of Windcliff are tremendous; the precipices are fearful; the crags, hung with pendant plants, are fantastic; the woods are magnificent, and the fair prospect oppressively extensive. Rolling rivers, amphitheatres of woody heights, naked cliffs, huge ramparts of rock, and overhanging thickets, form but a part of this truly sublime and gorgeous panorama. In a word, would you find pleasure, the views from Ross churchyard, Caplor, Aconbury, and Saddleback will impart it; would you be awe struck, visit the new Weir; would you be excited, go to Symond's Yat; but would you have your whole heart and mind filled with wonder, magnificence, sublimity, exquisite delight, and unbounded thankfulness, stand where I am standing, and gaze on earth and heaven from the towering summit of Windcliff. SKETCHES OF THE LINNEAN SYSTEM OF BOTANY.-No. X. NINETEENTH CLASS. SYNGENESIA. IN October, the approach of a bleaker season becomes more and more apparent. The ruddy glow of foliage, among many of the larger trees, gives a character of interest to the rural scene, and vegetation is gazed on with a feeling persuasion, that it is about to pass away. It is so also with plants and flowers, and even with the grass of the field. How frail must man be, for his life to be compared to the grass that withereth! How necessary, then, that he should prepare for eternity! In the nineteenth class are arranged the plants whose flowers, all made up of a head of florets, have the anthers of their stamens united into a tube. It is divided into five orders, founded on the difference of the florets composing the head of the flower with respect to their stamens and pistils. 1. Polygamia æqualis, with all the florets of the head, of the same form and structure, that is, all flattish, as in the dandelion, or all tubular, as in the thistle. 2. Polygamia superflua, with the exterior florets of the head bearing pistils, and no stamens; the interior florets bearing both stamens and pistils. 3. Polygamia frustanea, with the exterior florets of the head without either stamens or pistils; while the interior florets have both stamens and pistils. 4. Polygamia necessaria, with the exterior florets of the head with stamens and no pistils; and the interior, 5. Poly with pistils and no stamens. gamia segregata, with the flowers several together in a general calyx, each floret having beside its particular calyx. One of the most common wild plants of the first order, is the dandelion, (Leontodon taraxacum,) which blossoms with a large golden yellow blossom, from May throughout the summer, and even in milder weather in the winter. The involucrum or general calyx has scales, which are frequently lax and feeble; the down of the seed is simple, with a short stalk; the leaves are long, toothed, and jagged, whence the name, dandelion, being from the French dent de lion, "the tooth of the lion." The leaves may be blanched and used in salad, like endive. The root is used medicinally, as an excellent bitter for affections of the stomach and liver. As a flower, the dandelion is not much in request. Children may occasionally be seen forming chains of dandelions; but most of the flowers of the field have more influential attractions than this well-known ornament of the meadows. Still, however, it may perhaps be said with truth, On the moor, in the mead, or on garden ground, An ugly flower is not to be found. The spear thistle (Cirsium lanceolatum) is one of the commonest of all the thistles of this country, being a biennial, flowering from July till September, or later. The blossom is reddish purple, and sometimes, though rarely, white. The compound calyx is bulging, and imbricated or tiled, with scales terminating each in a thorny point. The down of the seed is feathery and deciduous; the leaves run down the stem, are covered with rough hairs, and many cleft; the divisions generally two lobed, spreading and thorny, or prickly. It is the sort of which goldfinches are fond, and from which they are called thistle finches (Distel fintaen) in Germany and elsewhere. The variegated or milk thistle, (Silybum marianum,) of the garden, and the cotton thistle, (Onopordon acanthium,) are both of different genera from the spear thistle. These last are both often cultivated as the true Scotch thistle, but improperly, as they bear no resemblance to the imaginary heraldric plant so called, this being most like the musk thistle (Carduus nutans) of any other. All of them grow more or less commonly in Scotland. In the second order, we find many very common plants, both wild and cultivated, such as the field daisy, (Bellis | perennis,) which may be met with in almost every field, blowing most abundantly in April and May; but occasionally throughout the summer, and even in winter. The blossom is white, with a yellow dish; but may be found of every variety of red, from pink to scarlet. The compound calyx is cup-shaped, with equal scales; the leaves are egg oblong, and notched; the flower stalk is without leaves, bearing a single flower. The double garden varieties are apt to become single, like the wild daisy, when their proper cultivation is neglected. The hen and chickens variety is a proliferous habit of some flowers, which is readily lost, like the double flowering habit, if the cultivation be not carefully attended to. The origin of the term daisy is said to be day's-eye, as Chaucer the poet explains it, from the flowers opening to the rising sun. "Well, by reason men is calle maie, The daisie, or else the eye of the daie. It is not unworthy of remark, how much