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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



wards and stem upwards, and soon leaves began to 

 appear ; it grew now with such rapidity, that it was 

 necessary to remove it into a larger bottle, and as 

 the acorn (which had remained attached to the stem) 

 had shrivelled up, it did not require to be kept 

 under water any longer ; the top of the bottle being 

 too large, a circular piece of card-board was placed 

 on the top, with a small hole inserted in it, in order 

 that the stem of the oak-tree might pass through 

 it, supporting the acorn above. It had six full- 

 grown leaves during the first summer, and they 

 gradually began to fall off toward the autumn ; as 

 they did so, they were put inside the bottle, so that 

 the root might gain a little more nourishment than 

 from the water only. 



The tree remained in a sort of dead state during 

 the winter, but in the spring of 1870 it put forth 

 two fresh green leaves ; but being put out of doors, 

 the exposure to the cold air checked it, and it 

 soon withered and died. 



During the last year, 1874, 1 kept another oak-tree 

 in the same way : it had seven leaves during the 

 summer, and being kept in a warm room, it lost noue 

 of its leaves through the winter : they remained 

 quite green and showed no sign of decay. Does 

 not this suggest how the oak may become an ever- 

 green tree in warm climates ? 



Three or four leaves fell off at the beginning of 

 January. The tree sent forth a shoot in the month 

 of March, 1875, which soon burst into leaf; it is 

 shown in the accompanying diagram, with the three 

 leaves of last year's growth, and the four fresh leaves 

 of this year ; the old leaves still remain quite green, 

 and it will be interesting to notice how long they 

 will remain on the tree. 



The result of this very simple experiment would, 

 I am sure, be a source of interest to any lover of 

 natural history. Agnes Lury. 



HOLIDAY RAMBLES. 

 No. V. — A Botanical Ramble in Cornwall. 



TO leave the hot and dusty streets of London, after 

 a day's work there in summer, for the fresher 

 and cooler air of the country, is always pleasant ; 

 but it is still more so to leave them when we trust 

 not to breathe their smoky atmosphere for some 

 weeks to come. Such were the feelings of myself 

 and friend when we took our seats in the evening 

 express train for Cornwall one sultry day last 

 August. My object for going to the West of Eng- 

 land was to obtain and add to my herbarium such 

 plants and flowers as are peculiar to that part of 

 England. We left the train early the next morning 

 at Penryn, a station between Truro and Falmouth : 

 our destination was Helston, nine miles distant. It 

 was the hottest day of the year, and we found we 

 had to choose between a jolting drive in an over- 



crowded omnibus, or a walk in the sun with scarcely 

 a particle of shade. We chose the former. Our 

 road was dull in the extreme. The only pleasing 

 feature about it was the gay colour of the steep 

 banks on either side, covered with heather and hare- 

 bells. We had the honour of carrying Her Majesty's 

 mails, otherwise our progress, slow as it was, would 

 have been still slower. Very glad we were to reach 

 the Angel Hotel, in the High-street at Helston, and 

 to rest and refresh ourselves after our long night 

 journey. In this we were so far successful that the 

 afternoon found us strolling along the banks of Loe 

 pool, towards Penrose woods. This pool of water 

 is the largest lake in this part of England, and is 

 separated from the sea by a steep bank of shingles. 

 The streams which flow into it carry down with 

 them an immense quantity of tin and other ore 

 from the neighbouring mines, and the mud has of 

 late years become sufficiently remunerative to give 

 employment to a number of people who wash it for 

 the sake of extracting its mineral contents. We 

 found Penrose woods delightfully cool and pleasant 

 after our hot and dusty drive of the morning. I 

 there saw, for the first time, the Cornish Heath 

 (Erica vaguns) growing in considerable abundance, 

 but I was subsequently told that it had been intro- 

 duced ; it is in fact only to be found in its native 

 luxuriance on the Serpentine formation, between 

 Mullionand the Lizard. Some plants of the Great 

 Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus), with their thick 

 woolly green stalks and leaves, had almost taken 

 possession of a grass field near Penrose House, and 

 the gorse bushes on all sides were coveted with that 

 pretty parasite the Lesser Dodder (Cuscuta Epithy- 

 mum). The yellow spikes of the Golden Rod (Soli- 

 dago virga-aurea) were a pleasing contrast to the 

 bright crimson of the Scotch Heather, with which 

 the banks of our path were carpeted. On the 

 shingle of Loe pool I found several specimens of 

 Strapwort (Corrigiola littoralis), a rather insignifi- 

 cant little plant, but remarkable for its rarity, as it 

 only grows in a few other places in England. On 

 the whole I was well pleased with my first day's 

 " bag " ; for besides the plants I have named, I ob- 

 tained several others, more or less rare and new to 

 me. Amongst these were Tutsan hypericum, 

 gathered from a large bush in a hedge at Penrose ; 

 Portland Spurge (Euphorbia portla/idica), and the 

 Wild Madder (Rubia peregrina). On returning to 

 Helston, I went into a stationer's shop in the High, 

 street to buy some sheets of blotting-paper in which 

 to dry my plants. I was fortunate in my choice of 

 this shop, for the owner of it turned out to be an 

 experienced botanist, and well acquainted with the 

 habitats of the various plants in the neighbourhood. 

 My newly-found botanical friend not only gave me 

 several well dried examples of plants which were not 

 then in flower, but also a list of the rarer plants on 

 the Lizard, and the places Avhere they were to be 



