[3] It is a fact not known to every juvenile lover of nature,
that a transverse section of a fern-root presents a miniature
picture of an _oak tree_ which no painter could rival.

* * * * *



ASTRONOMICAL OCCURENCES
FOR JULY, 1827.

* * * * *

(_For the Mirror._)


The sun is in apogee, or at his greatest distance from the earth on the
2nd, in 10 deg. _Cancer_; he enters _Leo_ on the 23rd, at 5h. 13m.
afternoon; he is in conjunction with the planet Saturn on the 2nd at
11h. 30m. morning, in 9 deg. _Cancer_, and with Mars on the 12th at 1h.
45m. afternoon, being advanced 10 deg. further in the eliptic.

Venus and Saturn are also in conjunction on the 26th at 3 h. afternoon,
in 13 deg. _Cancer_.

Mercury will again be visible for a short time about the middle of the
month a little after the sun has set, arriving on the 16th at his
greatest eastern elongation, or apparent distance from the centre of the
system, as seen from the earth in 20 deg. _Leo_; and in aphelio, or that
point of his orbit most distant from the sun, on the 22nd; he becomes