HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



279 



BOTANY. 



Preserving the Colours oe Dried Flowers. 

 —May I beg " H. E. W.," or some other gifted 

 correspondent, to confer a benefit on me— and, as I 

 know, many others— by describing the process of 

 drying the Card of Flowers that she mentions in her 

 able paper on " Skeleton Leaves"? It has always 

 been a failing with me in preserving the colours of 

 some flowers, sometimes rare, that they lose their 

 glowing tints, no matter how carefully they are 

 dried —W. W. H, Manilla Hall, Clifton. 



Ergotized Grass.— One of our arable fields is 

 sadly infested with Alopecurus agrestis, called by 

 the natives the " black squitcb." On going over it 

 this morning we were surprised to see what vigor- 

 ous tufts of the grass had this year grown in the 

 swede crop. However, upon closer inspection, we 

 were pleased to observe that every specimen had 

 become ergotized to such an extent as to make its 

 seed comparatively innocuous. The extent of the 

 attack may be gathered from the following esti- 

 mate :— We have rubbed off the locusta of a single 

 spike of the grass, and find their number to be 125. 

 Of these more than half are visibly ergotized, with 

 spurs varying from an eighth to half an inch in 

 length, and the rest seem so imperfect that we have 

 little fear of the pest increasing greatly from the 

 seed of this year's crop. It is fortunate that so 

 poor a grass is not preferred by sheep, as so large 

 a quantity of ergot might have a prejudicial effect 

 upon those in the gravid state.—/. B., Bradford 

 Abbas, Nov. 1, 1871. 



N.B. — Specimens will be forwarded to any one 

 wishing to possess them. 



Calceolaria gracilis. — In Science-Gossip for 

 January 1, 1SG8, will be found a notice of the occur- 

 rence of this interesting little plant on my farm in 

 Dorsetshire, by my former pupil, Mr. J. C. Hudson. 

 It occurred in a large open field, on a bank sloping 

 to the north, and which at one time was occupied 

 with a plantation of wood. It has for some years 

 been under rotation in farm crops. The plant 

 was first found after the barley crop of 1867 was 

 cut, and it continued to flower freely during the 

 mild spring of 1868. Since then, though we have 

 searched most diligently, the plaut has not been 

 found until the present October, and it may now be 

 seen dotting the side of the slope in the oat stubble. 

 The question as to how it came there is still a 

 mystery. It grows sporadically, and, like many 

 other wild plants tracking arable cultivation, seems 

 only to be seen on the recurrence of a certain kind 

 of crop. Of course its claim to be considered a 

 native is but slender ; still, its position so far from 

 the village, and the comparatively wild and open 

 position in which the plant is found, united to the 

 fact of our specimen having no claim to be consi- 



dered a garden denizen, point to it as a naturalized 

 agrarian weed. — /. B., Bradford Abbas, Oct., 1871. 



Lastrea cristata.— I found during the past 

 summer a few ;roots of Lastrea cristata in a bog 

 almost in the centre of Delamere Porest, Cheshire. 

 Dr. Syme has inspected a frond, and he at once 

 pronounced it to be the true " cristata." I do not 

 think that, because the fern is rare, I ought selfishly 

 to keep the locality unknown. I have a better 

 opinion of my collecting friends than to suppose 

 they will ever exterminate any of our rare native 

 plants. — James F. Robinson. 



Abnormal Arenaria (p. 259).— I have no doubt 

 that Mr. Holland is right in referring " G. S. S.'s " 

 plaut to Armaria serpyllifolia, a species which 

 I have found (1 think more than once) with folia- 

 ceous flowers. — James Britten. 



Local Floras (p. 259). — My papers on this sub- 

 ject to which you refer, are to be found in the num- 

 bers of the Gardeners' Chronicle for xlug. 27, Sept. 21, 

 Oct. 22, and Dec. 31, 1870 ; and Sept. 23, 1871. 

 The reference to "recent numbers" is inexact, and 

 might mislead. — James Britten. 



Germinating Apple. — A few days ago, on split- 

 ting an apple, to whose core some insect or larva 

 had made a small hole, 1 was surprised to find one 

 of the pips had germinated. The hard outer cover- 

 ing of the pip remained in its original position, the 

 inner part, consisting of a small white bulbous- 

 looking substance audtwo bright green leaflets, was 

 about an inch off, fixed firmly to the interior of 

 the cell into which the core was expanded.— W. G. 



Monstrous Leaves. — I have by me an oak-leaf, 

 picked off a pollard 'oak, which measures 11 inches 

 long by 9 inches wide, and a poplar-leaf off a youug 

 tree, measuring 9 inches by 8 inches; also a frond of 

 Blechnum boreale, the northern hard fern, which has 

 split into two near the tip, and one of these sub- 

 fronds has further divided into two again, causing the 

 frond to have three poiuts instead of one. I have 

 a bay-leaf that has divided iuto two leaves joined 

 for about half their length. — Harry Leslie, §,\Moira 

 Place, Southampton. 



Bee Orchis.— I observe in one or two of the late 

 numbers of your interesting periodical Science- 

 Gossip a notice taken of the " Bee Orchis." That 

 pretty flower grows in abundance at Ballystanley, 

 and also in the Deer Park at Mount-Heaton^ 

 near Uoscrea, in the county Tipperary; but we 

 have known it as the " Bee Ophrys," the name given 

 to it in Mackey's " Flora Hibernica." Will you be so 

 good as to say which is the more correct designa- 

 tion ? The gravelled space in the front of my house 

 is occasionally infested with Nostoc commune; is 

 there any means of preventing the growth of that 

 unsightly plant, if so I may call it ?— J. F. B., Roscrea t 

 co. Tipperary. 



