as many visits to a spot of Daisies, or a bank of Violets, as a Florist does to his borders or parterres. There is not a bush in blossom within a mile of me which I am not acquainted with, nor scarce a Daffodil or Cowslip that withers away in my neighbourhood without my missing it. I walked home in this temper of mind through several fields and meadows with an unspeakable pleasure, not without reflecting on the bounty of Providence, which has made the most pleasing and most beautiful objects the most ordinary and most common."

May 8. APPARITIO S. MICHAELIS. St. Peter, Bp. St. Wiro. St. Victor. St. Odrian. St. Gybrian.

Lemuria.-Rom. Cal.

FLORA. The Narrowleaved Peony Paeonia Tenuifolia and the Globe Flower Trollius Europaeus come into blow on an average about the 8th of May. The former is a beautiful herbaceous plant, though its flowers are not of long duration, as, in the course of about ten days, it is usually out of blow.

Ovid thus notices the Lemuria celebrated today :

Hinc ubi protulerit formosa ter Hesperus ora;
Ter dederint Phoebo sidera victa locum;
Ritus erit veteris nocturna Lemuria sacri:
Inferias tacitis manibus illa dabunt.

Annus erat brevior nec adhuc pia Februa norant :
Nectu dux mensum Jane biformis eras.

Jam tamen exstincto cineri sua dona ferebant:
Compositique nepos busta piabat avi.

Mensis erat Maius majorum nomine dictus:

Qui partein prisci nunc quoque moris habet.

The Lemuria were so called from the Lemures the manes of the dead. The ancients supposed that the souls, after death, wandered all over the world, and disturbed the peace of its inhabitants. The good spirits were called Lares Familiares, and the evil ones were known by the name of Larvae or Lemures. They terrified the good, and continually haunted the wicked and impious; and the Romans had the superstition to celebrate festivals in their honour, called Lemuria or Lemurialia, in the month of May. They were first instituted by Romulus to appease the Manes of his brother Remus, from whom they were called Remuria, and, by corruption, Lemuria. These solemnities continued three nights, during which the temples of the gods were shut, and marriages prohibited. It was usual for the people to throw black beans on the graves of the deceased, or to burn them, as the smell was supposed to be insupportable to them. They also muttered magical words, and, by beating kettles

Q

and drums, they believed that the ghosts would depart and no longer come to terrify their relations upon earth.--Ovid. Fast. v. 421, &c. Persius, v. 185.

Horace puts among terrors, Carm. II. Ode ii. 209 :—

Somnia terrores magicos miracula sagas,
Nocturnos Lemures portensaque.

On the Apparition of St. Michael.-After referring our readers to Butler's account of the nature of angels, (Lives of the Saints, vol. v. p. 115), we may just remind them that the church celebrates today the apparition of St. Michael to the Bishop of Eiponto, and other spectral visitations of that archangel. Without meaning in the least to discredit the sacred story, we may remind the reader of the possibility of an apparent descent of St. Michael being produced from a fog obscuring the whole of the steeple of the Maison de Ville at Bruxelles, except the statue of the saint at the top. A similar thing having happened at Florence, we shall quote the account of it in the words of the narrator: A fog having intercepted the dome of one of the churches, the gilded image of the angel at the top remained visible alone, and the spectators mistook it for a real descent of the patron saint. Long dwelling on images, statues, and even on beautiful pictures, is capable of so exciting some minds as to produce subsequently deceptive spectral illusions of similar forms.

On this very day, the 8th May, the sudden seeing a beautiful portrait of a distant friend suggested the following lines from Klopstock, of which we select a translation from the Star Newspaper of May 25, 1820, for the amusement of the poetical reader today:

:

Verses occasioned by seeing the Portrait, and subsequently the Apparition, of a long lost favourite Mistress, from Klopstock.

By every Myrtle bower green,
Where we have twined the wreath;
By every transient bloom of Spring,
That adds its fragrant breath!

Dear Portrait, thou canst not deceive!

The guileful task forbear:

O, change it, Heaven! and let me live,
And bid herself be here !

May 9. St. Gregory Nazianzen. St. Nicholas, B. C. St. Hermas. St. Brynoth.

FLORA.

SOLOMON'S SEAL Convallaria multiflora and the LILY OF THE VALLEY Convallaria Majalis flower.

FAUNA. The Swift Hirundo Apus, which arrives in England about this time, is the largest of the Swallow tribe; it is of a sooty black colour, and inhabits old steeples, the interior of old tiled roofs, and other lofty and secure retreats, where it builds. In the morning and in the evening it comes out in quest of food, and utters, while rapidly flying, its peculiar scream, whence it is called Squeaker. In a warm Summer morning these birds may be seen flying round in small companies, and all squeaking together: in the evening they come forth again; but there are times in the middle of the day when few or none of these birds are seen. Its bold and rapid flight, so contrasted to that of the Sand Martin, is thus well epigrammatized :

Cypselus in vacuo rapidis volat aethere pennis

Nec metuit aquilas accipitremve feram.

