LADIES' WORK-BAG. Materials.-French silks of the following

colours. White, scarlet, emerald green, yellow (not orange), black, rose, scarlet-cord, and tassels of all the colours combined. Boulton and Son's crochet-hook, No. 24.

We must observe that bags of the most ornamental description are now greatly used by Parisian belles, for holding the handkerchief, purse, &c. They are very small, and are made in crochet, netting, or embroidery. We would not whisper the atrocity to even the winds, nevertheless it is a fact, that these same exquisite pieces of workmanship are the rage among gentlemen, for tobacco-pouches. The only difference is, that the lady's reticule is lined with silk or satin, and the gentleman's blague with lamb-skin.

With the black silk, make a chain of 336 stitches, and close it into a round. 1st. Round.-Black,+ 13 Sc, 3 Sc in 1, 12 more Sc, miss 2, + 12 times.

2nd Round.-Yellow. The same. 3rd, 4th, and 5th Rounds.-Black. The

same.

6th Round.-Yellow. The same.

7th Round.-Scarlet, +7 Sc, 3 Ch, miss 3, 3 Sc, 3 Sc in 1, 3 Sc, 3 Ch, miss 3, 6 Sc, miss 2, + 12 times

8th Round.-Yellow. Like 1st.

9th and 10th Rounds.-Scarlet. The same.

11th Round.-Scarlet and white,+ 10 scarlet, 1 white, 2 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 2 scarlet, 1 white, 9 scarlet, miss 2, + 12 times.

12th Round.+ 8 scarlet, 3 white, 2 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 2 scarlet, 3 white, 7 scarlet, miss 2, + 12 times.

13th Round.-+ 8 scarlet, 1 white, 4 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 4 scarlet, 1 white, 7 scarlet, miss 2, + 12 times.

14th Round.-Scarlet and green, + 6

scarlet, 3 green, 4 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 4 scarlet, 3 green, 5 scarlet, miss 2, 12

times.

15th Round.-Scarlet, green, and black, 3 scarlet, 3 green, 1 black, 3 green, 3 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 3 scarlet, 3 green, 1 black, 3 green, 2 scarlet, miss 2, +12 times.

16th Round.-Scarlet and green, +5 scarlet, 1 green, 7 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 7 scarlet, 1 green, 4 scarlet, miss 2, +12 times.

17th Round. Same colours, ++ scarlet, 3 green, 6 scarlet, 3 scarlet in 1, 6 scarlet, 3 green, 3 scarlet, miss 2, 4 12 times.

Repeat the stripe of scarlet, from 9th to 20th rounds inclusive, substituting the following colours. White for scarlet, scarlet for white, red for black. green as in scarlet stripe.

Use

Reverse the colours from 21st to 29th inclusive, that is, begin with the green, and end with the yellow round.

Now follows another pattern stripe, with green ground, for scarlet, scarlet for green, white for white, and black for black. In working the two plain green rounds which finish the stripe, miss 2 as usual, but work only one stitch in every one of the others.

Do a round of yellow, one of green and one of yellow, in the same way, then 4 black, decreasing so that you have 98 stitches in the round.

Black and scarlet,+ 13 black, 1 scarlet, 7 times.

2nd Round.+5 black, miss 2, 5 black, 3 scarlet,+7 times.

3rd Round. 4 black, miss 2, 3 black, 5 scarlet,+7 times. 4th Round. 7 scarlet,+7 times. 5th Round +7 times.

2 black, miss 2, 1 black,

1 black, 7 scarlet on 7,

6th Round.+ 1 yellow on centre of 7 scarlet, 6 scarlet, + 7 times.

7th Round 3 yellow, (on 1, and a scarlet on each side,) 3 scarlet, + 7 times. Sth Round.+ 1 scarlet on the centre of 3, and 4 yellow between + 7 times. Gradually close with yellow.

Now on the original chain do 1 round yellow, 1 green, 1 scarlet, 1 yellow, with 3 in one at each point, and missing 2 at the lower part. Line and trim as in the engraving.

COTTON FOR CROCHET-WORK.

