with the Sun slowly breaking out into full radiance, and the ground gradually drying, constitute the weather of this last act of Summer, ascribed to the Saint celebrated today. 'Tis now that China Asters, African Marigolds, Stocks, Starworts, and all the Autumnal, as well as what remains of the Aestival Flora, seem to shed their last smiles on the declining year; while the Sun gilds the russet foliage, and is reflected beautifully from the yellow, red, and brown tints of the forests in their variously coloured decay. When once this weather changes again, the gales of later Autumn will sweep off the last leafy honours of the woods, and prepare for Winter's dull reign. FLORA. Many Summer and Autumnal plants remain in flower, but the new productions of Flora at this season are very few. Fungi constitute the principal objects of attraction to the botanist. The Agaricus floccosus, one of the most regular as to the time of its first appearance, is generally found springing up about the roots of Apple trees, in Orchards, and other places, at this time. That beautiful kind the Agaricus Muscarius, whose crimson and spotted pileus makes such a splendid figure on the grass, is now abundant, though it has often appeared before, in the end of August. On this day, in 1818, which was a year remarkable for the large and luxuriant growth of the Fungus race, the following species were gathered by Mr. B. M. Forster, in Sussex, within a small compass: A. verucosus. A. integer, crimson, pale, and slate colour. A. muscarius, of both colours, in Stoneland Park. A. procerus, the tall Agarick. A. plicatilis, in the grass. A. elephantinus, very large indeed. A. congregatus. A. violaceus, a beautiful species. A. denticulatus, and many others. Boletus bovinus, very large, some were one foot high. B. edulis. B. igniarcus. Calvaria hypoxolon. C. muscoides. Helvelia sarcoides. Peziza coccinea, near Buckhurst old Tower. This was one of the most luxuriant seasons for all the above tribe of plants that we ever remember. October 19. St. Peter of Alcantara C. SS. Ptolemy and Lucius Martyrs. St. Frideswide Virgin. St. Ethbin Abbot. Armilustrium.-Rom. Cal. CHRONOLOGY.-King John of England died in 1216. FLORA. We yesterday mentioned the prevalence of the fungi at this time of year. We shall today proceed to give the reader some account of the curious effect produced by one kind of fungus, and of the remarkable superstitions attached thereto. The appearance of those imperfect circles and semicircles of darker coloured grass, which are well known by the name of Fairy Rings, is familiar to every body. These are but recently discovered to be produced by Fungi. Formerly no natural history of them having been given, they were ascribed to Fairies. They are alluded to in Randolph's Amyntas, Act iii. sc. 4: They do request you now To give them leave to dance a Fairy Ring. Where Fairies often did their measures tread, A Hillock rise, where oft the Fairy Queen "They had fine music always among themselves," says the author of Round about our Coal Fire,' " and danced in a moonshiny night, around, or in a ring, as one may see at this day upon every Common in England where Mushroomes grow." "The author of Mons Catherinae' has not forgotten to notice these ringlets in his poem, p. 9:— Sive illic Lemurum populus sub nocte choreas "The last poetical mention of them which we shall quote is from Six Pastorals, by George Smith, Landscape Painter at Chichester, in Sussex,' 4to. London, 1770, p. 24: "Some say the Screechowl, at each midnight hour, "Some ascribe the phaenomenon of the circle or ring, supposed by the vulgar to be traced by the Fairies in their dances, to the effects of lightning, as being frequently produced after storms of that kind, and by the colour and brittleness of the grass roots when first observed.”—Brand. In support of this hypothesis the reader may consult Priestley's "Present State of Electricity." See also a certain Paper in the Philosophical Transactions, where it is stated that Mr. Walker, walking abroad after a storm of thunder and lightning, observed a round Circle of about four or five yards diameter, whose rim was about a foot broad, newly burnt bare, as appeared from the colour and brittleness of the grass roots. See Gent. Mag. for Dec. 1790, vol. lx. p. 1106, 1180, 1191, and lxxiv. 802. Others have thought these appearances occasioned by Moles working for themselves a run underground. This I believe they never do in a circular manner. Gent. Mag. ibid. p. 1072. Mr. Pennant, in his British Zoology, 8vo. London, 1776, vol. i. says:-" It is supposed that the verdant circles so often seen in grass grounds, called by the country people Fairy Rings, are owing to the operation of those animals who at certain seasons perform their burrowings by circumgyrations, which, loosening the soil, give the surface a greater fertility and rankness of grass than the other parts within or without the Ring." In short, Fancy has sported herself in endeavouring to account for these circular Rings; and there are not wanting such as have, I had almost said, dreamt them to have been trenches dug up by the ancient inhabitants of Britain, and used either in celebrating some of their sports, or in paying divine honours to some of their imaginary Deities. Gent. Mag. ut supra p. 1180, lxvi. 386, and Ïxx. 128. In the Gent. Mag. for January 1791, vol. lxi. p. 36, a writer on the subject of Fairy Rings refers to the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 3, to a Paper by Dr. Hutton. The most clear and satisfactory remarks on the origin of Fairy Rings are probably those of Dr. Wollaston, Sec. R. S., printed in the second part of the Philosophical Transactions for 1807, made during a few years' residence in the country. The cause of their appearance he ascribes to the growth of certain species of Agaric which so entirely absorb all nutriment from the soil beneath, that the herbage is for a while destroyed. See Brande's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, vol. ii. October 20. St. Artemius Martyr. St. Barsabias. St. Zenobius. St. Sindulphus. St. Aidan. Orises at vI. 48'. and sets at v. 12'. CHRONOLOGY.