MODERN ARCADIA.-The Arcadia of the agricultural districts is now unhappily to be found only in the pastorals of our poets. The modern Strephon and Phyllis prove to be a very humble pair, living in a clay-floored cottage, and ineffectually endeavouring to maintain a family of five children on 8. a-week. And so far from Strephon spending

his time in sitting by a purling stream playing "roundelays" upon a pipe, poor fellow! he can scarcely afford to smoke one, his hours of labour are so long, and his wages are so small. As for Daphnis, he is a lout, and can neither read nor write; nor is his Chloe any better. Both of them have a strong idea that they may end their days in a workhouse-not together, but on the separate system. Before the age of railroads and sanitary reformers, the pastoral life of the Arcadians was a beautiful myth. What a pity it was so false! The Blue Book men have exploded it for ever. The Arcadians have not decent houses-only miserable huts to live in. They have no provision for cleanliness and decency. Two rooms for sleeping and living in, are all that the largest family can boast of. In Bedfordshire, the sanitary reporters tell us that the day-room, in addition to the family, contains the cooking utensils, the washing apparatus, agricultural implements, and dirty clothes; the windows are broken and stuffed full of rags. In the sleeping apartment, the parents and their children, boys and girls, are indiscriminately mixed, and frequently a Lodger sleeps in the same and only room, which has generally no window-the openings in the half-thatched roof admitting light, and exposing the family to every vicissitude of weather; and the liability of the children so situated to contagious maladies frequently plunges the family into the greatest misery. The husband, having no comfort at home, seeks it in the beershop. The children grow up without decency or self-restraint. The boys enter upon situations in rags, without a particle of instruction: the girls-alas! their fate is worst of all. We need not pursue the description. But the reader will see at a glance that Arcadia, if it ever existed in England, is clean gone; and in its place we have poverty, destitution, suffering, and Swing." The Arcadian state of our rural population is now thoroughly blown. No man, not even a poet, will venture to paint the modern shepherds and swains as Phineas Fletcher painted the ancient ones. If he do, "bosh" will be the word applied to his descriptions.

THE SEA. For the unhappy, who have either lost society or shun it, there is nothing like the sea. It is a companion, for it seems to live-it speaks and moves; sublime in its rage, sportive and sparkling in its lighter moods, soothing and dreamy in its repose. Whilst we gaze upon that wide unstable surface, the mind floats away upon the waters, from this ignorant present, these ignoble griefs! There seems nothing real or substantial in life-no solid joy-no crushing misery; all is but a vision and a dream, with hues ever moving and changing, like those restless waters. It is in this quality of dreaminess that resides the balmy influence of the sea. The most lovely landscape, the most beautiful rural situations, encourage melancholy in the minds of the lonely-we need some one to share our delights; but the sea, with its noiseless motion and its

variable moods, its deep mysteries and its buried dead-touching upon such far-distant shores, freighted with such wondrous histories, present and past, is an everlasting book; a poem-itself the poet; singing its own song; murmuring its own story.-Catherine Crowe.

sonal purity, and where it would seem beforehand QUAKERESSES.-In a nation eminent for perimpossible for any woman to create a pre-eminence for herself in that respect, so it is, however, that the female quaker by her dress seems even purer than other women, and consecrated to a service of purity; earthly soil or taint, even the sullying breath of mortality, seems as if kept aloof from her personforcibly held in repulsion by some protecting sanctity. This transcendent purity and nun-like gentleness, self-respect and sequestration from the world-these are all that her peculiarity of dress expresses; and surely this "all" is quite enough to win every man's favourable feelings towards her, and something even like his homage.-De Quincy's Literary Reminis

cences.

gles, in their "Travels in Syria," mention that COINS IN THE HAIR.-Messrs. Irby and Manduring their stay at Kerek, in Petra, they saw the dowry of a young woman who was going to be married, paid at the Sheik's house, which amounted to about one hundred piastres, in white Constantinople money, consisting of silvered tin coins, about the size of a sixpence. These were only what she was to wear as her head ornament, as the ladies there decorate their foreheads with dollars and different kinds of money; sometimes the coins hang down to both ears, and must be a great weight. This is occasionally practised also in many parts of Greece.-Rowland on the Hair.

