1858.] EPILOBIUM LIGTJLATUM. 463 



HEBONY AND HEBANON OF SHAKESPEARE. 

 (From the ' Gardeners' Chronicle,' Feb. 27, 1858.) 



It is here stated (see above) that Atropa Belladonna is pro- 

 bably the plant wherewith the Majesty of Denmark was poisoned 

 (see ' Hamlet/ Shakespeare) . In the ' Gardeners^ Chronicle/ as 

 above, there is a quotation from Buchanan, which relates that an 

 army of Danes was poisoned by a mess of bread pudding mixed 

 with the juice of the berries of A. Bellado7ina, which, in the 

 quotation, is said to grow copiously in Scotland. It is not now 

 plentiful in Scotland. It would be difficult now to collect 

 enough of the fruit of this plant to poison a colony of rats. 



The original states that Macbeth gained a great victory over 

 the Danish army when intoxicated or weakened by this mixture, 

 which was " magna vis panis et vini, turn e viti tum ex ordeo 

 (hordeo) confecti, ac succo infecti herbae cujusdam veneficse cujus 

 magna copia passim in Scotia nascitur.'^ 



It appears from this quotation that the mess was made of 

 Avine and ale thickened with bread, a worse dish than Athol 

 brose. Buchanan's description Vould apply to the Atropa ; but 

 it is one of the rarest of English plants, and it does not grow 

 naturally further north than York or Westmoreland. 



Frugilegus. 



EPILOBIUM LIGULATUM (NOT LINGULATUM). 

 BlJ C. C. BABirTGTON, F.L.S. 



.... In many parts of England the more frequent plant 

 of the two allied species E. obscurum and E. tetragonum, is the 

 former; and it has been, and probably continues to be, usual 

 then to look upon it as the E. tetragonum. Its leaves being- 

 very much more lanceolate, it is not wonderful that that tferm 

 has been used for the species formed of the two combined {E. 

 tetragonum and E. obscurum ?) . 



Perhaps the true E. tetragonum may not grow usually in 

 North Yorkshire, and that Mr. Baker's difficulty is caused by a 

 want of familiarity with it. 



The ,fecj; that neither E. obscurum nor E. palustre " occurs at (%fl 

 all" in the place where E. ligulatum abounds, does indeed seem 



