HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SIP. 



19 



the necessary arrangements, we started on a bright 

 June morning from Manchester. Booking at once 

 for Hartlepool ; from thence we proceeded along the 

 coast till we got to the bottom of the Dene, where 

 we found the gamekeeper's cottage. There we went 

 and applied for permission to go into the Dene, 

 stating our object ; but were at once met with a 

 peremptory refusal. Bent upon getting into the 

 Dene if we could, without risking our personal 

 liberty, we followed the road leading to Castle 

 Eden, when we met a person who told us that the 

 hotel-keeper at Castle Eden Hotel had authority to 

 give the required permission. The latter told us he 

 had no such authority, and that Squire Burdon took 

 as much care of his wild plants as he did of his 

 game. But, notwithstanding this disappointment, 

 we had a most enjoyable excursion. The sandhills 

 a little to the north of Hartlepool were spangled 

 over with thousands of blossoms of Geranium san- 

 guineum, intermixed with the snow-white flowers 

 of Rosa spinosissima, presenting an appearance truly 

 beautiful. We gathered Astragalus hypogloltis, 

 Crepis taraxifolia, and Lepidium latifolium. De- 

 scending from the sandhills, we found Elymus 

 arenarius, and a little inland we gathered Orchis 

 ustulatu. During our excursion we found eight 

 species of the Orchis family, including the pretty 

 little Listera cordata, in company with Eubus 

 chamcemorus ; the meadows and green lanes were 

 beautifully ornamented with Geranium sylvaticum 

 and pratense; and in one place we observed in 

 abundance Meum athamantieum. Polygonum virgi- 

 nianum was very common, and we were just in time 

 to see the dead flowers of Helleborus viridis and 

 Gentiana verna. Tofeldia palustris, the pretty 

 Saxifraga aizoides, we gathered in abundance ; and 

 we might almost say we saw thickets of Potentilla 

 fruticosa. Of ferns we saw Asplenium marinum and 

 viride, besides several others, but failed to find 

 Woodsia Ilvensis, which is said to grow in Durham. 

 We gathered four species of Lycopodium, and 

 several species of mosses, amongst which was 

 BryumZinii in very good condition. We left Durham, 

 with a very strong impression that Castle Eden 

 Dene was a terra incognita to the rambling botanist. 

 — James Percival, Manchester. 



"British Hepatic;e."— We have received the 

 third part of this useful and artistically got-up 

 work, although we are sorry that, in consequence of 

 Dr. Carrington being unwell, the present part is 

 eight pages short of the usual amount of letter- 

 press. We are consoled, however, by the announce- 

 ment that the next part will compensate for this by 

 containing eight pages extra. The coloured plates 

 maintain their excellence, or, if there is any differ- 

 ence, those of the present number are an improve- 

 ment on its predecessors. The periodical issue of 

 this work, in a cheap and easily available form, is a 



great boon to botanical students whose wishes are 

 more extensive than their purses. 



Provincial Societies. — An excellent paper on 

 the "Flora of Eastbourne, as compared with that of 

 West Kent and West Surrey," has been read before- 

 the Eastbourne Natural History Society, by the 

 president, E. C. S. Roper, Esq., F.L.S. Mr. Roper 

 suggestively treated the geographical relations of 

 the flora, and the probable manner in which it ori- 

 ginally spread wnen England was united to the 

 European continent. He contended that many 

 species of plants which became predominant in dis. 

 tricts affording the most congenial soil and climate 

 for their perpetuation, supplemented the geological 

 theory of the flora having migrated from an east- 

 wardly direction. At the Folkestone Natural His- 

 tory Society, a paper has been read by the Rev. J. G. 

 Mills, M.A., on "The Etymology of the Names of 

 some of the Flora of the Warren." We purpose 

 giving an extended abstract of this interesting 

 essay in a future number. 



SoLANTJM GRANDIFLORTJM OK, DENTATTJM (POTATO" 



tree).— I should have stated in my notice of this 

 species in Science-Gossip of October, that the 

 Brighton plant was reared from a berry sent, in 

 1827, by Major Rooper to his father, from the 

 Cape, where he was then quartered with his regi. 

 ment. Mr. Baker, of Kew Gardens, tells me that 

 six different species have been named grandiflorum 

 by different writers, but none are Cape ; that, as 

 far as he can judge without flowers, it is a Peruvian 

 species, S. crispum, Ruiz and Pavon, well known in 

 cultivation, figured Bot. Reg. t. 1516 : it is stated 

 in Loudon's Encyclopaedia to be:ir a white flower, 

 from Chili (Flora Peruviana, Ruiz and Pavon, t. ii. 

 158), introduced in 1824. The stating it to bear 

 a white flower misled me, and is clearly an error; 

 for, on referring to the Peruvian Flora, the colour 

 is given as pale violet (dilute violacea) : it is most 

 likely a plant of the Cape as well as Chili. It is 

 singular that we have no flora of the Cape, from 

 whence so many plants have been introduced. 

 Several years back I met, at the late Sir William 

 Hooker's, the late Dr. Harvey, of Dublin, who was 

 then writing a flora of the Cape ; but unfortunately 

 he died before he reached the genus Solanum. In 

 Science-Gossip of December, " J. S. T." confirms 

 Mr. Baker's opinion that the plant is Solanum 

 crispum j he speaks of it as being well known to 

 him. I find it entirely agrees with the desciiption 

 given by Dunal in the Prodromus of De Can- 

 dolle, and I am quite satisfied that Mr. Baker and 

 'J. S. T." are right. The plant is intensely bitter, 

 as "J. S. T." says ; I believe most of the Solanums 

 are so, like the common Bittersweet (Solanum Dul- 

 camara). The Brighton plant has the dark violet 

 colour of Solanum Dulcamara, -and the dark-blue 

 potato. " J. S. T." gives it as pale lavender, and 



