6. Tea is served very hot; but it is a flagrant breach of etiquette in any one to notice this unpleasant fact. Should the weather be very warm, when the cups are emptied the master of the house says, "I invite you to take up your fans." But should any unlucky guest have forgotten his fan, the rest of the company do not permit themselves the liberty of using theirs, for fear of hurting his feelings. Finally, after innumer able tedious acts of politeness, in which each individual aims to produce the impression that, in his own opinion, his insignificant person is by no means worthy the exalted honor of drinking with the illustrious company among whom he is infinitely surprised to be received, the signal for leave-taking is given oy the highest in rank rising and saying to the host, "I have been troublesome to you a very long time"-which is probably the only true word spoken during the entertain

ment.

7. We might speak of American tea-parties also, but they are too well-known and appreciated to need description here; for even the poetic muse has been evoked, on more occasions than one, to give them notoriety.

"How they sit and chitter chatter',

O'er a cup of scalding water',
Of this one's dress or carriage',

Of that one's death or marriage."

8. In the Mallow family, which contains a great variety of some of the finest flowers in nature, are found the various spe

cies of the altheas or hollyhocks, and the hibiscus, together with that famous plant, "King Cotton," avowedly the most valuable of all the vegetable products which man converts into materials for clothing. The common cotton plant grows from three to five feet in height, with fivelobed, blue-veined, dark green leaves. The flower is of a pale yellow, changing to a 3 pink color, purple spotted at the bottom, with five petals. On the falling of the flower a kind of pod or boll is developed, Cotton Plant.-1. The ri- which, in process of ripening, bursts and the morning. 3. Flower at discloses the snow-white cotton, which is the hairy covering of the seeds.

evening.

9. The citron family embraces a number of species of handsome evergreen shrubs or small trees, mostly natives of the East Indies, and cultivated only in warm regions. They have odoriferous flowers, and bear some of the most brilliant, fra

grant, and delicious fruits, among which may be enumerated the orange, shaddock, citron, lemon, and lime. As with apples, many varieties of each have been produced by cultivation. The golden apples of the heathens, and the forbidden fruit of the Jews, are supposed to belong to this family. The orange blossom, distinguished no less for its beauty than its delicious fragrance, has very appropriately been made the emblem of purity and loveliness. The land where the citron and orange grow is proverbially the land of balmy fragrance, of gentle breezes, and azure skies.

Know'st thou the land, where groves of citron flower'?
And golden orange, darkling leaves embower'?

Where gentle breezes fan the azure skies,

The myrtle still, and high the laurel rise'?

Know'st thou it well, that land, beloved friend'?

Thither with the e, oh, thither would I wend.-GOETHE.

1.

2.

3.

4.

LESSON VII.-CHORUS OF FLOWERS.

WE are the sweet flowers',
Born of sunny showers';

(Think, whene'er you see us, what our beauty saith);
Utterance, mute and bright,

Of some unknown delight,

We fill the air with pleasure' by our simple breath':
All who see us' love' us-

We befit all places';

Unto sorrow we give smiles'—and, unto graces, races'

Think of all our treasures',

Matchless works and pleasures',

Every one a marvel, more than thought can say';
Then think in what bright showers
We thicken fields and bowers',

And with what heaps of sweetness half stifle wanton May';
Think of the mossy forests

By the bee-birds haunted',

And all those Amazonian plains, lone lying as enchanted.

Trees themselves are ours';
Fruits are born of flowers;'

Beech', and roughest nut', were blossoms' in the spring';

The lusty bee knows well

The news, and comes pell-mell,

And dances in the gloomy thicks with darksome antheming:
Beneath the very burden

Of planet-pressing ocean

We wash our smiling cheeks in peace-a thought for meek devotion

Who shall say that flowers

Dress not heaven's own bowers'?

Who its love, without us, can fancy- or sweet floor?

Who shall even dare

To say we sprang not there

And came not down, that Love might bring one piece of heaven the

Oh! pray believe that angels

From those blue dominions

[more'?

Brought us in their white laps down, 'twixt their golden pinions.

LEIGH HUNT.

LESSON VIII.-THE CACTUS FAMILY.
[EXOGENOUS or DICOTYLEDONOUS; Angiosperms; Polypetalous.]

1. Cac'tus hexago'nus, Four-angled cactus, xi. 1, w., 35 f., Jl.-Au., S. Am. 2. C. speciosis'simus, Beautiful cactus, xi. 1, cr., 3 f., Jl., S. Am. 3. C. flagellifor'mis, Creeping or Snake cactus, xi. 1, pk., 6 f., M.-Jn., Peru. 4. C. opuntia, Prickly-pear cactus, xi. 1, y., 2 f., Jl.-Au., Mexico. 5. C. curassa'vicus, Pin-pillow cactus, xi. 1, y., 6 f., Jn.-J., S. Am. 6. C. peres'kia, Gooseberry cactus, xi. 1, w., 5 f., O.-N., W. Indies. 7. C. phyllanthoi'des, Winged cactus, xi. 1, pk., 2 f., Jn., W. Indies. 8. Echinocac'tus mammillarioi' des, Melon cactus, xi. 1, y. and r., 6 in., Jl.-Au., Chili.

