The goats wind slow their wonted way,1
Up craggy steeps and ridges rude;
Marked by the wild wolf for his prey,
From desert cave or hanging wood.
And while the torrent thunders loud,
And as the echoing cliffs reply,
The huts peep o'er the mountain cloud,
Perched, like an eagle's nest, on high.

THE CALENDAR OF FLORA.2

Rogers.

FAIR rising from her icy couch,
Wan heralds of the floral year,

The snow-drop marks the Spring's approach,
Ere yet the primrose groups appear,
Or peers the arum4 from its spotted veil,
Or odorous violets scent the cold capricious gale.

Then thickly strewn in woodland bowers,
Anemones5 their stars unfold,

There spring the sorrel's veined flowers,
And rich in vegetable gold,6

(1) Way-this line, and that in the first stanza, "With hounds and horns the hunters rise," supply instances of what is called alliteration, or the frequent recurrence of the same initial letter. It is an artifice of composition which ought to be very judiciously employed to satisfy a cultivated taste-though its occasional introduction is pleasing. The poet Churchill has at once ingeniously ridiculed and exemplified it in the following line :

"And apt alliteration's artful aid."

(2) In the "Calendar of Flora," the flowers, by their appearance at different parts of the year, serve as a sort of register, or calendar, of the seasons.

(3) Herald-synonymous with harbinger and messenger. All these words convey the idea of going before, but differ in the purpose.

A herald is one who goes before to declare something. A harbinger is one who goes before to procure a harbour or lodging for some important personage. A messenger is one who goes before to take a message.

(4) Arum maculatum-spotted arum, or cuckoo-pint.

(5) Anemones-called also wind-flowers. The anemone nemorosa is here referred to.

(6) Vegetable gold-an expression borrowed from Milton (Paradise Lost, iv. 218), and somewhat affectedly employed here to denote the golden colour of the cowslips.

From calyx pale the freckled cowslips born,
Receive in jasper cups the fragrant dews of moru.
Lo! the green thorn her silver buds
Expands to May's enlivening beam;
Hottonial blushes on the floods;

And, where the slowly trickling stream
Mid grass and spiry rushes stealing glides,
Her lovely fringed flowers fair menyanthes2 hides.

In the lone copse, or shadowy dale,

Wild clustered knots of harebells grow,
And droops the lily of the vale

O'er vinca's3 matted leaves below.
The orchis race with varied beauty charm,
And mock the exploring bee or fly's aërial form.
Wound o'er the hedge-row's oaken boughs,
The woodbine's tassels float in air,
And, blushing, the uncultured rose

Hangs high her beauteous blossoms there;
Her fillets there the purple nightshade weaves,
And pale bryonia1 winds her broad and scalloped leaves.

To later summer's fragrant breath

Clematis' feathery garlands dance;

The hollow foxglove nods beneath;

While the tall mullein's yellow lance-
Dear to the mealy moth of evening-towers;

And the weak galium5 weaves its myriad fairy flowers.

Sheltering the coot's or wild duck's nest,

And where the timid halcyon hides,

The willow-herb, in crimson drest,

Waves with arundo o'er the tides;

And there the bright nymphæa loves to lave,

Or spreads her golden orbs upon the dimpling wave.

(1) Hottonia-the water violet.

(2) Menyanthes-the buck-bean or bog-bean.

(3) Vinca-periwinkle.

(4) Bryonia-bryony.

(5) Galium-the yellow bed-straw.

(6) Halcyon-the king-fisher.

(7) Nymphæa-the white water-lily; the "golden orbs," in the next line, belong

to the yellow species.

And thou, by pain and sorrow blest,
Papaver! that an opiate dew
Conceal'st beneath thy scarlet vest,

Contrasting with the corn-flower blue,
Autumnal months behold thy gauzy leaves

Bend in the rustling gale amid the tawny sheaves.

From the first bud, whose venturous head
The Winter's lingering tempest braves,
To those which, 'midst the foliage dead,
Sink latest to their annual graves,

Are all for health, for use, for pleasure given,

And speak, in various ways, the bounteous hand of Heaven.

Charlotte Smith.

THE HOROLOGE2 OF FLORA.

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 wreathe with flowers his silent glass.

