which upon the instant. "Mind your p's and q's "-I write it thus, and not "Mind your P's and Q's" has a higher philosophy than mind your toupées and your queues, which are things essentially different, and impossible to be mistaken. It means, have regard to small differences; do not be deceived by apparent resemblances; learn to discriminate between things essentially distinct, but which look the same; be observant; be cautious. DE GUSTIBUS, &c. A clergyman in the south-west of England, calling lately on one of his parishioners, who kept a public house, remarked to her how sorry he was, when passing along the road, to hear such noises proceeding from her house. "I wonder," said he, "that any woman can keep a public house, especially one where there is so much drunkenness and depravity as in yours." "Oh, sir," she replied, "that is the very reason why I like to keep such a house, because I see every day so much of the worst part of human nature." THE ROSE. Lines supposed to have been addressed, with the present of a white rose, by a Yorkist, to a lady of the Lancastrian faction. If this fair rose offend thy sight, It on thy bosom wear, "Twill blush to find itself less white, And turn Lancastrian there. But if thy ruby lip it spy, As kiss it thou may'st deign, With envy pale 'twill lose its dye, And Yorkist turn again. The origin of the blush imparted to the rose is most beauti fully described by Carey : As erst in Eden's blissful bowers Young Eve surveyed her countless flowers, An opening rose of purest white She marked with eye that beamed delight; A CHAPTER ON PLANTS AND FLOWERS. Christians in times past loved to think that as all created nature shared in man's fall, so did she sympathize in his Redemption; that she hailed with glad welcome the nativity of the Saviour; and that, after the Incarnate Deity had risen and ascended on high, inspired with a mysterious joy, she looked up once more, and The lonely world seem'd lifted nearer heaven. As Adam of St. Victor sings Mundi renovatio Nova parit gaudia Then the flowers "gladlier grew," shed a grateful fragrance to their risen King, and with silent aspirations whispered of love, and peace, and hope. There is the beautiful Legend of the Tree of Life. In the words of Evelyn : Trees and woods have twice saved the whole world; first by the Ark, then by the Cross; making full amends for the evil fruit of the tree in Paradise by that which was borne on the Tree in Golgotha.-Silva, p. 604 : York, 1776, 4to. And of Calderon : Arbol donde el cielo quiso Dar el fruto verdadero Contra el bocado primero, Flor del nuevo Paraiso. The ancient botanists have handed down to us many an allusive name and legend, and even yet Many a sign Of the great Sacrifice which won us heaven, Wood Walk and Hymn, by Mrs. Hemans. Thus we have Holy Rood Flower, Passion Flower, St. Andrew's Cross, St. James's Cross, Cross of Jerusalem, Cross of Malta, Cross Flower, Cross Wort, Cross Mint, Crossed Heath. The legend of the Aspen-tree (Populus tremula) is thus beautifully told by Mrs. Hemans: Father. Hast thou heard, my boy The peasant's legend of that quivering tree? Father. Oh! a cause more deep, More solemn far the rustic doth assign To the strange restlessness of those wan leaves. Making them tremulous, when not a breeze Wood Walk and Hymn. Lightfoot ascribes this legend to the Highlanders of Scotland. Another legend runs thus:— At that awful hour of the Passion, when the Saviour of the world felt deserted in His agony, when The sympathising sun his light withdrew, And wonder'd how the stars their dying Lord could view, when earth, shaken with horror, rung the passing bell for Deity, and universal nature groaned; then from the loftiest tree to the lowliest flower all felt a sudden thrill, and trembling, bowed their heads, all save the proud and obdurate aspen, which said, "Why should we weep and tremble? we trees, and plants, and flowers are pure and never sinned!" Ere it ceased to speak, an involuntary trembling seized its every leaf, and the word went forth that it should never rest, but tremble on until the day of judgment. With regard to the Passion Flower, it is only necessary to refer to Mrs. Hemans' lines in the poem above quoted. The legend of the Arum maculatum is similar to that of the Robin Redbreast: These deep inwrought marks The villager will tell thee (and with voice Never to waft away.-Wood Walk and Hymn. The beautiful shrub, Cereis silignastrum, or Arbor Judæ, Is thought to be that whereon Judas hanged himselfe, and not upon the elder-tree as it is vulgarly said.-Gerarde's Herbal (by Johnson): Lond. 1633, folio. Of Adam's Apple-tree, or West Indian plantain (Musa serapionis), the same writer says: If it (the fruit) be cut according to the length, oblique, transverse, or any other way whatsoever, may be seen the shape and forme of a Crosse, with a man fastened thereto. Myselfe have seene the fruit and cut it in pieces, which was brought me from Aleppo in pickle. The Crosse I might perceive as the forme of a Spred Egle in the root of Ferne; but the man I leave to be sought by those who have better eies and judgment than myselfe. . . . The Grecians and Christians wh inhabit Syria, and the Jews also, suppose it to be that tree of whose fruit Adam did taste. In a work by a bright star of the dreary eighteenth century, Jones of Nayland, entitled Reflections on the Growth of Heathenism among Modern Christians, the following passage occurs: Botany, which in ancient times was full of the blessed Virgin Mary, and had many religious memorials affixed to it, is now as full of the heathen Venus, the Mary of our modern virtuosi. Amongst the ancient names of plants, we found the Calceolus Maria, Carduus Mariæ, Carduus benedictus, Our Lady's Thistle, Our Lady's Mantle, the Alchymilla, &c.; but modern improvements have introduced the Speculum Veneris, Labrum Veneris, Venus's Lookingglass, Venus's Basin, Venus's Navelwort, Venus's Flytrap, and such like; and whereas the ancient botanists took a pleasure in honouring the memory of the Christian saints with the St. John's Wort, St. Peter's Wort, Herb Gerard, Herb Christopher, and many others, the modern ones, more affected to their own honour, have dedicated several newly-discovered genera of plants to one another, of which the Hottonia, the Sibthorpia, are instances, with others, so numerous and familiar to men of science, that they need not be specified. Sir Thomas Browne, in one of his Dialogues, makes the Puritan Prynne say— In our zeal we visited the gardens and apothecaries' shops. So Ungentium Apostolicum was commanded to take a new name, and besides, to find security for its good behaviour for the future. Carduus benedictus, Angelica, St. John's Wort, and Our Lady's Thistle, were summoned before a class and forthwith ordered to distinguish themselves by more sanctified appellations.—Quoted in Southey's Colloquies, i. p. 373, and in Teale's Life of William Jones, p. 367. Ah! what ravages Botany has made in the poetry of flowers! Truly there was exquisite beauty in many of our old-fashioned country appellations. How many a tale of rustic love yet lives in some of their names! Who can doubt whence arose such as Mary-gold, None-so-pretty, Goldilock? And by the very name were village maidens warned against Love-in-idleness and London Pride; and long delicious walks in the deep summer twilights, and lingerings before the old grey cottage, and partings at the wicket-they all live in one little plant, Kiss-me-at-the-garden-gate! The Forget-me-not is so called in every Christian tongue. In village botany, too, lingers many a quaint and lovely superstition; look, for example, at the For-glove, that is, Folks'-glove or Faries'glove. What needed the villager to lament his poverty, when his meadows gave him Money-wort, and Shepherd's-purse flowered in the waysides? Why |