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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, ISCfi. 



BOTANY. 



The Glastonbury Thorn.— "It is handed 

 down that when Joseph of Arimathea, during his 

 mission to England, arrived at Wearyall Hill, near 

 Glastonbury, he struck his travelling staff into the 

 earth, which immediately took root, and ever after 

 put forth its leaves and blossoms on Christmas Day, 

 being converted into a miraculous thorn. This 

 tree, which had two trunks, was preserved until the 

 time of Queen Elizabeth, when one of the trunks 

 was destroyed by a Puritan ; and the other met with 

 the same fate during the Great Rebellion. Through- 

 out the reign of Henry VIII. its blossoms „were 

 esteemed such great curiosities and sovereign 

 specifics, as to become an object of gain to the 

 merchants of Bristol, who not only disposed of them 

 to the inhabitants of their own city, but exported 

 these blossoms to different parts of Europe. There 

 were, in addition to these, relics for rain, for avoiding 

 the evil eye, for rooting out charlock and all weeds 

 in corn, with similar specifics, which were considered 

 at this time the best of all property."— Notes and 

 Queries. 



Than-hmo, or Worm-Mushroom, grows in Bur- 

 mah, where bamboo clumps have been burnt down, 

 an accident which often happens in the forests from 

 friction, as well as from other causes. The fungus 

 is found in large pieces, of a pink hue, paler inside, 

 pithy, and somewhat solid ; smells when fresh like 

 edible mushroom. It is cut in slices, and preserved 

 in honey ; and a teaspoonful given to a child for 

 three mornings, and castor oil on the fourth, which 

 is said to bring away the dead worms. My old 

 friend Mr. Parish, of Moulmain, who I see is in 

 correspondence with you, would give you a more 

 accurate account. — W. T. H. 



The Lily appears to have been a favourite 

 flower with the ancient Greeks, and in the', wedding 

 ceremonies of the modern Greeks the priest is sup- 

 plied with two chaplets of lilies and ears of corn, 

 which he places on the heads of the bride and bride- 

 groom as emblems of purity and abundance. All 

 the wedding-party are then crowned with flowers, 

 and as they pass by the houses of their acquaint- 

 ance, flowers, nuts, and cakes are strewed from the 

 windows. — Flora Historica. 



Mignonette. — The Reseda odorata first found its 

 way to the south of France, where it was welcomed 

 by the name of Mignonette, Little-darling, which 

 was found too appropriate for this sweet little 

 flower to be exchanged for any other. By a manu- 

 script note in the library of the late Sir Joseph 

 Banks, it appears that the seed of the Mignonette 

 was sent, in 1742, by Lord Batcman, from the 

 Boyal Garden at Paris, to Mr. Richard Bateman at 

 Old "Windsor; but we should presume that this 



seed was not dispersed, and perhaps, not cultivated 

 beyond Mr. Bateman's garden, as we find that 

 Mr. Miller received the seed from Dr. Adrian van 

 Royen, of Leyden, and cultivated it in the Botanic 

 Garden at Chelsea in the year 1752. Prom Chelsea 

 it soon got into the gardens of the London florists, 

 so as to enable them to supply the metropolis with 

 plants to furnish out the balconies, which is noticed 

 by Cowper, who attained the age of twenty-one in 

 the year that the flower first perfumed the British 

 atmosphere by its fragrance. The author of the 

 " Task " soon afterwards celebrates it as a favourite 

 plant in London : — 



"the sashes fronted with a range 



Of orange, myrtle, or the fragrant weed." 



Flora Historica. 



DOTJBLE-ELOWERED PIMPERNEL (Anagollis Of- 



vensis), — A specimen of this was recently forwarded 

 me by a lady, who had received it from the 

 neighbourhood of Kejvedon, in Essex. The plant 

 appeared to be of the usual size ; but the corolla 

 was double, instead of single. — B. 



Drying Succulent Plants.— I have succeeded 

 in drying succulent plants and orchids in a very 

 satisfactory manner, by plunging them first into 

 boiling water, which arrests any further growth; 

 and I have never been disappointed by finding the 

 leaves fall off when dried, as is the case with speci- 

 mens not treated in this manner; and, moreover, 

 the colour remains unimpaired for years.— "E. 

 Capron. 



Dane's-blood. — In your last number, in an 

 article by B. on "Bell Blowers," there are two 

 mistakes which I should wish to correct. 



1st. He states that the name " Dane's-blood " is 

 commonly applied to the Dwarf Elder (Sambucus 

 ebnlus). This plant is called "Danewort," not 

 "Dane's-blood"; no plant could ever have been called 

 by this latter name unless the flower had been of a 

 black purple or crimson colour, which might give 

 the idea of blood, and it is evident that the Sam- 

 bucus ebulus has no such characteristic belonging 

 to it. 



2ndly. The plant on the Bartlow Hills formerly 

 called by the people in that neighbourhood " Dane's- 

 blood " was not the Campanula glomerata (which does, 

 however, grow not only there, but all over that part 

 of Cambridgeshire), but the Anemone pulsatilla. 1 

 doubt if this plant grows there now, for it was very 

 scarce on those hills forty years ago. I was very 

 intimate with the former Rector of that parish, and 

 when staying with him at the Rectory in the year 

 1827, knowing that I could procure specimens of 

 the roots in other parts of the neighbourhood, as in 

 the Devil's Ditch on Newmarket Heath, and the 

 Gogmagog Hills and elsewhere, he requested me 



