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Fretful, childlike, wondering, and subdued by this sudden change in his father, came timidly to his side, and caught the corner of his robe. These things all happened more rapidly than anyone could tell; but strangest of all, as Queen Good Intent, overjoyed at the turn matters had taken, placed herself beside her husband, and as he with uplifted arm settled his crown more firmly on his head, all the heavy curtains which had so long darkened the windows of his palace fell to pieces, the dome of rose-coloured glass was shivered to atoms, and the beautiful blue sky, with its pure air, its sunshine brighter than diamonds, and its moonlight fairer than pearls, was to be seen in its place. He no longer saw things through this false light as he desired them to be, but as they were, and as, aided by fairy Duty, who immediately made his palace one of her homes, he was determined they should be no longer. One of his most difficult tasks was

the correction of the faults of little Prince Fretful, fairy Over-Indulgence had had him in her charge rather too long, and her attendant imp Selfishness had grown formidably large. Kind Queen Good Intent, too, loved him very fondly, and it always cost her many tears, whenever fairy Duty insisted that for the young prince's own future benefit he should be punished not capriciously but reasonably and sufficiently for his ill-doings. However, in time, as they could not possibly live long with fairy Duty, who was far too powerful a fairy for them both, his evil attendants left him, and he became so good and amiable a child, that he was no longer known as prince Fretful, but as prince Kindheart; his father's name was also changed from Lazybones to Energetic; the two, with beautiful Good Intent, being the happiest King, Queen, and Prince that ever were known,

PLANT COMMUNITIES

BY HARLAND COULTAS.

Lecturer on Botany at the Charing Cross Hospital.

THE WOODS.

Among the different plant communities which collectively considered are called the vegetable kingdom, the woods undoubtedly take the first rank. Trees are, indeed, the supreme rulers of the plant world. When grouped together into forests they exercise an important influence on the climate of countries, and not only is the life of the lowly plants which they overshadow connected with their existence by the most intimate ties, but even the prosperity and well-being of man himself.

The woods show us, in the clearest manner, that reciprocity of action which exists among plants. If the trees did not grow together into communities, their life as individuals would be in the highest degree endangered. United together, trees mutually shelter each other on all sides against storms and the drying effects of the sun's rays. This reciprocity of action is in the highest degree interesting. Thus herbaceous plants and grasses envelop the earth with a protective covering. They allow the sunbeams access to the young seedlings of trees, and also afford them a sufficient amount of shade, so that the sun's rays are prevented from drying the soil, and thus injuring their young life. It is thus that the greatest trees of the forest grow up at first under the shadow of the smallest members of the vegetable kingdom, only to eturn, as they approximate to theperiod of their maturity and strength, the favours which they

received in the hours of weakness and infancy. Under their summits the shadowed earth retains its moisture, and the herbaceous plants and grasses-the poorer plant-children of natureare thus fed, whose tender rootlets have not the ability, like the roots of trees, to draw their moisture deeply out of the earth. So also, when showers of rain fall on forests, the leaves of the trees catch the drops, break the force of their decent, and the plants thus sheltered drink in the moisture of the storm whilst they escape its violence. The mosses on the ground beneath the woods also retain the fallen moisture long after the shower has passed away, whilst the shadow of the trees prevents its evaporation.

It follows that a wooded soil is favourable to the production of springs; also that the continued existence of moisture in woods and the constant evaporation from them will produce a cooler atmosphere, and therefore a lower degree of temperature, in a country where they abound. It is not difficult to make this intelligible to the reader. The ocean, winds, and woods may be regarded as the several parts of a grand distillatory apparatus. The sea is the boiler from which vapour is raised by the solar heat; the winds are the guiding tubes which carry the vapour with them to the forests where a lower temperature prevails. This produces a condensation of the vapour, and showers of rain are thus distilled from the cloud-masses on the woods beneath them. The thirsty landscape drinks in the grateful moisture, which thus re

plenishes its numerous springs. The little streamlets which issue from the springs continue to flow, and by the confluence of their waters form brooks and rivers, the natural drainage of a country and its means of intercourse and

commerce.

The Turks, although only a semi-civilized ple, seem to be aware of the cooling influence which forests exercise on the spot where they are located. There is now, in the neighbourhood of Constantinople, a fine wood of beech and oak, which is protected by law, because it feeds a spring, the water of which supplies the whole city, and which is conducted to Constantinople by an aqueduct.