-The Battle of Salamis is recorded by some Authors today, where Themistocles destroyed the fleet of Xerxes B. C. 480. Lima in Peru was shattered by an Earthquake in 1687. Today" the Jews celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, or Succoth, to remind them of their forty years' journeying in the wilderness. At the hour the Sabbath begins they go to the evening service of the Synagogue, where additional prayers are said in honour of this festival. Afterwards, instead of sitting down to meat in their houses, they must go to their respective tabernacles or booths, where every preparation being completed, the master of the family takes a glass of wine in his right hand, and says the Kodush, or grace, adding, Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the universe, who hath sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us to dwell in a tabernacle :' and this they add to the grace after every meal during the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles. In case of rainy weather, their stay in these booths is dispensed with. In the morning of the Feast of Tabernacles when they go to synagogue, after saying the prayers for the festival, and before the praise, they take the Citron, the branch of the Palm tree, Myrtles, and Willows, some in the right hand, and others in the left, saying an appropriate grace; but, if this happens to fall on the Sabbath, they are excused, as they are not allowed to carry any thing on that day. On this festival, as well as on other days, they say the prayer for the king and government, and afterwards the prayer of the Addition: those who are possessed of a Palm tree branch, Citron, &c., go once round the altar, saying Hoshana, i. e. Save us; they then carry the law to the ark again, and after some other prayers are said the service is ended. The Willow twigs which they hold in their hands on this day, are to remind them of the blessing of the waters. This feast is also that of Gathering in the Harvest. "The last of the five days commencing with this festival, is called Hoshana the Great, because on this day every one has a branch of the Willow, as before mentioned, and in the prayers of the day make use of the word Hoshana. Those, too, who are possessed of the Palm branch, &c., with the reader at their head, go seven times round the altar in solemn procession, in remembrance of the sabbatical years. The eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles, very strictly kept, is called the Day of Solemn Assembly: the modern Jews keep nine days of this festival instead of eight, for which they assign astronomical reasons." HYGEIA. We promised, October 2d, to resume the consideration of hypochondriacal impressions, which we take occasion now to do. Hypochondriasis is now used to denote morbid excitation of the Brain of a low and desponding character in general. It is caused often by the effect of a disordered Liver acting on the sensorium; or results from a Brain being long irritated by exhausting stimuli, either mental or bodily. Drinking spirits, and the use of opium on persons predisposed by organization, entail this disease to an alarming degree. con Abstinence and opening medicine at this season stitute one great source of relief from affections of the above kind, which the decline of the year is certainly favourable to, because they lessen the inflammatory action of the blood vessels of the Brain. See October 2. The spectra seen in hypochondriasis, and t'e gorgeous scenery of dreams under such states of excitement, serve to confirm the now received axiom in physiology, that it is not external objects in general that the mind actually views, but their forms exhibited on the sensorium; for cerebral action will sometimes take place spontaneously and produce visions. We quote the following from a modern writer: 66 to come, I know not whether my reader is aware that many children, perhaps most, have a power of painting, as it were, upon the darkness, all sorts of phantoms: in some that power is simply a mechanic affection of the eye; others have a voluntary, or a semivoluntary power to dismiss or to summon them; or, as a child once said to me when I questioned him on this matter, I can tell them to go, and they go; but sometimes they come when I don't tell them At night, when I lay awake in bed, vast processions passed along in mournful pomp; friezes of neverending stories, that to my feelings were as sad and solemn as if they were stories drawn from times before Oedipus or Priam, before Tyre, before Memphis, and, at the same time, a corresponding change took place in my dreams; a theatre seemed suddenly opened and lighted up within my brain, which presented nightly spectacles of more than earthly splendour. And the four following facts may be mentioned, as noticeable at this time: That, as the creative state of the eye increased, a sympathy seemed to arise between the waking and the dreaming states of the brain in one point, that whatsoever I happened to call up |