Dec. 1, 1870.] 



HARWDICKE'S SCIENCE GOSSIP. 



279 



BOTANY. 



Miltwast.— Iii the November Science-Gossip 

 " R. T., M.A.," asks what is the meaning of Milt- 

 wast. In Lyte's " Nievve Herball," published in 

 157S (and doubtless in all the other old herbals, for 

 I find that two or three hundred years ago authors 

 copied from each other very much as they do now), 

 are the following recipes, which tell us the meaning 

 of the name. 



" Hemionitis taken with vinegar doth open and 

 helpe the hardnesse and stopping of the splene, and 

 is a soueraigne medicine for the most part of acci- 

 dentcs, and greenes commhig or proceeding from 

 the rate or spleene." 



" Lonchitis is very good against the hardnesse, 

 stoppinges, and swelliuges of the splene or melt 

 when it is dronken, or laycle upon with vinegar 

 upon the place of the splene outwardly." 



" The leaves of Ceterach taken with venegar by 

 the space of fourtie dayes healeth the melt that is 

 hard and stopt." 



Hemionitis is Scolopendrium vulgare. Its English 

 names were "Brode Spleueworte,"or"Brode Milt- 

 wast," and Lyte restricts these names to the variety 

 which has broad leaves with a cordate base. The 

 ordinary form of the plant he calls " Stone Hartes- 

 tongue," and he takes especial care to inform us 

 that this "is not Hemionitis as some do think." 



Lonchitis is Blechnum boreale ; in " High Douch " 

 "Miltzkraut;" in English " Great Spleeneworte." 



Ceterach is Ceterach officinarum. Its English 

 names were " Bight Scolopendria," " Scale Eerne," 

 "Finger Feme," "Stone Eerne," "Ceterach," and 

 "Myltewaste," in High Douch "Miltzkraut," 



Thus the name Miltwast, or Miltwaste, or Mylte- 

 waste (for our old authors w r ere not very particular 

 as to their spelling ; and would, now and then, spell 

 a word in half a dozen different ways in the same 

 page), was given to these three plants, because they 

 were supposed to be " very good " for wasting, or 

 swageing away swellings and other diseases of the 

 milt or spleen. Milt was the Anglo-Saxon name of 

 the spleen, and that organ is called "the Melt" to 

 the present day, here, and in many other country 

 places. We gather also from the above extracts that 

 the name "Miltwast" was not confined to Ceterach 

 officinarum; in fact, it was most likely originally 

 given to Scolopendrium, which appears to have been 

 the original " Spleenwort," having, doubtless, been 

 so named from its striking resemblance in outline 

 to the milt of an animal, and for that reason sup- 

 posed to be efficacious in diseases of that organ. — 

 Robert Holland. 



Eiungion multifoliense. — The following, 

 which I extracted from a good introductory treatise 

 by W. Marsham Adams, entitled "Outlines of 

 Geometry, or the Motion of a Point " (1869), conveys 



a lesson as well adapted, it may be, for botanists as 

 for geometers. "A fable runs, that an aged ass, seeing 

 her little grandchild running towards her at a frantic 

 pace, cried out, ' Whither so fast, my child ? What 

 do you tremble at ? ' '0 mother,' replied the poor 

 little thing, breathlessly, ' I asked a great animal 

 what a very tempting-looking plant was, and he said 

 such dreadful words that I ran away as hard as I 

 could go.' ' And what were the dreadful words he 

 used?' ' Eryngion multifoliense, or some such 

 dreadful tiling-,' replied the little donkey, trembling. 

 'You are indeed an ass, my child,' replied the 

 fond mother: 'he did but answer your question, 

 and had you stayed to taste, you would have 

 found those dreadful words meant a most delicious 

 thistle,'"— R.T.,M.A.\ 



Victoria Regia Water-Lily.— This splendid 

 plaut blossomed in the gardens of Mr. Mayer, 

 Bebington, near Birkenhead, last September. It 

 grew in the open air, in a pond of warm water. 

 This is said to be the first time that it has blossomed 

 in Europe in the open air. — A. J. 31. A. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Scale or Prussian Carp {Cyprims Qibelio). — 

 The scale of Prussian Carp here figured should be 

 compared with those of the Chub (fig. 100), the 

 Crucian Carp (fig. 201) in the present volume, and of 



Fig. 221. Scale of Prussian Carp (Cyprinus Gibelio). 



the Budd and Boach on page 13 of our volume for 

 18G9. We hope to continue figures of the scales of 

 British freshwater fishes until at least the majority 

 of them appear amongst our illustrations. 



Mounted Starches. — Those who have been in 

 the habit of mounting starches in glycerine or other 

 fluid should look to their slides and compare them 

 with recently mounted specimens of the [same 

 starches. We much fear that they will find the 

 form of the starch aranules to have undergone so 



