664 BOTANICAL NOTES^ NOTICES^ AND QUERIES, [December. 



have also horse-fall, a large faU ; horse-godmother, a large, coarse woman ; 

 horse-bough, a Im'ge bough; and equally significant we have Horse 

 Guards, who will admit that they are large enough and strong enough for 

 any one. As to the derivation of the name of this animal, the Horse, 

 some of our dictionaries tell us that it is derived from the Saxon hdrs ; 

 and Horsa, the Saxon chief, was so called from the figure of a horse borne 

 on his coat of arms. This name, so given by our Saxon ancestors, might 

 have been to signify what the first of the family possessed, namely, power 

 and greatness. We all know that the horse proverbially possesses power, 

 and it is a common saying, " as strong as a horse." H. B. 



Ati^pa Belladonna. 



Several notices have appeared in your interesting journal relating to 

 poisonous plants, and their effects upon persons who have eaten them by 

 mistake. The enclosed account of poisoning by the benies of the Bella- 

 donna may be worth recording. It also shows the locaKty of the plant, 

 and may assist some of the curious in ascertaining whether the root of 

 the Belladonna was the insane root of Shakespeare referred to in the play of 

 ' Macbeth.' The berries in the case reported certainly produced deleterious 

 effects upon the persons who ate them, but I do not know any instance 

 recorded of the same effects being produced by eating the root of the 

 plant, but I should like to find one. The question has been mooted in 

 your journal as to the range of this plant, and some one has told us it 

 grows in Fifeshire, the site of the blasted heath where Macbeth met the 

 witches (?), but 1 do not find that the question has been satisfactorily 

 cleared up. Harriet Bbisly. 



" In looking over my duplicates, collected duiing the year, I find 

 amongst others the following rare plants : — Narcissus Pseudo-Narcissus, 

 Vinca minor, Polypodimn calcareum, Corydalis lutea, Lindria repens, 

 Digitaria sanguinalis, and Setaria viridis, and also a few of Medicago 

 denticulata, M. saliva, Polypogon monspeliensis, and Phalaris paradoxa, 

 any of which, together with a list of other duplicates, I shall be glad to 

 forward to any botanist requiring them, in exchange for other rare 

 British plants. Address, T. W. B. Ingle, 4, Commercial Street, 

 Huddersfield." 



Communications have been received from 



John Sim ; G. Henslow ; J. T. Brocas ; J. B. Wood, M.D. ; Anon. ; 

 J. G. B. ; J. E. Sowerby ; J. G. Baker; H. C. E. ; K. K. 



BOOKS EECEIYED FOR EEVIEW. 

 Thwaites' Emtmeratio Planta?'um Zeylanicz. Part I. 

 Pliny's Natural History ; by Riley. Vol. V. 

 Moore's Index Filicum. Part V. 

 Natural History Review for September. 

 Agardh's Theoria Systematis Plantarum, etc. 



