HORT AND SAPONACEOUS.

[Illustration: S]

Some of _Mr. Punch's_ contemporaries have been circulating, together
with other small change, an account of a plant, newly discovered in
California by a Viennese. This plant, they say, "is about a foot in
height, and fades away in May, revealing to the astonished botanist a
ball of natural soap, contained within its stalk, and superior to the
best brown Windsor." They have forgotten, however, to add some
particulars, which _Mr. Punch_, in his zeal for the public service, has
taken pains to collect. He has ascertained that, out of one hundred and
twenty-nine persons who have read this paragraph, thirty-two have
observed, "that the properties of the plant are evidently soap-orific;"
twenty-eight have opined "that, when Nature planted it in California she
must have had an eye to the gold-washing;" sixty have pronounced
authoritatively, "that the discoverer of the plant ought at once to be
made a Companion of the Bath;" eight have expressed their surprise "that
it should have been discovered by a German, who could have had but
little previous knowledge of the article which it is said to produce;"
whilst the remaining person, an eminent boiler in the City, who prides
himself upon his French accent, remarked that, "they might say it had
been discovered by a German naturalist, but that, for his part, he
should always think it had been found out by a French _savon_." _Mr.
Punch_ has further ascertained that, in the Californian dialect of the
language of flowers, this plant signifies "I wash my hands of you!" and
is employed by ladies to intimate their rejection of an unwelcome suit.

* * * * *

THE CHELSEA GHOST.

The lovers of the marvellous will be sorry to hear that the Chelsea
Ghost is a spirit raised by the penny-a-liners in the hope of raising
their own spirits by a few extra pence during the present dull season.
We felt quite sure that directly the police went in search of the
apparition, it would not appear to any summons that might be served upon
it; and when we were told that SERGEANT SOMEBODY had walked through the
ghost, we were convinced the real fact must have been that if there was
a ghost at all, the police, instead of walking through it, would have
walked into it. We felt perfectly satisfied that the spectre must vanish
before the inspector, and we are happy, for the sake of common sense, to
find publicity given to the fact, that the