preference, it would be to the walk first described, or that along the river-side, commencing at Agecroft Bridge, and having the river upon the right. The meadows abound with floral treasures, the rosy bistort, the blue geranium, and the fragrant ciceley, in their several seasons, and on the banks, at the further part, near the canal, may be seen the broad-leaved wood-stitchwort, _Stellaria memorum_, and the yellow dead-nettle. Early in June is the pleasantest time to go. The grass is then uncut, the sycamores are hung with their honeyed bloom, the clover glows like rubies, the white pagodas of the butter-bur, now gone to seed, stand up like the banners of an army, and we find "the _first_ rose of summer, sweet blooming alone," amid thousands of juvenile green buds. But the yellow dead-nettle is the most interesting; it gives so useful a lesson in practical botany. The stem is perfectly square; the leaves grow two together; the large golden-coloured blossoms are set in verandahs round the stalk, each particular flower shaped like the jaws of some terrible wild beast, wide-open and ready to bite, while the stamens are invariably four in number--a pair of long ones and a pair of short ones. The seeds, also, are exactly four. Whenever these peculiarities co-exist in a plant, we may be sure that there is nothing deleterious about it. More than fifty different plants formed on this plan grow wild in England, and considerably over two thousand in foreign countries, and not one of them is in the least degree noxious, either to quadruped or to man. Many are aromatic, and used with food, as thyme, sage, mint, basil, and penny-royal; while others are useful for medicinal tea, as balm and ground-ivy. Rosemary, lavender, and bergamot belong to the same fragrant family. The great object of botanical science is to determine such facts as these, _i.e._, to make out the relation between the form of a plant and its properties;--can a science of such useful, practical aim be justly deemed, as by some, mere "learned trifling?" Surely not. No slight advantage has that man over his fellows who, when he is walking through the meadows, or when he emigrates to a distant land, can discriminate between the poisonous plant and the wholesome, simply by examining the leaves and flowers. We do not mean to say that every individual plant in the world has its exact quality unmistakably configured upon it. The concurrence is between certain general properties and certain great types or plans of organisation, taking note of which latter we gain a good general idea of the former. The _particular_ nature must be learned by special inquiry. Though the yellow dead-nettle, for example, is shown by its general structure to be devoid of anything bad, it cannot be told whether it is fit to eat until tasted and tried. To persons who have an idea of emigrating, or whose children are likely to go abroad, botany is of the very highest service, for in foreign countries men are thrown