In England, France, and other more northern countries, the first appearance of this bird is a month later at least. See April 15.

The occasional appearance of a straggling Swallow or two, before the usual time, has been proverbially noticed in most countries.

It is remarkable, that most countries have a similar proverb relating the Swallow's accidental appearance before its usual time. The Greeks have Μία χελιδὼν ἔάς οὔ ποιει; the Latins, Una Hirundo non facit ver; the French, Une Hirondelle ne fait pas le printems; the Germans, Eine Schwalbe macht keinen früling; the Dutch, Een Swaluw maakt geen zomer; the Swedes, En Svala gör ingen sommar; the Spanish, Una Golondrina no hace verano; the Italians, Una Rondine non fa primavera; and the English, One Swallow doth not make a summer.

Ovid thus notices the Equiria in the Campo Matrio today :

Jamque duae restant noctes de mense secundo:
Marsque citos junctis curribus urget equos:
Ex vero positum permansit Equiria nomen:
Quae deus in campo perspicit ipse suo.

Nunc mihi dicenda est regis fuga: traxit ab illa
Sextus ab extremo nomina mense dies.
Ultima Tarquinius Romanae gentis habebat
Regna, vir injustus, fortis ad arma tamen.

Ceperat hic alias, alias everterat urbes;

Et Gabios turpi fecerat arte suos.

Namque trium minimus proles manifesta Superbi,

In medios hostes nocte silente venit.

FLORA. PURPLE SPRING CROCUS Crocus vernus now blows, and is the latest of our Crocuses; it continues through March like the rest of the genus, and it varies with purple, with whitish, and with light blue flowers, described in Bot. Mag. 860, and in Eng. Bot. $44.

The flowers of the Crocus vernus appear before the leaves are grown to their full length. The vernal and autumnal Crocus have such an affinity, that the best Botanists only make them varieties of the same genus. Yet the vernal Crocus expands its flowers by the beginning of March at farthest, often in very rigorous weather, and cannot be retarded but by some violence offered; while the autumnal

Crocus, or Saffron, alike defies the influence of the Spring and Summer, and will not blow till most plants begin to fade and run to seed.

On the Seasons of Flowering among Plants, by White.

Say, what impels, amid surrounding snow,
Congealed, the Crocus' flamy bud to glow?
Say, what retards, amid the Summer's blaze,
The autumnal bulb, till pale, declining days?
The God of Seasons, whose pervading power
Controls the Sun, or sheds the fleecy shower:
He bids each flower his quickening word obey;
Or to each lingering bloom enjoins delay.

We may now begin to expect a succession of Spring flowers; something new will be opening every day through the rest of the season. The reader may be diverted by the following whimsical Poem, taken from a monthly magazine for 1822. It relates apparently to a Vestal Maid sleeping with her Cat:

Ephialtes Botanicus, or The Nightmare of the Florist.

I DREAMT that I died, but that after my death,
I still was percipient clay;

The Earth was my body, the Air was my breath,
And my Blood flowed in rivers away;

Then Flora, who trod the gay flowery mead,
With gay colours bespangled the ground;
And what's more, my olfactory senses to feed,

Shed the balm of sweet odours around!

And she called the gay nymphs that attend in her train,
In colours so variously drest,

And, doffing the white shroud wherein I was lain,*
They exultingly bloomed on my breast!
And they took it in turn to figure away,
As their showing off season caine round;
While Lady Arundo soft music did play,t
And Diana beat time on the ground!
But Thetis was heavier than the rest,||
And her weight I with agony bore;
When she rose, the blood flowed up in my chest,
As the tide rises up on the shore;

But my heart was of rock in a mountain dell,

Whence torrents of liquid did flow;

And the nymphs as they danced, and sipped at the well,

More blooming and fresher did grow!

Galantha, the fair, in a robe of white,

More modest than colourless snow,

Was the first who footed, left hand and right,

On the frolic fantastical toe:

The Snow melting in Spring.

The music of Wind blowing into Reeds, which first suggested Flutes.
Diana, or the Lunar influence measuring the time of the Seasons.
Thetis, or the spring tide pressing on the shore.

