HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP. 



211 



separation of 'the diseased, with the immediate com- 

 bustion of the infected leaves, which have, as I have 

 noticed, a perceptible influence on other plants near, 

 by infecting the atmosphere. In not a few fields 

 where the potatoes were attacked, weeding had not 

 been properly attended to, through the men being 

 taken up with baivesting, and the rows were over- 

 run with straggling plants, the couch-grass being 

 prominent. All this was much against Paddy's 

 favourite vegetable. — /. H. S. C. 



The Scented Violet {F. odorata).— it has been 

 reported for some years past by botanists in the^ 

 South of England that this favourite flower has 

 been growing more scarce. I am glad to be able to 

 report that in some districts of Korth Kent, near 

 Gravesend and Cobhara, it grows plentifully, being 

 indeed sufficiently abundant to betray itself by the 

 perfume diffused through the air while it is in 

 flower. Brought on by the mild weather, the violet 

 was out early tliis spi'ing, and by April 1st scarcely 

 one was to be found. On chalk and limestone in 

 Kent, this plant seems to give the preference to 

 shady lanes, with high hedge-banks, being more 

 usual in such spots than in woods. — /. R. S. C. 



Water Avens. — I have gathered Geian rivale 

 in woods in tliis parish ; generally, if not always, 

 near running water.— i:^. M. C. Allen, Bareombe 

 Bectonj, Sussex. 



The Flora of Colorado.— Messrs. Thomas C. 

 Porter and Jolin M. Coulter have just issued their 

 "Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado." It is an 

 exhaustive catalogue of the phsenogamous and 

 cryptogamous plants of tliis interesting country, and 

 contains concise but deBnitc descriptions of the new 

 and rarer species. The work is exceedingly well 

 done, and we agree with the authors in their preface 

 in regretting that an introductory article on the 

 geographical distribution cf the plants embraced in 

 the "Synopsis" could not be included in it. The 

 geographical distribution cf the Colorado plants 

 cannot fail to be of interest to botanists and 

 geologists. 



Verbascum Lychxitis. — I hasten to inform 

 your botanical readers that at the present time a 

 number of plants of the somewhat rare Verhascum 

 hjchnitis are in blossom on the down side of the 

 Loudon, Chatham, and Dover Railway just beyond 

 Bickley Station. — G. S. Boidger, July 24. 



The London Catalogue or British Plants.— 

 The seventh edition of this indispensable work has 

 just been issued. It is published under the direction 

 of the London Botanical Exchange Club, and is ad- 

 mirably adapted for marking desiderata in exchange 

 of specimens ; for an Index Catalogue to British 

 herbaria, indicating the species of local districts, 

 as well as for a guide to collectors, by showing the 



comparative frequency or rarity of the various 

 species. The price (sixpence) brings it within the 

 reach of the poorest botanical student. It is pub- 

 lished by Hardwicke, 193, Piccadilly. 



British Marine Alg.e.— This cheap, well 

 written, and excellently illustrated work has 

 reached the seventh part. We cannot recommend 

 a better manual to young students ; and the fact 

 that its author is W. H. Grattann is a good gua- 

 rantee for its accuracy and fulness. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Quaternary Period in the Isle oe Port- 

 land AND AROUND Weymouth. — A paper on this 

 subject was read by Joseph Prestwich, Esq., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S. The author remarked that although 

 the physical features connected with the later geo- 

 logical changes in the district were of much interest, 

 they had hitherto attracted little attention. Com- 

 mencing with the oldest drift-beds, he showed that 

 the remains of one, formerly more extensive, had 

 been found in the Isle of Porland at a height of 400 

 feet above the sea; that it contained the remains of 

 the Elephas antiqmcs, Eqiius fossills, &c. ; and that 

 he found in this bed a number of pebbles of sand- 

 stone and ironstone of Tertiary age, and of chert 

 from the Greensands ; whence he inferred that, as 

 such pebbles could not now pass over the plain of 

 Weymouth, they must have done so before that 

 area was denuded, and when bridged over by the 

 Portland and Purbeck beds; for the pebbles are 

 derived from beds which are only in situ to the 

 north of the Weymouth district, and at a distance 

 of eight or ten miles from Portland. Further, this 

 transpcrt must have taken place before the elevation 

 of the noith end of Portland, and when the slope 

 from the Bill to the Ridgeway was uniform and 

 gradual. The anticlinal line, which has elevated 

 the intermediate area, must be of later date than 

 the drift-bed. The author next proceeded to notice 

 the raised beach at the Bill of Portland, in which he 

 had, with the assistance of Mr. Jeffreys, determined 

 twenty-six species of shells, two of them not now 

 living in the British Channel, and one new. This 

 beach contains pebbles of the Devonshire and 

 Cornwall rocks. The raised beach Mr, Prestwich 

 found to abut against an old cliff that liad been 

 swamped at a later geological period by a land- 

 wash, which had levelled it and the old sea-land 

 with the adjacent land-surface. The mass which 

 had thus swamped the cliff and buried the beach 

 consisted of loam and angular debris, the latter 

 being in larger proportion at top. In the loam he 

 found several species of land and fresh-water shells 

 and fragments of bones. The angular debris con- 

 sisted of pieces of the local rocks, together with a 

 number of specimens, which by their organic re- 



