HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE -G OS SI P. 



281 



question may be asked. To put the matter in the 

 most broadly generalised form, is it a scientific fact 

 that the blue colouring matter of flowers is evolved 

 from or necessarily dependent on the saccharine 

 (honey) and the nitrogenous (pollen) constituents of 

 any portion of the inflorescence or stalk ? Further, 

 if the "function" of the bright colours is to attract 

 insects, then in what way is an analogous function 

 exhibited or discharged in the case of dull-coloured 

 or whitish flowers ? By their perfumes, their volatile 

 essences, and saccharine effluvia. As a matter of 

 course the elastic theory embraces all these, for it 

 holds that the odoriferous principles have also been 

 " selected " or evolved through the agency of insect 

 fertilisation. By being perpetually rifled through 

 many generations it is possible indeed that the flower 

 may be stimulated to produce an extraordinary 

 quantity of honey and pollen ; but is it also likewise, 

 and at the same time urged or necessitated from the 

 same or other cause to generate an extraordinary 

 quantity of volatile or ethereal essences or quint- 

 essences ? The pale flowers of the lime tree contain 

 o*i per cent, of a 'very volatile and odoriferous oil, 

 they are eminently charged with saccharine matter, 

 and are perpetually haunted by hosts of insects. Is 

 it the oil or the sugar that attracts the insects, and is 

 the presence of one of these plant constituents 

 dependent on that of the other, or in any way 

 chemically connected therewith ? I am disposed to 

 think that in every instance it is through his nose, not 

 through his eyes that the insect is attracted; and 

 perhaps some learned entomological correspondent 

 will obligingly impart to your readers some informa- 

 tion about the olfactory organs of bees, etc. — P. Q. 

 Keegan. 



BOTANY. 



Euphorbia Cvparissias in Kent. — Readers of 

 Science-Gossip may, perhaps, be interested to 

 hear that I gathered this rare plant in what appears 

 to me a rather strange locality in Kent, viz;, on the 

 open slope of a grassy down not far from Dover — a 

 down that runs parallel for some little distance to 

 the road leading from Dover to Folkestone. I say 

 "a rather strange locality," because no botanical 

 works I have consulted quote the plant as to be 

 met with in any spot but woods. Sowerby gives 

 "woods," and quotes its having been found in such 

 localities in several counties, but goes on to say that, 

 even in the spots mentioned, it does not, in all cases, 

 appear as growing really wild. Kent is not 

 mentioned in the counties he names ; and I should 

 be glad to learn if any readers have ever met with it 

 there themselves, or heard of its having been found 

 anywhere in the county ; also, if they have ever 

 found it growing as unmistakably wild, and in such 

 thoroughly open country as that in which I gathered 



it myself in June ? I was botanising on the hills round 

 there, and was just about to pass down from the hill- 

 side to the road, when, looking up the hill, my eye 

 was attracted by a good-sized patch of some plant 

 swaying gently in the breeze, and of a somewhat 

 yellowish hue. Hastily going up to it, I saw at once 

 it was a new (to me) and strangely charming spurge. 

 Charming it certainly did look, growing there in such 

 a compact mass, barren stems bearing their mass of 

 slender, pale green leaves, combined with fertile 

 stems, with their delicate leaves and rays (some ten 

 or more in number) of yellow-hued inflorescences. 

 I gathered several good specimens for my own 

 herbarium and those of friends, and now take this 

 opportunity to make known to readers in general 

 that if they wish to find it the plant may be found 

 where I mention. The exact spot I will not name, 

 or else, may be, the plant may in a few years totally 

 disappear from sight. However, if any one anxious 

 to find it will only search the hillsides close to Dover, 

 on the right hand side of the way from Dover to 

 Folkestone, the search will prove successful. The 

 plant grows in a little natural grassy cleft on the hill, 

 overlooking a small farm. — K. E. Styan. 



The Formation of Chlorophyll. — With re- 

 ference to an article, in Science-Gossip upon the 

 "Formation of Chlorophyll in Plants," and the 

 "Germination of Seeds in a Melon," will you allow 

 me to state that a short time ago, when in the South 

 of France, I observed the same thing in a lemon 

 which had been recently gathered, and when it was 

 cut open I found that two of the seeds had ger- 

 minated, and the cotyledons of both were perfectly 

 green, and similar to the tracing in your paper of the 

 young plant found in the melon. The lemon was a 

 large one, and one of the young plants was fully the 

 length of the interior of the lemon ; the other was 

 somewhat smaller, and the rootlets in both were well 

 developed. The lemon was quite perfect and ex- 

 tremely full of juice, and neither light nor air could 

 possibly have got into it. Perhaps it may be inter- 

 esting to some of your readers to hear of this second 

 case in point. — G. C. Walker. 



GEOLOGY, &C. 



The Rainbow Stone. — This is by no means an 

 attractive-looking stone. It is a grayish, translucent 

 ribbon agate, with just sufficient indication of bands 

 to distinguish it from an ordinary chalcedony. My 

 specimen is of an oval form, having been cut for a 

 brooch stone ; it is very thin and translucent. The 

 part of the stone containing the iridescent band, 

 from which it derives its name, and which is the only 

 portion coloured, is about half-an-inch broad, and 

 consists of fine navy bluish, parallel, thread-like 

 lines. The band above the rainbow lines is a section 

 of what was once quartz crystals, and the remainder 



