446 BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES, AND QUERIES. [May, 



the sun attaining a higher altitude has penetrated the recess in which it 

 has been groAving, a stoppage in its growth would no doubt foUow. The 

 size given by Sir J. E. Smith is twelve inches in diameter, and no other 

 author in describing it has exceeded these dimensions. Mr. Hemy Senior, 

 w^ho lives in the Castellated Eock House, will gladly facilitate the curious 

 visitor. And, by the bye, the Eock House is worth seeing — a house cut 

 purely out of the solid sandstone rock : such a dwelling might have been 

 expected by a visitor to Pe'trsea, but in this place is quite a novelty, and 

 no description will be equal to that of beholding the place itself. 



Samuel Appleby. 



The Eev. M. J.Berkeley describes it as under: — " Sometimes a foot or 

 more broad ; white when young, then yellowish-rufous ; membranaceous, 

 composed of the finest down, margin byssoid (silky or cottony), pure 

 white. Spines simple, almost two lines long, their tips somewhat pen- 

 cilled." 



Geranium striatum. 



I see a notice of Geranimn striatum being foimd near Barnstaple in 

 'your last number. I have specimens in my herbarium collected in Enys 

 .Woods, between Truro and Palmouth, in Cornwall, where, I am told, it 

 ■grew abundantly, and seemed quite naturalized. I observed it once in a 

 hedge here (Miuehead), but it had evidently escaped from the cottage 

 gardens near. J. G. 



Discovery op a new Mdscari 



On Mount Ida, or near the sources of the ancient Scamander, which 

 flowed through the plains of ancient Troy, by Dr. Kirk, the naturalist 

 appointed to accompany Dr. Livingstone in his expedition to the 

 Zambesi. — "In the neighbourhood of the Scamander we found Saxifrages, 

 Geraniums, Dentaria bulbifera, etc., among the fine timber of Pimis 

 Pinaste?'. There, as in other places, the Muscari was picked in consider- 

 able quantities." The description of this new species is given by Dr. 

 Kirk in the following brief terms: — "Muscari latifolium ; scape erect, 

 about twelve inches high, bearing at its base a large, sheathing, broadly- 

 lanceolate, rather obtuse, solitary leaf; flowers numerous, forming a 

 raceme about two inches in length, the lower ones shortly-pedicellate, the 

 upper ones barren, sessUe ; perianth tubular, blue, in the fertile ones 

 inflate below." — Erom the Proceedings of the Edinburgh Bot. Soc, as 

 I'cported in the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' April 3, 1858. 



HUTCHINSIA PETR^A. 



Plants in bloom on March 29: — Anemone nemorosa, Veronica hedercefolia, 

 Nepeta Glechoma, Salix Caprea, and Taxus baccata. HiUclwisia is very fine 

 and abundant in the old place. J. S. M. 



Exotic Escapes. 



The following garden escapes were observed growing by the side of 

 the road between the town and the back-gate of the Botanic Garden, 

 Cambridge : — Ferula coninmnis, Valeriana rubra. Datura Stramonium, 

 Nicotiana Tabacmn, Hyoscyamus niger, Bipsacus sylvaticus (sylvestris ?), 



