rial family. And Nepal has
the lotus, sacred to Buddha. Brazil has shown us the brilliant
constellation of the Southern Cross which sparkles in the tropic sky.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Malta", 5 shillings]

Many nations have used their coats of arms as appropriate decorations
for their postal issues. On the five shilling stamps of Malta we find
the Maltese cross, emblem of the Knights of St. John and reminiscent of
the crusades.

[Illustration: Stamp, "Postes Egyptiennes", 5 piastres]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 2 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 1896, 5 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, [Greek: Hellas], 1896, 10 [Greek: drachmai]]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Fiji", 1 penny]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Labuan", 8 cents]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Congo", 40 centimes]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Congo", 10 francs]

Egypt has her sphynx and pyramids; Greece an artistic series of pictures
of her famous statues and ruins. Fiji shows a pirogue, the native canoe,
rudely shaped from a tree trunk and hollowed out by fire. Labuan has a
piratical looking native dhow. The stamps of Rhodesia and the Congo
Free State depict the advance of civilization on the dark continent.
History is sumptuously illustrated in the series of stamps issued by our
Government to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the
new world by Columbus and to celebrate the settlement and growth of the
great west. Portugal also has celebrated, in an elaborate issue of
stamps, the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India. Other countries have been
quite too ready to do likewise until we have feared we were in danger of
being drowned in the flood of commemorative and celebration stamps, many
of which we felt were designed to replenish an empty treasury rather
than to honor the glorious deeds of the past.

[Illustration: Stamp, "St. Vincent", 5 shilling]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Republique Francaise", 1]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Cape of Good Hope", 1 penny]

[Illustration: Stamp, "Trinidad"]

[Illustration: Stamp, "British East Africa", 1/2 Anna]

Quite a number of stamps have allegorical designs. One of the most
beautiful examples comes from St. Vincent. Familiar figures to
philatelists are those of Peace and Commerce on the stamps of France,
Hope with her anchor on the issues of the Cape of Good Hope and
Britannia on several of the British Colonies. The stamps of British East
Africa bear a flaming sun and the