278 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



sixty-first year. To the unscientific public he was 

 perhaps better known as the energetic coroner for 

 Central Middlesex. 



BOTANY. 



SoLANTJM GBANDIFLOKUM.— The plant spoken 

 of in your journal by "T. B. W., Brighton," as 

 Solanum grandijlorum or dentatum, is, I have no 

 doubt, the Solanum crispum of Buiz et Pao. It is 

 a native of Chili, but is quite hardy in this country, 

 and well worth a place in all ornamental gardens 

 and shrubberies. The stem is'woody and flexuous, 

 growing twelve or more feet high, but requires 

 some support, as a wall, stake, or, where I have 

 seen it in great perfection, clinging round the stem 

 and branches of a deciduous growing tree. The 

 flowers are pale lavender.iu large corymbs of great 

 beauty ; when crushed they give off a disagreeable 

 perfume, and the whole plant is intensely bitter. — 

 /. 8. T. 



Skikeet {Slum Slsaruvi). — The skirret is one 

 of those plants which are now neglected, because we 

 have become acquainted with others more pleasant 

 to the taste and more profitable in their culture. It 

 belongs to the same class as the carrot and parsnip, 

 but differs from tliose roots in being perennial. It 

 is a native of China, and was introduced before 

 1548. Worlidge, a writer in the latter end of the 

 seventeenth century, described it as the sweetest, 

 whitest, and most wholesome of roots. The root 

 consists of a cluster of fleshy tubers, which are 

 connected together at the crown or head ; eacli 

 separate tuber is about the thickness of the little 

 finger. They grow very uneven, and are covered 

 with a whitish rough bark, while a hard core or 

 pith runs through the centre. According to 

 Loudon, it was cultivated in the north of Scotland 

 under the name of Crummock. It is grown on the 

 Continent, and much used in French cookery. In 

 China it is reputed to possess peculiar medicinal 

 virtues. Sir James Smith observes that the Chinese 

 have long been in the habit of sending this root to 

 Japan as the true Ginseng of Tartarj', or Fanax 

 quinquefolla of Linnaeus, a plant possessing very 

 different properties. (See "Penny Ency.") The 

 skii-ret abounds in saccharine matter, and a fine 

 white sugar, little inferior to that of cane, has been 

 extracted from \i.— Hampden G. Glasspoole. 



Wakvvicksiiire Plants.— An exhaustive and 

 cleverly drawn-up catalogue of the plants collected 

 in Warwickshire in 1873 has just been 'published 

 by the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaio- 

 logical Society. The catalogue has been com])iled 

 chiefly by Dr. R. Baker and the Bev. T. R. Young, 

 both of them well-known botanists. The " Loudon 

 Catalogue " has been followed, and it would be well 



if all local lists copied this example. The hope is 

 expressed by the authors, in which we fully concur, 

 that the present catalogue may form the ground- 

 work of a county Flora a few years hence. 



"Tea Plant."— There is a plant here which is 

 this year covered with scarlet berries. I have seen 

 many plants in. this neighbourhood, but never before 

 noticed the berries. These could hardly have 

 escaped attention, as they are very conspicuous, in 

 consequence of the plant being almost destitute of 

 leaves at this season. The one referred to above is 

 trained up the front of a house facing the south. — 

 G. Hardy, Liverpool. 



GEOLOGY. 



A SUBMAKINE EOBEST IN THE OUWELL.— Mr- 



J. E. Taylor, E.G.S., &c., has made a communica- 

 tion respecting an extensive submarine forest under- 

 lying the mud-banks of the estuary of the Orwell, 

 near Ipswich. The bed of the channel was recently 

 deepened, and a stratum of peat passed through to 

 the thickness of five feet. The latter was full of 

 beautiful impressions of leaves, fruits, &c., and 

 trunks and branches of beech, oak, fir, &c. Several 

 fine 'molar teeth of the Mammoth {Elephas primi- 

 genius) were obtained from the same bed, in which 

 were found layers of freshwater shells. At pre- 

 sent all the mollusca in the Orwell are marine. Mr. 

 Taylor considers this forest as coeval with several 

 other submarine forests which fringe our coasts, and 

 which probably grew before the last depression that 

 separated England from the Continent. 



The Comparative Microscopic Bock-struc- 

 ture OF SOME Ancient anb Modern Volcanic 

 Rocks.— At the last meeting of the Geological 

 Society, a paper on the above subject was read by 

 J. Clifton Ward, Esq., F.G.S. The author stated 

 at the outset that his object was to compare the 

 microscopic rock-structure of several groups of 

 volcanic rocks, and in so doing to gain light, if 

 possible, upon the original structure of some of the 

 oldest members of that series. The first part of 

 the paper comprised an abstract of what had been, 

 previously done in this subject. The second part 

 gave details of the microscopic structure of some 

 few modern lavas, such as the Solfatara Trachyte, 

 the Vesuvian lava- flows of 1G31 and 1701, and a 

 lava of the Albau Mount, near Borne. In the 

 trachyte of the Solfatara acicular crystals of felspar 

 show a well-marked flow around the larger and first- 

 formed crystals. In the Vesuvian and Albanian 

 lavas leucite seems, in part at any rate, to take the 

 place of the felspar of other lavas ; and the majority 

 of the leucite crystals seem to be somewhat imper- 

 fectly formed, as is the case with the small felspar 



