covered with a very soft, hoary, velvet-like down, and has a strong,
pungent, aromatic odour, like penny royal or valerian, that is
peculiarly grateful to cats, whence its specific and English names.
These animals are so fond of it, that it is almost impossible to keep
them from it, _after being transplanted_. Ray and Miller, both assert,
however, that cats will never meddle with such plants as are raised from
seed. Hence the old saying,

"If you set it,
The cats will eat it;
If you sow it
The cats don't know it."

P.T.W.

_Beef-eaters_, or yeomen of the guard, are stationed by the sideboard at
great royal dinners. The term is a corruption from the French
_buffetiers_, from _buffet_, sideboard.

_A Lion Killer._--Lions abound in the west of India. A gentleman assured
Captain Skinner that he had, in one season, killed forty-five in the
province of Hissar, alone. None of them were large, but he mentioned
having met with one of uncommon beauty; its skin was of the usual tawny
colour, but its mane a rich glossy black, as was also the tuft on the
tail.

_Vultures._--On passing the carcass of a bullock (says Captain Skinner,)
we had a proof of the keenness of the vulture's scent. An hour before
not one was seen; nor was the place, being so wild and far removed from
all habitations, likely to be haunted by them: yet now they thronged