* * *

"THE FLOWERS THAT BLOOM, TRA-LA!"

[Illustration]

In the _Times_ for March 12th appeared a notice of The Spring Flower
Show, wherein it was stated that a silver medal was awarded to Mr.
BARR for his "_pretty collections, which included the spurius Henry
Irving_." There's an "o" omitted, of course, but it's the same word.
Who is the "spurious HENRY IRVING"? Where does this flower of the
Drama flourish, away from the Lyceum Theatre? What and where does
HENRICUS SPURIUS play? Does he appear in the Hare-Bells? Is he to
bloom in Covent Garden? or is it, after all, only a plant? There is
only one HENRICUS IRVINGUS, and he's not "_spurius_."

* * * * *

QUEER QUERIES.

HEALTH.--I am not an invalid, but I suffer from giddiness, a feeling
of suffocation, with excruciating pains, and apparent cessation of
the heart's action. I am also so nervous, that, whenever the door is
opened, I begin to scream loudly. My mental feebleness finds vent in
puns that have alienated my oldest friends. Could some Correspondent
explain these symptoms? I do not believe in Doctors, but am taking
"Soft-sawder's Emulgent Balsam of Aconitine." It does not seem to have
done me much good yet, but that is probably due to my not having tried
it long enough.--RATHER ANXIOUS.

* * * * *

A DANCING-ON-NOTHING GIRL.--Talk of _The Dancing Girl_ at the
Haymarket--of course people _will_ talk--why she's nothing to
the girls who dance to M. JACOBI's inimitable ballet-music at the
Alhambra. Here they have a magic show, which "puzzles the Quaker;"
and I don't mind admitting that I was the quaker when I saw a fair and
comely young lady up in the air standing still and dancing on nothing
at all! Certainly "Aerolithe" is as good as any of her marvellous
predecessors, the Vanishing Girl included. As a conjuror, Mr. CARL
HERTZ, who I take to be the inventor of the above illusion, is
also uncommonly neat, and this "Ten o'Clock," to all lovers of the
marvellous, can be recommended by

THE FACULTY FOR AMUSEMENT.

* * * * *

[Illustration: RANDOM ALADDIN.

HIS ADVENTURES IN MASHONALAND. AN ARABIAN NIGHT'S DREAM. SNOOZE NO.
1.]

* * * * *

"OH, NO, WE NEVER MENTION HIM!"

[HER MAJESTY in the evening witnessed the performance of _The
Gondoliers_, a Comic Opera, composed by Sir ARTHUR SULLIVAN,
in t