1861.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 351 



A New Use fob Apples. 



We are threatened Avith a cider famine, not from the failure of the apples, 

 although a partial crop, but because they are likely to be applied to a more 

 profitable purpose (so far as the growers are concerned) than in making a 

 household beverage. It seems that the Manchester calico dyers and printers 

 have discovered that apple juices supply a desideratum long wanted in 

 making fast colours for their printed cottons, and numbers have been into 

 Devonshire and the lower parts of Somersetshire buying up all the apples 

 they can get, and giving such a price for them as in the dearest years 

 hitherto known has not been offered. We know of one farmer in Devon- 

 shire who has a large orchard, for the produce of which he never before 

 received more than £250, and yet he has sold it this year to a Manchester 

 man for £360. There can be no doubt that the discovery will create quite 

 a revolution in the apple trade. — From the ' Times,' October 1, 1861. 



Devonshire, September 21th, 1861. — The quantity of cider is not likely 

 to be so great this year as formerly, in consequence of the sale of many 

 orchards to manufacturers, who are about, it is said, to use the juice in 

 some colouring processes. — From the 'Times,' September 30th, 1861. 



Dr. Torrey's Herbarium. 



Through the 'American Medical Times,' we learn that Dr. Torrey has 

 presented " his immense herbarium, the fruit of forty years' assiduous la- 

 bour, together with his valuable botanical library," to the trustees of 

 Columbia College, who have provided accommodation for them, and also 

 a residence for Dr. Torrey, in the College. This collection is said to em- 

 brace examples of nearly all the collections of Government expeditions, 

 from that of 1819, under Major Long, to the recent results. Besides, 

 the collection embraces numerous specimens from the Floras of Europe, 

 Asia, Australia, and South Africa. Dr. ToiTcy does not propose aban- 

 doning his botanical pursuits ; but hopes, under the auspices of the CoUege, 

 to prosecute them under more favourable circumstances. 



SCROPHULARIA VERNALIS. 



This interesting plant was known as British at an earlier date than we 

 are generally disposed to assign to it. Sir J. E. Smith, who worked up 

 the origin of our British Flora with scrupulous care, seems to have over- 

 looked the earliest record of this plant, as 1 perceive by a manuscript note 

 in my copy of Smith's ' English Flora,' as follows : — Sir James says, vol. 

 iii. p. 139, "Neither Dillenius nor Ray takes notice of this species." My 

 annotated copy of the 'English Flora' adds, — "but William How does." 

 See 'Phytologia Britannica,' p. 110 (Lond. 1650), under the old name, 

 Lamium Pannonicum aliud, Clusius. W. P. 



Crepis biennis. 

 A friendly critic has pointed out a slight inaccuracy in a notice of Kent- 

 ish plants, p. 207, vol. v. Instead of writing, " and in ' English Botany,' 

 both in the original work and in the Supplement," it should have been 

 " in ' English Botany,* and the confusion of the two species is admitted in 

 the supplement to that valuable work." — See Crepis taraxacifolia, E. B. S. 

 2929. 



