between the folds of the calyx, and afford | a pitcher-shaped cup, besides that of the an interesting object to the reflecting calyx, both in the barren and fertile mind, which thus discerns a lively anti- | catkins. The seed-vessel is divided into cipation of spring, amidst the rigours of winter. two cells, and, in this particular, differs from the salix, or willow, though in each the seeds are invested with down. Poplars, it is known, have a peculiar smell, and are remarkable for having the leafstalk so placed, that if the edges of the leaf be held north and south, the edges of the leaf-stalk will point east and west. This is best seen in the aspen. THE BIRCH.-The birch, or betula, comprehends two species; the alba, or common birch tree: and nana, or dwarfbirch tree; the former is known by its pendent branches, and the latter by its diminutive stature. The generic mark, which is of the greatest consequence for the sake of distinction, is found in the fruit or seeds, which have a filmy wing on each | side. As you approach the shores of | Kamschatka, the birch trees send forth such a pleasant smell, that the sea-worn traveller suddenly imagines himself already on shore, inhaling the sweets of the fragrant grove. The peculiar scent of the Russia leather is owing to the bark of the birch with which it is tanned, and a subsequent finish with an essential | elm : U. montana, broad-leaved elm. oil distilled from the same tree. THE WILLOW.-In the salix, or osiers, and willows, the barren catkins are on a different tree, and at the base of each scale there is a small nectariferous gland. In the fertile catkin, the seed-vessels are two-valved, and contain seeds, which are furnished with a white down, to float them for the purpose of a wider dispersion. The presence of this down forms the characteristic of the salix, which contains a great many species, some of which are of great use in feverish disorders. One, for example, was often pointed out to the writer of this when in Mexico, as an excellent remedy for the calentura, or intermittent fever, which prevails in some parts of that country. THE ALDER, alnus glutinosa.-This was formerly considered as belonging to betula, but has of late been separated from it by a reference to the seeds, which, though flattened, have not the filmy wing on each side. There is also an inner ring surrounding the stamens, which is called its corolla, which may be its right name, though of a very unassuming description. SWEET GALE. This little shrub, which upon the watery waste of low heaths grows in great abundance, is, like the birch in Kamschatka, remarkable for the delightful fragrance which it diffuses. There is only one species, myrica gale, distinguished by its fertile catkin, which is composed of numerous berries, as the covering of the seed becomes soft as the fruit ripens. THE POPLAR.-The populus possesses There are four species natives of this country: P. nigra, or black poplar, known by its gaunt and erect stature ; P. tremula, or aspen, more diffusive, and less dense; P. alba, or white poplar, the leaves downy underneath, and of a snowy whiteness; P. canescens, which resembles the last. THE ELM.-The flowers contain stamens and pistils in each. Fruit, a juiceless berry: ulmus campestris, common ANSWERS TO PRAYER. him his Son, he will then easily be induced WHEN a man is assured God hath given to believe and expect: How shall he not with him give me all things? If once he looks upon God as a Father, he will then easily conceive what Christ says: If fathers that are evil can give good things to their children, how much more shall your Father give his Spirit to them that ask him! And if he gave his Son when we did not pray unto him, how much more shall he with him give us all things we pray for! Rom, viii. 32; Luke xi. 13.-Goodwin. CHRIST WILLING TO SAVE. THE sinner being persuaded of the sufficiency of this salvation, he must be assured of Christ's willingness to be his Saviour, and so be encouraged to make application to him. To this end the gospel invitations, "Come, and be saved;" the gospel complaints against such as come not, "Ye will not come to me;" the gospel commands, "This is the will of God, that ye believe," the gospel threatenings, "He that believeth not shall be damned,"-must be made out to him.-S. Walker. JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Price gd. