combination with such a variety of other substances, and will be so frequently brought under our view, that its properties need not for the present be more fully detailed.

OLD HUMPHREY ON OCCUPATION. IF I were asked, What tends most to mitigate earthly sorrow, with the exception of the comfort derived from divine things? I should unhesitatingly reply, Occupation. Yes! occupation cures one half of life's troubles, and mitigates the remainder. It matters not of what kind they may happen to be: troubles always appear great, and our own cares are invariably greater than those of our neighbours; but whether we are afflicted in mind, body, or estate, occupation is the best prescription we can

take.

Suppose you have had a loss, say it is five silver shillings, or as many golden sovereigns; nay, let it be, if you like, a hundred pounds, or a thousand, for it is not the amount of our losses that weighs down our spirits, but our real or fancied incapability of bearing them-suppose you have had a loss, I say, why all the sighing and the sorrowing, the moaning and repining in the world, will not bring back a single sixpence of your money again, though it may disqualify you for making an attempt to recover your loss. You may get friends to condole with you, and make your loss greater by losing your time in brooding over it, but occupation is the only thing to relieve you. It is the most likely of any thing to make up your money again, and if it do not that, it will engage your mind as well as your fingers, and keep you from despondency.

Suppose your body is afflicted; will sitting or lying down doing nothing, with your dejected eyes fixed on the wall-will this, I say, pull out a thorn from your finger, or assuage the pain of an aching tooth, or cure a fit of the gout? Not a bit of it. So long as pain does not deprive you of the power of occupying yourself, occupation will be for you the best thing in the world. Let it be suited to your condition, and persevered in with prudence. A weak body cannot lift a heavy burden, nor a confused head think clearly; but do something, whether it be much or little, hard or easy, so long as you can write a letter, wind a ball of cotton, make a spill, read a book, or listen while another reads it to you, so long as you can do any of these things, you will be mitigating your affliction.

In like manner, if your mind be wounded, apply the same remedy. If your enemy has injured, or your friend deceived you; if your brightest hopes have been clouded, or your reputation blackened, pray for your enemies, and then, up and be doing! Better gather field-flowers, plait rushes, weed the garden, or black your own shoes, than be idle. Occupation will raise your spirit, while idleness will bring it down to the dust. Occupation will blunt the edge of the sharpest grief, keep the body in health, and preserve the mind in comparative peace.

Ile that is in trouble, must do something to get rid of it.

I have known many a man get to the top of a mountain by resolutely clambering up its rugged sides, who would never have got there at all by sitting down and fretting at the bottom of it. And, many a

If I

hardy swimmer has crossed a rapid river, by sturdily buffeting its rushing waters, who never could have achieved such an adventure, by despondingly allowing himself to be carried along by the current something must be done, and done by yourself too, when you are in trouble; or otherwise, it will stick as close to you as the skin that covers you. had not been a man of occupation, my heart would have been broken long ago. I never could have stood up under the load of troubles, that God, in mercy, has given me strength to sustain. Old Humphrey is always occupied; his tongue, his hands, his head, or his heels, are in continual requisition; and, rather than sit down and do nothing, he would willingly break stones on the highway, make brimstone matches, and hawk them about from door to door.

Time flies rapidly with those who have more to do in the day than they can accomplish; and drags along as heavily with all who have no employment to occupy their hours. Occupation is the great secret of cheerful days and tranquil nights; for he that is well employed while the sun is in the skies, will most likely sleep soundly when the stars are shining above him.

The moment you feel yourself getting moody and miserable, seek Divine support by prayer, and then set yourself a task immediately; something that will occasion you to exert yourself, and you will be surprised at the relief it will afford you.

Though old Humphrey advises you to do something of a trifling nature, rather than be idle, he is no advocate for trifling.

So long as this world endures, there will always be employment enough and to spare, for all those who either wish to guide others to heaven, or to get there themselves. If you cannot employ your body, employ your mind; for, there is a time to employ it profitably;

A time to reflect on our words and ways; A time to pray, and a time to praise. And especially employ yourself in doing good, and mitigating the sorrows of others: while taking a thorn from the bosom of another, you will lose that which rankles in your own.

Thousands, who know how much comfort occupation gives, do not know how much distress and uneasiness it keeps away. Show me two men, who have equal advantages,-one of them idle, and the other fully occupied, and I will venture to pronounce the latter ten times happier than the former. Care is a sad disease, despondency a sadder, and discontent, perhaps, the saddest of them all; but, if you wish to be cured of all these together, next to seeking Divine support, my prescription is-OCCUPATION.

