386 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [^September, 



prosperous men of the present day have reason, in recalling that time, to 

 name him as the man who caused them to be what they are. Having no 

 family of his own, his generosity also gathered round him relations not a 

 few in number to share in the prosperity which he had earned, and late in 

 life enjoyed in the neiglibourhood of Auckland. 



In private life Dr. Sinclair was a true Christian gentleman, liberal in 

 the expression of opinions, pleasant and courteous in manner ; as an 

 official he was honest, upright, scrupulous, and laborious ; as a man of 

 science he was ardent but painstaking. The loss of one of his attainments 

 and character, with the means and leisure which he possessed, is a public 

 calamity ; for there are few among us with his advantages, and fewer still 

 who can use them as he did. His age we do not know ; but though far 

 from a young man, he had much of the vigour of youth still remaining, 

 and might in aU probability have enjoyed many years of life agreeably to 

 himself, and usefidly to his fellow-colonists, had not the melancholy acci- 

 dent which it has been our duty to narrate carried him off from the midst 

 of his labours. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. . 



How TO DESTROY CUSCUTA. 



Another of man's enemies is said to lie at his mercy. Cusciita is no 

 longer to be dreaded ; chemistry has done for her. What the iirst Darwin 

 calls her " dangerous charms " have ceased to be dangerous ; and the 

 growers of Flax, Clover, and Lucerne may sleep in peace. A French che- 

 mist, M. Ponsard, having remarked that Cuscutas contain " an enormous 

 quantity of tannic acid," bethought him of iron-salts as a fatal enemy, and 

 called them to his aid. He mounted on wheels a barrel filled with water, 

 and introduced into it as much green vitriol (sulphate of iron) as would 

 saturate it ; the proportion is immaterial, as Avater will only take up a 

 fixed quantity. To his barrel he adapted a tap and india-rubber hose, with 

 a nozzle. In the field he cut away most of the Cuscuta and Lucerne at- 

 tacked by it, so as to lay the soil completely bare. The part mowed off 

 was put in heaps and burnt, or else drenched with the sulphate of u'on. 

 The spaces whence the Cuscuta had been removed were also well watered 

 to soiue distance all round, so as to be sure that every thread was reached. 

 The effect was admirable ; in an hour or two every morsel of Cuscieta was 

 destroyed, or, more correctly speaking, "mineralized," and nothing remained 

 but a heap of black threads twisted and entangled in all manner of ways. A 

 tannate of ii-ou had been formed inside her. As for the Lucerne, it is greedy 

 of green vitriol, and pushed with the utmost vigour after the operation. 



Helleborus viridis 



Is undoubtedly wild in the locality mentioned in yom* number for July, 

 vol. V. p. 321. It grows in straggling plants about the edges of the oak (un- 

 fenced) copses and hedge-sides, not near any garden or inhabited place or 

 pleasure-grounds. I have lately been told by one who is able to distin- 

 guish it, that the green Hellebore occurs sparingly in Threapland Wood, 

 and also in Plumbland Wood, both in this county. 



