Whether this extraordinary affair was the result of frolic or intoxication it is difficult to determine. But the French papers, in relating the circumstance, said, that the disturbance took place in consequence of two English gentlemen sitting without coats, according to the custom of their country!

Having so far viewed circumstances of a general nature, I shall now endeavour to enter into the merits of each particular theatre, beginning with the opera.

THEATRE DES ARTS,

Or the opera, stands at the head of all the theatres in Paris, and ranks itself as the first of its kind in Europe. The grounds of this supe riority may certainly be disputed.

Pre-eminence can only be substantiated by a superior perfection over every theatre of the same description. This the French opera has aimed at, but by no means attained.

In the Ballet this theatre is unrivalled. In the excellency of the music, also, it is truly happy. But in the grand points of capital singers it fails, and yields dicidedly to the opera of London. As these circumstances may require further confirmation; we will consider them more particularly.

Lais is the first male singer here. This performer possesses taste and judgment, and is deservedly a favourite; but still, with all his merit, he is not that superior singer we should expect at the opera of Paris. The female singers are much better actresses than musicians. Indeed

the place for a great vocal performer is evidently open. The orchestra is by no means equal to that of the French national comic opera. In the full pieces the harshness of drums cut the ear into pieces; and in the song, the band, as if conscious of a superiority, accompanies the singer much too strong; thereby forcing the voice to exert itself in a greater degree than it ought to do. Thus the singer and orchestra are too often at variance; and thus the execution of the finest music is so far unjust, since the ear finds too little relief between the accompaniment of a song, trio, or chorus

The orchestra here is conducted by a director, who beats the time, orders the pauses, and dictates the various expression of the music. Admitting the piece to be well understood, this parade is surely unnecessary. But as it is, it looks to a stranger precisely as though the music was actually undergoing a rehearsal. rate, the flourishing roll of parchment, and the corporeal signs of the conductor, are extremely offensive to the eye of the spectator.

At any

These are some of the principal defects of this

theatre, and great ones in an opera they certainly are. In order, however, that the reader may more clearly judge of the performances, I shall mention here, as well as at the comic opera, the chief pieces at present in representation.

Armida, by Gluck, at this theatre, is a most superb spectacle; the dancers are incorporated with the opera. The soft chorusses of females during some of the dances, are finely enriched by tenor and bass voices behind the scenes; these are so nicely kept under, as to be detected. only by a very inquisitive ear.

The loud and dreadful peal of warlike musie which rouses the lover of Armida to a recollection of his state, positively electrifies the audience.

The shower of fire, and the destruction of the superb palace of Armida, is, perhaps, as magnificent and awful a scene as the stage is capable of representing.

Les Mystères d'Isis, by Mozart, is indeed a majestic production. Music, dancing, and scenery all unite in one of the finest operas ever produced.

The music of this celebrated piece may justly be considered as a chef d'auvre of the art. This opera is, perhaps, better understood and performed than most others at this theatre.

The other pieces in representation are all upon the same plan as the above.

There seems a great want of novelty at this theatre. Tamerlane, a new serious opera, by Winter, has been a long time in rehearsal, but is not yet produced.

The popular Ballets at present are:-La Dan somanie, Télémaque, Psyche, and Paris. These are all the composition of the successful Gardel.

The story of the first piece is extremely entertaining, being founded on the rage for dancing; that of the others may be immediately implied by their names.

The hall of this theatre is spacious. But the house has apparently not been decorated for some years; and the heavy gold-fringed cur. tain is ill calculated to add to its brilliancy,

L'OPERA COMIQUE NATIONALE. This theatre professes the cultivation of the French comic opera, which it has brought to great perfection.

The orchestra at this theatre, is deci ledly the first in Paris. The singers also are gool; and the operas such as we could ever wish to see, hear, and applaud.

are,

The composers of this theatre Gretry, Farchi, Cherubini, Daleyrac, Mehul, and many others, whose talents have established the repu tation of the French comic opera

Ellevion, the principal singer, possesses

unite both sexes. The corolla is the temple, the sheltering tent, where the work of reproduction is accomplished.