BOTANY.-No. III. ORDER-ARALIACEE.

Of the shrubs and plants which are associated under the general term of araliacea, the ivy may serve as a good sample. With this well-known garniture of old walls, the eyes of all persons are familiar; no botanical description is necessary to enable our friends to distinguish it from others. The presence of an umbel of flowers, which when ripe produce berries, is the chief characteristic.

If we examine the ivy, which flowers in winter, we see that the flowers are in a little cluster; that several smaller flower stalks rise from a single point in the stem, which distinguishes the umbel from all other modes of flowering. If we look at the figures of the moschatel and gin-seng, we remark that the blossoms rise from a single point. This attention to punctilious niceties about the position of a blossom, may appear uninteresting to the general reader, but amidst the ever-increasing variety of vegetable objects, we eagerly grasp any means of throwing them into assortments, to relieve the memory and assist the judgment.

In the umbelliferous order several hundred plants are most conveniently assembled under one head; consisting of the celery, parsley, carrot, parsnip, coriander, caraway,

fennel, hemlock, &c., and are all of them most readily characterized by their mode of flowering, and the nature of the fruit which finally separates into two seeds. Among these plants, the Creator has taught us to establish orders, for they are impressed with marks of resemblance, that the most incurious cannot fail to recognise when pointed out to him. But in the araliacea the same strong and evident relationship is not found between the several plants that belong to it, which there is among the umbelliferous plants, but we find a resemblance in the mode of flowering,besides the various instances of agreement which are met with in blossom and fruit. The reader should know, that he can never understand this science without studying the plants themselves: they will give most instructive lessons, and accompany their precepts with many pretty stories of their history; while they silently set forth the wisdom and goodness of their Creator. In old times, it is fabled that Orpheus, by the music of his lyre, brought trees from mount Hæmus to the shores of the Ægean: in these days the fable is reversed; for men, when smitten with the love of botany, are led by trees and plants to encounter the perils of robbers, famine, and wild beasts, for the single object of gaining a knowledge of their history and properties. But we do not invite our readers to join us in such wild excursions: we only bid them fetch a flowering branch from the ivy; in doing which they will neither have to be hauled on shore, through a raging surf, nor find themselves exposed to the hug of a raging bear. When they are thus provided, let them sit down some odd half-hour, and leisurely compare the following description of each part, with the corresponding stalk of the flower and fruit; and if they do not find more instruction in this single examination and study, than they ever did in all their reading about plants before, let them never take the advice of a botanist again as long as they live. It is very pleasing to look at a beautiful figure, and read a well-told tale about the curious plant it represents, but if we would gather a few grains of genuine botanical science, they must be obtained from the plants themselves.

Calyx: A tube growing to the germen, the border or upper edge either entire or divided into teeth. In the ivy, five minute purplish scales may be seen, at the upper edge of the calyx; each scale is placed just at the point where two adjacent petals separate.

Petals, from five to ten, alternating with

the little teeth of the calyx. The segments of the calyx are said to alternate with the petals, when the middle of the segment of the calyx coincides with the edge of the petal. In the ivy the petals are broad at the base, and have the medial line raised and sharp. By means of this elevated line, two adjoining petals, before they expand, form a little cavity to afford a lodgment for the anther. The reader will be surprised at the exactness with which the anther fills the niche that has been thus provided. To perceive it, he has only to take a neighbouring pair of petals off without separation.

Stamens, generally equal in number to that of the petals. In the ivy, they are greenish, and broad at the base.

Anthers, attached to the tapering filament, by their middle. From this circumstance, and the roundness of their forms, they are said to be peltate or targetshaped.

Germen, growing to the calyx. If, after abstracting the corolla of the primrose, we withdraw also the calyx, we shall see that the germen is not affected by the removal of the last organ. But, in the ivy, the outer covering, which is a continuation of the little scales before described, is one with the coating of the germen. This fact is worth attending to, for it connects this order with the umbelliferæ, wherein the calyx is in the same predicament, in reference to the germen.

Cells, in the germen, varying in number, from two to several. These vary in the same plant; in the ivy, for example, we sometimes meet with five, but more frequently with only three. The history of this deviation in the number of cells appears, from our observation, to be this; one or two of the seeds, by their overgrowth, appropriate all the nutriment; hence their less favoured brethren, being deprived of their necessary support, either disappear altogether, or are seen in a very stinted and diminutive condition. No cell has more than one seed within it.

