In this, and the succeeding month, much knowledge may be gained of marine plants, shells, &c. &c. by those who visit the sea-coast. The healthful amusement of wandering over the sands or beach, and among the caverns of our sea-girt isle, may easily be rendered improving to the mind, as well as the body, by bringing us acquainted with the great Author of Nature, in the apparently most insignificant, but wonder-fraught, works of his almighty hand. See an interesting narrative of the examination of some shell-fish (echini marini) in T.T. for 1817, p. 250.

The best live shells are collected by means of a trawling-net, such as are used by fishermen, if the depths will permit; they are also brought up by the cable in weighing anchor, and the log-line in sounding. After a storm, good shells may be picked up on the sea beaches, or shores, as the violent agitation of the water in a tempest separates them from their native beds, and often casts them on the shore; but such as have been exposed for some time to the heat of the sun, or beaten by the waves, are of little value, as their colours will be faded, and the shells worn and broken: choose, therefore, always such shells as lie in the deepest parts of their resorts and under water, whether taken up by the drag-net, from the sides of rocks, or bottoms of ships, &c. Pilchards are taken in great quantities in this month.

Reape downe your rie, and shocke up your wheate,
Your summer-fruites gather, the sweeter to eate;
And downe with such otes as God shall you send,
Provided this moneth drawe toward an end.
Burning heute may annoy thee,
Quaking cold may destroy thee.

Reclayme your haukes, and man them so,
As they no tyme your call neglect ;
And for a partridge, plume the crow,
Dr gavie (lyke kytes) at every checke.

In our last year's Diary for August (T.T. for 1818, p. 215) will be found an Inscription for the Banks of a Stream; as a suitable companion to it we now insert the following beautiful poetical description of the progress of a river, from its source to the sea. As it is intended (observes the author') to be descrip tive only of scenes that may be supposed to be familiar to an English eye, it takes no notice of the thundering cataracts, golden sands, and other objects of savage climes; nor will it be considered, perhaps, as defective, in not containing a single allusion to rivergods and water-nymphs, or to any of the trite ma-chinery of antient fiction.

Behold the riv'iet, from its parent-source,

Steal through the thicket with unheeded course;
Of future greatness yet unconscious stray,
Like infant princes, in their infant play;
O'er its rough bed in lulling murmurs flow,
Or through the breezy sedge meand'ring slow.
And now in waves, impelling-soft, it roves
Through sunny banks, or deep-involving groves;
From sister-streams receives euriching aid,
And wonders at the progress it has made.
Now tufty isles the doubtful stream divide,
The sacred haunts of Cygnus' plumy pride:
O'er the clear crystal hangs the woody scene,
The weeping willow, or bright evergreen.
The trembling branches, all inverted, seem
To point to other skies below the stream.
The sun reflected gilds th' illusive deep,
Or shadowing winds the mantling surface sweep.
Here thick'ning grass invites the mower's scythe,
The busy groups of men and maidens blithe;
Here the shorn meadow brightens to the eye;
The scattered herds lie ruminating nigh:
Each rising charm the bounteous stream bestows,
The grass that thickens, and the flower that blows.
And while the vale the humid wealth imbibes,
The fost'ring wave sustains the finny tribes;
The carp, with golden scales, in wanton play;
The trout, in crimson-speckled glory gay ;

The late Mr. Lobb, the elegant writer of the 'Contemplative Philosopher,' 12mo, 2 vols.

The red-finned roach, the silver coated eel,
The pike, whose haunt the twisted roots conceal;
The healing tench, the gudgeon, pearch, and bream,
And all the sportive natives of the stream.
The vig'rous stream now drives the busy mill,
And now disdains the little name of rill.
The clust'ring cots adorn its flow'ry sides,
Where blest Content, with rosy Health, abides.
Or here the villa's simple charms invite,
Where rural ease and elegance unite.
There, gaudy Art her cumb'rous pomp displays,
Where gay Caprice bedecks the verdant maze;
The palace, column, temple, statue, rears;
While Nature fashionably drest appears,
And now the bridge, by busy mortals trod,
High over-arches the ambitious flood.
Now crowded cities, lofty turrets rise,
And smoking columns mingle with the skies;
Where the rash youth their limbs exulting lave;
Where, oars innum'rous beat th' astonished wave.
On the proud surface swells th' impatient sail,
And gladdened coasts the welcome streamers hail.
Expanding still the rough'ning waters glide,
In haste to mingle with the briny tide';

Till sea-like grown, they now disdain all bound,
And, rushing to the deep, resistless pour around.