No country in the world was formerly more healthy or more richly cultivated than Itrly, once the "garden of Europe," now only an extensive morass. There malaria prevails, a disease whose existence is to be attributed solely to the unhealthy decomposition of animal and vepeo-getable matter in the stagnant marshes so abundant in the country. The poisonous effluvium spreads. Ague, and liver and hy pochondriacal affections are in its train. Pale and yellow complexions with weak eyes, a swollen abdomen, and a wearisome gait-the accompaniment of these diseases-are everywhere to be seen among the poor inhabitants of the plains and valleys, the greater portion of whom are carried off prematurely. What has made this onceprosperous, healthy, and populous country so poor, diseased, and deserted? The woods have been removed from its mountains! Look at the map, and you will see that these run through the centre and north-western portions of the Italian peninsula. The Apennines are at present almost entirely denuded of the noble forests which once flanked and protected their sides, and all travellers agree that there is now no country so miserable as that which is included in what is called the States of the Church, and which lies along the Apennine chain between Genoa and Naples.

Leaving Italy for Germany, the traveller will find that that country also has not been exempt from evil consequences, wherever its mountain forests have been removed. A journey amongst the forests of Thuringia and the Hartz Mountains furnishes abundant vouchers of this fact. The woods have been cut down far more exco-tensively in England than Germany, and yet its meadows are the most luxurious and fertile in Europe. But this is owing to the moist climate which it possesses, the result of its being everywhere surrounded by the sea.

Hence, when a country is deprived of its forests, its springs and rivulets are exhausted, and its climate is rendered warmer and dryer. In the temperate zone, and in countries where there is an incessant supply of water from the neighbouring seas, it is best to cut down the woods, because they render the climate too moist and cold, and prevent the successful cultivation of the soil. The present state of the agriculture of Finland in Northern Russia, establishes this fact; for the removal of its woods has dried up its swamps and forwarded cultivation, whilst it has rendered the climate milder and more habitable. But it is otherwise with countries situated far inland, where the climate is continental; there the woods must be allowed to stand, and man must be especially careful, in cutting them down, not to transgress the limits which nature has prescribed. These limits are the mountains. Woods must not be removed from the sides of mountains. A wood, by the roots of its trees as well as by its thick moss or grass vering, binds together the soil on the declivities of mountains, and thus strengthens it in the most natural and simple manner. If we take the wood away, the springs are dried up, and the moss or grass covering disappears. The power of the rain, no longer broken by the millions of leaves and by the grassy mantle, comes down with unrestrained violence, and the loose soil, torn from the mountain side, is carried down into the subjacent valleys. Here it settles as sand and mud, fills up the brooks and rivers, rendering their waters turbid, and causing them to overflow their banks and inundate the plains. When the storm subsides and the overflowing waters return to their accustomed channels, the sand and mud are left on the grass covering, and every farmer knows that crops of hay raised on meadows frequently inundated is worthless as food for cattle. At length, in the course of years, these swampy pastures become overspread with sand, the former riches and prosperity of the inhabitants slowly disappear, and the once happy valley becomes uninhabitable. But this is not all. An entirely new plant-covering is gradually produced, and in warm climates poisonous gases are developed from the swamps, as in the Pontine Marshes inItaly. It is thus that mischief done to the wooded sides of mountains is a bequest of destruction to coming generations.

In mountainous districts, where the tops of the mountains are so elevated that the snowfields on their summits remain unmelted all the year round, the woods which grow on their sides are especially valuable, forming in their united strength a sort of natural fascine or fortification, which stays the further progress of the glaciers, and protects the inhabitants of the valleys against the avalanche, or mountain snowball, which, as it rolls down the mountain side, gradually accumulates in magnitude and velocity until it encounters a forest of hardy pines, which bravely await its onset; and though the foremost trees-with stems the growth of centuries-may crash and fall beneath its ponderous weight, yet they check its onward progress, and the united strength of its forest assailants finally shatters it to pieces.

Woods are also useful along the sea-shore, where the coast is low and sandy, as their roots bind together the loose sand, and prevent its being drifted inland by the sea-breezes. One or two exomples will show this in a striking light.

Sea-sand having overflowed the country situated in the neighbourhood of Gascoyne, on the

western coast of France, and threatened to make it valueless and uninhabitable, Vermontier, a resident of the province, succeeded in opposing an effectual barrier to its further progress by planting a wood. He first of all planted the sand-loving bloom (Sarothamnus scoparius), and produced under its shade young pine trees, and so brought the overflow of the sea-sand to a standstill.

