In this month, the flowers of the rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) begin to open; the winter aconite (helleborus hiemalis), and the bear's foot (h. fœtidus), are in flower about the middle of the month; the mezereon (daphne m.) breathes mild its early sweets;' and the red dead-nettle flamium purpureum) flowers under the shelter of southern hedges. The snowdrop' (galanthus nivalis) seems on the point of blowing. The common creeping crowfoot (ranunculus repens) is now in flower; and the crocus, if the weather be mild, appears above ground. Ivy casts its leaves; the catkin, or male blossom of the hazel (corylus avellana), unfolds; the flowers of the holly (ilex aquifolium) begin to open; and the leaves of the honeysuckle (lonicera periclymenum) are quite out. Towards the end of January, the daisy (bellis perennis) is in full bloom.

The china rose (rosa chinensis and rosa semperflorens), till lately unknown to us, and at first considered only as a greenhouse plant, is now seen in blow in the open air, even in the month of December, often with its red buds mossed with frost. The wallflower (cheiranthus), periwinkle (vinca, major & minor), and heart's-ease (viola tricolor), are still in blow.

The golden saxifrage, called also golden moss, and stonecrop (chrysoplenium), in the absence of other flowers, affords its little aid to give life and beauty to the garden. The bramble (rubus fruticosus) still retains its leaves, and gives a thin scattering of green in the otherwise leafless hedges; while the berries of the hawthorn, the wild rose, and the spindle-tree, afford their brilliant touches of red. The twigs of the red dogwood, too, give a richness amid the general brown of the other shrubs.

For various poetical tributes to the snowdrop, see our five former volumes, in the Naturalist's Diary for Jan, and Feb.

Hunting and shooting are among the favourite amusements of this season. Skating, also, is much practised by young persons.

In this month, the farmer carries out manure to his fields, and repairs quickset hedges; taking advantage of the dry and hard ground, during frost. The barn resounds with the flail, barley being now threshed for malting. He lops forest trees, and cuts timber for winter use. About the end of the month, in dry weather, peas and beans are sown, and vetches for seed or fodder. Hogs are killed for bacon, and beef and hams are smoked.

When as the Did Heere's date doth end,
For good New Heere all wish and crave;
And New Heeres gyftes abrode they send
To faythful friendes they hope to have.

DESCRIPTION OF FRUIT TREES'.
Then let the learned Gardener mark with care
The kinds of stocks, and what those kinds will bear;
Explore the nature of each several tree,
And, known, improve with artful industry;
And let no spot of idle earth be found,
But cultivate the genius of the ground.

DRYDEN'S VIRGIL. GEOR. b. 2.

APPLE (Pyrus malus). The common appletree, in its wild state, is armed with thorns. It forms, when cultivated alone, a spreading tree, the branches and twigs of which are distinguished from those of the pear-tree, which is of the same genus, by being more horizontal, irregular, and twisting; thus most accurately described by Virgil:

Apple trees, whose trunks are strong to bear
Their spreading boughs, extend themselves in air;

For a description of Forest Trees, with poetical illustrations, on the same plan as the present account of Fruit Trees, we refer to Time's Telescope for the year 1816, at the end of the Naturalist's Diary for each month. Some fruit shrubs are necessarily included in this account of trees.

Want no supply, but stand secure alone,

Not trusting foreign forces but their own;

Till with the ruddy fruit their bending branches groan!

The flowers are tinged with red, and have an exceedingly sweet smell. The leaves are yellowish above and whitish underneath. The wood of this tree is tolerably hard, especially in its wild state: it is turned into cogs for wheels, and acquires a very durable polish. The bark yields a yellow dye. Pomatum receives its name from the lard of which it is principally made, being beaten up with the pulp of apples. This inestimable fruit is as abundant in our climate as the orange is in those of Portugal, Spain, and Italy, where our apples are frequently called English oranges, because the apples of those countries bear no comparison with them either for richness of flavour or abundance of juice, and will never keep for any considerable time. It is not known how we have obtained the amazing number of different kinds of this fruit, now cultivated in Great Britain; they are classed separately into four principal divisions:-1. Early or summer apples; 2. Provincial apples, or those peculiar to certain places; 3. Winter or keeping apples; 4. Cyder apples.

