274- THE JOUKNAL OF UOTAKVT 



very glad to be able to enclose a sprig of ' Lasses-Love.' The point 

 you raise as to the name has interested me for many years ])ast ; for 

 I only know of one corner of Yorkshire where this folk-name is used — 

 the Ha worth moorland, which is the scene of the book .... As 

 regards the local use of ' Lasses-Love,' a friend of mine, living in the 

 Ha worth country, was approached by a neighbour who had seen the 

 name used in a book of mine aild who stated roundly that it was 

 a fiction of my own. The answer was, ' If you don't laiow the herb 

 by that name, it is plain your roots don't go deep into moorland 

 soil.' " " French Lavender " is another name given for the plant in 

 the book, in which also occurs " Lad's Love " — a common name for 

 Artemisia Abrotanum, which has a similar scent. — James Bkitten. 



OxALTS AMERICANA. In Bhodora for April Prof. M. L. Fernald 

 establishes this as a species distinct from O. Acetosella, with which 

 it had generally been regarded as conspecific. It had been separated 

 by Bigelow, who communicated a description to De Candolle which 

 was published by the latter in Prodi-, i. 700 (1824) ; but in the same 

 year Bigelow (Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 258) withdrew the species (which 

 indeed he himself had never published), considering the European and 

 American plants identical. The distinction was recognized by Zuc- 

 carini in 1825 and 1831, but " all subsequent authors have followed 

 Bigelow's own printed statement and have not attempted to separate 

 the American from the European plant." In distribution the former 

 " belongs distinctly in the Canadian zone, overlapping slighth^ into 

 the Hudsonian, where it occurs in cool mossy woods " ; the European, 

 Prof. Fernald regards as " growing in apparently much drier open 

 habitats." The time of flowering also differs : " it would seem that 

 O. Acetosella of Europe is one of the early spring flowers of open 

 sunny woods, while its North American representative is a summer* 

 flowering plant of the dense Canadian spruce and fir forests." The 

 difference in habitat — at any rate, in Britain — is not as great as 

 Prof. Fernald supposes : with us the Wood Sorrel occurs mostl}^ on 

 moist shady hedgebanks, often among moss. Numerous differences 

 in the flowers, capsules, seeds, and other features are pointed out, 

 and, with the difference in distribution, " indicate that De Candolle 

 and Zuccarini were correct in maintaining the American plant as a 

 distinct species, and that Bigelow's first impulse to separate the 

 American plant was well founded, although he afterwards, from 

 failing to observe the numerous concomitant characters, reduced his 

 own species." It is interesting to note that the variety sulpur- 

 jpurascens DC, of O. Acetosella, has its analogue in the American 

 species ; Prof. Fernald, rightly regarding this as " merely a colour 

 form" names it forma rhodantlia. 



Brake Fern on an Oak. Eecently when valuing the timber 

 in a mixed wood on Tickenham Hill, Somerset, I observed a couple 

 of ordinary sized Brake ferns (2|-3 ft. high) growing with Polypody 

 and a rooted bramble in the basin of a large pollard Oak. Though 

 very rough, the Oak is apparently sound, and measures thirteen feet 

 in circumference ; and the sort of basin formed by the branches 

 is nine feet above ground, and doubtless holds both humiis and water. 



