IGHT BLOOMING CEREUS. Cactus Grandiflorus. Class 12, ICOSANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. The night-flowering Cereus, or 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 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.

TRANSIENT BEAUTY.

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 the solemn, fleeting hour.

Ere we have our homage paid,

Thou wilt bow thine 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.

ANON.

AK. Quercus. Class 5, PENTANDRIA. Order: POLYANDRIA. The ancients believed that the oak, created with the earth, offered food and shelter to the first parents of our kind. This tree is said to have shaded the cradle of Jupiter, to whom it was conse

crated, after his birth, upon Mount Lycæus,

in Arcadia. The oaken crown was less esteemed by the Greeks than the crown of gold; but the Romans considered it the most desirable of all rewards.

HOSPITALITY.

Proud monarch of the forest!

That once, a sapling bough,

Didst quail far more at evening's breath

Than at the tempest now,

Strange scenes have pass'd, long ages roll'd

Since first upon thy stem,

Then weak as osier twig, Spring set

Her leafy diadem.

To thee but little recks it

What seasons come or go,

Thou lovest to breathe the gale of spring

And bask in summer's glow,

But more to feel the wintry winds
Sweep by in awful mirth,

For well thou know'st each blast will fix

Thy roots more deep in earth.

Would that to me life's changes
Did thus with blessings come!
That mercies might, like gale of spring,
Cause some new grace to bloom!
And that the storm which scattereth
Each earth-born hope abroad,

Might anchor those of holier birth

LIVE. Olea. Class 2, DIANDRIA. Order: MONOGYNIA. This tree has been celebrated in all ages as the bounteous gift of heaven, and as the emblem of peace and plenty. Peace-wisdom-concord-clemency-joy -and the graces have ever been crowned with olive.

The dove sent out of the ark by Noah to ascertain if the waters were assuaged, returned bearing a branch of olive as a symbol of that rest which heaven was about to restore to the earth.

PEACE.

Sweet Teviot! on thy silver tide

The glaring bale-fires blaze no more;
No longer steel-clad warriors ride
Along thy wild and willow'd shore;
Where'er thou wind'st by dale or hill
All, all is peaceful, all is still,

As if thy waves, since Time was born,
Since first they roll'd upon the Tweed,
Had only heard the Shepherd's reed,
Nor started at the bugle-horn.

SCOTT.

To thee the heavens, in thy nativity,
Adjudged an olive branch, and laurel crown,
As likely to be blest in peace and war.

Now no more the drum

SHAKSPEARE.

Provokes to arms, or trumpet's clangour shrill
Affrights the wives, or chills the virgin's blood;
But joy and pleasure open to the view

Uninterrupted!

PHILIPS.

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility.

SHAKSPEARE.

RANGE-TREE. Citrus Aurantium. Class 18, POLYADELPHIA. Order: ICOSANDRIA. This is a very ancient genus, and combines many excellencies in its species; it is a handsome evergreen; it has most odoriferous flowers, and brilliant, fragrant, and delicious fruits. Loudon observes, that "it is one of the most striking of fruit-bearing trees, and must have attracted the notice of aboriginal man long before other fruits of less brilliancy, but of more nutriment or flavour. The golden apples of the heathens, and forbidden fruit of the Jews, are supposed to allude to this family, though it is remarkable that we have no authentic records of any species of citrus having been known; certainly none were cultivated by the Romans." In the latter part of the seventeenth century it was a very fashionable tree in conservatories, where few exotics of other sorts were at that time to be found. It has been likened to a generous friend, who is ever loading us with favours.

GENEROSITY.

Ah, sweet cousin Blanche, let's see
What's the flower resembling thee!
With those dove-like eyes of thine,
And thy fair hair's silken twine;
With thy low, broad forehead, white
As marble, and as purely bright;
With thy mouth so calm and sweet,
And thy dainty hands and feet;
What's the flower most like thee?
Blossom of the orange-tree!

HOWITT.

O, my good lord, the world is but a word;
Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!

SHAKSPEARE.

ALM. Palma. Class 21, MONŒECIA. Order: HEXANDRIA. Whatever praise may be awarded to the bay, there are few but will be disposed to give yet higher honour to the palm. Like its classic associate (with which it was often blended), it was considered an appropriate meed for the victor, but more generally it was reserved for religious triumphs; and from this, as well as from the prominent place it occupies in Holy Writ, we feel the epithet of "celestial palm," bestowed on it by Pope, not inapplicable.

VICTORY.

But there is a fame shall last,
When earth's flitting glory's past,
And a branch no adverse blast
Shall destroy.

'Tis, like bay, the victor's meed;
But it decks not poet's grave,
Nor the warrior's martial deed,
No 't is only seen to wave
Where the martyr's honour'd dust doth repose,
Or his, who broke the gloom
Long of pagan lands the doom,
And made "the desert bloom
As the rose."

But where's the power of thought

Which may pierce those scenes sublime,
When the Christian's fight is fought,

And o'er Sin, and Death, and Time,
Through heaven-imparted might, he hath won
When he joins the glorious band

Who as crowned victors stand,

With palm-branch in his hand,

Round the throne?

ANON.