General Notices. Z55 



fomi suspension railways, resting upon arches, in the manner of our 

 friend Mr. Dick's (Vol. VI. p. 477.), for the conveyance of passengers, 

 mails, and merchandise. We notice this scheme chiefly for the sake 

 of exciting new ideas ; and because it is always safer to introduce in our 

 work what will tend to expand the mind, rather than to contract it. We 

 perfectly agree with Mr. Fairbairn, that the world has yet obtained only 

 a glimpse of the " revolutionary wonders " of the railway system, and that 

 it will at no distant period efi^ect important changes in every nation on the 

 globe. — Cond. 



Hybrid Poppies (Papdver nudicaule alpmum). — A strong plant of Pa- 

 paver alpinum grew in the open border in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden 

 last year. In the same spot this spring (1831), three very strong plants 

 arose, with leaves precisely similar, though, perhaps, a little less finely 

 divided. The flowers, on expansion, however, were found not white, as in 

 Papaver alpinum, but deep and bright yellow, with a greenish tinge in the 

 heart. For several years, many plants of P. nudicaule have blossomed 

 freely in the open borders. The plant of Papaver alpinum had been im- 

 pregnated by these, had died, and been succeeded by its hybrid progeny. 

 The three plants are precisely similar ; the flowers are as large as in P. nu- 

 dicaule, and resemble that species in colour ; tlie leaves, as I have said 

 above, are almost exactly those of P. alpinum. A remarkable monstrosity 

 appears this year among some of the plants of Papaver nudicaule. The 

 flowers in some are semidouble ; but in others, a k\v of the outer stamens 

 only remain, the filaments in general assuming the form of fragments of a 

 capsule, having hairs on their outer and ovules in their inner surface ; the 

 anthers are wanting, and their place is supplied by fragments of stigmata. 

 (^Dr. Graham, in Edin. JVew Phil. Journ., June, 1831, p. 192.) 



Seedlings of Papaver bracteatum have been raised, from seeds produced 

 in an English garden, whose petals had lost much of the usual crimson of 

 P. bracteatum, and acquired nearly the scarlet of those of P. orientale. A 

 large black spot occurs in the base of the petals of P. bracteatum and P. 

 orientale ; but, of the latter species, a variety exists in some gardens, the 

 petals of which are spotless. This spotlessness is, however, possibly not. 

 constant. — J. D. 



The Thistle of Scotland. — Sir, The late Rev. INIi-. Lambert, the senior 

 fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, during a tour in Scotland, amused 

 himself by endeavouring to ascertain what particular species of thistle was 

 the prototype of the national emblem. He found the inhabitants not at all 

 agreed on this point ; and that the thistle of the seal of the Edinburgh Bo- 

 tanic Garden, that of the national insignia, and that of the Order of the 

 Thistle, were apparently all different thistles ; while such botanists as Mr. 

 Lambert had opportunities of consulting on the subject could furnish no 

 satisfactory historical clue respecting the species. The curiosity of Mr. 

 Lambert hereupon began to subside, when it was once more excited by a 

 bill from a silversmith, sent to his lodgings with some articles he had 

 ordered, on the head of which bill a thistle, unlike the other thistles he 

 had seen, was engraved as an ornament. On paying his bill, he remarked 

 to the silversmith the dissimilarity of his thistle to those he had seen 

 adopted in other places. The silversmith professed himself regardless of 

 what others had adopted, maintaining that his (the Cnicus acaulis) was the 

 true Scottish thistle ; and that it was proved to be so by the following nar- 

 rative : — " At the time," said the silversmith, " that the Danes invaded 

 Scotland, it was not the practice to commence an attack by night ; but of 

 this clandestine mode the Danes on one occasion resolved to avail them- 

 gelves ; and, to insure success, went barefoot. By this means they had 

 approached unperceived near to the Scottish camp, when a Dane, havino- 

 his naked feet pricked by a thistle which he trod upon, instinctively uttered 



A A 2 



