In

merous species of grass. Seeds that are worth the labour of separating are called corn, the article of food to all nattons. Europe, wheat, rye, barley, and oats are made use of for that purpose. In Asia, rice, in Africa and America, maize or Indian corn. The smaller kinds of this family are called grasses, which are valuable for their leaves or stalks, or herbage, which are the principal food for all domestic cattle. This cut down and dried, is hay, the winter provision of cattle in all the temperate and northern climes.

In the latter part of this month, the hay harvest begins, in the southern and middle parts of the kingdom. It is one of the most busy and agreeable rural occupations :

"Now swarms the village o'er the jovial meed ;"

and all sexes and ages hasten to the field;
"E'en stooping age is here; and infant hands
Trail the long rake, or with the fragrant load
O'ercharg'd, amid the kind oppression roll,
-While, heard from dale to dale,

Waking the breeze, resounds the blendid voice
Of happy labour, love, and social glee."

In this month appear the grasshopper, green-beetle, angler's May-fly, the formidable gad fly, &c. The angler's May-fly is most short lived; emerging from the water in its aurelia state at six in the evening, and dying at eleven; they appear about the

fourth of this month, and continue a fortnight. Now gooseberries, currants, and strawberries begin to ripen. Birds cease their notes, except the stone curley, yellow hammer, goldfinch, and golden crested-wren, now and then chirping. The cuckoo also ceases. It is amusing now, an hour before sun-set, to see the barn owl in search of field mice, and bringing one to its nest every five minutes; and the fern-owl, feeding on the fern chaffer, another interesting nocturnal bird.

On the 21st of this month is the summer solstice, or longest day; when the splendid

sun,

"Shoots full perfection through the swelling year."

Of vegetation parch'd, the cleaving fields
And slippery lawn an arid hue disclose;
Echo no more returns the cheerful sound
Of sharp'ning scythe; the mower, sinking, heaps
O'er him the humid hay, with flowers perfum'd."

AS January is the coldest, so July is the hotest month in the year; for though the sun diminishes, yet the air and earth still remain heated.

The effects of this weather upon the face of nature soon become manifest. All the flowers of the former month lose their beauty, and the whole plant hastens to decay. The animal creation, oppressed with languor from the heat, seek either the woods for shade, or the water for refreshment.

The insect tribe are now active and vigorous, having a short time to live. Insects undergo three changes, in, each of which they have a totally different appearance. 1. From the egg into maggots; this is their state in spring. 2. Next they turn into aurelia or chrysales, like an infant wrapped up in swaddling clothes. 3. They then burst into the perfect insect, shining in all its colours, furnished with wings, and endowed with surprising activity. Shortly after this final period they die.

Man now seeks the cooling shade; and bathing,

-" the purest exercise of health,

The kind refresher of the summer sun,"

is at this season a delightful amusement. The excessive heat of this period occasions great evaporations of the earth and waters, which gather into clouds, break and pour down copious showers: and,

་

"in explosion vast,

The thunder raises his tremendous voice;
From cloud to cloud the rending lightnings rage."

The lightning is electric fire from the heated air and earth, bursting through the atmosphere; the thunder is the noise of this explosion, and therefore always follows the flash, the sound to the ear travelling slower

than the light to the eyes. Thunder, of it self is entirely harmless.

The effects of the great heat on the hu man body are agreeably allayed by the va rious wholesome fruits which Providence offers at this season for the use of man. Those which are now ripe are the most cooling and refreshing; as, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries; and these, from their salutary qualities at this period, vie with the richest products of the east.

Potatoes and hops flower in this month. The jessamines and white lily now ornament the garden. Mushrooms appear. Frogs migrate from ponds. Hoary beetles appear. Bees kill and expel the drones.

Ants, for frugality, foresight, and indus try proverbial, quit their nest to found new colonies. Ants are divided into males, females and neuters. The neuters are the labourers without wings; males and females have wings. An ant hill is a large vaulted chamber, and has three or four passages to it.

In the centre of it is the old one, and the young worms and eggs ranged round. When opened in the winter, the labourers are in torpor. They lay up no provision. They prey upon beetles, caterpillars, dead mice, rats, frogs, and juices from leaves and