60
HISTORY OF ESSEX BOTANY.
but he may here refer to T. platyphyllos, Scop.,10 and as usual
takes no care to distinguish between indigenous and planted
species. This is the earliest record of the genus in Britain.
What I take to be a record of Helleborus viridis, L., has no
figure to it, and runs as follows (p. 160) :
" I dare not saye that ever I founde the righte black Hellebor, but thys I
dare holde, that a man for defaut of it, maye use verye well that kinde of bear
foot that goeth every yeare into the grounde, whereof groweth greate plentye
in a parke besyde Colchester, and in the west parke besyde Morpeth."
In this determination I differ, on the grounds of Helleborus
viridis both being wild and having annual stems, from Pulteney,
who in his MSS. considers H. faetidus, L., to be referred to," and
from my friend Mr. B. D. Jackson, who in his edition of the
Libellus (p. 12) amends his reference (p. 3) to Veratrum nigrum, L.
of a plant "quam vulgus cantabrigiense vocat Bearefote" by
referring it to Helleborus niger, L. I probably should also dissent
from Mr. Britten's reference of the Bearfot or Consiligo of the
Names of herbes to this latter exotic species." The true explana-
tion appears in Mr. Jackson's edition of Gerard's Catalogus,13
p. 36.14
On pp. 164-5. Turner gives the following interesting record
of the mistletoe, with a very good figure of the plant.
" The best missel byrde lyme is . . . made of a certayn round fruyte
that groweth in an oke, the leafe of the bushe, that beareth it, is lyke unto
boxe. It groweth also in apple and crab trees and peare trees and other trees
and somtyme at the rootes of som bushes. . . . This Missel doth grow
no other wayes, but by ye sede in such places whereas byrdes have devoured
the fruyt, and have [discharged it] in the tre. I never sawe more plentye of
righte oke miscel, then Hugh Morgan shewed me in London. It was sente to
hym oute of Essex : where as there is more plentye then in anye place of
Englande that I have ben in."
10 Gerard gives a similar record (Herball, 1597, p. 1299): "Neare Colchester, and in
many places alongst the highway leading from London to Heningham, in the Countie of
Essex." Ray's correction runs as follows:—Turnerum & Gerardum errasse esistimo cum
in Essexia Angliae hoc genus copiose provenire aiunt, nam quamvis ipse Essexiae incola sum,
neque inibi neque alibi in Anglia Tiliam foeminam vuigarem platyphyllon sponte nascentem
vidi. Quae frequens in sepibus & sylvis apud nos invenitur Tilia est minors folio J.B. &
aliorum." The frequency of this small-leaved Linden round Black Notley was noticed during
our Field Meeting, 23rd July, 1898. The identity of the species, hitherto known as T. cordata
Miller, T. parvifolia Ehrhart, or T. ulmifolia Scopoli, has been recently established by Mr.
E. G. Baker (Journal of Botany, 1898, pp. 318-9).
11 Flora Anglica abbreviata, MS. in the Botanical Department, British Museum, gen. 760.
12 Op. cit. p. 94.
15 A Catalogue of plants cultivated in the garden of John Gerard. . . edited with . .
a life of the author by B. D. Jackson (privately printed), London, 1876. 4to.
14 Mr. W. A. Clarke, F.L.S., in his First Records of British Flowering Plants, London,
1897. p. 7, also refers this record to H. viridis.