t is loaded with blossoms and with fruit; the lobulations
of the leaves are likewise less; this is the _war-poet's ivy_. But when
old, the ivy again becomes barren, again the suckers appear upon the stem,
and the leaves are no longer lobed, but egg-shaped; this is the
_Bacchanalian ivy_."

* * * * *

MICROSCOPIC AMUSEMENT.

Mr. Carpenter, in _Gill's Repository_, speaking of the fine displays of
anatomy and wonderful construction of insects, creatures so much "despised,
and which are, indeed, but too often made the subject of wanton sport by
many persons, who amuse their children by passing a pin through the bottom
of their abdomen, in order to excite pain and long-suffering in the insect,
and thus making them spin, as they ignorantly term it," has the following
most humane and benevolent observations:--"Many of these cruel sports
might undoubtedly be effectively checked, if the teachers of schools were
occasionally to exhibit to their pupils, under the microscope, the various
parts of an insect with which they are familiar; and, by interesting
lectures of instruction, to point out the uses to which those parts are
applied by the insect, for its preservation and comfort; and that, when
they are deprived of them, or they are even injured, a degree of suffering
takes place in the creature, which the children at present seem to be
wholly uninformed of. I certainly think that, if the abovementioned useful
lessons were inculcated, they would afford a check to those cruel
propensities in many children, which they at present indulge in, for want
of being better instructed."

* * * * *

NOTES OF A READER.

* * * * *

ROYAL PROGRESSES, OR VISITS.

The celebrity attendant on a royal visit adhered long to places as well as
persons. A chamber in the decayed tower of Hoghton, in Lancashire, still
bears the name of James the First's room. Elizabeth's apartment, and that
of her maids of honour, are still known at Weston House, in Warwickshire;
her walk "marked by old thorn-bushes," at Hengrave, in Norfolk; near
Harefield, the farm-house where she was welcomed by allegorical personages;
at Bisham Abbey, the well in which she bathed; and at Beddington, in
Surrey, her favourite oak. She often shot with a cross-bow in the paddock
at Oatlands. At Hawsted, in Suffolk, she is reported to have dropped a
silver-handled fan into th