G

Daffodilla, the next, was a gaudy Miss,
With a yellow vest and a green gown;
She stooped and she gave Hyacinthia a kiss,
And nodded her jealous head down!

For she viewed her fair rival step up by her side,

Scylla gracefully vested in blue,

Whom Narcissus would surely have picked for his bride,
When bathed in the morning dew;

But she gave place, in the wavering round,
To a nymph of great power to lure,
Amaryllis, whom all the fresh valleys resound
With Euphonia of music pure!

Then Tulipa, gaudy coquette, kept rule,
Who sets such a price on her features,

And dresses for every holiday fool,

Who capriciously pays for such creatures.
Silene the next, so sweetly perfumed,

Stole nightly my bosom along;*

And was followed by Rosa, who blushing assumed
Preeminence over the throng!

Now, all on a sudden, in a painted scarf,
Came Pavora and Pluviat smart,

Introducing a fiercelooking, fiery maid,

Who pierced my heart with a dart:

'Twas the goddess Electra, with auburn hair, t
To whom attic dwellings are given;

Who, followed by thundering bailiffs there,
Lap out of the window of Heaven!

The concussion was sharp, and great was the smart,
And then to my great surprise,

I first dreamt I was dreaming, and then with a start,
I awoke and I rubbed my eyes.

I had dozed, dear Felina, with thee on my breast,[]
In one of the Paphian bowers,

And thy fragrant breath, as we both caressed,

Had set me a dreaming on flowers.

Some curious remarks on the fragrant breath of Cats, and on the perfumes from their mouths when angry, may be found in the Gent.'s and other Periodical Magazines.

February 29. St. Oswald, Bishop of Worcester and Archbishop of York.

FLORA. SHEPHERD'S PURSE Thlaspi Bursa pastoris flowers.

St. Oswald was educated by his uncle St. Odo, and made Dean of Winchester. He afterwards took the monastic

*The Silene Noctiflora.

† Fear and a smart Shower.

The electricity of Thunder and Lightning. ||Felina, cognomen sumptum a fele, à Cat.

habit at Fleury, in France. Having succeeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester, and subsequently been made Archbishop of York, he fell sick at St. Mary's in Worcester, belonging to the Benedictines, among which monks he died, after extreme unction, exclaiming " Glory be to the Father," in the year 992.

If the reader pursue the plan of reading the observations under the descriptions of each day in annuary rotation, those of today will be less impressed on his mind than the rest, as the 29th of February only occurs in leap years.

DIANA.-Hare hunting ceases properly with February. It is time now for Sportsmen to turn their attention to the breed of their Hounds towards the close of hunting, as the following lines of Shakespeare will remind them:

Breed of Hounds.

My Hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
So flewed, so sanded, and their heads are hung
With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
Crook kneed and dew lapped like Thessalian Bulls,
Slow in pursuit, but matched in mouth like Bells,
Each under each. A cry more tuneable

Was never halloed to, nor cheered with horn.

We have selected this day, which can only happen in Leap Years, for subjoining the following Table :—

General Table for finding the Day of the Week for every Day in

every Year.

The above Table may require some explanation. In order to make the reader acquainted with the mode of applying it, we must observe, that in order to ascertain on what day of the week any day in any year falls, it is only necessary to recollect the day of the week of some one day in the same year, it matters not which, and then by consulting the Table it may be immediately seen on what day of the week the desired day falls. For example, suppose we desire to know what day the 29th of May, 1818, was, we recollect that March 1 was Sunday: we, therefore, mark over the first column, and the 1st, 8th, 15th, and 22d of that month will fall on the same day, and by thus following the characters down the first column we find all the days in the year which fall on Sunday. We then notice the Sunday nearest the 29th of May, and observe on which column the said 29th day happens, when, by referring to the sign at the head of the column, we shall find the day of the week, for instance Friday. When we do not remember the week day of the 1st of March, but recollect that of some other day in the year, we must have recourse to this method. Suppose we recollect that the 5th of December was h Saturday, then we mark ↳ over the column in which it occurs,