Mark where transparent waters glide,
Soft flowing o'er their tranquil bed,
There, cradled on the dimpling tide,
Nymphæa rests her lovely head.

But, conscious of the earliest beam,
She rises from her humid nest,
And sees reflected on the stream,

The virgin whiteness of her breast,

(1) Papaver-poppy. There seems to be an error here; it is the white poppy, papaver somniferum, which produces opium-the "opiate dew" of the text.

(2) Horologe-(from Lat. horologium, which is from pa, an hour, and Xéyew,. to tell), that which tells the hour, a clock, a watch, &c. In the "Horologe of Flora," or, as it is sometimes called, "the dial of flowers," certain flowers, which open or shut at regular intervals, fancifully serve the purpose of a time-piece.

Till the bright day-star to the west
Declines, in ocean's surge to lave,
Then, folded in her modest vest,
She slumbers on the rocking wave.

See hieracium's1 various tribe
Of plumy2 seed and radiate3 flowers,
The course of time their bloom describe,
And wake or sleep appointed hours.

Broad o'er its imbricated cup,
The goatsbeard spreads its golden rays,
But shuts its cautious petals up,
Retreating from the noontide blaze.

Pale as a pensive cloistered nun,
The bethlem-star her face unveils,
When o'er the mountain peers the sun,
But shades it from the vesper gales.

Among the loose and arid sands,
The humble arenaria6 creeps,
Slowly the purple star expands,
But soon within its calyx7 sleeps.

And those small bells so lightly rayed,
With

young Aurora's rosy hue,

Are to the noontide sun displayed,

But shut their plaits against the dew.

(1) Hieracium-hawkweed.

(2) Plumy-feathery, from the Latin pluma, a feather.

(3) Radiate from the Latin radius, the spoke of a wheel, or a line or ray of light emitted from a luminous body. As a botanical term, the adjective "radiate " signifies having florets set round a disk in the form of a star.

(4) Imbricated-from the Latin imbrex, a gutter-tile for carrying off rain-cut or indented like a gutter-tile.

(5) Cloistered-shut up in a cloister; from the Latin claustrum, an enclosed place.

(6) Arenaria-from the Latin arena, sand, which is from arere, to be drysandwort.

(7) Calyx-another form of the Latin calix, a cup-the outer covering of a flower.

(8) Plaits-folds; from the Latin plicare, to fold, through the French plier. In old English the word was plite. Chaucer writes:-"to sewe (i. e. to sew) and plite."

On upland slopes the shepherds mark
The hour, when, as the dial true,
Chicorium1 to the towering lark
Lifts her soft eyes, serenely blue.

And thou! "Wee crimson-tipped flower,"
Gatherest thy fringed mantle round
Thy bosom, at the closing hour,

When night-drops bathe the turfy ground;
Unlike silene, who declines

The garish noontide's blazing light.
But when the evening crescent shines,
Gives all her sweetness to the night.
Thus in each flower and simple bell
That in our path untrodden lie,
Are sweet remembrancers, who tell
How fast the winged moments fly.

A SPANISH BULL-FIGHT.

THE lists are oped, the spacious area cleared,
Thousands on thousands piled are seated round;
Long ere the first loud trumpet's note is heard,
No vacant seat for lated wight is found.

Hushed is the din of tongues-on gallant steeds,
With milk-white crest, gold spur, and light-poised lance,
Four cavaliers prepare for venturous deeds,

And lowly bending to the lists advance;

The crowd's loud shout their prize, and ladies' lovely glance.

(1) Chicorium-chicory or succory.

(2) The daisy. In allusion to the poem by Burns, beginning with the above words. (See p. 76.)

(3) Silene noctiflora-the night-flowering catch-fly.

(4) Garish-from old English gaure, or gare, to stare, used thus by Chaucer"Now gaureth all the people on her." Hence the adjective may mean, staringly, fine, gay, showy, oppressively bright.

(5) Lists, from Anglo-Saxon lis-an, to collect together. List is the Anglicised past participle, and means primarily that which is collected together, i. e. a collection, as in the expression "a list of names;" in a secondary sense, and in the plural number, it denotes the enclosure round which the company collected sit to behold a public spectacle, and also the barriers of rope, cloth, or board, which serve as the boundary.

(6) Lated-for belated-arriving too late.