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been heard to wish, with a sigh, that such | blessings could happen to her every week of her life; but whether she includes in this her better-half's weighty arguments, is a doubtful question we will not pause to determine.

With the party already in possession thus charitably disposed and easy to be conciliated, we are now desirous of knowing the tactics of the new comer. Will he, relying upon the strength of his sex, usurp pre-eminence? or gracefully confess himself in the minority, and yield all points at issue accordingly? Will he prove churlish, and, entrenching himself at

Wardley Court, live the antiquated life of a hermit? or, accepting the bread and salt our ladies will tender in the less dry and objectionable shape of toasted muffins, will he respect their wishes, and become in return a spectacled pet with them all, whose worst trial will be to play whist with three adversaries, like the im mortal Mr. Pickwick?

At present we are lost in vague surmises; but two van-loads of goods have passed through the village in the direction of Wardley Court, and we are effervescing with excitement and curiosity.

VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY.

BY HARLAND COULTAS.

When we look at a plant in full bloom, we are apt to regard it as an organized being of a very complex character, and to look on the green leaves of its stem, and the several members or component parts of its flower, as entirely distinct in their derivation and character. A more extensive acquaintance with floral structure soon, however, discloses the interesting and important fact that all the beautiful and highly organized parts of the flower are only a series of progressively metamorphosed leaves which have assumed these lovely colours, and this peculiar arrangement and form, in consequence of the peculiar functions assigned them. The green leaves on the stem and branches are concerned in the functions of nutrition; they decompose carbonic acid gas, and, under the influence of solar light, chlorophyl is formed in their cells (xλwpós green, and þúλλov a leaf), so called because it is the substance which gives to the leaves their green hues. The leaves of the stem take their peculiar colour and form in consequence of their action on the atmosphere; they take in food from the air, which, in connection with that absorbed by the roots from the soil, contributes directly to the growth or the extension of the parts of the plant.

The leaves which constitute the flower, on the other hand, are concerned in the functions of reproduction, and are therefore modified in their structure, form, arrangement, and colour, so that they are beautifully adapted to the exercise of these functions. The organs of reproduction, which are collectively designated as the flower, are therefore only a peculiar modification of the organs of nutrition. A flower-bud only differs from a leaf-bud in having no power of extension. Like the leaf-bud, it is a shortened branch, the axis of which has not been elongated, and, however the parts of the flower may differ from the ordinary leaves of the plant

in appearance, we shall presently show that they may all be referred to the leaf as a type, their nature being precisely the same, and appearance dissimilar in consequence of a difference in the functions assigned them.

The floral leaves are brought into close proximity by the non-development of the floral internodes, in order that the several whorls may the more readily communicate with each other; which immediate communication is necessary to the production of the seed. Let us now examine more particularly the two outermost whorls of floral leaves, designated as the calyx and corolla.

The calyx, so named from kaλoέ a cup. This forms the outermost whorl of the floral leaves, and consists in its usual state of a leafy green cup more or less divided. The sepals or leaves of the calyx differ but slightly in structure and appearance from the ordinary leaves of the stem; they are for the most part of a greenish hue, chlorophyl being formed in their cells, and stomata or pores existing on their lower epidermis; and in some cases of monstrosity, they are actually converted into the ordinary leaves of the plant. In proliferous states of the rose, the calyx assumes a leafy aspect; whilst in Gentiana campestris and Gentiana crinita, it differs in no respect from the ordinary leaves of the plant.

The stem-leaf passes into the sepal or calyx leaf by means of an intermediate organ called a bract. It is proper here to remark that the flowers developed on the floral axis are either terminal or lateral. Flowers are terminal when the bud which terminates the axis of growth is a flower-bud. This of course stops the further growth of the plant in that direction. Flowers are lateral when the bud which ter minates the axis of growth develops as a leafbud.

In this case, the floral axis goes on

extending itself indefinitely, and the flowers, by the refined and splendidly coloured juices spring from the sides of the axis of growth, from the axils of the floral leaves or bracts. These bracts are situated all along the floral axis at the basis of the peduncle or flower-stalk, and are simply the ordinary leaves of the stem reduced in size in consequence of the absorption of nutriment from them by the flower. These bracts become smaller in proportion as they approach the upper part of the floral axis. Hence the leaf gradually passes into the bract in consequence of its development in the neighbourhood of the flower, and the same proximity doubtless produces the abortive leaves of the calyx. The gradual transition of the bract into the sepal is well seen in composite flowers, such as the marigold, the involucre or calyx of which is composed of numerous bracts and sepals more or less soldered together. The same transition is also visible in the common hollyhock of the gardens, the leaves of which approximate together, become modified in size and appearance, and slide, as it were, insensibly into a calyx.

elaborated from the sap by the walls of the cells which form their tissue or substance. This fact is easily verified by submitting to microscopic examination a fraginent of the petal of a rose or of a camellia, when it will be seen that the colour does not exist in the walls of the cells of the petal, but is the result of the coloured fluids with which the cells are filled.

