236 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"> S. No 38., Sept. 20. '56. 



ENsis inquires, which was printed in two volumes 

 quarto at Leuwarden, in the Netherlands, in 1717, 

 and goes by the name of Masvicius's, I can assure 

 him that it is both correct and esteemed. It has, 

 amongst others, the valuable notes of Servius 

 (respecting which one of your correspondents, 

 some time since, made many inquiries), with an 

 Index to them, and the Index of Erythraeus to 

 Virgil, 



The work was handsomely reprinted at Venice in 

 two quarto volumes in 1736, but Brunet says this 

 edition is not so good as the first. To the eye it 

 is by no means inferior, Oxoniensis Alter. 



Singular Plant (2"^ S. ii. 173.) — The curious 

 plant alluded to by F. C. H. was probably the so- 

 called " Rose of Jericho " (^Anastatica hierochun- 

 (ica), of which a description will be found in any 

 modern encyclopsedia.* It is the subject of an in- 

 teresting passage in Browne's Vulgar Errors, who, 

 however, can hardly have seen the plant, since 

 after describing it he says, " suitable to this rela- 

 tion in almost all points is that thorn at Glaston- 

 bury," &c. The latter, " St. Joseph's Tree," as it 

 was called, was, I believe, a hawthorn. In my 

 copy of Browne's work there is the following 

 marginal note in an old hand : 



" The thorn by Glastonbury was no way like this, for it 

 Was a great and old tree, and blossomed on Christmas 

 Eve ; but by too much conceit of the thornes growing out 

 of it, superstitious folks taking them for toothpickers, it 

 much decayed, and within these few years an humourous 

 fellow cut it down and carried it into the windmill : but 

 that it did blossom at that time I know." 



D. 



The plant that F. C. H. had under his examin- 

 ation was, I have no doubt, from his description, 

 Selaginella lepidophylla of Spring and Lycopodium 

 lepidophyllum of Hooker. It is a native of Mexico, 

 and lorms a source of traffic on account of its 

 singular hygrometric property. The first specimen 

 that Mr. Hugh Cuming, the conchological and 

 botanical collector, obtained he gave its weight in 

 gold for. There is an admirable figure of the 

 plant in Hooker's Icones Plantarum, tt. 162, 163. 



There is another plant that has similar hygro- 

 metric; properties, — the better known Anastatica 

 hierochuntica of Linnteus, or Rose of Jericho, a 

 native of Egypt, of which there is a very good 

 figure, both in a state of flower as well as fruit, in 

 Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom. I have no doubt, 

 however, that the plant F. C. H. describes is the 

 Mexican Selaginella lepidophylla. R. H. 



Kensington. 



Person referred to by Pascal (2"^ S. ii. 68.) — 

 Your correspondent G. N. gives me credit for an 

 amount of ingenuity to which I can lay no claim. 

 I must say that he who can translate the French 



[♦ See also «N. & Q." 1«' S. xi. 72. M9., &c.] 



of our author into " the person who possessed,'" 

 &c., displays more ingenuity than I. My convic- 

 tion that a jjossible case, and not a real circum- 

 stance, is alluded to is founded on no historical or 

 biographical knowledge, but merely on the ad- 

 mitted meaning of a certain form of a verb. And 

 " Qui aurait eu" is not French for " he who had or 

 possessed." The force of the verb is what gram- 

 marians call conditional, and the expression, 

 rendered into the idiom of English, should be 

 translated " If a man had possessed," &c. It is 

 perhaps worth adding that while all the annota- 

 tions on the passage which I have seen name the 

 three sovereigns, not one takes the least notice of 

 the person, who, if real, would have been so re- 

 markable. C. H. S. 



Kalends (2"'^ S. ii. 110.) — 



"Kalenda .... initium cujusvis rel: locus ubi terri- 

 toriura aliquod incipit." 



" Veniunt iterum ad primas metas in loco superius no- 

 minato, Kalenda viz. nominatae." — Du Cange, in verbo. 



The " Kalends " being the first day or entrance 

 of the month, the term was thence applied to the 

 commencement or entrance of any locality. A.. 



The word Calends is not peculiar to the pathway 

 at Bromyard in Herefordshire ; a similar path to 

 that described by Mr. Pattison leads to the 

 church at Bredon in this county, and is called by 

 the same name. Might it not be derived from 

 Calendce, rural chapters or conventions of the 

 clergy, so called because formerly held on the 

 calends of every month, as being the road to the 

 church or place where these meetings were held ? 

 or can it derive its name from calcea, a paved or 

 trodden path ? J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



With reference to Mr. Pattison's Query re- 

 specting " Calends or Kalends," though not able 

 to give a full reply to the inquiry, I can in- 

 form him that such use of the word is not 

 peculiar to Bromyard. There is a similar ap- 

 plication of it at Ludlow. The footpath, paved 

 with flag-stones, leading froim the street to the 

 principal entrance to the chui'ch, is so called ; or, 

 as I remember when a boy, corrupted into Kal- 



The word Kalends occurs twice in Ch.aucer, as 

 signifying the " beginning of anything :" and the 

 word Kalender, in the sense of " a guide or di- 

 rector." At least the Glossary so inter[)rets the 

 words. It is possible that this application of the 

 word denotes the beginning of a path consecrated, 

 i. e. set apart from the common street, directly 

 to the house of God ? It is at Ludlow, as most 

 likely at Bromyard, a/«o^path only. S. S. S. 



Nearsightedness (2"'> S. ii. 149.) — If Belli- 

 SAKID8 will go into a national girls' school, when 



