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NATURE NOTES. 
addition that were he rewriting the poem he would substitute “darts’ 0 for “flits 
by” and “sea-shining ” for “sea-blue.” Perhaps it will be convenient for our 
readers to have before them the original passage : — 
“ When rosy plumelets tuft the larch, 
And rarely pipes the mounted thrush ; 
Or, underneath the barren bush 
Flits by the sea-blue bird of March.” 
Very much ink has been spilt in elucidating this verse. Let us hope that the 
point is now finally settled, and will trouble commentators no more. — E d. N.N.] 
“The Kew Museums.” — We are pleased to find the articles on this 
subject, which have lately appeared in Nature Notes by the Curator of the 
Museums have been referred to, quoted from, or copied in extenso by several 
newspapers in the neighbourhood of London. In each case their readers have 
been recommended to utilise the information given by the very highest authoiity 
on the subject, and to make more frequent visits to these too little appreciated 
museums. This we have no doubt is the very object Mr. Jackson had in view in 
writing the papers. 
He has sent us a note of the following misprints which occurred in his articles : 
— On p. 146, Rhus vermicifera should be R. vcrnicifera. On p. 147, for Heoea 
Orasiliensis read Hevea brasiliensis, and on p. 14S, for Euphorbiacea , read 
Euphorbiacea. 
While apologising for these misprints, we feel sure that Mr. Jackson, who is 
well aware of the immense difficulties under which the editorial work of Nature 
Notes has been for some time carried on, will forgive us for these blemishes 
which certainly were not due to any want of legibility in his admirable “ copy.” 
“ Some London Birds.” — The Rev. Leonard Blomfield, F.Z.S., who has 
probably observed British birds for a longer time than any living English Natu- 
ralist, has kindly sent the following note on the subject : — 
“ The author of the article on ‘Some London Birds,’ in the recent numbers 
of Nature Notes may like to know that I remember hearing Nightingales not 
unfrequently in Hyde Park when I was a boy, i.e. , in the first quarter of the 
present century. My father had a house in Connaught Place, and the park in 
those days was separated from the Uxbridge Road (as it was then called) by a 
high wall, on the park side of which there were shrubs and bushes, where I used 
to hear the nightingales singing as I lay in bed.” 
Mr. A. H. Macpherson, B.A., the author of these articles (which have 
attracted considerable attention, and caused great surprise to many Selbornians 
who had no idea how rich is the avifauna of the metropolis), sends us the follow- 
ing : — “As a supplement to my list of ‘ Some London Birds,’ I may mention that 
the other day (August 24th) I found in the flower walk two young bullfinches and 
heard the voices of several others. I amjnformed that a gentleman captured a 
pair of old birds this spring, brought them to town and let them go in the flower 
walk, where they stayed, built their nest and brought up a brood of three or four 
young birds.” 
Native Names for Native Plants. — We have much pleasure in in- 
serting the following letter from Mrs. W. Arthur Smith, the active Hon. 
Secretary of the Birmingham and Midland Branch of the Selborne Society. 
“ May I ask you to use your influence with the readers of Nature Notes, and 
through them the larger circle of the public, in condemning the present custom 
so much in vogue of calling flowers by their botanical titles in ordinary conver- 
sation instead of using the sweet old English names, which are so much more 
expressive and pleasing. The Latin name conveys no meaning to the average 
individual, and it is often pronounced wrongly by the would-be scientist, who 
struggles with it ; while our English names, besides being often descriptive, are 
associated in our minds with some of our greatest poets and literary writers. 
Fancy Shakespeare making Ophelia speak thus, “ There’s Rosmarinus, that’s 
for remembrance. There’s Feeniculum for you and Aquilegia ; there’s Rut a for 
you, and here’s some for me. There’s a Beilis — I would give you some Violas , 
but they withered,” &c., &c. Or, again, Oberon would now have to say, 
“ I know a bank where the Thymus Serpylluin blows, 
Where Primula elatior and the nodding Viola grows, 
Quite over-canopied with luscious Lonicera Periclymenum ,” &c. 