THE fair readers of the work-table department of the Family Friend, may have experienced some difficulty in comprehending the names and numbers giver by different manufacturers to the threads and other materials employed for the fabrication of the designs given in our Miscellany. We accordingly append an explanatory Table. The best and largest manufacturers of crochet-cotton, Messrs. Evans, of Derby; Messrs. Strutt, of Belper; and Messrs. Taylor, of Derby Messrs. Clark, and Messrs. Marsland, of Manchester.

are

The first cotton used for crochet-work was that manufactured by Messrs. Evans and Co., and named "boars'-head cotton," those manufacturers adopting their family crest as their distinctive mark. Other manufacturers have since entered into competition with these, each of whose cottons has its own peculiar excellence, and is preferred according to the fancy of the worker.

The quality required in a good crochetcotton is that it should be evenly and firmly twisted, consistent in its texture, and free from fluff. In this state it can be worked easily, and produce the desired effect; but when too tightly twisted, or too flabby in its texture, it is apt either to give the worker a great deal of trouble, or to appear loose and untidy when finished.

There is little difference between the twist, or rather the number of the threads twisted together for the crochet and the ordinary working cottons, both being six threads; first, two twisted together, then the three, in a double state, twisted into a single thread. In the case of the crochet-cotton made by Messrs. Marsland, of Manchester, the first two threads are twisted rather

THE HUMAN CLOCK. THE flowering of plants takes place at different periods of the year, and thus a calendar of the seasons may be constructed. By observing the exact time when plants in the same garden flower in different years, an indication will be given of the nature of the season. The mezereon and snowdrop, hepatica, and winter aconite, put forth their flowers in February in this country, the primrose and crocus in March, the cowslip and daffodil in April, the great mass of plants in May and June, many in July, August, and September, the meadow saffron and strawberry tree in October and November, and the Christmas rose in December. Besides annual periods, some flowers exhibit diurnal periods of expansion and closing. On this principle Linnæus constructed what he called a floral clock, in which each hour was marked by the opening of some flower. Richter, in his remarks on Linnæus' floral clock, contrasts it with the periodical occupation of man at different hours of the day. "I believe," he says, "the flower clock of Linnæus, in Upsal (Horologium Flora), whose wheels are the sun and earth, and whose indexfigures are flowers, of which one always awakens and opens later than another, was what secretly suggested my conception of the human clock. I formerly occupied two chambers in Schreeraw, in the middle of the market-place; from the front room I overlooked the whole market - place, and the royal buildings, and from the back one, the botanical garden. Whoever now dwells in these two rooms possesses an excellent harmony, arranged to his hand, between the flower-clock in the garden, and the human-clock in the market - place. At three o'clock in the morning the yellow meadow goatsbeard opens; and brides awake, and the stable-boy begins to rattle and feed the horses beneath the lodger. At four o'clock the little hawkweed awakes, choristers going to the cathedral, who are clocks with chimes, and the bakers. At five, kitchen - maids, dairy - maids, and butter-cups awake. At six, the sowthistle and cocks. At seven o'clock many of the ladies'-maids are awake in the palace, the chicory in my botanical

garden, and some tradesmen. At eight o'clock all the colleges awake, and the little yellow mouse-ear. At nine o'clock the female nobility already begin to stirthe marigold, and even many young ladies who have come from the country on a visit, begin to look out of their windows. Between ten and eleven o'clock the court ladies and the whole staff of lords of the bedchamber, the green colewort and the Alpine dandelion, and the reader of the princess, rouse themselves out of their morning's sleep; and the whole palace, considering that the morning sun gleams so brightly to-day from the lofty sky through the coloured silk curtains, curtails a little of its slumber. At twelve o'clock the prince, at one his wife, and carnation, have their eyes open in their flower - vase.

What awakes late in the afternoon at four o'clock is only the red hawkweed and the night watchmen as cuckoo - clock, and these two only tell the time as evening clocks and moonclocks. From the hot eyes of the unfortunate man who, like the Jalap plant (Mirabilis Jalapa), first opens them at five o'clock, we will turn our own in pity aside. It is a rich man who has had recourse to it, and is undergoing all the painful sensations of his feverish fancy, awakened by disease. I could never know when it was two o'clock, because at that time, together with a thousand other stout gentlemen, and with the yellow mouse-ear, I always fell asleep; but at three o'clock in the afternoon, and at three in the morning, I awoke as regularly as though I was a repeater. Thus we mortals may be a flower-clock for higher beings, when our flower-leaves close upon our last bed; or sand-clocks, when the sand of our life is so run down that it is renewed in the other world; or picture-clocks, because, when our death-bell here below strikes and rings, our image steps forth from its case into the next world. On each event of the kind, when seventy years of human life have passed away, they may perhaps say, 'What! another hour already gone! how the time flies !""

