ing
above the wall, as if from a funeral pyre. The St. Mary thistle grows
at the foot of the walls in knots of large, spreading, crinkled
leaves, beautifully scalloped at the edges; the glazed surface
reticulated with lacteal veins, retaining the milk that, according to
the legend, flowed from the Virgin's breast, and, forming the Milky
Way in mid-heaven, fell down to earth upon this wayside thistle. Huge
columns of cactuses and monster aloes may be seen rising above the top
of the walls, like relics of a geologic flora contemporaneous with the
age of the extinct volcanoes around. But the most curious of all the
plants that adorn the walls is a kind of ivy which, instead of the
usual dark-greenish or black berries, bears yellow ones. This species
is rare, but here it occurs in profusion, and is as beautiful in
foliage as it is singular in fruit. The walls themselves, apart from
their floral adorning, are very remarkable, and deserving of the most
careful and leisurely study. They are built up evidently of the
remains of tombs; and numerous fragments of marble sarcophagi,
pillars, inscriptions, and rich sculpture are imbedded in them,
suggestive of a whole volume of antiquarian lore, so that he who runs
may read.

On the right of the road, in a vineyard, are several Columbaria
belonging to the family of Caecilius, an obscure Latin poet, who was a
predecessor of Terence, and died one hundred and sixty-eight years
before Christ; and on the left are the Columbaria of the freedmen of
Augustus and Livia, divided into three chambers. These last when
discovered excited the utmost interest among antiquarians; but they
are now stripped of all their contents and characteristic decorations,
and the inscriptions, about three hundred in number, are preserved in
the museums of the Capitol and Vatican. On the same side of the road,
in a vineyard, a Columbarium was discovered in 1825 belonging to the
Volusian family, who flourished in the reign of Nero; one of whose
members, Lucius Volusius, who lived to the age of ninety-three, was
extolled on account of his exemplary life by Tacitus.

On the same plateau is the entrance to the celebrated Catacombs of St.
Calixtus. It is on the right-hand side of the road, about a mile and a
quarter from the present gate, and near where stood the second
milestone on the ancient Appian Way. A marble tablet over the door of
a vineyard shaded with cypresses points it out to the visitor. The
rock out of