£76 Mr, J. Hardy oti Plants new to Berwickshire^ 



C. Bauhin also brouglit with him the plant from Padua, where 

 Melchior Guilandinus, the superintendent of the Botanic Garden^ 

 a learned man, " eruditus homo" (Haller), and distinguished 

 traveller, held the opinion that it was a classical plant, the 

 Dryophonon of Pliny, lib. 27., c. 9. So John Bauhin (corrected 

 in his citation) tells us. This opens up a wide field of conjec- 

 ture, which, as he was singular in his belief, I shall not enter. 

 What follows possesses more interest. Lobel in Stirpium Obser- 

 vationes, x>. 104, has a Barharea minor, which he identified with 

 the "Herba S. Albert!" of the Bolognese. John Bauhin thinks 

 this is our Arabis hirsuta, and that his brother Caspar ought not 

 to have made it a distinct species, which he does in his Phytopinax^ 

 p. 152. But there is also a *' Herba S. Alberti " of Ceesalpinus, 

 with yellow blossoms, to which subsequently with dubiety Caspar 

 annexes Lobel's synonym. There are at least three St. Alberts, 

 to whom the church of Pome has granted ajDotheosis. The best 

 known is Albertus Magnus, the magician, once Bishop of Eatisbon, 

 who, in the very infancy of science, wrote a book, first printed in 

 1493, on "the virtues of herbs, stones, and beasts." Although 

 the historians of botany load the philosophic saint mth nothing 

 but opprobrium; "compilator superstitiosus," "vir barbarus," 

 (Haller) ; ** ineptus homo," (Sprengel) ; "hsec legat qui bonus 

 horas male coUocare volet," (C. Gesner) ; yet that rude work, 

 made up of all kinds of opinions, exercised considerable influence 

 on the future nomenclature of plants, being the ground- work of 

 several of those herbals, that long after formed the guide-books 

 to vegetable remedies for the alleviation or cure of disease. His 

 special day is Nov. 15, being that of his decease. The plant then 

 can scarcely commemorate him, as he has a rival, in a certain 

 patriarch of Jerusalem, who claims April 1, as a holiday, when the 

 plant wiU be getting pretty vigorous in the mild climate of Italy. 



Perhaps we are not wrong in thinking that John Pay added 

 this plant to the British Flora ; he was at least familiar with it as 

 growing in the west and north of England. He had, however, 

 been shown it under the name of Turritis mmor, which is Petiver's 

 name, and that which was ultimately adopted in the 3rd edition 

 of the Synopsis. Neither Parkinson nor Morison knew it as 

 British, although figures of it are given in their works. 



It is a widely diifused plant, not only throughout northern and 

 middle Europe, but extending across North America to Kamt- 

 schatka. (Don's Diet. Gard., I., p. 162). Dr. "Withering found 

 it in 1792-4, near Lisbon. (MisceUan. Tracts, L, p. 273). 



t 3. Erysimum Cheirantlioides, L. 



Hab. Warlaw-bank among stubble, on a piece of ground recently 

 torn out from heather, and sown off in grass this year. J. A?ider- 

 son. This is an interloper, probably introduced with tlie clover 

 seed. The portion of ground alluded to was lately "black 

 heather," and is one of the barest spots in Berwickshire. 



