1857.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 253 



success, except in one or two instances in which it succeeded by seed. 

 Nurserymen call it "a mule," or hybrid ; but it is a distinct species, a na- 

 tive of Normandy. As to its age, it is a difficult question in growing 

 trees, which depends on various circumstances ; I should consider it nearer 

 five hundred years rather than two ; it is a slow-growing tree, and would 

 live to a very great age were it left to grow unmolested. This tree would 

 have been at this time in a very flourishing condition had it not been so 

 much injured ; I am surprised that it is stdl alive. I saw it today when 

 I went to gather the Epipactis which I enclose, and hope they will arrive 

 uninjured. The Pyrolas are not yet in bloom. 



JBewdley, June, 1857. GeOEGE JoKDEN. 



Mandrakes. 



"Tlien Eachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes." — 

 Gen. XXX. 14. 



" The mandrakes give a smell." — Sol. Song, vLi. 13. 



Can any of your readers inform me what was the plant of Scripture here 

 translated Mandrake ? I cannot make it to be the Atropa Mandi'agora. 

 Hasselquist, speaking of Nazareth, says, he found there "a great number of 

 Mandrakes, which, from the season it blossoms and ripens fruit, one might 

 conjecture it was Eachel' s i)M(f «?««." The Abbe Mariti says it "grows 

 like a lettuce, flowers purple, has a forked root, the fruit, size, and colour 

 of a small apple, and ruddy." There is the Cucumis Diidaim, which is stated 

 to grow in the Levant ; fruit described as of the size and form of an orange, 

 when ripe becoming yellow, and at length whitish, and has a fragrant, 

 vinous, musky smell. Might not this have been the Dudaim of Scripture ? 



S. B. 



RuBUS FRUTlcosus. — Conimon Bramble. 



I cut a branch of the Bramble on the high ground near E,yde this morn- 

 ing, which measured twelve feet in length, the growth of one season, and I 

 think, from its appearance, it would have advanced another foot. This is 

 a remarkable growth, considering what a very diy season it has been. 

 August 26, 1857. S. B. 



NOMEKCLATURE. 



Sir, — Many persons are discouraged in their attempts to acquire a 

 knowledge of botany by the irregularity and the unnecessary multitude 

 of the terms used in botanical descriptions. In a science in which the 

 details to be observed and recorded are so numerous and minute, precision 

 in the tenns employed seems to be indispensable before the study can be- 

 come popular. It is unimportant whether the words are English, Greek, 

 or Latin, or the two latter in an Anglicized form ; they may be easily re- 

 membered, provided the same term is always employed to express the 

 same thing. We have now Jlower-head and capitulimi, petiole and foot- 

 stalk, lamina and blade, standard and helmet, canaliculate and channelled, 

 besides other words with merely a difference of tennination, as aril and 

 arilhis, axil and axilla, rach and rachis, etc. etc. Can you not, Mr. 

 Editor, furnish us with a Standard Glossaiy for the use of English bota- 



