Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/79

 11 S.VIL JAN. 23,1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

one night and all its fruit will drop. When it produces no fruit, the people bore a hole in the trunk, fill it with three or five pounds of cast iron, and cover it with mud ; then it will produce fruit. In case the Chinese olive (Canarium album) is too high to ascend, insert wooden pegs or a little salt in its bark ; during one night all its fruit will fall down without injuring the tree. To prick the stem of Pceonia Moutan with a needle made of cuttle-bone is reputed to cause its certain death. The smoke of straw and of Japan varnish is said to be inimical to the growth respectively of gourds and melons. The bamboos are particularly fond of the cat's carcase, but are killed with a decoction of a brown sea- w-eed, Ecklonia bicyclis. A shell of a tortoise buried under the mulberry makes it luxuriant. The grape vine instantly perishes if it be punctured with a peg of liquorice root.

Sie Chung-Chi, in his ' Wu-tsah-tsu,' written about 1610, says that the Cycas revoluta, is extremely fond of iron, and there- fore iron nails are driven in its stem to restore its declining health, a usage fol- lowed by the Japanese to this day. Accord- ing to the same authority, the Ian (some orchid of the genus Cymbidium) fully thrives when cared for by woman, but loses its fragrance if planted by man. Similarly, Hindu poetry has it that a golden a'soka tree delays to blossom unless a beautiful woman touches it (Tawney's ' Malavikagni- mitra,' quoted by Godden in Folk-Lore, vol. vi. p. 227, 1895). #

The Chinese deem the flowers and kernels of Wistaria sinensis to have a property which renders them very useful as a pre- servative and restorative of wine, whereas the Japanese opine it to flourish when wine is poured into its root, in their art of floral decoration wine being the only means of preventing its flowers from withering promptly (Terashima, ' Wakan Sansai Dzue,' 1713, torn. xcvi.). Quite opposite to this, the honey -tree (Hovenia dulcis) is con- sidered by both the Japanese and the Chinese to have a great " antipathy " towards wine. Its fleshy peduncles are said to counteract the immediate and after effects of wine ; the presence of a pillar of its Wood will much weaken wine in every part of the building ; and wine will turn into Water if a fragment of the wood be thrown in it (id., torn. Ixxxix.). Some old folks in this part still cling to a belief that the sansho tree (Xanthoxylum piperitum) Would wither away should one chance to

sing whilst gathering for condiment its- fruits or young leaves, but it would much thrive should the gatherer happen to weep in the act. Also they hold this tree, as well as the Colocasia indica, an araceous plant with edible, succulent leaf-stalks, to have an extraordinary " sympathy " with money ! They will, it is said, never grow in the new owner's ground if their seeds and tubers be given to another gratis. Kaibara Tokushin, the Japanese naturalist, in his ' Yamato Honzo,' 1708, observes " anti- pathy " to exist between the white and red flowered varieties of the Pythagorean bean when they are planted together in one pond, the former infallibly becoming extinct. KTJMAGUSU MINAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

THE INQUISITION IN FICTION AND DRAMA (11 S. vii. 10, 57). The Inquisition has to do with the last chapter of M. G. Lewis's ' Monk.' It appears very prominently in Capt. Marryat's ' Phantom Ship ' ; see the end of chap. xxxv. and chaps, xxxvi., xxxvii.* and xl. I take these numbers from Rout- ledge's edition of 1861.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

PEPYS'S ' DIARY ' : AN ERROR IN TRAN- SCRIPTION (11 S. vii. 26). In the Globe Edition of the ' Diary ' Prof. Gregory Smith has " Mr. Drum " in the passage quoted. He implies that in this reading he follows previous editors, for in his Preface he- writes :

"The text follows that of Lord Braybrooke'a fourth edition of 1854, and of the reprint, 'the fifth,' in the same year ; but two important modifica- tions must be noted. The first is the incorporation of the corrections made by the late Mr. Mynors

Bright in his revised text of 1875-79 The second

is the reduction of the few antique spellings to modern usage."

MR. DUNN says that in the ' Diary ' his surname is " mentioned frequently under the varied spellings Dunn, Dunne, Dun, and Donne." This frequency is not evident in Prof. Gregory Smith's version. Under 26 April, 1660, " Mr. Donne " is spoken of, and a foot-note from Braybrooke suggests that this is " probably Thomas Danes, at that time one of the Admiralty messengers." The entry of 14 July, 1662, introduces a " Mr. Dun," regarding whom there is no editorial comment. The Spanish ambas- sador, Conde de Dona, and Dr. John Donne are the only others with similar names revealed in the index. " Dunn," it will be noticed, is absent altogether.

THOMAS BAYNE.