91 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [Mavch, 



not come under his notice, either there or elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 

 since the above date. W. P. 



Llandderfel, September, 1861. 



Hen and Chicken Daisy. 



Ex Sibbaldo, in Prodromo Nat. Hist. Scotiae, p. 2, cap. ii., Bellis .• — 

 " B. minor, sylvestris, simplex, flore albo, prolifera. Eam inveni in colle 

 prope villam Ji'elhoase dictam in vicinia Turplcheii." 



I have observed the proliferous variety of the common Daisy (Hen and 

 Chicken Daisy) on a hill, near a village or farm called Welhouse, not far 

 from Tarpichen. 



Japan Crops. 



E/ice is the staple cereal of Japan, atid of this grain immense quanti- 

 ties are produced. Millet is also grown. Solanum escidentum (Egg- 

 plant), sweet Potato, etc., are all extensively cultivated as vegetables. 

 Mr. Veitch states that all Japanese productions, both of fruits and vege- 

 tables, are more or less insipid ; aud he hints that this flavourless state is 

 caused by the excess of manure, which produces rank and tasteless crops. 



The fruit, he further remarks, is not only scarce, but bad. The 

 Japanese paying little or no attention to the cultivation of fruit, few 

 varieties are found among them ; for example, of Pears, Peaches, and 

 Grapes, only one variety of each is known. The following are met with : — 

 Cherries, Chestnuts, Figs, Grapes, OrangeSj Pears, Peaches, Plums, Wal- 

 nuts. Of Melons there are two or three sorts. 



Eabe Plants found in Bedfordshire. 



IsATis TINCTORIA : TFoad. — This plant is cultivated in this country 

 in this manner. They every year sow the seeds aud pluck up the old 

 AVoad, unless it be saved for seed. It is sown about the beginning of 

 March, and cropped about the middle of May following, as the leaves 

 conies up. It is best in quality in a fair and dry summer, but most in 

 quantity in a moist one. Then they crop it four or five times according as 

 it comes up ; the first crop is best, every crop after is worse in order, and 

 the last worst of all. As soon as it is cut it is carried to the Woad-mill, 

 and ground as small as it can be until it becomes fit to ball. When it is 

 balled they lay the balls on hurdles to dry, and when it is perfectly dry 

 they grind them to powder in the mill as small as possible ; thus ground, 

 they throw it upon a floor and water it, which they call " couching," and 

 let it smoke and heat, turning it every day until it be perfectly dry and 

 mouldy, which they call "silvering." When it is silvered they weigh it by 

 the hundred, and bag it, putting two hundredweight in a bag, and so send 

 it as fit for sale to the dyers, who try how it will dye, and then set the 

 price accordingly. The best Woad is usually worth £18 per ton. With the 

 tincture of this plant the ancient Britons were wont to dye their bodies, 

 that they might appear more terrible to their enemies. The Romans called 

 this herb "Vitrum,'* witness Cfesar, Vitruvius, Mela, Pliny, and Mar- 

 cellus Empyricus ; which word being manifestly an interpretation of 

 " Glastum," it appears that Glassa or Glasse signified the same thing 

 among the ancient Britons that it does among us, and not a blue colour, 