our love of flowers may be increased by poetry. Attracted by the fragrance or beauty of a flower, the poet celebrates it in his verse, thus in a degree repaying the gratification he has enjoyed. The reader of the verses feels his sympathy increased for the eulogized flower, and he regards it with additional favour. Who can read the words of Montgomery, "There is a flower, a little flower, With silver crest and golden eye, or those of the poet Burns, "Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flower, without feeling a more tender regard for the daisy? As it is with a fair and fragrant flower, so is it with a deed of kindness; for hardly more certain is an interesting flower to excite our regard, than a kind act is to call forth a deed of kindness in return. The common groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) belongs to this order, and is to be found but too commonly in every garden and field, as well as on rubbish, and in waste places, blowing all the year round, according to the time of the scattering of the seed. The blossom is yellow, without rays on the circumference; the compound calyx is cylindrical, the scales of which have their tips frequently of a brown colour; the down of the seed is not placed on a footstalk; the leaves are wing toothed, and somewhat embracing the stem. The elegant or American groundsel, (S. elegans,) à universal favourite belonging to this genera, frequently comes with double flowers, which are the most esteemed; but as the seed is not to be depended on for producing double flowers, slips may be readily struck in pots, or in the ground, with or without the aid of heat, and in this way choice varieties may be contrived from year to year, although the plant is annual. Owing to that power of association which the mind possesses, the appearance of a flower frequently brings to memory scenes that are past. Perhaps hundreds of people have been reminded, by a sprig of groundsel, of some favourite bird, whose warbling at morn or eve has solaced their lonely musings. Then, again, the bird may be connected with some agreeable person, or interesting event, so that a train of circumstances may arise, connecting the present season with the past. The fragrant breath and petals of a flower, Will bring back many a by-gone sunny hour. In the third order, also, are many very common plants, both wild and cultivated. The common blue bottle (Centaurea cyanus) is by no means uncommon in corn fields, though not so much so in England as in Scotland and on the continent. The wild plants are usually of a bright ultramarine blue; but when it is sown as an annual, in gardens, they come of numerous shades of purple and white. Among plants, indeed, colour is so uncertain, that Linnæus seldom took it into account to characterize a species; for it is found often to depend upon a difference of heat, climate, soil, and culture; and it is remarked, that red more readily changes into white and blue; blue into white and yellow; yellow into white; and white into purple. While colour is the most uncertain character of the corolla, the form of the petals, of the same species, is more constant than that of the fruit. The seed down of this plant is simple; the scales of the calyx are serrated; the leaves are linear and entire; and the lowermost toothed. The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is an old and conspicuous favourite of the cottage garden, a native of South America, but hardy enough to stand our climate. It rises six or seven feet high, flowering from July throughout the autumn, with a very large yellow blossom, sometimes double. The compound calyx is tiled, spreading rather rigidly at right angles; the footstalk is thick, the heads drooping; the leaves are all heart-shaped and three ribbed. Where varied flowers the garden grace There are many other sorts, such as the perennial, (H. multiflorus,) which looks not unlike a yellow dahlia, and is much cultivated in borders and shrubberies; and the Jerusalem artichoke, (H. tuberosus,) cultivated for its roots. The latter rarely flowers in this country. The plant is in no way connected with Jerusalem, the term, as here applied, being a corruption of the Italian girasole, meaning, "turn-to-the-sun," and all those flowers have a tendency to spread their broad disks to the quarter from which the greatest proportion of sunlight falls upon them, though in this they are not singular, as most other flowers have a similar tendency. The common opinion, that the sunflower turns itself daily round as the sun advances, is not correct, and may be refuted by the observation of any one who will take the trouble to watch one of those flowers at different periods of a bright day. A few years ago, there was introduced from California, a very beautiful annual of this order, the common faireye, (Calliopsis bicolor, formerly Coreopsis tinctoria,) and is at once become a very general favourite in gardens. The flower is yellow in the circumference, and dark brown in the centre, this being of more or less breadth in the different varieties produced by cultivation: the compound calyx is double, each being many leaved; the seed vessel is flattish, having a margin round; the seed down is two horned; the leaves are much divided and fringed. A biennial, closely resembling this, named Atkinson's faireye, (Calliopsis Atkinsoniana,) flowers abundantly from June till killed by the frost. In the fourth order, we find the marigold, (Calendula,) of which there are many species and varieties; great favourites in gardens, on