354 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [Augusl, 



ordered a parcel to be brought in and fried with butter and prepared for 

 dinner, the usual way that Skirrets are dressed. 



"That day, one Mr. Cruso, that lives in the same town and has been 

 many years register (registrar) in the diocese of Clonfert, chanced to dine 

 with him and eat plentifully of the supposed Skirrets ; but Dean Burdett, 

 being prevented by some accidental business that called him away before 

 dinner was ended, did not eat above three or four of the roots. 



" About two hours after he began to perceive himself troubled with a uni- 

 versal uneasiness or lassitude, as if he had been tired after a long journey, 

 an unusual heat and dryness in his mouth and throat, a giddiness in his 

 head, a confused sort of vision in his eyes, and an odd stoppage in his 

 urine . . . without any disposition to vomit. . . . He told his wife of his 

 illness, and that he was unable to imagine what ailed him, being so per- 

 fectly well before dinner. By this time one of the servants came running 

 in, to tell him that a boy and two maids were suddenly fallen down in the 

 kitchen very ill ; and now they began to suspect the roots they had eaten 

 had occasioned all this, and on inquiring, found that none had tasted of 

 them but the Dean himself, Mr. Cruso, the two maids, and the boy ; there- 

 fore, to make sure, they sent a messenger to Mr. Cruso's house, who had 

 gone home after dinner, to know how he did. The messenger on reaching 

 the house, found Mr. Cruso's wife in tears, bewailing the sad condition of 

 her husband, who was lying on the bed and had lost all reason, storming 

 and raging Hke a madman, abusing his friends, and calling his wife all to 

 nought. Mr. Cruso had, as aforesaid, eaten plentifully of the roots, which 

 cast him into a frenzy, that continued three days ere it went entirely off. 

 The Dean and his servants, who had not eaten so much of the Henbane 

 root, were well the next day. Still the Dean was ignorant what root it 

 might be ; and to ascertain this, he carefully set some of the same root in 

 the ground, to observe what sort of plant it would send forth in the fol- 

 lowing spring, and found that it proved Henbane." 



Platsts of Surrey. — Wimbedon Plants. 



Sir, — Allow me to say that Turritis glabra is still very plentiful on one 

 bank (not on walls), and that I have gathered Myosurus minimus in 

 abundance in a field, in company \vith Papaver Argemone. Ophioglossum 

 vulgatuvi, Corydalis claviculata, and Rosa spinosissima are still abundant, 

 but I am sorry to say that Osmiiuda regalis and Clielidonium majus have 

 been recently destroyed, and of Lastrea Oreopteris only one plant remains. 

 I will make inquiries about the other questions raised in the ' Phytologist ' 

 about plants growing in our neighbourhood. Lathyrus NissoUa I ga- 

 thered on Box Hill in June 1860. Fritillaria Meleagris is not yet extinct 

 in the Mortlake locality. When out with the Kev. W. W. N. on May 8th 

 last, two fine plants were gathered by a rustic with us, who gave them to 

 Mr. N., from whom I have one. There did not seem to be any more in 

 the field. E. B. P. 



June ma, 1862. 



Shamrock. 

 Sir, — T am pleased to observe that the question about the " true Sham- 

 rock " is revived, and that the believers in the identity of Ireland's far- 

 famed national emblem, "the green immortal Shamrock," with white 