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five Numbers in a Cover, 3d. W. TYLER, Printer, Bolt-court, Fleet-street. THE STAR-FISH AND SEA-URCHIN. THE wide expanse of ocean, which occupies so immense a portion of the surface of our globe, teems with a countless population; a population made up of beings of various habits, and of various forms. Some cleave the waters with arrow-like velocity, pursuing or pursued; some seem the sport of the waves, which throw them about, as if they were unable to struggle against the force of the agitated element; but in every wave they find their food, and are at home. Some, almost plant-like in their nature, fixed on a rocky base in the depths beneath, deposit layer by layer, a hard calcareous mass, till there rises to the surface, a coral reef, just covered by the water, and fatal to many a sea-tried vessel. Some, of tender structure, attach themselves to the sides of rocks, or the walls of sub-marine caverns, and stretch abroad their feelers for prey. Some creep on the bed of the deep, and plough their way along the sand; prisoners, with the wide waste of billows around them; such are the bivalve shellfish, and many more, among which the star-fish, or sea-stars, (stelleride,) and the sea-urchins, (echinidae,) are not a little remarkable for the strangeness of their forms and appearance. They constitute a part of the extensive assemblage of zoophytes, and belong to a class of that assemblage termed echinodermata, from the circumstance of VOL. III. their possessing a hard coriaceous skin, more or less covered with points or spires. The sea-stars have a flattened and circular centre, which may be called the body, from which diverge five principal_rays, which are sometimes subdivided. In the centre of the body, on the under surface, is an orifice, for the reception of food, and also for the rejection of the refuse portion. This aperture leads directly to a sort of stomach, in which numerous minute tubes, from different parts of the surface, also centre; the office of these tubes appearing to be that of the absorption of water, which is thus introduced into the common cavity, most probably, in order to effect a due oxygenation of the circulating fluid. The covering, thus pierced with little pores, consists of an osseous layer, composed of various small portions; and each ray has on the under surface a longitudinal furrow, into which open small orifices for the protrusion of little arms or tentacula. The under surface, generally, is furnished with small moveable spines, which are organs of progression and prehension. The food of the sea-stars consists of worms and small crustaceæ. The most curious circumstance, however, connected with their history, is the power they manifest of reproducing, with great rapidity, such parts as they may have lost. 3 M In very hot weather, two or three days suffice for completing the process; and, what is more extraordinary, if one of the rays be severed from the body, it soon after becomes itself a living star-fish, similar to the one from which it was separated. The sea-stars are divided into several genera, which we shall not attempt to characterize. The common species on our coasts (asterias rubens) is, doubtless, known to all our readers who have visited the sea. The sea-urchins are of a globular figure, more or less flattened; they are enveloped in a shell or calcareous crust, composed of angular portions, joined together with the utmost nicety, and pierced with numerous ranges of little holes, disposed with great regularity, whence are protruded delicate membranous tubes, or suckers, capable of being withdrawn at will; they serve as the respiratory apparatus, by means of which the circulating fluid is subjected to the action of the water; they also assist in progression, and are the arms or feelers by which the objects of prey are secured. Besides these organs, (the disposition o which varies in different species,) the shell is covered with long spines, generally articulated on small prominences, and moveable at will, so as to enable the animal, with the assistance of the tubular arms, to creep slowly along. The apparatus of the mouth is very complicated, and furnished with five teeth, capable of crushing the smaller kinds of shell-fish, on which these animals subsist. The size, arrangement, and figure of the spines vary according to species, which we may observe amount to upwards of a hundred; indeed, one hundred and seven distinct species are in the museum at Paris. met with in a fossil state, in the more ancient strata of the earth, and especially in the vast deposits of chalk, where they occur in great numbers, filled with silex, and destitute of spines; though the tubercles or eminences to which they were attached, are usually very distinct, and well preserved. Of the general appearance of these fossil remains, our sketch gives an accurate idea. M. A NEW ENGLAND CENTENARIAN. THE Boston Spectator gives an account of the religious exercises in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, on the occasion of Deacon John Whitman's arriving at the age of 100 years: we presume that the implicity of the people in that neighbourhood prevented any thing like ostentation on that occasion. The writer of the account says:"Deacon Whitman is a man of rather more than middling stature, stout built, large features, roman nose, looks as healthy as a youth, and enjoys good health. His mental faculties, which were well cultivated, scarcely seem to be impaired; he converses with fluency and ease; his memory is very correct; he is rather deaf, can see to read but little of late, though formerly a distinguished reader; he walks as well as most men at seventy-five. "Deacon Whitman entered the church, and took his seat in an arm-chair in front of the pulpit. He appeared calm seemed to appreciate the high honour and