1862.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 31 



told that Saxifraga cernua had been found on Lochnagar, but on the 

 finder taking me to the place, the plant proved to be Saxifraga rkmlaris. 



S. cernua is found abundantly on the mountains of Norway, chiefly on 

 blackish places, where the snow has lain long ; and in these places it is 

 from six to twelve inches high, and has from one to three large, white flowers. 

 It is more slender by rills at a lower elevation in higher latitudes, as in 

 Tromsdale, by the path leading to the huts of the Lapps. This is a fine 

 botanical locality, near the thriving, Arctic town of Tromso. Among other 

 interesting plants found in it in 1860, near to a large, permanent snow- 

 patch, was JFoodsia glabella, also Cydopteris alpina. Woodsla glabella 

 was previously known, so far as I am aware, only as a native of North 

 America, but the Nonvegian plants present no difference, that 1 can per- 

 ceive, from the American ones in the herbaria of Sir W. J. Hooker and 

 Jas. G. Baker. 



Saxifraga cernua is noted in the ' Botanical Guide,' on the authority of 

 the Fl. Scot., as upon Craigcalleach, but this locality wants confirming. 



In p. 381 of your December number, mention is made of Rubus laciniatus 

 being found near Plymouth. I venture to express a doubt of 11. laciniatus 

 being more than an accidental variety of some other Rubus, and, probably, 

 the laciniated varieties are not confined to one species. 



York, Dec. 1%G1. Jas. BACKHOUSE. 



" MiSELTO." 

 {From the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,^ May 9th, 1860.) 



Your correspondent " Dorset " (see p. 433) writes learnedly upon the 

 parasitical character of this plant, which he spells as above, but does not 

 seem equally well acquainted with the derivation of the word. In 

 Mudie's ' British Birds,' under the head " The Missel-Thrush, Turdas 

 viscivorus," may be found the following paragraph : — " There is a sort of 

 double naming in this bird ; it is called the missel-thrush because it mis- 

 sels (soils) its toes with the viscid slimy juice of the mistletoe berries, of 

 which it is very fond in the winter ; and the mistletoe gets its name be- 

 cause it soils the toes of the bird." Both the Latin and English name of 

 the bird seem to attest the truth of this observation, and it may perhaps 

 not be without interest to some of your readers. 



Fimdmhall, Wijmondham, May 15th. GerARD BaeTON. 



Germans, and others conversant with the German language, would 

 probably give another but not a more delicate reason for the etymon of 

 the name both of the bird and the shrub. The Latin scholar will recollect 

 the classical proverb " Turdas malum sibl cacat," or, as a Scotchman 

 would say, " He cuts a wand for his own back." 



The old tradition about the origin of the Mistletoe was that only the 

 partly digested seeds of the plant would grow, or, in other words, it was 

 necessary that the seed should pass through the digestive apparatus or 

 alimentary organs of a thrush. 



MiSTEL (German). — Mistletoe is derived from mist, muck, in old English 

 mixen, and mistel-beere, mistletoe-berries, and misfel-drossel, mistle-thrush, 

 are its derivatives ; the latter is so called from its feeding on the fruit of this 

 parasite. The latter part of this compounded word is from Mccso-Gothic 



