A Soldier’s simile.—­Your shy dog is always a deep one:  give me a man who looks me in the face as he would a cannon.

A Landlord’s Independence.—­The indifference of a man well to do, and not ambitious of half-pence.  “There’s my wife by the door, friend; go, tell her what you want.”

* * * * *

THE GATHERER

The Opera.  From the number of French and German operas announced for performance at the King’s Theatre, it should no longer be called the Italian Opera, but the Foreign Opera.

Tooth Ache.—­Powdered alum not only relieves this annoyance, but prevents the decay of the tooth.

Egypt.—­The French are just at this moment crazy for Egyptian antiquities.  “While Champollion (on dit)is about to unrol the mystic papyri in all their primitive significance, the celebrated Caillaud has preceded him with the First Numbers of a work on the Arts and Trades of the Egyptians, Nubians, and Ethiopians; their customs, civil, and domestic, with the manners and customs of the modern inhabitants of these countries.” —­For.  Quart.  Rev.

Anne Boleyn.—­M.  Crapelet, the celebrated Parisian printer, has just written and printed a beautiful little volume entitled Anne Boleyn, which is spoken of as “a careful and pains-taking attempt to exhibit a character hitherto strangely disfigured by party writers, in its true light.”

Root of the Devil.—­There is a strange root called the Devil’s Bit Scabious, of which quaint old Gerard observes:  “The great part of the root seemeth to be bitten away:  old fantasticke charmers report that the devil did bite it for envie, because it is an herbe that hath so many good virtues, and is so beneficial to mankinde.”  Sir James Smith as quaintly observes, “the malice of the devil has unhappily been so successful, that no virtue can now be found in the remainder of the root or herb.”—­ Knowledge for the People. Part xiv.

Onions.—­The British onion is of the worst description, those of Egypt and India being considered great delicacies.  Their strong, disagreeable odour is attributable to the sulphur which they contain, and which is deposited by their juice, when exposed to heat.—­Ibid.

Spanish Liquorice is so called from its being manufactured only in Spain and Sicily.  The root grows naturally in those countries and in Languedoc, and in such abundance in some parts of Sicily, that it is considered the greatest scourge to the cultivator.—­Ibid. (Our brewers and distillers would not be of this opinion were liquorice indigenous to this country.)

Heat in Plants.—­Lamarck tells us of a plant, which during a few hours of its growth, is “so hot as to seem burning.”  Its greatest heat is stated at nearly 45 degrees above the temperature of the air in which the plant was growing.