of a common myrtle, and a transverse section of the ovary with adherent calyx, or rather the fruit with adherent calyx. If the reader examines Fig. 142, he will observe that the number of seed-cells in the species of myrtle under consideration is three, or, to use the language of Botany, the ovary is trilocular, or three-celled. If the reader now refer to the list of characteristics of this family, he will find the expression, "ovary, usually two to six-celled," which signifies that the number of cells may vary between two and six.

By well considering the characteristics already discussed, the student will be at no loss to recognise an individual of the myrtle tribe, even without taking into consideration minute microscopic peculiarities.

Let us now proceed to mention a few particulars in connection with the dimensions, natural habitation, and properties of this beautiful and useful botanical order.

The stem of the Myrtacea is generally woody, the leaves opposite or alternate, simple, entire, rarely stipulated; frequently, as we have seen, provided with secretive glandular appendages, embedded in the parenchyma. The flowers are complete, regular, solitary, or irregularly agglomerated. The greater number of myrtaceous plants have berries for their fruits; but some others, the principal of them being Australian plants, have a dry hard fruit; these, too, have alternate leaves, which is not usual in the myrtle tribe. The great districts for myrtles are the intertropical regions and Australia; only a few species existing in temperate climes. The spice sold as cloves is the produce of one of the myrtle tribe, Caryophyllus Aromaticus (Fig. 144), of which cloves are the dry flower-buds. Allspice is the berry of another (Eugenia Pimenta). Guava jelly, so valued and esteemed wherever it can be procured, is the conserve made of the mashed berries of a myrtle which grows in the West Indies. The pomegranate, too, a native of Northern Africa, but which now grows in the south of Europe, furnishes another example of a fruit-bearing myrtle.

In reviewing, then, the chemical and physiological characteristics of the Myrtacea, we learn that none of the tribe are poisonous. The greater number contain an abundance of fragrant oil. Some yield fruits which are delicious to eat; and all are imbued with a certain, but variable amount of astringent matter, similar to that contained in oak bark, whence it has been denominated tannic acid by the chemist.

LESSONS IN GERMAN.—XXIV.

SECTION XLV. PECULIAR IDIOMS. Sich erinnern corresponds, in signification, to the English verb "remember," as :- -Er erinnert sich meiner (§ 126), he remembers me (literally, he remembers himself of me). Ich erinnere mich jener schönen Zeit, I remember (remind myself of) that sweet time. In referring to a thing already learned, the verb behalten, “to keep, to retain," is generally used, as :-Ich kann die Wörter nicht (im Gedächtniß) behalten, I cannot retain or remember (keep in memory) the words. Er macht so viele Fehler, weil er die Regeln nicht behält, he makes so many mistakes, because he does not retain (remember) the rules.

1. The dative of a personal pronoun is frequently used instead of a possessive pronoun, as :- -Ich habe mir den Finger abgeschnitten, I have cut off my finger (I have to me the finger cut off). Gr gab es mir in die Hände, he gave it into my hands (he gave it to me in the hands).

2. The phrases es fällt schwer or es hält schwer are nearly synony. mous, and signify "to be hard, to be difficult," as:-Diesem armen Manne fällt es schwer, zu betteln, it is hard (it comes hard) for this poor man to beg. Es hielt schwer, ihn zu beruhigen, it was difficult to calm him.

ja, ich erinnere mich desselben noch sehr gut. 1. Können Sie sich des Tages meiner Ankunft nicht mehr erinnern? 2. 3. Es giebt viele Menschen, bie fich lieber ihrer schlechten, als ihrer guten Thaten erinnern. 4. Es hielt schwer, ihn von der Wahrheit dieser Erzählung zu überzeugen. 5. Es hält zuweilen schwer, etwas zu glauben, was wir nicht begreifen können. 6. G fällt tem armen, aber fleißigen Manne schwer, die Hülfe fremder Leute in Anspruch nehmen zu müssen. 7. Die englische Sprache fällt mir schwerer, Kenntnissen fiel es ihm nicht schwer, eine eben so gute, als angenehme Stelle als die französische. 8. Bei seinem Gelte, seinen Verwandten und seinen

10.

zu finden.
9. Warum lernt Ihr Bruder so viel schneller, als Sie?
Weil er ein besseres Gedächtniß hat, und die Wörter besser behalten kann.
Papier gegeben haben? 12. Ich kann mich dessen nicht mehr erinnern.
11. Können Sie sich nicht mehr erinnern, wem Sie die Bücher und das
13. Der Faulenzer behält die Regeln nicht, weil er dieselben nicht gründlich
fernt und lieber spielt, als arbeitet.
15. Er brückte dem armen Manne einen Thaler in die Hand. 16. In
14. Der Diebstahl ist ein Verbrechen.
der Ferne erinnern wir uns gern der Freunde. 17. Junge Leute tragen

In this country the myrtle requires protection during the zuweilen Brillen, um gelehrt auszuschen.

winter months in all districts north of the Thames, but in the the south of England, and especially along the coast of the western counties, it flourishes against a wall, often growing to a great height, and covering a considerable space with masses of dark-green foliage.

Many of the species of the myrtle tribe are very large trees. The Sapucaya tree, as it is called in Brazil (Lecythis Ollaria), is one of the tallest trees amongst the very tall ones that grow in Brazilian forests. In Fig. 136 the reader will find a representation of a branch of this species. How different from a branch of the common myrtle!

EXERCISE 87.

1. Do you remember the day of the arrival of your friend? 2. Yes, I remember the day very well. 3. Most people remember the years of their youth with pleasure. 4. There are many who remember their follies with shame. 5. It is difficult to remember every rule of a language. 6. It is not so difficult to convince a learned as an unlearned man. 7. Is it difficult to submit to the adversities of life? 8. Yes, it is very difficult; but the thinking man conquers them. 9. Can you not remember to whom you have lent my book? 10. No, I cannot remember. 11. To lie is a sin.

He was accused of a crime that 3. What has the butcher's friend?