This absurd fashion is a relic of the custom of trimming the trees, in old pleasure grounds, into the form of animals, vases, pyramids, and the like. extraordinary, very strange. neigh'bouring, next. morass'es, swamps. in'dustry, diligence. explo'sion, violent bursting into flame. reg'iment, the subdivision of an army, numbering, with us, about 1,000 men. inunda'tion, a flood. en'ergy, vigorous action. intel'ligent, bright, clever. peculiar'ities, qualities specially marking certain persons, &c. lab'yrinth, a maze, confusion, intricacy. characteris'tic, feature. distinguishing indefatigable, untiring. manufac'tory, place where things are made. organiza'tion, systematic formation. intru'der, one who thrusts himself in without right. crev'ice, a crack. ram'part, a wall for defence. calam'ities, misfortunes. irrup'tion, a bursting in. vig'ilance, watchfulness. prosper'ity, welfare. necess'ity, need. inge'nious, clever. quaint, fanciful. pyr'amid, a four-sided cone. Now came still evening on, and twilight gray 66 When Adam thus to Eve: Fair consort, th' hour Of night, and all things now retired to rest, Now falling with soft slumb'rous weight, inclines : Our eyelids other creatures all day long And of their doings God takes no account. To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorned : My author and disposer, what thou bidd'st, Unargued I obey: so God ordains. God is thy law; thou, mine: to know no more, Glist'ring with dew; nor fragrance after showers; SPELL AND GIVE THE MEANING HOW COAL IS FORMED.-W. BOYD DAWKINS, M.A. 1. We find under each bed of coal a layer of "under clay," as it is termed, that is as full of rootlets as it well can be. It is therefore clear, that it was the soil on which the vegetation grew. In some cases we can prove that the roots and rootlets penetrated the bed of coal, very much in the same way that the roots of trees now penetrate the soil. 2. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the under clay which you find below every seam of coal is the soil on which the trees grew; and that the layer of coal above, which is sometimes equally penetrated with roots, is the accumulation of vegetable matter on that soil. This is a very important point, because it leads us to an adequate idea of the conditions under which the coal was formed. It proves that these ancient forms of vegetation were laid up in the form of coal very much where they grew. 3. There is evidence, also, that these forms grew not very far from high-water mark. In the first place, the layers of coal run more or less straight, though they are broken up here and there from causes of which I shall speak presently. If you could strip off, from some particular layer of coal, the rocks with which it is overlaid, you would frequently find the channels formed by water while the coal was being formed. In the 4-foot coal of the Forest of Dean,1 we get, ramifying through it, a series of channels filled with sandstone and shale. Now, there can be no doubt that, in this particular instance, the reason we have stone instead of coal, is simply owing to the fact that, in the old days, streams of water played upon the vegetable matter, and these streams wore its way into channels, and these channels have been filled up with sand and shale. 4. Such a series you will find at the mouth of any river you choose to examine. You will see a number of channels hollowed in the soft mud; and if the sea should come over and deposit sand, then you would find those mud channels filled with sand, just in the same way as in the coal measures of the Forest of Dean. We have also clear evidence that the coal was not accumulated under water, in the simple fact that the small seeds or spores of which the bituminous coal is made up, are so light that they would float on the surface, and could not possibly become water-logged. 5. We can therefore gather this idea respecting the |