The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1860-06-08
Nike Walsh and the Rat-tail Cactus.

sylvania Avenue ION the right hand side as
you are fronting that buildingD is an inclos-
ed space-national property-containing one
or more tenements and some conservatories
and lighthouses. Here for some years past
and until his death, enjoying Uncle Sans
patronage, sojourned Frenchman, learned
in botany and many other sciences. Some
companions, while passing these premises,
were vaunting his requirements to Mike,
j who, from spirit Of contradiction, called
them in question. He doubted whether
these eminent botanists knew the difference
between oats and wheat, and believed, he
said, that Bowery boy could persuade them
that corn was clover. Finally, Mike under
took, "botanical!y," to deceive the French
man with whatever he could pick up where
they stood, in the lane skirting his premises.
From wreck Of Aower-pots and rubbish, he
selected one sound pot and dead rat lying
next the heap. Placing the rat in the flower
pot he covered it up with mold, leaving out
the tail, which he fixed perpendicularly by
tying it carefully to a small green stick which
happened to be convenient" amongst the
garden rubbish. lie then called on the pro-
fessor, and told him that friend, Lieut.
Whose ship having touched at one
of the islands of the then terra incognita
Japan, had excited some interest) had pre-
sented him with very curious kind Of cac-
,us. This he wished the professor to exam
inc. No one, Mike said, had been able to
make it out, and he might have it FIVE years
and not find five people who would 50 he
hardly felt justified in keeping it out of a
public collection, and yet he did not like to
part with a keepsake from "friend." The
professor eagerly repaired to examine the
vegetable curiosity. After close inspection
he determined what it was, or at least chris
tened it by a fine Greek name-two words,
as Mike said, averaging sixteen letters. The
professor exhausted himself in persuading
Mike that the interests of science required
that he sh hould sacrifice to them the ssnti.
ments of friendship, by surrendering this
rare production Of the vegetable kingdom to
the keeping Of the botanist. The ,.luctan,
Mike eventually consented, on the willing
and solemn assurance Of the professor tha,
it would be tended with the utmost care =
and SO it Was. Placed in q hot-house, it was
cautiously but carefully besprinkled with wa
ter at temperature Of seventy degrees by
the thermometer. 1t was nsticed and de-
ocribed in the National Inielligencer. The
notice Was copied into other papers. The
plant was exhibited with pride to several em
lnent individuals al length, with the hea
and moisture, the tip of the tail began to tx
corlate. The professor was del!g ghted-i,
was budding. 1t Vas examined With grea;
lnteres, by one of the chief patrons, 'th.
great Daniel, to whom the botauist promis
ed one OF the first slips tor Marsnfeld. Ill
was too good joke to keep" said Mike
".speclaly i'll a hot-house, SO before lony
they smelt rat The wrath and shame of
the professor, and SO was the indignation Of
the great Daniel, not at the author Of tn,
joke, but at the unfortunate botanist, whom
he s,iSma,ized as a id frog -ea,in,
, Frenchma IL, through whom he had been ia
r ken IN, and who ought to have known bet
ter
SLEErING UNDER IHE CLoTHEs.-There i
reason to believe (says Miss Florence Night
ingale) that not few Of the apparently un
accountable cases Of scrofula among children
proceed from the habit Of sleeping with tn
head under the bed clothes, and so inhalin,
air already brea;hed, which is further Con
tamina,ed by exhalations from the skin. Ia
tients are sometimes given to similar habi
and it often happens that the bed clothe
are SO disposed that the patient must neces
sarily breathe air more or less contaminate,
by exhalations from the skin. A good nurs
will be careful to attend to this. 1t is an in,
= portant part, so to speak of ventilation.
. may be worth while to remark that whel
4 there is any danger Of bed sores, blanke
y should never be placed under the patient.
retains damp and acts like poul,ice. New
er use anything but light Whitney blanket
as bed-ccverings for the sick. The heavy
l.. impervious cotton courterpane is bad, for tn
very reason that it keeps in the emination
S from the sick person, while the blanket a
lows them to pass through. Weak patient
n are invariably distressed by a geeat weigh
i of bed clothes, which often prevents the poi
6 sibility of their getting any sound sleep wha,
b ever.
: LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.-The Quart
. Dictionary of Dr. Worcester has received
J. cordial welcome from the philologists of Eng
y land. The venerable Charles Richardson
now in his eighty-sixth year, the author o.
, Richardson's Dictionary, has written to d.
Worcester congratulatory letter upon tn
y success of his work. B. II. Smart, the al
t. thor Of practical Grammar of English Pre-
l. nunciation, who has devoted a long life t
s. pathological researches, and whose pronoun'
Z. ,ng dictionary is a standard authority, als
a. gives warm praise to rival work from th
le side of the Atlantic. The Rev. Richard {
ID r..,nh olso roll NJ bown for b;c ,h;lolou;.