18G1.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 93 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



To tlie Editor of tJie ' Phytologist: 



It is customaiy with nearly all British botanists to consider both species 

 of Boronicnm as alien to this country. My own observation of the plant 

 being confined to one habitat for B. Pardalicmches, near Bewdley, in 

 Worcestershire, I can scarcely offer an opinion. The place where it grows 

 there is a hedge and ditch, and at some distance from a house ; but, of 

 course, in conveying manure or refuse to fields or meadows, seeds of 

 garden plants may be taken to what appear very unlikely places for garden 

 plants to grow. In this habitat, an escape from a garden (in the true 

 sense) it certainly is not. What has led me to these remarks, is a passage 

 in Ben Jonson's ' Masque of Queens,' apparently written for performance 

 at the court of James I., about 1609, consequently anterior to the time of 

 Eay. The passage is — 



" And I have been pkicking plants among 

 Hemlock, Henbane, Adder' s-tongue, 

 Nightshade, Moonwort, Lihbard's-baae." 



Now you will observe that all the plants named here are acknowledged 

 native except the " Libbard's-bane ;'"' and most of them are plants not at 

 all likely to be cultivated ; hence it is a fair inference that the Leoi)ard's- 

 bane woidd be a wild plant. Gerard and Parkinson both give Northum- 

 berland as a locality for Z>. PardaliaHches. 



I offer these observations for the beneht of those who have better means 

 of observing this plant than I have. T. W. Gissing. 



Wakefield. 



To the Editor of the ' Phytologist.^ 



In the ' Phytologist' for November, 1S60, there is a paper on "Poets' 

 Flowers," and in some lines from ' Comus,' the Knotgrass is noticed. On 

 reading this article, it brought to my remembrance Sir Walter Scott's allu- 

 sion to the plant in the ' Lady of the Lake,' where he says, — 



" The Knotgrass fettered tliere the liand 

 Which once could burst an iron band." — Canto iii. 5. 



It is possible that the plant quoted by the two poets may not be the 

 same, but I am unaware of any other plant bearing the name of Knot- 

 grass than Tohjgonimi avicnlare. 



It has always struck me as one of the most beautiful passages in the 

 same poem, Scott's description of Ellen's grace and sprightliness, as nar- 

 rated in the following lines : — 



" A foot more light, a step more true, 

 Ne'er from the heatli-flower daslied the dew. 

 E'en the shght Harebell raised its head 

 Elastic from her any tread." — Canto i. 18. 



The plant alluded to by Scott is evidently Campanula rotundifolia, 

 which is often called the Harebell, although older writers have given that 

 appellation to Hyacintkus nonscriptus. li. lijiWAiiD. 



