found a child unhurt whose mother had been destroyed by an avalanche, induced the poor boy to mount upon his back, and thus carried him to the gate of the convent. The subject is represented in the preceding print. YOUNG LADIES' GARLAND. Written for the Monthly Repository and Library of Entertaining Knowledge The science of Potany has been long neglected in our seminaries. The fair youth of our country have walked among flowers without a thought of the beautiful arrangement and order which their Creator has imposed upon the blooming ranks of the vegetable world, as well as through the marshalled constellations of the heavens, and the kingdoms of animal and mineral nature. Little thought the lovely daughters of America. in years past, of the social affinities or sisterhood of flowers which they twined into their garlands, or bound in their bouquets. But, aided by botanical science, the rose, the lily, the pink, as well as the flowerless plants, and every creeping shrub, as well as the loftiest tree, disclose to the ravished eye of the student an assemblage of natural families, standing in a sort of tender relationship to each other, while the bond of union between individual species of a single genus is of a nature that art cannot counterfeit nor any methods of culture change. Like citizens of different nations the plants of the field, the garden, and the forest, retain their own nationality of costume and physiology, and their customs and manners, if we may so speak, are unchanged with the changing years. We have been led to these remarks by a perusal of the proof sheets of the second edition of Familiar Lectures on Botany, by Mrs. Almira H. Lincoln, vice-principal of Troy female Seminary, from the press of H. & F. J. Huntington, Hartford. If we except the voluminous works of the German and French authors on Botany, which are far too expensive, not to say erudite, for common use in academies and boudoirs, we know of no book so pleasing and instructive as that of Mrs. Lincoln. The form of popular lectures which Mrs. Lincoln has adopted, gives a miscellaneous interest to the work which would have been wanting had she followed an arrangement more strictly scientific. The Lectures are fortyeight in number, and they derive no inconsiderable claim to public attention from the high reputation of the Troy Female Seminary; and the fact that the author, during the absence of the principal in Europe, is considered competent to sustain the high duties and responsibilities of the seminary, will not be overlooked by those judicious persons who love to identify authors with their productions. The plates in the book were engraved from drawings executed by Miss Lee, the teacher of drawing in the same institution; they are numerous and sufficiently descriptive to portray the arcana of Botanical classification. We cannot, as we would wish, enlarge on the sublime and lovely traits of creating wisdom which a flower or a fruit garden discloses. We linger with pleasure along the shadowy walks in the early morning, or in the coolness of sober evening, and as the fragrant zephyr, laden with the aroma of spicy buds, kisses our cheeks, we cannot but feel a tranquillity allied to celestial enjoyment. We feel that nature is our friend, and woos us to gentle musings, and heavenward aspirations. Around us are a thousand forms of beauty, giving no audible sound save the whisper of waving plumes, and leaves, and tremulous, fruit-laden boughs; yet all ist most eloquent in effect, and proclaims the praise of a blessed Creator, fairer than even the fairest of his beautiful creations. Can a young lady walk in the aromatic flower garden without thinking of Eden, and the plaintive farewell of her who had lost her innocence? Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave At even; which I bred up with tender hand, Your tribes, and water from th' ambrosial fount? Milton. Leopards, like all of their race, appear to be of exceedingly uncertain tempers; and we have more than one instance recorded of their attacking individuals, when they have been incautiously left at liberty. The celebrated John Hunter had a fortunate escape, in a contest with two leopards that were confined in a yard of his house. They broke loose, attacked some dogs, and were climbing the wall when the great anatomist heard the uproar; and, rushing into the yard, seized upon both of them, and secured them without injury. The average length of the leopard is under four feet, and his height about two feet. The general color of his skin, and the arrangement of the spots, is exceedingly beautiful. The yellowish fawn ground, which gradually becomes a perfect white on the under parts of the body, is covered with black spots, of a round or oval form, on the head, neck, limbs, and back; while on the sides, and part of the tail, the spots unite in ten ranges of distinct roses, sourrounding a central area of a somewhat deeper color than the general ground. In the Panther, there are only six or seven ranges of these roses. The natural habits of the leopard, like those of all the cat tribe, are compounded of ferocity and cunning. He preys upon the smaller animals, such as antelopes, sheep, and monkeys;-and he is enabled to secure his food with great success, from the extraordinary flexibi lity of his body. The leopards in the Tower, who have a tolerably large cage, bound about with the quickness of a squirrel, so that the eye can hardly follow their movements. In Africa, they are sometimes found of extraordinary size and rapacity. Their relative size principally distinguishes the leopard and the panther, the latter being ordinarily the larger. M. Cuvier considers them distinct species; although they are doubtless often mistaken by travellers, from their great similarity. We have been favored, by a gentleman who was formerly in the civil service at Ceylon, with the following description of an encounter with a leopard or panther, which in India are popularly called tigers : - "I was at Jaffna, at the northern extremity of the Island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year 1819; when, one morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my usual time, with, 'Master, master! people sent for master's dogs-tiger in the town!' Now, my dogs chanced to be some very degenerate specimens of a fine species, called the Poligar dog, which I should designate as a sort of wiry-haired greyhound, without scent. I kept them to hunt jackals; but tigers are very different things; by the way, there are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards and panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put together; and while my servant was doing it, the collector, and two medical men, who had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera morbus having just then reached Ceylon from the continent, came to my door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the two latter with remarkably blunt hog-spears. * Cuvier, Règne Animal, They insisted upon setting off without waiting for my gun, a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger, (I must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of which, as those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door, about four feet high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to wait for my gun; but no-the fowling-piece (loaded with ball, of course) and the two hog-spears were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake, and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have cut without them, as the event will show. I was now quite ready to attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which follows took place within an inclosure, about twenty feet square, formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the fourth by the hut. At the door of this the two artillerymen planted themselves; and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten the tiger out, by unroofing it—an easy operation, as the huts there are covered with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillerymen wanted to go in to the tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast sprang; this man received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat, firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short, leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the animal, but was invisible to us: the shot probably went through his cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the soldier's breast. At this moment the animal appeared to me to about reach the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to observe this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier's arm in his mouth, turned him half round, staggering, threw him over on his back, and fell upon him. Our dread now was, that if we fired upon the tiger, we might kill the man; for a moment there was a pause, when his comrade attacked the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow him |