I860.] BOTANICAL NOTES; NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 127 



15. Elower scented, white within as far as one-tliird up 16 



Flower nearly scentless, a little white at the base V. permiocta. 



16. Flower little scented, petals spreading, narrowed at their claw V. sepincola. 

 Flower highly scented, petals little, narrowed, and so close as to form a 



tube F. Beraudii. 



(Boreau, vol. ii. pp. 73, etc.) 



Viola hirta and V. odokata. 



Some correspondents of tlie ' Phytologist ' have doubted the distinctness 

 of Fiola hirta and odorata. They would doubt no longei*, I think, if they 

 saw them growing side by side, in alternate patches, as they do here ; V. 

 odorata in several different forms and varieties of size and colour, but 

 always easily distinguishable from F. liirta. This latter is much the more 

 frequent plant here, and by no means peculiar to chalk, as we have none 

 near Oxford. It occurs upon clay, gravel, and limestone ; in woods, sides 

 of fields under hedges, in peat bogs, on hillsides, and even in clay pits dug 

 out for bricks. H. B. 



GoLD-rLOWEBS. 



" Guilde quhilk is ane pernicious herbe, or rather ane wide, as we learn 

 fi'om the statutes of King Alexander the Second, who began to reign in 

 the zear of the warld 5184 of Christ 1214, and reigned 35 years." Chap. 18. 

 " Gif the fermer puts anie guilde into the lands pertaining to the King, or 

 ane Baron ; and will not clenge the land : he sould be punissed as ane 

 traitom' quha leades and convoyes ane hoist of enemies, in the King's lands, 

 or the Barones : (Item) Gif thy native bondman hes Guilde vrithin thy 

 land : for ilk stock he sail give to thee, or to anie other Lord of the land, 

 ane Muton, as ane unlaw : and nevertheless saU clenge the land of the 

 Guilde." The Corn Marigold is common in cornfields throughout the 

 counties of Fife and Forfarshire, which is pronounced by the country people 

 as Guilde and Meryguild. G. HowiE. 



Caution to Botanists. 



By an Act of Parliament made in the 15th year of the reign of Geo. II., 

 c. 22, all persons who shall cut, pull up, or carry away any Starr or Bent 

 planted on the north-west coasts of England to keep the sandhills from 

 being driven away by the winds, are liable to a penalty of 20s. for every 

 first offence, and to imprisonment aud whipping for a repetition of the 

 same offence. 



The sort of Tiusli or shrub called Starr or Bent, as the Act calls it, is 

 doubtless well known by the inhabitants and owners of lands in Lan- 

 cashii'e, and the coasts aforesaid ; but as I and many of your readers would 

 like to escape fine or pimishment for gathering a plant (which might be 

 unknown to us), will you be kind enough to give us the botanical name of 

 this kind of rush or shrub called Starr or Bent. S. B. 



Dean Forest. 



List of the rarer plants of the Forest of Dean, chiefly in the north-east 

 portion, from Nicholls' 'Forest of Dean :' — Lathrcea squamarla : Scordes, 

 above the Lining Wood. Narthecium ossifragum : Mitcheldean Meand 



m.. 



