Amongst the curiosities in Mr. Barlow's garden at Stakehill are some tufts of the rare holy grass (Hierochloe borealis), which may be considered a native of Britain, though only met with in a few stations in Scotland; but is common in North Germany, Norway, Sweden, Lapland and Russian-America. It is of short-tufted and somewhat untidy growth, the leaves rather broad, but short and springing from stout stems, the panicle few-flowered and remotely hol-cus-like, the glumes yellowish. It is the Holcus odoratus of Linnaeus, Smith and Sinclair; Hierochloe borealis of Hooker and Greville. It obtains its name of "holy grass" because of its dedication to the Virgin Mary by the Christians of the East, being in certain places scattered at the doors of churches in the same manner that Acorus calamus is at the present day scattered at Norwich.. In Prussia it has some celebrity in this way, and in Sweden it is hung over the beds of the wakeful in the belief that it induces sleep. That it has a property to justify the belief is likely, for it is powerfully and delightfully aromatic, probably more so than the well-known and agreeably fragrant Anthoxanthum odoratum.

A tiny sprig that, by Mr. Barlow's persuasion, I placed in my pocket-book three weeks ago is now more fragrant than when first gathered, and the odor of the dry specimen resembles that of woodruff, which, it may be remarked, is now at its best for perfuming books and linen. It is figured in Lowe's "British Grasses," from a specimen gathered at Thurso by the late Mr. Robert Dick, and it is there recorded that Mr. G. Don met with it in a mountain valley called Kella, near Glen Shee, Forfarshire. - Gardeners Magazine.