The corolla (from "corolla" a garland) is that part of the flower situated immediately within the calyx, between the calyx and stamens. It is generally the most showy and beautifully coloured of all the floral organs, and is the part which is popularly called the flower. Thus the red leaves of the rose, the yellow leaves of the buttercup, constitute the corolla of these plants. Structurally, the petals or leaves of the corolla are composed of cellular and vascular tissue, the latter consisting of spiral vessels and delicate tubes. The colour of the petals is produced

Sometimes, by the mere juxtaposition of the different cells in the petals, a mechanical admixture of their various contents takes place : thus is probably produced that delicate and inimitable shading seen in the petals of some flowers: at other times, the petals are spotted and variegated, as in the tiger-lily and balsam. Such spots result from the peculiar power, possessed by some of the cells, of attracting from the colourless sap these particular colours, and of which power the other cells appear to be deprived. No admixture of colour with the neighbouring cells takes place in this case. "In the petals of Impatiens balsamina (the garden balsam)," says Dr. Lindley, "a single cell is frequently red in the midst of others that are colourless. Examine the red bladder, and you will find it filled with a colouring matter of which the rest are destitute."

Every one must have noticed the regularity with which these spots are formed in the petals of certain flowers, which are in fact never without them. Such cells appear to have definite functions assigned them, the exercise of which is probably as important to the healthy vital action of the plant as that of the more elaborate organs.

MINT, ANISE, AND CUMMIN.

BY MARION HARLAND.

Morning prayers were over in the Stickley household. This diurnal ceremony in this pattern family was not the brief service which was held at the same season by some of Mr. Stickley's neighbours; a cheerful assembling together of parents, children, and servants; the reading of a short psalm, or other portion of Scripture, calculated to interest all, even the youngest; the chanting of a morning hymn, accompanied by the piano; then a prayer offered by the father, concise and fervent a thanksgiving for the mercies of the night, and a supplication for the Divine blessing, guidance, and protection during the day, upon the active duties of which all present were now entering.

There were five young Stickleys-two girls and three boys; and woe betide the laggard who was not ready to present himself in the parlour when the prayer-bell sounded! Mr. Stickley

always rung it with his own august hands, and few discords affected the children's years so disagreeably as did the slow, prolonged tinkle, which was absolutely ludicrous in its affectation of solemnity. The Bible was read, as Mr. Stickley's father had read it before him, "in course"-that is to say, from Genesis to Revelation, without the omission of a single chapter; and conceiving-as Wendell Holmes says of good Dr. Honeywell's pulpit exercises-that a peculiar tone was more acceptable to the Almighty than any other, Mr. Stickley enunciated narrative, devotional passages, and whole passages of jaw-breaking genealogies, in a singsong drawl that was peculiarly sleep-provoking to his youthful auditors. What imaginable edification they or he could derive from the 15th chapter of Joshua, or the 6th and 8th of 1 Chronicles, droned out as their share of Scriptural

But, as I have said, the service had dragged its weary length to a close. Mr. Stickley arose slowly, the others, briskly or stiffly, in propor tion to the severity of the cramp in their knees and backs. Rob, the Benjamin of the tribe, an active boy of ten, gained his feet with a bound, and hurried from the room, breaking out in the hall, into a jocund whistle.

"Robert!" called the father. "Come back, sir!"

The boy obeyed.

"What were you whistling?"

"Dixie, sir," replied the little fellow, promptly.

