ASSUMPTION TIDE. 223 



AUG. 10. St. Lawrence, martyr, a.d. 258. 

 St. Deusdedit, confessor. 

 St. Blaan of Ireland, bishop, 446. 



Ohs. There are few martyrs in the church whose names are so famous as 

 that of the glorious St. Lawrence. Tlie prefect of Home cau«ed hitr. to be 

 laid on a gridiron, and live coals almost extinguished to he t'lrowii under it. 

 The martvr felt not the torments of the persecutor, and said to him, " Let my 

 body be now t;irned ; one side is broiled enough." When by the prefect's 

 orders this was done, he said, " It is dressed enough , you may eat." Having 

 prayed fervently for the conversion of Rome, the saint finished his prayer, 

 lifting up his eyes towards heaven, and gave up the ghost. 



Common Balsam Impatienr Bahavmia fl. 

 Climbing Amaranth Amaranthus scandens fl. 

 Small Tageses Tageses minuta fl. 

 Slender Tageses Tageses tenaifolia fl. 

 Yellow Zinnia Zinnia paucijlora fl. 



Balsams have been called Alehouse Plants, and stigmatised as vulsar, 

 merely because they have frequently been the common ornament of the doors 

 of inns and hotels, and of country alehouses, in this season of the year. 



Today in the Ephemerisof Nature is called Stellibnnda, from the frequency 

 of falling stars. For those small fierv meteors are particularly common about 

 this time of vear, and frequently leave long trains of littht beliiiid them : this 

 is usually a s'ign of wind, which'Virgil makes mention of in his Georgics, and 

 Aratus in his Diosemea : 



Ka.1 Jii •wxra, [A.B'Kaiva.v ot' aTi^li; aiira-WTi 



Taptfiitt Toi J' oTTifiEV pujuoi ilTToXei/XaiKaVTai 



A£i5'£>.9ttt HMoiq ttUTUV oJov Ip'^o/xivoio 



nvivfx.aTOi, &c. Arat. Dtos. 107. 



Saepe etiani 'tellas veiito iiiipendente videhis 

 Praecipitcs coelo labi noctisque per unibrani 

 Flammarum longos a tergo albescere tractns. 



Georgic. lib. i. 365. 



There are three sorts of falling stars; the most common kind prevail in 

 frosty winter niglits, and in summer also, when there are dry easterly winds 

 with a ciear sky. They have very much of the ap|)earance of the real stars, 

 and have probably from this circumstance derived their vulgar name. The 

 second kind are more brilliant, and generally appear in warm summer even- 

 ines, particularly when electric clouds abound ; some of them are very beau- 

 tiful, and give much light. The third sort are strikingly different from the 

 two above mentioned, being generally small and of a beautiful bluishwhite 

 colour, but their peculiar characteristic is that of leaving long white trains 

 beiiind them, which remain visible for some seconds in tlie tract in which the 

 meteors have goue. This kind of meteors abounded in the night of the 10th 

 of August, 18n, after a showery day. We have thought that their tails were 

 the result rather of some gas set on fire bv the meteor in its passage, than of 

 any of the luminous substance of the meleor left behind, \vhen any kind of 

 falling stars appear, some feature of Wanecloud, however small, may generally 

 be seen about ; but this does not appear to be always the case in wmter. — See 

 Forsler's Atmospheric Phenomena, 3d edit. p. 116. 



