94 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Folk-lore of Plants.— In reference to the 

 "local names" of plants, the following quotation 

 from "The Complete Angler" may not be un- 

 interesting to some of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip. This passage was, I believe, discussed 

 some years since in the "Journal of Horticulture," 

 and is thus expressed in Isaak Walton's " Complete 

 Angler." 



" So I the fields anrl meadows green may view, 

 And daily by fresh meadows walk at will, 



Among the Daisies and the Violets blue, 

 Red Hyacinth and Yellow Daffodil, 



Purple Narcissus, like the morning rays, 

 Pale Gander-grass and azure Culverkeys." 



Has any one identified these two last-mentioned 

 plants, known then by these names probably in 

 Staffordshire, where Walton was born, and re- 

 sided when he became an author ? With regard to 

 the latter, we must note down a jocular reply, 



" Culverkeys, — Culverkeys, 

 Why ! they are Pigeon Peas." 



" Culver " was the old Anglo-Saxon word 

 for "dove," or "pigeon," and "key" is a seed- 

 vessel. A botanical friend suggests that this 

 name refers to a species of the Vetch family, 

 now included under the genus Lathyrus (tuber- 

 ous pea), forming part of the old genus Orobus, 

 and called Orobus tuberosus. The flowers of the 

 vetches for the most part are blue or azure, 

 and the vessel containing the seed much shaped like 

 a key. As regards the name " Gander-grass," we 

 presume it refers to the Galium Aparine, "goose- 

 grass," which derives its English name from the 

 avidity with which the young stems and leaves are 

 eaten by geese ; and, as a matter of course, if 

 geese eat them, ganders must also do so. This 

 species of Galium is also called Cleavers, on 

 account of the tenacity with which the fruit adheres 

 to any rough or soft substances. The flowers are 

 of a white colour ; hence Walton's term " Pale 

 Gander-grass." We do not quite understand what 

 flower Walton means by "Purple Narcissus, 

 like the morning rays," unless he applies that name 

 to the Early Purple, or Meadow Orchis, whose 

 flowers are mostly of a rich purple, and would be 

 out with the Daffodil. Isaak Walton must also 

 in his rambles along the river Dove, have met 

 with the rose-coloured wild hyacinth mentioned 

 in the interesting paper on the " Variations of the 

 Colours of Flowers " in last month's Science- 

 Gossip, p. 41, by F. Casson. I once found, some 

 years since, the rose-coloured wild hyacinth at the 

 foot of Snowdon, North Wales.— E. Edwards. 



Foreign Escapes. — The following short botanical 

 notice may prove interesting. Staying with some 

 xriends at St. Leonards last September, I went 

 with them to pay a visit to Hollington church and 

 churchyard. I wandered into the little coppice 

 known as Hollington Wood, which surrounds the 

 churchyard, and of which it is only a clearing, in 

 search of any late autumnal wild flowers to add to 

 my collection of coloured drawings of wild flowers. 

 I soon found a plant growing very freely in the 

 wood, and apparently like any other plant there, 

 quite wild, which attracted my attention as one 

 quite new to me. I gathered a good deal of it, and 

 took it home, and as usual made a coloured draw- 

 ing of it as accurately as I could. Unfortunately 

 it was in seed, and on no single piece could 1 dis- 

 cover a flower in perfection; the seeds shattered 

 about me as I drew it. I searched my botanical 

 books, and was convinced that it was a species of 



amaranth, but still certainly not the only English 

 species of that order, Amarantluis BUtum. It struck 

 me from the first as very like Prince's Feather. The 

 flowers were crowded on dense lateral and terminal 

 spikes, the leaves shining on the whole plant, 

 strongly tinged with crimson. It had no corolla that 

 I could detect ; a calyx and leafy bract very like 

 the sepalsof the calyx ; eachflower had one flattened 

 round black seed, which, as I said, fell in quantities 

 while I was drawing the plant. It grew so abun- 

 dantly in the wood, that for some time I never 

 suspected it was not a wild plant, I only thought I 

 was too ignorant a botanist to make it out ; but 

 upon my return to London I showed my drawing 

 to a friend who belongs to the Linnean Society, and 

 who, on comparing my drawitig with botanical draw- 

 ings belonging to the society, came to the conclu- 

 sion which I had previously suspected, that it was a 

 foreign amaranth escaped from a garden, and 

 naturalizing itself in the locality in which I found 

 it. I have now little doubt that it is Amarantluis 

 polygamus, from comparing it with an engraving 

 of that plant in Knight's Encyclopaedia, which 

 exactly resembles my drawing. So many of the 

 graves in the churchyard, only a few yards from 

 the place where I found this plant, are planted with 

 flowers, that its presence there may be easily 

 accounted for, but I thought the fact interesting as 

 showing how easily plants disperse themselves, aud 

 become naturalized in countries far from their native 

 habitat— J 7 . 31. K. 



Lobsters. — Lobsters use their feet to climb and 

 walk with, and their wide tails are so constructed 

 that they can spring backwards with considerable 

 force by their aid. They have false feet, which they 

 never make use of in swimming, though they 

 occasionally do in burrowing ; also in setting the 

 water in motion all round them. Lobsters cast 

 their armour, or shell " moult," as fishermen say, 

 and are for a few days quite helpless, the new shell 

 being so soft. Persons who watch the habits of 

 Crustacea in large aquariums, say that the lobster, 

 being well aware of its approaching change, goes 

 and burrows under a piece of rockwork, throwing 

 up a sort of fortress of shingle and sand, behind 

 which it retires during the operation. — H. E. 

 Watney. 



Dog eating Wasps.— Most probably the terrier 

 mentioned by "S. M. P." in Science-Gossip for 

 February, had been stung by a wasp on some 

 previous occasion, and, neither having forgiven nor 

 forgotten, the conduct described may be attributed 

 rather to a desire for revenge than to any great 

 appreciation of the merits of the wasp as an article 

 of food. The case is much the same as that of an 

 intelligent Scotch collie, who was my constant 

 companion for several years of my boy-life. We 

 were one day passing a bee-hive, with the bees hard 

 at work, when, suddenly inspired by a spirit of 

 mischief, I drew the dog's attention to it. The poor 

 fellow trotted unsuspectingly forward to have a 

 closer inspection, but no sooner did his inquiring 

 nose approach the entrance than he received a sting 

 in it which made him effect a hurried and undignified 

 retreat. From that day he kept at a respectful 

 distance from a beehive, but woe to the bee who 

 came within his reach elsewhere ! There was no 

 mercy shown, and the execution was summary, for 

 he evidently regarded the matter as a serious one, 

 and not in any way as an amusement. I do not 

 now remember whether or not he ate his victims, 

 but most likely he did. I may add that in the act 