Styles, several, either distinct, diverging, or united into one. In the ivy they are short, and collected into one apparently simple style; but if we cut it horizontally, and place it under a magnifier of about half an inch focal length, we shall perceive that it is compounded of several. Each style is a tube, and these tubes are obvious to the assisted eye, and may easily be traced down into the germen.

Stigma, simple, and forming an undivided head to each style. If we look at

the top of the united style in the ivy, with a magnifier, we discern four or five minute prominences upon it; each of these we must consider to be a stigma.

Berry, which is the ripened germen, has from two to fifteen cells, corresponding in number with the divisions of the calyx, each cell containing only one seed.

Seeds, angular, erect, with a perisperm or outer covering, that becomes crustaceous when the berry is ripe. The texture of any thing is said to be crustaceous when it is hard, and, when broken, the edges of the fracture appear to be composed of minute grains.

EXAMPLES.

Adoxa.-Tube of the calyx growing to into four or five lobes, which are of an the germen, leaving its margin divided oval form. Petals, five. Stamens varying from eight to ten; some of them are alternate with the segments of the calyx; for this reason they are presumed to be transformed petals, while others are opposite to the segments, that is, in their regular position. Styles, four or five; thick, and distinct from each other; their separation commences at the top of the

germen.

seeded. Seeds, each furnished with a Berry, four-celled and fourmembranous margin. Root covered with

scales.

ADOXA MOSCHATELLINA.

Adoxa moschatellina.-Tuberous moschatel. Not unfrequent in groves and thickets, and shady lanes, flowering in April or May. The generic name adoxa, inglorious, very aptly expresses the modest and unassuming appearance of this little

plant, as it emerges from its wintry bed of withered leaves, to greet the botanist in his herborising excursions in early spring. When young, and moist with dew, it has a faint smell of musk. The root is perennial, and is composed of fleshy imbricated (tiled) scales, from which the fibres are produced, as well as the runners, which terminate in fresh roots. Herb, pale green, succulent, smooth, and pellucid. Stem, three or four inches high, angular, having two opposite leaves, some distance below the flowers. Flowers, five in a head, greenish. Fruit never found ripe.

Panax. Calyx divided into five teeth. Corolla with five petals; stamens, five; styles, two. It would seem, however, as if three were the regular number, becoming twain by a deficiency of growth, since in some specimens of the gin-seng three are found, a circumstance which we have taken care to mark in our figure. Probably, in most instances, an inquisitive search would discover some traces or rudiments of a third. Berry, nearly heartshaped, with an umbilicus, or scar, upon the crown; cells, two.

the name of the plant, while the former, which signifies man, is added, perhaps, to denote its excellence. Stem is simple, and terminating in an umbel of flowers, which is supported by an involucre of fine leaflets. It is furnished, at some distance below the flowers, with three leaves, which are divided into fingered leaflets. The fertile and barren flowers are upon distinct individuals. The root is spindle-shaped, and commonly cleft into two branches. The gin-seng, so renowned for its restorative virtues among the Chinese, was long supposed to grow only in Chinese Tartary, affecting mountainous situations, shaded by dense woods. But since 1704, when M. Sarrasin, for the first time, transmitted specimens of this plant to Paris, it has been discovered in Canada, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, by Latifeau and others, from whence it is now actually imported into China, and called yang-san, or doubtful, gin-seng.

or

Hedera.-Calyx, margin elevated toothed; petals, from five to ten, adhering by their tips; stamens, from five to ten; styles from five to ten, united into one; berry, with from five to ten cells.

Hedera helix. Common ivy.-Leaves, heart-shaped, with angular lobes; footstalk of the leaf compressed into a roundish keel at the base, with the appearance of being gathered into wrinkles upon the part of the stem just below it. There is a peculiar turn in the foot-stalk, so as to render the plane of the leaf nearly parallel to the direction of the stem. If the fruit be pressed, after the falling of the petals, a number of minute drops of transparent liquor will be seen upon the fleshy crown, and studding the little valleys into which it is hollowed.

If the fruit at this stage be taken, a part of the crown cut off, and then a thin slice be shaved off with a razor, and the piece thus removed be submitted to a magnifier of one-eighth of an inch focal length, an appearance, of which we here give an imperfect delineation, will present it