April 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



91 



BOTANY. 



Podder. — "A weed called Fodder, winding about 

 Hempe or other like."— Hollyband's " Dictionaries," 

 1593, quoted by Halliwell. Is this a misprint for 

 Dodder ? If so, I should suppose Polygonum Con- 

 volvulus would be intended, which is known by that 

 name in Cheshire. Can any one refer me to any 

 other list in which Podder occurs ?— James Britten. 



Foxglove (pp. G, 13, 64).— Fuchs published his 

 "Historia Plantarum" in 1512, and Foxglove is given 

 as the common English name for Digitalis purpurea 

 by Turner (15GC), Gerarde (1597), Parkinson (1610), 

 and all subsequent writers. It is not probable that 

 a name like Fuchs-glove, composed as it is of two 

 languages, would ever have come into use ; although 

 there are occasional instances of such compound 

 titles : and it is still less likely that a name, com- 

 memorative of a foreign botanist, whose works 

 could never have been popular iu England, would 

 have become so general in little more than twenty 

 years, as to have become corrupted or translated 

 into Foxglove. Bosworth (Anglo-Saxon Dictionary) 

 gives Foxes-glofa. Dr. Prior says, "It seems most 

 probable that the name was in the first place Foxes- 

 glew, or music— A.-S., gliew, in reference to the fa- 

 vourite instrument of an earlier time, a ring of bells 

 hung on an arched support,— the tintinnabulum, 

 and thus answering to the Norwegian Revbielde,— 

 fox-bell": but this leaves the meaning of "fox" 

 still unexplained. 1 am informed that the plant is 

 still, in Sussex, called Finger-root (Fingerhut ?).— 

 James Britten. 



Pyrola media.— Is this plant still to be found 

 at Stockghyll, Ambleside? In reply to " R. T., 

 M.A.," in last month's correspondence, I beg to state 

 that it is ; and every year, too,— though somewhat 

 sparingly. In September, however, it would be 

 well-nigh useless to look for it, unless the season 

 were a very late one. On the 21th of June, 1S69, 

 after a long search, I obtained five specimens, in 

 bloom even then ; the greater number of them from 

 almost inaccessible clefts in the fork of the higher 

 fall, where alone it is worth while searching for 

 them. Three weeks later a botanical 'friend and 

 myself again went over the ground on both sides of 

 the fall, but without finding a single plant. On the 

 occasion of my June visit, an old guide who watched 

 my search with a smile of pity that was very amusing, 

 on my return to him, successful, informed me I was 

 " very fortunate,— so many came on the same errand, 

 only to go away disappointed."— F. Arnold Lees, 

 Ileanwood, Leeds. 



WOLFFIA ARRHIZA. — In SCIENCE-GOSSIP for 



June and July, 1869, the Rev. W. W. Spicer and 

 Mr. James Britten record new stations in Surrey 



and Middlesex for this interesting Lemnaceous plant, 

 —our smallest Phanerogam. Prof. Gulliver has 

 found it abundantly in the East Kent district, and 

 given engravings with descriptions of its intimate 

 structure, as compared with that of Lemna, or true 

 Duckweed, in Seemann's Journal of Botany for 

 January, 1S69. The chief point which he shows is, 

 that while Lemna abounds in raphides, Wolffia is 

 destitute of them. This curious diminutive plant 

 is admirably fitted for the fresh-water aquarium, 

 and indeed a delightful and novel addition for culti- 

 vation in small vases, such as tumblers and finger- 

 glasses. Wolffia has never been seen in flower in 

 this country, but increases in a very curious manner 

 by lateral bulbils, which form a very pretty micro- 

 scopic object, well observed under a good achro- 

 matic objective of an inch focal length.— Q. F. 



Veronica Bauxbaumii.— On reading some re- 

 cent numbers of Science-Gossip, unavoidably neg- 

 lected at the time of issue, I find a few notices of 

 the occurrence of Veronica Bauxbaumii. Permit 

 me to add to these, that in 1868 and 1869 I several 

 times found this species in the neighbourhood of 

 Oswestry, Salop, iu lanes and cornfields. I also met 

 with it near Upton-Magna, Shrewsbury, in 1867; 

 at Borth, near Aberystwith, in 1864 ; and in a field 

 not far from the racecourse, Leicester, in 1853 or 

 1851. In the last-named instance I recollect being- 

 unable to identify the species, as I was then but a 

 young boy, using Galpine's "Flora," with scarcelyany 

 preliminary knowledge. On afterwards meeting 

 with the plant at Borth and elsewhere, I recognized 

 it as the same which had puzzled me so many years 

 before at Leicester. I think this is one of many- 

 wild flowers which spread through their seeds be- 

 coming mixed with the seed-corn. I may note the 

 occurrence -of Myosurus minimus upon the race- 

 course at Leicester ; though this also was not named 

 for many years afterwards, it having likewise puzzled 

 me in my early collecting days, though its appear- 

 ance and characteristics remained vividly in me- 

 mory. I have not seen it since 1851 in any locality, 

 and suppose it to be uncommon.— W., Tunbridge 

 Wells. 



Viburnum Opulus and the Spectroscope. — 

 I have several times read the statement that the 

 spectra produced by the juices of coloured fruits 

 show no well-defined absorption-bands. This is 

 generally true ; but I find the berries of the Cran- 

 berry-tree {Viburnum Opulus) an exception to the 

 rule. The juice of this berry gives a spectrum of 

 one broad, well-defined band in the green— a beau- 

 tiful spectrum. In Canada we have this tree grow- 

 ing plentifully in a wild state, and in our gardens 

 the Guelder Rose, which is the same tree, culti- 

 vated, and with all the flowers neutral.— D. K. 

 Winder, Toronto, Canada. 



