248 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [OctobeV, 



had a short existence in England. Vella annua was not extinct 

 three years ago ; it is like several other stragglers — very uncer- 

 tain; SO is Ly thrum hyssopifolium, with which Vella annua ap- 

 peared. Silene annulata is an addition to List B, which is dimin- 

 ished by the elevation of a baker's dozen of Hieracia, now admitted 

 to all the honours of native British subjects of the Floral Queen. 

 Thalictrum majus, Jacq., is now one of the '^extinct or errone- 

 ously-recorded plants ;" so is Arum italicum, Mill. " Trifolium 

 orchroleucum/' and " Achemilla conjuncta " will be noticed by 

 the lynx-eyed inspectors of the Catalogue ; they are right in the 

 fourth edition ; Molinieri is changed into Molinerii. In fine, we 

 recommend each of our readers to order a dozen of this new edi- 

 tion and mark their desiderata thereon, and send them to their 

 friends and correspondents. The time for looking at and arrang- 

 ing the acquisitions of the past season has now come. H. B. 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 



Pre-Raphaelite Painters and Elowers. 



About four years ago there was a painting exhibited in the Royal 

 Academy, by Millais, I think, called ' Ophelia.' It represented Ophelia 

 floatiiig on the water, gaily dressed, looking upwards. The subject was 

 taken from the description of Ophelia in ' Hamlet,' Act iv. Scene 7 : — 



" There is a willow grows askant the brook, 

 That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ; 

 There^^ith fantastic garlands did she make 

 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long-piirples : 

 There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 

 Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; 

 When down her weedy trophies and herself 

 FeU in the weeping brook." 



The foreground of the pictiu-e was fiUed with flowers, but not the flowers 

 of Shakespeare ; and I do not remember any flowers so prominent as the 

 Myosotis palustris, which, by the bye, had nothing to do with the garland. 

 The flower Long Purples was, I think, not given, and I question if the 

 painter knew the flower so named by Shakespeare. Crow-flowers and 

 Daisies might have been there, but I do not remember whether the former 

 were in or oiit of the water. 



Can any of your readers tell me where this painting is, and the names 

 of the flowers ' painted ? I make this inquiry, because, as the Pre-Ra- 

 phaelite artists profess to paint from Nature, we ought to know whether 

 they are truthful. In a future age, when the Gems of the British School 

 may be admired for their excellence, it would be mifortunate to find that 

 the flowers represented in these paintings had become extinct, or had never 

 existed. S. B. 



