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THE.

LADY'S MAGAZINE.

FOR AUGUST, 1807.

BOTANY FOR LADIES,

By Dr. Thornton.

TENTH LESSON.

MY fair reader has been hitherto fatigued by the explanation of botanical terms.

Every science has its peculiar language.

Music has also its gamut, treble, bass, flats, sharps, naturals, common and triple time, semibreve, minim, crochet, quaver, semiquaver, demisemiquaver, major and minor keys, &c. &c. the meaning of which are to be understood, before the player can have the satisfaction to delight a circle by the varied and exquisite charms of music.

So it is with botany. The ancients invented a fable to illustrate this necessary union.

They represented Vulcan as married to Venus, the Goddess of Beauty to the God of Deformity.

The rugged path of science must

be first trod, before we arrive at the pleasant,

The fair reader will by this time feel anxious to know the uses of the parts of flowers.

The calyx is intended for the protection of the flower at its first opening.

Hence it is caducous, from the Latin word cadere, to fall, dropping sometimes immediately upon the expansion of the corolla, as with the poppy.

Usually it rolls back its leaves, or segments, as in the Meadia, vide plate 15. l. b. and often again closes them upon the fruit for its protection, as is seen in the same flower, vide pl. 15. l. c; and then not unfrequently increases to a considerable size, as in the Egg-plant, vide pl. 15. 1. d and e.

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More sacred and sequester'd, though but
feign'd,
Pan or Sylvanus never slept, nor nymph
Nor Faunus haunted.'

She reigns the beauty of the villa; by all beloved, by all respected; too kind to injure, too good to distress, ready to alleviate, and willing to oblige. Her form boasts the image of loveliness, and all the elegance of cleanliness; her temper. mild and pleasing. Mary is adorned with every grace that renders lovely woman truly amiable.

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Pale eve with many a crimson streak,
Soft fading, tip'd the lime-invested hill;
And through blue steams emerging from the

lake

Rolls curling on, and hovers o'er the rill;
The smoke that slow evolves its pillar'd form
From yonder straw-roof'd cottage, sweetly
throw'd

O'er my hush'd bosom a superior charm.”

As I walked with Mary, my ideas were awakened; and recollected past pleasures, methought not unlike the present. The heart-rending thought threw a damp upon my spirits, and I endeavoured to forget them, and with a sigh I began a conversation. Mary was not inattentive to my situation; she bade me yet hope the time would come when my sincerity would be rewarded. We walked gently on.

Enamour'd walk, where odorous scents disclose

The hidden jassamine, eglantine, and rose; Here whisper'd love, and breath'd the raptur'd sigh,

And stole a kiss unseen by vulgar eye.”

As we sat under the shade of a

willow, I stole from her finger the golden pledge. As I viewed its glittering form, my aching bosom swelled and recoiled with a sigh: I could have wished I might be allowed to return another to Mary-return a

**Graceful she moves, with more than mortal promise of connubial bliss; but I

mein,

In form an angel'

When Milton speaks of Paradise, and describes Eve, and the impressión Adam felt when he first beheld her, that impression was not more forcible than were my feelings at the first interview I had with Mary. The friendship I conceived for her might soon have been converted into love, had I not known a gentle swain pleaded his addresses. I saw him-I congratulated him, and with a frankness worthy of him, he put his Mary under my care, and we set out for a walk.

dared not entertain the hope. Hap
-py and blest (exclaimed I) is the
fortunate youth that claims you as
his own!

Oh! were it mine to win this maiden's
heart,
Mary, whose enlighten'd soul is pure
And spotless, as her form is beautiful;
Then, heavenly Love, thee would I celebrate,
In numbers not tinworthy of the theme:
From stormy passions, rage, ambition, free,
The whirlwind and the tempest of the soul;
Free from the fury passions, and serene
As this blest season's mildness, we would rove
Through Nature's wilds romantic, hills, vales,

woods,

And marking to each other as we stray'd
The grace peculiar of the rural scenes,
Thus joining voices, raptur'd sing of thee,'

certainty of human life, the followA pensive RAMBLE on the BANKS ing lines of Gray pressed on my mes

of OUSE.

BY RICHARD.

