Chinese Veneration for the Lily.
Among the Chinese, should the lily blossom on New Year's day, it is regarded as a most happy omen, presaging the best of luck to the fortunate owner of the plant.
The Passion Flower.
This genus of plants received its name from some fanciful persons among the first Spanish settlers in America, who imagined that they saw in its flowers a representation of our Lord's Passion—the filamentous processes being taken to represent the crown of thorns, the nail-shaped styles the nails of the cross, and the five anthers the marks of the wounds.
Burned Wastes Replenished.
Mr. Veitch, the well-known author on "Coniferæ," recently stated that the cones of many of the species on the Pacific coast never open and permit the seed to escape unless opened by a forest fire, when they fall out and replenish the burned waste. They hang on the trees for many generations—even for thirty years.
Unlucky Stumbling.
When Mungo Park took his leave of Sir Walter Scott, prior to his second and fatal expedition to Africa, his horse stumbled on crossing a ditch which separated the moor from the road. "I am afraid," said Scott, "this is a bad omen." Park smilingly answered: "Omens follow them who look to them," and, striking spur into his horse, he galloped off. Scott never saw him again.