the rudiments of a future progeny, which are now to be committed to the fostering bosom of the earth. This being done, the parent vegetable, if of the herbaceous kind, either totally dies, or perishes as far as it rose above ground: if a tree or shrub, it loses all its tender parts, which the spring and summer had put forth. Seeds are scattered by the hand of nature in various manners. The winds, which at this time arise, disperse far and wide many seeds which are curiously furnished with feathers or wings for this purpose. Other seeds, by the means of hooks, lay hold on passing animals, and are thus carried to distant places. Many are contained in berries, which being eaten by birds, the seeds are discharged again uninjured, and grow where they happen to alight, Thus carefully has nature provided for the distribution and propagation of plants. The common martin, whose nests hung under the eaves of our houses, affording so agreeable a spectacle of parental fondness and assi. duity, usually disappears in October. As this, though one of the smallest of the swallowkind, stays the latest, its emigration to distant climates is less probable than that of the others. The sand martin, which breeds in holes in the sandy banks of rivers, and about cliffs and quarries, most probably passes the winter in a torpid state in those holes.

In most of the wine-countries of Europe, the vintage takes place in October.

The

grape is one of the latest fruits in ripening. When gathered, they are immediately pressed, and the juice is fermented like that of apples in making cider. A great variety of wines is produced from the different kinds of grapes, and the diversity of climate in which they grow. In England and Ireland, this fruit does not ripen sufficiently in open air for the purpose of making wine.

This month is particularly chosen, on ac count of its mild temperature, for the brewing of malt liquor, designed for long, keeping, which is therefore commonly called old October.

The farmer continues to sow his winter-corn during this month; and wheat is frequently not all sown till the end of it. When the weather is too wet for this business, he ploughs up the stubble-fields for winter-fallows. Acorns are sown for young plantations at this time; and forests and fruit-trees are planted.

At the very close of the month, a few flowers still cheer the eye; and there is a second blow of some kinds, particularly of the woodbine. But the scent of all these late flowers is comparatively faint.

November.

THE preceding month was marked by the change, and this is distinguished by the fall, of the leaf. The whole declining season of,

the year is often, in common language, named the fall. There is something extremely melancholy in this gradual process, by which the trees are stripped of all their beauty, and left monuments of desolation and decay. The first of poets has deduced from this quick succession of springing and falling leaves an apt comparison of the races of men

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,
Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground.
Another race the following spring supplies;

They fall successive, and successive rise:
So generations in their course decay;

So flourish these, when those are pass'd away.

This loss of verdure, together with the shortened days, the diminishing warmth, and frequent rains, justify the title of gloomy to the month of November; and other animals seem to sympathize with man in feeling it as such.

Intervals of clear and pleasant weather, however, frequently occur! and in general, the autumnal months are, in our island, softer and less variable than the correspondent ones in spring.

In fair weather, the mornings are somewhat frosty; but the hoar frost, or thin ice, soon vanishes after sun-rise.

The lengthen'd night elaps'd, the morning shines.
Serene, in all her dewy beauty bright,
Unfolding fair the last autumnal day,

And now the mountain sun dispels the fog;
The rigid hoar-frost melts before his beam:
And hung on every spray, on every blade'
Of grass, the myriad dew-drops twinkle round,

High winds frequently happen in November, which at once strip the trees of their faded leaves, and reduce them to their winterstate of nakedness.

Flocks of wood-pigeons, or stock-doves, the latest birds of passage in their arrival, visit us in this month.

Salmons now begin to ascend the rivers to spawn. Their force and agility in leaping over cataracts, and other obstacles to their asçent, are very surprising. They are frequently taken in this attempt, by nets or baskets placed directly below the fall, into which they are carried after an unsuccessful leap.

The farmer strives, during this month, to finish all his ploughing of fallows, and then lays up his utensils, till the ensuing year.

Cattle and horses are taken out of the exhausted pastures, and kept in the house or yard. Hogs are put up to fasten. Sheep are turned into the turnip-field, or, in stormy weather, fed with hay at the rick.

Bees now require to be moved under shelter; and the pigeons in the dove-house to be fed.

December.

THE changes which take place in the face of Nature during this month, are little more than so many advances in the progress toward universal gloom and desolation, The day rapidly shortens, and the weather becomes foul and cold,

A