HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i55 



■under my notice by dividing them into three classes, 

 first, those which grow to maturity in all the 

 extremes of seasons, whether extremity of 

 heat or cold ; second, those which show great 

 variation in maturing over a series of seasons, 

 that is, plants which grow much better in a warm 

 season than what they do in a cold one, or the 

 opposite; and third, those plants which do not exist 

 under strict natural conditions in this part, that is, 

 plants grown in gardens, garden and some other 

 weeds, and agricultural plants. 



The first class was the least influenced by the 

 mild winter. 



It appears to me that plants which grow to 

 maturity and produce seed or fruit here, over all the 

 variations of seasons, as a rule rest during the winter, 

 especially when the conditions under which they grow 

 are quite favourable for their development. An ab- 

 normal season produces less variation from their usual 

 habits than in the case of the second or third class, 

 into which I have divided them. I may mention a 

 few of my first class : the hardier grasses, the heaths, 

 winter-green, European chickweed, winter-green, 

 small upright St. John's wort, primrose, dog and the 

 marsh violets, the bedstraws, hardier speedwells, 

 and the hardier crowfoots, indigenous vetches, and so 

 on. All these were very little influenced by the mild 

 winter. 



The second class showed signs of growing ; among 

 these I may mention foxglove, bishop's weed, some 

 of the bistorts, caraway, and some others belonging 

 to the same natural order as the latter, and so on. 



The activity in growth during the warm, or rather 

 mild, days of winter was best seen among those of our 

 third class, of which we may mention spring flower- 

 ing, and some other garden plants ; of garden weeds 

 — dead-nettles, groundsel, those speedwells which 

 grow in gardens, crowfoot, dandelion, &c. ; field 

 weeds, spurge, grasses which grow as weeds, hemp 

 nettles, certain speedwells, violets, forget-me-nots, 

 field spurry, and so on. 



Among the more noticeable agricultural plants 

 which showed more than ordinary winter growth we 

 may mention rye grass, which seems to grow when- 

 ever there is a certain amount of mild weather ; 

 1 turnips, which are similar to rye grass in this 

 respect. 



Seeds of oats which had been shaken from the 

 heads in harvest germinated and grew in many cases, 

 whereas in an ordinary season the frost would have 

 destroyed their germs. 



The last observation I will mention is a rather 

 singular one. It is, that in the case of those plants 

 •which are both grown in gardens and are growing 

 indigenous in the locality, the specimens in the 

 garden grew more in the mild weather than the 

 plants which are in their natural haunts. 



The most remarkable case of this was that of the 

 barren strawberry — a specimen in the garden was in 



flower in March, whereas those specimens of it 

 growing indigenous on a moor here showed little 

 advance in its growth at the same date. 



Wm. Wilson, Jun. 

 Alford, Abcrdccji, N.B. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



THERE are few volumes which reach us more 

 welcomely than the strongly-bound and neatly 

 got-up volumes of the Geological Survey of the 

 United States. They are distributed to scientific 

 men and scientific journals all over Europe, in 

 striking contrast to the mean and niggardly manner 

 with which the scientific publications issued by our 

 own Government are dealt out. The results, of 

 course, are highly favourable to those American 

 scientists whose papers appear in these Reports, 

 inasmuch as the scientific world is thereby made 

 acquainted with their writing and researches. On 

 the other hand it would appear as if the English 

 Government did their very best to hide the lights of 

 our geologists under a bushel. They pour forth Blue 

 Books, which nobody ever reads, in avalanches and 

 cataracts, and then publish the reports of our 

 Geological Survey (on which a great many new 

 openings for mineral wealth may depend) at prices 

 which are practically prohibitory. We have received 

 the " Seventh Annual Report of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey," in which, besides the report of the director, 

 Major J. W. Powell, on the different kinds of work 

 now in progress, we have the following lengthy 

 papers: "The Rock Scorings of the Great Ice 

 Invasions," by T. C. Chamberlin ; " Obsidian Cliff, 

 Yellowstone National Park," by Joseph P. Iddings ; 

 '* The Geology of Martha's Vineyard," by Nathaniel 

 S. Shaler ; " The Classification of the Early 

 Cambrian and Pre-Cambrian Formations," by R. D. 

 Irving ; " The Structure of the Triassic Formation 

 of the Connecticut Valley," by William Morris 

 Davis ; " Salt-making Processes in the United 

 States," by Thomas S. Chattard ; " The Geology of 

 the Head of Chesapeake Bay," by W. J. M'Gee. 

 This handsome volume is illustrated by 114 artisti- 

 cally-produced plates and woodcuts. 



The Fossil Fishes and Fossil Plants of the Triassic 

 Rocks of New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley, by 

 J. S. Newberry. This is a Memoir prepared by request 

 of the Survey on the above interesting subject, and is 

 illustrated by twenty-six magnificently drawn plates. 



The Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of the 

 Pacific Slope, by George F. Becker. A large 

 volume of close on 500 pages, accompanied by an 

 atlas. Everything that by any possibility could be 

 associated with the geology and origin of these 

 famous deposits has been exhaustively and skilfully 

 brought together by the author. 



From the U. S. Department of Agriculture we 



