dil (fritillaria meleagris); the primrose; the cowslip (primula veris); the lady-smock (cardamine pratensis), and the hare-bell (hyacinthus non scriptus). The yellow star of Bethlehem (ornithogalum luteum) in woods; the vernal squill (scilla verna) among maritime rocks; and the wood sorrel (oxalis acetosella), are now in full flower. The leaves of the woodsorrel abound with acid, which is extracted, and, when crystallized, forms the salt of lemons, useful for removing stains in linen. This and the woodanemoné (anemone nemorosa), now in flower, have both white blossoms, and inhabit shady woods. The elm (ulmus campestris) is in full leaf.

LINES written beneath an ELM, in the Churchyard of Harrow on the
Hill, September 2, 1807.

Spot of my youth! whose hoary branches sigh,
Swept by the breeze that fans thy cloudless sky;
Where now alone I muse, who oft have trod,
With those I loved, thy soft and verdant sod;
With those, who scattered far, perchance, deplore,
Like me, the happy scenes they knew before.
Oh! as I trace again thy winding hill,

Mine eyes admire, my heart adores thee still,
Thou drooping Elm! beneath whose boughs I lay,
And frequent mused the twilight hours away;

Where, as they ouce were wont, my limbs recline,

But, ah! without the thoughts which, then, were mine.
How do thy branches, moaning to the blast,
Invite the bosom to recal the past,

And seem to whisper, as they gently swell,

'Take, while thou canst, a ling'ring, last farewell!'
When Fate shall chill at length this fevered breast,
And calm its cares and passions into rest;
Oft, have I thought, 'twould soothe my dying hour,
(If aught may soothe, when Life resigns her power)
To know some humbler grave, some narrow cell,
Would hide my bosom where it loved to dwell:
With this fond dream, methinks 'twere sweet to die,
And here it lingered, here my heart might lie;
Here might I sleep, where all my hopes arose,
Scene of my youth, and couch of my repose;
For ever stretched beneath this mantling shade,
tusf where once my childhood play'd;

by the soil that veils the spot I loved,

with the earth o'er which my footsteps moved;
y the tongues that charmed my youthful ear,
ed by the few my soul acknowledged here;
red by those in early days allied,

remembered by the world beside'.

moles are now to be found in their nests; Dod time, therefore, for destroying them. nd stoats are great enemies to moles, and - get into their holes, kill the inhabitants, up their own abode there.

ants of the air are, in this month, busily in forming their temporary habitations, aring and maintaining their offspring. For Ilustrations, see our former volumes.

the middle of April, the bittern (ardea stelakes a hollow booming noise, during the the breeding season, from its swampy re

as kinds of insects are now seen 'sporting in beams,' and living their little hour.' The spider (aranea scenica) is seen on garden and the webs of other species of spiders are the bushes, palings, and outsides of houses. us terrestris appears, and the death-watch pulsatorius) beats early in the month. The at (formica herculanea) now begins to cons large conical nest. The shell-snail comes troops; the stinging-fly (conops calcitrans) red-ant (formica rubra) appear.

mole-cricket (gryllus gryllotalpa) is the most able of the insect-tribe seen about this time. e flesh-fly (musca vomitoria) and the dragonellula) are frequently observed towards the the month. Little maggots, the first state of ants, are now to be found in their nests. The variegated libellula (libellula varia of Shaw), rd Byron's' Hours of Idleness,' p. 148. Paris edit. 1820.

MAY.

so called from Maia, the mother of Merhom sacrifices were offered by the Romans t of this month; or, according to some, ect to the senators and nobles of Rome, named Majores, as the following month d Junius, in honour of the youth of Rome.

Remarkable Days

anks, formerly, went out into the woods a early on the 1st of this month; returning ith boughs and garlands, and spending the er of the day in dancing round a May-pole', with flowers. Of customs like these, yet gour in the age of Elizabeth, Mr. Leslie's ng picture of May morning in the last exhi1821) at Somerset House, conveys a most at representation. The hobby-horse, the the May-pole, &c. as well as the dresses of a company, are faithfully and ably depicted. uly English picture is a work of novelty and and we think that a well-executed engraving

of these poles was standing in East Smithfield, till about the O, and another opposite the New Church in the Strand 'in ne's reign: some are still to be seen in different parts of the

T. T. for 1820, pp. 124-128, for a full description of the various es which composed these May interludes.

I

Hyde Park, May 1. This day there was the hurling of a great ball, by fifty Cornish gentlemen on the one side, and fifty on the other: one party played in red caps and the other in white. There was present his Highness the Lord Protector, many of his privy council, and divers eminent gentlemen, to whose view was presented great agility of body and most neat and exquisite wrestling at every meeting of one with the other, which was ordered with such dexterity, that it was to show more the strength, vigour, and nimbleness of their bodies, than to endanger their persons. The ball they played with was silver, and designed for the party that won the goal.' The same paper goes on to observe: This day was more observed by people's going a maying, than for divers years past, and indeed much sin com-. mitted by wicked meetings with fiddlers, drunkenness, ribaldry and the like: great resort came to Hyde Park, many hundred of rich coaches, and gallants in rich attire, but most shameful powdered-hair men, and painted and spotted women; some men played with a silver ball, and some took other recreation.bolos.

A peculiar rustic ceremony used annually to be observed at Horncastle, in Lincolnshire, about forty. years ago, which evidently derived its origin from the floral games of antiquity. On the morning of Mayday, when the young of the neighbourhood assembled

That the good, Queen Elizabeth actually went a maying, we have the authority of The Progresses of this Queen' (vol. iv, part 1), where the fact is thus stated: May 8th, 1602. On May-day, the queen went a maying to Sir Rich. Buckley's, at Lewisham, some three or four miles