23 
BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 
A fresh or recent specimen of Ranunculus confusus, Godron, and of R. 
tripartitus, DeC., will oblige the editors of the ‘ Phytologist,’ and will be 
acknowledged with thanks. 
Have any of our readers ever noticed Sewtellaria minor, upwards of two 
feet high, branched, and of a straggling habit? We met with an extra- 
ordinary state of this species in Parkhurst Forest, near Newport, Isle of 
Wight. There were many plants, between two and three feet high, much 
branched, growing among long grass in a shaded ditch. The usual form 
of the plant is simple, and seldom more than five or six inches high. 
Yorkshire botanists are requested to inform us if they have ever noticed 
or heard of a Hypericum, near Settle, a species hitherto not recorded by any 
botanist as growing apparently wild, within the four seas of Britain. This 
plant, noticed in September 1852, is on the left bank of the Settle river 
(Ribble), about a hundred yards below the railway bridge, and near to the 
place where several Menthe grow. It is not a recent introduction, but 
must have been in that station many years anterior to the date above 
stated. It bore more resemblance to H. hircinum than to H. Androsemum. 
It was a much taller plant than the latter, and formed a large bush, which 
the latter never does. 
Can any of our readers verify the following quotation from a newspaper ? 
We know that the fact is substantially as therein stated :— 
“ NaTuRAL BAaRoMETERS.—Chickweed is an excellent barometer. When 
the flower expands fully, we are not to expect rain for several hours ; should 
it continue in that state, no rain will disturb the summer’s day. When it 
half conceals its miniature flower, the day is generally showery ; but if it 
entirely shuts up, or veils the white flower with a green mantle, let the 
traveller put on his great-coat. The different species of Trefoil always 
contract their leaves at the approach of a storm. The Tulip and several 
of the compound yellow flowers all close before rain.” 
Will any of our South-west of England correspondents inform us if 
Clematis Vitalba be very common in the calcareous parts of the south-west 
of England ? 
A correspondent inquires, from what tree is the wood produced of which 
those light packing-cases are made which bring over silks from China? If 
sawed or wrought with the plane, this wood yields a very pleasant smell— 
a sort of spicy, camphor-like fragrance; it is a remarkdbly light wood: 
can it be some species of Laurus ? Numbers of these packing-cases come 
by almost every steamer to Southampton. 
In reply to K. R., who inquires concerning the fate of Mr. J. Strange 
and his little exploring party, we believe nothing more is known in Eng- 
land yet than the short account copied into the ‘ Literary Gazette’ of March 
the 10th, from a Sydney paper, in which is detailed a fearful account of 
four out of six of the party having been speared or otherwise killed by 
the natives of Percy Island, on or about October 16th, 1854. Confirma- 
tory evidence being still wanting, we hope and trust that the relation given 
from the above source may prove incorrect, or at least exaggerated. 
