114 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



BOTANY. 



The London Botanical Exchange Club.— 

 Por the benefit of " W. W. S." and other botauists 

 who may make inquiries similar to that which you 

 answer at p. 90, will you allow me, in the first place, 

 to state that there is a London Botanical Exchange 

 Club ; and in the second, to offer a few particulars 

 regarding it ? Por some years prior to 1S66, there 

 existed a Botanical Exchange Club at Thirsk, under 

 the management of several botanists, prominent 

 among whom was Mr. J. G. Baker. On Mr. 

 Baker's removal to London the title of this society 

 was changed, and in 1867 the first report of the 

 London Botanical Exchange Club was issued, the 

 curators being Mr. Baker and Dr. Trimen. In the 

 same year the sixth edition of " The Loudon Cata- 

 logue of British Plants " was published, " under 

 the direction " of the Club. At the present time, the 

 above-named gentlemen act as secretaries, Dr. Bos- 

 well-Syme being the curator. The rules of the 

 Club are but few. Any one can be admitted as a 

 member upon an annual payment, to either of the 

 secretaries, of five shillings; and, on sending a 

 parcel of dried plants, is enrolled as a " contributing 

 member," and is entitled to share in future dis- 

 tributions. All specimens sent must be carefully 

 dried, and not exceed in size 10 x 10 inches ; they 

 must be as perfect as possible, roots being sent of 

 the sedges, grasses, and smaller ferns, except in the 

 case of very rare species. A guide as to what to 

 send may be fouud in the list of desiderata, which is 

 issued with each report. Each specimen must have 

 attached to it a label, bearing the number and name 

 of the species as given in the sixth edition of the 

 "London Catalogue"; also the locality and county 

 where, and the date when, collected, with the 

 collector's name. Each parcel should be accom- 

 panied with a " catalogue," in which the desiderata 

 of the member should be marked, and must be sent 

 each year, by December 31st, to Mr. Baker or Dr. 

 Syme. At the present time the Club contains about 

 fifty members, including almost, if not quite, all 

 British botanists of note. The report, which is 

 issued annually, contains valuable and interesting 

 notes upon the more remarkable species sent for 

 distribution ; and, as a brief resume of the annual 

 progress of British botany, is extremely useful. 

 Critical species and varieties receive due attention ; 

 and by the aid of one'or two members of the Society, 

 among whom Mr. Watson is prominent, country 

 botanists are supplied with good sets of the forms 

 of such plants as Chenopodium album, often accom- 

 panied with valuable critical remarks. It is, indeed, 

 to the country botanist, wbo has but few oppor- 

 tunities of referring to large herbaria, that the Club 

 is especially useful. Should further information be 

 desired, the addresses of the secretaries are — Mr. 



J. G. Baker, 25, Sydney Villas, Richmond, S.W. ; 

 Dr. Trimen, 71, Guilford-street, Russell-square, 

 W.C. ; from either of whom full particulars can be 

 obtained ; as also from James Britten, Royal Her- 

 barium, Keic. 



Zante Currants in .Devon. — In Sciesce- 

 Gossir for March last, on page 67, the second para- 

 graph from the top on the left-hand side, gives'an 

 account of "the first home-grown pudding-currauts." 

 You will no doubt be glad to receive this communi- 

 cation on the subject. More than twenty years 

 ago, through the kindness of the late Sir Patrick 

 Ross (who for many years was Governor of the 

 Ionian Islands), cuttings of the Zante currant of 

 commerce were procured direct from that island 

 and sent to me; and at the present time I am in 

 possession of a large vine, covering many feet of 

 wall, grown without any protection whatever, which 

 has for ten years been a constant bearer •. last year, 

 there were more than a hundred bunches of fine 

 currants, averaging f of a pound weight each, with 

 which both puddings and cakes have been made ; 

 and, to say the truth, some four or five years ago my 

 first pudding of them was made. No doubt, the 

 mode of curing might be improved, as mine have 

 simply been dried in the sun. — William Kennaway 

 Spragge, Paignton, South Devon. 



The Pineapple (p. 82). — There are fairly com- 

 I plete accounts of this fruit in " The Treasury of 

 Botany " (Lindley and Moore) under " Anauassa," 

 j and in the "Penny Cyclopaedia." It would be 

 interesting to ascertain when first this term was ap- 

 propriated to its modern use. It cannot be so 

 ! restricted in the following line :— " Stormes rifest 

 I rende the sturdy stout pineapple tre," which occurs 

 ; in Tottel's Miscellany, " Uncertain Authors," 1557 

 (p. 256, Arber's edition).— .K. T., M.A. 



Cammocke. — This can hardly be the restharrow 

 in the following passage :—" The cammocke, the 

 more it is bowed the better it serveth" (Lyly's 

 "Euphues," p. 46). If not, what plant is it?— 

 R. T., M.A. 



Buxbaum's Speedwell.— I last year directed 

 attention to the enormous quantities of Buxbaum's 

 Speedwell which may now be fouud in agrarian 

 districts. On my farm I now have it everywhere, 

 while the V. agrestis is less plentiful. It is simply 

 nonsense to say that it was unobserved or mistaken 

 for the latter, as its fine, conspicuous flowers force 

 themselves upon the attention of the most casual 

 observer. I have spent my life iu the country and 

 on farms, and I am quite prepared to state that the 

 V. Buxbaumii is abundant over miles of country, 

 where it did not exist five-and-tweuty years ago. 

 It is by no means a solitary example of the 



