HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



23:: 



light principally LimicEus Limself viewed these 

 creatures. Can any of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip produce a passage or passages from the 

 writings or history of the great naturalist which 

 will throw light on this question ? — B. P. P., Hade- 

 mere, Surrey. 



BOTANY. 



SoLANU:M GRANDIFLOrxU:\I OR DENTATUM. — 



Attention has been drawn to a shrub growing over 

 the ten- foot garden wall of tiie late Rev. — Hooper, 

 towards the road on the lower part of Eurze Hill, 

 Brighton, bearing a sort of umbels of large elegant 

 violet-coloured flowers, resembling the common blue- 

 flowered potato, on which account it has received 

 the general name of the potato-tree : the flower- 

 lieads are like those figured in Loudon's Eucj^elo- 

 pajdia of Plants as Solanian gigauteum and S.jasmi- 

 noides, the latter being in the second additional 

 supplement. At first I took it [q\- Solcunim gignnteum, 

 but on examination found no prickles on the stem ; 

 I then thought it might be Solcmtim jasminoides, but 

 its leaves are all simple. On applying to Mr- 

 Smythe, of Centurion-road Nursery, Brighton, who 

 lived ten years as gardener to Mr. Rooper, he in- 

 formed me that Mr. Rooper called it Solanum 

 grandiflorum, but that it was at one time called S- 

 dentatum, its lower leaves being slightly insinuato- 

 dentate ; I do not find any plant of either name in 

 Loudon's Encyclopedia, although upwards of 

 seventy species of Solanum are there enumerated. 

 Perhaps some of your readers can [give inform- 

 ation regarding its native country, and date of in- 

 troduction, aad if it is correctly named, or known by 

 any other name ; also if it has been described in any 

 and what publication, and whether it has been 

 figured. The leaves arc all simple, oblongo-lanceo- 

 late acute ; the flower-heads are large and very 

 abundant ; the shrub is upwards of ten feet high, 

 bearing numerous bunches of flowers, some of them 

 with more than twenty flowers, the branches being 

 twice forked ; the berry dark purple when ripe in 

 November ; the corolla is rather larger than the 

 common potato, and the yellow anthers very promi- 

 nent; leaves and stem all smooth. The plant was cut 

 down last autumn, but is now more than ten feet 

 high, with young branches, grown since the spring, 

 upwards of six feet in length ; it has been in flower 

 since May, and will continue to flower apparently till 

 September or October. Both Mr. Balchin, of 

 Clifton-ville Nursery, and Mr. Smythe are cultivat- 

 ing it from cuttings ; it is almost (indeed quite in 

 a mild winter) an evergreen. Mr. Balchin tells me 

 that when he first took the ground at Clifton-ville, 

 which now forms his nursery, a tree was growing 

 there which he believes was the same as that which 

 is growing in Mr. Rooper's garden, but which, un- 



fortunately, he was obliged to destroy, and omitted 

 to take cuttings and propagate it, not knowing its 

 value. Mr, Rooper was a botanist, who prided 

 himself in cultivating rare plants, and although, 

 since his death, the garden has been neglected, while 

 the property was for sale, there are still to be found 

 some other interesting and rare plants, particularly 

 the Viburnum plicatum, an evergreen noticed in the 

 second supplemental list of Loudon's Encyclo- 

 pfedia. Mr. Smythe says there was, and he thinks 

 still is, in the garden an Azalea grandiflora, with 

 large beautiful flowers; it is not enumerated in 

 Loudon's last edition of 1855,—^.^. IF., Brighton- 



Eloka of DoRSETSiiiRE.— a haudsome volume 

 of 300 pp., bearing the above title, has just been 

 issued by Whitaker & Co., Ave-Maria-lane. The 

 author is Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, E.L.S., &c. 

 We regard this as one of the most copious and best 

 compiled floras we have seen for a long time. Mr- 

 Pleydell has grouped the county of Dorset into 

 seven districts, and very wisely made his list of the 

 order of plants agree with those of the "London 

 Catalogue." The pre-Linnean names follow those 

 now attached to species, and the synonyms come 

 after. The geographical distribution of each species 

 is also given, as well as the conditions under which 

 it grows. One valuable feature iu this Flora is the 

 reference to the extension of any plant into the four 

 counties adjacent to Dorset, and to Normandy, across 

 the Channel. A map, coloured for the seven 

 districts, precedes the text, and there are several 

 trustworthy essays on the Geology, Physical Geo- 

 graphy, Meteorology, &c., of the district. 



The Butterwort a Carnivorous Plant. — 

 Mr. Charles Darwin has recently communicated to 

 the Royal Horticultural Society some experiments 

 on Pinguicula vulgaris, which prove that its leaves 

 show a tendency to assimilate animal matter, like 

 those of the Sundews, Sarraceuias, &c. On the 

 application of meat, the edges of the leaves curled 

 inwards, and a slightly acid secretion was given 

 off" from them. One singular feature of the expe- 

 riments was that the margin of the leaf unfolded 

 itself about twenty-four hours after the application 

 of the substances, whether these were taken away 

 or permitled to remain. 



Senebiera didyma.— This plant has occurred 

 so abundantly this summer, both here and at 

 Bosham in several places, that its appearance seems 

 worth notice, as not many stations for it on this 

 part of the coast have hitherto been given. I have 

 not "VVatson by me, but am informed that he records 

 it in West Sussex, on the authority of Salmon's 

 MSS., yet not further eastward than Brighton. 

 Probably it will be found to occur in more stations 

 on the south coast than have been noted. While 

 the pods of S, didyma differ so much from those of 



