HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



137 



years' absence from England, I returned, and was 

 shown my tree, which had been planted out in a 

 friend's shrubbery; and there it still is, a good- 

 sized tree, though probably the manner of its early 

 education has had some effect upon it through life, 

 as we know our early education ever will have ; for 

 1 do not think it is so large or so vigorous a tree as 

 under ordinary circumstances it should have been 

 in the course of upwards of thirty years. It 

 flowered for the first time only a couple of years 

 ago. I have no doubt [that precisely the same pro- 

 cess might be followed, with great interest, with an 

 acorn ; and though the youth of such a tree may be 

 delicate, there is no necessity whatever for it to die 

 when put out of doors and exposed to the outside 

 air, so only a little kindliness be shown in the 

 nursing. — /. G. Halliday. 



Latihlea squamaria.— A new habitat has been 

 discovered for this plant in Cumberland. Single 

 specimens had previously been found in two or 

 three places in the county, but they being removed 

 had no successors. Tn the middle of last month, 

 however, a neighbour of mine accidentally lighted 

 upon a large patch of that somewhat rare flower, — 

 and a very beautiful flower it is when fresh 

 gathered. There is no doubt of the reality of the 

 find, as at least half a dozen plants were brought 

 away which I myself saw. These specimens differ 

 in some points from the plate and description in 

 Syme's Sowerby. The flowers are not white, the 

 calyx being pale primrose, and the corolla tinged 

 with purple, more particularly in the inside. The 

 calyx, peduncle, and stem are thickly clothed with 

 long white hairs, and the stigma not purple but 

 yellow. The specimen given to me is about eleven 

 inches in height, and, though nearly fully flowered, 

 is considerably more bent over than in Sowerby's 

 figure. It is a plant worthy of cultivation. I sup- 

 pose it could not be transplanted. Perhaps it might 

 succeed by seed. Could any of your numerous 

 readers give any hints how to manage it ? — R. IF. 



The Euonysius.— I have noticed how this plant 

 flourished at Brighton, as mentioned by " T. B. VV." 

 (p. 115), and think he may be interested in learning 

 that it thrives equally well in London. In the 

 North-eastern district, with which I am more par- 

 ticularly acquainted, it is to be seen in nearly every 

 garden of modern date, and generally looks in a very 

 healthy condition. A judicious use of the pruning- 

 knife, however, is necessary to keep it in good 

 order, for, if this is neglected, it is apt to present in 

 the course of a few years a scraggy appearance. As 

 far as my own experience goes, the foliage of ever- 

 greens is tolerably exempt from the attacks of 

 insects ; the poisonous properties of the leaves of 

 some, and the dry and leathery nature of the leaves 

 of most, doubtless rendering them unfit for the food 

 of larvae, but 1 find the young leaves of the Euonymi 



in our own garden are eagerly devoured by caterpil- 

 lars ("Loopers"), whose ravages soon make the 

 fresh shoots quite bare. — //'. R. II. 



The Potato -tree {Solatium crispttm). — This 

 plant, noticed in a former number of Science- 

 Gossip, raised from cuttings last summer, is now 

 in full flower, though not more than six or eight 

 inches high, in the various greenhouses here. If 

 allowed, it will grow to an elegant evergreen tree 

 fifteen feet or more high ; but as it may be dwarfed 

 in pots, it will, no doubt, become a great favourite, 

 and is, therefore, being extensively cultivated with 

 that view. Its early flowering when so young will, 

 no doubt, prove a great recommendation.— T. B. JF., 

 Brighton. 



Maiden-hair Fern (Adiantum Cdplllus-Feiierh). 

 —On the 4th instant I found this beautiful fern 

 growing in moderate abundance on the west coast 

 of the Isle of Man, near the village of Glenmayo. 

 The young fronds were just peeping from the open- 

 ing in the rocks, some ten to fifteen feet above high- 

 water mark. 1 mention this fact because I have 

 noticed that several writers, in mentioning it, have 

 confined its occurrence to the more southern parts 

 of England and Ireland.— IT. J. Harsden. 



GEOLOGY. 



Slaty Cleavage.— In Science- Gossip for May, 

 Mr. H. P. Malet gives me credit for a suggestion 

 | that in my book he will find belongs to no mean 

 authority— Dr. Haughton. To me it appears that 

 Mr. Malet's theory, or any other as yet proposed, 

 to explain the production of cleavage in rocks, 

 although they may answer in some cases, will not 

 be satisfactory in all the various aspects under 

 which it occurs. Slaty cleavage generally is best 

 developed in the older rocks, but good examples 

 occur in the newer, while Agassiz has recorded it 

 in recent accumulations, and Sorby and Haughton 

 have produced it artificially. Cleavage may be ver- 

 tical or acute to the plane of bedding, and the rocks 

 in which it is found may be thin-bedded, current- 

 formed rocks, deep-water accumulations, igneous 

 rocks, or chemically formed ; it may be well or 

 badly developed or pass into jointing, as demon- 

 strated by Prof. \V. King. In some areas it only is 

 found if the rocks are crumpled and folded, while 

 in other places it may occur in undisturbed rocks. 

 In some crumpled and fokied rocks the strike of the 

 cleavage always is parallel to the axis of the main 

 curve, while in other areas it has a general strike 

 irrespective of the folds and crumplings. In one 

 part of a district the rocks may be cleaved, while in 

 the rest, although the rocks are similar and appa- 

 rently similarly circumstanced, they are uncleavcd. 

 In some areas only the argillaceous rocks are cleaved, 