account of their producing showy blossoms in the utmost profusion. The garden, or pot marigold (C. officinalis) grows wild in the South of France and Italy, and sows itself abundantly, so as to prove a weed, wherever it has been cultivated. In this country, it blows from June till killed by the frost in severe winters; but in mild winters it will sometimes continue to blossom till after Christmas. The compound calyx has many equal leaves; the seed vessel is boat shaped, covered with short sharp points, bent inwards; the leaves are broad and waved. Linnæus remarked, that the marigold flowers open at nine in the morning, and close up at three in the afternoon. In this class the opening and shutting of flowers at different times of the day, is more common than in some of the other classes. Thus the dandelion opens at five or six in the morning, and closes at nine. The mouse-ear hawkweed (Hieracum pilosella) opens at eight and closes at twelve. The sow thistle (Sanchus) opens at five, and closes between eleven and twelve. The goat's beard (Tragopogon) opens at three or four o'clock in the morning, and closes about noon, whence its country name of "go-to-bedat-noon." The opening and shutting of such flowers, however, is very much influenced by the weather; for in rainy and gloomy weather, they sometimes do not open at all, and hence, the pretty little pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) is called the farmers' weatherglass, the flowers shutting up on the least appearance of moisture in the air. In this respect, also, the lesser centaury (Enythrina centaurium) is still more delicate for unless the weather prove very bright and dry, the flowers rarely open at all. The corn marigold (C. arvensis) is, in some parts of the country, particularly in Scotland, a great nuisance as a weed in cornfields, often rendering the whole surface one mass of yellow. It is not uncommon, also, as a weed in the gardens about London; but never multiplies so as to prove troublesome. It is much smaller, and of a paler yellow_than the common garden marigold, and may always be known by its narrow sea-green, smooth leaves. are greenish yellow, and appear from What grateful scenes! what pleasant hours Illustrative of the fifth order, the student may find, in many gardens, the common globe thistle, (Echinops sphærocephalus,) a hardy perennial, indigenous to Austria, and several other parts of Europe, and introduced into this country in 1596. In its wild state it grows in any soil or situation, not more than two feet high; but by cultivation, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE INTERin rich soil, it will rise to four or five feet. It blows in July and August, and ripens its seed in September. The blossom is light blue; the compound calyx one flowered; the florets tubular and bisexual; the heads bristly and beset with stiff spines; the leaves are many cleft, downy above, and woolly beneath; and the stem branching. Linnæus himself made a sixth order, termed Monogamia, in this class, but this is not now adopted by any botanist, the plants arranged in it being more conveniently placed in the other orders. TWENTIETH CLASS. GYNANDRIA. In this class are arranged plants whose flowers have the stamens standing upon the pistil. There are seven orders. 1. Monandria, with " one stamen.' 2. Diandria, with "two stamens." 3. Triandria, with "three stamens." 4. Tetrandria, with "four stamens. 5. Pentandria, with "five stamens." 6. Hexandria, with "six stamens." 7. Octandria, with "eight stamens.' In the first order, we find most of the British orchideous plants of which the common twayblade (Listera ovata, or Neottia latifolia) is a very good example. It may be found in woody places, in most parts of the country, and by the London student, near Woolwich. The blossom, which appears in May and June, is green. The leaves are broad, egg oblong, and two in number, by which it may be readily distinguished. The butterfly orchis, (Platanthera bifolia,) and the bee orchis, (O. apifera,) are also of this order. In the second order, we have the lady's slipper, (Cypripedium calceolus,) which grows in some remote and little frequented woods in Yorkshire. The flower has four blue petals, long and pointed, with a large inflated nectary behind. There are no British examples of the third, fourth, fifth, and seventh orders. In the sixth order is placed birthwort, (Aristolochia clematisis,) whose roots have an aromatic scent, and are used in medicine as a warm bitter. The flowers CESSION OF CHRIST AND THE INTER- WE have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And the Holy Spirit is making intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Christ is making intercession in the upper court; sitting on the right hand of the Father, in the third heaven; in glory, majesty, and power. The Holy Spirit is making intercession in the lower court, the court of conscience; sitting on his throne between fear and presumption, between a good hope and a fictitious hope; in the midst of poverty, faith, and corruption, fitting and preparing such characters as these unclean and defiled creatures, for the enjoyment of a holy God. Jesus Christ is making intercession, where no enemy can hurt him. The Holy Spirit is making intercession with the saints, and for them; while they are on earth, wrestling against principalities and powers,-rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places, or rather, against wicked spirits in the starry heaven, the prince of the power of the air, the spirits that work in the