The Work Of Nature In The Months.

Truly Ave ought not to give way to despondency , but rather bear cheerfully the trials of life , remembering how infinitel y they are outnumbered by its blessings ; for hear once more the voice of Spring" Spring , Spring , eloquent Spring , Thine is a voice all hearts must love ; Plentand joy are the tidings bring

y you , As an earnest below of the mercy above . Oh ! dull is the spirit and cold the breast , That forgets not awhile it is earthly born ; While we look on the branch where fruit shall rest , And the green blade promising golden corn . Arouse , ye sluggards ; awake and sing , A chorus of Avelcome to beautiful spring . "

Wh y then should we " sorrow as those Avho have no hope 1 "" Gentle Spring !—iu sunshine clad , Well dost thou thy power display ! For Winter maketh the light heart sad , And thou—thou makest the sad heart gay . " It would indeed be a strange heart that the grOAving brightness of the woods and meadoAvs Avould fail to gladden—for although the old distich may be true

that—March Avmds and April showers Bring forth May flowers . " . Yet in April the shoAvers do not fall , nor even in March the rough Avinds HOAV , ovei floAverless Avastes . Humble they may be , like those blossoms that Ave have found so constant through the dark cold months of Winter , yet are they very Avelcome , for , as Avith Wordsworth , —

" To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often he too deep for tears . " But these lowly friends of ours , the Groundsell ancl Chickweed , are by no means so noticeable as they Avere , as day by day the advancing Spring brings forth an everincreasing store of floral treasure , for" The bloom is in the bud , and the bud is on the bough , And earth is grown an emerald and heaven a sapphire now ; The suoAvdrop and the daisy wild are laughing everywhere , And the balmy breath of opening buds steal softly through the air . * - $ # * -:. :. * -:. * -:.

What promise in the verdant plains—Avhat hope is on the wing , A blessing on thy balmy breath , thou merry month of Spring . " Passing by the Coltsfoot , too , as having been fully dwelt upon last month , we find a plant of a kindred nature , although of a very different growth , —Ave mean the Butter-bur , Avhich affects A \ 'et meadoAvs and brooksides , Avhilst the Coltsfoot is move abundant in the drier landsLike this latter plantthe Butter-bur puts forth its

up . , flowers before the leaves ; but so insignificant are they in comparison with the foliage , that feAV would imagine the meagre conical flesh-coloured spikes of bloom had any connexion with the huge leaves—sometimes even a yard across—that planted on stalks a couple of feet long are called , and played Avith , as " umbrellas" by children in the hot days of Summertime . So free indeed is the leaf-growth of this plant , that it is , perhaps , the nearest approach to the luxuriance of tropical vegetation that Ave have in Eng

land-We have called the flower meagre , but the bees do not think so , as it affords them a rich meal of honey in the short sharp days of their first venturing forth . Another plant of a similar character now in bloom is the Hairy Cardamine . One strange flower , strange on account of its colour—green , is noAV in blossoming , the Mercury . A very pretty little plant , though an injurious one in pastures , OAving to its trailh'S groAvth destroying the sweet grasses , is the Ground Ivy , whose leaves , when bruised .