46 BOTANICAL NOTEs^ NOTICES^ AND QUERIES. [February, 



was 71° Falirenlieit, whilst the spathe only 57|°, making a difference of 

 13t° of temperatnre. I then inverted the experiment, with partially the 

 same result, the plant having lost part of its vitality. Plants picked at 

 other times from the same locality exhibited the same properties. 



Chiselhurst, December 6, 1856. G. B. WoLLASTON. 



On Eemoving Orchises. 



"H.B."in'Phytologist,'No. 20, New Series, page 520, says, "I am per- 

 suaded the best time to remove Orchises ... is after they have <Jo«e/o?per%, 

 and when the roots are preparing, or rather are ready prepared, for the next 

 year." As I have had considerable experience in the cultivation of Or- 

 chises for many years, perhaps I may be allowed to express an opinion, 

 that when the roots are prepared for next year is not the best time for 

 their removal, as is obvious for the following reasons : — The tips or spon- 

 gioles of the roots are exceedingly fragile, and even with the greatest care 

 are either cut through by the trowel in the act of removal, or broken off 

 after they have been dug up, by their own weight, against the sides of the 

 vasculnm, etc. The roots (and not the bulbs or tubers) are the portions 

 of the plant by which its inflorescence is developed or supported, as may 

 be easily proved by taking two roots of the same Orchis just showing 

 their flowering spikes. Eemove the tubers alone from one, and the roots 

 or even the tips of the roots from the other ; the former will flomish as if 

 nothing had been done, and the other will dwindle away. Therefore I 

 infer that the best time to remove "Orchises is when they are in full 

 bloom, or, in other words, before they have made any roots for the next 

 year. The various genera will requii-e slight modifications of this rule, 

 which experience alone can teach. G-. B. Wollaston. 



Saxifkaga tbidactylites, etc. 

 Extract of a Letter from tJie Rev. H. A. Stowell. 



" The following observation may be of some interest to you. In p. 397 

 you believe that Saxifraga tridactylites is confined to Avails and roofs in 

 England: again, p. 398, it is classed amongst plants never seen except 

 on artificial erections, etc. If you will come here next March, I will show 

 it to you, all weU, growing in profusion on a ' sunny declivity,' — a gravel 

 bank at least three-quarters of a mile from any artificial erection, except 

 a few posts, rails, and gates, in company with Draba verna and Myosotis 

 collina. 



" Verbena also grows by pathsides in the woods between Badging 

 Downs and Belmont, 7no7-e than half a mile fi'om any house (see p. 416). 



" We have had some interesting information in the pages of the * Phy- 

 tologist ' on the peculiarities of the Glastonbury Thorn ; but I think no 

 one has alluded to a similar idiosjmcrasy on the part of the Oak. And 

 yet I suppose every one has heard of the famous Cadenham Oak of the 

 New Forest, which puts on a bright green robe each year in honour of 

 the great Christmas festival, and lays it aside again Avith the new year till 

 Holy Thursday comes round. This fi-eak on the part of a true British 

 Oak is surely more unaccountable than that Joseph of Arimathea's Thorn 

 shoidd still, after the lapse of eighteen centuries, forget its altered cir- 



