18 HILARY TIDE, 



JAN. 18. St. Peter's Chair at Rome. 



St. Prisca, virgin and martyr, a.d. 275. 



St. Wolfrid, St. Deicolus, St. Paul, &c. 



Obs. The Church celebrates today the establishment of the 

 Episcopal Chair at Rome by St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. 

 This fact is asserted and described by Caius, a priest of Rome in 

 the time of Zephyrinus. St. Peter and St. Paul were the two apos- 

 tles who planted the Catholic faith at Rome, and were there mar- 

 tyred at the same time, as is asserted by St. Dionysius of Corinth, 

 who lived in the second age. The Apostolicity of the Church, and 

 the descent of all the popes, bishops, and prelates, from St. Peter, 

 their first bishop, is curiously exemphfied by the late Dr. Milner, in 

 his End of Religious Controversy, by a figure of the apostolical 

 tree. The festival is recorded in the Martyrology ascribed to 

 Bede, and was therefore kept prior to the year 720. St. Peter is 

 said metaphorically to keep the Key of Heaven. Hence many 

 churches dedicated to this Saint have the vane on their steeples 

 surmounted with a key, as St. Peter's in Cornhill, London, and 

 others. In common, a Cock is the figure used for the windvane, 

 and this, according to Du Cange, was originally devised as an 

 emblem of clerical vigilance, the clergy being styled the Cocks of 

 the Almighty, whose office it was to call us to early prayer, 6cc. — 

 See Beckmann's Inventions, article Weathercock. 



St. Prisca was a Roman virgin, martyred in 275. The church 

 which bears her name in Rome is dedicated in her honour. She is 

 mentioned in the Sacramentary of St. Gregory, and in the Western 

 Martyrologies. 



Fonrtoothed Moss Bryum pelluciduvi fructifies. 



This curious moss may now sometimes be found in fructification. 

 Botanists should carry about with them small magnifying glasses, 

 to examine the mosses, as their fructification cannot otherwise be 

 well understood. 



Peas ought by this time to appear above ground, when the wea- 

 ther be mild ; and the leaves of DaflTodils, Croci, and other early 

 bulbous plants, to appear. But oftentimes all is under snow, an I 

 shen these phenomena may be expected on its melting. 



