1858.] PERNS NOT ATTACKED BY INSECTS. 467 



and slew such numbers^ that there were scarcely men enough left 

 to carry off their king. 



Miller also says the plant is extremely poisonous in all its 

 parts, and that old Gerarde found it growing iiear Highgate. 



H. F. B. states that the plant is by no means uncommon in 

 Fife ; and also that the root is somewhere said to be alluded to 

 by Shakespeare in ' Macbeth/ where Bauquo says, when the 

 witches vanish from his sight, — 



" Or have we eaten of the insane root 

 That takes the reason prisoner V 



I should be very glad to learn ivhere and by whom it is said 

 that this is the plant alluded to by Shakespeare in the lines 

 above quoted. 



There is frequent mention of the leaves and berries of the 

 plant being used, but I cannot find in any author I have referred 

 to that the roots have ever been, eaten. Some of the com- 

 mentators on Shakespeare say the insane root was the root of 

 Hemlock, but they do not state whether the common Hemlock, 

 Conium maculatum, or Water Hemlock, Qinanthe crocata. I should 

 like to be informed whether the Fifeshire plants include these, 

 and if they are common, particularly the latter ; and if any plant 

 growing there is called by the common people the insane root. 



S. B. 



FBENS NOT ATTACKED BY INSECTS. 



Mr. Carrington^s article in the April number of the ' Phyto- 

 logist,' 1858, is important, as it gives a reason ivhy insects do 

 not attack Ferns; but I think the observation made by M. J. H. 

 in the same number, that a caterpillar attacked the leaflets of 

 a favourite Adiantum, amounts to little, even should it be con- 

 sidered an exception to a general rule. 



This caterpillar might have had its natural food-plant destroyed 

 in the confines of a greenhouse, and become necessitated to make 

 a meal ofi the Adiantum, but what effect it produced on the green 

 monster we are not told. It might be worth asking M. J. H. 

 the name of the caterpillar ; that is, what butterfly or moth pro- 

 duced it. In looking through Westwood's ' British Butterflies,' 

 in which figures are given of the insects, and of the plants on 