children of disobedience, going about like roaring lions, seeking whom they may devour. The Holy Spirit feeds and strengthens the breath of prayer in the saints, while they are surrounded by pillars of smoke and flaming fire. Jesus Christ, in our nature, without sin, in heaven, is making intercession for transgressors. The Holy Spirit, upon earth, is framing the minds of corrupt men and women to pray, to seek God, and draw nigh unto him. It is He that renews, purifies, and cleanseth them, with the washing of water by the word; He opens the eyes of the blind, and unstops the ears of the deaf; He makes the lame man to leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing aloud the praises of God. Jesus Christ is making intercession above; with our names on his breastplate, written with atoning blood, he appears before God for us: the Holy Spirit is making intercession in the name of Jesus, to glorify him in the sight of all saints. By the first, he raises our names into honour above; by the latter, he raises the name of Jesus into honour with men. Jesus performs the office of an Intercessor without us, before the Father in heaven. But the Spirit, by quickening and moving us to act, and setting our harps in order, is making intercession for us. Faith and repentance are graces of the Holy Spirit; but he will neither believe nor repent for us. We must believe and repent, or be condemned for ever. It is not the Spirit; but we must go to Christ for life and for salvation; but he sweetly draws us by the cords of love. He does not sanctify himself for us, but we are under his sanctifying influences. We shall be like our Head. We know not what we shall be; but we know that when Christ our life shall appear, we shall be like him; we shall see him as he is, and be for ever with him. Then shall we be satisfied, when we shall awake in his likeness. It is our duty to pray for the forgiveness of our sins. It is our duty to mortify the lusts of the flesh, that war against the spirit. The Holy Spirit of God will not do these things for us; but he is able to give us power, and life, and vigour to do them. He will never understand and love the truth for us; but he leadeth us into all truth, and sheds abroad the Saviour's love in our hearts, and that shall kindle ours. As our Intercessor, Jesus Christ stands between us and the righteous Lawgiver, on the foundation of the infinite merit of his atoning sacrifice; and as our Intercessor, the Holy Spirit stands between Christ and his bride, increasing her faith, inflaming her love, and fixing her hope on him alone; so that she rejoices in Christ Jesus, and shelters, until the morning, under the sign of the blood of sprinkling. Jesus has bound up all the covenant engagements, and laid them down in the heavenly sanctuary, having obtained for us an eternal redemption, and the Holy Spirit brings sinners to the bond of peace here on earth, so that they are partakers of the one God, one faith, one baptism, one inheritance, one hope, built upon the same foundation. Christ, our Advocate in heaven, is our glorious representative. Notwithstanding that many voted against him, he is lawfully elected. The eternal power, also, is on his side. The stone that the builders rejected, is chosen chief corner stone. He was carried home from Mount Olivet, in a chariot of angels, to appear before God for us. The pollution of our most holy things are purified by him, and our services rendered acceptable to God by his sweet-smelling savour. And he answers, before the Father, all the accusations that are brought against us by the accuser of the brethren. And by his intercession he keeps open the door that he opened by his sacrifice. The veil that he rent can never be mended; the road that he opened can never be shut. It is a free road; the turnpike gate he removed; the handwriting that was against us he blotted out. The Spirit, by his intercession in the saints upon earth, maintains the spirituality of Divine worship. For God is a Spirit, and those who worship him aright, must worship him in spirit and in truth. And those that are in the flesh cannot please God. It is the intercession of the Spirit that keeps life in the word, and gives relish to those rich provisions that are exhibited in the everlasting gospel; so that the bread is never mouldy, the wine never sour, the water never insipid, and the salt never tasteless. It is the Holy Spirit that confirms our hope, increases our faith, and inflames our love. Christ, in heaven, is the life of our redemption; the Spirit, on earth, is the life of the ministry, and the ordinances of the gospel. Nothing can stop the sound of the bell of the High Priest above, in the sanctum sanctorum; nor the sound of Almighty God upon earth. Most awful thundering, and the sound of many waters, are heard and felt by many, through the operations of the Spirit, when he convinces the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come; and the sound of harpers tuning their harps, in most unspeakable joys, and most glorious praise, are rending the air, when sinners are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and obtaining hope in Jesus. "I will draw all men to myself," is the motto of Christ. "I will draw all men to Jesus," is the motto of the Spirit. Further we would notice the duration of the Holy Spirit's office: "For he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” To be made partakers of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of faith, the Spirit of grace, and the Spirit of adoption and sanctifica |