346 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 288. 



With all deference, I must observe that " N. & 

 Q." is not so well up in matters pertaining to 

 natural history as in archaeological lore. For in- 

 stance, F. B. informs us that castor oil is extracted 

 from the leaves (!), instead of from the berries, of 

 the Ricinus communis. Again, we have had the 

 old fable of the blue rose ; old I may well call it, 

 for it dates from the period of Moorish domination 

 in Spain. Though the fellows in blue aprons, who, 

 calling themselves gardeners, infest our suburban 

 districts, will tell mythical stories of the vast 

 prizes offered for the production of a blue rose or 

 a blue dahlia, our scientific horticulturists laujjh 

 at the absurdity. We can perform wonders by 

 -xjultivating plants, but nature sets certain bound- 

 aries which can never be surpassed. Hear De- 

 candolle, no mean authority on this subject. He 

 says : 



" Yellow and blue are the fundamental types of colour 

 in flowers, and these colours are antagonistic, mutually 

 excluding each other. Yellow by culture may be changed 

 into red or white, but never into blue. On the other hand, 

 tlue will pass into red, but never into yellow." 



We have a yellow rose, and consequently can 

 never have a blue one. If at all practicable, 



Hammersmith. 



W. PiNKEBTON. 



I cannot believe that L. M. M. R. is really 

 looking for a veritable serpent's egg ; but if so, 

 he will surely have but little difficulty in find- 

 ing abundance in the country during the hot 

 weather. Mr. Henry H. Breen is far too sweep- 

 ing in his assertion, that snakes are always vivi- 

 parous. Our common hedge or ringed-snake 

 (^Coluber natrix), as every rustic knows, deposits 

 its eggs in masses in dunghills and hot-beds ; 

 where they are hatched by the heat of the sun, or 

 of the fermenting manure. 



L. M. M. R., however, inquires concerning a 

 supposed Druidical talisman, the famous Angui- 

 num ovum; concerning the production of which 

 wonderful tales are told. — how it is formed by the 

 -exudation of knotted vipers, by whose united 

 agency It is borne aloft in the air, and afterwards 

 caught in a linen sheet by the sorcerer, who is 

 X)bliged to fly on a swift horse to escape the ven- 

 geance of the enraged reptiles, who pursue him 

 till he can cross running water, &c. This myste- 

 rious object is however no other than a large 

 bead of glass, or vitrous paste, ornamented round 

 its equator by bosses or spots of some other colour, 

 which is occasionally found in Celtic tumuli. 

 Specimens of these may be seen in many collec- 

 tions of antiquities ; and L. M. M. R. will find two 

 examples engraved in the Encyclopedia Britan- 

 nica, art. Anguinum ovum. I am sorry that I 

 cannot inform L. M. M. R. where he can procure 

 a specimen ; but probably he may meet with one 



in the shop of some respectable dealer in anti- 

 quities. He must, however, be on his guard 

 against modern Venetian forgeries. 



I may add, that one of the old publishers, I 

 cannot at present remember which, uses for his 

 device the Anguinum ovum in combination with a 

 serpent. W. J. Bernhard Smith. 



Temple. 



I was surprised, indeed, at the position of 

 Henry H. Breen, that "serpents are, strictly 

 speaking, to be classed as viviparous rather than 

 oviparous : " and still more when reading on I 

 found him including snakes in his assertion that no 

 species of them has ever been known to produce 

 eggs. Whatever may be the case in St. Lucia, 

 from which island he writes, every naturalist 

 knows that in this country snakes do produce 

 eggs. The viper and the slow-worm are un- 

 doubtedly viviparous, but snakes are as certainly 

 oviparous. I have had ample opportunities of 

 verifying both. The snake deposits a cluster of 

 eggs, each of about the size of a sparrow's egg, of 

 a white or cream colour. These eggs have not a 

 hard shell, but a tough thick skin, forming a kind 

 of bag. When laid they do not contain a young 

 snake formed, but, if broken, are found to hold a 

 thick yellowish liquid like cream. I have lately 

 watched the hatching of the eggs of a snake, which 

 were placed in a hotbed. The young came forth 

 in about six weeks. If L. M. M. R. has any wish 

 for a snake's egg, I can supply him from a fevr 

 preserved in spirits. F. C. H. 



NUNS ACTING AS PRIESTS IN THE MASS. 



(Vol. xi., pp. 47. 294.) 



Mr. Breen, who has kindly made some remarks 

 on my Query, has mistaken the object I had in 

 view in proposing it. I confess I did think, and 

 still do tliink, that the author of the Voyageur en 

 Suisse, whose words I quoted, meant to say that 

 the nuns in question still do what he describes. 

 But my Query is, where did he get the story ; and 

 what is the origin of the story ? Mr. Breen's 

 explanation is very unsatisfactory : a parcel of 

 nuns assembling in their chapel, and going through 

 the prayers of the mass, as a sort of mystery or 

 miracle play, once or twice, is not a thing likely 

 to make such a noise as to be regarded as very 

 wonderful, or to become a tradition in the country, 

 and recorded as a remarkable fact in guide-books. 

 The author of the Voyageur en Suisse must have 

 got the story somewhere. My Query is this, Does 

 any other authority mention such a story ? If we 

 could find such other authority, we would then 

 perhaps be in a better condition to ascertain the 

 meaning of it, and whether it has any foundation 