AN OLD KING OF FRANCE.-The description of the life of King Clotaire, by M. A. Thierry, may be taken as the type of the lives of French Kings in the sixth century. Clotaire generally resided at his villa at Braine, near Soissons. This was a large building, surrounded with Roman porticoes. Around the apartments of Clotaire were the rooms of the officers of his household, and of his chief officers of state. In a secret apartment of the villa, he kept, in large boxes secured with triple locks, his treasures in gold, in vases, and in precious jewels. In the neighbourhood of the villa were a number of cottages, inhabited by numerous families, who exercised various trades; among which were goldsmiths, armourers, weavers, curriers, embroiderers in silk and in gold, &c. Farms, stables, sheep-folds, and barns, completed the royal village. At this villa Clotaire transacted a great portion of his state business; and likewise gave large festivals, at which wild boars, deer, &c., were served at table whole; while casks, with the heads knocked out, occupied the four corners of the banquetting-hall. The King amused himself and his officers in exercises of arms, in hunting, fishing, &c. Clotaire, according to the custom of his cotemporary Kings, had many wives, but only one had the title of Queen. Among his wives was a young female of low birth, named Ingaude. One day she said to him, "You, my master, have raised me to the high position I now occupy; complete your kindness, and deign to

procure for my sister a brave and rich husband, so that I may not feel humiliated on account of her humble condition." Her sister, named Aregaude, was a workwoman on one of the royal domains. Clotaire went to see her, and finding her very beautiful, married her. Some days after this he came to Ingaude, and said to her, "I have sought a wise

and rich husband for your sister, [and I have not been able to find a better than myself." Ingaude humbly replied, "My master, it is right for you to do what you deem best, but I hope that I shall not have the misfortune to lose your favour." This trait shows the miserable condition of women among the barbarous frauks.

It is supposed that the Chinese were the first who discovered the use of this important little creature, the silk-worm. It was introduced into Europe in the sixth century by two monks, who had resided many years in China as missionaries. Silk-worms are now kept on an extensive scale in India, Italy, and the south of France, and to a very small extent in England. The rearing of silk-worms is a pretty employment for young people, and some little girls are very successful in the management of them.

The eggs should be laid out towards the end of April in small trays, made of thin card-board or stiff paper, two or three inches square, and the rim one inch high. These should be neatly made, and well fastened together at the corners. The trays should be placed in the warmest and sunniest window in the house, and must be carefully kept from anything touching them. Some cover the trays with fine gauze. Towards June the eggs will be hatched. They should then be removed, by means of a light feather or fine camel's-hair pencil, into fresh trays, made as before, in which fresh young mulberry leaves must be first placed. This operation must be performed with great care, as the worms are so small and tender that a very little injury kills them.

At first the worm is of a darkish hue, but afterwards becomes a delicate cream-colour. All silk-worms appear to be troubled with sickness from their first appearance until they are fully grown and begin to spin. Each sickness continues about three days, during which the worm becomes thicker and shorter, and casts its skin; while this is going on it has no appetite, and therefore eats nothing.

Before the first sickness, mulberry leaves should be given once a day; after that, until the third sickness, they should be fed twice a day, increasing the quantity according to their growth. From the third to the fourth they must be fed thrice a day, and four times if the weather be very hot. From the fourth crisis they must be fed very frequently, as they require more than during all their previous life. Indeed, after so much sickness, it is not surprising that their appetites should be pretty keen.

Lettuce leaves are often given to silk-worms instead of mulberry; but, as the latter is their natural food, they must have it as soon as possible. It is said to be fatal to give lettuce after once being fed with mulberry leaves.

In cleaning out the trays, which should be attended to once a day at first, and afterwards oftener, great care must be taken not to injure the silk-worms. The best plan is to place fresh leaves in the tray to be cleaned, upon which the silk-worms will crawl, when they can be lifted into the clean tray. Until they are full grown, they must not be taken by the fingers, and then only with great care and tenderness. The leaves must be fresh, but free from damp. It is well to keep them closely packed together, and dried in a clean cloth before giving them to the silkworms.

Before the worms commence spinning, they change to a pink-colour, and become very restless. When they cease eating, which will now be the case, remove them into little paper bags, made in the shape of a small cone or funnel, wide at the mouth, and narrowing to a point at the other end. These little bags should be about four inches deep, and may be pinned to a tape, with the narrow end downwards, and fastened to the wall of a room. It is in these little bags that the worm spins its pretty covering, completely enclosing itself in a ball of silk. This is called a cocoon, inside which the worm undergoes another change, and becomes a dark-brown, hard, glossy little grub, or "aurelia." When the cocoon has become as large as a pigeon's egg, it may be shaken, and if the aurelia be loose, which will be known by a slight rattling sound, the spinning is complete.