"A secular and foolish-not to say profane song!" said Mr. Stickley, his brow gathering the darkness of holy horror at the sacrilege. "When you had just arisen from your knees, after family worship! I will not tolerate such sinful levity in my household. Sit down there, sir, and instead of going into breakfast, commit the forty-sixth Psalm to memory. You can recite it to me, when I come home at dinnertime. Hannah!" to his wife, "is not breakfast ready? It is three minutes past eight o'clock."

refreshment for the day, I leave to other disciples | entertainment as the flowers of the carpet, the of the same stamp to determine. But he drove graining of the wood of the furniture, or a secstraight through-not skipping a word, though tion of wall-paper afforded. halting at some of the tough proper names, and pronouncing all in a most un-Hebraistic style. "All Scripture is profitable," was his irrefutable argument, when a bold visitor boldly hinted that certain parts of Holy Writ were better suited for family reading than others. The chapter concluded, he carefully adjusted the ribbon marker in its new place, that he might lose no time in looking for the right starting-point next morning, and knelt down, the rest following his example. There is a vast variety of ways of kneeling, and Mr. Stickley's was characteristic. He bent his knees-his body retaining its stiff perpen dicular- grasped an arm of the chair he had vacated, in either hand, and having thus settled himself in a grim, solid fashion, he went to work," as the wearied children used to say to one another when out of his presence, as "if he were in for all day." "I exhort," says Paul, "that prayers and supplications be made for all men;" and Mr. Stickley did his utmost to obey this injunction literally. His petitions were stereotyped, trite, and verbose. I am afraid to say how many times his hearers had listened to that excellent compendium of Christian graces, delivered by St. Peter, commencing-" Add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge," or how his pet phrase," Have mercy upon the sons and daughters of iniquity," was regarded by the smaller children as referring to some mysterious race of savages, and invariably connected with the stories of South Sea cannibals; or yet, how great and general was the relief with which all hailed the petition" Pity, we beseech thee, thine an cient people the Jews"-this being, as all soon came to know, the token that the prayer was half done. I should invite criticism and rebuke from those whose principles I honour, and whose character I revere, were I to dwell upon these points; but I am not self-accused for my reprobation of this one of the many methods by which really good people help the devil to make religion distasteful to the young and lively. I do not forget who specified as one of the habits of the hypocrites that, "for a pretence they made long prayers," thinking that they should "be heard for their much speaking," and warned his followers not to 66 use vain repetitions, as the heathens do."

Whether or not Mr. Stickley was attentive to what he was uttering; kept in mind the truth that he was in the dread presence of Him who looketh at the naked hearts of His so-called worshippers-it is very sure that his auditors did not. Mrs. Stickley was a worthy, pious woman, but flesh and blood are frail, and it is not for us to judge her hastily, if her mind wandered now and then, from the very straight and heavy logs which her husband was piling upon the family altar, to the more animated interests of her store-closet, kitchen, and sewing. The children were mechanically still, but they opened their eyes when they were certain their father's were fairly shut, and picked up such crumbs of

The mother cast a piteous glance at her youngling, who, with his back to his father, was scowling over the sacred volume. But she knew too well the futility of interference, and went off to the dining room, with no appetite for the meal from which her boy was excluded.

The Stickleys were a taciturn party at the table-not on this morning only-but always, unless there was company present. The father was narrow of mind, and-the usual consequence-bigoted in opinion; the mother, commonplace in thought and timid in disposition. Their sons and daughters were superior to both parents in mental calibre, but free speaking and free thinking had been systematically dis couraged. Except in religious matters, Mr. Stickley was not a harsh parent; but he was formal and punctilious, and utterly devoid of sympathy with the pursuits and subjects that delight and attract healthy youth. If he did not rule with a rod of iron, he held an icy scep tre that repelled, if it did not intimidate. Having lost three minutes of precious time, he drank his coffee and ate his toast in speechless haste, and was off to his business, looking into the parlour as he went out, to see that the culprit was busy with his task. Rob seemed to be studying diligently when the survey was made. Before his father had gone two yards the Bible was cast aside, and the boy had taken his seat with those who still remained at the table wel comed by his brothers and sisters, and plied with sweet tea and hot toast by his fond mother.

"Just wait until I am a grown man!" he said, his mouth so full that the words could hardly find their way out, "and I will never open a Bible from one year's end to the other!

I wish Goliath had killed David, while he was a boy! Then he couldn't have written any Psalms !"

"My son!" expostulated Mrs. Stickley, trying to look serious amidst the roar of laughter that greeted Rob's sally-for he was the pet and wit of the family-"that is wicked!"

"Don't see it! My, how hungry I am!" exclaimed Rob. "I say, now, mother, did you love switches when you were a shaver? I've been punished with the Bible ever since I was a baby, and I hate it like poison--so I do!"

Mr. Stickley regarded fables as vain and foolish trash; but he and his fellow-formalists could learn a useful lesson from the story of the philosopher and the unbent bow.

