* * *

THE ORANGE CROP of Florida for the season of 1884-5 was, as near as it
could be definitely ascertained, 900,000 bushels. For the coming season
the crop is estimated at a million and a quarter bushels. Of the last
crop of 900,000 bushel crates, over one-half was shipped through
Jacksonville.

* * * * *

THE MANATEE, or Sea Cow, is still to be seen on the southeast coast of
Florida. At the extreme southern end of Indian River, in the St. Lucie
River, and in Hope Sound, are found the favorite feeding grounds of
these rarest and shyest of North American marine curiosities.

Personal.

BISHOP GILMOUR, on his late visit to Rome, received the honor of
Monsignore for his vicar-general, Father Boff.

THE Hon. William J. Onahan has returned from a tour through the Irish
Catholic colonies of Nebraska and Dakota. He reports them to be in a
flourishing condition.

IT is not generally known that the parish church of Eu, France, where
the chateau of the Comte de Paris is situated, is dedicated to St.
Laurence O'Toole.

IT is reported that Lord William Nevill, who some months ago was
received into the Catholic Church in Melbourne, and who has returned to
England, contemplates entering the Priesthood.

MISS ELEANOR C. DONNELLY has recently written a hymn for the Golden
Jubilee of the Priesthood of His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII., which occurs
December 23d, 1887. It has been set to music, and it has not only been
translated into German, but into Italian by an eminent theological
professor, and the hymn is now on its way to Rome to be presented to the
Pope by a member of the Papal Court.

MADAME SOPHIE MENTER, the famous pianist, now inhabits a castle in the
Tyrol (Schloss Itter), where she has just received the Abbe Liszt, who
passed several days there, getting up at 4 o'clock A. M., to work,
attending mass at 7.30, and then continuing work until midday. The Abbe,
who was received with guns and triumphal arches, has now left for Rome.

THE friends of Dr. Thomas Dwight, Parkman Professor of Anatomy at
Harvard University, will be pleased to learn that he has been made a
member of the Philosophae-Medicae Society of Rome. A diploma has been
issued by President J. M. Cornoldi, S. J. This society was founded by
Dr. Travaglini, with the full sanction of the late Pope Pius IX. It is
intended for the advancement of the sciences and philosophy, and it
ranks among its members so