serene, grave and dignified, and of appearing in the courts of the Lord, an hundred years old. The assembly was the largest that was ever witnessed in that place of worship, and intense interest was generally visible. "The sermon was preached by the Rev. B. Standford, from 2 Tim. iv. 6; For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.' "At the close, the Rev. B. Sandford said, Before you is a rare spectacle. Deacon Whitman is to-day 100 years old. We cannot learn that any man in old Bridgewater has ever before arrived to this great age. We here witness a scene of most uncommon occurrence; one which none of us ever before witnessed, and one which we shall probably never again behold. His health is firm, his reason retains its seat and sceptre, his memory is The shells of sea-urchins are abundantly unimpaired, he can relate occurrences tibiata 1sor Fossil Echinus. which took place more than ninety years ago; he converses with ease and intelligence on all subjects, but especially on the providences of God and his word. By reason of deafness, 'the daughters of music have not their charms,' yet so perfect are the powers of his body and mind, that it can be said of him, almost with the same propriety as is recorded of Moses, his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.' Deacon W. has lived to a great age, he has lived to see three generations come on and pass off the stage of life, and he now beholds a fourth. He has been father of fourteen children, eight of whom are living. He has had twenty-nine grand-children, twenty-two great-grand-children, and his descendants have been sixty-five. “Deacon W. was blessed with pious and faithful parents, and was from a child a subject of serious impressions. When the Rev. Mr. Whitefield visited this region, he heard him gladly, and believed in Christ. He made a public profession of religion in 1766, professed then the faith peculiar to the pilgrim fathers, to which he has ever since unwaveringly adhered. For seventy years he has honoured the cause of Christ, and for thirty years he has sustained the office of deacon. BOTANY.-No. XXXIV. CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. IN the course of the year, which is just departing, the Weekly Visitor has given an account of thirty-two orders or botanical families. A sketch has thus been presented of some of the most curious and interesting groups of plants, especially those in our own country, with their respective family distinctions, uses, and places of abode. Technical distinctions constitute the very basis of botanical knowledge, and form the logic of the science; for without them it is impossible to tell whether we have an accurate notion of any plant's external structure, or whether we shall be able to describe it in terms sufficiently exact to convey our ideas to another. It was from a conviction of their importance that the writer introduced many of them into the earlier numbers of these papers. And though they might seem strange to the eye, and hard in the pronunciation, none of them were used without a familiar explanation, as will be seen by turning to the Weekly Visitor for January 20, where there is an assemblage of technical terms; but they are all explained, and most of them illustrated by figures. The reader is requested to master these, and then his way will be smoothed in the examination of all the papers. In setting forth so many technicalities, the writer was influenced by an honest wish to initiate those into the mysteries of botany, who might be desirous of "The Rev. B. S. then turning to Deacon studying it as a science, without having the W., thus addressed him :-" Venerable means of purchasing introductory books man, thou art highly exalted and blessed adapted for that purpose. He remembers of the Lord, far above thy fellows. Thou with what eagerness, when a youth, he hast felt the frosts of a hundred win- embraced the opportunity of studying the ters, and the genial warmth of a hun- article of botany in a few numbers of "Dr. dred summers. All thy early mates and Gregory's Cyclopædia," and with what youthful companions are silent in the dust. severity he used to upbraid himself for not Many are the vicissitudes thou hast wit- rising a longer time before six, the appointed nessed, in the history of the church and hour of labour, to make the most of the the world. Thou hast lived to see the advantage. If this book should be at present peculiar era, when light and know- hand, it will be seen that the article reledge shine with splendour, and the radi-ferred to is an entire composure of technical ant beams are rapidly gilding the dark nations of the earth, plainly indicating the approach of the latter day glory. Thy heart rejoices in the signs of the times. But the almond blossoms, and thy great age, proclaim the sands of thy glass to be few. God has blessed thee, and granted the desire of thy heart, to see this day, and to appear in the house of the Lord. And now we seem to hear thee say, in the language of Simeon, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.' "He has always been a thorough temperance