Aluminium, Glucinium, The oxydes of these metals are well known as the pure earths. They are white, and of an earthy appearance, in their ordinary state are quite insoluble in water, and do not affect the colour of tumerick or litmus-paper. As salifiable bases, they are inferiour to the alkaline earths. Silica is considered by several chymists as an acid, and its chymical relations appear to justify the opinion. When the sepals are distinct, or separate from each other, the calyx is said to be polysepalous. The outer green covering of the bud of the flax, or rose, is the calyx; and when the flowers open, this is found to consist of five different pieces, or sepals, connected by their base with the peduncle. In the common poppy and yellow balsam, or touch-me-not, there are only two sepals; there are three to the spiderwort; four to the wallflower and radish; six to the common barberry; and five or ten in most flowers. But in many plants the sepals are joined together, more or less, by their edges, so as to form one piece in appearance; in this case, the calyx is said to be monosepalous; Ex.: pink, pea, henbane, Convolvulus, &c. The sepals are seldom joined for their whole length; the part where they are united is called the tube, and the separate ends, the teeth or segments : such calyces are commonly, though improperly, described as being cut into so many segments, or as being toothed. The calyx is said to be regular when all the sepals are alike in size and form; Ex.: strawberry, borage, rose, cinquefoil, flax, mint, groundivy, &c. It is called irregular when the sepals are unlike in size or form; Ex.: thyme, foxglove, violet, &c. CLASS II. The number of metals included in this class amounts to twenty-eight. They are all capable of uniting with oxygen, and generally in more than one proportion. Their protoxydes have an earthy appearance, but with few exceptions are coloured. They are insoluble in water, and in general do not affect the colour of test-paper. Most of them act as salifiable bases in uniting with acids, and forming salts; but in this respect they are much inferiour to the alkalis and alkaline earths, by which In many plants the calyx has one of its sepals they may be separated from their combinations. hollowed out into a long thin tube, like a spur, and Several of these metals are quite capable of forming is hence said to be spurred. In geraniums this spur with oxygen compounds, which possess the charac- grows to the stalk, so as not to be very perceivable, ters of acids. The metals in which this property but it is very distinct in the larkspur, Tropæolum* or has been noticed are manganese, arsenick, chromi- Indian-cress, &c. um, molybdenum, tungsten, antimony, columbium, titanium, jellurium, and gold. The metals belonging to the second class may be conveniently arranged in the three following orders: Zinc, Tin, Order 1. Metals which decompose water at a red heat. They are five in number; namely, Manganese, Iron, Order 2. Metals which do not decompose water at any temperature, and the oxydes of which are not reduced to the metallick state by the sole action of heat. Of these there are fifteen in number, namely, Arsenick, Bismuth, Chromium, Molybdenum, Tungsten, Antimony, Cerium, Cobalt, Columbium, Nickel, Order 3. Metals, the oxydes of composed by a red heat. These are Mercury, Platinum, Palladium, Rhodium. BOTANY. CALYX. Titanium, Tellurium, The calyx is said to be deciduous, when it dies off either soon after or immediately on the opening of it, as in the poppy, or before the fruit begins to ripen ; as in the Ranunculus, and most flowers. Polysepalous calyces are generally deciduous. It is said to be persistent when it continues to live after the rest of the flower withers, and either encloses, or else forms part of the fruit, as in the common hound's-tongue, rose, apple, and a multitude of others. Monosepalous calyces are generally persistent. Sometimes the calyx is not herbaceous in texture; in this case it is said to be coloured; Ex.: Fuchsia, Tropæolum, Ranunculus, monk's-hood, pomegranate, and many others. Care must be taken not to confound the true calyx, which only belongs to one flower or sexual apparatus, with bracteæ, involucra, spathes, &c., which which are de- surround and accompany several. Osium, The calyx is the outer set of the floral envelopes, when there are more than one verticil of these. It is composed of two, at least, but usually more leaves, called sepals these are generally herbaceous; Ex.: pink, rose, wallflower, and most flowers. The word sepal has no derivation, but was invented by botanists to distinguish the parts of the calyx from those of the corolla. THE COROLLA. The next whorl of leaves within the calyx, is called the corolla; this is the part of the flower which is so attractive, from its fragrance and beauty, it being found of every shade and variety of colour, except black; it differs in texture from the calyx and leaves, being more delicate, and