Our business, however, is with him, not with those he left behind. Arrived at his warehouse, he entered his private office, and commenced the inspection of the heap of letters upon his desk, the yield of the morning's mail. Uppermost of all, lay a telegraphic despatch from his brother, who was at the head of a branch house of the wealthy firm of " Stickley and Co.," located in another city. The message was short and pertinent:

mechanic gladly receipted and returned to the clerk, was for the sum of twenty pounds, and of the notes handed him, three five-pound notes were represented by the "promise to pay" of the Iron City Bank.

A dressmaker's account of three or four pounds; a whitewasher's of one; a gardener's for a week's work upon Mrs. Stickley's flowerbeds, were paid almost entirely in the same currency. This sort of people was generally the last to suspect unsoundness in a rich man's money. Anything in the shape of "the needful"-to them, alas! this was no mere slang phrase!- was eagerly clutched. A grocer's quarterly account, and a harness-maker's estimate of a new set of double harness for Mr. Stickley's prancing bays, were satisfied by the judicious mixture effected by the debtor's expert fingers.

The clerk returned at the end of an hour. "All right, sir!"

The merchant nodded, satisfiedly. Having issued orders to his salesmen to receive no more of the "shaky" bills, the Iron City Bank might break now, and welcome. Its suspension was not announced until two days later,

"Take no more bills of the Iron City Bank. It is and as money seldom lingers long in the keepshaky !"

Now, it happened that there had been quite a deluge of these notes in circulation for several weeks back, and Mr. Stickley was smitten by an unpleasant suspicion that he had a large

number of them on hand. The examination,

which he instantly commenced, resulted in the display of a small heap of bills, old and new, of the doubtful denomination, to the amount of two hundred and fifty pounds. The astute merchant took counsel of no one-not even his junior partner-whose desk, by the way, was without the pale of "the office." The unsafe money was skilfully mingled with sound notes, and tied up in several packages, each with an unpaid bill fastened on the top. This was done neatly and expeditiously by Mr. Stickley's own hand, for he carried his habits of order and precision into the least minutiae of business-life. Then he summoned a clerk.

"Williams, here are several small accounts, which have accumulated in my desk. You will attend to the payment of them at once."

The lad took the packages, and departed. Mr. Stickley was certainly a prompt paymaster, having a wholesome dread of a press of unpaid bills. One of the "small accounts" had been presented by a poor carpenter, just struggling to establish himself in his trade, without capital or friends. He had engaged to make certain repairs and alterations in Mr. Stickley's house, at a lower rate than any regularly established builder would have done, and executed the work most carefully, in the hope that it would serve as an advertisement for him: indeed, Mr. Stickley had more than insinuated that this would be the case. He was fond of "taking worthy young artisans and tradespeople by the hand," after the foregoing style. The bill, which the

ing of "this sort of people," let us hope that washer had got rid of theirs before the printed the carpenter, dressmaker, gardener, and whiterags were declared to be utterly worthless. If Stickley's. Self-preservation, the first law of they had not, that was their look-out-not Mr. nature, is, with many men, also the last and only ruling principle.

Mr. Stickley's talent for acquiring wealth was more than respectable in degree, and to this he added a keenness of sight and operation, that made him the fear of the uninitiated; the admiration of other sharp practitioners. He was hard and grinding with a fallen debtor; servile and glozing to the rich customer; exact with all. "Short credit-long friends," was his motto, yet he was not renowned for the number or durability of his friendships. He speculated, too, constantly, and always threw a lucky card. Having an abundance of ready money on hand and wide-awake agents in all departments of trade, he was a celebrated dabbler in that species of righteous robbery called "monopoly If butter, after sinking a of the market."

farthing on the pound on Saturday, went up two or three by Monday; if flour, after a similar depression, arose faster without yeast than the most superfine leaven could have elevated it; if the washerwoman's brown sugar cost her nearly as much again as it had done when she bought her last half pound, the public verdict was seldom far wrong when it saddled the blame of the scarcity of the commodity in question, and the inflation of the market price upon "that flinty-hearted gang of speculators"Mr. Stickley being not the least active and rapacious member of the fraternity. It was a legitimate transaction, he would say, if interrogated on this point. Perhaps so-but it kept

a 2

the faces of the needy frightfully near the grind

stone.

