HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-G OSSIP. 



139 



BOTANY. 



TnE Pineapple (p. 117).— It is hardly fair, with- 

 out having seen the " stamp " which " M. Q. M. C." 

 speaks of, to throw any doubt on his theory as 

 to the early introduction of this fruit ; and 1 can- 

 not help almost wishing, for his sake, that I may 

 be wrong in my view of the matter ; for if L were 

 "M. Q. M. C." I should be very "proud of an ancestor 

 who, I thought, had introduced to this country so 

 fine a fruit as that which we now call Pineapple ; 

 and should scarcely thank auy officious corre- 

 spondent for trying to upset my belief. But I 

 suspect that the author of " Fruits of Great Britain " 

 is right, for the following reason. The old her- 

 balists make no mention whatever of the fruit of 

 Ananassa sativa. Lyte, who is my great authority 

 just now, as I have a fine copy of his Herbal in the 

 house (borrowed unfortunately), does not describe 

 it. His book was printed in 1578 ; and, as he speaks 

 of most of the plants that in his time were culti- 

 vated only "in the gardens of the curious," and 

 even of some that were imported but " not yet 

 known " in cultivation, he would most likely have 

 heard of the fame of so great a variety as this. But 

 the herbalists do make frequent mention of the 

 "pineapple," which three hundred years ago was 

 the common name for the cone of the pine-tree, not 

 only in English, but in the French and German 

 languages. The'particular kind of fir which was 

 then called " a pine, pinus" as distinguished from 

 "picea, the pitch-tree" (our Scotch fir) and " abies, 

 firre" (our silver fir), seems, to judge from the en- 

 gravings, to have been our spruce fir ; still, the 

 cones of any kind of fir would, no doubt, be called 

 " pineapples." It seems probable, therefore, that 

 the mode of growth of the pineapple was not mis- 

 understood at the Heralds' College, but that the 

 cones of the fir-tree were intended to be repre- 

 sented. The name has been transferred to the 

 fruit of Ananassa sativa from its superficial resem- 

 blauce to the original pineapple ; or possibly, because 

 those to whom it was first sent supposed it to be a 

 gigantic kiud of fir-cone, as indeed the old names 

 "King Pine" and "Queen Pine" would seem to 

 indicate. — Robert Holland. 



Veronica Bttxbatjmii. — A good many localities 

 have of late been mentioned in Science-Gossip, 

 and I may be allowed to add another still further 

 north ; viz. Peebles, where it is at present to be 

 found along with other early-flowering species. 

 Lovers of nature would, perhaps, find a visit to 

 Peebles worth while in the summer time, as, within 

 the past few years, one or two specimens of Deile- 

 phila galii and Sphinx convolvuli have been found 

 along with other more common insects, while 

 Rolyommatus Arla.rer.res has hitherto been easily 



obtainable. Of flowering plants, ferns, and mosses 

 there is also a good variety.—/. B. L., Peebles. 



A Triple Primrose.— When walking out this 

 morning, I plucked a primrose, of which the fol- 

 lowing is a description : — Calyx li-fid, corolla 

 14-lobed, stamens 14, and pistils 3, two being 

 adnate, and the other solitary. — S. M., Casterton. 



Gentian (pp. 91, 119).— The name which most 

 nearly corresponds with "Surge et ambula" in the 

 emphatic testimony which it bears to the virtues 

 of the plant owning it, is the French " Casse-lunettes" 

 " Break -your-spectacles," applied to " Centaurea 

 Cyanus. I know of no similar name for Gentian 

 to that given by "R. T. ;" indeed, our Gentians 

 are singularly deficient in English names, properly 

 so called. "J. R. S. C." will find that in books 

 it is Gentiana Amarella, not G. campestris, that 

 is called the "Autumnal Gentian." The name 

 " Yellow Buckbean " is an absurd book-invention, 

 dating from the time when our Yillarsia was 

 placed in the genus Menyanthes, and originating 

 in the notion that every plant must have an 

 " English name ; " it is in every way inappropriate, 

 as no one but a botanist would recognize the affinity 

 between Yillarsia and Menyanthes. If "J. R. S. C." 

 means that the nativity or existence of Gentiana 

 nivalis "is perhaps doubtful," I may inform him 

 that both are satisfactorily established. Does not 

 Mrs. YTatney (p. 11 G) mean Agrimony (Agrimonia 

 Bupatoria), instead of Hemp-Agrimony (Eupatorkm 

 cannabinum) ? " Ground vine " is, of course, a 

 misprint for " ground pine." — James Britten. 



The Larch Blossoms. — During the spring, the 

 curious and pretty adornments displayed by the 

 larch twigs attract the notice even of those who 

 feel little interest in botany; they have been re- 

 ferred to by Tennyson also, as marking a particular 

 period in connection with the Thrush's song : — 



" When rosy plumelets tuft the larch, 

 And rarely pipes the mounted thrush." 



Mr. Newman reports, in the "Entomologist," on 

 the dictum of Professor Oliver, that these roses in 

 miniature are really the normal female blossoms. 

 This completely upsets the ingenious conjecture 

 started by certain folks, that they were due to the 

 puncture of some insect of the gall -producing family. 

 -/. R. S. C. 



Borrago (vol. vi. p. 165, &c).— As my difficulty 

 about the reduplicated form of this word has not 

 been cleared up to my satisfaction, I give the 

 earliest use of it I have met with. It occurs in 

 Tournefort, "Elemens de Botanique" (1691), vol. i. 

 p. 109, and I presume Linnaeus considers this to 

 be the first application of the term to the plant, as 

 he cites Tournefort on p. Ill of his "Philosophia 

 Botanica" (1770).— R. T., 2I.A. 