the nerves not so thick and strongly marked: this kind of texture is called petaloid. The separate leaves of the corolla are called pctals, and these, like the sepals of the calyx, are either distinct, when the corolla is said to be polypetalous, as in the Ranunculous, wallflower, pink, *This plant is commonly, but wrongly, called the Nasturtium, which is the name of the common water-cress. rose, &c., or are united by their edges, in a greater The lower part of the single petal of a corolla by or less degree, in which case the corolla is called which it is fixed to the receptacle, is called the claw; monopetalous, as in the Convolvulus, honeysuckle, it represents the stalk of the leaf; the broad expandmullein, bugloss, &c., and the little flowers, or flo-ed part, answering to the lamina, is called the limb. rets, which form the heads of composite flowers. Like the calyx, the corolla is either regular or irregular; but this latter admits of a much greater variety of form than the former. When all the petals are alike in size and form, whatever that may be, or when the corolla appears symmetrical, it is called regular; Ex.: corn, cockle, flax, strawberry, St. John's-wort, columbine, bell-flower, &c. The petals are unequal, or unlike each other, and therefore the corolla is irregular in the Tropæolum, Geranium, violent, orcl.is, mint, &c. The corolla is called papiliona ceous (butterfly-like) when it consists of five petals of particular forms, of which the uppermost, or external one, is generally largest, and turned back; this is called the standard or vexillum; the two next are alike, but differ from the first; they are placed so as to have their faces turned towards each other; they are called the wings or ale; the two lowermost are also alike, but differ from the rest; they are generally united by their lower edge, and are so shaped as to form a figure resembling the keel of a boat, and are hence together called the keel or carina. This very peculiar corolla, though it varies much in appearance, is always easily recognised; it is the characteristick of a very large order of plants, called Leguminose, of which the sweet-pea, broom, bean, lupin, vetch, clover, saintfoil, Robinia, sensitive-plant, &c., are examples. In the corolla of many plants, one or more of the petals are spurred, as in the violet, Orchis, columbine, &c. Other forms of irregular polypetalous corollas are too numerous to admit of description, and are simply called irregular; of these, our own wild flowers affords examples, in the monk's-hood, yellow-balsam, larkspur, Polygala, fumitory, and others. Of foreign plants, the varieties of form are endless, as may be seen in the Schizanthus, Rhinanthes, Lopezia, Strelitzia, Cactus, Amphilochia, &c. The flower of one tribe of plants, the Orchideæ, requires notice from its peculiarity; the calyx and corolla consist of three pieces each, and one of those forming the latter, differs very much in size and form from the other two; it is called the labellum, (or little lip,) and is often spurred. In many species this resem bles an insect, and hence they have received the name of bee, In the rose, the claw is very short; in the pink, it is very long. The margin of the petal is smooth in the Ranunculus, strawberry, &c.; crenated in the pink, flax; fringed with hairs in the rue, &c.; cut or notched in mignonette, or Reseda; divided nearly into two lobes in chickweed and stitchwort. Each petal of the common beg-bean has a fringe, or beard, on the limb, which gives a very singular appearance to this beautiful flower. It must be noticed, that the number of petals, as well as sepals, is commonly the same in the same tribes of plants. The corolla of the enchanters' nightshade has two petals; the water-plantain, three; Chelidonium and poppy, four. There is one very large order of plants which have four petals, arranged so as to look like a cross; and are hence called Cruciferæ, "cross-bearing." The radish, charlock, mustard, cabbage, lady's-smock, wallflower, stock, &c., are cruciferous plants. In most plants, however, the number of petals is five or ten, as the wildrose, soapwort, flax, hemlock, and numberless others. Monopetalous corollas are either regular, produced by the union of equal petals; or irregular, composed of unequal petals. The part formed by the united margins, is called the tube; and the part consisting of the distinct portions of the petals, is called the limb. In the nightshade, and Cyclamen, the limb is turned back. In the periwinkle, oleander, &c., the limb appears twisted. The projecting parts of the limb of an irregular corolla, are called lips. The Acan hus and many others have but one lip. When une ip is very long and narrow compared to the length of the tube, the corolla is called ligulate, or strap-shaped. The outer part of the heads of many composite flowers is formed of the ligulate corollas of the exteriour florets; and these are commonly white, blue, or yellow, as in