MICHAELMAS TIDE. 267 



SEPT. 23. St. Thecla, virgin and martyr, 1st cent. 



St. Linus, pope and martyr, 1st age. 



St. Adamnan of Ireland, abbot, 705. 



Obs. St. Thecla was one of the brightest ornaments of the apos- 

 tolic age. She was converted by St. Paul's preaching, and at a very 

 early age made the vow of perpetual virginity and a Christian life. 

 For refusing to break her vows, she was condemned to be torn by 

 wild beasts, but they, to the surprise of the byestanders, refused to 

 touch her, as many of the early fathers relate, nevertheless she is 

 styled a martyr. 



St. Linus was the immediate successor of St. Peter in the see of 

 Rome. He sat twelve years after the martyrdom of St. Peter, and 

 is named among the martyrs in the canon of the Roman Mass. It is 

 not impossible that he might be called a martyr on account of his 

 sufferings for the faith, without dying by the sword. 



White Starwort Aster annuus fullest fl. 

 Eminent Starwort Aster eminens fl. 

 Upright Starwort Aster strictus fl. 

 Pointed Starwort Aster acuminatus fl. 

 Ciliated Starwort Aster ciliatus fl. 



We have received our specimen of A^ter annuus from Mr. Edward 

 Forster's garden at Hall End, but have some doubt of the species, 

 it having flowered two years with us. 



Walnuts are plentiful, and with sweet wine form a favourite de- 

 sert. This excellent fruit, as we are told, originated in the warm 

 vales of Persia. It is difficult to account for the many ceremonies 

 practised antiently with Nuts and Walnuts, and indeed with all this 

 tribe. Nuts were strewed antiently in all the avenues leading to 

 the nuptial apartment before the feet of the passing bride, and the 

 ceremony of strewing the Nuts Nuces spar^ere was the conclusion of 

 the weddingday. Sparge narite nuces tibi deserit Hesperus Octan. 



Nuts are very useful under different points of view ; the threefold 

 advantage which they possess of giving light, warmth, and food, 

 has been combined by Ovid in the following lines : 



Nuj; vigilat, recreat, ntilrit, preto, igne, mnnuque, 

 Pressa, perusta, crepans, luce, colore, cibo. 



This poet in his Nwi has also taken notice of the various injuries 

 which the Walnut Tree receives at the hands of travellers on the 

 highway ; and Boileau says, Ep. vi. speaking of the river Seine : 

 Tous ses bords soiit couverts de saules nou plantfes, 

 Et de noyers souvent du passant insultfes. ' < 



About this time rustic parties of peasant girls, going a Nutting as they oall 

 it, traverse all the fields where there are Hazels in the hedges. Vast quanti- 

 ties of Nuts eaten at once often lay in tlie storaach in an undigested state, and 

 do much harm; but taken in moderation they are not unwholesome. 



Numerous divinations and superstitious practices were formerly done with 

 Nuts, particularly about the Eve of AUhallows. 



Chesnuts, both Horse Ohesnuts and Spanish or Eatable Cliesnuts, are now 

 ripe. 



