230 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



a little attractive. As soon as my pewet could do 

 for himself, he was transferred to the aviary, a place 

 he seemed to enjoy exceedingly, making himself 

 much at home, paddling in a pan of water, and in- 

 dulging in a bath once or twice a day. After preen- 

 ing and spreading his long wings, he would some- 

 times fly across the aviary. Things went on very 

 well until the introduction of a pair of young haw- 

 finches, and as they were just beginning to fly, they 

 were often hopping about the bottom of the aviary. 

 The lapwing treated the youngsters anything but 

 courteously, for as soon as the finches approached the 

 sop-bread, he raised his crest and uttered a succes- 

 sion of cries, leaving out the latter part of his usual 

 call ; at the same time running at the legs of the 

 young birds, sweeping his bill along the ground after 

 the manner of the common duck, evideatly with an 

 intention of taking the intruders, as he considered 

 them, by the leg; the poor finch gave a piercing cry 

 and got quickly away. In consequence of this 

 rough treatment, the crested bird was removed to 

 another aviary, in which carrier pigeons are kept, 

 where I expected he would cause quite a sensation ; 

 but not so, the pewet walked about and made him- 

 self at home, and the pigeons seemed unconcerned. 

 Things went on very well until a few crumbs of 

 bread were given to the plover. Pigeons have an 

 appetite for bread, and evidently intended to share 

 the meal with their new companion ; but he showed 

 a decided opposition, by pulling the feathers out of 

 the pigeons as soon as they approached the crumbs. 

 After a few days the carriers began to turn round, 

 but it was of no use, they could not understand the 

 lapwing's manner of combat. What with his noise 

 and rapid succession of attacks, the pigeons re- 

 treated with the loss of a few feathers, and although 

 not much hurt, they were decidedly confused. 



Chas. J. W. Rudd. 



PISTILLODY. 



ALTHOUGH so much has been written about 

 abnormal forms of plants, and though the 

 study of them has been reduced to a science, there 

 is always something turning up which, if not abso- 

 lutely new, is at any rate highly interesting, and, as 

 such, is worth recording. Perhaps, amongst the 

 most curious and unexpected examples one meets 

 with are those in which male organs become trans- 

 formed into female, and vice versa. We used to be 

 taught to consider that a theoretically perfect flower 

 should consist of stamens and pistils surrounded by 

 the perianth ; because such a combined arrangement 

 was the most certain to insure fertilization. Now, 

 however, when so many wonderful facts connected 

 with cross-fertilization have been brought to light, 

 we arc almost constrained to believe that those 



flowers are the most perfect which have lost the 

 hermaphrodite condition, and bear their stamens and 

 pistils in separate flowers, because in them self-fer- 

 tilization is an impossibility. We used also to think 

 that when a flower became unisexual it was by the 

 suppression of one set of organs ; that in a female 

 flower the stamens, which, in a theoretically perfect 

 flower, ought to have been there, were suppressed ; 

 whilst, in a male flower, the pistils were lost. Per- 

 haps this is the usual process which Nature adopts 

 in making unisexual flowers, for we can, not unfre- 

 quenily, detect the rudiments of the suppressed 

 organs ; but flowers occasionally become unisexual 

 by the actual conversion of stamens into pistils, or 

 of pistils into stamens; and though it is only in 

 monstrous specimens that we observe the strange 

 transformation, it is quite possible that the mons- 

 trosity may have become the habit in certain species. 

 Scientifically this peculiar phenomenon is called, as 

 the case may be, " pistillody of the stamens," and 

 " staminody of the pistils." 



I described a wallflower some time ago, in which 

 pistillody of the stamens had taken place. Since then 

 I have met with a still more curious example. I 

 have growing at the present time two plants of Nas- 

 turtium (Tropaolum majus), which catch the eye, in 

 the first instance, on account of the apparent absence 

 of petals. On closer inspection, it is seen that the 

 petals are there, but that they are reduced to the 

 size, shape, and colour of the sepals. Both plants 

 are covered with these little, apparently double 

 flowers ; so that it is probable that the two seeds 

 from which they were produced came from a similar 

 plant. In one flower only there is one petal pro- 

 perly developed, which points straight downwards, 

 giving the flower a strange aspect. 



But not one of these flowers contains any stamens. 

 Those organs have all become pistils. But even this 

 is not all ; for either the true pistils are absent alto- 

 gether, or the stamen-pistils have arranged them- 

 selves in the same whorl with them, and the result 

 is a complete ring of ovaries, exactly as we have 

 them in the Mallow. This is particularly interest- 

 ing, for the Tropseolums are placed in the Malva 

 Alliance ; and the order Tropa;olacea3 is not very far 

 removed from Malvaceae ; but here, in this strange, 

 monstrous nasturtium we have the relationship 

 made more evident by the ring of seeds at the base 

 of the transformed stamens. 



Robert Holland. 



LjNNJEA glutinosa.— Last month (August) I 

 took several specimens of this river snail in the 

 Brusna, King's Couuty. I cannot find it mentioned 

 in Mr. Thompson's " Natural History of Ireland," 

 though I hardly suppose it is new to that island. — 

 C. Ashford, Grove House, Tottenham. 