the daisy, Aster, sunflower, &c.; this part of the head is called the ray, the central part is composed of florets, with regular corollas, and is commonly yellow, and is called the disk. In the hawk-weed, Leontodon, sowthistle, &c., all the florets are ligulate, and the strap is toothed at the end. A corolla with two lips is called bilabiate, and these are always placed one above the other, or behind and before, with respect to the stalk, stem, or axis, and never right and left. When the two lips present an appearance like the mouth of an animal, the corolla is called ringent. There is a large tribe of plants called Labiata, fly, spider, butterfly, frog, lizard, orchises; the whole which have irregular monopetalous corollas, and tribe is very remarkable on many accounts. these generally bilabiate and ringent, of which the splendid salvia, deadnettle, Monarda, mint, &c., are examples. When the mouth of the tube is partly or entirely closed by the lower lip, the corolla is sometimes called personate; as the snapdragon, cow-wheat, toadflax, rattle, &c. The lips of monopetalous corollas are cut, notched, or lobed in various modes, which are characters of different species of plants. The upper lip is often vaulted, or resembles a helmet, as in the common scull-cap, slough-heal, eyebright, &c. In the common groundivy, the upper lip is bifid, the lower, trifid, or three-cleft. In the common toadflax, which grows on old walls, the Linaria, so frequent in hedges, and the snapdragon, the lower lip is spurred, and the whole flower is very curiously formed, something like a frog or tadpole. In the Calceolaria, a foreign plant common in our gardens, the lower lip is shaped like a little bag, with a narrow mouth; a similar form is found in a rare and beautiful English plant of the orchis tribe, called lady's-slipper: (Cypripedium calceolus.) The petals of all corollas are placed alternately with the sepals of the calyx; that is, the centre of a petal or a sepal is opposite the division between two sepals or petals; this is the result of the law by which all leaves are developed alternately round an axis; and never two adjoining leaves immediately over each other. When this is not the case, but the petals are opposite the sepals, an intermediate whorl of leaves is considered to have been abortive, or to have remained undeveloped. In many plants, there is only one whorl of leaves round the sexual apparatus, or only one floral envelope; this is considered as a calyx, whatever may be its colour or texture. It is often called by botanists, a perianth; it resembles a corolla in the tulip, &c. The flower of the common wild corn-poppy, must not be considered as a perianth, it being strictly a corolla, the calyx which is seen in the bud having fallen when it opened. In the star of Bethlehem, which has a single perianth, the outside of it is herbaceous like the calyx, and the inside is petaloid like a corolla; showing the gradation from the leafy to the more delicate texture; the same may be seen in many other flowers. In the grasses, and plants resembling them, the floral envelopes are not calyx and corolla, but bractea. The two outer ones are called glumes, the two inner paleæ, and two within these, at the base of the seed-vessel, scales. They are membranous or chaffy in texture, yet it is not on this account that they rank as bractea; but because they are in most cases not developed in verticils, but alternately on the axis of inflorescence. The manner in which the calyx and corolla are folded before the flower opens, is called the aestivation of the plant, and is important to be observed; it is to the flower-bud what the vernation is to the leafbud. VOL. III.-47 The size of the flower, like that of the leaves, does not bear any regular proportion to that of the plant. In South America, there is a climbing plant, the flowers of which are four feet in circumference, and the Indian children put them on their heads like hats. As examples of other large flowers the genera Datura, Aristolochia, Nelumbium, and those of the order Liliaceæ may be mentioned for herbaceous plants; and magnolia, Lecythis, Berthollecia, and Gustavia, for timber-trees. The common sunflower, it must be remembered, is not a single flower, but a collection of many hundreds. THE WAGONER. I've often thought, if I were asked What one I thought most lightly tasked I'd say, I'd be a mountain boy, And lightly fly Into my saddle-seat; My whip I'd crack What musick is so sweet? Six blacks I'd drive, of ample chest, The lint should fly Wo, hoy! you Dobbin! Ball! I'd sing my fal de rol. My bells would tingle, tingle ling, My words should fly, Each horse would prick his ear; My lumbering wain Would move in its career. The golden sparks, you'd see them spring Each tail I'd braid it up with string So does, you know, the mountain boy Each horse's eye With fire would seem to burn; With lifted head And nostril spread They'd seem the earth to spurn. They'd champ the bit, and fling the foam And I would think of distant home, Oh, would I were a mountain boy I'd drive a six horse team. Wo, hoy! Now, by yon sky, I'd sooner drive those steeds Than win renown, Or wear a crown Won by victorious deeds. For crowns oft press the languid head, A STATISTICAL VIEW OF MEXICO. American, two; German, one. The business, how ever, has been unprofitable. The United States of Mexico formed their constitution in 1824, on the plan of our federal union.