258 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Potentilla Norvegica. — Mr. James Abbott 

 showed before the Leeds Naturalists' Society, at its 

 last meeting, a very interesting plant, new to this 

 country, Potentilla Norvegica. It grows abun- 

 dantly on the banks of the canal between Armley and 

 Kirkstall, is apparently naturalized, and must have 

 been there some years, as it was found by Mr. 

 William Kirkby about 1S60, and not satisfactorily 

 determined at the time. Mr. Abbott noticed it 

 again in 1874, and in 1875 sent it to Kew to be 

 named, when it appeared that it was a Scandinavian 

 plant, and had only once before been recorded in 

 Britain, and that only in 1868 ; so that Mr. Kirkby 

 may claim to have been the first to discover it in 

 this country. The question as to how it reached 

 the district awaits settlement. 



ISOETES HYSTRIX, DlJRIEN^EI, VELLATA, &C, 



of Algeria. — I regretted I was unable to send 

 specimens with the notice in Science-Gossip of 

 1873, p. 54, also that I could not at that time obtain 

 a copy of the figure of /. hystrix, as well as the other 

 Algerian species which are beautifully given in the 

 Botanique de VAlgerie, published by Bory de St. 

 Vincent, by direction of the French Government 

 (discontinued after the first seventeen numbers), 

 but which I am fortunately now enabled to furnish, 

 as well as fine specimens of the three species above 

 named. There appears to be some error regarding 

 the plant found in Guernsey said to be the hystrix ; 

 it bears no resemblance to the I. hystrix, Bory, of 

 Algiers, which it certainly is not ; the /. hystrix, 

 Bory, of Algiers, has spines at the base of each fallen 

 leaf, not much short of half an inch in length, so 

 long that the lower ones actually overlap the upper, 

 whereas the two specimens from Ancresse Common, 

 Guernsey, which I have received, have no spines, 

 but only very short teeth, as in the I. Duriencei, Bory. 

 It is impossible to take the two for one and the 

 same plant, as botanists who have compared them 

 together declare ; indeed, one of them observed the 

 I. hystrix, Bory, resembled a porcupine, on account 

 of its numerous long spines. The plant of Guernsey 

 may be the Isoetes hystrix of Gay or Durien (see 

 Science-Gossip of 1873, p. 113), but certainly not 

 the I. hystrix, Bory, of Algiers : it would seem to be 

 a separate species, requiring further investigation. 

 The specimens sent me from Guernsey are exceed- 

 ingly small, though they may be of the natural size 

 and full-grown, as they seem to be ; but the smallest 

 specimens of the Hystrix found in Algeria, in very 

 dry, hard ground, hardly larger thau the specimens 

 from Guernsey, contain spines as numerous and as 

 long (in proportion to the size of the bulb) as the 

 larger ones. With regard to the Isoetes echino- 

 spora Durien, Hooker, which Mr. Pryor says in 

 Science-Gossip for 1873, p. 87, is, according to 

 Hooker's " Student's Flora," only a sub-species of 

 the Lacustris, those who have no doubt examined 



it more carefully pronounced it a distinct species. 

 Some years back M. Gay, the French botanist, who 

 made an excursion into Wales and examined it on 

 the spot, confirmed the opinion that it is a distinct, 

 species : he published an interesting account of the 

 plant, which I had the opportunity of reading at 

 Geneva some years ago. I remember he found 

 a distinction among the various specimens, the 

 nature of which I do not recollect. — T. B. W., 

 Brighton. 



GEOLOGY. 



Underground Waters.— At the recent meetiug 

 of the British Association, Mr. C. E. de Ranee, 

 F.G.S., read an abstract of the preliminary report 

 of the Committee appointed last year " for the pur- 

 pose of investigating the underground waters in 

 the New Red Sandstone and Permian formations of 

 England, and the quality and character of the water 

 supplied to various towns and districts from these 

 formations." The Committee have largely circu- 

 lated a form of inquiry to elicit the information ne- 

 cessary to carry out the investigation. The report 

 now submitted mainly consists of long lists of strata 

 passed through in the sinking of various wells and 

 analyses of the waters obtained. The following are 

 some of the more important results obtained. First, 

 as regards quantity, in the Nottingham district the 

 Bestwood pumping station yields more than 'i>\ 

 million gallons per day from the Pebble-beds, the 

 supply of water from which, as proved by colliery 

 operations in the Newstead area, is practically in- 

 exhaustible. The Wall-grange springs, near Leek, 

 in Staffordshire, in the same formation, supplying 

 the Potteries waterworks, also yield three million 

 gallons daily; and in Liverpool and in Manchester 

 the New Red Sandstone yields more than six mil- 

 lion gallons per day L to the various wells of those 

 districts. Plentiful supplies are yielded by wells in 

 the south-west of England, at Maidencombe, near 

 Torquay; Teignmouth, Tiverton, Dawlish, Brain- 

 ford Speke, near Exeter ; Taunton, Wellington, and 

 Wembdon. In the Midland counties, at Leicester* 

 Nuneaton (250,000 gallons), Coventry (well entirely 

 in the Permian, yielding 350 gallons per minute), 

 Hinckley, Elmsthorpe, and Hathern, where the 

 water rose 50 feet into the air from the Lower 

 Keuper Sandstone. Good supplies of moderately 

 hard water are supplied by New Red wells to 

 Southport, Birkenhead, Ormskirk, St. Helen's, luce, 

 and a large number of other towns in Lancashire. 

 The available area in England of water-bearing New 

 Red and Permian formations is much larger than the 

 actual outcrop of these rocks as shown on the geo- 

 logical maps, there being extensive tracts of Lias 

 and other newer formations that can be easily pene- 

 trated, and a supply of water obtained as at Scarle, 

 in Lincolnshire, where a bore-hole of four inches 



