1859.] BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 355 



and bad. To ascertain with exactness the parents of these is as hopeless 

 an entei-prise as the attempt to detect the exact proportion of the Celtic, 

 the Roman, the Anglo-Saxon, the Danish, the Norman physical or mental 

 idiosynca-asies now existing in the present English race. If the question 

 were capable of solutioii, its answer would be of no practical or scientific 

 value to any human being. Houtulanus. 



Change of Nomenclature. 

 (Extract from a Letter to the Editor.) 



These perpetual changes of name are very perplexing, e.g. one's old 

 friend the Dog Violet becoming V. sylvatica, and V. canina a plant found 

 only in peat-bogs, which Mr. C. E. Parker tells me is the case. 



Digitalis pukpukea. 



A. Jerdon's comment, in the June number, on the sentence quoted by 

 Lynx in the May number of the ' Phytologist,' induces me to make the 

 following remarks. A. J. states that in his neighbourhood Digitalis pur- 

 purea does not flower till July or August. In other neighbourhoods, how- 

 ever, it doubtless flowers in June, or there would not have been a state- 

 ment to that effect in Macgillivray's 'Withering.' In other localities 

 again it flowers in May, otherwise Hooker and Arnott's ' British Flora ' 

 is poor authority in such matters. 



On the 1 1th of this month of June 1 myself saw it in flower in abun- 

 dance at Sea Scale, a bleak and open place on the Cumberland coast. I 

 am not acquainted with Doronicmn PardaliancJtes, but according to the 

 above-mentioned authorities it is in flower in July. On the whole, there- 

 fore, I am inclined to think that the author of the sentence quoted by 

 Lynx knew what he was about when he wrote it." E. Gkeen. 



Notes on Natural History, etc., for April, 18.59. 



{From ' The Friend.') 



GtLOUCester. — Mean of the highest readings of the thermometer 55"51 ; 

 mean of the lowest 39-35. Thunder (the first this year) on the 10th. 

 There were ten frosts in the month, and six of them with the air tempera- 

 ture beloto the freezing-point of water. A magnificent aurora for several 

 hours on the 21st. The mean temperature of the 6th and 7th nearly 15*0 

 above the average. On the 14th, 0'54 of an inch of rain fell. 



Kendal. — The early part of this month was very wet, and the latter 

 part as diy. In the former the winds were from the south-west, and the 

 last week from the opposite quarter, which is always the case at this sea- 

 son. We have about \\ inch more than the average of rain, and 3f more 

 the last four months. Except two days, we have had ozone every day this 

 month, average 4-2. The mean of the dry bulb thermometer is 45-6 ; of 

 the wet ditto 41-3 ; that of solar radiation 82-3 ; and of terrestrial ditto 

 34-6. 



Berkhampstead. — Mean of highest temperatm-e 55-33 ; lowest 36'64. 



