126 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [April, 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 

 Tewkesbury Mustard. 



In reference to Teickesbury mustard, perhaps some of your readers may 

 not object to being remmded that Shakesj)eare alludes to it in the second 

 part of Henry IV., act ii. scene iv., where Doll Tear-sheet remarks, 

 " They say Poins hath a good wit," to which Falstaff replies, " He a good 

 wit ? hang him, baboon ! his wit is as thick as Tewkesbury mustard ; 

 there is no more conceit in him than is in a maUet." 



Birmingham. Gc. H. HaNDSWORTH. 



ErANTHIS HIEMALIS NEAR NOTTINGHAM. 



Some fields (ploughed) and copses in this neighbourhood are at present 

 (February 15th, 1859) quite yellow with the above-named plant, which ap- 

 pears perfectly naturalized, in spite of persons who come fi'om Nottingham 

 and dig up the roots for sale. E. E. C. 



Long-tailed Terms. 



A crabby Correspondent has sent the following complaint about the 

 cacophoniousness of certain names given to plants. Some of our readers 

 may probably sympathize with him. We have room only for a sample. 



" Technicality is the gimlet of the social bore. It is the bludgeon of 

 the scientific bully. Who shall venture to touch or to smell English 

 plants with such names as Salix icoolgarlana, Carex hoemiimjliauseniana, 

 Hieracium Schmidtii, Rubus Grabotcskii, R. Rcicheiibachii, R. Guntlieri, 

 etc. etc., if plants can grow with the disgrace of such names fastened to 

 them — if such words can represent any living thing of beauty in the glory 

 of the creation through which we walk daUy ? We have no right to over- 

 whelm them with our scientific Billingsgate. Neither have we any right 

 to seal up against children — our own blossoms — the beautiful story of the 

 lives of their kindred in the gardens and the fields. H^ who by the sea- 

 shore makes friends with the sea-nettles is introduced to them by the 

 scientific master of ceremonies as the RhysuplioridcB and HippopdodydcE. 

 Creatm'es weak, delicate, and beautiful are Desmidiacece, Ghcetopterlna, and 

 Amphinomacece, Twentysyllableorfeet, and all for the honour of science, or 

 rather, not for its honour, but for its honorificabOitudiuitatibus. Almost 

 every book of science is a stream alive with long-jawed alligators, among 

 which no such small fish as a general reader dares to svpim. We declare 

 war against these alligators. Let them be hunted down." 



Our testy friend is not quite correct in telling us that these sesquipeda- 

 lian words (terms a foot and half long) were invented in honour of the 

 plants whose representatives they are. They are thus named in honour of 

 their illustrious discoverers. Semper floreant ! quorum honos, nomen lau- 

 desqiie maneant in ceternum. 



Early Flowers. 



Plants in Floioer at BerlcJtampstead. — Snowdrops on the 18th of Ja- 

 nuary; Mezereon on the 24 th ; Polyanthus on the 31st. 



