employed the genius of John Exhibition were formed, and Flaxman, the great English which you thought were marble sculptor. Some day I may-yet in the employment of fine have an opportunity of telling artists for his work, and in his you all about Flaxman; but continuous efforts to improve this much I may say now, that all descriptions of English he made designs for Wedgwood pottery, he stands without a for full seven years, and many rival. of them were equal in beauty to the figures he afterwards chiselled out of marble. Wedgwood at length became so famous, that visitors from all parts and all countries crowded to see him and his works; and, after reaping an ample fortune, and vastly promoting the commercial interests of his country, he died in January, 1795, in the 65th year of his age. He was made a member of several learned societies, and his private life is said to have been as pure and exemplary as his public life was noble; and he is said to have used his ample fortune as the good and noble always use the money and advantages that are theirs. W. Can you tell us, papa, if there have been any great English potters since Wedgwood? P. None, perhaps, so distinctively great as he. But Mr. Spode, who made some fine improvements in the manufacture of porcelain, was a very clever man; and now Alderman Copeland, Spode's successor, may be called the Wedgwood of our day; for though Mr. Minton disputes with him the priority of the invention of statuary porcelain that is, the beautiful material with which those lovely statuettes I showed you at the W. Yet other countries have fine potteries-have they not, papa? For in the great aisle of the Crystal Palace there were the portraits of the Queen and Prince Albert painted on china; and mamma showed Lucy and me in another place a lovely camellia japonica made of china. P. True, Willie. Those china portraits were made and painted at Sèvres, in France, and the beautiful flower at Dresden, in Saxony. But both these are Royal potteries, supported by kings and governments, who pay all the cost of such extraordinary productions. Yet, with the exception of costly things so produced, our English fictile wares stand unrivalled, both for durability, cheapness, and beauty; and instead of importing foreign wares for the use of this country, as we did less than a century ago, we export to nearly all countries in the world an enormous and yearly-increasing amount of china and earthenware. In 1845, the annual value of these exports was £828,084; and as the declared value made by the merchant is always onefourth less than the true value, we may presume that the present value of our exports in this year, 1852, is as much as one million four hundred thousand pounds. And this amount will go on increasing as population spreads over the great continents of North and South America and Australia, without reckoning that at home our wants of what is nice and cheap, and beautiful and useful at the same time, will increase, too; for if a Staffordshire potter of the present day can in a given time produce four times the quantity of earthenware he would in 1790, so does the education of the people multiply four-fold their need of all which aids cleanliness and comfort: for the most noticeable part of human improvement is, that it clothes with beauty many of the most useful things of daily life, and thus gives to the poor and lowly new means of refinement, comfort, and well-being. I believe the day will come when beautiful pottery will adorn every humble thrifty kitchen throughout the land, as well as shine upon the tables and in the chambers of the great. L. That will be very nice, I think, papa; for I read the other day that "nice things breed nice manners," and I am sure I have noticed that poor people always behave best when they sit round the holiday table, and drink tea out of the best tea-things. P. You are right, Lucy. I am glad you have noticed this point; it will be of service to you to remember in relation to other things. W. I am sure I shall always remember about "the man who improved pottery," as well as I shall remember about Arkwright and Watt. P. Do so, Willie. For the Great Exhibition of last year may give rise to some new Wedgwood, as most assuredly it will to new and vast improvements in English pottery. SONG OF SPRING. YE call me, ye call me, the green buds are swelling, As he snatched the first kiss from the half-opened flower, That was silent and still through each long winter hour? R. A. P. CHAPTER II. THE PARTS OF A PLANT-THE FLOWER; THE SEED. W. WE have written our memory lesson on the Flower, papa. Please hear us say it. Memory Lesson 5. THE 1. The FLOWER differs from the organs before mentioned in having the function of reproduc- | tion. It forms the little organs called seeds, which contain the germs of new plants. 2. The flower grows from the axil of the leaf; and its stalk is called the PEDUNCLE. On the peduncles there are often found small organs like leaves, which are called BRACTS. Flowers are arranged differently on their peduncles; thus we have the various forms of the tuft, spike, catkin, panicle, umbel, &c. At the end of the peduncle are the most important parts of the flower, namely the calyx, the corolla, the stamens, and the pistil. 3. The CALYX consists of leaves which are called "sepals"; they are generally arranged in a whorl, and form a flower-cup which serves to protect the brightcoloured part of the flower. 4. The COROLLA consists of leaves which are generally of a bright colour; they are called petals. The principal function of the petals is to protect the stamens and pistil, which they surround. 5. The STAMENS are situated inside the corolla, and are very important organs. They consist of two parts-the filament and the anther. The anther contains a fine dust called pollen. 6. The PISTIL is the centre of the flower; it consists of three parts-the ovary, the style, and the stigma. The stigma is the head of the pistil; it is sticky, in order to receive the pollen which falls upon it from the stamens. The style contains tubes through which the granules of the pollen pass into the ovary. The ovary contains minute organs called ovules; into these ovules the granules of the pollen enter, and each forms the germ of a new plant. When the ovule has received the germ it becomes a perfect SEED, which organ will next be considered. P. Let us look at the Seed, then. You see that the principal function of the flower is to form seeds. They are more important organs than the flower itself. You have seen many kinds of seeds. Mention some. W. Peas are seeds, and so are beans, and lupins. I am going to sow some lupins in my garden to morrow; shall I run and fetch one? P. Yes, and I will open it for you. You see, now that I have opened it, that the seed divides into two parts. 00 P. The proper name for each lobe is cotyledon. Ion. I have noticed that before. Beans, and peas, and acorns divide in the same way. W. There is another part P. But there are three parts which we have not noticed yet to the seed. Besides the two-the pretty skin outside the large lobes, there is a small seed. So there are four parts part situated between them. in a seed-the skin, the two This is the part which you cotyledons, and the germ, which heard of in your account of the consists of a plumula and flower; it is the germ formed radicle. by the pollen from the stamen. W. The germ, papa, seems to be divided into two parts. P. It is. The upper part of the germ is called the plumula, and the lower part is called the radicle. You shall hear of the functions of these parts in our next lesson, but we have only time for their names to-day. L. What do you call the two great divisions? You said they were "lobes." P. But all seeds do not contain two cotyledons. There is only one cotyledon in the seeds of corn, the grasses, and of all other endogens. Seeds with two cotyledons are called dicotyledonous; those with one cotyledon are monocotyledonous. W. I will repeat thatEXOGENS are di-cotyledonous, and ENDOGENS are mono-cotyledonous. THE POOR MAN'S GARDEN. AH yes, the poor man's garden! This little precious piece of ground The rich man has his gardeners,- It is not with the poor man so,- All day upon some weary task And back he comes, at set of sun, The rich man in his garden walks; One moment he beholds his flowers, It is not with the poor man so ;- He knows where grow his wall-flowers He knows his red sweet-williams; And though unto the rich man A sixpence to a poor man Is toil, and care, and thought. And here is his potato-bed, All well-grown, strong, and green; How could a rich man's heart leap up At anything so mean! But he, the poor man, sees his crop, For he thinks all through the winter And how his merry little ones In a round and rosy hand. The rich man has his wall-fruits, His fruit for every season; The poor man has his gooseberrie |