
the 

HOSPITALITY. 
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 speciesis viewed by most people with 
distrust and horror. The cactus has been the 
emblem of the latter sentiment, from the simi- 
larity 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. 
SHAKSPEARE. 
Tue 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 
Lyceeus, in Arcadia. The oaken crown was 



















