60 BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [FehrUariJ, 



turers, and authors, would condescend to expound the science on 

 some well-known uniform method, till a decidedly better system 

 was promulgated, one which, like the Linnsean, might be almost 

 certain of universal approbation and adoption in every botanical 

 and medical school. But it is idle to speculate on the possibility 

 of fettering the human intellect, or to imagine that the appe- 

 tite for notoriety can be regulated by public wants in an age when 

 every teacher is expected to be an author, and when every author 

 is an inventor or an innovator, which is much the same. 



The Araliacea, or family of the Aralias, do not agree very well 

 with each other. Few points of obvious resemblance exist be- 

 tween our two British species, Adoxa moschatellina, and Hedera 

 Helix, Common Ivy. The former is a very humble, tender, 

 almost succulent plant, only a few inches high, and of short du- 

 ration ; the Ivy is a very tough arborescent climber, sometimes 

 a hundred feet long, and possessed of almost everlasting vitality. 



As the Ranunculacece are a very heterogeneous assemblage, and 

 of so miscellaneous a family, a little plant and single speqies, 

 like the Adoxa, could not much disturb the harmony, and it 

 might be joined to this Order, as Dr. Agardh suggests, without 

 any very violent infringement of the laws of relationship and 

 affinity. The other genus, viz. Hedera, might be combined 

 with CaprifoliacecE, with which it agrees better in popular cha- 

 racters than it does with the little-known obscure genus where- 

 with it is associated. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Ova /or the "Nidus Equ^e" of the 'Phytologist,' No. 50, June 1859, 

 p. 189 ; and a Reply to No. 60, Jiiril 1860, j9. 104. 



Ovum 1 . — This and all the other ova are as mysterious as the nidus in 

 which they may one day be hatched. As there were' none but Scottish 

 Ferns amongst those in pots out-of-doors, Mr. W. thought that the gar- 

 dener might have mixed tliose in the greenhouse with the hardy ; but the 

 gardener being questioned on the subject, he denied having done so ; be- 

 sides which, the lady on her return horn Scotland recognized her special 

 beauty. 



Ovum 2. — "Telling the exact spot," together with the former assertion, 

 and both verified by the husband on the following day by letter, would be 

 strong circumstantial evidence in favour of no mistake. 



Ovum 3. — How could Mr. W., either by visiting the spot or by his own 

 personal evidence, ascertain whether Blechnmn alphium " really grows on 



