RAY AND WILLUGHBY 119 



Historical Curiosities 



A glimpse of old usages is now and then given by 

 some chance word in the catalogue. Mentha cattaria 

 (the greater Catmint) grows '' in a lane on the right 

 hand of Barnwell in going thither, which leads down to 

 the moor on which stand the pest-houses.'' Ebulus 

 grows " along the balks of the plowed fields next the 

 closes" a reminder that cornfields were often (in still 

 earlier times always) unenclosed. The balks were un- 

 cultivated strips, which served to divide the " yard- 

 lands." They were common in Cambridgeshire till the 

 end of the eighteenth century. There are also some 

 curiosities of language. Why should cudweed (Filago 

 germanica) be called " the herb impious " ? The answer 

 may be found in Pliny ; it is because the younger 

 fiowering heads overtop the older ones, as undutiful 

 children overtop their parents. Gerard had explained 

 the old name of wood-sorrel (Alleluia) by the singing of 

 Alleluia in the churches at the season (Easter to Whit- 

 suntide) when wood-sorrel flowers, but Kay, following 

 Scaliger, rejects this with some contempt, and derives 

 the name from the Italian Juliola.^ 



The references to the gardens and flower-shows of 

 Norwich,^ and to Dr. (afterwards Sir Thomas) Browne's 

 Garden of Cyrus ^ are not without interest. 



Experiments on the Flow of Sap 



Ray and Willughby published in the Philosophical 



Transactions* some early experiments on what they 



called the sap of trees. Any liquid which was contained 



in the tissues of a living plant was then called sap. 



» Cat. Cantab, p. 166, and Glossary, p. 89. 



a P. 97. ^P. 171. 



*No. 48, p. 963 (1669) ; No. 70, p. 2126 (1671). 



