372 HABITS AND LATIN NAMES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



Lycopodium clavatum, L. alpinum, and L. selago, all covering the banks of 

 the turbaries on Plinlimmon. 



Splachnum mnioides. — I picked up a small tuft of this Moss in fruit, on one 

 of the stones of the highest cairn, whither it had been wafted by the 

 blast, but how far it had travelled I cannot say. 



I found an old Birch-wood on the Machynnleth-road,full of venerable furrowed 

 trees, and elegant pensile foliage, a favorite locality of the Lichens and Fungi, 

 and I doubt not some rare species might be found here. I noticed among the 

 former, Evernia prunastri, with apothecia, which is of uncommon occurrence in 

 this state; Variolaria griseo-virens ; Parmelia saxatilis, with apothecia; and 

 some beautiful specimens of Usnea fiorida. Stereocavlon botryosum occurred on 

 the bleak heights of Plinlimmon, with several curious species of the Scyphophori, 

 or Cup-lichens. Among the Fungi, I gathered Agaricus pantherinus in the 

 Birch-wood, and Scleroderma vidgare was very plentiful on banks near an Oak- 

 wood in the same vicinity, but nearer Llanidloes. 



ON THE HABITS AND PECULIARITIES OF BRITISH PLANTS 

 AND ON THE DERIVATIONS OF THEIR LATIN NAMES. 



Bv T.B.Hall. 



(Continued from p. 309.) 



Anemone. — From au/xos, wind ; being readily agitated, or its petals easily 

 scattered, as noticed in Ovid, Met. ; and hence the poetical allusion of Sir W. 

 Jones — 



" Youth, like a thin Anemone, displays 



His silken leaf, and in a morn decays." 



Or from many of the species growing in exposed situations. 



Anemone nemorosa, Wood Anemone, Wood Nymph, Wind-flower. — The 

 flowers fold up in a curious manner, and bend downwards against rain. The 

 whole plant is acrid. Goats and Sheep eat it, but it is apt to disorder the latter 

 violently. Horses, Cows, and Swine refuse it. The recent flowers are poisonous, 

 and the plant yields an acrid, volatile principle, so corrosive as to be used exter- 

 nally instead of Cantharides. It is also serviceable in head-aches, tertian agues, 

 and rheumatic gout. A leaf of this plant, with Puccinia anemones growing or 

 its under surface, was mistaken by Dr. Dillenius for a species of Fern, and was 

 by him figured and described as such, in his edition of Ray's Synopsis, p. 124, 

 t. 3, fig. 1., under the name of Filix lobata, globulis, pulveridentis undique aspcrsa. 

 The original specimen, from which the drawing was made, is still preserved in 



