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HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE -GO S SIP. 



BOTANY. 



Eloral Stars. — We have several most beautiful 

 wild flowers which may justly claim the name of 

 stars, others too besides the Stellarias. The earliest 

 is the Lesser Celandine {Ranunculus ficaria), 

 which is certainly very handsome and star-like 

 when the sun is shining upon its golden petals, 

 generally seven or nine in number. The leaves are 

 heart-shaped, dark green, and spotted ; when the 

 petals are closed, it is a very insignificant-looking 

 flower, as the under side of the petals is of a dull 

 greenish-yellow. This may be called the star of the 

 meadow, although it grows frequently upon the 

 road-side. The next is a silver star, the Wood 

 Anemone {Anemone nemorosa), which makes the 

 woods look brilliant in the sunshine, with its 

 beautiful star flowers. It is a beautiful flower, too, 

 when there is no sunshine to lend its fascinating 

 charms to the wood and its bright occupants'; at 

 night, when the pink-tipped petals close over its 

 delicate pale stamens, and bend towards the deeply- 

 cut dark green leaves, which grow halfway up the 

 stem (they are covered with a number of delicate 

 silver hairs and bordered with purple), then the 

 Wood Anemone might claim a place among our 

 bell-flowers ; when the cool night breezes blow its 

 pretty drooping flower, it may be one of those which 

 one of our poets says, — 



" Ring a merry chime that tells 

 Spring is coming! " 



The Stellarias have their star-tike honours always 

 appended to them, from their Latin name Stella, a 

 star. The Great Stitchwort {Stellaria Holostea) is a 

 beautiful fragile flower, which finds another place in 

 which its stars may shine— the hedges. It is a very 

 delicate plant ; the stem is square, the leaves of a 

 beautiful pale green, long, narrow, and slightly 

 hairy : the plant grows from one to two feet high. 

 When the flowers have gone out of blossom, the 

 seeds serve instead of bonbons for the children to 

 amuse themselves with ; so that this is a well-known 

 and much-loved plant with them. I have found it 

 in blossom in the beginning of February, a little 

 green branch with the blossom upon it growing out of 

 an old brown stem, which looked perfectly dead ; but 

 seemed to become possessed of a new life when the 

 first warm day of spring appeared, and sending forth 

 the first star when all around looked cold and 

 cheerless, and not one of its bright companions to 

 be seen. The Chickweed {Stellaria media), the com- 

 monest of the Stellarias, is a very little star, often 

 covering waste places with its mantle of green, 

 studded with countless stars, bright although so 

 small. The leaves are egg-shaped and hairy, the 

 branches lying upon the ground. The other 

 Stellarias blossom later in the year, when Summer 

 has come, bringing with her countless flowers to 



cover the meadows and hedges with brightness. — 

 A.E. 



Eurness Abbey. — Some of thereaders of Science 

 Gossip may, during this autumn, pay a visit to the 

 Lake district, and if so, those who are interested in 

 our wild plants will probably be induced to go a 

 little out of their way to the picturesque ruins of 

 Eurness Abbey, where, upon the authority of the 

 guide-books, they will expect to find the deadly 

 Nightshade {Atropa Belladonna) growing in some 

 abundance. To such I would give a word of advice 

 and warning. I say to them, by all means go to 

 Eurness Abbey, which is a splendid old ruin, but do 

 not expect to find the deadly Nightshade growing 

 wild. A single plant will be shown by the local 

 guide (if the visitor does not previously discover it 

 himself), carefully boarded round, and otherwise 

 preserved from the assaults of the mischievous. 

 But this plant, the guide assured me, he planted 

 himself, and there are now no remnants of the Atropa 

 growing wild on or about the ruin. The botanical 

 visitor will, however, be pleased to observe the fol- 

 lowing plants; viz., Parietaria officinalis (very luxu- 

 riant), Lactuca virosa and muralis, Sedum Telephium, 

 &c. The old walls are also beautifully decorated 

 with Campanula rotundifolia, and a number of other 

 more common plants. I made a list of upwards of 

 seventy during my morning's stroll about the ruin. 

 — Wm. A. Clarke. 



Plantain. — While walking through our new 

 park, on the west bank of the Schuylkill river, a 

 day or two ago, I chanced to alight on what I 

 imagine to be a very singular specimen of Plantain 

 {Plantago cordata). The footstalk was about 8 inches 

 in length, and from where the seed commenced to 

 the point [or extremity 12 inches more ; it then 

 brauched off into three distinct spikes of about half 

 an inch in length, each of these spikes again branch- 

 ing out into other spikes — one throwing out 4, 

 and the other two 3 spikes each. Are such speci- 

 mens occasionally met with ? I should be glad to 

 know. — George Worley, Philadelphia, U.S. 



May in August.— Whilst I was walking on the 

 banks of the canal close to this town, I picked some 

 hawthorn in full flower. This was on Aug. 2nd. 

 Never having heard of or seen it floweriug so late, 

 I thought it would be of interest to your readers to 

 notice the fact. — James Bate, Tiverton. 



White Varieties (p. 191). — I was interested 

 in reading the notice of White Varieties of Elowers 

 found by your correspondent "E. I. W." near 

 Winchester, as I have gathered in Cornwall, this 

 summer, besides a white variety of Thymus chama- 

 drys (which occurs in several places), Jasione mon- 

 tana, and Stachys betonica, perfectly white, growing 

 near the " Indian Queen," on the Truro and Bodmin 

 road.— S. M. P. 