Now is the time to wind off the silk: the loose outside floss must be removed, and the cocoon placed in lukewarm water. The end of the silk will then become loose, and several cocoons may be wound off together in one thread.

year.

This

When the aurelia comes out of the cocoon, it should be placed in bran, just under the surface, when it will soon turn to a white moth, which does not eat nor fly, though it has wings-lives for a very short time, lays its eggs, and dies. The eggs, however, must be taken care of if silk-worms are to be kept another may be done in two ways: first, by placing the moths in paper trays, with a piece of clean white paper at the bottom to receive the eggs. The other method is to place the moths upon coarse linen cloth, and when the eggs are laid, and after they have become an ashy colour, the cloth must be immersed in fresh water. The eggs may then be dried, and will readily come off the cloth, and may be kept in a box until spring.

The lady-gardeners and amateurs, for whose benefit this page is penned, will find February all too short for the many things required to be done in it; especially in so severe a season as the present. Every fine day, however, should be taken advantage of, to complete the alterations begun last month, in the shapes of beds, the turning of paths, laying down fresh turf, and filling up, or making new borders. All digging and transplanting should be got over as soon as possible, fresh edgings made, and old ones repaired; for this purpose Dutch box, thrift, daisies, polyanthus, primroses, and gentianella are best adapted.

Annuals, for flowering early in the scason, may now be sown in pots. The principal thing is to sccure good drainage by placing an oyster-shell over the hole in the bottom of the pot, and filling it, to the fourth of its depth, with pebbles or pieces of potsherd; a light rich mould should be laid upon this, to within half an inch of the rim; the soil should be made slightly damp, and the seeds strewed on (not more than twenty in a pot), lightly covered with mould. Sweet-peas, mignonette, ten-week stocks, and a variety of other hardy annuals, may be raised in this way in the window of a room with a fire in it, and, if not wanted to ornament it when in flower, may be turned out into the garden in April, taking care to raise them with the ball of earth unbroken. If intended to flower in the pot, not more than four plants should be left in it.

Anemones.-These plants make so showy an appearance at a time when few others are in blossom, that a bed of them is always desirable. If left in the ground they will frequently remain green the whole year, and should never be taken up in this condition; indeed we have seen them blooming in mid-winter, and Glenny maintains that, if left to themselves, they will frequently exhibit something like a constant growth and flowering for years.

Any tubers in reserve should now be planted, and the growing plants have the ground loosened and

and, when forming their flower-buds, watered with liquid manure. Be careful of green-fly, which is very destructive to them. Cinerarias, to flower in the autumn, should be sown early this mouth. Treat as directed for mignonette: sow in a four-inch pot, well drained with coarse cinders and filled up with light sandy loam, and, as they come up, thin out to four plants in each pot: in a short time they will be large enough to transplant into separate ones. They require a rich soil, and, as the plant advances, to be given larger-sized pots.

Cyclamens.-Kept rather close and watered sparingly, these pretty plants may be kept in bloom for many months. The odoriferous kind (C. persicum) is easily cultivated.

Geraniums now require plenty of light, and should be set out on fiue days; but care must be

taken to bring them in in the afternoon.

Hyacinths will still require to be covered in frosty weather; but when mild, give them all the air and light possible. A small piece of charcoal put in the water with those in glasses preserves it fresh, and prevents the necessity of often changing

it.

Pinks. New beds should now be formed and planted, and deficiencies made up in old ones. dung make the best soil for these plants. Equal parts of loam, leaf mould, and rotted cow

Sweet-Williams, to look well, should be planted in masses, and the colours, if possible, kept separate; they are hardy plants, and will grow almost anywhere, though their rich clusters of flowers make them deserving of more attention than they receive.

had better be scattered over the beds, to protect them from frosts, or, hardy as they are, the bloom may be spoiled.

Bulbs intended to ornament the window should have moss placed round them. It not only improves their appearance, but facilitates their blooming.

Cinerarias.-These beautiful window plants require plenty of air, and to be kept cool. If wanted to flower early, they should be kept in small pots,

GENERAL UTILITY.

There are few people acquainted with a garden, or its produce in a floral way, but must have been struck with the appearance which white flowers present when seen in the dusk of the evening. My attention was forcibly drawn to the subject one evening, when, in walking home with a friend, the lovely globes of the Gueldres rose attracted our attention, peeping out amongst the mass of ever