wn-stout, a Welsh rabbit,
brandy and water, and a few more such fooleries? We appeal to the common
sense of our readers and of the world.

* * * * *

TEA

The consumption of tea is increasing every year. In 1823, the importation
was 24,000,000 lb.; in 1826 it was 30,000,000 lb.; and in the year ending
Jan. 5, 1828, 39,746,147 lb.--_Oriental Herald_.

* * * * *

POETS NOT BOTANISTS.

Addison, who was probably unacquainted with the flower described by Virgil,
represents the Italian aster as a purple bush, with yellow flowers,
instead of telling us that the flower had a yellow disk and purple rays.

Aureus ipse; sed in foliis, quae plurima circum
Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae.

_Virgil, Georgic iv_.

The flower Itself is of a golden hue,
The leaves inclining to a darker blue;
The leaves shoot thick about the root, and grow
Into a bush, and shade the turf below.

_Addison_.

Dryden falls into the same error:--

A flower there is that grows in meadow ground,
Aurelius called, and easy to be found;
For from one root the rising stem bestows
A wood of leaves and violet purple boughs.
The flower itself is glorious to behold,
And shines on altars like refulgent gold.

_Mag. Nat. History_

* * * * *

RIVAL SINGERS.

In 1726-7, there was a sharp warfare in London between two opera singers,
La Faustina and La Cuzzoni, and their partizans. It went so far that young
ladies dressed themselves _a la Faustina_ and _a la Cuzzoni_. We need not
wonder, therefore, at the hair _a la Sontag_ in our days, or gentleman's
whiskers _a la Jocko_.

* * * * *

SHARKS.

In a recent voyage from Bombay to the Persian Gulf, an Arab sailor of a
crew, who was the stoutest and strongest man in the ship on leaving Bombay,
pined away by disease, and was committed to the deep by his Arab comrades
on board, with greater feeling and solemnity than is usual among Indian
sailors, and with the accustomed ceremonies and prayers of the Mohamedan
religion. The smell of the dead body attracted several sharks round the
ship, one of which, eight feet in length, was harpooned and hauled on
board.--_Oriental Herald_.

* * * * *

JONAH'S "WHALE."

At a late meeting of the Wernerian Society at Edinburgh, the Rev. Dr. Scot
read a paper