SHORT NOTES 
241 
that Bauhin had adopted it from some other writer; and that 
further investigation might give a clue to its derivation. A search 
showed that the name first occurs in J. Buellius’ Be Natura Htirpium 
(1536), where (lib. iii. Cap. cxiiii.) the following sentence appears: 
“ Nanq; qui riguis prodeunt longo pediculo, callo corporis in tur- 
binem mucronato, merulios , a metae figura, quasi metulios nomi- 
nant ”—and it was found that this same sentence occurs in Bauhin’s 
introductory remarks on fungi where he describes Buelle’s classifica¬ 
tion. It is clearly a description of Morels. Buelle in his account of 
fungi has four groups which are very much those of his mentor 
Hermolaus. In addition he has several groups with descriptive names 
which he attributes to popular French usage, e. g., fusel, campestres, 
arborei , crepitus lupi. Meritlii occur amongst these. It is extremely 
probable that Buelle was himself responsible for most of these names, 
at least in the form given. In the case of Morels, however, it is 
possible that merulius is the precursor of the modern popular name 
morille. Paulet (1793) comments on the derivation of the word 
“ Je crois que Buelle se trompe, lorsqu’il derive le mot merulius , de 
meta , parce que la morille a quelquefois la forme d’une borne. 11 
est plus vraisemblable que ce mot vienne de morus , mure, a cause 
de la ressemblance qui existe, pour la forme & l’etat de leur surface, 
entre la morille ordinaire & le fruit du murier noir. II y a lieu de 
croire qu’on a dit d’abord morilius ou morulius , & enfin merulius .”— 
J. Bamsbottom. 
Tree Epiphytism. A remarkable instance of the epiphytism 
of one tree on another was observed on July 18th of this year in 
Perthshire. Descending the northern side of Ben Voirlich, towards 
Ardvorlich on Loch Earn, one of the first trees encountered, at a 
height of about 1300 ft., before reaching the wooded sides of the 
Ardvorlich Burn, is an isolated Alder with a trunk about two feet in 
diameter at knee height; evidently a tree of considerable age. On 
this tree was seated at a height of five feet from the ground, a smaller 
O o 7 
tree of Pjrus Aucuparia with several stems, the chief of which was 
six inches in diameter and some seven or eight feet high. The most 
striking fact was that there were no roots of the Pyrus visible ; 
it seemed exactly as if grafted on to the Alder, though as it arose 
from near a fork of the host tree it is probably a bird-sown seedling. 
Presumably its roots are entirely intra-eortical, but there was no 
external indication of their whereabouts. Both trees were fruiting 
and apparently in full vigour. There was no sign of any shoot of 
hybrid or intermediate character arising from the point of junction, 
although naturally the alien character of the two plants to one 
another would make such an occurrence improbable.—B. 0. McLean. 
Misleading Geographical Names (see Journ. Bot. 1922, 
135). The earliest valid name of Heberdenia excelsa , a well-known 
Mvrsinaceous tree endemic in the Canary Islands and Madeira, is 
Anguillaria bahamensis Gaertn. (1788). Consequently, under Art. 
50 of the International Buies, the species should be known by the 
misleading name Heberdenia bahamensis (comb. nov.). Mez cited 
it merely from Tenerife and Madeira (Engl. PHanzenr. Myrsinac. 
Journal oe Botany.—Vol. 61. [September, 1923.] s 
