290 THE GARDENERS’ CHRONICLE. [Sereen 5, amg 
ting rid of a Mandrake when it was once held | and very noticeable in a specimen re- 
in possession. It was even charged against | cently acquired by the Botanical Department 
the unfortunate Joan of Arc that she was pos- of the British Museum. These roots are 
sessed of one of these roots, although she often of very considerable size ; the author 
denied the charge. The following letter, given | just quoted speaks of a specimen dug up 
by Mr. Conway, addressed by a burgess of 
Leipzig to his brother at Riga, in 1675, will 
show the wonderful properties attributed to the 
Mandrake at that comparatively recent date :— 
tr Brotherly love and truth, and all good to thee, dear 
brother! I have thy letter, and have made out from it 
h to jagger ae Ma thou, dear brother, in th 
God 
what will help thee. If thou hast a Man e [. 
vuniken oder Erdmannikin], and bring it into thy house, 
thou shalt have good fortune. So I have taken 
ger 
ong thy best things, 
-The bath in which it has 
t especially . . u . And when thou 
goest to law put Erdman: under thy right arm, and thou 
~ su 
| 
s 
wee 
5a 
a 
= 
Q 
: 
to thee for a happy new year. Le 
may do the same for thy children’s children. - e 
thee !—Leipzig, Sunday before fastnight, 75. Hans N 
It is not easy to ascertain at what period the 
roots of the White Bryony (Bryonia dioica) were 
substituted for those of the true Mandrake, but 
it must have been at a very distant date. We 
have seen Newton’s incidental reference to this ; 
and Gerarde, in 1597, tells us how “the idle 
drones that have little or nothing to do but eate 
and drinke, have bestowed some of their time in 
carving the roots of Brionie, forming them to 
omen ; which falsifying 
‘them upon their report to be the true Man. 
drakes.” The custom appears to have been very 
general, as we find it referred to by most herbal 
writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centu- 
ries ; and methods for making these Mandrakes. 
are found in many books which are devoted to 
general subjects. Hill, in his Natural and 
Artificial Conclusions (1670), shows how it may 
be done; and the following method of forming 
drake is given in Lupton’s Thousand 
1 out 
e the 
wW. 
of plaster figures was fixed c 
being fastened with wire into its pro ù 
tion ; after which the earth was filled in round | in 
the root, which grew in the space of one sum- | Gerarde “says : 
mer to the shape of the mould. chirurgion, Ma ay 
The White Bryony root in many instances, | curious and learned gentleman,” showed fae 
even in its natural state, has a somewhat 
t rese e to the human figure 
—a peculiarity observed by Dr. Bromfield, 
root “that waied halfe an hundred waight, 
and was of the bignesse of a childe of a yeare 
olde.” The White Bryony, and especially its 
show some erences as to the = 
_ root, is still known in many parts of England, ; 
asin Yorkshire, Worcestershire, West Ch z 
Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Warwickshi, | 
by the name of Mandrake; and Dr, Brom. 
milar to | 
Mandrakes mentioned in Scripture.” These 
fictitious Mandrakes do not appear to have 
been confined to England, for Matthiolus telly | 
us that the Italian ladies of his time used to 
pay as much as twenty-five or thirty ducats for 
several parts of Europe.” 
-It appears from Mr. Conway’s paper, from — 
which we have already quoted, that there is a 
fine specimen of Mandrake in the Museum of 
the Royal College of Surgeons; and as he 
describes it as “a British specimen,” it is pro- 
bably Bryonia, `. i 
“Tt is the gift of Charles Hatchett, F.R.S., and 
‘ oe? 
m aS No ampered with, though this 
is difficult to believe, for nothing could ba a 
t blance to two H ily-} ded human 
_ the eyes, 
of the Litre ad with a distinctness that 
but if, as would seem to be the case in ot 
such faces should have n-li! 
beneath them, the effect would be 
cannot wonder that F 
as ‘a man in blossom. 
New Garden Plant 
ZYGOPETALUM SEDENI, 2. Ayb. * 
duct of Mr. en’s most assiduous attempts, 
well deserves that it should be dedicated to him. 
have to thank Messrs. Veitch for it. Æ. G. Rchb. 
MASDEVALLIA POLYSTICTA.T 
whi 
violet dots, i their colour as- 
changing 
older perhaps, since my three 
e diffe 
ead geet 
pared by the discoverer the pl ee 
Odontoglossum nzevium and blandum for colours, 
Penis A 
* Mackayi x: 
mate 
excavato; 
acuto novem carinato, : 
“| parte libera, ascendente ; columna trigona 
t (Amandz.) Raceino 
> bracteis ‘cucullatis 
rni 
triangula lateribus pilis fim 
producta, “sepalis tel 
omnibus parce intus 
