280 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Dec. ], 1866. 



BOTANY. 



Danes'-blood. — The Rev. T. Salwey, iu your 

 last, corrects two " mistakes " into which he sup- 

 poses me to have falien, with regard to the applica- 

 tion of the above name to the dwarf elder [Samhucus 

 Ebulus). May I be permitted to show that my 

 " mistakes " may be, after all, nearer the truth than 

 his corrections ? 



1st. Three or four of my botanical works speak of 

 S. Ebulus as "Danes'-blood;" but I have nowhere 

 seen the name applied to any other plant, save by 

 Miss Pratt, who claims it for Campanula glomerata. 

 In its Buckinghamshire localities, S. Ebulus is thus 

 named by the villagers, not because its blossoms in 

 any way give " the idea of blood," but because it is 

 supposed to have sprung up from the blood of the 

 slaughtered Danes ; and Ray, for the same reason, 

 calls it "Danewort," "quia e Banorum occisorum san- 

 guine ortum fabulantur." Merrett also, in his 

 " Pinax" (1667), speaks of S. Ebulus as "Dane- 

 wort or Danes'-blood ; " so that the latter name is, 

 at any rate, by no means a new one. 



2nd. A further investigation has convinced me 

 not only that S. Ebulus is called " Danes'-blood," 

 but that it at least was known by that very name at 

 the Bartlow Hills locality, and that at a much 

 earlier date than can be claimed either for Anemone 

 Pulsatilla or Campanula glomerata. Camden, in his 

 "Britannia" (1753), as quoted in Gibson's "Mora 

 of Essex," says: " The Wallwort, or Dwarf Elder, 

 that grows hereabout (the Bartlow Hills) in great 

 plenty, and bears the berries they (the country 

 people) call by no other name but Danesblood, from 

 the multitude of Danes that were slain there." 



I trust I have shown satisfactorily that S. Ebulus 

 not only could be, but was, and is, called " Danes'- 

 blood," even though its flowers are not " of a black- 

 purple or crimson colour." 



Mr. Salwey will be glad to learn that A. Pulsatilla 

 is not yet exterminated from the Gogmagog Hills 

 locality, as a kind friend lately sent me specimens 

 of that and Muscari racemosum gathered there last 

 spring. — B. 



The Crocus appears to have been first cultivated 

 in our gardens during the reign of Queen Elizabeth; 

 as Gerard observes that "that pleasant plant that 

 bringeth foorth yellow flowers, was sent vnto me 

 from Robinus of Paris."— Flora Historica. 



Electric Flowers— Plashes of light have been 

 seen to be emitted from many flowers, soon after 

 sunset on sultry days ; this phenomenon was dili- 

 gently studied by Zawadski: he noticed that it 

 occurred most frequently in the months of July and 

 August, and he observed that the same flower dis- 

 charged a number of flashes in succession.— Noad's 

 "Student? 8 Tex/ -book of Electricity." 



Dane's Blood.— Sir W. Hamilton lays it down 

 as a principle that if we are not entitled on the one 

 hand to assert as actually existent except w r hat we 

 know ; neither are we, on the other, warranted in 

 denying as possibly existent what we do not know. 

 If T. Salwey had acted upon this principle, he would 

 have hesitated to call B.'s name for Sambucus Ebulus 

 "a mistake." Both names, "Danewort" and "Dane's 

 blood," belong to the plant. Thus iu "VVarsae's 

 "Danes and Norwegians in England" we read, " The 

 so-called dwarf elder or Danewort is said to have 

 germinated from the blood of the fallen Danes. It 

 is therefore called Dane blood or Danewort, and 

 flourishes principally in the neighbourhood of 

 Warwick, where it is said to have sprung from 

 and been clyed with the blood shed there when 

 Canute the Great took the town." And as to the 

 argument "that no plant could have ever been 

 called by such a name, unless the flower had been 

 of a black purple or crimson flower, which might 

 have given the idea of blood," the old folk lore of 

 many counties does attach the idea of blood to this 

 plant, white though its flowers be. Thus Mr. Lees, 

 in his " Pictures of Nature around Malvern," tells 

 us that a long patch of it grows near Lower Wick, 

 in Worcestershire, and there "the first blood" is 

 said to have been spilt in the contest between 

 Charles I. and the Parliament. Similarly in Wales, 

 the idea is that this plant can only grow where the 

 ground has been moistened by the blood of man 

 shed either in battle or by murder. " Llysau gicaed 

 gwyr" "Plants of the blood of man," say the 

 Welsh. — Lester Lester, Monkton Wyld. 



The Cladoniei (Lichens).— In the Annals of 

 Natural History for November the Rev. W. A. 

 Leighton has published a re-arrangement of this 

 group of lichens as tested by hydrate of potash. 



Clathrus cancellattjs— It may gratify such 

 readers as are interested in fungi to record the 

 occurrence of the very rare Cluthrus cancellatus in 

 Teignmouth. I gathered it this afternoon growing 

 on the hard earth of a perpendicular bank under the 

 shade of trees. I inclose you a sketch of the plant 

 of the size when gathered. Since being placed in 

 Thwaites' fluid for preservation, it has enlarged 

 very much. The external skin is of a bistre brown, 

 one portion, after bursting, adhering to the top of 

 the plant, the other to the slight stem which is 

 wholly concealed in the ground. The plant itself is 

 a bright orange, darker towards the edges of the 

 cancelli, the whole plant rugose— the interior sur- 

 face covered with good-sized papillae, of a deeper 

 orange than the outside, changing to a dull green 

 in ripening. The scent of the whole plant is most 

 offensive. I believe that this is the second time 

 that this rare fungus has been gathered in same 

 grounds this year.— A*. Cresswell, Teignmouth. 



