HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



235 



The Cheddar-Pink. — Mr. G. C. Williams writes 

 in the "West Surrey Times" concerning this and 

 other pinks as follows : "It is with much pleasure 

 that we mention a botanical discovery of quite 

 unusual interest. A correspondent, who is an 

 enthusiastic botanist, has at last, after careful and 

 most diligent search, found upon the limestone close 

 to Guildford that very beautiful plant the Cheddar 

 pink (Dianthus ctcsius). A discovery of this 

 character is worth chronicling in our columns, as few 

 plants are of greater rarity in Great Britain than this 

 one. Wild horses shall not tear from us the secret 

 of its habitat, nor any clue as to the same ; but this 

 we will say, that it is not now in flower, the one 

 flower, which was sent by our correspondent, having 

 now withered, and that therefore search for it will be 

 a task of great difficulty. It is found in a very out- 

 of-the-way place, and its home is well-hidden. . . . 

 Lovers of nature in Guildford may now congratulate 

 themselves upon the fact that the plant has another 

 home, and that, if as cruelly evicted as an Irish 

 tenant from its mountain-home, we in Surrey have 

 yet offered to the exile foothold and kindly pro- 

 tection in the midst of our lovely country. Previous 

 to this time but three species out of the five British 

 ones of this family were known in Surrey. The 

 pheasant-eye pink (Dianthus plumarius) is found, as 

 far as we know, but in one solitary place, where, 

 during last month, amid the stones of a wall, we saw 

 it in flower. The Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria) 

 is almost equally rare. In the neighbourhood of St. 

 Martha's, near Albury, and in a wood near 

 Godalming it is found, as also near Croydon, and, 

 curiously enough, close to where plumarius is found 

 there is a solitary plant of armeria. The maiden 

 pink (Dianthus deltoides), we have not found in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, but near Richmond and 

 Ham it is sparingly found. There are three species 

 more of this beautiful family of plants : Dianthus 

 carophyllus, the clove or carnation, the parent of the 

 garden varieties, which is scarcely an indigenous plant, 

 and Dianthus prolifer, the proliferous pink, which we 

 have never seen in this neighbourhood. The 

 Cheddar pink, the parent of a family in which all are 

 rare, and each exquisitely beautiful, completes our 

 list ; and if our column has done no more than to set 

 at rest the vexed question of the habitat of this plant, 

 and to announce the acquisition by Guildford of so 

 rare a treasure, it will at least have had its value to 

 the natural history of the county." 



Flora of Guernsey. — Having informed Mr. 

 Marquand privately of the locality of the supposed 

 Mimulus, he could not find it, but kindly forwarded 

 me some specimens, which I immediately recognised 

 as an old acquaintance (Bartzia viscosa), from which, 

 however, the supposed Mimulus differed materially. 

 Mr. Marquand has since suggested that the plant I 

 saw in 1885 was probably an irregular form of 



Bartzia viscosa, which explanation I readily accept, 

 with thanks for his very courteous communications. 

 — Norris F. Davey. 



Sisyrinchium Bromtjndiana. — Bentham states 

 that Sisyrinchium Bromundiana occurs "in Britain 

 only near Woodford, County Galway, in Ireland." 

 It may be worthy of record that a few days ago I 

 found a single specimen on Ross Island near 

 Killarney, County Kerry. Near Glengariff I found 

 several specimens of Bartsia viscosa. — Thomas J. 

 Slattcr. 



Hawthorn in Flower. — I beg to report some 

 facts incidental to a botanical curio which perhaps 

 may be as surprising, of a second growth of flowers 

 of Cratcegus oxyacantha, or common hawthorn. This 

 plant in season usually flowers in the month of May, 

 and it is somewhat surprising to find it again con- 

 spicuous in flower on August 16th on an old fence on 

 Ashton Moss, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. Haw- 

 thorn in bloom in the middle of August, bearing the 

 characteristics and delightful odour it does in early 

 spring, with the exception that the flower stems, or 

 pedicels, were very much shorter, so that conse- 

 quently its usual corymbose cymes were more of a 

 glomerate character, thus forming a dense ball-like 

 inflorescence of about one-third their ordinary size. 

 The flowers on each cyme were apparently as nume- 

 rous as generally found. The flowers, as a friend 

 informs me, the boys were gathering eagerly, and 

 this drew his attention to them. He forwarded me 

 a branch, which appeared to be an old portion of the 

 plant, but almost covered with bloom. Not having 

 made much in the growth of new wood, this may be 

 the subsequent cause of its flowering. — Jos. I. Netvton, 

 Ashton-under-Lyne. 



Lemna Minor. — I don't know whether you may 

 consider it worth notice, but as I see a correspondent 

 reports finding Lenina. minor in blossom, I may say 

 I have for the last three summers in succession found 

 in the same spot (but nowhere else) Lemna gibba in 

 blossom. I detected it with the eye, but have since 

 mounted some in glycerine jelly, so that I may be 

 able to convince those who are sceptical on the point. 

 Under a two-inch objective both anthers and stigma 

 show up well. — IV. Oswald Wait. 



Botanical Monstrosities, 1890.— Perhaps the 

 following extraordinary forms of plants may interest 

 the readers of " Science Gossip " as supplementary 

 to those already recorded in previous numbers of 

 that interesting periodical. Colour variation, white- 

 flowered, Lamium purpureum, Orchis morio, Scabiosa 

 arvensis, and Ajuga reptans. Floral monstrosities : 

 Primula vulgaris, with eleven calyx divisions, eleven 

 corolla lobes, eleven stamens, two pistils, and two 

 ovaries with ovules. Scabiosa arvensis, with ordinary 

 flower, but having an extra floret in the axil of a 



