234 



HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1870. 



BOTANY. 



Good King Henry (pp. 189, 211, 214).— I have 

 been looking up this name with but little success, 

 yet the results of my search may be of interest to 

 some. In Dodoen's Stirpium Historic, I find : — 

 " Germanis Schmerbel vocatur, et Guter Heinrich, 

 id est, Bonus Henrietta, a singulari quadam utili 

 facultate : veluti et perniciosam' quamdam, Malum 

 Henricum appellant." I quote, word for word, 

 from the edition published at Antwerp, in 1616, 

 shortly after the author's death, p. 651. A descrip- 

 tion of the Mains Henricus follows, quoted from 

 Gesner, who says that a plant was so called by the 

 country people ; from his description, it would 

 appear to have been Luthrcea squumaria. Unfor- 

 tunately, the existence of this "Bad Henry" does 

 not tend to simplify matters, as we do not learn on 

 what grounds the name Henry was applied to either 

 plant. The English name given in Dodoen's work, 

 and in most of the old writers, is " Englisb Mer- 

 cury," also "AUgood," corresponding with the 

 French toute bonne, the German all gut, the Dutch 

 algoede, and the Latin tola bona. Can " J. R. T. C." 

 inform me who first started the notion that the 

 " good king " commemorated was Henry VI. ? or 

 where he met with it ? I have not seen it except 

 in English Botany, ed. 3, vol. viii. p. 25, where it 

 is given as from some writer (name not stated), but 

 I have not been able to meet with the original pas- 

 sage. Neither do I know why it should be sup- 

 posed that Henry VIII. has anything to do with, 

 the name of the plant. The name first appears in 

 Gerarde's Herbal, where we are told that it was in 

 use in Cambridgeshire ; but I have no other record 

 whatever of its actual use, and suspect that it has 

 been kept up in books from its quaintness, and 

 from its connection with the Latin Bonus Henricus. 

 I would offer as a suggestion that the name, which 

 is obviously of some antiquity, was introduced to 

 England from Germany. Now, whether we take 

 the Hutch Golden Henrik, or the German Guter 

 Heinrich, we have in each case one syllable more 

 than we should find in the corresponding English 

 translation, Good Henry. All who have studied 

 plant-names know how, when an appellation, unin- 

 telligible to the many, becomes popular, it gets 

 converted into something which, at any rate, sounds 

 as if it had a meaning ; and I would suggest that 

 just as, in a Shropshire list of names, I find Grom- 

 well developed into " Oliver Cromwell ;" so Golden 

 Henrik or Guter Heinrich, has been popularly trans- 

 lated into good King Henry, or Harry. It must be 

 remembered that the name is only recorded from 

 one district, where it is perhaps not now in use ; 

 and that our familiarity with it arises from its oc- 

 currence in British Floras, where it has been copied 

 from one into another. It may not be generally 



known that the French have put forward a candidate 

 for the honours of the dedication. In Withering's 

 "Arrangement," ed. 7, ii. 313, I read:— "How the 

 name once idolized in France came to be applied io 

 this vegetable of mean aspect, it may not be easy 

 to trace ; but, in the opinion of a French writer, 

 'This humble plant, which grows on our plains 

 without culture, will confer a more lasting duration 

 on the name of Henri Quatre, than the statue of 

 bronze placed on the Pont Neuf, though fenced 

 with iron and guarded by soldiers." Query, who 

 was this " French writer " ? I have looked into 

 several French books, but find no name for Cheno- 

 podium Bonus-Henricus in any way corresponding 

 with " Good King Henry." — James Britten, F.L.S. 



Holly-trees in Berry. — There is a holly-tree 

 in the village of Groby, four miles from Leicester, 

 which I have known for twenty years, and have 

 passed frequently at all seasons ; I have never once 

 seen it without a crop of scarlet berries upon its 

 boughs, and have often pointed it out as a curiosity. 

 There are several yellow-berried hollies in the 

 Loughborough School grounds now loaded with ap- 

 parently ripe fruit.— T. T. Mott. 



Holly Berries.— It may interest "J. D." and 

 " A. E. B." to know that, a year or two ago, I met 

 with a holly-tree in the neighbourhood of Selby, 

 Yorkshire, with a large quantity of berries on, which 

 were bright red ; but found on examination they 

 were old berries, and that the tree was in flower for 

 following year's fruit. May not the trees mentioned 

 by them be an instance of this kind, and be ac- 

 counted for in the same way ? Perhaps further in- 

 vestigation might result in settling the matter in 

 this way— T. W. B. 



English Plant-Names. — The attention of our 

 correspondents is directed to the notice thus headed 

 at page 210, and their assistance earnestly solicited. 

 Lists or notes of local names, traditions, folk-lore, 

 &c, may be sent to James Britten, F.L.S. , Royal 

 Herbarium, Kew, W. ; or Robert Holland, Mob- 

 bcrley, Knutsford, Cheshire. 



Bog Plants at Freshwater (p. 210).— My 

 letter to the editor requesting him to cancel my 

 note on p. 210 did not reach him in time, I presume, 

 for him to do so. The plant I took to be Cladium 

 agreed in many respects with the book-descriptions 

 (the inflorescence was too far gone to be of service), 

 but I have since seen specimens in the Kew Her- 

 barium which clearly show me I was in error. I 

 fear it is even less easy to find than it was in Dr. 

 Bromfield's time. [In Dr. Bromfield's manuscripts, 

 he states that Dean Gamier once told him that he 

 (the Dean) believed he had found Mala. vis paludosa 

 in the Isle of Wight. I believe this discovery (?) 

 has never beeu confirmed.]— B. T., M.J. 



