252 NATIVITY TIDE. 



SEPT. 8. NATIVITY of Our Lady. 

 St. Adrian, martyr, 306. 

 St. Sidronius, martyr, 1067. 

 SS. Eusebius, Nestablus, Zeno, and Nestor, mm. 

 St. Corbinian, bishop, 730. 

 St. Disen of Ireland, bishop, 700. 



Ohs. Tlie festival of the Holy IV ame of the Virgin Mary 

 occurs today. The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a festival 

 celebrated in the church with much prayer and thanksgiving. She 

 was brought into the world, says the sacred historian, not as others, 

 with the penalty of the sin of Adam, but pure and spotless, and free 

 from the blemish of any corruption whatever. The words of the 

 Canticle, I am black, but beautiful, ye daughters of Jerusalem, 

 are said to allude to her, not as being black in colour, but being 

 born into a weak state of mortality, but in the eyes of Heaven a se- 

 raph of transcendant briglitness. To her also are applied, As the 

 Lily ammig thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters, Cant. ii. 2 ; 

 and. Thou art fair, and there is not a spot in thee. Cant. iv. 7. 

 J\Ian, says Butler, fallen in Paradise by one woman seduced by the 

 infernal spirit, was to be restored to Heaven by the seed" of another 

 woman. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and be- 

 tween thy seed and her seed, she shall crush thy head, and tho^t shall 

 lie in wait for her heel, Gea. in. 15. See Butler, viii. 8, page 73. 

 Hence Our Lady is sometimes figured as a virgin treading on the 

 head of the serpent recoiled round the world ; at other times as 

 standing on the crescent, the eastern emblem of chastity. The fol- 

 lowing is a French hymn composed to be sung today in convents : 

 Cantiqne pour le Fete tin Nom de Marie. 

 Au point (iu jour dans nos divins concerts, 



('hantons le nom de la Sainte Marie, 

 Et consacrons a elle nos de cliants divers 



Pour que cliacq'un I'announce et le publie, 

 Et que persoiine ne jamais onblie 



Le jour natal de la Mere de Dien, 

 Nous sur la terre chaDtonsaiijourdui, 



De menie que les Anires dans les cieux, 

 Le lever d'line ttoile glorieuse. 



O Rayon du Matin, LuneduSoir 

 Vierge ^pousee, nierede Uieupiuse, 



Lampe au peclieur ecartf de Pe^poir. 

 Nous vons chantons ries Anges souveraine, 



Apres Jesiis, vous serez notre appui, 

 Et de nos coeurs serez seule la Reine, 

 A nous conduire a la sloire avec lui. 



Our Lady's Fringes Gentiana ciliata full fl. 

 Atnellus Aster Amelliis full H. 



This is evidently the specie? described by Virgil in the 4th Geor.; ive had it 

 in floH'er at U'altfianistov/ in September 1825. 



The Gcniinna ciliata is one of those beautiful ornaments of the alpine re- 

 gions ill autumn which adorn tlie Swiss and other uiountaiu valleys, coverina 

 whole tracts of country in those elevated situations with a fine azure blue. 

 The beautiful eflfeit of the.«e flowers on Mont Cenis is well described by .Sir 



ames Edward Smith, Piesident of the Linnean Society, in his Tour on the 

 Jontineut. 

 C 



