shells, which will sometimes contain five, six, or seven gallons. The Warted Gourd-called by the French le potiron a verrues; la barbarine-is gathered when halfgrown by the Americans, and boiled as a sauce to their meat. The Water Melon-in French, la pasteque; le melon d'eau; citronelle; concombre citrin: in Italian, cocomero; mellone: in Venice, anguria: in the Brescian, sorgnel-serves the Egyptians for meat, drink, and medicine, from the beginning of May to the end of July. They are eaten abundantly. When they are very ripe, their juice, mixed with a little rose-water and sugar, forms the only medicine which the common people take in the most ardent fevers.

The Pompion, or Pumpkin,-called in France le potiron; le pepon; la citronille: in Italy, zucca bernoccoluta; popone; poponoino-which in Europe is considered hard of digestion, is reckoned in the Eastern countries as the most wholesome of all the Gourds. In North America, China, &c. the Squash Gourd-in French, le pastisson; le bonnet d'electeur-also is considered as an article of food; and, as it will keep fresh and sweet for several months, is very useful in long voyages. The fruit of the Gourds, when unripe, is generally of a green colour, and, if such a phrase may be allowed, a very green green.

"Then gan the shepherd gather into one

His straggling goats, and drave them to a foord,
Whose cærule stream, rombling in pibble-stone,
Crept under moss, as green as any goord."

SPENSER'S VIRGIL'S GNAT.

"Sometimes a poet from that bridge might see

A nymph reach downwards, holding by a bough
With tresses o'er her brow :

And with her white back stoop

The pushing stream to scoop

In a green gourd cup, shining sunnily."

HUNT'S NYMPHS.

Cowper appears in the following passage to have con

founded the Gourd with the cucumber:

"To raise the prickly and green-coated gourd,
So grateful to the palate, and, when rare,
So coveted; else base and disesteemed,
Food for the vulgar merely *; is an art
That toiling ages have but just matured.”

Thevenot says that, in the island of Delhi, the horses are rubbed with Gourd blossoms to prevent the flies from teasing them and that it is an excellent remedy, provided the grooms renew it sufficiently often †.

GREEK VALERIAN.

POLEMONIUM CERULEUM.

POLEMONIACEE.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Jacob's Ladder; Ladder to Heaven.

THIS plant has no affinity to the valerian: it has only some little resemblance in the shape of the leaves. The flowers are pretty, blue or white, and open about the end of May, producing a constant succession throughout the summer. The leaves, too, become daily more luxuriant, to the very end of autumn. end of autumn. It is a native of Asia

* A new species of Gourd has been very lately introduced from Persia under the name of vegetable marrow; the flesh, when not fully ripe, having a peculiar softness, and, when peeled and boiled, resembling the buttery quality of the buerré pears. It is easily cultivated, and promises to be a great acquisition to our tables. These Gourds are generally brought to market, when too much grown; probably on account of the profit; but those who cultivate them in their own gardens pluck them when they are about the size of a hen's egg, or at the most, the egg of a turkey; and the young fruit is far superior to the old.

+ Thevenot, Voyage de Levant, Part iii. p. 137.

and the North of Europe. The seeds may be sown in spring, in a fresh light soil, not very rich. At Michaelmas they may be transplanted into separate pots, of a middle size: or they may be increased by parting the roots in autumn. The earth should be moderately moist, but never wet; and great care should be taken to keep them free from insects, with which they are often infested.

GUELDER-ROSE.

VIBURNUM OPULUS.

CAPRIFOLIEE.

PENTANDRIA TRIGYNIA.

Elder-rose; Rose-elder; Snowball-tree.-French, obier, boule de neige: Italian, pallon di neve.

THIS elegant shrub is a variety of a species of viburnum called Water-elder, and delights in a moist soil. The name of Snowball-tree is so appropriate as naturally to suggest itself to the mind; and I have more than once heard it remarked by persons who knew it only by its more general title of Guelder-rose, that it should have been called the Snowball-tree.

It has, at first sight, the appearance of a little mapletree that has been pelted with snowballs; and we almost fear to see them melt away in the sunshine. This beautiful snowball of summer continues, however, to adorn the green leaves, which so finely contrast with its whiteness, for two or three successive months, first appearing towards the end of May.

When kept in pots, the Guelder-rose will require watering every evening in dry summer weather. Being a native of North America, it will bear our climate very well; but it will be important, when in blossom, to shelter it from heavy rains, which would be apt partially to thaw these delicate flowers.

Cowper, who loved his garden, and found new pleasure in transplanting his flowers into his poems, describes the Guelder-rose as

" tall,

And throwing up into the darkest gloom
Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew,
Her silver globes, light as the foamy surf

That the wind severs from the broken wave."

Southey speaks of it by its more rustic name of Snowball:

"I like a shrubbery too, it looks so fresh,

And then there's some variety about it.

In spring the lilac, and the snowball flower,

And the laburnum, with its golden strings

Waving in the wind: and when the autumn comes,

The bright red berries of the mountain-ash,

With pines enough in winter to look green,

And show that something lives."

HAWTHORN.

CRATEGUS OXYACANTHA.

ROSACE E.

ICOSANDRIA DIGYNIA.

French, l'aubepine; l'épine-blanche; la noble épine; le senellier.Italian, bianco-spino; amperlo; marruca bianca; bagaia.—English, Hawthorn, from the Anglo-Saxon, hægthorn; Whitethorn; Quick; May-bush.

FEW trees exceed the Common Hawthorn in beauty, during the season of its bloom. Its blossoms have been justly compared to those of the myrtle: they are admirable also for their abundance, and for their exquisite fragrance. This shrub usually flowers in May; and being the handsomest then, or perhaps at any time, wild in our fields, has obtained the name of May, or May-bush. The countrypeople deck their houses and churches with the blossoms on May-day, as they do with holly at Christmas.

"Youth's folk now flocken everywhere,
To gather May-buskets and smelling breere;
And home they hasten the posts to dight,
And all the kirk-pillars ere day-light,
With hawthorne buds, and sweet eglantine,
And girlonds of roses, and sops-in-wine."

SPENSER'S SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR.

At this season our fields and hedges begin to show symptoms of their summer richness; buds are opening around you at every step; and

"the waving trees

Throw their soft shadows on the sunny fields,
Where in the music-breathing hedge the thorn,
And pearly white May-blossom full of sweets,
Hang out the virgin flag of spring, entwined
With dripping honeysuckles, whose sweet breath
Sinks to the heart-recalling with a sigh

Dim recollected feelings of the days

Of youth and early love."

ATHERSTONE'S LAST DAYS OF HERCULANEUM.

There are many species of Hawthorn. India has its Hawthorn America, China, Siberia, have each their Hawthorn several are Europeans: but our own British shrub yields to none of them. It is very common in every part of England; is to be seen in every hedge:

"And every shepherd tells his tale

Under the hawthorn in the dale."
MILTON, L'ALLEGRO.

We must not, however, let our fancies run so riot, as to suppose that the poet here intends that we should conceive a beautiful and youthful nymph sitting by the shepherd's side, to whom he is pouring forth his fond tale of love; for, in very truth, the real image present in the poet's mind was simply that of a shepherd telling his tale, or, in unpoetic language, counting his sheep, as he lies extended in the shade of this tree; and to those who take