1859.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 253 



len Road station for the iip-train, I availed myself of the opportunity of 

 looking at Chirk park and castle. On the way thither I noticed the fol- 

 lowing plants : — 



Cotyledon Umbilicus is very plentiful and very luxuriant on the stone 

 walls. Geranium lucidum is not scarce. Fumaria capreolata occurs here 

 and there. 



On the bank of a wet ditch Carex axillaris was observed, only one or 

 two patches or tufts of it ; this was at the Chirk Castle side of a meadow, 

 through which there is a path leading from a bridge which crosses the 

 canal about a mile from the station. Not far from the same place, viz. 

 at the head of a quaggy, spongy corner of the meadow, Agrimonia odorata 

 was collected. The locality is precisely indicated in order that those who 

 are interested in these plants may look for them. They were in good state 

 at the beginning of Jrdy this year, 1859. 



On the canal towing-path side there are a few plants of Polyporus dry- 

 adeus on the roots of the Thorn ? ; also in a pasture-field near the gate of 

 Chirk Castle there is a great mass, or several masses, of the same Fungus, 

 gi'owing on stumps and stems of Oak, which appear to have been grubbed 

 up, and which are heaped up there, and partly decaying ; this heap of logs 

 and of lumps of wood is near a timber-yard, and not more than fifty yards 

 from the high-road which leads from the station to Chirk Castle. 



In the canal near the station there was growing a fine patch of Anaclia- 

 ris Alsinastrum ; and in the ditch of the adjoining field there grew immense 

 numbers of (Enantlie crocata, but without the yellow juice which abounds 

 in the plants that grow near London. Cambbicus. 



Art supemor to Nature. 



The following is taken from a notice in the ' Standard,' May 36, 1859, 

 of the flower-show in the Eegent's Park Eoyal Botanic Gardens : — " The 

 Azaleas especially were remarkable for their rich and rare hues, and the 

 perfection and profusion of their blooms, rendering it difficult to believe at 

 first sight that they were really natural, but rather that they were the handy- 

 work of some cunning artist of waxioorh celebrity." This is a rich speci- 

 men of the Art of Criticism, and shows how little the writer believed in 

 the perfection of Nature, which he before states was so perceptible in the 

 flowers : he had probably studied in the school of Madame Tussaud. 



S. B. 



DoRONicuM Pardalianches. 



(To the Editor of the ' Fhytologist:) 



Dear Sir, — In reply to Mr. Jerdon I beg to say that I have seen Doro- 

 nicum Pardalianches and Digitalis purpurea in flower at the same time, 

 which is, I should say, no uncommon thing, as the latter plant is commonly 

 in flower in the south and west midland counties by the first week in June, 

 and not unfrequently in May. I have myself seen Foxglove this year in 

 full flower in Breconshire on 23rd May, and in former years in other coun- 

 ties quite as early. At the same time I think I should not have contrasted 

 these two plants, because the Foxglove is common, and the Leopard's- 

 bane rare. T. W. Gissing. 



