286 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [September, 



In England I believe it is not only never spontaneous, but is never 

 found but where it has been planted with care. It is a most popular nistic 

 remedy for cuts. It is not so common in Normandy as in England. About 

 Rouen, though used sometimes, the Orpine is preferred. I have been 

 told near Coventry, where it is called Sengreen, that it preserved the houses 

 on which it was planted ffom being struck with lightning, and that when 

 it blossomed it was a sign of death. The orthodox way of attaching it to 

 a roof is with cowdung. E. M. A. 



MuEAL Plants. 



In Mr. Jorden's paper upon Mural Plants, ' Phytologist,' N. s. vol. iii. 

 p. 49, he alludes to some plants as growing with difficulty upon walls, viz. 

 Grammitis Ceterach, Hieracium sylvaticum, and Scolopendrium vulgare. 

 It appears by his allusions that it is brick walls he has observed. In this 

 district stone being universally used for that purpose, the interstices being 

 so much larger permits a much freer growth of the plant. Grammitis 

 Ceterach I have not found growing anywhere except upon walls (both 

 dry walls and those built with mortal') ; Adiantum nigrum the same. Scolo- 

 ■ pendrium vulgare : I have seen very fine tufts of it gTOwing upon walls, in 

 fact I have two patches of it at the present time on the wall of my back 

 yard, with a dozen fronds in each. Hieracium sylvaticum grows quite as 

 vigorous upon the walls as in the woods ; the spotted variety {macidatum. 

 Smith) I have always found on walls from two to three feet high, and 

 not elsewhere ; the green variety in general in the woods and hedgerows. 



J.B. 



Adulterations of Tobacco, (p. 57.) 



I have known Batura Stramonium cultivated in private gardens for the 

 pui-pose of mixing it with tobacco, being used medicinally for asthmatic 

 affections and diseases of the lungs (its name here is a corruption of the 

 Latin Steramonia). I always understood that it and Achillea Millefolium 

 were two chief constitnents of the celebrated British herb-tobacco. J. B. 



Deuivation of the word Mustard. 



('Phytologist,' November, 1857, p. 280; February, 1859, p. ^'>, etc.) 

 I have always thought the word ' mustard ' was derived from the French. 

 I have, in some French authority, read the following account of the deriva- 

 tion of the word ' moutarde.' It seems to me correct. 



The city of Dijon was formerly celebrated for its mustard, and the 

 manufacturers put the arms and motto of tbe town on the pots : the motto 

 was " Moult me arde." As they copied the inscription from the carving 

 over the gate of the town, and as time had effaced the word " me," they 

 wrote it "Moult arde:" hence the derivation. My authority said others 

 derived the word from mtdtum ardet, but that was not correct. 



The Black Mustard is a very common weed between Tewkesbury and 

 Gloucester ; it is in fact the commonest of the Cadlochs near Twigworth, 

 where I was told by a farmer that sometimes, when the crop of corn failed 

 in the spring, they left the wild Black Mustard to take its place, and 

 gathered the seeds for mustard. E. M. A. 



