1830 



ARBORETUM AND FRUTICETUM. 



PART III. 



from a log of wood washed on shore near Liverpool, in November, 1830, shows 

 the manner in which the shells are found attached to the pieces of wood. In 

 the Amulet for 1830 is a very interesting paper by Dr. Walsh, in which he 

 speaks of the goose, which was 

 anciently supposed to be pro- 

 duced from the Lepas miatifera. 

 ■ This bird, which is commonly 

 called the barnacle goose (.J'nser 

 Bcrnicla Willd.), is found in great 

 abundance on the coast of Ire- 

 land, and particularly in the Bay 

 o( Bannow. It feeds on the tu- 

 berous roots of an aquatic grass, 

 which is full of saccharine juice; 

 and from this food, instead of 

 the rank taste of other sea-fowl 

 which feed partly on fish, the 

 bird has a delicate flavour. The 

 strange story of its springing 

 from the shell of the .Lepas was 

 first broached by Giraldus Cam- 

 brensis, who accompanied the 

 early invaders to Ireland ; and 

 who, finding abundance of these 

 delicate-tasted geese on thecoast, 

 and also seeing abundance of 

 Bhells, attached at one end by 

 a fleshy membrane to a log of 

 wood, and having at the other a 

 fibrous beard, like the feathers of a fowl, curling round the shell, fancied the 

 rest of the story, which was readily believed from that natural appetite for 

 the monstrous which prevails wherever the great mass of people are in a state 

 of ignorance." Before the Reformation, 

 Dr. Walsh tells us, the fishy origin of 

 this bird was so firmly believed, that the 

 question was warmly and learnedly dis- 

 puted as to whether it might not be 

 eaten in Lent. 



Parasites and Epiphytes. The enume- 

 ration of the parasitic and other plants 

 which live on the common oak, and 

 which cease to exist when the tree 

 < e as e s to live, would form, says M. Mar- 

 quis (Essak sur Irs Harmonies Vegetates 

 it dmmalet du Chine), "a long cata- gi& 

 logue." Besides these, there are many \ 

 which grow OD the ground near the tree, V; 

 and which are nourished by its decay- 

 ing leave*. Among the plants which are 

 found on the trunk and branches of the 

 common "ak, are various fungi, and nu- 

 merous lichens, which cover the trunk 

 uith green, brown, white, or yellowish 

 . it often happens that, at a 

 little distance, it resembles marble. Va- 



rioui kind of ferns also grow upon the 



I of the trunk ; and mosses, and 

 other terr est rial plants, grow in the de- 

 Iflg hark. 

 The r< rrestrial plants, which are found rooted into the decaying bark of old 



16*55 



