1863.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUEllIES. 479 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



« ViNCA MINOR. 



Allow me to call the attention of your readers to tlie inflorescence of 

 Tinea niinur. It is a plant with which I have no doubt they are familiar, 

 and as it will flower in the ensuing month, there will be an opportunity 

 for the observation of its peculiarities, which are characteristic antl inter- 

 esting. The flowers are usually said to be solitary and axillary ; but in 

 a paper which I communicated to the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, and which was read at their Cambridge meeting in last 

 October, I ventured to expi^ess an opinion that the flower of this plant is 

 truly terminal. My reasons for this opinion are as follows : — Vinca minor 

 has opposite leaves, but the flowers are not opposite like those of Jna- 

 gallis arvensis, which are truly axillary. Sometimes, instead of a pair of 

 opposite leaves, there is a solitary leaf, and then the flower, instead of ap- 

 pearing in its axil, is uniformly on the opposite side of the stem ; but 

 A. P. Be CandoUe says that " inflorescences opposite the leaves appear to 

 be always formed by the real top of the stem." Professor Balfour has 

 also shown that this is what takes place in tlie Vine, of which a peduncle 

 or tendril is the true summit, and the branch which is prolonged beyond 

 it proceeds from the uppermost axillary bud. That sucii is also the case 

 with Vinca minor I have no doubt, having indeed seen a plant some years 

 ago in which the flower was evidently terminal, having a branch on both 

 sides of it. If practical botanists will only look out for similar variations, 

 I have no doubt that they will be able to verify what I have said. 



John Gibbs. 



Saddon Road, Chelmsford, 6th January, 1863. 



PoGLES, OR Cowslips. Verba scum. {Culverkeys.) 

 Dr. William Bullein, in his ' Book of Simples,' written 1562, says: 

 " Verba&cum is of divers kinds. The one is called Mullen, which is a long 

 herbe like a wax-taper, bearing yellow flowers in the top, with small 

 leaves. Another kind, black Verbascnin. These herbs be called Dung- 

 worte among the common people. The third kind is called Pogles or 

 Cowslips. " 



In a note given in the ' Phytologist ' some time since, reference was 

 made to Culverkeys, noticed by Izaak Walton, being gathered with Cow- 

 slips. If by Culverkeys he meant what we call Columbines, might he Hot 

 by Cowslips have meant the Verbascnm alluded to by Bullein ? S. B. 



JoHN-iN-THE-PoT. {Herb John, etc.) 

 In J. Howell's 'English Proverbs,' published 1660, is the following: 

 " Without Herb-John no good pottage." 



In Osborne's ' Memoirs of James the First,' he has a phrase, " To ex- 

 change Herb-John for Colocpiintida." Tomlinson, in his translation of 

 Benodfeus' ' Dispensatory,' says that many superstitious persons call Mug- 

 wort St. John's Herb, " wherewith he circumcinged his loyns on holidays." 

 This does not agree with the herb John-in-the-Pot of Guruall, before 

 noticed in the 'Phytologist.' 



There is a curious note by Dr. Grey, in his edition of ' Hudibras,' 