Again, by reference to the map of Prussia, the reader will see that there is situated in Eastern Prussia, between latitude 54° 15′ and 54° 45' north, and longitude 19° 15' and 20° 25′ east, an extensive lagoon, called the Frische-Haff (Fresh Gulf), which is separated from the Baltic by the Frische-Nehrung, or Fresh Beach, a tongue of land thirty-eight miles in length by one in breadth, the northeastern extremity of which communicates with the Baltic by a channel half a mile across. The low shores along this coast are washed by the waters of the Gulf of Dantzig, and in the middle ages, its dunes, or hills of blown sand, which stretch almost from Dantzig to Pillau, were covered with a thick pine forest and an undergrowth of heath.

The sea

King Frederick William of Prussia wanted money. One of his noblemen, wishing to secure his favour, promised to procure it for him without loan or tax, if he would permit these woods to be removed. The king not only allowed the forests in Prussia to be cleared, which at that time were certainly of little value, but he also permitted the whole of the woods on the Frische-Nehrung to be felled, so far as they were Prussian. The financial operation was perfectly prosperous. The king had money. But in the elementary operations which resulted the state received such an injury that its effects are felt even now. winds can now sweep unimpeded over the denuded hills; the Frische-Haff is already halffilled with sand, its depth being now in no place more than twelve feet, and sedges grow for some distance in its shallowing waters, threatening to convert it into a monstrous swamp; the anchorage extending between Elbing, and Konigsberg is endangered, and the fishing in the Haff injured. In vain have all possible efforts been made, through sand-heaps and pastures of coarse grass, to cover again these hills with matted roots: the wind mocks at every exertion. The operation of the Prussian nobleman brought the king two hundred thousand thalers, Now the people would give millions if they had the woods back again.

It is plain, from these considerations, that there are other things which ought to enter into our calculations, before a wood is cut down, beside the mere value of the trees or timber. If trees are removed from a mountain-side, from low, sandy and exposed shores, or from an inland district only scantily supplied with water, there is no end to the mischievous consequences which may ensue. By such ignorant work as this, the equilibrium in the household of Nature is fearfully disturbed, and her wise and beneficent

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arrangements for our own good are com. pletely frustrated.

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Manifold are the elements which form the woods. We will glance at this point, as these elements help to determine the features of a forest landscape. These features depend on the difference in the foliage of the trees. The woods may be subdivided into leaf-woods, needle-leaved woods, and casuarina and palmwoods. The first includes not only trees with horizontal, but with vertical leaves. The last are peculiar to the Australian continent, the forests of which, owing to this peculiarity, even when in full leaf, cast no shade on the earth beneath them. Among these Australian trees we find some with false leaves. In this case either the leaf stalk or a branch has expanded into a leaf surface: the true leaf is wholly absent or reduced to a rudimentary state. These leaflike expanded leaf-stalks or branches are called botanically, Phyllodia, from the Greek word phyllon, a leaf. These phyllodia form pecially the foliage of many of the acacias, myrtles, and mimosas of Australia. Such foliage is not by any means so ornamental or attractive as the foliage of trees which have true leaves, which grow horizontally aud not vertically. The needle-leaved woods may be subdivided into pine woods aud Cypress woods. The first form has narrow linear leaves, with a blade or expanded surface, which are either scattered over the branches, as in the fir, or come out in fasciculi or bundles, as in the larch and cedar; the cypress form has the needle leaves reduced to the condition of scales, which are closely imbricated or lie on each other like the tiles on the roof of a house. The needle-leaved forest is generally found on mountains where high winds prevail, as this form of foliage presents a less amount of resisting surface to the winds, and renders the tree less liable to be blown down. In the more sheltered lowlands the leaf-woods prevail. These needle-leaved woods show a much greater uniformity and want of variety in their landscape aspect than the leaf-woods. But far duller and more uniform are the casuarina woods, which resemble in their appearance weeping willows, the branches of which have been deprived of leaves. This form of tree prevails in the South Sea Islands, the Indian Archipelago, and Australia. According to the German naturalist F. Müller, the casuarina woods occupy the place of pines in Australia.