The corolla is, you know, the coloured part of the flower, which envelopes the germen, and the filaments called stamens."

Linnæus disposes his twenty-four divisions according to the number and disposition of the sexual parts of the flower. He considers the stamens as the male, and the pistils as the female organs.

The stamen is the filament surmounted with a small head, which you will find in all flowers. The head is called anther, and contains the dust or pollen which fructifies the germen.

The pistil, always placed in the centre of the flower, is composed of the germen, which swells, ripens, and contains the seed; of the style, which is sometimes very long, often alanost imperceptible, and rises above the germen ; and lastly, of the stigma, which crowns the style, and varies in its shape. A single germen often carries several styles.

The celebrated traveller Tournefort, was the first who, at the beginning of the last century, undertook to class the plants. His characters were mostly taken from their external shapes. He numbered the petals or divisions of the corolla, and united in the same class the flowers that contained an equal number; but he soon found himself obliged to separate them into numerous divisions and subdivisions. In the class of monopetalous flowers (whose corolla is com posed of one single piece), for instance, it was necessary to distinguish the hypocrateriform, or saucer-shaped, such as the helitropum, from the rotaceæ, or wheel-shaped flowers; such as the borage, the infundibuliform, or funnel-shaped, as the primrose, from the personatæ, as the antirrhinum, toad-flax, &c. &c.-new difficulties arose at every step, and the system wanted precision.

Jussieu, more recently, made some alterations in the Linnæan system; and the Jardin des Plantes at Paris was classed according to his method.

His three great divisions are founded on the state of the stem, when it arises from the ground.

The stem that presents no cotyledons or seminal leaves, is ranged among the acotyledons. That tribe contains the families of mushrooms and ferns, but no kind of moss; for the seed of that last plant has been sown, and two seminal leaves appeared on its stem.

The stalk, which is enveloped with a single seminal leaf or cotyledon, when it begins to grow, is classed among the monocotyledons. That division contains the gramina, as corn and

the liliaceous, or plants whose root is of a bul

bous nature.

The stalk that is enclosed in two seminal leaves belongs to the numerous family of dicoty ledons.

M. Desfontaines has found means of ascertaining in full grown plants and trees, to which of the last divisions they must belong. Monocotyledons have no distinct layer in their wood or substance which forms their stems, their branches, or their trunks. Their marrow disseminated in their substance, does not gather at the centre of the stalk; such, for instance, is the hyacinth; whilst all kinds of trees, or dicotyledon plants, present the contrary, without any exception.

You may, in one of your walks, cut horizontally various stems, and compose after your own observations, the two different catalogues.

In Jussieu's system the division of acotyledons forms only one class. The monocotyledons are divided into three different classes, according to the respective position of the stamens and pistils.

The first class encloses the hypogean family, viz, when the stamens are placed under the pis tils, as in the gramina, &c. &c.

The second contains the perygean, viz. when the stamens are fixed upon the calyx, as in the lily.

The third is that of the epigean, and requires the stamens to be implanted on the pistil, as in orchis, &c.

The numerous division of dicotyledons is subdivided into families of apetalous flowers (without any corolla); monopetalous and polypetalous (with a corolla composed of several petals or leaves). The first and the third of those three subdivisions form each three classes of hypogean, pery gean, and epigean plants.

The second forms four subdivisions, hypogean, perigean, epigean with anthers divided, and epigean with anthers united together.

The 15th class contains plants whose stamens and pistils are separated from each other, as in hemp: and those 15 classes comprehend 95 families of plants.

The divisions of Linnæus will be more particularly the object of our study. His learned and profound system may offer difficulties; but the beginner, whose steps it directs, derives from it the most satisfactory result.

I have not attempted, my dear friend, to demonstrate to you, the advantages and utility of classical divisions. The vegetable kingdom is so wide that it requires a regular code of laws.

