* * *

GARDENING NOTES.

_Meconopsis cambrica_ (Welsh Poppy). Owing to the wide popularity of
the energetic daughter of the PRIME MINISTER we understand that the
authorities at Kew have decided to re-name this plant _Meganopsis_.

_Digitalis_.--The spelling of the homely name of this well-known plant
is to be altered in the Kew List to _Foch's-glove_; the suggestion of
an interned German botanist that _Mailed Fist_ would be more suitable
not having met with the approval of the Council of the Royal
Horticultural Society.

* * * * *

"SPAIN'S REPUBLICAN PARLIAMENT.

Lisbon, Wednesday.--It would seem that the Cabinet just formed
by Senhor Tamagnini Barbosa will have in the next Parliament a
moderate Republican majority."--_Liverpool Daily Post_.

No other journal seems to have noticed the re-annexation of Portugal
by Spain.

* * * * *

"The task of fitting the square men created by the war into
square holes is certainly going to be one of tremendous
magnitude."--_Lancashire Daily Post_.

From some of the new Government appointments we gather that the PRIME
MINISTER gave up the task in despair.

* * * * *

"Wanted to purchase elephants, sound and without vice, and to
sell a variety of pigeons at reasonable prices."--_Pioneer
(Allahabad)._

But we doubt if the advertiser will be able to get all the elephants,
however free from vice, into the old pigeon-house.

* * * * *

[Illustration: BRIGHTER CRICKET.]

* * * * *

THE FINANCIER.

He had sat at the same table in the same restaurant for years--more
years than he cared to count. He was not as young as be used to be.

Always when he could he sat on the comfortable sofa-like seat on the
wall side of the table. When that was fully occupied he sat on the
other side on an ordinary upright chair, in which he could not lounge
at ease.

He sat there now discontentedly, keeping a watchful eye for vacancies
in the opposite party.

Half-way through his meal a vacancy occurred. He pushed his plate
across the table and went round, sinking with a sigh into the
cushioned seat.

The departing customer had left the usual gratuity under the saucer
of his coffee-cup. In a minute or two the waitress would collect the
cup and saucer and the coins.

But the w