2'>'i S. No 72., May 16. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



399 



speculate on his magnitude, and the area required 

 for his exhibition. William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



What are Red Wiiids (2"'' S. iii. 229.) — ''Med 

 winds," which " blast the goodliest trees," appear 

 to be those winds which were supposed to produce 

 the ruhigo ; that is, the red blight, or rust.^ 



The word " rust," in Italian ruggine, involves, 

 equally with ruhigo, the idea of redness. Rust on 

 iron, as chemists inform us, is a '■'■red oxide or 

 peroxide." May not rust be an abbreviated form 

 of russet, which is a reddish brown? See the 

 Latin and Anglo-Saxon. 



In respect to trees and wheat, "rust" has been 

 used, in a looser sense, for anjr kind of blight or 

 mildew. But in its strict signification, it doubt- 

 less stood originally for that kind only which is 

 red. " Akin to mildew is the gum, or red oaher'^ 

 (ochre), affecting wheat, (Brewster's Enc, vol. i. 

 p. 292.) 



In transferring the idea of redness from the 

 blight itself to the winds which were supposed 

 to cause it, and calling them "re^ winds," the 

 preacher, no doubt, employs a bold figure of 

 speech ; yet not without something like precedent, 

 in the " black winds" of Horace : — 



" . . . . aspera 

 Nigris aequora ventis." 



Odes, i. 5. 



Thomas Boys. 



Vegetation of Seeds (2"*^ S. iii. 47.)— D., writing 

 about mistletoe (the Christmas use of which is in 

 general demand in Devonshire), asks " if there is 

 any cominon instance known of seeds germinating 

 after having passed through the digestive organs 

 of a graminivorous bird ?" Some years ago, when 

 crossing Ilaldon Hill, near the race course, I 

 found, on a raised bank, two portions of the ex- 

 crement of the Heathpolt (Black Cock), containing 

 many seeds, of the ivy, which vegetated with me 

 and several friends. W. Collyns. 



Rubrical Quenj (2"0 S. iii. 348.) — The Church 

 of England always contemplates that the altar 

 should be at the East end ; but in the few ex- 

 ceptions in England (abroad they are much more 

 contmon) to this arrangement, it seems clear that 

 the position of the altar being reversed, so also 

 will that of those ministering at it. So that in 

 fact wherever the altar is, there theoretically is 

 the East. This, I believe, is the practice out of, 

 as well as in, England. J. C. J. 



Barnacles and Spectacles (2"'^ S. iii. 188.) — I 

 Lave always understood the difference between 

 barnacles and spectacles to be this : that spectacles 

 are merely single glasses, as aids to the sight, and 

 barnacles double, i.e. with side pieces. The latter, 

 I think, are more frequently of coloured glass, 

 and used more as protectors from wind., dust and 



glaring light, than as aids to the sight. May they 

 not have been called barnacles from the similarity 

 in shape to the black streak, which proceeds from 

 the upper part of the beak in a line to the corner 

 of, and right round the eye of the bernicle, or 

 barnacle goose (Anser bernicla) ? If Opticus 

 has the means of looking at an engraving of this 

 bird, I think he will allow that there is a strong 

 resemblance in the mark to the shape of a pair of 

 spectacles ; and as it with the whole eye of the 

 bird looks dark, like a dark pair of glasses, it 

 might, as I have said above, have suggested the 

 name of barnacles. I have since consulted an old 

 French dictionary for Besides, which it gives as 

 meaning 2''emple- glasses. This, I think, goes far 

 to prove that my supposition as to what barnacles 

 are is correct. Henbi. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



At length the valuable Scries of Classical Dictionaries, . 

 edited by Dr. William Smith, are brought to a completion 

 by the publication of a double number — the concluding 

 one — of The Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, 

 and the English student of the Classics now enjoys in the 

 work before us advantages denied to every other classical 

 student in Europe ; for we do not believe that the Con- 

 tinent can produce any work comparable in point of ac- 

 curacy and fulness with the work which is now before 

 us, and which, with its admirable predecessors, 77(6 Dic- 

 tionary of Greek and Roman Biography, and 7'he Dic- 

 tionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, form what Dr. 

 Smith very properly entitles An Encyclopedia of 

 Classical Antiquity. It is not possible within the 

 limits wliich we can devote to the subject, to enter into 

 any lengthened details of the peculiarities and excel- 

 lencies of the present Dictionary, which, although, accord- 

 ing to the title-page confined only to Greek and Roman 

 Geographj', does actually include the geograi)hical names 

 which occur in the Sacred Scriptures. But it must be 

 borne in mind that the work is an historical, as well as a 

 geographical one. It gives the political history both of 

 countries and cities under their respective names; traces 

 as far as possible the history of the more important 

 buildings of the cities, and wherever they exist describes 

 their present condition. The history is for the most part 

 brought down to the fall of the Western Empire in the 

 year 476 of our era; but in some cases it has been ne- 

 cessary to trace the history of a town through the Middle 

 Ages in order to explain'the existing remains of anti- 

 quity. The list of the writers of the different articles is a 

 guarantee for the care which has been bestowed, and the 

 learning which has been employed, in their preparation ; 

 while the engravings, consisting of plans of citie.s, districts, 

 and battles, and representations of ancient remains, and 

 the coins of the more important places, are at once appro- 

 priate and instructive. Finally, to give completeness to 

 a work which is indispensable to every classical student, 

 we have an Index containing some fifteen thousand re- 

 ferences, by which information may be obtained, under 

 other articles, of names not considered sutRcicntly im- 

 portant to deserve a separate notice. 



Mr. Russell Smith has addded to his Library of Old 

 Aicthors a volume which will be verj' acceptable to the 

 lovers of old devotional poetry. It is UalMvjah, or 

 Britain's Second Remembrancer ; bringing to remembrance 