DESCRIPTION OF FRUIT TREES.

[Continued from p. 192.]

6

PLUM TREE (prunus domestica).-This is generally a middling sized tree, growing to the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and branching out into a spreading head. It delights in a lofty exposure, and is not injurious to pastures where it has been planted. The cultivated garden plums are all derived from this species. The garden and orchard kinds are very numerous, differing in the form, taste, colour, and substance of the fruit. The following are the most remarkable:-The White Primordian, a small yellowcoloured mealy plum, ripens in the latter end of July or beginning of August; a single tree of this

1 Ove nei falsi flutti

Il bel Tamigi amareggiando intoppa.

ARIOSTO.

sort will be sufficient for a common sized garden. The Morocco, which is a middle sized plum, has good flesh, and ripens about the beginning of August. The Little Black Damask or Damson, is covered with a light violet bloom; the juice is richly sugared; the flesh parts from the stone, and the tree is a good bearer. The Orleans plum is well known, and is planted generally, because it bears plentifully, by those who supply our markets with fruit; but is, in fact, an inferior kind of plum. The Egg plum is a large oval-shaped fruit, of a yellowish colour, powdered over with a delicate white bloom; the pulp is firm, and adheres closely to the stone; the juice is of an acid taste, which renders it unpleasant to be eaten raw, though it is very good for baking or converting into a sweetmeat: it is a great bearer, and the fruit ripens in the middle of September.

The Apricot plum is a large round yellow-coloured fruit, powdered over with a white bloom; the pulp is firm and dry, sweet tasted, comes clean from the stone, and ripens at the end of September. The Dauphiness plum, a name generally confounded with that of the Green Gage: there are three or four different sorts sold for it, but they are all inferior; it is one of the best plums in England, and is produced in large quantities. The Royal plum is a large fruit of an oval shape, drawing to a point next the stalk; the outside is of a light red colour, powdered over with a whitish bloom; the flesh adheres to the stone, and has a fine sugary juice; it ripens in the middle of September. The Cherry plum is generally about the size of the Oxheart Cherry, round and red; the blossoms come out very early in the spring, at the same time as those of the almond, and, when intermixed with the latter, present a most beautiful spectacle. The Muscle plum is not much esteemed, hence the tree is principally used for stocks. The Green Gage

is the finest eating plum we have; it ripens in August: the best are tinged with purple.

We must now notice the Bullace tree, which is another of the same genus; it grows twelve or fifteen feet high, with thorny branches; it varies with black and wax-coloured fruit, and with some that is red, and has a bitter unpleasant taste, growing in the hedges of Essex and Suffolk: the acid of this esteemed fruit is so tempered by sweetness and roughness as not to be unpleasant, especially after it is mellowed by frost: a conserve is prepared by mixing the pulp with thrice its weight of sugar; an infusion of the flowers, sweetened with sugar, is also often given as a mild aperient for children. The Black Thorn, or Sloe tree, is one of the same genus as all the rest of the plum kind; it is a crooked shrub, growing about six feet high; but the fruit is so sharp and austere, that it requires the severe action of frost to mellow and render it eatable, and it then becomes an agreeable variety. Of all these various sorts of the plum kind, it may be remarked, that when eaten in small quantities and in a ripe state, they are not unwholesome; but when taken in large quantities, and especially if unripe, they are very deleterious. In a medicinal point of view they are considered as emollient and cooling, especially the French prunes or dried plums imported from Marseilles, which are the most wholesome of all the dried fruits. The smallness of all these trees renders their wood of little value except for fuel.

SEPTEMBER.

SEPTEMBER is composed of septem, seven, and the termination ber, like lis in Aprilis, Quintilis, Sextilis. This rule will also apply to the three following months, Octo-ber, Novem-ber, Decem-ber. Our Saxon ancestors called it Gerst-monat, for that barT