pPaat "bore, 'bcga?^^/, anS. Isa^ncf, ^^^ 



for a vintner of the place secured a slip, and planted it in his 

 garden, where it duly flowered on the 25th December. When the 

 new style was introduced in 1752, the alteration (which consisted 

 of omitting eleven days) seems to have been very generally dis- 

 liked by the mass of the peo})le. The use which was made of 

 the Glastonbury Thorn to prove the impropriety of the change 

 is not a little curious. The alteration in the Christmas Day, 

 which was held that year and since on a day which would have 

 been January 5th, was particularly obnoxious, not only as dis- 

 turbing old associations, but as making an arbitrary change from 

 what was considered the true anniversary of the birth of Christ. 

 In several places, where real or supposed slips from the Glaston- 

 bury Thorn existed, the testimony of the plant against the change 

 was anxiously sought on the first Christmas Day under the new 

 style. As the special distincftion of the Thorn arose from its sup- 

 posed connecftion with the great event commemorated on that day, 

 it was argued that it nuist indicate the true anniversary, and that 

 its evidence would be conclusive on the subjecfl. The event of one 

 of these references (at Quainton, in Buckinghamshire) is thus 

 recorded in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1753: — "Above 2000 

 people came here this night (December 24th, 1752, n.s., being the 

 first Christmas Eve under the new calendar), with lanthorns and 

 candles, to view a Thorn-tree which grows in this neighbourhood, 

 and which was remembered (this year only) to be a slip from the 

 Glastonbury Thorn ; that it always budded on the 24th, was full- 

 blown the next day, and went off at night. But the people, finding no 

 appearance of a bud, it was agreed that December 25th n.s. could 

 not be the right Christmas Day, and accordingly they refused going 

 to Church, or treating their friends as usual. At length the affair 

 became so serious, that the ministers of the neighbouring villages, 

 in order to appease the people, thought it prudent to give notice 

 that the old Christmas Day should be kept holy as usual." The 

 slips of the Thorn seem to have been everywhere unanimous in 

 this opposition to the new style. There still exist at Glastonbury, 

 within the precincfls of the ruins of the Abbey, two distincft trees, 

 which, doubtless, sprang from the Thorn of Joseph of Arimathea, 

 and which continue to blossom during the winter months. 



GLOBE FLOWER.— The botanical name of the Globe 

 Flower, Tvollius Euyopaiis, is supposed to be of Scandinavian origin, 

 and to signify a miigic flower. The plant is also called Globe 

 Ranunculus and Globe Crow-foot, from the globular form of its 

 calyx. The flower was formerly known as the Troll-flower, and in 

 Scotland as the Luckan Gowan (Cabbage Daisy). Its name of 

 Troll was probably derived from the Swedish word troll, a malig- 

 nant supernatural being, — a name corresponding to the Scotch 

 Witches' Gowan, and given to the Trollius on account of its acrid 

 ]ioisonous qualities. It is a common flower on the Alps, and has 

 been employed from time immemorial by the Swiss peasantry to 