We have already observed that the scenery of a May morning is particularly beautiful; a serene sky, a refreshing fragrance arising from the face of the earth, and the melody of the birds, all combine to render it inexpressibly delightful, to exhilarate the spirits, and call forth a song of grateful adoration.

How fresh the breeze that wafts the rich

And swells the melody of waking birds me,

The hum of Bees beneath the verdant grove,

And Woodman's song, and low of distant herds!

And yet there are some to whom these scenes are able to give no delight, and who hurry away from all the varieties of rural beauty, to lose their hours and divert their thoughts by a tavern dinner, or the prattle or the politics of the day. Such was, by his own confession, Mr. Boswell, the biographer of Johnson; and according to this "honest chronicler's' report, the Doctor himself was alike insensible to the charms of nature. "We walked in the evening," says Boswell," in Greenwich Park. Johnson asked me, I suppose by way of trying my disposition, Is not this very fine? Having no exquisite relish of the beauties of nature, and being more

delighted with the busy hum of men,' I answered, 'Yes,
sir; but not equal to Fleet Street.' Johnson, You are
right, sir.' I am aware that many
of my
readers may censure
my want of taste. Let me, however, shelter myself under
the authority of a very fashionable Baronet in the brilliant
world, who, on his attention being called to the fragrance of
a May evening in the country, This may be very well;
but, for my part, I prefer the smell of a flambeau at the
playhouse!!!"

Green fields, and shady groves, and crystal springs,
And Larks, and Nightingales, are odious things.
But smoke and dust, and noise and crowds, delight;
And to be pressed to death, transports her quite:
Where silvery rivulets play through flowery meads,

And Woodbines give their sweets, and Limes their shades,
Black kennels' absent odours she regrets,

And stops her nose at beds of Violets;
Nor likes to leave her bed at early dawn,
To meet the Sun upon the upland lawn.

May 10. St. Isidore Patron of Madrid. St. Comgall, A. St. Cataldus, Bp. SS. Gordian, &c. St. Antoninus, Bp. and Confessor.

rises at Iv. 23'. and sets at VII. 37'.

FLORA. In tolerably early years the Hieracium Pilosella flowers.

CHRONOLOGY.-Helston Flora Day.-On the present day (1819), says a cotemporary author, this ancient annual festival was celebrated at Helston in Cornwall, with more spirit than has been remembered for many years. The town was crowded with strangers, who arrived from all quarters during the whole of the morning. About one o'clock the ladies and gentlemen, to a very great number, wove the furrydance through the streets and houses. The street dancing was most gaily kept up by all classes the whole of the afternoon and evening; and about seven o'clock the ladies and gentlemen, in their ball dresses, again assembled, and lightly danced the fadé through the streets to the ballroom, where the evening was spent in the greatest glee, by a very numerous assembly of beauty, elegance, and fashion, whom even the charming goddess of the day could not excel.

FAUNA. The birds of passage are by this time all arrived, and most of them busied with their nests. The Nightingale, the Thrush, and others, now sing incessantly; and the Nightjar begins to be heard of an evening. Fishing, if not already commenced, may now be pursued daily; and

the Fisher would do well to make himself acquainted with the Flies peculiar to this month, in order to deceive more easily the sprightly Trout.

The Angler's Wish, imitated from Walton.

I in these flowery meads would be,
These crystal streams should solace me,
To whose harmonious bubbling noise,
I with my angle would rejoice:
Sit here and see the Turtle Dove
Court his chaste mate to acts of love.

Or on that bank feel the west wind
Breathe health and plenty: please my mind,
To see sweet dewdrops kiss these flowers,
And then washed off by Summer showers:
Here hear old Snigk to sing a song;
There see the Wildhen feed her young.

Or view a Laverock build her nest,
Here, give my weary spirits rest,
And raise my lowpitched thoughts above
Earth, or what poor mortals love:
Thus, free from lawsuits and the noise
Of princes' courts, I would rejoice:

Or with Dog Fangs, and perhaps a book,
Loiter long days near Medway's brook:
There sit by him, smoke, drink, and eat,
There see the Sun both rise and set:
There bid good morning to next day,
There meditate any time away,
And angle on; and beg to lead
A quiet life in Hartwell mead.

May 11. St. Mammertus, Bp. and Conf. St. Maieul of Cluni.

FLORA.-The Lancashire Asphodee Asphodelus Luteus and the Asiatic Globe Flower Trollius Asiaticus come first into flower very nearly on this day in most years. The Slenderleaved Peony is now full blown, and is an elegant ornament in the garden. The Monkey Poppy Papaver Orientale just begins in early years to show its deep reddish orange flowers. By the peculiar red colour of this flower it is readily distinguished in the Spring garden from every other of those numerous grand herbaceous plants which blow during this month. The brilliant light red of this plant is finely contrasted to the deep and glowing crimson of the Officinal Peony towards the end of the month, when they are both in blow together. See May 17,

Orion occidit.-Rom. Cal.

URANIA. Another setting of Orion is put down in the Roman Calendar today, and in one edition of Ovid is styled the occasus heliacus; but, in fact, at the present day, the heliacal setting or immersion of this constellation takes