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HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSIP. 



aggravating that Mr. Marquand should have been 

 called on to protest now against a crying evil ; 

 especially as it has long since been denounced by 

 Professor Gulliver and others in Nature, May 22, 

 1873, and in the Nineteenth Report of the East Kent 

 Natural Histoiy Society ; and all this about the same 

 time that Professor Babington and other eminent 

 botanists were protesting strongly but ineffectually in 

 the same cause. — Q. F. 



A Glass-eating Lichen. — My friend Mr. John- 

 ston-Lavis's lichen seems probably of more interest 

 than the unpainted surface of much old glass. If 

 this lichen — for lichen it very probably is — really has 

 the power of dissolving glass, it is certainly of the 

 very deepest interest. I quite agree with the disco- 

 verer in setting aside the "workman" theory ; but I 

 much regret that the extent to which the figures are 

 magnified is not given, the method of drawing not 

 stated, and the "various re-agents" used to remove 

 the growth not named ; for in Mr. Johnston-Lavis's 

 paper I see no evidence that would make me attribute 

 a solvent power equal to that of hydrofluoric acid, to 

 thislichen, ratherthan believeinthe simpler hypothesis 

 that it is filling up by its growth previously existing 

 holes. I hope my friend will prosecute this inquiry, 

 and produce some more decisive evidence one way or 

 the other. — G. S. Boulger. 



Old Plant-Names.— In answer to Mr. Henry F. 

 Bailey, I may say that Dittany does not occur in 

 Turner's " Libellus de re Herbaria " (1538). In Ge- 

 rard's " Catalogus " (1596), Dictamnum crceticum and 

 fraxindla are mentioned, and in the second (1599) 

 edition, the former is called ' ' Dittanie of Candie," and 

 both "Fraxinella Bastard Dittanie" and "Fraxinella 

 altera, Great Bastard Dittanie," are recorded. The 

 Dictamnum crceticum is described on p. 651 of Ge- 

 rard's " Herbal" (1597), and is identified by my friend 

 Mr. Benjamin Daydon Jackson, editor of the "Cata- 

 logus" and "Libellus," with Origanum dictamnus 

 of Linnaeus. Fraxinella is described on p. 1065 of 

 the "Herbal," and is, according to the same high 

 authority, Dictamnus albus, L., whilst F. altera is on 

 the same page of the "Herbal," and is Dictamnus 

 fraxinella of Persoon. Dictamnus belongs to the 

 Rue tribe. It is remarkably inflammable, owing to 

 its oil-secreting glands. D. albus is now commonly 

 known as Dittany. Origanum belongs to the Labi- 

 ates, and our Marjoram is a species of this genus. 

 On p. 61 of the " Herbal," and in both editions of 

 the "Catalogus," Gerard also mentions " Pseudo- 

 dictamnum, Bastard Dittanie," which Mr. Jackson 

 makes Ballota pseudo-dictamnus of Bentham. Garden 

 Rue is, and was in Gerard's time, Rula graveolens, 

 though then known as Ruta saliva. I am not at all 

 sure about the Mandrake, but the probabilities seem 

 in favour of a solanaceous plant, rather than the 

 White Bryony, which is the popular name by which 



Bryonia dioica is distinguished from Tamus communis, 

 the Black Bryony. Tournefort named the genus of 

 Solanacea?, now known as Mandragora, of which the 

 species officinalis is commonly known as the Man- 

 drake, "The insane root which takes the reason 

 prisoner," is often said to be the Dwale, or Deadly 

 Nightshade ( Atropa Belladonna). I may refer 

 Mr. Bailey to the Rev. H. N. Ellacombe's " Plant- 

 lore of Shakespere," an excellent work, which I 

 have not by me at present, and I may perhaps also 

 take this opportunity of calling attention to the exist- 

 ence of a "Turner Printing-Club," for reprinting 

 early works on British botany, under the superin- 

 tendence of Mr. B. D. Jackson, of 30, Stockwell- 

 road, S.W. In Gerard's "Catalogus," and the 

 "Herbal," p. 274, the Brinjal, Aubergine, or Egg- 

 plant of Asia, Solarium Melongena, L., is mentioned 

 as Mala insana, Mad or Raging Apples. I take 

 this opportunity of publishing, for the justification of 

 our early authors, their meaning in the various Maiden- 

 hairs. The true Maidenhair is Adiantum capillus- 

 veneris. Possibly the foliage of Thalictrum minus, 

 the Lesser Meadow Rue, was sometimes mistaken 

 for it. The common or English Maidenhair is As- 

 plenium Trichomanes ; the Black Maidenhair is A spl<- 

 nium Adiantum-nigrum ; the White Maidenhair is 

 Asplenium Rula-muraria, the Wall-rue Fern ; and 

 the Golden Maidenhair is the moss Mnium kygrome- 

 tricum, also called Little Goldilocks. The Goldilocks 

 is Ranunculus aurlcomus. — G. S. Boulger. 



Bible Plants. — An interesting little volume with 

 this title, by John Smith, ex-curator of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens, Kew, has just been published by 

 Hardwicke & Bogue. One plant, however {Lycium 

 EuropcBiim), appears to me calculated to mislead ; it 

 is described (page 207) as "a rambling, prickly shrub, 

 well "known in this country as Boxthorn or Tea-tree, 

 and often used for covering garden-seats, arbours, 

 and the like, and is a hedge-plant in Palestine." 

 At plate 9 is a figure of the plant, marked C, which 

 is no doubt correct as it is found in Palestine, but 

 bears no resemblance to the tea-plant so well known 

 in England. Mr. Baker, curator of the Royal 

 Herbarium at Kew, says, "it is Lycium Barbarum 

 not Europttum that is commonly cultivated, but they 

 are very near to one another, and the genus is in a 

 great muddle and wants re-monographing." He 

 says, "The Lycium of Syria is L. vidgare of Lin- 

 nceus, L. Mediterraneum of Dunal, and copiously 

 spiny when wild, but loses its thorns when under 

 cultivation." The Lycium Mediterraneum, Dunal, 

 D.C. Prod. ; Lycium Furopeum, Linnaeus, Mant. 47 ; 

 Desf. Atl-kock syn., is described in the "Flore de 

 France," by Grenier et Godron, as with leaves a little 

 fleshy, oblongues-obovees, insensibly attenuate in a 

 short petiole, common on the whole littoral of the 

 Mediterranean. No one looking at the figure at 

 plate 9 could suppose it represented the tea-shrub, so 



