95 
BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 
Percepierre.—In the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle’ for April 28th a correspon- 
dent asks, ‘‘ Will you have the goodness to let us know what is the real 
name of a plant which grows on the west bank of the Avon at Keynsham, 
about five miles above Bristol ?”’ He then describes the plant from Cam- 
den’s ‘Britannia,’ and quotes Ray’s Hist. Plant. iv. 14. He receives 
the following reply :—‘‘The plant is dphanes or Alchemilla arvensis, a 
common weed in gravelly places, and commonly called Parsley Peart, a 
corruption, we suppose, of Percepierre.” In the same publication for May 
5th a correspondent states, “‘ Allow me to inform your correspondent that 
Crithmum maritimum is called Percepierre in Guernsey, where it abounds, 
etc. It is often collected for pickling, for which purpose I was told it is 
excellent.” (E. Y.) The editor or correspondent adds, “and so it is.” We 
give our feeble testimony to this fact, and also Shakspeare’s,— 
‘Halfway down hangs one that gathers Samphire—dreadful trade!’ 
But Samphire does not grow at Keynsham, nor within many miles of it. 
Crithmum is a maritime plant. Percepierre is an exact translation of Sawi- 
Jraga, a name applied to many Umbelliferous plants supposed to be reme- 
dial agents in calculous disorders. If A. F. will send us a specimen of the 
plant in question, we will undertake to tell him its name. Smith, Eng. 
Fi. vol. i. p. 224, gives Percipier Anglorum as a synonym of Aphanes ar- 
vensis, Lin.; but as local names are very uncertain, it would be useless to 
say what is the name of the plant in question. Send a specimen. 
On the predilection of Cats for certain Plants—The fondness of the 
domestic cat for some plants, as Valerian and Cat Mint, is well known, but 
I do not know whether it has ever been recorded that Nemophila insignis 
is another favourite plant. I have in my garden three patches of this 
plant, all of which, at an early period of their growth, looked as much 
soiled and trampled as if they were growing by the side of the highway. 
T suspected Puss was the author of this, and on looking close to the plant 
discovered portions of her hair. I then enclosed two of the patches with 
sticks bound together with twine, but found even this protection insuffi- 
cient, as the sticks and strmg were thrust partly aside. After this, a girl 
who waits upon me told me she had seen the house cat go up to the patch 
which was less protected and roll herself upon it; and, lastly, three or 
four days ago, I saw the same cat with her head thrust beneath the fence 
T had made, and eating the plant—very quietly, but with an appearance 
of much satisfaction. Nemophila, when bruised between the fingers, yields 
no smell; its taste is slightly acrid, resembling some Cruciferous plants ; 
to Puss however it must not only be medicinal, but likewise have an agree- 
able odour. (Mr. Moore, of Chelsea, confirms this.) The packet of seeds 
was labelled Nemophila alba, and, if I remember right, the plants have 
the- usual speckled leaves, etc. In this garden and immediate neighbour- 
hood Nemophila must be quite a novelty. E. L. 
Temperature of the Spring of 1855.—The severity and lateness of the 
past spring may be shown by the following extract from a paper read at a- 
meeting of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh on April 12th, 1855 :— 
“ Between the 10th March and 12th April, 1854, sixty-five spring flowering 
species were recorded, and during the same period this year only twenty- 
two of the species have come into bloom.” 
