blossoms are spotted with dark purple, and some, Touch-me-not."

"That is a droll name, nurse," said Lady Mary. "Does it prick one's
finger like a thistle?"

"No, my lady; but when the seed-pods are nearly ripe, if you touch them,
they spring open and curl into little rings, and the seed drops out."

"Nurse, when you see any of these curious flowers, will you show them to
me?"

Mrs. Frazer said they would soon be in bloom, and promised Lady Mary to
bring her some, and to show her the singular manner in which the pods
burst. "But, my lady," said she, "the gardener will show you the same
thing in the greenhouse. As soon as the seed-pods of the balsams in the
pots begin to harden they will spring and curl, if touched, and drop the
seeds like the wild plant, for they belong to the same family. But it is
time for your ladyship to go in."

When Lady Mary returned to the schoolroom, her governess read to her some
interesting accounts of the habits of the humming-bird.

"'This lively little feathered gem--for in its hues it unites the
brightness of the emerald, the richness of the ruby, and the lustre of the
topaz--includes in its wide range more than one hundred species. It is the
smallest, and at the same time the most brilliant, of all the American
birds. Its head-quarters may be said to be among the glowing flowers and
luxurious fruits of the torrid zone and the tropics. But one species, the
ruby-throated, is widely diffused, and is a summer visitor all over North
America, even within the Arctic Circle, where, for a brief space of time,