848 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
been proposed), tbe proposition was carried unanimously. Among the 
members of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies who 
attended to give support to Birmingham were Mr. E. de Hamel, of 
Tamwortli, and Mr. F. T. Mott, of Leicester. As the last meeting 
of the British Association in Birmingham was held in 1865, an interval 
of twenty-one years will have elapsed by the time the next visit 
takes place. In a future number we shall call attention to the general 
and scientific progress of the town since the last visit of the Association. 
The annual meeting of the Midland Union taking place in Birming¬ 
ham in 1885, there is a double honour in prospect for that town. 
Jerusalem Artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). — This plaut has 
bloomed in many parts of this country this summer; the flowers 
showing why the Italians gave it the name of girasole (sunflower), of 
which “ Jerusalem” in our common name is merely a corruption. It 
is called an artichoke in allusion to the artichoke-like flavour of its 
roots. De Candolle shows that the old notion that it originated 
in Peru or Brazil is erroneous, and that it is a native of the north-east 
of America. 
Query.— Can any reader of the “ Midland Naturalist ” tell me who 
is the author of the following lines :— 
“ To me the wilderness of thorns and brambles, 
Beneath whose weeds the muddy runnel scrambles, 
The bald-burnt moor, the marshy sedgy shallows, 
Where docks, bull rushes, water flags and mallows, 
Choke the rank waste, alike can yield delight; 
A blade of silver hair-grass, nodding slowly 
In the soft wind ; the thistle’s purple crown, 
The ferns, the rushes tall, and mosses lowly, 
A thorn, a weed, an insect or a stone, 
Can thrill me with sensations exquisite ; 
For all are exquisite, and every part 
Points to the Mighty Hand that fashioned it.” 
R. Rogers, Hampton-in-Arden. 
Haricot Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris ).—The origin of the word Haricot 
as applied to this plant has been a source of much controversy. De 
Candolle, in his “Origin of Cultivated Plants,” says that chance has 
led him to find it. An Italian name, araco , found in Durante and 
Mattliiolo, was given to a leguminous plant which modern botanists 
attribute to Lathyrus ochrus. Durante quotes the Greek apaxos as the 
synonym of his araco, which gives the clue to the etymology. P&re 
Feuillee wrote in French aricot ; before him Tournefort, who was the 
first to use the name, spelt it haricot , in the belief probably that the 
Greek word was written with an aspirate, which is not the case, at 
least in the best authors. Littre, in his dictionary, inclines to the 
theory that haricot , the plant, comes from the ragout called haricot or 
