Till my collar's limp and flabby-- Then I hail the sleepy cabby, As I yawn; Home, to dream of sweet cheeks blushing Like the sky, now rosy flushing At the dawn. * * * * * TRÈS BEAU-TANICAL.--An Aladdin-like Magic-Lamp and Magic-Lantern Night at the Botanical Gardens on Wednesday. A thousand additional traditional lamps. The Flower of the Aristocracy, being at the State Ball, is represented by the Aristocracy of Flowers (in the absence of Lord and Lady BATTERSEA, without whom no Floral _Fête_ can be absolutely perfect) in every part of these beautiful gardens. Bands playing; but not sufficient distance between them, so that when they performed, simultaneously, entirely different tunes, the effect was far from soothing to the listeners' nerves. Why not adopt the plan admirably carried out at the Marlborough House Garden Party, where one band having finished, another, at a distance, commenced? Why among the harmony of colours at the Botanical should there be produced by the conflict of two tunes, taken in different times, but played at the same moment, an inharmonious whole? * * * * * LADIES' FASHIONS.--Extremes: _Minimum_--Bonnet; a ribbon and rosette. _Maximum_--Hat; a Flower Garden on a Yard of Straw. * * * * * THE MODERN NYMPH'S REPLY TO THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD. If times were as when time was young, And reason ruled each shepherd's tongue, Thy pretty speeches might me move, To live with thee, and be thy love. But times are changed in field and fold, At shocking prices sheep are sold, And farmers look exceeding glum, Foreboding darker days to come. The weeds do choke the thriftless fields, No profit now the harvest yields; Honey is sought, but only gall Is found, for still the prices fall. Thy pinks, thy stocks, thy Provence roses, Are pretty, and I'm fond of posies; But wages may not long be gotten When folly's rife, and business rotten. A man of straw thy master seems, No grain of sense is in thy dreams, And my Papa would not approve Even if I would be thy love. But, when times mend, sheep-farms succeed, And all on English mutton feed, Ask me again, and thou may'st move, To live with thee, and be thy love. * * * * * OPERATIC NOTES.