SHORT NOTES. 161 



AsARUM EUROPIUM, L. — I hasten to coiTect an error in my note 

 (p. 85) on this plant. Beachwood Park, Flamsted, Herts, is the seat 

 of Sir J. Sebright, and the site of an ancient nunnery. Dr. Bull has 

 forwarded me the following note on a new locality for Asarum in 

 Herefordshire : — " It grows upon a hedgebank in the ancient forest of 

 Deerfold, and in the parish of Wigmore, Herefordshire, among the 

 roots of old thorns and brambles ; and under their shade, it completely 

 covers the bank for a space of thirty or forty yards. It is in a 

 thoroughly wild state, and removed from any habitation, nor is the 

 plant to be found in any of the gardens in the neighbourhood. In a 

 secluded valley, however, a little over a quarter of a mile from it, are 

 the ruins of the nunnery of Lymebrook ; and I attribute its introduc- 

 tion to some Sister who used it in her daily ministrations to the sick. 

 In Barton and Castle's 'Medical Flora ' it is stated that in the four- 

 teenth and fifteenth centuries this plant had great repute, from the 

 shape of its leaves resembling that of the human ear." Asarum lias 

 not been before recorded as a plant of the Severn province, and Mr. 

 Watson does not refer to it as having occurred in the Peninsula. In 

 Banks's ' Devonport Flora ' it is given as growing at Ham, near 

 Plymouth, on the authority of the Rev. C. T. Collins, and there is a 

 specimen from this locality in Herb. Borrer, labelled " Mrs. Collins's 

 garden at Ham, near Plymouth ; plant said to be found wild in an old 

 quarry in the neighbourhood." An old locality for Asarum in the 

 West Thames sub-province is given in How's ' Phytologia' (1650), 

 "On Einsham Common, in Oxfordshire" (p. 12). — James Britten. 



Rosa Sabini in France. — Though so widely dispersed in Eng- 

 land, Rosa Sabini is known upon the Continent only in the neighbour- 

 hood of Geneva, and in the provinces of iSamur and Luxemburg, in 

 Belgium. In M. Gay's collection there are three specimens that quite 

 agree with the common English form of the plant, taken from a bush 

 grown in the Luxemburg Garden in 1827, which are accompanied by 

 the followiug label : — " Rosa erinacea, Hardy. Croit spontanement aux 

 environs de Sablet, departement de la Sarthe, d'oii il a ete envoye par 

 M. Le Meunier de la Flcche. 11 est sembluble aux ruh'ujinom, mais 

 il n'a pas I'odeur particulicre a cette derniere espcce. Les lleurs sont 

 blanches, Hardy." I am not aware that the name erinacea was ever 

 published. M. Hardy was the gardener-in-chief of the Luxemburg 

 Palace through many years, and seems, judging from his notes to M. 



