HOSPITALITY. 
133 
HORROR. 
SERPENTINE CACTUS. 
Every kind of serpent or snake, until na¬ 
turalists discovered that the common English 
snake is innoxious, was believed to be hurtful 
to man ; and it must yet be allowed, that even 
the latter species is viewed by most people 
with distrust and horror. The cactus has 
been the emblem of the latter sentiment, from 
the similarity of its long trailing prickly 
branches, which are thrown in knotted curls 
around the root, to the coils of serpents. 
HOSPITALITY. 
OAK. 
Under an oak, whose antique root peeps out 
Upon the brook that brawls along this wood. 
SHAKSPERE. 
The ancients believed that the oak, created 
with the earth, offered food and shelter to the 
first parents of our kind. This tree is said to 
have shaded the cradle of Jupiter, to whom it 
was consecrated, after his birth upon Mount 
Lycaeus, in Arcadia. The oaken crown was 
less esteemed by the Greeks than the crown 
of gold; but the Romans considered it the 
most desirable of all rewards. In order to 
