1858.] BOTANICAL NOTES, NOTICES, AND QUERIES. 511 



OSMUNDA SpICANT. 



Mr. Editor, — Both your correspondents who have meddled with the 

 above specific name may learn something from the following extract. See 

 Beckmann's ' Lexicon Eei Herbariae,' 8vo, 1801. 



" Spicmit (Osmunda). Nomen in Germania corruptum e Splca Nardi, sen 

 Spica ludica. Videntur majores Osmundse hocce nomen indidisse qnod 

 ejus radices ad similitudinem Spicte Indices accedunt. Quae est sententia 

 Gesneri in Hort. German., p. 265." 



"Beta" is doubtless right when he states that there is no evidence that 

 Linnaeus ever wrote the term Spicans instead of Spicant ; and your other 

 correspondent is also qidte right in saying that Linnaeus was not such a 

 novice in etymology as to derive the term from the ind. pr. 3. per. pi. of 

 Spico, or p. Sjncant, the third person pi. of Spico. But there are things 

 not dreai»ed of in" etymology, as there are said to be such in philosophy. 



Gamma. 



LiNAEIA MICKANTHA. 



A plant of the south of Europe was seen at the time and place under- 

 mentioned : — 



A small, upright species was found in June-July, 1838, on a wild, 

 uncultivated bank, amongst Heath, Eurze, etc., by the side of the road 

 leading from the Lodge of Eelbrigg Park to. the Holt road, about two 

 miles from Cromer, Norfolk. It grew about four to six inches high, 

 and the flowers were small, white. Query : — Has any one since found it 

 there? M. H. 



The accompanying plants are so pretty I cannot forbeaT enclosing them. 

 Equisetum sylvaticimi creeps out into our pastures, and more northerly, as 

 in Cumberland, overspreads them. We have lately added to our local 

 Elora a lovely, r/eep-rose-coloured variety of Oxalis Acetosella : we have it 

 also purple, and, in abundance, of its usual white colour. The spring 

 flowers are certainly a refreshing display of the energy of a new life, so 

 abvmdant and so fair ; and yet by their very stature and economy evi- 

 dently designed to meet a changeful and often tempestuous season. No 

 tree puts on so conspicuous a bloom as the banks and meadows do ; but 

 the trees had survived the winter, and some of them had not even cast 

 their leaves : they typically represent the quick — the living on earth at the 

 coming of the Lord, while the spring blossoms of the Anemone, Goldi- 

 locks, Squill, and Cowslip, etc., long since buried and asleep in the dust, 

 beautifully shadow forth the divine truth, that " the dead in Christ shall 

 rise first." Neither in the vegetable nor in the spiritual world should we 

 have anticipated this ; and yet the Prophet seems to have connected both 

 together in his admirable poetiy, Isaiah xxvi. 19. G. S. 



The Weather in India. 

 There has been no rain, or only two inches for six months. The 

 crops are suffering severely, and the natives expect the drought to con- 

 tinue. If it does, there will be real distress for food, a thing not seen 

 in Bengal these eighty years. In Assam the scarcity has reached nearly 

 to the famine point, and in Burdwan, a badly cultivated district, chiefly 



