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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



Valisneria, do not place in any others. Above all 

 things do not give the fish biscuit, bread, or meat, 

 as it will cause a disease in the fish. The fish like 

 a little gravel at the bottom. They take it in their 

 mouth occasionally ; it does them good, and cleans 

 the mouth of the fish.— A. J. R. Sclater, Teign- 

 moutk, Devon. 



Capture of Deilphila Galii. — It may be in- 

 teresting to your entomological readers to hear 

 that I took a fine specimen of the Bedstraw Hawk- 

 moth (Z). Galii) darting about a bed of the common 

 larkspur, in a garden near this city, on the evening 

 of the 7th August. — R. Laddiman, Norwich. 



BOTANY. 



Winter Shrubs.— Alluding to the horticultural 

 article on shrubs that have been spared during last 

 wintsr at Brighton, I may add to the number of 

 those saved, the Veronica spicala. Five of these 

 very handsome plants, which four years ago were 

 raised from cuttings, have survived the frost in my 

 garden at Chatham-place, near the Dyke-road. They 

 continued in flower from July to January, not seem- 

 ing much affected by the rigid climatal conditions 

 of December. But i.i February they began to 

 droop, and looked wretched. Now (April 11) they 

 are, after due pruning, assuming their vernal garb, 

 and in a couple of months will present their charm- 

 ing display of blue spikes, not rivalled by many of 

 our summer-flowering shrubs. In a back-garden 

 with a north aspect, several of these veronicas that 

 had stood two winters, have been entirely destroyed 

 during the last. — W. E. Heathfield. 



New Discovery in connection with the 

 Potato Disease. — There has been hitherto one 

 " missing link" in our knowledge of the life-history 

 of the potato-blight, Pcronospora infest ans. The 

 non-sexual mode of reproduction by conidia or 

 zoospores has long been known ; but the sexual 

 mode of reproduction has eluded observation. 

 This link has now been supplied through the 

 researches of Mr. Worthington Smith, the well- 

 known fungologist, who described his discovery in 

 a paper read at a recent meeting of the Scientific 

 Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, and 

 published at length in the Gardeners Chronicle for 

 July 10. He finds the female organs, the " resting- 

 spores " or unfertilized " oospores,"' and the male 

 organs or " antheridia," in the interior of the tissue 

 of the tuber, stem, and leaf, when in a very ad- 

 vanced stage of decay ; and he has actually observed 

 the contact between the two organs in which the 

 process of fecundation consists. In some remarks 

 made at the meeting of the British Association last 

 year by one of our high authorities, it was suggested 



that we have in the Peronospora an instance of the 

 phenomenon not infrequent among fungi, known as 

 "alternation of generations" ; and that the germi- 

 nation of the true spores of the potato-blight must 

 be looked for on some other plant than the potato. 

 Mr. Worthington Smith has, however, looked 

 nearer home, and has proved that the suggestion is 

 not at all events verified in all cases. After the 

 lapse of a period of nearly thirty years since the 

 publication of the first important memoir on the 

 subject, this important practical discovery has 

 fallen to one of our own countrymen, notwithstand- 

 ing th e foreign aid invoked by the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society in settling the still unsolved problems 

 connected with this perplexing pest. 



White and Red Varieties.— Of " White Va- 

 rieties" of British plants we have in this neigh- 

 bourhood :— Hemlock -Crane's-bill (Erodium (Acuta- 

 riuni), Rest-harrow (Ononis arvensis), Clover (Tn- 

 folivm pratense), Field Scabious (Penantia arvensis), 

 Heath-pea (Lathyrus macrorhizus), Musk Thistle 

 (Card nits nutans), Marsh Thistle (Cnicus palustris), 

 Creeping Thistle (C. arvensis), Greater Knapweed 

 (Centaurea Scabiosa), Round-leaved Bellflower (Cam - 

 panula rotundifolia), Lesser Centaury (Erythrcea 

 Centaurium), Thrift (Armeria vulgaris), Eye-bright 

 (Bartsia Odontites), Water-mint (Mentha aquatica), 

 Hoary Plantain (Plantar/o media); and of Red 

 varieties, besides such plants as Cow-parsnep, 

 Carrot, &c, which arc often red, Comfrey (Sym- 

 phytum officinale), Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium), 

 Greater Knapweed (Centaurea Scabiosa), and Self- 

 heal (Prunella vulgaris), the two last a pale rose- 

 colour. — R. Dickenson, East Boldon, Durham. 



The Botanical Localht Record Club : a 

 Suggestion. — Although in the rules of the above 

 club it is not expressly stated that none but flowering 

 plants and fern allies are received, yet both in the 

 rules and in the report for 1S73 (I have not yet 

 received that for 1874) it seems to be tacitly implied 

 that the investigations of the club are to be confined 

 to the orders included in Watson's " Cybele Britan- 

 nica " and the London Catalogue. With fifty-six 

 new countal records in the report for 1873, it cannot 

 be said that the distribution even of the phanero- 

 gamous plants is yet thoroughly worked out, espe- 

 cially as regards segregate species; but our knowledge 

 of the distribution of the cryptogamia is very much 

 less complete, and I believe that if the club were to 

 embrace the whole of the vegetable kingdom, its 

 opportunities of rendering distinguished service to 

 the cause of British botany would be far greater 

 than if confined, as appears to be the case at present, 

 to a small proportion, and that the best known of 

 the flora of these isles. The British Fungi alone 

 are twice as numerous as all the species of flowering 

 plants put together. The general laws which govern 



