02 



BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ever; while the lower part of the shell, below the 

 third band, is quite normal, giving the shell a very 

 strange appearance. — T. D. A. Cockerel! . 



" The Butterflies of Europe," by H. C. Lang, 

 M.D. (London : L. Reeve & Co.). — Part xvii. of 

 the work is now out, dealing with the genera Erebia, 

 Oeneis, and Satynis. The plates illustrating the 

 species of the latter genus are the most exquisite 

 specimens of natural history art we have yet seen. 

 To our mind this is the most attractive part yet issued. 



Provincial Societies. — The Annual Report and 

 Proceedings of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club 

 for 1882-S3, contains a very interesting series of 

 short descriptions of the numerous field excursions, 

 which are a leading feature in the agenda of this 

 society. We also find well-condensed abstracts of 

 the following papers, in addition to the address of 

 the Vice-President, ]\Ir. W. H. Patterson, "Recent 

 Examination of the Crannoges, Lough Inverness," 

 by F. W. Lockwood ; " Sensitive Plants," by T. H. 

 Corry; "The Stone Monuments at Carrowmore," 

 by Charles Elcock ; " Rudestone Monuments in 

 Antrim and Down," by William Gray; "Rare 

 Plants recently found in Down and Antrim," by S. A, 

 Stewart; "Fungi, Mushrooms, and Toadstools," 

 by the Rev. H. W. Lett, &c. Mr. S. A. Stewart 

 also gives a supplementary list of the mosses of the 

 north-east of Ireland, and there is a meteorological 

 summary for 1S83. The Transactions of the Hud- 

 dersfield Naturalists' Society, Part i., contains, in 

 addition to the Annual Report, a catalogue of the 

 Lepidoptera found in the district. The macro- 

 lepidoptera are described by Mr. S. Moseley ; and 

 the micro-lepidoptera by Mr. G. T. Porritt, F.L.S. 

 Altogether there is a total of 666 species. 



BOTANY. 



Aregma mucronatum.— I observe that the late 

 Mr. Brittain, in his "Micro-Fungi," says (p. 47), "I 

 have never met with the rose-tirand upon the cultivated 

 or garden-rose." I send herew ith a specimen, taken in 

 1882, from a large standard budded tree. I believe 

 I found this fungus once before on a garden-rose, 

 together with Lecythea ; and Mr. Cooke leads us to 

 expect we should do so. — M. O. H. 



Changing the Colours of Violets. — The 

 Rev. W. Gilbert Edwards has informed me that in 

 Paris, when they want to gel their violets of a light 

 colour, they dose them with sulphur. If you turn 

 to Dr. M. C. Cooke's book, " A Manual of Structural 

 Botany," it says of sulphur, "Sal, salt; pyr, fire." 

 Now as calcareous soil is of a purely mineral nature, 

 that is why albino flowers lose their colour on 

 contact with calcareous soil. — Alexander IV. Ogilvy. 



A New Flora of Surrey. — Mr. W. H. Beeby 

 has published an excellent map of Surrey, showing 

 the districts and sub-districts into which the county 

 has been divided for the new Flora now in prepara- 

 tion. Explanatory notes thereon have already ap- 

 peared in the "Journal of Botany." He requests us 

 to say that assistance may be rendered in the follow- 

 ing ways, viz., I. By extracts from old works, local 

 publications, or herbaria, which are unlikely to have 

 come under my notice. 2. New stations and recent 

 corroboration of old stations, for the less common 

 species. 3. Notes as to the occurrence of usually 

 common plants in any district, as, whether common 

 (frequent and abundant) throughout ; or, frequent but 

 not abundant ; or, confined to certain parts of a 

 district ; or, apparently absent. Information concern- 

 ing the usually common plants is particularly invited, 

 as the absence of one of these may be as important a 

 fact as the occurrence of a rare species. It is desirable 

 that specimens of rare and critical plants should be 

 sent in confirmation of records. Such specimens will 

 be returned if wished, or wdl eventually be placed in 

 one of our public herbaria, in order that they may 

 be accessible to future students who may feel un- 

 certain as to exactly what plant was intended by any 

 name. 



New British Fungus. — In September of 1882 I 

 found on the culms of wheat stubble, near Birming- 

 ham, a Fusisporium which I could not identify. 

 Recently while turning over the pages of Grevillea, 

 I chanced upon F. cereale, Cooke (I.e. vi. p. I39)» 

 and recognised that my plant was the same. This 

 was found on the sheaths of maize, in Florida, 

 U.S.A., by Ravenel, and has not before been re- 

 corded for Britain. Description : Pallid ; flocci 

 short ; spores fusiform, curved, acute, 3-5-septate, 

 constricted, hyaline, 50-70 /i x 8/^. My specimens 

 agreed in every respect, except that the spores were 

 rather more variable in size. — IV. B. Grove, B.A. 



" The Sagacity and Morality of Plants ; 

 a Sketch of the Life and Conduct of the Vegetable 

 Kingdom," by Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.L.S. , F.G.S., &c. 

 Price 7^. bd. (London : Chatto & Windus). Our 

 position with reference to this work prevents us doing 

 more than saying it will be published in a few days ; 

 but the following extract from the preface will give 

 some idea of its scope : " The reader may, if he so 

 chooses, consider both the title of this book, and 

 much of its contents, as a parable. But I have taken 

 up the parable with a view of bringing the lives of 

 plants more nearly home to us. Botany is no longer 

 a matter of counting stamens and pistils, and express- 

 ing the classified result in a Greek-derived nomen- 

 clature ; it no longer consists in merely collecting as 

 many kinds of plants as possible, whose dried and 

 shrivelled remains are too often only the caricatures 

 of their once living beauty. It is now a science of 

 living things, and not of mechanical automata, and 



