_Botanical A.B.C._--The A.B.C. Daria is a name given to a plant of the camomile species. The appellation is designed to express the use made of this plant by the black schoolmasters at Amboyna, who cause their young pupils to chew the flowers and roots, either alone or with beetlenut, in order that they may more easily pronounce some of the difficult Arabic letters. It is similar to the _Anthemis Pyrethrum_, as stimulating the mouth, and is recommended in paralyses of the tongue. P.T.W. _Smoking._--A standing order of the House of Commons, in 1693, directs, "that no member of the house do presume to smoke tobacco in the gallery, or at the tables of the house sitting at committees." H.B. ANDREWS. _A Turn-coat._--De Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, was notorious for his shiftings in religion. One of his friends ended a report of an interview with him as follows:--"It is clear he is a _wily-beguily_, rightly bred in the nest of the Jesuits." * * * * * _A Turtle Mayor_.--In the fourteenth century, one Roger Turtle was Mayor of Bristol no less than seven times, 1326 to 1341--a circumstance which elicited the following _jeu d'esprit_:-- If old _Roger Turtle_ was seven times mayor, An honour which fell to no other man's share, His descendant, a _Turtle_, in this modern day, Bears, as _mayor-elect_, a perpetual sway. * * * * * _Auctions_.--In France, to this day, sales are announced with the drum. In this country they were formerly accompanied by trumpet; for, in a will of 1388, we find "that the tenements so bequeathed shall be sold separately, by the sound of the trumpet, at the High Cross (Bristol), without fraud or collusion." _Charters_.--In one of the most valuable, but least known collections in the British Museum, are about _ten thousand_ charters, which were indexed by Ayscough. _Cowley_, the poet, was the son of a grocer, who lived in Fleet-street, near the end of Chancery-lane. * * * * * _Epitaph, formerly in a Churchyard at Bristol_. Ye witty mortals! as you're passing by, Remark, that near this monument doth lie, Center'd in dust, Described thus: Two Husbands, two Wives, Two Sisters, two Brothers, Two Fathers, a Son, Two Daughters, Two Mothers, A Grandfather, a Grandmother, a Granddaughter, An Uncle and an Aunt--their Niece follow'd after. This catalogue of persons mentioned here Was only five, and all from incest free. G.K. * * * * * _Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset House) London; sold by G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; CHARLES FUGEL, Francfort; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers._ End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 576, by Various