159 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
ShaJcsperes Garden, 
In a review of a book called * Shakspere's G-arden ' in tbe 'Journal of 
Botanj/ it is enggested that the plant called bj the poet "Speargrass" maj 
be the common Reed (Phragmlies commimu^ L.). Is there anj ground for 
tliis supposition ? Why maj it not hare been the plant still known in Suffolk 
as Speargrass, y\z. AgrosUs alba (the name being given as well to one or two 
other species oi Agrodls) ? I hare Jiot Dr. Prior's work ('Popular [Names of 
British Plants ') at hand, but I believe he offers no suggestion as to the deriva- 
tion of Speargrass. Allow me to observe that' it is not at all uncommon here 
in Yorkshire to see Primroses {Primula vulgaris) and Bluebells {Ilgacintkus 
nonscriptiis) plentiful at the same time — early May. By the way, should not 
the trivial name -ffarebell be confined to the Campanula rotundifolia, and the 
commoner name lluehell to the E gacintli us nonscriptiis 1 "Parmacety" is 
undoubtedly Spermaceti (not spermaceti-ointment), which is still considered 
"good for an in\vard bruise." Yours, etc., 
WaJcefield, A pHll , 1865. T. W. Gissi>'Gh. 
Under the Snow, 
, Mrs. Somerville tells us that closed cases are as old as the Creation. She 
says, that any one travelling in the Alps in early spring on the borders of 
eternal snows, cannot fail to have observed with admiration Leucojum vernum 
and other spring flowers flourishing in little closed cases of snow, often capped 
with ice, under cover of which the flowei's retain their beauty for a long period. 
A case of mine, outside one of my bedroom windows, is a case in point, save that 
the plants are surrounded with glass instead of snow and ice; the tempera- 
tui^e during this winter, as tested by a self-registering thermometer, has not ex- 
ceeded two degrees of that in the open air, but the immunity arising from the 
perfectly quiet and pure state of the atmosphere is most striking. In such a 
condition of the atmosphere Arctic voyagers tell us that man can bear any 
amount of cold with impunity, but if wind arises, even with an increase of tem- 
perature, he must get under cover. The following are the contents of the 
case :— 1. Double-flowered Camellia, enclosed two years and a half, flowering 
most freely the last two winters. 2. Eed-flowered variety of Cyclamen ; the 
first flower opened in the second week of January, and is only now fading. 
3. A young plant of Chamarops Foriuni, quite uutouched by the cold. A 
young plant of this, of the same size, planted in the most sheltered nook of my 
little garden, soon perished. Eight or ten beautiful varieties of Crocm, Nar- 
cissus, ffi/acinthtis, etc. etc., with the Primula Relveiica and the double White 
Primrose, have been "beautiful exceedingly." For the last dozen years I 
have not once been disappointed in the results. 
