The tulip and the butterfly
Appear in gayer coats than I;
Let me be dressed fine as I will,

Flies, birds, and flowers exceed me still.

It grows wild in forests in North America, in the region of the Mississippi, where it is valued for its timber. It attains there a height of from 100 to 140 feet, and the stem is three feet in thickness.

The Narcissus is the name of a genus of plants which grow in the temperate parts of the world. The only species that is a native of Britain is the Daffodil; but the name Narcissus is in practice confined to the two species known as the Poet's Narcissus and the Polyanthus Narcissus. The latter bears numerous flowers, and grows wild in the south of Europe. It is also a favourite plant in Indian gardens. There is a beautiful Grecian fable connected with this plant which is worth relating. Narcissus was a beautiful youth, son of the god of the river Cephisus and the nymph Liriope. He was born at Thespis, in Bœotia. He saw the reflection of his image in the clear waters of a fountain, and became enamoured of it, thinking it to be the nymph of the place. His fruitless attempts to approach this beautiful object so provoked him that he grew desperate and killed himself. His blood was changed into a flower, which still bears his name. The nymph raised a pile to burn his body, but they found nothing but a beautiful flower.

The Daffodil is the only native English species of the genus Narcissus. It is one of the English wildflowers, and blooms in the early spring. It has been taken from the fields, and cultivated as a garden flower with success. It has a lily flower, consisting of one leaf, which is shaped like a bell. The name Daffodil is supposed by Dr. Johnson to be a corruption of the Latin asphodelus. The bulbs, when taken in medicine, are of a purgative nature. This flower is a great favourite with the

English poets. Spenser writes

Strew me the green round with daffodowndillies,
And cowslips, and kingcups, and loved lilies.

And Milton, in his "Lycidas," makes it one of the flowers that strew the path of the hearse containing the body of the favourite youth—

Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed,

And daffodillies fill their cups with tears,

To strew the laureat hearse where Lycid lies.

Herrick, too, has some beautiful lines on this flower, which must

not be omitted

Fair daffodils, we weep to see

You haste away so soon:
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attained his noon!
Stay, stay!

Until the hastening day

Has run

But to the evensong;

And having prayed together we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay as you;
We have as short a spring;

As quick a growth to meet decay
As you or anything;

We die,

As your hours do, and dry

Away

Like to the summer's rain,

Or as the pearls of morning dew,

Ne'er to be found again.

The Hyacinth is a native of Persia, Asia Minor, and Syria, and is now naturalised in some parts of Southern Europe. The plant has a bulbous root, and the flower is shaped like a bell. In Holland about 2,000 varieties of this plant are known, and large prices are given for favourite specimens. The outside of a Dutch town often presents a showy appearance from the profusion of hyacinth flowers in the gardens. The colours of the hyacinth flowers are blue, purple, and white; and many of them are double. The sweet odour they yield is most powerful about eleven o'clock at night. The plant is placed either in flowerpots or in glasses called hyacinth glasses. The wild hyacinth is the Blue-bell.

The Poppy is a plant of almost universal cultivation. The garden or white poppy is used in hot countries for making opium. It also yields an oil used for the same purposes as olive oil, which is imported into England from India, and is used in France as an article of food. The Oriental poppy is often planted in gardens on account of its fine red flowers. The common red poppy which is seen in corn-fields and on roadsides,

yields a syrup useful in the complaints of children, and also valuable as a colouring ingredient. A double poppy is grown in flower-gardens, called the Carnation Poppy. The poppy is celebrated throughout the world as the great sleep-producing plant. And pale Nmphæa with her clay-cold breath,

And poppies which suborn the sleep of death.

It was used among the ancients as a garland for the head.
Dryden writes-

His temples last with poppies were o'erspread,
That nodding seemed to consecrate his head.

The Geranium is a well-known plant, of which there are 500 species. It especially abounds at the Cape of Good Hope. In order to make the plant produce a greater rumber of flowers, it is prevented from growing higher by pruning. A North American species of this plant is very useful in medicine.

