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" Here also sprang that goodly golden fruit 

 With which Acontius got his lover true, 

 Whom he had long time sought with fruitless suit ; 

 Here eke that famous golden Apple grew, 

 The which among the gods false At6 threw, 

 For which th' Idrean ladies disagreed. 



Till partial Paris deem'd it Venus' due. 

 And had of her fair Helen for his meed, 

 That many noble Greeks and Trojans made to bleed." 



At Brighton, there exists a curious custom of bowhng or throwing 

 Oranges along the high-road on Boxing-day. He whose Orange is 



hit by that of another, forfeits the fruit to the successful hitter. 



An Andalusian tradition, given by De Gubernatis, relates that the 

 Virgin Mary, journeying with the infant Jesus and with Joseph, 

 came to the Orange-tree, which was guarded by an eagle, and 

 begged of it one of the Oranges for the holy child. The eagle 

 miraculously fell asleep, and the Virgin thereupon plucked not 

 one but three Oranges, one of which she gave to the infant 

 Jesus, another to Joseph, and the third she kept for herself. Then, 

 and not till then, the eagle that guarded the Orange-tree awoke. 



According to Evelyn, the first China Orange-tree which 



reached Europe was sent as a present to the old Conde Mellor, 

 then Prime Minister to the King of Portugal. Writing in 1697, 

 the Jesuit Le Comte states that "the first and unique Orange- 

 tree, from which it is said all others have sprung, is still preserved 



at Lisbon, in the house of Count St. Laurent." In Sicily, 



statues of the Madonna are decorated with branches of the Orange ; 

 at Avola, in Sicily, on Easter Sunday, two posts are set up, and 



decorated with Orange-boughs. The Orange is one of those rare 



trees which produce at the same tmie fruit, flowers, and foliage ; 

 hence it is in soine countries considered as typifying great fulness, 

 and has thus become connected with wedding ceremonies. The 

 practice of wearing Orange-blossoms and wreaths by brides has 

 been derived from the Saracens, amongst whom the Orange-flower 

 was regarded as emblematic of a happy and prosperous marriage. 

 In Crete, the bride and bridegroom are sprinkled with Orange- 

 flower-water. In Sardinia, it is customary to attach Oranges to 



the horns of oxen which draw the nuptial carriage. To dream 



of Oranges would appear to be at all times a very unfavourable 

 omen. 



ORCHIS. — From mythology we learn that the Orchis owes 

 its origin to the wanton son of the satyr Patellanus and the nymph 

 Acolasia, who presided at the feasts celebrated in honour of 

 Priapus. The headstrong Orchis, being present at the celebration 

 of the feast of Bacchus, laid violent hands on one of the priestesses 

 of that god ; and this sacrilegious conducft so incensed the Bac- 

 chanals against the youth, that they forthwith set upon him, and 

 in their fury hterally tore him in pieces. His father adjured the 

 gods, but the only remedy he could obtain was that his son's 



