commanded, and must be given up; but refreshing fancies and cooling associations may be produced by the gush of fountains, the sound of running waters, or the bye-play of a jet d'eau. Such was Solomon's "fountain of gardens-his well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon." The Orientals know much better than we the utility of those delicious accessaries to summer comfort and elysian luxury. We feel cooler from the associations arising out of the mere description of an eastern fountain:

'Twas sweet of yore to see it play,
And chase the sultriness of day;
As springing high the silver dew
In whirls fantastically flew,

And flung luxurious coolness round

The air, and verdure o'er the ground.

Giaour.

STORMS. It is beautifully said, in the book of Job, that the "treasures of hail" and "snow" "are 66 reserved against the day of trouble-against the day of battle and war," when the Lord" scattereth the east wind on the earth." Storms, indeed, are the artillery of heaventhe " Telorum armamentaria coeli," as Juvenal calls them,-designed by an all-wise Providence to wage incessant war upon stagnant air and pestilential vapoursto sweep from the wide desert accumulations of burning air-to purify, by agitation, the waters of "the great deep”—and to adjust the electrical balance between the globe itself and the expanded firmament in which it is embosomed. Were it not for the wind, indeed, which, in the words of Job, "passeth and cleanseth them," we should have the " bright clouds" themselves pouring

e

down upon us pestilential rains, and the sweet breath of heaven infected with deleterious vapours. The mechanism of storms, (if we may use the expression) so far as electricity is concerned, may be thus explained.

Each particle of rising vapour, as it leaves the earth's surface, combines with caloric, and partakes of the electricity of the common reservoir-the earth. It remains in the air in so very minute mixture as not to disturb the transparency of dry air, till it rise into the colder regions, where it is condensed into vesicular vaporous clouds, the Cirri of Howard, but which are better termed wane-clouds. When these clouds increase, their capacity for electricity increases also; but not receiving a fresh supply from the earth, and little from the atmosphere, the resistance of the stratum of air between the cloud and the earth is overcome, and a violent discharge takes place upwards from the earth, producing one of those local thunder-storms so prevalent during summer.

In a picturesque point of view, the aspect of storms has been the theme of some of our sublimest descriptive poetry; and sometimes, when our fancy has been highly excited, we have formed the wild wish to be wrapt in the voiceless winds-dash along from mountain to mountain, and from cloud to cloud-to companion us with the spirit of the storm-let our fancy go with the blast, and revel among the clouds. It must have been in some such mood, upon viewing a night-storm, that the fol lowing lines were composed; and such a storm we have witnessed-so grand! so sublime! so darkly beautiful! -the very music of magnificent sound!-the very poetry of resistless motion!

The midnight winds are forth with high career,
Urging their cloudy chariots rapidly,

As if they rush'd to war, or fled in fear

Along the champain azure of the sky!
The heav'ns are all in motion; and the eye
Beholds the wonted visions of its search-

Moon, stars and clouds-all hurrying rapidly
Away, as if upon their final march;

As if th' arch-angel's trump had peal'd along that arch.
So, when the head of mighty Seraphim

This pictur'd volume from our eyes shall roll,
Unfolding to all eyes the face of HIM

Who sits enthron'd behind it: O! my soul,
How wilt thou shrink to see, in funeral stole,
Nature distracted in convulsions lie

On flaming pyre; and, at his destin'd goal
TIME, worn and weary, lay him down to die
On the paternal breast of hoar ETERNITY!

Rev. J. G. Crosbie.

PECULIAR HABITS OF THE HOP-FLY.-Towards the beginning of the preceding month, or earlier, the first appearance of the hop-fly (Aphis Humuli), may be observed, but it is not till the present month that its numbers usually attract attention. It may be remarked, that the flies almost uniformly keep on the underside of a leaf-always preferring those which are youngest and healthiest, the older leaves become too hard to be penetrated by their sucker (haustellum). In their young state, when just hatched, they are so small and so like the colour of the leaf, that they will readily escape the notice of those who are not acquainted with their habits. Dr. Good describes "myriads of little dots"* as the eggs of the hop-fly, but close inspection will convince Study of Medicine, 3rd Ed. I. 339.

*

any one that these little dots are nothing more than the first cast skins of the newly-hatched flies; for none of these will be found on the under surface of the leavesall lying on the upper surface along with the honey-dew or saccharine ejecta of the flies inhabiting the under surface of the leaf above. These positions of the flies, the cast skins, and the honey-dew are so uniform that we have never observed them in any other, in the innumerable cases which we have examined. That the small cast skins of the aphides have been mistaken for eggs is not wonderful when we consider their white color, but the distinct outline of the feet and other members will, at once, determine the fact.

SINGING OF BIRDS DURING A THUNDER STORM. —Chancing to be abroad in a violent thunder-storm, which burst over the metropolis and its vicinity last summer, we remarked a circumstance that had not before attracted our notice, and that has not, so far as we are aware, been hitherto recorded. The missel-thrush (Turdus viscivorus), is popularly named the stormcock, because he is supposed to sing most and loudest previous to the onset of a storm, but we had not heard it said that he sings during the continuance of the storm. In the instance in question, a missel-thrush was perched upon a lofty elm hard by an ivied pollard, under which we had taken rather precarious shelter from the heavy thunder shower, and he continued to pour forth his loud shrill notes with scarcely a pause, though we do not recollect of ever witnessing thunder so near and so tremendous. One peal followed the flash of lightning in less than half a minute, and the very air seemed rending asunder; but the little songster, quite undismayed, gave

no intermission to his music, if music it can be called, which resembles, as nearly as we can describe it, the attempts of a parrot, or of a magpie, to imitate the notes of the blackbird (Merula vulgaris). At the same time a cuckoo, in an adjacent hedge, kept up his monotonous chant -as if determined that even the unmusical misselthrush should not want a choral accompaniment. We were more surprised, however, to see a sky-lark from about a hundred yards from our station, mount up amidst the war of the elements, and commence his sprightly strain, for the rain was pouring down in torrents, and the lightning flashing at intervals of a few minutes, while the thunder peals were both loud and almost incessant. The sky-lark, indeed, did not mount so high as if it had been unclouded sunshine, finding it, no doubt, somewhat uncomfortable to sing unsheltered in such a storm, while the missel-thrush and the cuckoo, probably, were protected by overhanging boughs.

THE ROCK-ROSE.-In dry, rocky, or calcareous places, in this month and the next, the rock-rose (Cistus helianthemum), is a very common flower, beautifying the patches of withered herbage with its golden blossoms, and giving an air of sunshine and gaiety to the barren rock. If you take a small probe or a hog's bristle, and irritate any of the numerous stamens of this flower, you will see them fall back from the pistil, and spread themselves upon the petals, exhibiting a very pretty example of vegetable irritability,—little less striking than that of the sensitive plant. A similar instance of the spontaneous approach and retreat of the stamens in another elegant British plant-the grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris), which is not uncom