The spiritual qualities associated with Topaz are fruitfulness and faithfulness. It is also said to confer cheerfulness upon its wearer. The ancients believed that it calmed the passions and prevented bad dreams; that it discovered poison by becoming obscured when in contact with it; that it quenched the heat of boiling water, and that its powers increased and decreased with the increase and decrease of the moon. Also a Topaz held in the hand of a woman at childbirth was believed to lessen suffering. Lastly, a Topaz is the gem of the month of November: “Who first comes to this world below With drear November’s fog and snow Should prize the topaz’s amber hue, Emblem of friends and lovers true.” Oliver Cummings Farrington. THE BIRTH OF THE HUMMINGBIRD. It was born in a valley of violets Where bird and flower for its favor vied, Its father a poppy gone stark mad, Its mother a reckless honey bee, (True child of such startling pedigree) Its cradle a sunbeam glorified. It was bathed in a dewdrop morn by morn And when the time for the christening came, The font was filled with a jeweled flame; Glitter of gems dissolved in mist, White of diamond, its changing light, Ruby, emerald, amethyst, And its christening robe was encrusted quite. Nelly Hart Woodworth. THE ROSE TANAGER. (_Pyranga aestiva._) “Oh, if it might be that the roses Be winged, and flying to thee, Could bear thee a thousand greetings,— Thou knowing they came from me! And if song might be given the roses, When I sped them in token to thee, They should warble my song to thee softly— Thou thinking the while on me!” —From the German of Abingulf Wegener. The brilliant Rose Tanager, “Encircled with poetic atmosphere, As lark emballed by its own crystal song.” might be the fulfillment of the poet’s roseate dream, and the message that he bears a vocal incense from the flower’s glowing heart. But if the burden of the one-half of the tanager duet is “my love is like a red, red rose,” the other half probably completes the flowery simile, with the proud refrain, “my love is like a green, green leaf,” and when the time of the bloom of the rose is past and the rosy plumes, like petals, fall away, he stands revealed an olive calyx, attended as the season wanes by an assemblage of belated olivaceous buds, whose song and carmine tints are folded away to await the summons of the next year’s sun. And when they return to us again in the full flower of their beauty from their southern home, gorgeous as if stained in the dyes of the tropic sun, their song is said to be suffused with color like the mellow tones of the rose-breasted grosbeak and oriole.