1862.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 351 



find the following upon TrifoUmn repetis (called Dutch Clover) : — " It does 

 not seem to be ascertained when this white Trefoil came first into culti- 

 vation here, but it seems to be of lale date, for it is not mentioned l)y Gerard, 

 Parkinson, or Eay, as an agricultural plant in this country, nor by any of 

 the writers on husbandry of the seventeenth century." I agree with "Hi- 

 bernicus" in believing that St. Patrick did not gather a leaf of this plant to 

 illustrate his doctrine of the Trinity, but it must have been some other 

 Trefoil. As the JFatercress was, according to»Moryson and Spenser, called 

 Shamrock early in the sixteenth century, what is there to show that St, 

 Patrick might not have taken a leaf of this plant and referred to the three 

 iermuial leaves to illustrate his doctrine? 



In Phillips's Dictionary I find " Dew-grass, a sort of herb." What is 

 this ? Harriet Beisly. 



PULMONARIA OFFICINALIS. 



The following precise description of the locality, etc., of the above plant 

 is extracted from a letter, dated May 14th, 1862 : — "Ftiliiionaria officinalis 

 grows inBurgate Wood, in the parish of Burgate, in the county of Suffolk. 

 I think there can be no doubt about its being a genuine wild locality ; for 

 the plant is plentiful, it grows far in the interior of an extensive wood, 

 and has as much the appearance of being truly wild as any of the plants near 

 it. It is now more luxuriant than usual, in consequence of the underwood 

 having been recently cut — a fact which I noticed last September when I was 

 in the wood. The specimen I sent to you was, I believe, one of the 

 smallest that could be found. _^,^.«-i^ Charles Jos-eph Ashfield." 



" Enowsley Street, Freston." '^ t?^-'-<- -i-^^?;- ^ , ;■;'-• . . / / 



Fleur-de-Lis. 

 I have often thought that the figure we find in old paintings and in 

 sculptures of this flower is somewhat like the head of our ancient spear, 

 and also somewhat like a Trefoil (representing the Trinity) ; and I have 

 sometimes doubted whether the figure was originally intended for a jleur- 

 de-lis, as it is not very similar to the Iris. In the ' Etymological Com- 

 pendium ' by William PuUeyn, he has the following : — " Fleur-de-lis on the 

 Mariner's Compass. Those who have seen the mariner's compass, or indeed 

 a drawing of it, must have observed the fleur-de-lis at the point of the 

 needle. From this circumstance the French have laid claim to the dis- 

 covery; but it is much more probable that the figure is an ornamental 

 cross, which originated in the devotion of an ignorant and a superstitious 

 age to the mere symbol." It appears that the fleur-de-lis was introduced 

 into the arms of France in the reign of Clodoveus ; previous to that period 

 they had three toads on a yellow field. Topsell says, that Clodoveus changed 

 them into the Heurs-de-luce as arms sent to him from heaven. I think 

 the question — What was the true fleur-de-lis ? and whether the first 

 figure called a fleur-de-lis was a flower or not, — is worth an answer ; and I 

 hope some of the contributors to the ' Phytologist ' will satisfy us on this 

 subject. S. B. 



Plants Noticed by Early Writers. 

 In Eichard Carew's ' Survey of Cornwall,' a very interesting work 

 written in the beginning of the sixteenth century, he notices some of the 