- The great source of wealth in Mexico, is her emThe deviations were few and inconsiderable; nine-inently productive soil. All the productions of teen states and four territories formed the confeder- southern Europe abound there in the greatest state ation. A president was to be elected every four of luxuriance and perfection. years, and could not be re-elected. members from each state, and a deputy for each 80,000 population, formed the congress. A senate of two According to that constitution, every man at eighteen years of age became a voter; no other qualification was required. Indians and Mestizoes, Negroes and Mulattoes, were equally free citizens and voters. tion is divided as follows: 1. Indians, 4,000,000. 2. Mestizoes, that is, descendants of Indians and Spanish, 2,000,000. The Horses, cattle, sheep, &c., of the finest quality, can be raised at a very trifling expense; the climate being remarkably congenial to their nature. expense of winter-feeding is avoided, there being no winter there; horses of the best quality can be obtained for fifteen to twenty dollars per head. The Mexicans have 1,000,000,000 acres of good land to be sold to colonists on six years' credit, at a few cents per acre. Any poor man, therefore, without a cent in his pocket, can purchase his thou The population of Mexico is at present about 8,000,000; In 1794, it was 5,000,000; in 1806 it was 5,500,000; in 1825, it was 6,850,000; this popula-sands of acres of the very best land in the world, and from the productions of that land, if he be industrious, at the expiration of six years, find his payments all made, and himself independently rich. Agricultural labour can be obtained throughout Mexico at the average rate of twenty-five cents per day. These low rates operate eminently to the advantage of the enterprising agriculturist; but the consequence is, nine tenths of the natives for ever remain in the most abject poverty and servitude.— Like the ancient Israelites, they sell themselves to pay their debts, a small debt, of a few dollars, often forcing them into a servitude, from which, in conse 3. Creoles, Spanish descent, born in Mexico, 1,200,000. 4. Zamboes, Indian and Negro descent, and Mulattoes, 600,000. 5. Negroes, 100,000. 6. Guachupins, or natives of Spain, 10,000. 7. Estrangeroes, or strangers, American, English, French, Italian, &c. 15,000. By the relative population, we perceive that Indi-quence of the high price of clothing, and the low ans and Mestizoes form the bulk of the nation, and with equal privileges are sure to rule it at a future time. rates of labour, they are never able to extricate themselves. Mechanical labour is mostly performed by foreigners at from two to four dollars per day. They are at present, however, regarded with ex- Soldiers of infantry have one dollar twenty-five cents treme contempt, and are, by the whites, opprobri- per day, and of cavalry two dollars, but they have no ously denominated irrational. The number of In-rations allowed them; they must therefore clothe dians remain nearly the same as when first discovered by the Spaniards, three centuries ago, and their manners and religion have been little affected by their white intruders. The land in Mexico is generally much superiour to that of the United States. Almost all the productions of other climes grow there in rich luxuriance. The produce of maize is wonderful; an acre has been known to produce 200 bushels, and some stems are twenty feet high, with five or six large ears. Wheat grows well only on the table-land, but there it commonly yields twenty-five to one. In the irrigated lands of Mexico it has even yielded fifty to one, while in Europe only ten or twelve to one is considered the average production; and the best lands in Kentucky yield only twenty-two to one. To produce 1,000,000 pounds of sugar, only one hundred and fifty labourers are required, while three hundred are requisite in Cuba and Louisiana. The production of coffee is still easier in Mexico; twenty men can attend 200,000 trees, which, on an average, produce 500,000 pounds. Cotton also, of a quality far superiour to ours, can be purchased in many parts of Mexico, in greater quantities by one third, than can be obtained from the best lands in Louisiana. and feed themselves, the government furnishing nothing but arms and ammunition. The pay, however, is always in arrears and very difficult to collect. They seldom receive any thing but clothing, charged to them at an extravagant rate, and that only