1859.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 95 



In answer to this, I beg to refer him to the ' Merry Wives of Windsor,' 

 act V. scene 5, where Falstafif, having taken his stand under Heme's 

 Oak in Windsor Park, waiting for the merry wives to meet him, says : — 

 "Let the sky rain potatoes, let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves," 

 etc. 



The writer also states that Shakespeare's knowledge of plants was not 

 very extensive ; but I beg to differ with him, for I find in plants, as in 

 most other objects in nature, his knowledge was great, particularly as 

 regards their properties and peculiarities. However this may be, we are 

 not yet satisfied as to the insane root proper of our great dramatist, but 

 when it is asked. If the Atropa Belladonna is not, what is ? we must 

 look through all the herbals of Shakespeare's time to answer the question. 

 We might conjecture that the plant referred to by him as having the pro- 

 perty described was the Black Henbane, Hyoscyamus niger, the root of 

 which has been known to produce, when eaten, temporary insanity and 

 delirium. Others might say it was the (Enanthe crocata, Water Hemlock, 

 the roots of which have been eaten by mistake, and produced similar 

 eifects. Is there any old work on plants which tells us that the Deadly 

 Nightshade produces any eft'ect sho7't of death, or, in fact, insanity ? 



H. B. 



If your readers are not going to sleep over this subject, or getting 

 crazy with the repetition of it, I must add a line or two referring to the 

 following, which I find in Greene's 'Never too late,' 1616. " You gazed 

 against the sun, and so blemished your sight, or else you have eaten of 

 the 7'oots of Hemlock, that makes m.ens eyes conceit unseen objects.'''' 



I should be glad to know from what source the dramatist derived his 

 information. I cannot find any work which describes Hemlock to have 

 this property. S. B. 



Specific Names, etc. 



" Some botanists wiite ericafolia, salicisfolia, lingueeformis, etc., in- 

 stead of following the analogy of the Latin in forming adjectives with 

 an i : as palmifer from palma, -ce ; baccifer, from bacca, -ce ; barbifer, from 

 barba, -«." — Smith'' s Litroduction to Botany, 307, note. 



Therefore Erythrcea linariifolia is more correct than litiaricefolia. 

 Having by an oversight misled your readers on this point, it is hoped 

 that you will insert this in the ' Phytologist.' B. 



Extract from Correspondence. 



A fortnight ago I stumbled upon a " shoddy heap," on which I 

 gathered several rare plants, as Cynodon dactylon, Gastridiiim lendigerum ?, 

 Solanum nigrum, Herniaria c'lliata, Amaranthus retroflexus, etc., and a 

 Med'icago of which I have no description, with linear-oblong toothed 

 opposite leaves. I will forward specimens in course. 



C. S. HOBKIRK. 



('Phytologist,' vol. iii. p. 19.) — Gladiolus imbricatus. — What are the 

 other registered stations for the above plant ? 



