272 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Xo. 151. 



The Fern Osmunda ; and old Books on Plants. 

 — Gerard calls the Brown Osmund Royal " The 

 Hearte of Osmund the Waterman." Can any of 

 your correspondents give me an insight into the 

 origin of the expression, ■which doubtless arose 

 from some legend or tradition ? 



I should also feel obliged for any lists of books 

 ■which treat of the rustic uses, or of the folk lore, 

 attached to our native plants ? or any information 

 on the quaint old fancies with which the older 

 botanical works abound ? Seleucus. 



[We gladly repeat this Query, which has already 

 been put by J. M. B. in our second volume, p. 199., as 

 we share in the anxiety of both for the recovery of the 

 tradition on which it is obvious the name is founded. 

 There is one work we would recommend to the notice 

 of our correspondent, containing much curious and 

 interesting matter on botanical folk lore, entitled. 

 Circle of the Seasons, and Perpetual Key to the Calendar 

 and Almanack ; to which is added the Circle of the Hours, 

 and the History of the Days of the Week ; being a Com- 

 pendious Illustration of the History, Antiquities, and 

 Natural Phenomena of each Day in the Year, 12mo., 

 Lond., 1828. Under P'eb. 24 occurs the following 

 notice of the Great Fern, Osmanda regalis : — " I find 

 this Great Fern called Osman Roy, recorded as in 

 fructification to-day, and it probably is so long before. 



' Auld Botany Ben was wont to jog 

 Thro' rotten slough and quagmire bog. 

 Or brimfull dykes and marshes dank, 

 "Where Jack-a- Lanterns play and prank. 

 To seek a cryptogamious store 

 Of moss, of carix, and fungus hoare, 

 Of ferns and brakes, and such like sights. 

 As tempt out scientific wights 

 On winter's day ; but most his joy 

 Was finding what 's called Osman Roy.' " 



Botan. Travestied.^ 



Passage in Tennyson. — In Tennyson's Locksley 

 Hall, near the commencement, we read : 



"'Tis the place, and all around it, as of old, the cur- 

 lew's call 

 Dreary gleams about the moorland flying over Locks- 

 ley Hall." 



The ambiguity is in both lines. In the first, 

 "curlew's call" may be a plural substantive and 

 a verb, or two substantives : in the second, 

 "dreary gleams" may be an adverb (poetic) and 

 verb, governed by " call ; " or adjective and plural 

 substantive ; and " flying " may refer to the " cur- 

 lews," or the " gleams." My notion is, that Ten- 

 nyson refers to some weather-prognostic respecting 

 the peculiar call of the curlews on the approach of 

 a storm, or of evening ; in which case the passage 

 would read : 



" This is the place ; and (as in former days) the cur- 

 lews, as they fly over Locksley Hall, call forth dreary 

 gleams all about the moorlands and around this spot." 



Am I right ? If so, what authority is there for 

 the supposed sign of foul weather ? 



C. M.4.NSFIELD IxGLEDY. 



:;^ui0r CEtiertE^ Qit^tuerctr. 



Cavaliers abroad. — Where may I search, at homo 

 or elsewhere, for particulars of the lives abroad, 

 until the Restoration, of the Royalists who fled to 

 France after the execution of Charles I. ? J. K. 



[Consult The Life of Dr. John Barwick, Svo., 1724, 

 especially, the English edition, which is enriched with 

 many valuable biographical notices of the expatriated 

 Royalists by the editor, the Rev. Hilkiah Bedford : 

 also. Characters of Eminent Men in the Reigns of 

 Charles I. and II., including the Rebellion, from the 

 Works of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. With Notes by 

 Edmund Turnor, jun., 4to., 1793. The new and en- 

 larged edition of The Diary and Correspondence of John 

 Evelyn may also be consulted.] 



'■^ He's tall and he's straight as a Poplar Tree.^^ — 

 Observing a long row of Lombardy poplars (^Po- 

 pubis fastigiata) near the ruins of a monastery, my 

 friend remarked, " The old monks seem to have 

 been fond of that tree, as it is frequently seen in 

 such situations." " That can hardly be," I replied, 

 '• for the Lombardy poplar was not introduced into 

 Britain prior to the middle of the last century." 

 " Oh," says he, " don't you know the old song : 



i' He's tall, and he's strait as the poplar tree, 

 ^His cheeks are as fresh as the rose?' 



You must either admit an earlier introduction for 

 the tree, or show that the song is not a century 

 old." 



Now, the former position I can by no means 

 admit ; but without the assistance of " N. & Q." 

 quite despair of proving the latter. Pray, then, 

 who was the author of this song, and when was it 

 written? G. Munfokd. 



East Winch. 



[The author is Mrs. Frances Brooke, and the song 

 occurs in her comic opera, Rosina, Act I., first printed 

 in 1782.] 



Thi7-d Declaration of the Prince of Orange. — In 

 the volume of tracts which were published in the 

 years 1687 and 1688, there is one with this title : 

 " By His Highness William Henry Prince of 

 Orange, A Third Declaration." 



Prefixed to the copy before me is a manuscript 

 note, written evidently in a cotemporary hand, 

 which is as follows : " This was published and 

 passed for genuine, and did great service; the 

 Prince knew not of it." 



Can any of your readers inform me whether 

 there is any good authority for believing this 

 declaration not to be genuine ; and if so, is the 

 real author known, or can any well-founded con- 

 jecture be given as to who he was ? 



