NATURE NOTES. 277 
“ CYPERUS PAPYRUS,” PAPYRUS ANTIQUORUM. 
SEVERAL years ago I obtained a specimen of Cyperus papyrus, 
or at least the flower stem, from the fountain of Diana, 
Syracuse, and it was asserted the plant grew in no other spot 
in Europe. Of course the political division is unimportant, 
but I have since then read that it grows rather freely on the 
river Anapus, and is also met with in Calabria. I had’ 
heretofore concluded it might be an imported stranger to 
Sicily, but it may after all be indigenous. I. HuMBLg. 
‘* HIEROCLOE BOREALIS” IN KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE. 
ALTHOUGH the discovery of this rare grass in Kireudbright- 
shire has already been recorded by Mr Arthur Bennett in 
the Journal of Botany (1899, p. 328), and in the Annals of 
Scottish Natural History (1899, pp. 230—235), where an inter- 
esting historical account of the Holy Grass is given, 1 think 
it may be well again to draw attention to the fact that it 
has been found in a station so remote from the only other 
one known in the British Isles. In 1854, Mr Robert Dick 
recorded it from the banks of the river at Thurso, Caithness, 
It had already been lost sight of, I believe, in the original 
locality of Glen Kella (or Cally) in Forfarshire, where it was 
discovered by Mr George Don in 1812. 
It has been suggested that the Hieroclie is liable to be 
overlooked because it flowers as early as May, so that we 
may hope it may yet turn up in some intermediate places. 
The Herbarium of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 
is fortunate in possessing two fine specimens from the Kirk- 
cudbrightshire shore, presented last May by the Rev. Mr 
George M‘Conachie, but it is to a lady (Miss Mittelbach), I 
understand, that the credit of finding it in this county is 
due. 
The name Hieroclée is derived from two Greek words mean- 
ing “sacred grass,” because in some parts of Germany it is 
mVOL. (I.% 21 
