252 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [OctobeT, 



ferent species on the road from Jerusalem to Eama, and one on Mount 

 Tabor. Thistles and plants allied to them now cover spots where formerly 

 culture extended. Thus the prediction of Hosea is fulfilled, — ' The thorn 

 and the thistle shall come up on then- altars.' " 



The injury which Thistles and plants like them cause to fields is very 

 great, owing to the mode in which the fiaiit is scattered by the winds. 



In reading the above account of Thistles, I was reminded of a paragraph 

 I saw some months since, noticing that an Act of Parliament had been 

 passed in Australia to prevent the spread of Thistles in that country. I 

 think this fact of legislative enactment against this portion of the vegetable 

 kingdom is worth notice in the ' Phytologist.' S. B. 



Convolvulus sepium. 



I gathered today, in the lane leading to Kemp Hill, some fine flowers of 

 the Convolvulus sepium, which were of a pale lilac-colour, with five white 

 stripes ; they are rather less in size than the loliite, but much larger than 

 the C. arvensis, and grow up the hedge like the former. 



Hooker speaks of a variety of C. sepium, white, striped with pink : is 

 this correct ? L. 



[Some reader of the 'Phytologist' will perhaps be so obliging as to send 

 us an answer to the above. We (W. P. and A. I.) saw a pink Convolvulus 

 at Aylesford last week ; the colour of the rays was not noticed.] 



Sorb-tree of "Wyre Forest. 



Sir, — You wish me to give you some account of the old Sorb of Wyre 

 Forest. It hath outlived its history ; how it came there is a matter of 

 conjecture. I have known it for nearly sixty years ; it was then much 

 mutilated, the trunk much barked, boughs sawn out of it. I discovered, 

 by removing a brake, that there had been some buildings ; a bit of a wall 

 was left, built with mud, and slight traces of a ditch round a small garden 

 in which grows this tree. I made every inquiry of the old woodmen concern- 

 ing this circumstance, and one old man told me that it was traditionally 

 said by them that tliis was a stag-keeper's hut. Now this is very probable, 

 for this forest, which is truly a natural one, and was formerly of vast ex- 

 tent, was the property of the Lords Marchers of Wales, but was forfeited 

 to the Crown : the Crown stiU possesses much of this forest, but not that 

 portion where this tree grows ; this belongs to a descendant of a very an- 

 cient Norman family, long established here, and this portion is called the 

 [Parks. The Normans were very fond of parks, and this being a royal 

 \ forest, the building before mentioned was probably the residence of a 

 ipark-keeper from Normandy (this is my conjecture), and he brought this 

 /tree, or the seed, and planted it here. I believe it is not indigenous in this 

 country anywhere. There is some mistake in the localities given ; probably 

 P. torminalis is meant, which merits the name of domestica in preference 

 to this, whose fruit is not edible in any state. No fruit whatever is 

 equally astringent and nauseous. Although the fruit used to lie on the 

 ground in abundance, no young plants ever sprang up, nor is there an- 

 other tree in the whole forest. Innumerable have been the trials by every 

 means to propagate it, by gardeners, nurserymen, and others, without 