Linnæus, as I told you, characterises his twenty-four classes from the number or the position of the stamens. Plants with only one stamen, compose the monandria; with two, the Diandria;

with three, the triandria; with four, the tetrandria; with five, the pentandria; with six, the hexandria; with seven, the heptandria; with! eight, the octandria ; with nine, the enneandria; with ten, the decandria; with twelve, the dodecandria; with an undetermined number the icosandria; and with an illimited number, the polyandria. No flower has yet been found with eleven stamens. You see by that enumeration that the number of stamens is the distinguishing character of every class.

The 14th contains the labiates, which have four stamens, two long ones and two short: it is called didynamia.

The 15th incloses the cruciforms, or flowers with four petals in the shape of a cross. It is remarkable for the position of its six stamens, four are long and two short opposite each other. It is called tetrady namia.

The 16th is the monadelphia, it comprehends the flowers whose stamens are united together around the pistil, as in the mallow.

Ta 17th, or diadelphia, supposes the stamens to be divided into two bundles around the pistil. It contains the leguminose or papilionaceæ, as the pea.

The 18th is the polyadelphia; it comprises the plants whose stamens are divided into separate bundles, as in St John's wort.

The 19th, or syngenesia, is composed of the flowers whose stamens hold together by their anthers alone, and not by their filaments. The radiates, such as daisies, &c. are amongst the number.

The 20th, gynandria, contains those whose stamens are attached to the pistil, without adhering to the receptacle.

The receptacle is the base upon which stand all the parts of the flower.

The 21st class, or monoecia, comprises the plants which carry on the same stalks, flowers distinctly male, or filled with stamens alone, and others distinctly female, with one or several pistils.

The 22d class is the dioecia; it contains the plants whose male and female flowers blow on different stalks; such as hemp, &c.

The 23d, polygamia; when male and female flowers appear on the same stalk, which sometimes carries also hermaphrodite flowers, or uniting stamens with pistils.

The 24th, Cryptogamia; contains every kind of vegetation which offers to the eye of observation no visible flower; such are algæ, moss, fern, mushroom, &c. This class is iminense, and yet but little known. The word cryptogamia means secret nuptials.

Every class of Linnæus is divided into orders. The or ers in the thirteen first classes are taken from the number of pistils.

Sili

The 14th class is divided in two orders, ac cording to the disposition of the seeds. The first, gymnospermia, is composed of flowers that leave four naked seeds at the bottom of the calyx. The second, angyospermia, the flowers of the same class whose seeds are enclosed in a pericarp. The 15th class is divided in two orders. culosa and siliquosa. A siligle is a round pericarp, composed of two valves, and marked in its length with a style. A silique is a long twovalved pericarp, which enclose the seed, and has a membrane in the middle which separates both valves.

The 16th, 17th, and 18th classes have for orders the classical divisions of the 13 first classes, and are regulated by the number of stamens. Mallow, for instance, is of the monadelphia class, and of the polyandria order. Peas are of class diadelphia, and of the order decandria.

The 19th class is very numerous, and divided into five orders.

1st. Polygamia æqualis, when the florets of the disk (or centre), and those of the ray (or circumference), are equally hermaphrodite.

The florets are those small flowers which by their aggregation in the same calyx seem to form but one. A semi-floret is one of those small flowers whose base is a tube and extremity in the shape of a tongue.

2dly. Polygamia superflua, when the disk contams hermaphrodite and the ray female florets.

3dly. Polygamia frustranea, when the florets of the disk are hermaphrodite, and those of the ray neuter, or deprived of stamens and pistils.

4th. Polygamia necessaria, when the florets of the disk are male, and those of the ray female.

5th. Monogamia, when the flowers, without being radiate and composed of florets, have their stamens united by their anthers as in the violet.

The orders of the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d, classes are taken from the classical divisions of the first classes.

The 24th is divided into as many orders as it contains families.

This is the whole of the Linnean theory.