BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 439 
us if the above be a Continental plant? It is not in the common German 
floras, nor in the flora of the environs of Paris. Withering appears to be 
the first British botanist who separated it from VY. Blattaria. Both Ge- 
rarde and Parkinson admit both as distinct, and the former seems to have 
regarded them as plants which are found wild in England. See Gerarde, 
777, 778, and Parkinson, 64. About London and in Surrey and Essex 
plants of these species are occasionally found in places which leave no 
doubt of their having been the offspring of plants formerly cultivated. 
We have reason to think that they are truly wild in Somerset and Devon. 
It may be remarked that V. floccosum or pulverulentum and V. Lychnitis 
were formerly combined under the name of the latter. Does any botanist 
know anything of /. thapsoides as an English plant? V. thapsiforme, 
Schrad., is admitted by German botanists to be very near V. Thapsus : 
Voriger sehr dhulich, i.e. to V. Thapsus. 
Thlaspi arvense.—This plant occurred plentifully im the summer of 1855 
in Prince Albert Road or Street, newly formed between Kensington and 
Brompton. The Penny-Cress abounded about halfway between these two 
places. Wicotiana and other exotic plants sprang up at the Brompton end. 
Chelsea. a: 
The Soap Plant.—The Vienna Journals announce that a firm im Cali- 
fornia has sent home to that city some seeds of the Soap Plant. It grows 
wild in California, rising to the height of about a foot. The plant fades 
away in the month of May, and inside each is a ball of natural soap, su- 
perior, it is asserted, to any that can be manufactured.—Home Companion. 
There is a Soap-tree mentioned in an earlier volume of the ‘ Philosophi- 
cal Transactions,’ a native of the West Indies. Can any of our corre- 
spondents or readers inform us if it is cultivated or even known in Eng- 
land ?—Ep. 
Drosera anglica.—My. Editor,—Can any of your correspondents verify | 
the statements that the above-mentioned plant grows in Hampshire, Dor- 
setshire, or Devonshire? Dartmoor forest and some parts of Hants are 
probable localities. On the Continent its range is between the north of 
France and the Pyrenees, including the French Alps. In Germany it is 
reported to grow on the same places as D. longifolia. Q. 
Osmunda regalis—Did you ever see this in perfection? At Killarney, 
the year before last, I found its fronds seven feet high,—more picturesque 
than any Palm. I wonder the Irish Roman Catholics do not use them 
dried on Palm Sunday. It has however one peculiarity,—all the finest 
plants grow in situations flooded in winter and one to three feet above 
water in summer, so that their roots are always in water. It has all the 
characteristics of a Tree-Fern, its caudex often being two feet deep in the 
ground, and, in large specimens, five or six inches in diameter : it is ex- 
tremely difficult to get up. I succeeded in bringing home five or six, but 
was obliged to be content with small specimens, not above two inches in 
diameter, and these I could only get out of the bank of a stream where 
T could tear down the soil, a very sandy alluvial loam. It gave me some 
idea of the difficulty of procuring and importing Tree-Ferns.—R. (ex Gar- 
deners’ Chron.) 
Polystichum affine—I1 beg to announce to the readers of the ‘ Phyto- 
