1858.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 359 



" The Mora of the country around Bagneres is said to be rich in spe- 

 cies, the Pic du Midi and Mont Hyeris being especially productive in rare 

 and beautiful plants. The season was however too advanced for success- 

 ful herborization, and I was forced to content myself with noting the few 

 flowers in the hedgerows and banks around. Saponaria officinalis was 

 conspicuous everywhere, and Erica vagans might be found in great abun- 

 dance on the slopes of Mount Olivet that overhung the town. The path 

 from the Salut through the woods, at the base of Mount Olivet, was lined 

 with a profusion of TFaJilenbergia Jiederacea, a delicate little Campanula, 

 not uncommon in our Irish bogs, but which here occurred on d7'y clayey 

 banks." 



Derivation of Botanical Names. 



I fi'equently see in the ' Phytologist' queries as to the etymology of par- 

 ticular botanical names. In the last number somebody asks for the deri- 

 vation of Berberis. These correspondents are probably not aware that 

 'Paxton's Botanical Dictionary' (in most cases) will aft'ord an answer to 

 such inquiries, as it gives the origin of the generic names of all the 

 plants described in it. P. C. 



Arum maculatum. 



In Upper Hesse (Germany) the Arum is frequently observed in woods 

 near badgers' Jioles. The badger is said to eat the berries of the plant, 

 and the undigested and discharged seeds spring up near the abodes of these 

 animals. This is not an exact counterpart to the common notion that 

 the Mistletoe is propagated by the missel-thrush. Hence the homely pro- 

 verb, " Turdus malum sibi cacat " — " the thrush evacuates something 

 which will be his destruction ;" an allusion to birdlime made of the fruit 

 of the Mistletoe. The badger, on the other hand, by eating the berries of 

 the Arum, prepares provision for seasons yet to come. It is said that the 

 same relation exists between the wolf and the Belladonna, viz. that the 

 wolf eats the berries of this poisonous plant. Credat Judaus ! — From the 

 OberJiessische Flora, by Br. C. Heldman. 



AizoiDES, derivation of. 



Sir, — Can any of your readers inform me of the true derivation of 

 aizoides ? I presume it to be from the Greek act^wetSTj?, viz. ' resembling 

 the det^wov, or Houseleek.' But is it nothing more than a singular coinci- 

 dence that the only two plants to which this specific is given, so far as I 

 am aware, viz. Draba and Saxifraga aizoides, have both yellow petals? 

 Has that species of Houseleek which the word det^woj/ is supposed to re- 

 present, truly yellow petals, or does the resemblance consist merely in the 

 fleshy nature of the leaves ? J. B. 



Names of Plants. 



The name Service, applied to the tree and its fruit, is, I suspect, derived 

 from Cerevisia or Cervisia, a liquor prepared from gTain (cerealia) by the 

 ancient Gauls, and analogous to our beer, of which beverage a kind has 



