448 botanical notes^ notices, and queries. \_may. 



Long Purples. 



Will " W. P.," who has a note on this in the March number of the 

 ' Phytologist,' be good enough to say in what county the Orchis Morio is 

 called Long Purples ? I think " S. B." is correct in stating that the Long 

 Purples of Shakespeare is the Orchis mascula, because that flower appears 

 to answer that description more correctly than any of the other Orchids. 

 Does " W. P." know whether any of the Orchids having bulbous roots 

 are called, in any part of England, Dead Mens Fingers ? It appears to me 

 that the latter names would more properly apply to an Orchis having 

 palmate roots. An author I read the other day states that the Orchis 

 Morio is called, in Sussex, Dead Men's Pingers. Yectis. 



Hastings Baskets. 



I visited Hastings in the Autumn, some years ago, and there purchased 

 a small basket, made, as T was told, of a Grass which grew near that 

 place, by a blind family. The baskets are strong, and have a scent like 

 green tea, which they still retain. I should feel obliged if some of your 

 correspondents will give me the imme of this Grass. . H. B.' 



A correspondent who is pleased to call himself Bubulcus, wishes to learn 

 something about the once famous Tussac Grass {Bactylis caspitosa). This 

 terrcB filius has been recently reading " Notes on the Botany of the Ant- 

 arctic Voyage," by the learned Director of the Boyal Gardens of Kew, 

 where this Grass is called the "gold and the glory of the Palklands, and 

 which, it is hoped, wUl make the fortune of Orkney and the owners of 

 Irish peat-bogs." Can any of our readers inform this clodpate if these 

 golden dreams and sanguine hopes have been realized ? 



What is Lolium spicatum (vol. ii. p. 233, October)? 



In the same page Ornithopus perpnsillus is Englished by Birdsfoot 

 Trefoil. It is not a Trefoil. It may be called 'the very Uttle Birdsfoot;' 

 the legumes resemble very much the claws of a little bird. 



In the same paper there is the following: — "Wild Celeiy abounds, to- 

 gether with the Willow-herb." Which of the Willow-herbs ? 



Your lively correspondent is far behind in the science of the present 

 age. Rubus fruticosiis is no longer received by the scientific as the 

 name of any plant. It is ignored in these march-of-intellect days. The 

 name only remains as a vestige of the ignorance of past times, and a 

 warning beacon for posterity. It is now superseded, or rather, it has be- 

 come the parent of a " numerous oflfspring, lovely like itself.'" 



Censor. 



Communications have been received from 

 Charles C.Babing-ton,E.E.S.; John Barton; Sidney Beisly ; G.B.W.; 

 A . G. More, E. L. S. ; J. G. Baker ; T. W. Gissing ; Charles Forrest. 



BOOKS EECEIVED FOR REVIEW. 

 The Boncaster Gazette, etc. 