when reduced to the last extremity. As to their food, they are often compelled to borrow, beg or levy it by military contributions. The Mexican forces are at this time in a very disorganized and turbulent condition, reduced to rags and beggary, without resources, their pay several months in arrears, and the national treasury exhausted. Such is the nation with whom the brave Texans are at war, and such the country they possess. There is a hardihood of effrontery, which will, under many circumstances, supply the place of courage, as impudence has sometimes passed current for wit. Wilkes had much of the first, and Mirabeau of the second. He received challenge after challenge, but unlike Wilkes he accepted none of them, and contented himself with merely noting down the names of the parties in his pocketbook; it is not fair, he would say, that a man of talent, like myself should be exposed to blockheads like The silver mines in Mexico are perhaps inex- these. It would seem that he had argued himself haustible; $3,000,000,000 of silver have been drawn into the same kind of self-importance with Rousfrom them during three hundred years past, avera-seau, who came to this very disinterested concluging $10,000,000 per annum. sion, that it was incumbent upon him to take the utmost possible care of Jean Jacques for the good of society. The first English mining company was established 1823; there are now ten; English, seven; North tion of its nostrils, and the equality of its claws. In size and bulk the emen is exceeded by the African ostrich alone. It is stated by travellers to attain a height of more than seven feet, and its average measurement in captivity may be estimated at between five and six. In form, it closely resembles the ostrich, but is lower on the legs, shorter in the neck, and of a more thickset and clumsy make. At a distance its feathers have more of the appearance of hair than of plumage, their barbs being all loose and separate. As in the other ostriches, they take their origin by pairs from the same shaft. Their general colour is a dull-brown, mottled with dirty gray, the latter prevailing more particularly on the under surface of the bird. On the head and neck they become gradually shorter, assume still more completely the appearance of hairs, are so thinly scattered over the forepart of the throat and around the ears, that the skin, which is of a purplish hue, is distinctly visible. This appearance is most remarkable in the older birds, in which these parts are left nearly bare. The wings are so extremely small as to be quite invisible when applied to the surface of the body. They are clothed with feathers exactly similar to those of the back, which, it should be observed, divide as it were from a middle line, and fall gracefully over on either side. The colour of the bill and legs is of a dusky-black; and that of the iris dull-brown. In the vocabulary of the early Portuguese naviga- | from the cassowary by the absence of crest, wattors, the name of emeu was applied to a gigantick tles, and quills, the depression of its bill, the posibird of the ostrich family, inhabiting the peninsula of Malacca and the great chain of islands to the south and east. This denomination has, however, been long superseded by that of cassowary, derived from its native Malayan appellation. On the other hand, the bird now before us was named by naturalists, on its first discovery, the New Holland cassowary, to indicate its close affinity to the Asiatick species. But the colonists of New South Wales having adopted for the Australian bird the name of emeu, now no longer otherwise appropriated, and naturalists in general having of late years sanctioned this transfer of an abandoned title, there can be no objection to its retention, and no risk of any future confusion in the synonymy arising from the change. The characters of this genus, which may now be regarded as firmly established, are as follows:-It has a straight bill, very much depressed towards the sides, slightly keeled along its middle, and rounded at the point; large nostrils, covered by a membrane and opening above on the middle of the bill; a head unsurmounted by a bony crest, and covered with feathers up to a certain age; a naked throat without wattles; powerful legs of considerable length, fleshy and feathered down to the joint, naked and reticulated below it; three toes directed forwards, the two lateral ones equal in length, and the posterior wholly wanting; the claws of all the toes nearly equal; and no true quill-feathers either to the wings or tail. It is consequently distinguished from the African ostrich by the number of its toes; from it and the rhea by the trifling development of its wings, and the total want of plumage to the wings and tail; and These birds appear to be widely spread over the southern part of the continent of New Holland and the neighbouring islands; but we are not aware that they have been hitherto discovered in its tropical |