278 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 
Daphne Laureola.—There is a Latin proverb derived from the specific 
name of this pretty plant, viz. ‘‘ Laureolam in mustaceo queerere,” which 
means, “‘to seek praise for a pitiful performance.” It is derived from 
the practice of the ancient Romans, who used a large, pale, flaccid leaf of 
a certain plant, somewhat like a Laurel, for baking under a cake called 
mustaceum, and hence the plant which supplied the leaves was called 
Mustax, as like a Laurel as chalk is to cheese, or a braggadocio to a hero. 
Lotus, a Classical Proverb from.—‘‘ Lotum gustavit,” he has tasted the 
Lotus, or, in other words, ‘‘ He has licked the Blarney-stone.” It is said 
of those who neglect their families and firesides for the sake of attractions 
elsewhere ; also of those who have forgotten the distinction between truth 
and falsehood, between flattery and sincerity. ANTIQUUS. 
The following is from Dr. Sandwith’s ‘ History of the Siege and Fall of 
Kars : —‘ The soldiers are grubbing up roots, and twenty of them are 
brought into the hospital, poisoned by eating the roots of Hyoscyamus 
niger (Henbane).” The poor famished soldiers were fain to eat herb-soup, 
and for this purpose, making the soup, collected roots, it appears, indiscri- — 
minately: the consequences were as above stated. ‘This will remind the 
reader of Holy Scripture of the pottage that was seethed for the sons of 
the prophets. A youth like him of Dingwall went out and found wild 
gourds (the fruit of the Cucumis prophetarum, Linn.), and gathered his 
lapful; these were shorn and put into the pot, and a deadly mess was 
poured out. We hope the schoolmasters will become sufficiently quali- 
fied to be able to teach their pupils the difference between Hemlock and 
Hare’s-parsley, ete. 
Sir,—The following notice of the Sorb is from the ‘ Philosophical 
Transactions,’ vol. xil. p. 978 :— 
« Extract of a letter from Mr. Edmund Pitt, alderman of Worcester, a 
very knowing botanist, concerning the Sorbus pyriformis :—‘ Last year I 
found a rarity growing wild in a forest in this county of Worcester. It 
is described by L’Obelius, under the name of Sorbus pyriformis, as also 
by Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, and by Bauhinus, under the name of Sor- 
bus procera; and they agree, that in France, Germany, and Italy, they 
are commonly found; but neither these nor any of our own countrymen, 
as Gerarde, Parkinson, Johnson, or How, nor those learned authors, Mer- 
rett or Ray, have taken notice of its bemg a native of England: nor 
have any of our English writers so much as mentioned it, saving that Mr. 
Lyte, in his translation of ‘ Dodonzeus,’ describes it under the name of the 
Sorb Apple ; but saith no more of the place but that it groweth in Dutch- 
land. It resembles the Ornus, or Quicken-tree, ete. ete.,’ as quoted by 
Plot. 
«*Q. Whether a verjuice made of this fruit, either ground with crabs or 
grapes, or, if plentiful, alone, would not, being kept for some time, prove 
one of the best acid-astringent sauces that nature affords ?” 
From Pliny, vol. iii. p. 314, Bohn’s edition :—<“ There are four varieties 
of the Sorb; there being some that have all the roundness of the apple, 
while others are conical, like the pear, and a third sort are of an oval 
shape, like some of the apples: these last however are apt to be remark- 
ably acid. The round kind is the best for fragrance and sweetness, the 

