It is related of the great lord chancellor Hardwicke, that he so highly regarded “Thuanus’s History,” as to have resigned the seals for the express purpose of being enabled to read it in the original language.[3] It has been computed that a person who gave his attention to this work for four hours every day, would not finish the perusal in twelve months. It comprehends the events of sixty-four years, during the times wherein Thuanus lived and flourished as an eminent French author and statesman. His English biographer quotes, as a character of his writings, that, “in a word, they are calculated to render those who attend to them better and wiser men.”[4] * * * * * FLORAL DIRECTORY. Wall Speedwell. _Veronica vivensis._ Dedicated to _St. Simeon_ of Jerusalem. [2] Mr. Nichols’s Lit. Anecdotes. [3] Bibliog. Dict. [4] Mr. Collinson’s Life of Thuanus. ~February 19.~ _St. Barbatus, or Barbas_, Bp. A. D. 682. This saint is patron of Benevento, of which city he was bishop. Butler relates no miracle of him, nor does it appear from him that any other name in the calendar of the Romish church is affixed to this day. THE SEASON. A pretty trifle from the Greek is descriptive of appearances about this period:-- _To a Lady on her Birthday_ See amidst the winter’s cold, Tender infant of the spring; See the rose her bud unfold, Every sweet is on the wing. Hark! the purple flow’ret cries, ’Tis for thee we haste away, ’Tis for thee we brave the skies, Smiling on thy natal day, Soon shalt thou the pleasure prove, Which awaits on virtuous love. Place us ’midst thy flowing hair, Where each lovely grace prevails, Happier we to deck the fair, Than to wait the vernal gales. * * * * * FLORAL DIRECTORY. Field Speedwell. _Veronica agrestis._ Dedicated to _St. Barbatus_. ~February 20.~ _St. Tyrannio_, Bp. &c. A. D. 310. _Sts. Sadoth_, Bp. &c. A. D. 342. _St. Eleutherius_, Bp. A. D. 532. _St. Mildred_, Abbess. _St. Eucherius_, Bp. A. D. 743. _St. Ulrick._ _St. Mildred._ This saint was the first abbess of Minster, in the isle of Thanet, founded by king Egbert about 670, in satisfaction for having murdered his two nephews, Etheldred and Ethelbright; to which satisfaction he was “miraculously terrified, by seeing a ray of bright light dart from the heavens upon their grave.” In 1033, her remains were removed to St. Augustine’s monastery at Canterbury, and venerated above all the relics there, and worked miracles, as all saints’ relics did in those favoured times. The churches of St. Mildred, Bread-street, and St. Mildred in the Poultry, London, are dedicated to her.[5] In St. Mildred’s church in the Poultry, Thomas Tusser, whose “Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie” have been cited in former pages of this work, was buried, and on his tomb this EPITAPH.