1858.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 415 



or dangerous, (E. crocata virulently poisonous. Hemlock {Coniuin) is a 

 biennial, and at an early period the roots are small, and at a late period 

 they are woody. The roots of Smyrnium Olusatrum have been eaten 

 after lying long in a cellar to free them of their acridity. Apmm graveolens 

 scarcely reaches so far north as Campbeltown. CEnanthe crocata appears 

 the most probable supposition, as it has large tubers, which are very vi- 

 rulent, and its geographical range is far greater than the other plants of 

 this genus.] 



Origin of Species. 



The subjoined, by Professor Koch, is respectfully submitted to the no- 

 tice of some botanists who maintain that at most only a pair of plants of 

 each species were originally created. 



" Diejenige Ansicht, dass die Natur nur Formen geschaffen, und dass 

 das Auswahlen aus diesen bloss in subjectiver Ueberzeugung und Anord- 

 nung bestehe, spricht mich so wenig an, als die, dass urspriinglich nur 

 einzelne Arten geschaffen worden, aus denen die iibrigen nach und nach 

 hervorgegangen." — Regensb. Flora, 1838. 



Pyrus Aucuparia is known in this quarter (Buchan) as the Roddin, or 

 Eawn-tree (pronounced as if Eantry). The usual superstitious notions 

 prevail, or did prevail, touching its anti-witchcraft properties. Said also 

 by some to be useful in toothache ; but we fear, in common with other 

 so-called remedies, whose name is Legion, it is by no means calculated 

 to deprive that malady of its unenviable reputation as " the deil o' a' 

 diseases." W. S. 



MeLILOTUS PARVIFLORA. 



In this neighbourhood (Timperley, near Manchester) I gathered, last 

 August, Melilotus parviflora, growing in some cultivated fields. Shortly 

 after I found the same plant, accompanied by Melilotus messanensis, on 

 rubbish-heaps, by the canal-side not far oflp. Here there can be little 

 doubt that laoth are aliens. [None whatever.] The Eev. W. M. Hind, 

 Bayswater, tells me that he noticed, last year, M. parviflora apparently 

 wild, on the gravel of a countiy stream, in C. Antrim ; and at no great 

 distance, on the banks of the same stream, was growing, as if spontane- 

 ously, an American species of Aster. I enclose a form of Veronica, inter- 

 mediate, I think, between poUta and agrestis, which I gathered March '\ 4^P^^ 

 last, in waste ground at Bowdon, growing jDlentifuUy with Veronica - -^-" 

 agrestis: does this variety occur frequently? G. E. H. 



\_Note — These intermediate states are of frequent occurrence, and cast 

 some doubt on the specific distinctness of V. polita and V. agrestis?^ 



Agrostis setacea, Localities and Kange of. 



" This plant is confined to the counties south of London, unless the 

 alleged Yorkshire and Scottish stations, which want confirmation, should 

 prove to be correct. It is the prevailing grass on Southampton Common, 



