March 10. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
450 
WEEKLY CALENDAR. 
M 
D 
j <=£ 
I 
MAKCH 16 —22, 1954. 
1 
Weather near London in 
Barometer. Thermo. Wind. 
1 ' 
1853. 
Rain in 
Inches. 
Sun 
Rises. 
Sun 
Sets. 
Moon 
It. & S. 
Moon’s 
Age. 
Clock 
bf. Sun. 
\ 
Day of 
Year. 
lfi 
Ta 
Bembidium crucigerum. 
29.631—29.594 41—31 
N.E. 
_ 
MiG 
4 a 6 
8 23 
17 
9 
51 
75 
17 
P 
St. Patrick. 
29.890-29.829 ! 33—22 
N.E. 
— 
12 
s 
1 9 44 
18 
8 
34 
76 
18 
S 
Princess Louisa horn, 1848, 
30.101—29.928 34—20 
E. 
— 
10 
7 
11 8 
19 
8 
16 
77 
1 10 
Sun 
3 Sunday in Lent. 
30.150—30.132 40—20 
N. 
— 
8 
9 
mom. 
20 
7 
58 
78 
20 
M 
Harpalus obscurus. 
30.116—29.946 44—22 
w. 
- 
s 
10 
0 33 
21 
7 
40 
79 
! 21 
To 
Sun’s declinat., 0° 13' N. 
29.826—29.764 42—23 
s. 
01 
3 
12 
1 54 
6 
7 
22 
80 
| 22 
\V 
Anehomenus prasinus. 
29.887—29.859 42—24 
N. 
— 
l 
14 
3 6 
23 
7 
4 
81 
Meteorology of the Week.— At Chiswick, from observations during the last twenty-seven years, the average highest and lowest tem¬ 
peratures of these days are 51.2° and 34 . 6 ° respectively. The greatest heat, 69°, occurred on the 19th in 1836 ; and the lowest cold, 16 °, on the 
17 th in 1845. During the period 126 days were fine, and on 63 rain fell. 
BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
{Continued from 'page 403.) 
Caedamine impatiens : Impatient, or Irritable Lady’s 
Smock; Noli-me-tangere; Quick Or Impatient Cress. 
Description. —It is an annual. Root small, tapering. 
1 erect, slender, pale green, smooth in every part, except the 
| slipulas. Stem one-and-a-half or two feet high, generally a 
1 little branched, leafy, angular, hollow, often zig-zag. Leaves 
of numerous opposite lance-headed leaflets, with an odd one ; 
| all equal, more or less notched, rarely entire ; pale beneath. 
1 Slipulas lance-headed, acute, bent down, clasping the stem, 
all finely fringed, and evidently slipulas. Flowers numerous, 
in erect spikes, extremely small. Petals white, but very 
transitory, and occasionally not present. Pods erect, 
very slender, composing long clusters, and discharging their 
seeds with a crackling noise, and great force, on the slightest 
touch or concussion, by means of the valves rolling back 
suddenly. The whole plant is disagreeably bitterish and 
pungent. 
Time of flowering. —May to June. 
Places where found. —Mountain pastures by the sides of 
rivulets, on moist, rocky, or stony places, in the north of 
England. 
History. —Johnson, in his edition of Oerarde’s Herbal, 
speaks of this species under the title of Sium minus im¬ 
patiens, and says that it was “ kept in divers of our London 
gardens, and was first brought hither by that great treasurer 
of nature’s rarities, Mr. John Tradescant. The nature of 
this plant is such that if you touch but the pods when the 
seed is ripe, though you do it never so gently, yet will the 
seed fly all abroad with violence, as disdaining to be touched, 
whence they usually called it Noli-me-tangere, as they, for 
the like quality, name the Persicaria siliquosa.” Soon after 
Johnson wrote it was discovered to be a native of England, 
for Parkinson says it was found “ in our own land.” Ray, 
but a few years later, says it is to be observed “ among the 
stones under the scars near Wherf, a village some three 
miles distant from Settle, in Yorkshire.” He also states, in 
his “ Historia Plantarium,” that he found it near Halsted, 
in the spring of 1685, in a ditch by the road leading to 
London.— {Smith. Withering. Martyn. Ray. Johnson’s 
Gerarde.) 
» 
The prize-list list for the sixth great Annual Poultry 
Contest at Birmingham, announces Tuesday, the 12th of 
December, and the three following days, as appointed 
| for that Exhibition. 
The Committee of Management, we doubt not, have 
given the fullest consideration to the expressed wishes 
of those numerous exhibitors who desired some curtail¬ 
ment in the protracted period of their fowls’ confinement 
in Bingley Hall; and if that body now find themselves 
! unable to grant all that has been asked, the enormous 
cxpences attending an exhibition of this magnitude 
must be accepted as their sole motive in declining to 
comply with the suggestion. We are not, however, 
without hope that it may be found compatible with 
their arrangements to close at an earlier hour on the 
Friday, so that the birds farthest from home may be 
sent off on that evening. This would, undoubtedly, 
be a great boon, many pens having often previously 
suffered from the intervention of Sunday, and the 
more limited means of railway transit on that 
day. Additional confidence may also be felt by ex¬ 
hibitors from the care bestowed on the birds at the last 
Birmingham meeting, with regard to the feeding, and 
management generally. The supervision of the former 
department having been confided to Mr. E. Hewitt, his 
well-known experience and constant attention prevented 
the usual proportion of invalids, and very few, if, 
indeed, any birds, that arrived in health, left the worse 
for their abode under his charge. At the same time, 
there are many instances before us of “ four days 
exhibitions,” where these essential precautions were sadly 
neglected; and there are, moreover, few, if indeed any, 
cases where an equally liberal expenditure with that of 
Bingley Hall calls for the same indulgence. 
No. CCLXXXV., Vol. XI. 
