January 19.

Sts. Martha, Maris, Audifax, and Abachum. St. Canutus. St. Henry. St. Wulstan St. Blaithmaie. St. Lomer.

Sts. Martha, Maris, &c.

St. Martha was married to St. Maris, and with their sons, Sts. Audifax and Abachum, were put to death under Aurelian (A. D. 270.) Butler says, that their relics were found at Rome, in 1590, one thousand three hundred and twenty years afterwards.

DEDICATION OF FLOWERS.

The monks, or the observers of monkish rules, have compiled a Catalogue of Flowers for each day in the year, and dedicated each flower to a particular saint, on account of its flowering about the time fo the saint's festival. Such appropriations are a Floral Directory throughout the year, and will be inserted under the succeeding days. Those which belong to this and the eighteen preceding days in January are in the following list:—

JANUARY.

1st. St. Faine. NEW YEAR'S DAY.
Laurustine. Viburnum Tinus.

2d. St. Macarius.
Groundsel. Senecio vulgaris.

3d. St. Genevieve.
Persian Fleur-de-lis. Iris Persica.

4th. St. Titus
Hazel. Corylus avellana.

5th. St. Simeon Stylites.
Bearsfoot.Helleborus foetidus.

6th. St. Nilammon.
Screw MossTortula rigida.

7th. St. Kentigern.
Portugal Laurel. Prunus Lusitanica.

8th. St. Gudula.
Yellow Tremella. Tremella deliquescens.

9th. St. Marciana.
Common Laurel. Prunus Laurocerasus.

10th. St. William.
Gorse. Ulex Europæas.

11th. St. Theodosius.
Early Moss. Bryum horæum.

12th. St. Arcadius.
Hygrometic Moss. Funaria hygrometica.

13th. St. Veronica.
Yew Tree. Taxus baccata.

14th. St. Hilary.
Barren Strawberry. Fragaria sterilis.

15th. St. Paul the Hermit.
Ivy. Hedera helix.

16th. St. Marcellus.
Common Dead Nettle. Larnium purpureum.

17th. St. Anthony.
Garden Anemone. Anemone hortensis.

18th. St. Prisca.
Four-toothed Moss. Bryum pellucidum.

19th. St. Martha.
White Dead Nettle. Larnium album.

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THE GARDEN.

In the "Flora Domestica" there is a beautiful quotation from Cowley, in proof that the emperor Dioclesian preferred his garden to a throne:

   Methinks I see great Dioclesian walk
In the Salonian garden's noble shade,
Which by his own imperial hands was made[;]
   I see him smile, methinks, as he does talk
With the ambassadors, who come in vain
T'entice him to a throne again.
"If I, my friends," said he, "should to you show
All the delights which in these gardens grow,
'Tis liklier far that you with me should stay,
Than 'tis that you should carry me away;
And trust me not, my friends, if, every day,
I walk not here with more delight,
Than ever, after the most happy fight,
In triumph to the capitol I rode,
To thank the gods, and to be thought myself almost a god."

To the author of the "Flora Domestica," and to the reader who may not have seen a volume so acceptable to the cultivator of flowers, it would be injustice to extract from its pages without remarking its usefulness, and elegance of composition. Lamenting that "plants often meet with an untimely death from the ignorance of their nurses," the amiable author "resolved to obtain and to communicate such information as should be requisite for the rearing and preserving a portable garden in pots;—and henceforward the death of any plant, owing to the carelessness or ignorance of its nurse, shall be brought in at the best as plant-slaughter."

The cultivation of plants commences with our infancy. If estranged from it by the pursuits of active life, yet, during a few years retirement from the "great hum" of a noisy world, we naturally recur to a garden as to an old and cheerful friend whom we had forgotten or neglected, and verify the saying, "once a man, twice a child." There is not "one of woman born" without a sense of pleasure when he sees buds bursting into leaf; earth yielding green shoots from germs in its warm bosom; white fruit-blossoms, tinted with rose-blushes, standing out in clumps from slender branches; flowers courting the look by their varied loveliness, and the smell by their delicacy; large juicy apples bowing down the almost tendril-shoots wherefrom they miraculously spring; plants of giant growth with multiform shrubs beyond, and holly-hocks towering like painted pinnacles from hidden shrines:

———————Can imagination boast,
'Mid all its gay creation, charms like these?

Dr. Forster, the scientific author of a treatise on "Atmospheric Phenomena," and other valuable works, has included numerous useful observations on the weather in his recently published "Perennial Calendar," a volume replete with instruction and entertainment. He observes, in the latter work, that after certain atmospheric appearances on this day in the year 1809, "a hard and freezing shower of hail and sleet came with considerable violence from the east, and glazed every thing on which it fell with ice; it incrusted the walls, encased the trees and the garments of people, and even the plumage of birds, so that many rooks and other fowls were found lying on the ground, stiff with an encasement of ice. Such weather," Dr. Forster Observes, "has been aptly described by Philips as occurring oftentimes during a northern winter:—

Ere yet the clouds let fall the treasured snow,
Or winds begun through hazy skies to blow,
At evening a keen eastern breeze arose,
And the descending rain unsullied froze.
Soon as the silent shades of night withdrew,
The ruddy morn disclosed at once to view
The face of Nature in a rich disguise,
And brightened every object to my eyes;
For every shrub, and every blade of grass,
And every pointed thorn, seemed wrought in glass,
In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show,
While through the ice the crimson berries glow,
The thick-sprung reeds the watery marshes yield
Seem polished lances in a hostile field.
The stag in limpic currents, with surprise,
Sees crystal branches on hsi forehead rise.
The spreading oak, the beech, and tow'ring pine,
Glaz'd over, in the freezing ether shine.
The frighted birds the rattling branches shun,
That wave and glitter in the distant sun.
When, if a sudden gust of wind arise,
The brittle forest into atoms flies;
The cracking wood beneath the tempest bends,
And in a spangled shower the prospect ends.

Philips, Lett. from Copenhagen.

"It may be observed, that in both the above descriptions of similar phenomena, the east wind is recorded as bringing up the storm. There is something very remarkably unwholesome in east winds, and a change to that quarter often disturbs the nervous system and digestive organs of many persons, causing headaches, fevers, and other disorders. Moreover, a good astronomical observation cannot be made when the wind is east: the star seems to oscillate or dance about in the field of the telescope."

In the truth of these observations as regards health, he who writes this is unhappily qualified to concur from experience; and were it in his power, would ever shun the north-east as his most fearful enemy.

Sir, the north-east, more fierce than Russian cold,
Pierces the very marrow in the bones,"
Presses upon the brain an arid weight,
And superflows life's current with a force
That checks the heart, and sould, and mind, and strength,
In all their purposes.——
   Up with the double window-sashes—quick!
Close every crevice from the withering blast,
and stop the keyhole tight—the wind-fiend comes!

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