Our merchant was a wholesale dealer in glass and china, and his profits from his able handling of these fragile commodities were large and rapid, yet they bore but a small proportion to the sums realized by outside operations. On this particular day, a venture in cotton (if that could be called a venture which was sure to accrue to his advantage) had netted him several thousands more than he had dared hope for, and this event conduced, with other gains, to enhance the complacency with which he took down his hat and drew on his gloves, preparatory to going home to dinner. Two of his clerks, who had watched for his appearance anxiously for some time past, met him as he emerged from his retreat.

"If you please, Mr. Stickley," said the forewe would like to have a few words with

most, you.'

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His embarrassed manner made the employer master of the situation in a moment.

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Certainly, gentlemen!" he responded, in his most polite manner. Step in here!" reopening the office door. "Pray, be seated!" he continued, when they were closeted with him. The men knew him well enough to feel sure that this lavishness of civility boded no good for their suit, but the spokesman proceeded, firmly:

"We find, Mr. Stickley, that the practice of the most rigid economy does not enable us to live upon the salaries we arc now receiving. Family and personal expenses are double what they were three years ago, and the prices of labour in most departments of business have advanced proportionably. In view of these facts, we have resolved to ask you to consider the subject of an increase of our salaries. We speak in the name of all the clerks in your employ."

How much it had cost the poor fellow to make the plunge, no one knew; but supported by the thought of wife and little ones, he gained the climax of his address and stopped.

"Really, gentlemen, you take me by surprise!" responded Mr. Stickley, composedly. "I had expected a more just appreciation of my position from you, my fellow labourers. You forget that the very circumstances which cramp your expenditures must press with tenfold weight upon me. If I sell my wares at a higher price, it is because I am forced to do so by the terrible rise in their original cost. In addition to this, my taxes are trebled; the risks of trade quadrupled, and my family expenses have increased in the same ratio with yours. I am, in point of fact, less able to pay your present salaries than I was two years since. It is my hope and prayer that these evil days may be shortened; but, while they last, it grieves me deeply to disappoint you, my dear young friends, but it is utterly out of my power to grant your petition. Let me recommend to each of you and to your families, what is now the rule in mine-thrift, frugality; the most scrupulous re

trenchment in superfluities. A penny saved is a penny earned,' you know, and-"

How much longer he would have moralized to the foiled and racked listeners was not to be seen, for a knock at the door broke off the sentence in the middle.

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Are you engaged, sir?" asked his partner. "No,' answered the senior, catching sight of the person behind the speaker. "These gentlemen have just finished their business."

"What success, boys?" inquired the junior, after ushering in the visitors, and shutting out himself and the crestfallen pair.

"A flat refusal, and a pious fatherly lecture upon the duties of Christian submission, and economy!" said one of them, savagely.

"I am very sorry!" returned the partner, sincerely. "But I hardly dared encourage you to make the application. A closer-fisted man does not live-as I have reason to know."

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'He can spend money!" observed another of the clerks, all of whom had now collected around the committee of two. "The cost of his carriage, horses, and coachman would, if divided amongst us, enable each of us to put more decent clothes upon his children and better food into their mouths. But he knows as well as we do, that, just at this crisis, there is little chance of our getting situations elsewhere."

"You belong to the church in which he is a deacon-don't you?" inquired he who had acted as spokesman in the late interview, turning to a quiet young man, standing a little aloof from the excited group.

I do!"

"Then you had better leave! Sooner than take the risk of going to Heaven in the same boat with him, I would jump overboard and swim all the way. Outsiders stand a better chance than such professors as he. He always reminds me of a story I once heard of an old quaker, who used to call to his shop-boy, in the morning-Bob! have you sanded the sugar and watered the whisky?' 'Yes, sir!' 'Then come in to prayers!""

As we shall see, by and by, there was no one text of scripture which Mr. Stickley quoted more impressively than, "Avoid the appearance of evil."

The above is but another humiliating illustration of the common failure among men to make practice agree with precept.

The two visitors who had relieved the great man of his troublesome petitioners, were a distinguished politician, to whom Mr. Stickley had the honour of playing boot-lick and parasitegeneral, and a millionnaire, to whose moneybags the same discriminating personage made humble obeisance, in body and spirit.

"We won't detain you five minutes, Stickley!" said the former, to his fawning tool. “Mr. Townsend and I are getting up a subscription for presenting Hon. Boanerges Claptrap with a silver dinner-service, as a testimonial of the grateful appreciation, on the part of his fellowcitizens, of his recent efforts in our behalf. He is aristocratic in his tastes, you know, and has

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