I860.] BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 319 



Then when the glorious May broke forth 



With moruing-s sweet and blue, 

 I walked the green and daisied fields, 



So bright with silvery dew. 



'Twas then I saw the Hawthorn white 



Shed blossoms in the breeze ; 

 I thought that so much beauty was 



Brought forth our sense to please. 



Then passed the Summer's golden wand* 



Across sweet Flora-land ; 

 'Twas then a glowing painted scene 



Drawn by a master hand. 



But now I see the Autumn sky 



Like floating wreaths of hues ; 

 Alas, my Flowers are yielding up 



Their tints in damps and dews ! 



There sits the Kobin on a twig, 

 , His sweet lament to sing 

 O'er pretty buds and graceful leaves ; 

 They '11 come again nest Spring. f 

 Wandsworth. W. B. LlNFIELD, Jun. 



CuscuTA Epilinum. 



There are a few good plants growing in a flax-field near Bromley, viz. 

 Cuscuta Epilinum, Camellna sativa, Lolium linicola ; and in a field near, 

 Silene anglica ! W. W. E. 



Sir, — Could you inform me on what gi'ounds botanists now consider 

 the Oxalis Acetosella to be the real Shamrock of Ireland, and why it 

 should not be a Trefoil ? 



In Exeter, Canterbury, Salisbury, and Bristol Cathedrals, we have some 

 fine carvings of the latter plant on the more ancient stalls in those 

 venerable structures. If you can throw any light on this interesting sub- 

 ject in your next or any future number of your valuable journal, you will 

 oblige, yom-s veiy truly, C. E. P, 



Torquay, Sept. 4. 



it is probable that the idea as well as the expression is poetical, and ordinary pro- 

 saic mortals are not expected to entertain such lofty flights of fancy, as laughing 

 buds into blossoms. — Eu. 



* We do not know whether Golden-rod should be read for "golden wand." The 

 necessities of metre are painfully manifest even in greater poets than our author. 

 —Ed. 



t This reminds the writer, of the Bonapartists in the winter of 1814 and 1815, 

 when Napoleon Bonaparte was desired to retire to Elba for the' benefit of his 

 counti-y and for the peace of Europe. His partisans displayed Violets in their but- 

 ton-holes, and used as a watchword, II reviendra aw printemps, a saying which 

 bore a double sense, and which might be applied both to the little floweret and to 

 the banished Emperor. — Ed. 