It has been often lamented of late years, that too little attention is now paid to the cultivation of fruit trees in general; and especially that our apple-trees have latterly been suffered to degenerate and decay throughout the land. Many of those delicious kinds with which our forefathers used to regale themselves, are wholly extinct: but as the evil has been noticed by those who are best qualified to point out the remedy, there is good ground to presume that we shall soon see the remedy applied. At the same time, however, let the private cultivators each look well to his own orchard, and he will reap an ample reward in the improved quality, as well as

quantity, of his producc. Philips, in his poem entitled Cyder, thus elegantly enumerates the most esteemed apples:

The Pippin burnished o'er with gold; the Moile
Of sweetest honied taste: the fair Permain,

Tempered, like comeliest nymph, with red and white;
Salopian acres flourish with a growth
Peculiar, styled the Ottley: be thou first
This apple to transplant; if to the name
Its merit answer, nowhere shalt thou find
A wine more prized, or laudable of taste.
Nor does the Eliot least deserve thy care,
Nor John-Apple, whose withered rind, entrenched
With many a furrow, aptly represents
Decrepit age; nor that from Harvey named,
Quick relishing: why should we sing the Thrift,
Codling or Pomroy, or of pimple coat

The Russet, or the Cat's-head's weighty orb,
Enormous in its growth.-

But bow with equal numbers shall we match
The Musk's surpassing worth! that earliest gives
Sure hopes of racy wine, and in its youth,
Its tender nonage, loads the spreading boughs
With large and juicy offspring that defies
The vernal nippings, and cold sidereal blasts!
Yet let her to the Red Streak yield, that once
Was of the sylvan kind, uncivilized,

Of no regard, till Scudamore's skilful hand
Improved her, and by courtly discipline

Taught her the savage nature to forget:

Hence styled the Scudamorean plant; whose wine
Whoever tastes, let him with grateful heart
Respect that ancient loyal house.

The same author thus beautifully expresses himself upon the choice of a proper situation for planting apple-trees :

Whoe'er expects his lab'ring trees should bend
With fruitage and a kindly harvest yield,
Be this his first concern, to find a tract
Impervious to the winds, begirt with hills
That intercept the hyperborean blasts
Tempestuous and cold Eurus' nipping force,
Noxious to feeble buds: but to the wet
Let him free entrance grant, let zephyrs bland
Administer their tepid genial airs;

Nought fears he from the west, whose gentle warmth
Discloses well the earth's all teeming womb,
Invigorating tender secds, whose breath
Nurtures the orange and the citron groves,
Hesperian fruits, and wafts their odours sweet
Wide through the air, and distant shores perfumes.
Nor only do the hills exclude the winds:

But when the blackening clouds in sprinkling show'rs
Distil, from the high summits down the rain
Runs trickling; with the fertile moisture cheered,
The orchards smile; joyous the farmers see

Their thriving plants, and bless the heav'nly dew.

The different and difficult processes by which the produce of the fruit trees is gradually improved, are thus described in Virgil, as translated by Dryden:

But various are the ways to change the state
Of plants, to bud, to graft, t' inoculate.
For where the tender rinds of trees disclose
Their shooting gems, a swelling knot there glows.
Just in that space a narrow slit we make,
Then other buds from bearing trees we take:
Inserted thus the wounded rhyme we close,

But when the smoother bole from knots is free,
We make a deep incision in the tree;

And in the solid wood the slip inclose,

The battening stranger shoots again and grows;
And in short space the laden boughs arise,
With happy fruit advancing to the skies.
The mother-plant admires the leaves unknown
Of alien trees, and apples not her own.

*

The excellence of cyder, as a beverage, is well known: the counties of Devon and Hereford rival each other in the quality of that which they produce, some preferring one and some the other. It was once the practice in Devonshire to suffer the apple-juice to run into vessels of lead, which, being dissolved by the acid of the liquor, became poisonous; and many lives were lost in consequence. The disorder of the bowels which generally attacked those who drank cyder thus contaminated, has been called the Devonshire