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and purple and white. The fox-glove; reddish and dotted: it is a tall and slender flower, and looks very handsome with its rows of bells down the stalk. Crane's-bill; there are several sorts of this flower, of a blue, red, pale blue, and pale red: I am very fond of this flower. Marsh-mallow, and the other sorts; of a lilac-colour, and striped. The everlasting pea; a handsome red flower. Tares; blueish and gray. Trefoil; pale red and pale purple. St. John's wort; there are many sorts, and all yellow: the park-leaf St. John's wort I think the handsomest. Several kinds of the hawk-weed; yellow, bright yellow, and orange. Thistles; purple and crimson. The orchis ; green and dull purple. These are all the field flowers I can recollect, papa; and I believe most of our garden flowers that were in blossom last month are still blowing."

“Well, Adam,” said his father, "I did not expect that you could have given me such a list as this. If there were no more flowers now than those you have named, we should still have reason to be proud of the month of JULY.

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122

CHAP. VIII.

August.

"Come to the yellow fields, golden with corn!
The brawny AUGUST, with fast-reaping hand,
Lays low the earth's tall plumes of pride; and blithe
Young gleaners, in bee-swarms, trample the shorn
Stout stubble down, with naked feet and torn,
In little laps garnering allowed tithe ;

And wheaten sheathes are bound with strawy baud,
And to the hungry barn brown Ceres' wain is borne.
With no more music than the woods afford,

No daintier food than is the wild strawberry,
With water from clear brooks which clean deer ford,
We may be fed, and pleased, and careless merry;
And fear not but the day's sweet exercise
Will bring night's balmiest slumber to our eyes.”

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LYRIC LEAVES.

"ADAM," said Mr. Stock, "do you remember who Octavius Cæsar was called-the first of the Roman Emperors?" Yes, papa-he afterwards took the name of Augustus." “Well, then, the title of the present month was changed in honour of him. Before his advancement to the dominion of the Roman empire, July and August used to be called Quintilis, and

Sextilis, or fifth and sixth months, being the fifth and sixth in succession from March, which was, originally, the first of the year: and in consequence, September, October, November, and December were considered, as their names signify in Latin, the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months.

"Come, my boy, we must set to work, and prepare yonder bed for the purpose of sowing some winter spinach for our early spring crop. That bed, I mean, under the south wall; it is a good piece of soil, and lies dry and well for the winter sun. Now, you shall do all this yourself; so dig it up in your neatest manner, and next week you shall sow the seed. Scatter it thinly over the surface, then tread it in, and, lastly, rake it over lightly. If we have good fortune with the seed, we shall have a fine crop of spinach for our dinners of early lamb, and many a good supper of it with poached eggs. I will now give you full directions for managing this spinach-bed, in order that I may prove whether you bear in mind what I tell you. So, remember that you get the prickly-seeded spinach for the winter crop, because the plants are more hardy. Then, do not forget, when the plants have come up about an inch above the ground, to weed the bed, at the same time thinning it, leaving a space of about four inches between each plant of spinach. While you are performing this task, I will be preparing two beds for sowing cabbage-seed for our next summer and autumn supply; and then I will prepare and manure that piece of ground for transplanting some of the young broccoli-plants, which will be coming into

perfection next spring with the lamb and spinach. I shall plant them about two feet asunder, and you must remind me to water them now and then, if the weather continue dry. I must also hoe up the earth round the stems of those which we planted out last month. After this job, I shall transplant some of those savoys, at the same distance from each other, and I expect many a fine dish from them, all through November, December, and January.

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The next thing will be to prepare a bed or two for onions, to come in with our spring sallads, and some carrots. As you and your brothers and sisters are fond of radishes and small sallad, you may prepare a small bed for each. They will be ready for cropping by the time you have consumed the last stock. And do not forget to remind me towards the end of the month, that I sow some cauliflower-seed for our spring supply."

In the course of the present month, both father and son did not omit to clear the young asparagus-plants from weeds, and to transplant more celery from the seed-beds into trenches; also to keep carefully earthed up those which they had planted out a month or two previously, and which were growing. They were also careful in watering regularly, while the weather was dry, those young plants which they had last trenched. In the course of their employment, too, they examined every now and then the artichokes ; and as the fruit began to fill, they cut off all the small heads that grew upon the suckers, in order that the whole vigour of the plant might be reserved for the

principal fruit. And as these reached their full size, and were fit for the table, they broke the stems down to the ground, after cutting the produce. Then they planted out lettuces from the seed-beds, and endive upon well-dug ground, setting the roots about a foot apart; first trimming the lower ends and the leaves. Those which had been put out last month, and had grown to a full size, they tied up closely with bass, in order that their inner leaves might become white and fit for sallads.

"Papa," said Adam," why are the insides of the endive-plants white after they have been tied up?" "Because," said his father, "they are deprived of the benefit of the light of the sun, which is absolutely necessary for giving to them the green tinge which they acquire when growing in a natural state. Have you not observed that the stalks of potatoes, and of other vegetables immediately under the surface of the ground, are always white; and that the parts of the same stem above the ground are green: that is, when they are growing in the open air? To show you that this effect must arise from the action of the sun's rays, you must remember to have noticed the long stalks from potatoes that we have found growing in the cellar where no light could come to them. They were always perfectly white, and the leaves were paler than the lightest straw-colour. All plants become pale and feeble when shut up for a length of time in dark rooms. So earnestly, too, do they seem to desire the light, that potatoes and other vegetables with long stems, when laid in a dark corner of a cellar in

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