• What scenes of sorrow wake the soul to pain, What floods of anguish cloud the sick'ning eye!

sons of pity! pour the melting strain; O sons of pity! heave the plaintive sigh! For cold is he, the youth of graceful frame, Whose deeds of mercy spoke the feeling mind;

To whose warm breast were friendship's hallow'd fame,

The Bard's wild fancy and his fire assign'd:
Say, gentle spirit, whither art thou fled,
To what pale region of the silent dead?
Yet why inquire? where' some sweet season
blows,

Sure Grief shall smile, and Friendship breathe

her vows;

Despair grow mild-Distraction cease to

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THE rosy clouds skirted the top of the distant hills, and reflected the beams of the drooping sun; the green carpet, which was spread around, gave Nature a beautiful appearance, when Istrayed alone with a book in my -band, and enjoyed the luxurious treat which the prospect afforded thus I endeavoured to forget my own cares, and the cares of others. I directed my steps to a retired walk, where a short time since my departed associate and friend L and myself used to repair, and pass the happy moments in unreserved conversation. His soul was filled with honour and social virtue: falsehood, deceit, and pride, were not inmates there; a friend of integrity and candour, to every one mild and affable, all who "knew him loved and respected him. Here, fair and gentle reader, was a youth with promises of happiness; but in the midst of hope the unseen band of death snatched his gentle life, to dwell in realms of never-tading blizs. As I contemplated on the un

mory.

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borne:

Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay

Grav'd on yon stone beneath yon aged thorn.'

How sweet, how consoling it is, (says a favourite author) in the tranquillity of retirement, to call to remembrance our absent friends! Ah! this remembrance alone makes us taste again in solitude all the pleasures we have enjoyed in their society. I cannot help quoting the following lines which I recently became possessed of, but from whence I know not.

'Still isthe lark, that, hov'ring o'er yon spray, With jocund carol usher'd in the morn; And mute the nightingale, whose tender lay Melted the feeling mind with sounds forlorn: More sweet, dear L, was thy plaintive strain!

That strain is o'er, but mem'ry ne'er shall

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402

The far-distant moon peeped from behind the neighbouring woods, as I journeyed on by the side of the winding Ouse, and soon enlightened the silver stream with her pale rays: the scene, indeed, was calculated to inspire sublimity of thought. In this still, pensive moment, I imbibed as it were the universal repose of nature. I will not here urge those sentiments of devotion, those grand and august conceptions, which this subject has a tendency to inspire. I sincerely regretted the loss of my I gained sight of departed L my abode; and soon I repaired, after a prayer to the good, benevolent Omnipotent, to rest.

O sacred rest,

Sweet pleasing Sleep, of all the powers the

best!

Whose balms renew the limbs to labours of
the day:
Care shuns the soft approach, and sullen
fers away.

DRYDEN.

NARBAL AND SELINA;

place of virtue; as all his passions,
whether good or ill, were in the
extreme.

In one of his predatory excursions,
at the head of his rapacious followers,
he attacked a small caravan of mer-
chants going to Damascus. The
Arabs plundered it of every thing
valuable, and murdered most of the
merchants, only a few being able to
make their escape. Among those
who fell was a Greek, whe was
taking his daughter Selina, a beau-
tiful girl of about ten years of age,
with him to Damascus, where be
intended to fix his residence in fu-
ture.

Amid the scene of horror, Narbal seized Selina as his prize; he was struck with her beauty, and he heart' seemed as it were for the first pitied her extreme affliction. His time softened into humanity, and he viate the sorrows and soothe the employed every attention to alle melancholy of the lovely Selina.

As years passed on, Selina increas ed in stature and beauty, and acquired not only the good-will and friendship of Narbal, but inspired him with a most ardent affection. Convinced of his sincerity, and yielding and gentle in her nature, she

FEROCIOUS PASSION its own Pu- returned his affection; she even at

NISHMENT.

A TALE.

(With an el gant Engraving.)

IN the torrid regions of the east, where the sultry beams of the sun, which parch the surface of the earth, exalt to a kind of fury the human passions, when unrestrained by reason and reflection, lived Narbal the Arab, the chief of a wandering tribe, who subsisted by rapine and devastation. His form was athletic, his eye fierce, his anger terrible; yet was he not destitute of a kind of barbarous generosity, which sometimes held the

length embraced his religion, and became his wife. She bore him a son, whom he named Ali; and for several years they lived in a state of as much happiness and content as was compatible with the rude and predatory state of life in which they existed..

Yet the wild fits of passion to which Narbal was frequently subject often alarmed and terified the gentle Selina; but as he violently loved her, there was no very real cause for her fears. At length, however, the demon jealously entered his head, and he thought that he could perceive a growing partiality in the breast of Selina for a handsome youth, the son of a chief of a neighbouring

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