1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. \Cy7 



and save the oil. But the most favourite dish the Indians have among 

 them is corn-drink seasoned with Hickory-nut oil. They pick out the 

 kernels, beat them to a paste, and boil with Indian Corn-tiour, which being 

 seasoned with a lixivium made of pea-straw ashes, gives it a consistence 

 something like cream or rich new milk, and is called by the traders 

 Hickory-milk." — Bartkam, M. S., Gard. Cliron. 1857, jo. 56. 



Lamium album. 



Dr. Bromfield, in ' Flora Vectensis,' describes the roots of Lamium 

 album as " emitting rhizomata in all directions, which again take root at 

 the joints and send up fresh stems annually." Yet the same accurate ob- 

 server places the sign of an annual (O) after the description of the time 

 of its inflorescence ; — a printer's blunder ? " With a wide distribution, 

 L. album is yet a somewhat local species ; nor is it by any means vmiver- 

 sally diffused over the Isle of Wight. At Great Yarmouth, as I learn 

 from Mr. Dawson Turner, it is amongst the rarest plants." — 'Fl. Vect. 



Hekniaria glabra.. 



" By a strange misquotation in the ' English Flora,' poor Hudson is 

 represented as making our Glaux a variety of Herniaria glabra, a blunder 

 the latter is wholly guiltless of, having fully described that plant, G. 

 marit'una, in its proper place. The synonyms and references to Eay and 

 Petiver relate to H. ciliata of Babington." — De. Bkomfield, in Fl. Vect. 



Long Pukples. 



The flower called by Shakespeare " Long Purples," and which formed 

 part of Ophelia's garland (see Hamlet, Act V.), I understand to be the 

 OrcJiis mascula. Can any of your readers inform me if the name " Long 

 Purples " is mentioned in any, and which, of the Herbals of Shakespeare's 

 time ? and is the same flower also called Dead Men's Fingers ? S. B. 



PtOWAN-TKEE. 



{JPyi'us Aucuparia.') 

 Can you refer me to any old Avork on trees which mentions this as a 

 charm against witches ? Some writers say it is customaiy in Wales to 

 plant the tree in churchyards. Are there any churchyards in England in 

 which the Rowan-tree is planted ? The common people in parts of Oxford- 

 shire speak of the Wych Elm as a charm against witches, and that a person 

 under the spell of witchcraft will be cured if struck nine times with a 

 branch of this tree. Does any work which describes this Elm mention 

 this property ? S. B. 



SCUTELLAEIA MIl^OR. 



Dr. Bromfield, in his excellent ' Flora Vectensis,' states that the height 

 of this plant seldom exceeds 4-10 inches, " except when drawn up 

 amongst herbage to almost twice that height." In a wet grassy part of 

 Parkhurst Forest this plant was observed, in August 1853, one or two 

 yards high, of a branched, straggling habit. It was no variety, but a 

 genuine form of Scutellaria minor ; taller hov/ever than any example of 

 S. rjalericulata ever noticed by, Mr. Editor, your humble servant, A. M. 



