12 
NATURE NOTES 
but I have never heard how it came there. It grows in great 
quantities on the Norfolk coast about eight or ten miles north 
of Yarmouth. Five years ago 1 found it covering the mud 
cliffs at a hamlet called Scratby. This Avas in August, and 
as I was about to gather a branch from one of the brightest 
bushes, out flew a warbler, whose nest, full of eggs at this late 
season, was quite hidden among the thick leaves and berries. 
This year, in November, I re-visited the same spot, and 
to my regret found that the whole of the undercliff and its 
vegetation had been washed away by the high tides which 
each year are making further encroachment on this coast. 
A fisherman to whom I spoke told me that no such tide 
had ever been known as one in November, 1897. He knew 
the buckthorn well, and told me that there was none left 
between Scratby and Newport — another small hamlet two or 
three miles further north. I went on to Newport, and there I 
found it covering the mud or sand banks, together with the sea 
rushes. The poor people and fisher-folk call it “ wyvables.”* 
I asked what the word meant and was told “It means nothing — 
it is only the name we know for it.” The tradition is that some 
years ago a ship was wrecked here containing berries which 
were washed ashore, and grew and spread, but the tradition 
does not say whence the ship came. The berries have a very 
strong and pungent taste, and also smell, when crushed, not 
unlike apples. The children sometimes eat them and they 
seem to do them no harm. A woman here said to me, “ An 
aunt of mine had the yellow jaundice, and she thought perhaps 
that’s what the yellow berries was sent for — they must be sent 
for something. So she took them to try, but they did her no 
good nor yet no harm.” 
M. H. Mason. 
OBSERVATIONS FOR YOUNG BOTANISTS. 
I. 
The Study of Germination. 
NTKODUCTION. — With the object of introducing 
articles of a somewhat educational character, it is 
proposed to give, for the benefit of young botanists 
especially, a series of short papers on various phases 
of plant life, with the view of showing them what to observe, 
as the study of Botany must, of course, be always pursued by 
examining the living plants themselves, and noticing their 
peculiarities of structure and habits, especially in connection 
with their adaptations to their surrounding conditions of life. 
* Tliis name appears as wirwivvle or wyrvivle for Norfolk, in .Messrs. Britten 
and Holland’s “Dictionary of English Plant Names.” Kn. N.A^. 