man. He has honoured the cause of Christ, and kept the faith. He now feels 'ready to be offered,' and 'the time of his departure is at hand.' explanations, without a single "pretty And When the writer commenced these botanical papers, he imagined that he was writing for some who had, like himself, a great desire to obtain a systematic acquaintance with the subject, but who had few means and little time to gratify it; he therefore introduced as much science as he could put within a limited space, conscientiously doing as he would have been done by. Since he began the study of botany, he has obtained an insight into various departments of knowledge, and has, on all occasions, found that no solid pleasure or lasting improvement is to be secured, till the student has made up his mind to overcome the dryness of elementary detail; till, in fact, he is content to become a child, and learn the alphabet and syllabic combinations of the science. The Weekly Visitor being intended rather for general readers than for the regular student, great pains have been taken to divest the subject as much as possible of its peculiarities, in order to render it less apparently artificial and discouraging. A complaint is often made that botany superabounds with crabbed terms and punctilious niceties, as if the professors had hedged up the study with a fence of thorns to prevent the approach of the unlearned; but this is a mistake. If you were to go up to a cobbler's stall, and ask him for a list of words peculiar to his trade, he would, in a short time, if he had civility and a ready memory, reckon up a hundred, and afterwards call to mind fifty more which he had forgotten. Now, shall the botcher of old shoes, upon the score of convenience, be allowed a privilege which is denied to a botanist, who studies the innumerable flowers, plants, and fruits which are scattered throughout creation? But the advantage of technical phrases will best appear from such an instance as the following:-A gentleman goes into a shop filled with mechanical or mathematical instruments, and after various sorts have been produced to assist him in his explanation, he, after a good deal of pains and time, succeeds at last in making the master comprehend his meaning. master sends for the workman, and perhaps in less than twenty words communicates the order to him, with an ease that seems truly astonishing. And this is done by means of certain phrases that have a use and meaning which had been previously settled by a definition. The Two botanists can talk about a plant, and communicate their ideas respecting it with the greatest facility; but two persons, unskilled in the application of the technical terms, would be unable to exchange their sentiments about it. It might have a "very pretty green leaf," a "beautiful blossom of such a colour," and so forth, but this would be all. How far calculated such remarks would be to impart instruction and delight, can easily be understood without the help of either argument or example. But when we have learned to denote each several member of a flower by its appropriate name, and to describe its lineaments in significant phrases, we are able, from experience, to collect different kinds into families by features of reciprocal likeness; and can withal trace their harmonies of structure, habit, and uses: it is then we may adopt the language of David, and say, "In wisdom hast thou made them all." We may indeed, with an unlimited confidence, take it for granted that the works of the Deity are all framed in wisdom; but it is one thing to presume, and another thing to know that they are so. This knowledge cannot be attained without the investigation of methodical arrangements and the enlightened helps of science, assisted by patience, assiduity, and a real love for the subject. Ushered into the temple of nature by this fair guide, we get acquainted with the name and history of each several curiosity, and discern with our own eyes, not only the wisdom and goodness, but the paternal tenderness of the great Architect. With what a plenitude of conviction do we say then, "How infinite art Thou !" "The earth," says the inspired bard, "is full of thy riches;" which the Greek version explains by rendering the passage, "The earth is filled with thy creation;" a truth which meets us at every step of our researches. It is not the plant only, but the minutest particle which can be separated from it, which is highly organized, or, in plainer terms, bears the most lively characters of skill and contrivance. Each little fragment of a vegetable bears testimony to the infinite care of Jehovah, and is, therefore, when rightly understood, an antidote against infidelity, as well as an incentive to adore its Creator. OLD HUMPHREY'S FAREWELL. THE die is cast, and Old Humphrey must bid his friends farewell. When he first began to comment on the things around him, and to address his poor observations to such as might think them worth notice, he little thought of so soon coming to a close. He was vain enough to imagine, that his hearty good will would so far make amends for his lack of talent, |