44 BOTANICAL SKETCHES FROM NORTH WALES. [February, 



the trees saw abundance of the rare Dwarf Elder [Sambucus 

 Ebulus), commonly called Dane- wort, and supposed by some 

 learned botanists to be the true Androseemum of the ancients. 

 What say " S. B." and the etymological botanists who strive to 

 enlighten the readers of the ' Phytologist ' on this abstruse point ? 

 The superstitious legend relates that this plant grew up where 

 the Danes were slaughtered. The Danes might reverse the point 

 of the myth, and say that the plant grew up where the Saxons 

 were killed. The Danes, however, did not write the early his- 

 tory of England, or the plant might perpetuate the memorial of 

 something not so flattering to Anglo-Saxon vanity. 



The Dane- wort, or Dwarf Elder, has a very fetid smell, and 

 the suspicious qualities and forbidding appearance of the plant 

 may have given origin to the name. The Danes were no fanciful 

 terror, no superstitious bugbears, but a sad reality, a cruel scourge 

 to this land. 



The 24th was spent in going to Bala, and on our way to this 

 rather pretty market town of Merionethshire, Cynoglosstmi Om- 

 phalodes was observed, well established, though in a park, called 

 Brynhilwg. Hypericum Androseemum was also seen by the road- 

 side near Bodweyne. 



The afternoon of this day was devoted to home botanizing; 

 and in a lane certainly less than a mile from a farm called Plas- 

 issa, where the young ladies are fond of flowers, and very suc- 

 cessful in the cultivation of their floral favourites, several fine 

 patches of Lamium maculatum, with variegated leaves, were ob- 

 served. 



As this was one of the domestic botanical pets, it may be a 

 question whether the plants seen in the lane migrated from the 

 garden to the hedge, or escaped from cultivation. Appearances, 

 it must be admitted, are in favour of the latter supposition. 



Several plants then and there cultivated were, by reputation at 

 least, supposed to be from wild stocks. This was not, on inves- 

 tigation, found to be invariably the case. 



The 25th was devoted to a journey over the Berwyns from 

 Llandderfel to Pistyll Ehaiadr. This was the longest walk we 

 had as yet undertaken. 



Our course was down the left bank of the Dee, which we 

 crossed about half a mile above Llandrillo. Near the bridge 

 Thalictrum flexuosum, or one of the varieties or species into 



