296 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



There have, perhaps, been more than enough books issued of 

 late both on nature-study and on trees, and some of these have 

 referred approvingly to Arbor Day ; but Mrs. Gregson's excellent 

 The Story of our Trees in Tiventy-Four Lessons (Cambridge Univer- 

 sity Press ; 2s. 6d.) strikes a new and welcome note in combining 

 with an account of tree- structure and tree-life practical lessons on 

 tree-planting and tree-felling. The little book is well illustrated 

 and got up, and useful appendixes are added on books of reference, 

 shops where diagrams, lantern-slides, and material can be obtained, 

 and questions for revision. If, however, the cultivation of acorns 

 and horse-chestnuts is described, our familiar friend the broad bean, 

 which is hardly a tree, might, perhaps, have been given a holiday. 



The following explanations by students of the name Pimpernel 

 in Tennyson's lines " The pimpernel dozed on the lea" are from 

 an American paper, which guarantees their genuineness: " (1) The 

 word pimpernel calls up in my mind the image of a pampered cur. 

 He is a worthless brute who spends most of his time sleeping in 

 the warm sunshine. (2) The pimpernel seems to me to be a 

 small animal resembling an eel. It has short, rounded ears, and 

 bright, beadlike eyes. As I imagine it, the pimpernel is lying 

 half-asleep in the grass near the shore of a lake, ready to slip into 

 the water at the slightest sound. (3) A pimpernel seems to me 

 to be a tramp or gipsy. He lies on the bank in the -sun with an 

 old, battered hat drawn over his face. (4) I do not know what 

 the word means, but it instantly suggests to me a small lizard 

 covered with pimples or warts. The image flashed upon my 

 mind as soon as the word was spoken, and is still vivid and 

 distinct. Although I never heard the word before, I seem always 

 to have known it, and to have attached this meaning to it. I am 

 absurdly confident that this is the true meaning. Other students 

 conceived of a pimpernel as a frog, a small deer, a dragonfly, or 

 as a small tree or shrub like a prickly pear." 



Newspaper Botany. — In connection with the British Myco- 

 logical Society's visit to Worcester in the spring there was an 

 exhibition of Mrs. Eea's original paintings of fungi. To this the 

 Worcester Daily Times for May 17th devotes about half a column, 

 from which we extract the following : — " Painting show the effect 

 of the air upon the Lactarious group, which change from milk 



colour to purple when they are exposed There are a 



number of paintings of fungi pests, including the hard woody 



Phalloide which destroys pines Among the Gastero- 



mycetes family is the Judas ear, a well-known fungus which 



attacks elder trees The Pezazae group includes a large 



number of brilHant little green fungi which grow on decaying 



stalks in woods One of the largest specimens is the giant 



scaled agaric, which Mr. Carleton Eea found, and which he has 

 named ' Grantis Eea.' " This is probably Pholiota grandis Eea. 



We regret to record the death of Mr. Allan Octavian Hume, 

 which occurred at his residence. Upper Norwood, on July 3, and 

 of Dr; Mordecai Cubitt Cooke ; we hope to give some account oi 

 their botanical work in an early issue. 



