xiv

CONTENTS.
CONTE

PAGE

WHAT MAY BE Seen on the EARTH, continued :-

Herbaceous Plants which best endure the Cold of Winter, . 75

The Dog Mercury,

The Garden Nightshade,

The Dog's-tooth Grass,

77

82

BOOK II-SPRING.

CHAP.

I. WHAT MAY BE SEEN IN THE HEAVENS :—

The Earth's Figure is seen in the Sky as in a Mirror,

102

WHAT MAY BE Seen on the EARTH, continued :-

The Gentians,

An Alpine Excursion,

The Pimpernel,

The Mole―The Staphylinus-The Mole Cricket,

The Earwig, ·

CHAP.

BOOK IV-AUTUMN.

I. WHAT MAY BE SEEN IN THE HEAVENS :-

The Circle, and the uniform Movement of the Stars (accord-

ing to the Theory of the Ancients destroyed by Kepler),

The Solar Constitution,

The Eglantine and the Convolvulus,

Metamorphosis: a Physico-philosophical Meditation,

APPENDIX,

289

292

296

312

313

318

325

337

349

354

356

366

371

379

384

405

BOOK I.

WINTER.

A

Lastly, came Winter clothed all in frieze,

Chattering his teeth for cold that did him chill
Whilst on his hoary beard his breath did freeze,
And the dull drops, that from his purpled bill
As from a limbeck did adown distil:

In his right hand a tippèd staff he held,
With which his feeble steps he stayed still;
For he was faint with cold, and weak with eld;
That scarce his loosed limbs he able was to wield.
-SPENSER, The Faerie Queene, Canto vi.
(Of Mutability).

You naked trees, whose shady leaves are lost,
Wherein the birds were wont to build their bower,
And now are clothed with moss and hoary frost,
Instead of blossoms, wherewith your buds did flower;
I see your tears that from your boughs do rain,
Whose drops in dreary icicles remain.

--SPENSER, The Shepherd's Calendar,
Eclogue i.