414 BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [April, 



Sir, — In reply to your correspondent S. B., who quotes Hugh Miller's 

 statement that up to the present time we know not that a single herbi- 

 vorous animal lived amongst the shades of the plants of the Carboniferous 

 system ; and moreover that " the thickets of Fern which cover our hill- 

 sides, and seem so temptingly rich and green, remain untouched in stem 

 and leaf from their first appearance in spring until they droop and wither 

 under the frosts of early winter," I have to say that last spring, or in the 

 spring of the previous year (I forget which), I observed that the leaflets of 

 a favourite Adiantum (of which I enclose part of a frond) in my green- 

 house were undergoing very rapid consumption. On searching I found, 

 on one of the fronds, and in the active enjoyment of a hearty breakfast, 

 the clearly convicted ' devastator ' in the shape of a very plump, bright- 

 green caterpillar, about an _inch and a half long. Unless this be an ex- 

 traordinary instance of preternatural appetency in caterpillars, your readers 

 may spare themselves the trouble of endeavouring to ascertain " what par- 

 ticular property the Fern has to repel the attacks of insects, and why 

 animals do not eat it." M. J. H. ■ 



Devon Plants. 



{From a Correspondent.) 



I send a specimen of Geranium striatum found near Barnstaple ; but I 

 think there is no doubt but that it originally had been the outcast of 

 some garden, although it had established itself in tolerable plenty on the 

 banks of the Yeo, where I found it in 1845. It may perhaps be interest- 

 ing to you likewise to mention that I found one shrub of Lonicera Xylos- 

 teum in a hedge at PiU, near Barnstaple, and saw, in 1849, a beautiful 

 specimen of Physospennum cornuhiense in the possession of a friend who 

 had discovered it in 1839, at Waytown, near Barnstaple : the latter plant, 

 I believe, is supposed to be confined to Cornwall. M. H. 



Accidental Poisoning. 



"Her Majesty's ship Wellington sailed, from Campbelton with a fair 

 wind on Monday morning last. On the previous Saturday a boat's crew 

 of twelve men, while on shore, dug up a quantity of Hemlock, wliich they 

 mistook for wild celery or parsley. The men who partook of it, eight in 

 number, became very ill, and two of them, the ship's corporal named 

 Welsh, and a seaman, died suddenly on the same day. The latest infor- 

 mation received from the vessel states that four of the others were dan- 

 gerously ill on Sunday afternoon. The two men who died were buried on 

 Sunday, and their funeral was attended by upwards of 400 of the inhabit- 

 ants of Campbelton." — Edinburgh Courant. 



[We would reckon it a great favour if any of oiir friends or cor- 

 respondents who are acquainted with the Botany of that part of the 

 country where this lamentable case occun-ed, would tell us what plant is 

 meant by Hemlock. The men dug it up, consequently it was the root 

 they dug up and ate. Hemlock has no great root. Cicuta virosa has a 

 tuberous root, and every part of the herb is very poisonous. The roots 

 of all the genus (Enanthe are tuberous, and they are all suspicious 



