BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 365 
does not deceive the unhappy herbalists,—nec misert fallunt Aco- 
nita legentes. Italy was not free from this baneful herb; but 
probably the Italians were better instructed in the properties 
. and appearances of plants than the Britishers are. It is scarcely 
credible that it is innocuous in Italy. It appears however to be 
eaten with impunity in Lapland (teste Linnzus, Fl. Lap., p. 
187). “I noticed,” he says (we translate the passage), “a woman 
in early spring gathering the leaves of this Aconite, and on ask- 
ing her what she collected them for, she replied to dress and eat 
them. Thinking that she mistook them for the leaves of Gera- 
nium sylvaticum, I besought her not to poison herself. She 
smiled, and said that there was no mistake and no danger, that 
she knew the plant perfectly, and pitied my ignorance of its sa- 
lutiferous nature. I entered her domicile, and saw.her boil the 
leaves with a small bit of fat, and she and her husband dined on 
Wolfsbane broth.” 
BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 
Sir,—Your Correspondent on Welsh plants, in the ‘ Phytologist’ for 
April (p. 297), seems inclined to regard Spirea salicifolia as indigenous 
in the neighbourhood of Bala. The Rev. T. Salwey thought it so, who 
informed me, in 1837, of its wide-spread occurrence in that district; and. 
so, I believe, did Mr. Joseph Woods, who had previously observed it by 
the Dee below Bala, whence also I have a specimen from Dr. Martin ; 
and such certainly was my own impression when, a few years later, I had 
the opportunity of seeing the plant in many places and in different direc- 
tions around Bala. Happening however to meet with a patch near the 
Corwen road which had evidently recently been planted, I inquired of 
a neighbouring cottager, who told me that the proprietor of a large tract | 
of land thereabouts, a gentleman named Price, resident close by the town | 
of Bala, had distributed the shrubs among his tenants for planting. I was | 
afterwards informed by himself that he had done so for shelter for sheep | 
in the open moors of his property, and that even the very wild-looking 
thickets on the banks of the Dee had been planted; and he added his full 
assurance that the Spica was not a native of any part of Wales. My scep- 
ticism as to the northern stations of this Spire@a is recorded in the ‘ Phy- 
. tologist’ (vol. 1. p. 427). I must admit however that a large portion of 
the shores of Windermere I have never visited. 
Henfield. W. Borrer. 
Spirea salicifolia—This shrub is noticed by both Gerarde and Parkin- 
son. The latter informs us that it was sent to Clusius from Silesia, 
where, he says, “‘it is most likely to grow.” It is not in Ray’s ‘ Cata- 