The closing of flowers also follows a periodical law. Most flowers close during darkness. Some close even in day-light. Thus the salsafy shuts up its head of flowers about mid-day, and the chicory

about four in the afternoon. Many flowers are affected by the nature of the day as regards moisture, dryness, cloudiness, or clearness. In cloudy and rainy weather, the flowers of the scarlet pimpernel, called poor-man's weather-glass, remain closed. So also do the heads of flowers of the daisy, dandelion, and other composite plants. By this means the essential organs of the flower are protected from injury. The direction of the flowers of some plants seems to be influenced by the sun's rays; and the name girasole or sunflower, was given from an impression that the heads of flowers inclined towards the part of the heavens where the sun was shining. This does not, however, appear to be the case with the sun-flower as grown in this country.

The diurnal periods in flowering are alluded to by the poet in the following

lines:

"In every copse and sheltered dell,

Unveiled to the observant eye, Are faithful monitors who tell,

How pass the hours and seasons by. The green-robed children of the spring Will mark the periods as they pass, Mingle with leaves Time's feathered wing, And bind with flowers his silent glass. See Hieracium's various tribes

Of plumy fruit and radiant flowers, The course of time their blooms describe, And wake and sleep appointed hours. Broad o'er its imbricated cup

The Goatsbeard spreads its purple rays
But shuts its cautious florets up,

Retiring from the noontide blaze.
On upland shores the shepherd marks
The hour when, as the dial true,
Cichorium to the lowering lark

Lifts her soft eyes serenely blue.
Thus, in each flower and simple bell
That in our path betrodden lie,
Are sweet remembrancers, who tell

How fast the winged moments fly!"

THE GREAT CHESTNUT TREE.-On one side of Mount Etna there is a famous chestnut tree, which is said to be one hundred and ninety-six feet in circumference, just above the surface of the ground. Its enormous trunk is separated into five divisions, which gives it the trees growing appearance of several together. In a circular space formed by these huge branches, a hut has been erected for the accommodation of those who collect the chestnuts.

THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION.

Nor only in portraits of more or less interesting individuals, but throughout the whole wide field of portraiture which includes every phase of Nature, and which comprehensively we term Art, let us be sure that there is no higher, no more legitimate standard of excellence than the absolute full and true likeness to be looked The for in the painter's transcript. truth that there is in the plea of "artistic "is but half a truth; for if style, necessity composition, treatment, chiar oscuro, any technical means which the artist employs, contravened or essentially altered, in any particular, the phase to be represented, that means must be regarded as a false aid to effect. It was this half truth of a classical devotion to the rules of Art, that the young school of Pre-Raphaelite Brothers heard given as a separate theory, and took to be false. They opposed to it their idea-the other half truth - that Nature in her exact momentary aspect, is to be caught and fixed upon the painter's canvass. The whole truth is this:-that the classic methods are suggested by Nature herself. Take, as an example, this fact, that the eye, attentively directed to any passing incident in the life around us, goes direct to the point, while not only will surrounding objects be more obscurely perceived, and the most trivial lost sight of altogether, but, as a physical fact, the one central object we continue to gaze on, gathers the light to itself, and is actually the brightest spot in the living picture. This is Nature's own arrangement; her artistic disposition of light and shade, which the observant painter imitates by his chiar oscuro; and if you will try to realise the painter's perfect success, you will understand the true meaning of that much used and often misapplied technicality. So with inorganic Nature-with the landscape of real life-where there is no such centred human interest, the eye is kept from dwelling long on accidents and incongruities of detail, by the play of light and shadow which every passing cloud brings across masses of vegetation, and by a thousand other natural effects, which we sometimes call picturesque. It is by a pleasant association of ideas that we so