LITERARY SELECTIONS

FOR

PRACTICE IN SPELLING.

OUR CULTIVATED NATIVE PLANTS.

Most of the fruits which grow on trees, such as our apples and pears have been greatly improved and raised above their natural state by grafting and other artificial

means.

Of cultivated native plants, the chief are celery, parsley, the cabbage, turnip, carrot, parsnips, and the hop. The onion is a native of South France; the lettuce, of Greece; the radish, of China; the rhubarb, now so largely used in pies and puddings, of Russia; cress, of Persia; spinach of some part of Asia; and the Jerusalem artichoke, of Brazil.

HEWITT, "Physical Geography of England and Wales."

FOOD OF THE BEDOUINS.

The dish usually seen in a Bedouin tent is a mess of boiled meat, sometimes mixed with onions, upon which a lump of fresh butter is placed and allowed to melt. The

broad tail of the Mesopotamian sheep is used for grease when there is no butter. Sometimes cakes of bread are laid under the meat, and the entertainer, tearing up the thin loaves into small pieces, soaks them in the gravy with his hands. The Anezza make very savoury dishes of chopped meat and bread mixed with sour curds, over which, when the huge platter is placed before the guest, is poured a flood of melted butter. Roasted meat is very rarely seen in a Bedouin tent.

LAYARD, "Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon."

THE FIORDS OF NORWAY.

The high rocky banks shelter these deep bays (called fiords) from almost every wind, so that their waters are usually as still as those of a lake. For days and weeks together they reflect each separate tree-top of the pine forests which clothe the mountain side, the mirror being broken only by the leap of some sportive fish, or the oars of the boatman as he goes to inspect the sea-fowl from islet to islet of the fiord, or carries out his nets or his rod to catch the sea-trout, or char, or cod, or herrings which abound, in their seasons, on the coast of Norway.

HARRIET MARTINEAU, "Norway."

OUR TREES.

The principal native trees are the oak, ash, elm, poplar, aspen, birch, larch, alder, yew, hawthorn, hazel, and willow. The beech, maple, horse-chestnut, Spanish chestnut, walnut, sycamore, acacia, weeping willow, cedar, and Lombardy poplar have been introduced.

The moist climate of England is eminently suited to the growth of forest trees, and we find that in ancient times the larger part of its surface presented one vast scene of forest, as the uncleared districts of America do now. The few scattered patches of natural wood which remain show what was once the character of nearly the whole country.

HEWITT, " 'Physical Geography of England and Wales."

ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY

CHURCHYARD.

I.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.

II.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew tree's shade, Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn,

The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn,

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care :

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share,

GRAY.