474 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 294. 



The Blue Eose (Vol. xi., p. 280.). — I am un- 

 willing to occupy your pages with a subject per- 

 haps foreign to them ; at the same time I think 

 that the remarks of your correspondent W. Pin- 

 KKRTON (p. 344.) ought not to be passed by without 

 comment. 



He says that scientific horticulturists laugh at 

 the absurdity of attempting to produce a blue 

 variety of either the rose or dahlia. I have great 

 reason to believe that this assertion is an error : 

 that it may be difficult to accomplish, and that 

 years may elapse before it is performed, is no 

 proof either that it is in itself ridiculous or im- 

 possible. 



In the case of the rose, it is scarcely within the 

 range of probability that a blue variety will be 

 produced for many years ; this arises from the 

 fact of there being no flower of any shade ap- 

 proaching blue, and because the hybrid varieties 

 fertilise their seed very indifferently ; nor, except 

 under very favourable circumstances, do the seed 

 of hybrid varieties ripen in this country. 



Scientific floriculturists do not however by any 

 means despair of producing a blue variety of 

 dahlia, much less laugh at such attempts, though 

 it may be a work of time. Me. Pinkekton then 

 quotes Decandolle, to prove that no blue or yellow 

 flowers can be produced of the same variety. I 

 think that Mk. Pinkerton must be but a tyro in 

 floriculture, to advance an opinion so manifestly 

 erroneous; and with all due deference to the 

 authority of Decandolle, I will mention three in- 

 stances in which this is established beyond ques- 

 tion : 1st, in the pansy or heartsease ; 2nd, in the 

 hyacinth ; 3rd, in the verbena. 



In the first instance, the fact is notorious, the 

 colours being bright and clear ; in the second, the 

 colours are by no means so strongly marked, and 

 both colours are dull, — still the fact remains ; in 

 the third, it has just been most successfully accom- 

 plished by the production of a variety of a good 

 yellow, a good blue having been raised some years 

 since. If it proves nothing else, this fact proves 

 at least the rapid strides which floriculture is now 

 making, and that — 



" Nil mortalibus arduum est." 



Old Dutch Song (Vol. x., p. 384.). — The song, 

 which is dull and dirty, and by no means worth 

 looking for, may be found entire at p. 280. of 

 Nugce Venules, Ubique, 1720, and I believe in 

 other collections printed at Cosmopoli, Utopia, 

 Pekin, Monomolopa, and such places. I doubt 

 whether the writer, who on that occasion per- 

 sonated Christopher North, was very well ac- 

 quainted with what he calls " exquisite genuine 

 old High Dutch," as he puts a dative after durcli, 

 and " Magdelein " for Maegdlein. These blunders 

 are not in the original, and on referring to the 



passage in Blackwood's Magazine, I find " griinem" 

 for " griinen," which your correspondent has cor- 

 rected. All these can scarcely be errors of the 

 press. H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



Nursery Hymn (Vol. xi., p. 206.). — In answer 

 to the inquiry of J. Y. (1) I beg to send the fol- 

 lowing lines which a girl told her teacher in the 

 Sunday School of a country town in Norfolk she 

 was in the habit of repeating as her nightly prayer, 

 though its completeness, as the teacher remarked, 

 has suffered from the girl's imperfect remembrance 

 of it: 



" Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 



Bless the bed I lay on. 



Four corners to my bed, 



Three angels Mary led : 



One at my feet, one at my head, 



One at my heart, there they spread : 



God within, and God without, 



Bless me round about." 



The prayer in French quoted in " N. & Q.," 

 Vol. xi., p. 313., will illustrate the foregoing lines, 

 the like to which are not uncommonly to be found 

 in use by children, especially where a Romanist 

 establishment has survived the Reformation. 



W. R. C. 



Baptist Vincent Laval (Vol.x., p. 465.; Vol. xi., 

 p. 38.). — With many thanks to J. S. A. for his 

 kind endeavours to answer my Queries, I would 

 state, in answer to his, that the name of the vessel 

 was the Sea Otter, which is plainly written, as 

 plainly as any words in the MS., which is written 

 throughout in a very legible hand. The date of 

 his shipwreck was " Sunday, the tenth day of 

 August, in the year one thousand eight hundred 

 and nine." He probably sailed from England in 

 the previous year. William Duane. 



Ulsraelts Sonnet on the Duke of Wellington 

 (Vol. xi., p. 379.). — I would venture to assert 

 witli deference, that the beautiful lines written by 

 Mr. DTsraeli at Stowe are somewhat disfigured 

 by that sacrifice of sound to sense, not uncommon 

 to poets. Speaking of the Duke of Wellington, 

 he says : 



" And, conquering Fate, 

 Enfranchise Eui-ope." 



Now, I would beg to be informed how it is pos- 

 sible to " conquer Fate ? " If it is " Fate," Fate 

 must conquer. L. (1) 



Atlienajum Club. 



Armorial (Vol. xi., p. 87.). — The arms of 

 Captain Henry Crewkerne (Vol. ix., p. 467.), de- 

 scended from the Crewkernes of Crewkerne In 

 Devonshire, were : " Argent, a chevron gules be- 

 tween three hunting-horns sable." The hunting- 

 horns are stringed, but I cannot ascertain the 

 colours of the strings from the seal. I am inclined 



