This is the way of the world; this is the state of modern friendship and since it is so, who that has a grain of common sense, would not take care of a friend while he has him, especially if he be so portable as to be placed in his pocket.

THE STRANGER MAIDEN.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER, FOR THIS MAGAZINE.

Among poor shepherds, in a vale,
With every new returning year,
When first the lark began his song,
A maid of wondrous beauty came.

A stranger to the shepherd band,
Her home and birth-place none could tell:
And when her farewell word was said,
So soon her foot-prints disappeared.

Her presence was a blessing there;

And every heart was wide enlarged:

And yet her lofty dignity

Too intimate approach forbade.

With fruits and flowers her hands were filled;

Fruits ripened on a purer soil ·

Flowers that beneath another sun,
And in a happier climate, bloomed.

To each that came she dealt a gift;
Blossoms to some, to others fruit:
The youth and old man with his staff-
Each with full hands went joyful home.

Before her all were welcome guests;
But when a loving pair came near,

She crowned them with her choicest gifts —
Flowers most beautiful and rare.

THE natural family of plants to which the rose belongs, and which is known by the general title of rosaceæ, or rosaceous plants, is a large and important one. Taken in its widest extent in which it embraces three well distinguished tribes, which some botanists consider as forming three distinct families, or orders- - it includes the larger part of the fruits of our climate, together with

several plants esteemed for the beauty of their flowers. It is worthy of observation, also, that while this order affords so many useful productions, it is not known, except in a single instance, to contain anything that is positively poisonous or injurious.

The rose, which enjoys the undisputed rank of queen of flowers, is an inhabitant of all the regions of the northern temperate zone, where its beauty has been celebrated by the poets of almost every land and tongue; but it is said to be an entire stranger to the southern hemisphere. The number of natural species is large, especially on the eastern continent, from which most of our cultivated roses were originally brought; and the varieties which cultivation has produced in many of these species, are almost innumerable. The color of the rose, as is well known, varies from a dark red to pure white: two or three species only are known to have yellow flowers; while blue is a color not found either in the rose or in the blossom of any other rosaceous plant.

In its simple, native state, the rose has but five petals : the fullness of the double flower, which is so much admired by florists and gardeners, is owing to high cultivation, the effect of which is, to convert a part or sometimes the whole of the stamens into petals.

But notwithstanding the preference so generally shown by lovers of flowers, for full double blossoms, I have sometimes been inclined to think that this taste was owing to a superficial apprehension of the real beauty of nature, somewhat akin to that which leads the lively and uncultivated fancy of a child to prefer a gay, high-colored daub of a picture, to a fine and delicate one. And though

maturer reflection makes me unwilling to employ, without qualification, so harsh a criticism, or to wish in any way to undervalue the peculiar kind of beauty which art has enabled nature in these instances to bring forth for

as in

our innocent gratification, I would nevertheless enter a protest against the idea that the perversions and distortions of nature's model forms which we sometimes see some of the " fancy" tulips, for instance-are in any sense improvements on the originals. And I think that in general, a refined taste would perceive the finest grace and most delicate beauty, in those flowers which are permitted to retain their simple native forms and proportions. When looking at the immense double pinks and peonies, which glow in the sunny borders of some gardens, they seem rather like encumbering loads than graceful decorations to the foliage which supports them, whose beauty they should crown and enliven, without eclipsing: and though they make the flower-beds look more gay and cheerful, a nearer examination deprives them of a part of their beauty; and I turn to the more unobtrusive single flowers of their species, for a beauty which better repays the examination which its modest coyness invites.

In the same section of the rose family to which the rose itself belongs, are found the blackberry, and the raspberry, of each of which there are several species whose excellent fruits are well known. One of these, called cloud-berry, furnishes the inhabitants of the frozen arctic zone with a delicious fruit. The shrub called the flowering raspberry, which is found wild in the hilly districts of the western part of this state, is cultivated for the sake of its large red, fragrant flowers; but its fruit is nearly worthless. In the same order is also found the strawberry, the earliest fruit of northern climates.

A second division of the rose family furnishes our orchard fruits the apple, the pear and the quince, together with the thorn, and several less important berry-bearing shrubs. No fruit of northern latitudes is of so universal and varied use as the apple. It was much cultivated and highly prized by the ancient Romans, who were accus

tomed to distinguish their choice varieties by the names of distinguished men. They seem to have received it from the East, where it is at this day cultivated, and where it probably originated, like a variety of other useful productions, which, while they have been borne in the track of civilization from one end of the earth to the other, are hardly anywhere to be found in a wild state. It is a common opinion, indeed, that the cultivated apple originated in the wild crab, which is indigenous, according to botanists, not only in Europe but in America also; but I have much doubt of the correctness of this view, in the absence of any absolute proof.

Both the apple and the pear are cultivated in China, but the fruit is said to be much inferior to our own. The wood of the pear tree is used by the Chinese for the blocks with which their printing is performed.

The third section of the rose family contains the stonefruits; namely, the peach, plum, cherry, &c. The almond, which also belongs to this tribe, may be described as a kind of dry or fleshless peach. The leaves and seeds of these trees contain prussic acid, forming the only known exception to the entire harmlessness of the rosaceous family. The delicious fruits of this order are too well known to need description in this place. Of the plum and cherry, we have some valuable native American species.

Several plants of this family are also of repute for their medicinal qualities. They are mostly of the astringent or strengthening kind, (so called.)

Plants of the rose family are distinguished by having alternate leaves, accompanied by stipules, and by their regular flowers, with five distinct petals, which, with the stamens, are inserted into the calyx. By this latter mark, this wholesome and useful family is distinguished from plants of the buttercup family, which are almost uniformly either suspicious, or positively poisonous - and which,