Lastly we have the palm-woods, which consist of trees mainly distinguished by their tall cylindrical, tapering, pillar-like stems; and the noble crown of foliage at their summit consists of long, drooping leaves, sometimes broad, expanded, and fan-form ; at other times narrow, and rush-like. The pandani, or screw pines of the tropics, and the grass trees of New Holland, belong to this class of trees, although the palms alone unite together so as to form forests. these peculiar forms of trees are not unfrequently intermingled more or less together, and when this is the case it adds greatly to the variety and beauty of a wooded landscape.

All

THE LADIES' PAG E.

GREEK LACE BORDER (as promised in our last).

MATERIALS.-Boar's Head crochet cotton, Nos. 12 and 14, of Messrs. Walter Evans and Co., Derby.

1st Dot. Fill the shuttle with the coarser thread, and leaving an end of two yards, commence a loop; work 2 double stitches, take No. 1 pin and make a pearl loop with it, then 2 double; draw close. Turn this dot down under the left thumb.

1st Oval. Commence a loop, work 2 double, 1 pearl, 4 double, 1 pearl, 4 double, 1 pearl, 2 double, draw close.

2nd Dot. Work as the 1st dot, and when finished turn it down under the left thumb.

2nd Oval. Commence a loop, work 2 double, join to the last pearl of previous oval; 4 double, 1 pearl, 4 double, 1 pearl, 2 double, draw close.

3rd Dot. Work as the 1st; when finished, turn it down.

3rd Oval. Work as the 2nd; then work a 4th dot as the 1st.

4 Oval. As the 2nd.

5th Oval. Commence, work 2 double, join to the pearl of the last oval; 4 double, (1 pearl and 4 double, twice); 1 pearl, and 2 double, draw close.

6th. Oval. As the 2nd; when finished, join the cotton to the pearl of the last dot.

Work 3 ovals more the same as the 2nd, joining after each to the next dots.

When 9 ovals are made and joined, take the end of the cotton left at the commencement in the left hand, and holding it for a straight thread, make 2 double with the shuttle, so that all these stitches are formed by the straight thread; join the shuttle cotton to the 1st pearl of the 1st oval; then with the shuttle and straight thread work 4 double stitches, 1 pearl, putting the straight thread over the pin; then 4 double. Reverse the work, and join to the centre pearl of the oval by bringing the straight thread through in a loop and passing the shuttle into it; then with the shuttle and straight thread work 4 double; leave the straight thread. Reverse.

1st Circle. Work with the shuttle and No. 3 pin. Commence a loop, work 5 double, then (1 pearl and 3 double, 9 times) 2 double more, to make 5 in all, draw close. *Reverse the work, and with the straight thread and shuttle, work 4 double as before; join to the pearl of the next oval as before; then 4 double more with the straight thread. Reverse the work.

2nd Circle. Commence a loop, work 5 double, join to the last pearl of the previous circle, 3 double, then (1 pearl and 3 double, 8 times) 2 double more, draw close.

Repeat from until 9 circles in all are made;

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ending at the joining to the last oval. In the centre it should be joined to both pearls of the 5th oval. When finished, reverse the work, and still using the straight thread, work 4 double, 1 pearl, 4 double; join to the last pearl of the oval, then 2 double, join to the thread between the oval and 1st dot, and fasten off by knotting the two cottons firmly together.

The Second Scallop is worked the same as first to the commencement of the 8th circle, then to attach them together make the following alterations :

8th Circle. Commence a loop, work 5 double, join to the last pearl; 3 double (1 pearl and 3 double, 3 times); take the finished scallop and join to the centre pearl of the 2nd circle of it; 3 double (1 pearl and 3 double, 4 times); 2 double more, draw close. Reverse the work, make 4 double on the straight_thread, join to the oval; 4 double as before. Reverse.

9th Circle. As the last, joining it to the opposite circle of the other scallop; finish this scallop as the first.

Repeat the 2nd scallop until the required length is made.

THE HEADING.

1st Rosette. Fill the shuttle, and using No. 3 pin, commence a loop, work 2 double (1 pearl and 2 double, twice); take the 1st circle of the scallops and join to the 3rd pearl of it; 2 double, then (1 pearl and 2 double, 9 times) draw close. * Keep the cotton at the back of the last 5 pearls and join to the 6th, which will be the 4th pearl from the other joining.

2nd Rosette. Commence a loop, work 2 double, join to the next pearl of the rosette, 2 double, then (1 pearl and 2 double, twice) join to the pearl over the oval, 2 double, then (1 pearl and 2 double, nine times) draw close.

