486 Queries find Atiswers. 



us at least, early spring flowers. I almost fancy I have somewhere read (or 

 else the idea itself has occurred to my mind), that no species of narcissus or 

 daffodil was intended, but rather Amaryllis lutea, the yellow autumnal lily. 

 Be this as it may, however, at least " flexi vimen acanthi " was always a 

 great puzzler, and has afforded much matter for discussion among the learned. 

 On referring to Martyn's Georgics, I see it suggested, from the impossibility 

 of finding any one plant with which all the characters ascribed to acanthus 

 will agree, that the poet in all probability speaks in different passages of two 

 distinct plants under that name, the one a tree, and the other an herb. 

 From the well-known anecdote about the origin of the Corinthian capital, 

 we might be led, reasonably enough, to identify the acanthus of the ancients 

 with tile Linnean genus of the same name. On the other hand. Sir J. 

 Smith, if I remember right (for I cannot immediately refer to the passage), 

 strenuously contends that the acanthus of Virgil is no other than the com- 

 mon holly ( riex Jquifolium). Possibly this great botanist, when he broached 

 such an opinion, might not have sufficiently attended to the various pas- 

 sages of Virgil in which the acanthus is mentioned, and the apparently dis- 

 cordant accounts given of it. For, as Professor Martyn observes, in one 

 place Virgil speaks of it as a tree that bears berries, and is always green : 



" baccas semper frondentis acanthi." {Georg. ii. 119.) 



Again, in Georg. iv. 123. already quoted, he seems to speak of it as a twining 

 plant, and a little afterwards he mentions it as a garden plant : 



" Ille comam mollis jam tum tondebat acanthi." 



The epithet mollis is surely quite inapplicable to the holly, and except by 

 way of contrast (as Linnaeus employs it in naming one species), almost 

 equally so to the modern genus Acanthus. It is a remark, perhaps too ob- 

 vious to mention, that much allowance must be made for the heightening 

 of poetical diction, and that the same accuracy of botanical description must 

 not be looked for in the beautiful lines of the Mantuan bard, as we may 

 fairly expect in the Spdcies Plantdrum of the great Swede. On these and 

 similar knotty points, Mr. Editor, I should be glad of further information, 

 through the pages of your Magazine. Yours, &c. — B. Coventry, Sept. 8. 



The Specimen of the Shrub from Clare- 

 monty sent by Miss C. Watson, in order to ^ ' ^ V I /* >» 



ascertain its name, is the Grevillea (in com- /n^\ W^ k^f 



memoration of the Right Hon. Charles Gre- ^^/ S^^TTiJ^^ ' ^^5 



ville) punicea, Y'voiedcecE {fig. 1 17.), an ele- A /f^2^^^^^P 

 gant shrub introduced a few years ago from M^^ W\^^^^ ^^^^^ 

 New South Wales, and usually kept in the ^^^%^^^^^L^^^^ 

 green-house. If gathered in the open shrub- ^v^ Ji\^i ^^^^^ ^^ 

 bery, as our correspondent says it was, it ^^^^^^BHB^P 

 must have been turned out there for the ^M^^^^^^^S^g^ 

 summer season, or by way of experiment. ^^^^^^^^^>^^ 



— Cond, 111 



Fossil Plants. — The enclosed drawings {fig. 118.) are a continuation of 

 the fossil plants found in the Little Mine Coal in Clifton, near Manchester. 

 The figures a^b, c, </, e, and/, I have not been able to meet with in any 

 other mine; they are drawn the full size, and, with the exception of/, in 

 nearly the same situation as when found. I have met with the plant g in 

 most mines in Lancashire. I. should feel greatly obliged, if any of your 

 readers would inform me to what order and genus they belong. Yours, &c. 



— B. St. Helen's J June 4. 1829. 



