124 BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES, AND QUEIUES. [April, 



Black-beetles and bumble-bees — bluebottle flies, 



And moths were of no small account in his eyes ; 



An ' industrious flea' he'd by no means despise ; 



While 'old daddy long-legs,' wliose ' long legs ' and thighs 



Passed the common in shape, or in colour, or size. 



He was wont to consider an absolute prize." 



At Ribchester Bridge we found the Spotted Dead-nettle [Lamium 

 maculatum) growing plentifully on a bank on the north side of 

 the river, near the bridge. On the south side, both above and 

 below the bridge, the Soapwort {Saponaria officinalis) is very 

 abundant, as indeed it is in many places between Ribchester 

 Bridge and Preston. The Whorled Mint {Mentha sativa) grovvs 

 on the south bank of the river below the bridge ; and by the path 

 to Sale Weel we observed on one of our visits one or two fine 

 Bird-cherry trees {Prunus Padus) . 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 

 Pale Primroses. — ' Pliytologist,' vol. vi. p. 64. 



If I may trust to analogy, II. B.'s quotation from Todd solves the 

 difficulty, but, like many other good thoughts, it was thought or discovered 

 before. Shakspere himself tells the reason why "they (Primroses) die un- 

 married ere they can behold l)right Phoebus in his strength." I will not 

 quote the residue, because II. B. knows it as well as I do. 



Warton, in his notes and annotations on ' Lycidas,' where he quotes 

 Drayton, Browne, Drummond, Watsou, etc., uses the same words quoted 

 in the ' Pliytologist ' as Mr. Todd's. 



The original, whence all these allusions are derived, is in Ovid's " Meta- 

 morphoses," where this most ingenious poet describes the love of Apollo, 

 or Phoebus, or the Sun, for the first and fairest of all hh /fames, Daphne, 

 the beauteous daughter of old Peneus, one of the aquatic deities. This 

 unsuccessful suit was invented by the crafty sou of Venus, in requital of 

 some slights received from Phoebus. The former shot the latter with one 

 of his sharp poisoned arrows, which inflamed the great author of heat, and 

 the unwilling nymph with another, which made her freezing cold, like the 

 Snowdrop or the pale Primrose. Daphne vowed to die a maid, i.e. un- 

 marrietl, and, beiug pursued by her ardent lover, she prayed that the earth 

 might gape and devour her. The earth clung to her feet, which were soon 

 rooted in the soil : 



" Scarce had she finished, when her feet she found 

 Benumbed with cold and fastened to the ground ; 

 A filmy rind about her body grows, 

 Her hair to leaves, her anus extend to boiighs ; 

 The nymph is all into a laurel gone, 

 The smoothness of her skin remains alone." 



