260 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



A specimen o£ Orohanche purpurea Jacq. (0. ccerulea Vill.) is 

 labelled by Hemsted: '"Found July 2, 1796, near Sherringliam, 

 Norfolk. Wm. Skrirashire scripsit " ; one of Odonthalia dentata 

 Lygnbye — ^" Fucus dentafus With. iii. 428 ; Gathered on the Shore 

 at Leith by my Brother Fenwick : " the former is recorded on 

 Skrimshire's authority in Bot. Guide 437 (1805). 



William Skrimshire (1766-1830), of Wisbech, contributed papers 

 to Nicholson'' s Journal of Fhilosophy, 1806-09 . . . and is mentioned 

 by Sutton in Trans. Linn. Soc. iv. 184, where the finder's name is 

 spelt " Scrimpshire " — the earlier relating to electricity, the later (xxi. 

 71, 182 : 1808) to " the fecula of potatoes and some other British 

 vegetables," which in the present economic conditions may possibly 

 merit attention : the '* other British vegetables " are ^sculus Hippo- 

 castanuni, Quercus Rohur, Bryonia dioica and Arum viactdatum : 

 in the following year he published in the same Journal (xxii. 70) an 

 " Account of a British Vegetable Product that may be Substituted 

 for Coffee " : this was the seeds of Iris Pseudacorus, the preparation 

 of which is elaborately described : he mentions that the " seed-pods " 

 were at Wisbech called " Old Sows " — a name which is not given for 

 the plant in the Dictionary of English Plant-names. To the Trans- 

 actions of the Entomological Society of London, of which he was 

 a Fellow, Skrimshire contributed (i. 315 : 1812) a paper on " Rare 

 Insects found during a Flood at Wisbech," with a list (Coleoptera) : 

 to the same volume the Rev. Thomas Skrimshire, LL.B., presumably 

 a brother, also contributed. Another brother, Fenwick Skrimshire, 

 M.D., already referred to, is mentioned by Smith (Fl. Britannica, i. 

 238 : 1800) as having found Campanula rapunculoides " at Blair in 

 Scotland." 



Although but little is known about him, William Skrimshire was 

 evidently well acquainted with British plants : this is evident from 

 a letter to James Sowerby, to whom he had sent plants for English 

 Botany (see tt. 379, 423, 463) which it may be worth while to 

 transcribe : 



" Wisbeach, 



Septr. 14, 1795. 

 " Dear Sir, 



" I take the earliest opportunity of correcting an error I have 

 committed concerning the Sium repens :- — as my friend Mr. Relhan 

 informs me he is at length convinced that my specimens are nothing 

 but the nodiflora starved. The Stellaria which accompanied my 

 last letter I have sent a specimen of to Relhan, who says it is 

 graminea. 



" I have sent tAvo or three plants with this letter and wish they 

 may be of use. The JRiccia glauca I have sent as it grows with us 

 in water and on dry grovmd ; having no recent specimens of the plant 

 as it grows on the surface of the water, am obliged to send dried 

 ones — they difl'er in no respects from the plants which grow on the 

 ground, except in the long fibrous roots and their not being so 

 disposed to affect a circular form. I find the plants floating on the 

 surface of the water plentiful in a Ditch at Outwell near Wisbeach — 