Gulliver in Lilliput.

BY DEAN SWIFT.

CHAPTER III.

N the meantime the emperor held frequent councils to debate what course should be taken with me. They apprehended my breaking loose; that my diet would be very expensive, and might cause a famine. In the midst of these consultations two officers went to the door of the great council chamber and gave an account of my conduct to the six criminals before mentioned, which made so favourable an impression in the breast of his majesty that an imperial commission was issued out, obliging all the villages nine hundred yards round the city to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my maintenance; for the due payment of which his majesty gave assignments on his treasury. An establishment was also made of six hundred persons to be my domestics, and three hundred tailors were ordered to make ine a suit of clothes after the fashion of the country.

In one of the first conferences I had with his majesty, he desired I would not take it ill if he gave orders to certain proper officers to search me. He knew that this could not be done without my consent and assistance, but he assured me that whatever they took from me should be returned when I left the country, or paid for at the rate I would set upon them. I took up the two officers in my hands, put them first into my coatpockets, and then into every other pocket about me. These gentlemen then made an exact inventory of everything they saw, and it is, word for word, as follows:

:

"In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain we found only one great piece of coarse cloth, large enough to be a footcloth for your majesty's chief room of state. In the left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it found himself up to the mid-leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for several times together. In the waistcoat pocket there was a sort of engine, from the back of which were extended twenty long poles, resembling the palisadoes before your majesty's court, wherewith we conjecture the man-mountain combs his head. In the large pocket on the right side we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar. In the left pocket another engine of the same kind.

"In the left pocket on the right side were two black pillars, irregularly shaped, within each of which was enclosed a prodigious plate of steel. He took them out of their cases, and told us that in his own country his practice was to shave his beard with one of these and cut his meat with the other. There were two pockets we could not enter; these he called his fobs. Out of the right fob hung a great silver chain, with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom. We directed him to draw out whatever was at the end of that chain; which appeared to be a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal. He put this engine to our ears, which made an incessant noise like that of a water mill, and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us that he seldom did anything without consulting it. From the left fob he took out a net almost large

enough for a fisherman, but contrived to open and shut like a purse, and which served him for the same use; we found therein several massy pieces of yellow metal, which if they be real gold must be of immense value.

"Having thus, in obedience to your majesty's commands, diligently searched all his pockets, we observed a girdle round his waist, made of the hide of some prodigious animal, from which on the left side hung a sword of the length of five men; and on the right a bag or pouch divided into two cells, each capable of holding three of your majesty's subjects. In one of these cells were several globes, or balls, of a most ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads, and which required a strong hand to lift them; the other cell contained a heap of certain black grains, but of no great bulk or weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in the palms of our hands.

"This is an exact inventory of what we found about the body of the man-mountain, who used us with great civility, and due respect to your majesty's commission. Signed and sealed on the fourth day of the eighty-ninth moon of your majesty's auspicious reign. "CLEFRIN FRELOCK. "MARSI FRELOCK."

When this inventory was read over to the emperor, he directed me, though in very gentle terms, to deliver up the several particulars. He first called for my scimetar, which I took out, scabbard and all. In the meantime he ordered three thousand of his choicest troops to surround me, at a distance, with their bows and arrows just ready to discharge; but I did not observe it, for my eyes were wholly fixed upon his majesty. He then desired me to draw my scimetar, which, although it had got some rust by the sea-water, was in most parts exceeding bright. I did so, and immediately all the troops gave a shout, between terror and surprise; for the sun shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes as I waved the scimetar to and fro in my hand. His majesty, who is a most magnanimous prince, was less daunted than I could have expected; he ordered me to return it to the scabbard and cast it on the ground, as gently as I could, about six feet from the end of my chain.

The next thing he demanded was one of the hollow iron pillars -by which he meant my pocket pistols. I drew it out, and, at