"Blue-eyed babies" is certainly an improvement upon "Quaker ladies," the name by which the _Houstonia_ is known in some parts of New England; "death-baby" is a term that is given, Mrs. Bergen tells us, "from the fancy that they foretell death in the family near whose house they spring up. I have known of intelligent people rushing out in terror and beating down a colony of these as soon as they appeared in the yard." The parents have not been entirely forgotten, as the following names show:-- Mother's beauties, _Calandrina Menziesii_. In Sta. Barbara, Cal. Mother of thousands, _Tradescantia crassifolia_ (?). In Boston, Mass. Daddy-nuts, _Tilia sp._ (?). In Madison, Wis. At La Crosse, Wis., the _Lonicera talarica_, is called "twin sisters," a name which finds many analogues. As we have seen, the consideration of children as flowers, plants, trees, traverses many walks of life. Floral imagery has appealed to many primitive peoples, perhaps to none more than to the ancient Mexicans, with whom children were often called flowers, and the Nagualists termed Mother-Earth "the flower that contains everything," and "the flower that eats everything"--being at once the source and end of life (413. 54). A sweet old German legend has it that the laughter of little children produced roses, and the sweetest and briefest of the "good-night songs" of the German mothers is this:-- "Guten Abend, gute Nacht! Mit Rosen bedacht, Mit Näglein besteckt; Morgen früh, wenn's Gott will, Wirst du wieder geweckt." CHAPTER XII. CHILDREN'S ANIMALS, BIRDS, ETC. My brother, the hare, ... my sisters, the doves. --_St. Francis of Assisi._ Love of animals is inborn. The child that has had no pets is to be pitied.--_G. Stanley Hall._ For what are the voices of birds-- Aye, and of beasts,--but words, our words, Only so much more sweet?--_Browning._ I know not, little Ella, what the flowers Said to you then, to make your cheek so pale; And why the blackbird in our laurel bowers Spoke to you, only: and the poor pink snail Fear'd less your steps than those of the May-shower It was not strange those creatures loved you so, And told you all. 'Twas not so long ago You were yourself a bird, or else a flower. --_Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith)._ _Children and Young Animals._