150 WHITSUN TIDE, 



MAY 29. St. Maximinus, bishop and c. a.d. 349. 



St. Cyril, martyr. 



St. Conon and his son, martyrs. 



SS. Sisinnius, Martyrius, and Alexander, mm. 



Obs. St. Maximinus was born at Poictiers. He was admitted 

 to holy orders in 332. This Saint was one of the most illustrious 

 defenders of the CathoHc faith in the council of Sardica in 347. He 

 is said to have died in Poiton in 349. 



Blue Bottle Centaurea montana fullest flowers. 

 BufF Bottle Centaurea ochroleuca begins to flower. 

 Great Iris Iris Sanibucina flowers. 

 Chinese Rose Rosa Sinensis flowers. 



Roses now begin to blow, that is to say the Chinese or Scentless 

 Rose, the Yellow Austrian Rose, and some others of the earlier 

 Roses. 



Oakapples, the nidus of a species of insect infesting particularly 

 the Oak, are now found, and wont to be gilded and worn in the hats 

 of ultra royal Englishmen, The custom of wearing Oakapples and 

 bouo'hs todav is going rapidly out of fashion ; it used to be called 

 Oakapple Day. This custom is in commemoration of the conceal- 

 ment of Charles II. in a certain Oak, after the battle of Worcester. 

 To this tree, not far from Boscobel House, the king and his compa- 

 nion Colonel Careless resorted, when they thought it no longer safe 

 to remain in the house ; climbing up by the henroost ladder, and the 

 family giving them victuals on a nulhook. 



" Xot far from Boscobel House," says Dr. Stukeley, in his Itine- 

 rariura Curiosum, fol. Lond. 1724, Iter. iii. p. 57, "just by a horse- 

 track passing through the wood, stood the Royal Oak, into which 

 the king and his companion Colonel Carlos climbed by means of the 

 henroost ladder, when they judged it no longer safe to stay in the 

 house ; the family reaching them victuals with the nuthook. The 

 tree is now enclosed in with a brick wall, the inside whereof is 

 covered with lawrel, of which we may say, as Ovid did of that 

 before the Augustine palace, ' raediamque tuebere quercum.' Close 

 by its side grows a young thriving plant from one of its acorns. Over 

 the door of the enclosure I took this inscription in marble : — ' Feli- 

 cissimam arborem quam in asylum potentissimi Regis Caroli II. 

 Deus O. JM. per quem reges regnant hie crescere voluit, tarn in per- 

 petuam rei tantae memoriam, quam specimen firmae in reges fidei, 

 muro cinctam posteris commendant Basilius et Jan a Fitzherbert. — 

 Quercus arnica Jovi.' " 



