158 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [.^(iy, 



' Phytologist,' lias sent the radical leaves of a Potentilla, which may pro- 

 bably turn out to be the above-named plant. It grows on the banks of 

 the Tay, not far from Invergowrie. Mr. Sim will send specimens when 

 mature. Tlie leaves are rather like luxuriant states of P. reptans, which 

 is rare in Scotland. 



The same most successful explorer of Flora's dominions WTites that 

 Viola odorata abounds about Perth. He affirms that it is a true native of 

 these parts, and that " no one who has seen it growing on the banks of 

 the majestic Tay, far from any human abode, would have the temerity to 

 assert that it is an outcast from a garden." 



Perhaps not. But some prudent people woidd affirm that, like Alclie- 

 milla alpina and other upland plants, it was earned thither hj floods. If 

 it be ur^ed that it is not an alpine nor an upland species, it might have 

 been carried up from Dundee or Fifeshire by the tide. Let Mr. Sim settle 

 the matter with the sceptics. 



On the Carnivorous Property of the Droser.e (Sundew- 

 plants). 

 {To the JSditor of the ^Phytologist.'') 



Sir, — Visiting Chat Moss last July (1859), and being previously warned 

 that if I was a vegetarian, my feelings would be tried, the above plants 

 were minutely observed, in order to see if they live on animal diet. 



Though there were probably millions of the three British species on the 

 extensive Moss (a large j)ortion was traversed), none of the plants had 

 insects on them. They sometimes have flies on their leaves. 



It is however a well established physiological fact, that plants, which 

 have no stomach, can only absorb and assimilate nutriment in a fluid state, 

 either liquid or gaseous. 



It is a mistake, or probably one of our vulgar traditional errors, or it 

 may be classed with certain other asserted fallacies, a sample of which was 

 given in the ' Phytologist ' not long ago, under the somewhat equivocal 

 title of things not generally knoicn. 



Leigh, near Manchester, 15th April, 1859. 



' Insane Eoot ' of Shakespeare. 



In the last number of the ' Phytologist ' there is a query respecting the 

 ' insane root' of Shakespeare. I think the following, taken from an old her- 

 bal of Gr. D. Rembert Dodoens, dated 1576, wiU set the matter at rest; it 

 being translated into English in Shakespeare's time would render it the 

 more likely. After making mention of the Atropa Belladona, under the 

 name of Solanum somniferum, it gives the following description of the So- 

 lanum tnanicum. 



" The other Solanum, called mmiicum, that is to sale, Madde or Eaging, 

 hath leaves like Sennie or Mostarde, but greater, and somewhat like the 

 leaves of the right Branke Ursine, called in Latine, Acanthus." " It bringeth 

 forth, from one roote, ten or twelve stalkes of the height of two or three 

 foote ; at the top of the sayd stalkes or branches, groweth a rounde head, 

 of the bigness of Olyne, and rough like the fruit of the Plane-tree, but 