Repeat from *, joining the 3rd rosette to the pearl over the next oval, and the 4th rosette to the 3rd pearl of the next circle.

THE EDGE.

Fill the shuttle and join the cotton to the first unattached pearl of the 4th circle; then to make a dot, commence a loop, work 6 single stitches, draw it quite close, and join the cotton to the next pearl of the circle. Work 4 dots more the same, joining after each one is made. Work a 6th dot, then join the two next pearls together, by bringing the joining-loop first through the nearest pearl and then through the next pearl in

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the other circle, pass the shuttle into the loop, and draw it tight.

Repeat these 6 dots until 21 dots are made; then join the cotton to the centre pearl of the corresponding circle of the next scallop; repeat the dots, working 24 dots on each scallop.

THE LACE STITCHES.

With the fine cotton work a wheel in each of the circles. In the centre of each rosette work a round of button-hole stitches, sewing each stitch over to draw them together. A twisted thread is made between the circles of the scallops.

KNITTED BOOT FOR LADIES.

MATERIALS for one Pair.-One-and-a-half ounce black, one-and-a-half white fleecy, some black Berlin wool, thick steel knitting needles.

The pattern is worked in common brioche knitting, alternately one row with black, one with white wool. Cut the wool at the end of each row, fasten it off, and begin with another colour. Begin the boot at the top with black fleecy; cast on 38 stitches.

1st row of the Brioche-knitting. Slip the 1st stitch, alernately knit 1, throw the wool forward, slip 1, taking it on the needle as if you were going to purl it. 2nd row, with white wool. Knit together the stitch that was slipped, and that which was made, by throwing the wool forward in the preceding row, and slip the knitted stitch after you have thrown the wool forward. Knit all the other rows like the 2nd one, but change the colours. Knit 32 rows without increasing. Increase once at the beginning of the next 44 rows, so that the 76th row has 82

stitches; then knit 14 rows without increasing; then 14 rows in plain black Berlin wool for the sole of the boot (knit in the first of these rows, as one stitch, the stitch and the wool thrown forward in the preceding row). Knit twice two together in the middle of each row; then fold the work in the middle, so that the stitches come opposite each other, and cast off two opposite ones together. The sloped long sides are sewn together; the black rows must be on the outside; fasten the ends off carefully. Sew also the toe of the sole against the toe of the boot, and cover the seam on the instep with a row of slip-stitches in black Berlin wool. Two long cords are made in chain-stitches, to lace the boot on both sides of the seam, and are completed by small tassels of white wool, and tied in a bow at the top and bottom.

SLIPS AND CUTTINGS FOR MENTAL CULTURE.

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.-It is strange that men should ever have overlooked, that children are not mere memories, nor native logicians, with capacities for reasoning without any data; but that they are human beings, with souls of average breadth, comprehending the faculties of memory, reason, sensation, and emotion, which in order to be rightly educated must be educated all together; that they are also moral, as well as intellectual beings; and that they have bodies, upon the health of which the progress of the whole to a great degree depends. We also recognize the propriety of treating children as children, with instructions and methods suited to their age. It is as important that the child should be a child, and be educated as a child, as that the education of youth should be manly. Childhood is an important part of human existence, which it is not well for maturer life to have missed. To be treated as a man in one's childhood has a painfully hardening effect upon later years. The child should be respected, but treated as a child; his soul filled with the love and gentleness and beautiful simplicity which belong to his age. Our methods of instruction ought not to be such as to harden or deface those lovely features; but rather to develop them in truth and symmetry

toward their own proper maturity, whereby they merge into those of youth.

This business of conversation is a very serious matter. There are men that it weakens one to talk with an hour, more than a day's fasting would do. Mark this that I am going to say, for it is as good as a working professional man's advice, and costs you nothing: It is better to lose a pint of blood from your veins than to have a nerve tapped. Nobody measures your nervous force as it runs away, nor bandages your brain and marrow after the operation.

There are men of esprit who are excessively exhausting to some people. They are the talkers that have what may be called jerky minds. Their thoughts do not run in the natural order of sequence. They say bright things on all possible subjects, but their zig-zags rack you to death. After a jolting half-hour with one of these jerky companions, talking with a dull friend affords great relief. It is like taking the cat in your lap after holding a squirrel.

What a comfort a dull but kindly person is, to be sure, at times! A ground-glass shade over a gas-lamp does not bring more solace to our dazzled eyes than such a one to our minds.-The Autocrat of the Breakfast-table.

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