1858.] 



BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QTJERIES. 



447 



Lamium album [this miglit be liere though there was no botanic garden 

 nigh], Verbasciim TJiapsns [item], Salvia mollis, Lavatera alba, Polygonum 

 articulatum, and a species of AmarantJms. John Lloyd. 



[We should be much obliged to our correspondent for specimens of the 

 Salvia, Lavatera, Polygonum, and Amaranthus which he saw near Cam- 

 bridge.] 



CuscuTA Trifolii. 



It is interesting to ascertain that this plant has long been an inhabitant 

 of Britain. I have lately obtained a specimen of it which was published 

 by Dickson in his 'Hortus Siccus Britannicus,' in or about the year 1800. 

 It is numbered fasc. 15.6 of that collection, was then named C. europeea, 

 and was found on Lucerne, near Croydon. Smith referred it to C. 

 Epithymum, without any remark, in his ' English Flora,' notwithstanding 

 that Dickson issued, in the next number of the same fasciculus, the real 

 C. Epithymum under its true name. 



It thus appears that the plant has been known in this country for more 

 than half a century. 



A remark made by Dr. Grenier in the ' Flore de France' is weU deserving 

 of attention, because it shows a difference of procedui'e in this plant and 

 C. Epithymum, totally incompatible with identity of species. He remarks 

 that CuJ}l4&i?X. attaches itself to its victims in regular _circles, and so 

 tightly as to strangle it, but that C. Epithymum adheres loosely and irre- 

 gularly, and therefore has not the same destructive character. Since my 

 attention was caUed to it I have noticed that this is the fact. 



Charles C. Babington. 



Oak-leaf Fungus. 



Mr. Jerdon has been kind enough to notice what I stated on this sub- 

 ject, since which time I have again examined the object in question, and I 

 still think it is a fungus. If the object were produced by an insect, we 

 should expect to find the leaf punctured, and the excrescence enclosing an 

 egg or grub : but this is not the case. The fungus is attached to the leaf 

 at the base of its stem, and it has the exact appearance and form of an 

 Agaric. As I before stated, I do not find that it is the envelope of the 

 egg or gi'ub of an insect, as we see in the common round oak-galls. 



I hope Mr. Jerdon and others who are more acquainted with the Fungus 

 tribe than I am, will more closely examine these productions, and decide 

 the question whether they are fungi. S. B. 



Prunus Avium {Wild Cherry, Merry-tree). 



In the ' Flora Yectensis ' there is a note to this as follows : — " Merise is 

 thought to be a contraction of amere cerise, from the bitterness of the wild 

 cherry. (Loudon's Arb. B., art. Cerasus.)" I have always found the 

 P. Avium (called Cheriy in many places in England) to be sweet, but 

 from this it would appear questionable. There is a note or two upon the 

 subject in the late numbers of the ' Phytologist.' I hope it will not prove 

 after all to be a kind of Dulcamara. I tnist, this season, to gather some 

 from the trees groAving near here, to taste and try. 



Ryde. - Vectis. 



