1859.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 59 



The part now before us contains twelve pages of descriptive 

 matter. The suborders described are Salvinea, etc., and the 

 genera Salvinia, Azolla, Pilularia, and Marsilea. The ana- 

 lytical table of genera follows, and is continued to Gymno- 

 gramma. The genera and species are continued from Anetium 

 to Asplenium inclusive. Aspidium alatum, a native of the Ori- 

 ental Archipelago, enjoys just threescore and ten aliases. A 

 great number of names is characteristic of two classes {humani 

 generis) of personages, and humbler mortals, of Bow Street and 

 Old Bailey fame. A Spanish grandee has fewer names than the 

 least-famed of these fortunate Ferns, which have had hundreds 

 of pens employed in their praise or in chronicling the peaceful 

 annals of their uneventful existences. Will the number of readers 

 of the names of these fortunate Aspidia be as great as the number 

 of those who have written about them ? We do not know. But 

 we need not greatly wonder at strictures not rare in the current 

 literature, and especially in the writings of ]Mr. Punch, whose 

 remarks are not uniformly laudatory of contemporary science. 



The patience and perseverance of scientific writers is most 

 commendable. It is to be hoped that the reading public has a 

 larger share of these amiable qualities than the writer of this 

 notice can honestly lay claim to. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Mustard. 



If yon have not exhausted this subject, will you allow me to refer your 

 querists to a little work called ' A Scripture Herbal,' in which the writer, 

 W. Westmacott, Med. Prof., says : — " Mustard, quasi mustwn ardeus, 

 being used to hasten the fermentation and depuration of new wine or 

 must. In Latin, Sinapi or Sinapis. Hurting-mustard, by its volatile 

 acrimony, hurting the nose and eyes." 



In Camden's 'Britannia,' vol. i. p. 273, he says, speaking of Tewkes- 

 bury, that it is a large and fair town, having three bridges leading to it 

 over three rivers, famous for the making of woollen cloth and smart 

 biting mustard, etc. Some of your correspondents who hve in Gloucester- 

 shire can inform us whether mustard is cultivated there, and if it is stiU 

 manufactured at Tewkesbury. 



I find also that Mustard was by old writers called Genuy, or Senuie ; 

 and Minsheu, in his ' Guide into the Tongues,' has Senuie-seed, whereof 

 mustard is made. This word is from the Gallic ' Seneue' (Sent), but I 

 know not the particular meaning of this word. Does it express the property 



