38 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



tance, for them, and filling both cheek-pouches full 

 of corn, cinque pins (dwarf chestnuts), and small 

 acorns, home they would hurry, looking, in the face, 

 like children with the mumps. This storing away 

 of food was continued until the first heavy white 

 frosts, wheu the chip-mucks, as a member of Con- 

 gress once said, went " into a state of retiracy." 



The food gathered, we believe, is consumed in 

 part, on their going into winter quarters, they 

 spending some time in their retreats before com- 

 mencing their hybernating sleep. This belief, on 

 our part, is based on the result of digging out a 

 third nest on the 3rd of November. The last time 

 we noted down seeing a chip-muck belonging to a 

 certain nest was October 22nd. Twelve days after 

 we very carefully closed the three passages that led 

 to the nest, and dug down. We found four chip- 

 mucks very cozily fixed for winter, in a roomy nest, 

 and all of them thoroughly wide awake. Their 

 store of provisions was wholly chestnuts and acorns, 

 and the shells of these nuts were all pushed into 

 one of the passages, so that there should be no litter 

 mingled with the soft hay that lined the nest. How 

 long this underground life lasts, before hybernation 

 really commences, it is difficult to determine; but as 

 this torpid state does not continue until their food- 

 supply is again obtainable out of doors, the chip- 

 mucks, no doubt, store away sufficient for their 

 needs throughout the early spring, and perhaps until 

 berries are ripe. 



So much for the present year, now nearly passed 

 away; but we are not done with the chip-mucks 

 yet, and next year, if all goes well, we purpose to 

 follow the wanderings of the young brood of the 

 past summer, for, we suppose, the old couple will 

 not want them again after spring once fairly comes 

 again this way. 



CYPBIPEDIUM CALCEOLUS AND OTHER 

 PLANTS IN EAST DURHAM. 



rpHE excursion after "Rare plants at Castle 

 ■*■ Eden," described by James Percival (p. 18) 

 last month, appears to call for supplement of a kind* 

 if not for some correction. 



No date (a thing always desirable) is given ; but 

 2/ the trip was made in 'either 1873 or 1874, it will 

 interest readers of Science Gossip, even though it 

 mortify Mr. Percival, to learn that the rare and 

 beautiful Ladies' Slipper orchid was at the time of 

 his visit existing and flowering in one or other of 

 two denes, not so strictly preserved as to make 

 invasion inexpedient, within a very few miles of the 

 famous one it was vainly attempted to explore. 



In Castle Eden dene it might have been found, 

 too, but there more as a propagated or nursed 

 plant than as a true wilding ; for the owner, who 

 truly most jealously guards his ravine, especially 



against itinerant and inquisitive plant-hunters, is 

 locally reported to take artificial measures to insure 

 its persistence : and rightly enough, from one point 

 of view ; for since the Ladies' Slipper partakes in a 

 marked degree of the erratic idiosyncrasy of the 

 family, if the wooded gorge where it once appeared 

 spontaneously were left to itself, its shade to deepen, 

 and its brushwood to thicken, it would soon cease 

 to appear above ground, or only at long and un- 

 certain intervals. 



In the Report of the " Botanical Locality Record 

 Club," just issued, I have given some account of 

 this appearance of Cypripeclium in two denes of 

 East Durham, under differing yet both instructive 

 circumstances : this, as being of general interest, I 

 may perhaps be allowed to quote here. The names 

 of the denes, and the exact localities in them, are for 

 obvious reasons suppressed ; my authorities are, 

 however, unimpeachable, and in neither case is the 

 dene that of Castle Eden. 



"In 1S73 this rare plant was discovered, by the 

 clergyman of the parish, in some plenty in one of 

 the many rocky, well-wooded magnesian limestone 

 denes of Durham. As I myself saw in 1872, trees 

 and underwood were being extensively cut down; 

 and this fact furnishes the reason of its sudden 

 appearance. Like Epipactis, it seems to lie 

 dormant in shade, and only springs up when the 

 sun gets to the ground, and I feel satisfied that it 

 is really native. 



" Quite independent of the above discovery, this 

 year (1874) Cypripeclium was also gathered in 

 another Durham dene, some miles , further to the 

 north, by Mr. John Cameron ; and upon his second 

 visit to the spot, with Mr. E. C. Robson, ' seven- 

 teen plants were observed, not together, but dis- 

 tributed, occasionally however in clumps of six or 

 eight.' This second locality was ' a truly wild and 



out-of-the-way spot in a ravine, thickly 



wooded and steep on the southern side, but less 

 abrupt on the northern side, infested with game : 

 the rabbits had nibbled several of the plants.' In 

 this case, however, the brushwood had not been 

 cut ; but it was c noticed that it seemed to grow 

 only on spots where a slip of the land occurred, or 

 rather the sliding down of soil from the steep 

 banks,' which circumstance no doubt resulted 

 similarly in sunlight reaching the slopes of soil 

 overturned and left bare." 



With regard to the specific details of Mr. Per- 

 cival's communication, I would ask indulgence for 

 a few further remarks. It is generally desirable 

 that any plants, or group of plants, recorded as 

 observed during an excursion, should have assigned 

 to them the district (if not the exact locality) they 

 adorned ; especially if that district differs from the 

 one named at the beginning and end of the enumer- 

 ation. For want of this, one not conversant with 

 the county written upon, or little learned in topo- 