Mammilla'ria caespito's,

1. WHO hung thy beauty on such rugged stalk',
Thou glorious flower'?

Who poured the richest hues,
In varying radiance, o'er thy ample brow,
And, like a mesh, those tissued stamens laid
Upon thy crimson lip'?

Lone, o'er thy leafless stem,

Thou bidd'st the queenly rose, with all her buds,
Do homage, and the green-house peerage bow
Their rainbow coronets."-MRS. SIGOURNEY.

2. Thus beautifully writes an American poetess of a beautiful flower of the rough

a Cactus flower of the Up cactus family. And this family is exclusively American, not one of its eight hund

per Missouri.

red species having ever been found, as native, in any other part of the world. The name by which the kinds of cactus common in the Northern and Middle States are known, is prickly pear. The absence of leaves in most of the species, and the presence of very showy flowers, render this family remarkable. The plants consist chiefly of a fleshy stem, sometimes globular or egg-shaped, sometimes cylindrical, triangular, and even flat, but always armed with prickles.

3. The cactus is found abundantly in Mexico, and is painted on the flag of the Mexicans, and stamped on their money; Of its many species, the night-blooming cereus is perhaps the most remarkable, not so much on account of its large white flower, although that is sometimes nearly a foot in diameter, as for the season of its unfolding its beauties, the short time which it takes to expand, and the rapidity with which it decays. It begins to open late in the evening, flourishes for an hour or two, then begins to droop, and before morning is completely dead.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

"Now departs day's garish3 light

Beauteous flower', lift thy head!
Rise upon the brow of night'!

Haste, thy transient lustre shed!
Night has dropp'd her dusky vei!-
All vain thoughts be distant fa..,
While, with silent awe, we hail
Flora's radiant evening star.

See to life her beauties start';

Hail! thou glorious, matchless flower'!
Much thou sayest to the heart

In this solemn, fleeting hour.

Ere we have our homage paid',

Thou wilt bow thy head and die';
Thus our sweetest pleasures fade',
Thus our brightest blessings fly'.

Sorrow's rugged stem, like thine',

Bears a flower thus purely bright`;
Thus, when sunny hours decline,
Friendship sheds her cheering light."

9. Other species of the cactus, more delicate in structure than the famous cereus2 already described, a few of them leafy, some of them creeping plants, and most of them remarkable for their beauty and fragrance, also bloom in the night season; and it is one of these which has been made the medium, by a gifted writer, of conveying the following beautiful moral:

10.

UNPRETENDING WORTH.

Come, look at this plant, with its narrow, pale leaves,
And its tall, thin, delicate stem,

Thinly studded with flowers-yes, with flowers-there they are;
Don't you see, at each joint there's a little brown star'?
But, in truth, there's no beauty in them'.

11.

12.

13.

So you ask why I keep it-the little mean thing'?
Why I stick it up here, just in sight'?

'Tis a fancy of mine. A strange fancy, you say.
No accounting for tastes-in this instance you may,
For the flower. But I'll tell you to-night.

Some six hours hence, when the lady moon
Looks down on that bastioned wall,
When the twinkling stars glance silently
On the rippling surface of the sea,

And heavy the night dews fall

Then meet me again in this casement niche,
On this spot-nay, do not say no,

Nor question me wherefore; perhaps with me
To look out on the night, and the bright broad sea,
And to hear its majestic flow.

*

Well, we're met here again, and the moonlight sleeps
On the sea and the bastioned wall;

And the flowers there below-how the night wind brings
Their delicious breath on its dewy wings;

But there's one, say you, sweeter than all.

What is it'? the myrtle or jessamine' ?*
Or their sovereign lady, the rose'?

Or the heliotrope, or the virgin's bower'?
What! neither'? Oh, no, tis some other flowe:",
Far sweeter than any of those.

Far sweeter'? And where think you groweth the plant
That exhaleth that perfume rare`?

Look about, up and down, but take care, or you'll break
With your elbow that poor little thing that's so weak.
Why, 'tis that smells so sweet, I declare'!

Ah ha! is it that'? Have you found out now
Why I cherish that odd little fright'?

All is not gold that glitters, you know,

And it is not all worth makes the greatest show,
In the glare of the strongest light'.

There are human flowers, full many, I trow,4
As unlovely as that by your side,
That a common observer passeth by
With a scornful lip and a careless eye,

In the heyday of pleasure and pride.

But move one of these to some quiet spot
From the midday sun's broad glare,

Where domestic peace broods with dove-like wing,
And try if the homely, despised thing

May not yield sweet fragrance there.

Or wait till the days of trial come,

The dark days of trouble and woe,

When they shrink and shut up, late so bright in the sun;

Then turn to the little despised one,

And see if 'twill serve you so.

And judge not again, at a single glance,

Nor pass sentence hastily.

There are many good things in this world of ours,

Many sweet things and rare, weeds that prove precious flowers,
Little dreamt of by you or by me.-MRS. SOUTHEY.

€ŎR'-O-NET, a little crown.

2 CE'-REUS (se'-rūse), in two syllables.

*

Equivalent to, "Do you ask,What is it'? the myrtle or jessamine'?" etc., similar to the questions in the eleventh verse; and therefore they take the rising inflection.