Nov. 4. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



375 



Digitalis purpurea (foxglove), commencing with white 

 flowers, which become red, deepening into purple, and 

 then fading into white again." 



» It is ascertained that colour in plants is generally- 

 due to the presence of a substance called chromule (dis- 

 tinct from the sap), which is found in the form of minute 

 grains in the cellular tissue. The common theory of its 

 formation (as physiologists state it) is a chemical one. 

 It is asserted that the carbonic acid gas, which has been 

 absorbed by the plant, is decomposed in the cellular 

 tissue; the oxygen being given off to the atmosphere, 

 while the pure carbon is retained by the plant, and con- 

 verted into colouring matter. The researches into human 

 physiology exhibit a case in some degree similar in the 

 colouring matter of the hair of the negro's skin." 



L. A. 



Manchester. 



Woodbine and honeysuckle are both names for 

 the same plant. The woodbind, or bindweed, or 

 bearbind, is a climber, with a large white flower, 

 not unlike a convolvulus. Steevens considers the 

 words "the sweet honeysuckle" as merely ex- 

 planatory ; and that it is the elm which is en- 

 twisted, both by that and the ivy. The passage 

 should be pointed thus : 



" So doth the woodbine — the sweet honeysuckle — 

 Gently entwist — the female ivy so 

 Enrings — the barky fingers of the elm." 



H. Martin. 

 Halifax. 



" / saw thy form in youthful prime " (Vol. x., 

 p. 225.). — In the two concluding lines of this 

 melody, the author admits to have made a feeble 

 eifort to imitate an exquisite inscription of Shen- 

 stone's, never more touchingly, perhaps, intro- 

 duced than at the close of the following inscription, 

 which I copied lately from a tombstone in the 

 churchyard of Ruthin, in North Wales : 



H. S. E. 



Constantinus Edvardus Jorre, 



Nicolai et Elizae Jorre, 



Filius Natu Tertius. 



Apud Leamingtoniam Varvicensem 



Vitam iniit. 



Die XI. Julii mdcccxxxiv. 



Ex eadem in hoc oppido decessit. 



Die XX. Augusti jidcccli. 



Hunc cippum 



Magistri et Discipuli 



Scholse Ruthinensis, 



Hi Comitem dilectissimum, 



Illi eximium Alumnum, 



Lugentes, 



Ponendum curaverunt. 



Hbu! quanta minus est 



Cum reliquis versari 



Quam tui meminisse ! " 



Cantab. 



"In signo Thau" (Vol. x., p. 185.).— The 

 Greek T is not uncommon as an ecclesiastical sym- 

 bol. It is frequently used on the monogram IHC 

 (the usual abbreviation for Jesus in MSS.), in 



the form^JHC, meaning "the crucified Jesus." 



But as a Latin monogram, I nS, it is read, "Jesus 

 hominum salvator." Eusebius and Jerome refer 

 to this form of letter as resembling the cross, the 

 former as to the Greek tow, and the latter as to 

 the ancient Hebrew* (not the square Chaldee) 

 tau. Symbolically the letter Ifl forms the double 

 tow, by being cut in two and viewed sideways ; the 



triple tau n is therefore formed by three crosses. 

 I suspect that the usual form of the cross, f , is a 

 corruption of ^, the monogram for XP, and the 

 abbreviation of XPICTOC. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



The allusion here is to Ezekiel ix. 4., where 

 the authorised version " set a mark," or the mar- 

 ginal " mark a mark," in the original is IH ^''inni 

 (Vehithaviath Thau). Lee {Heb. Lexicon, voce 

 Thau) says that the ancient form of the letter 

 thau was that of a cross ; and in the Samaritan al- 

 phabet in the Penny Cyclopcedia (art. Alphabet), 

 the thau is represented as a cross saltire, or St. 

 Andrew's cross. The passage in Ezekiel is re- 

 ferred to by Bishop Andrewes (^Sermons, vol. iii. 

 p. 210., ed. Ang.-Cath. Lib.): "There goes one 

 before, and makes a thau in the forehead," &c. la 

 a painted window in Bourges Cathedral the sacri- 

 fice of the paschal lamb is depicted ; a figure is 

 marking the door-posts. The words " Scribe 

 Thau" are on the glass. (Y'lde Journal of Arch. 

 Institute, vol. i. pp. 169. 173.) E. G. R. 



Arthur, Earl of Anglesey's Library (Vol. x., 

 p. 286.). — A copy of this catalogue, the title of 

 which is in Latin, too long for your pages, is in 

 the library at Woburn Abbey. The following 

 extract from the notice to the reader says : 



"The whole library being really so considerable for 

 number, as well as scarcity, that many persons of honour, 

 &c., (though possessed of very great libraries of their 

 own), had frequent recourse to this for the perusal of 

 many out of the ordinary road of learning, not elsewhere 

 to be found. Thus much was thought fit to be commu- 

 nicated to the world by one who had the honour for many 

 years to be employed in his lordship's service." 



J. M. 



Geoffrey Alford (Vol. x., p. 289.). — Gregory 

 Alford is often spoken of as Captain Alford, the 

 son of a merchant of Lyme, a suiferer in the 

 troubles. He compounded, and resided at Lyme 

 during the reign of Charles II. and James IL, 

 where he as a mayor and corporation man per- 

 secuted the Dissenters. An amusing account is 

 to be found in Roberts' Life of the Duke of Mon- 

 mouth. That same author has much respecting 

 the famous Gregory (not Geoffrey as in the 

 Query) in his collection. He believes the Somer- 

 setshire and Lyme Alfords to have been con- 

 nected. G. R. L. 



* In form similar to the Ethiopic '\' tau. 



