154 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



her children, requires, it is said, the professors of Eton 

 College, when she is at her Windsor Palace residence, to 

 give instruction to the members of the Royal family. 

 Among those members was the bright, delightful and ac- 

 complished Princess Alice, and among her teachers was the 

 solemn Doctor Hicks, a trifle more stately and dignified 

 than the ordinary English head-master, and that is saying 

 a great deal. It is said that upon one occasion. Doctor 

 Hicks crossed the Thames, strode up the long avenue of 

 elms, was ushered into the royal apartments and proceeded 

 to give his instruction in mathematics to his pupils. Before 

 him, with the other members of the royal family, was the 

 Princess Alice, crouched up in her seat, with brow con- 

 tracted, now and then erasing from her slate the fijrures 

 that she had made, illustrating the axiom that there is no 

 royal road to learning. At last she looked up from her 

 place and, addressing the presiding officer, exclaimed, "I 

 say. Hicks, I can't get this thing !" "Hicks I Did that 

 child call me Hicks?" With difliculty restraining himself, 

 he at once asked for an audience with the Queen and was 

 promptly shown into her boudoir. Immediately she arose 

 and said, *« Doctor Hicks what can I do for you?" " Your 

 Majesty," said he, '< I have been insulted. Your daughter 

 Alice has insulted me." He then detailed the circum- 

 stances, and the Queen sent for Alice, and at once 

 addressing her, said, "Alice, my daughter, I am surprised 

 that you should ever forget that you are a lady." Admin- 

 istering a severe reproof, she concluded by saying, " And 

 now, if ever I hear of you in any way showing disrespect to 

 your teachers, I shall send you to bed." Note that, gen- 

 tlemen, — " I shall send you to bed." Not " I shall apply 

 Betula albay'' the proper corrective, nor even"! shall 

 apply Amygdalus Persica,'' but " I shall send you to bed." 

 Cubitus has arisen as a new and dangerous rival to Betula 

 alba, and that, too, from the British possessions. The Doctor 

 smoothed his rufiled plumage and retired. His step was 

 more stately than ever. Royalty had been taught a lesson 



