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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



interest. He stated that of the fifty-six known species 

 of Hawaiian Pyralidina nine had probably been 

 introduced through the agency of man in recent times ; 

 but he believed the remaining forty-seven to be 

 wholly endemic : of these latter the author referred 

 twenty-six species to the Botydidae, twelve to the 

 Scopariadce, four to the Pterophoridae, three to the 

 Crambidae, and two to the Phycitidae. 



BOTANY. 



Purple-eyed Daisies. — Walking along the edge 

 of the cliff at the sequestered inlet of Dumpton Gap, 

 on the way from Ramsgate to Broadstairs, I came 

 upon a tuft of daisies each having an orange-red spot 

 in the centre of its disk. I dug up a root and potted 

 it, and the new blown blossoms present a sufficiently 

 curious and rich appearance for such common objects 

 as wild daisies, the colour in the centre being fresh 

 and deep. Examined closely, it is seen that the orange- 

 red spot is caused by the flowerets at the centre of 

 the disk having their petals tipped with purple, a 

 peculiarity often noticed in those of the ray, the 

 commingling of their rich yellow producing the effect 

 of orange on the retina. This flower has long done 

 duty as an exponent of Design in Nature ; here it 

 puts in a claim for Evolution or Work. — A. H. 

 Swinton. 



Preserving Flowers. — Having noticed in the 

 "Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society" an article, 

 on Preserving the Colours of Flowers in dried speci- 

 mens, I append the following copy : — The process 

 consists of steeping the plants in a solution of sul- 

 phurous acid containing one-fourth of its volume of 

 methylated spirit. Delicate flowers require only five 

 or ten minutes immersion, and thick leaves as much 

 as twenty-four hours. They are then removed and 

 the fluid allowed to evaporate from the surface by 

 exposure, and then dried between paper in the usual 

 way. Another advantage is that plants so treated 

 are dried much more quickly and easily than those 

 which are simply pressed and dried when fresh. — IV. 

 y. Hopkmson. 



" Annals of Botany." — The February part 

 completes the first vol. of this notable and important 

 work, edited by Professor J. B. Balfour, Dr. Vine, 

 and Dr. W. G. Farlow. It contains papers as 

 follows: "The Apical Cell of Fucus," by W. Mc. 

 M. Wood worth ; "The Procarpium and Fruit in 

 Gracilaria confervoides," by T. Johnson ; " On the 

 Germination of the Tubes of the Jerusalem Arti- 

 choke," by J. R. Green : " On the Sensitive Labellum 

 of Masdcvallia mucosa" by F. W. Oliver; "The 

 Effect of Cross-fertilisation on Inconspicuous Flowers," 

 by Anna Bateson ; " Microscopical Anatomy of the 

 Common Cedar Apple," by Aylmer Sanford ; " On 



some Normal and Abnormal Developments of the 

 Zoophyte in Trichomanes," by F. O. Bower ; " On 

 the Floating Roots of Sesbania aculeata" by D. H. 

 Scott; "On some anomalous cells developed within 

 the interior of the vascular and cellular tissues of the 

 Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures," by Professor 

 Williamson; "Some recent publications bearing on 

 the question of the sources of Nitrogen in Nature," 

 etc. 



GEOLOGY, &C. 



Ice-graving in the Isle of Man. — In a very 

 readable paper in the April number, Dr. P. Q. 

 Keegan tells us something of the salient points of the 

 Geology of the Isle of Man. Excellent as the paper 

 is in the main, an unaccountable error is made when 

 we are informed that " there is little or no evidence 

 of local glaciers, or indeed of ice-chiselling of any 

 kind." My personal knowledge of the island's 

 geology is confined to the shore line of the south* 

 from Langness to Port Erin, and in this narrow strip 

 I have found abundant proof of ice-action. The 

 greater part — from the west side of Langness to mid- 

 way between Port St. Mary and Spanish Head — of 

 this coast line is hewn out of carboniferous limestone, 

 and wherever the protecting soil or boulder clay has 

 been recently removed from its surface, we are almost 

 sure to find ice polishing and striae. Scarlett Quarry, 

 where the overlying boulder clay has lately been 

 cleared out, affords a remarkably well-preserved 

 instance of glaciation. On the horizontal surface of 

 the limestone a little distance back from the quarry 

 face, the rock is eaten into troughs and hollows 7 or 

 8 inches deep, marking a pre-glacial work of solution 

 by rain water. Seaward of this the surface ceases 

 to be horizontal and slopes gently towards the shore. 

 This part is beautifully polished and engraved with 

 clearly cut parallel striae — running N.E. to S.W. — 

 distinct and fresh as when the ice mantle receded and 

 disappeared in the far-off days when the bond of 

 union between Mona and Norway consisted, not in 

 warm Viking blood and heroic saga, but in dreary 

 ice-rivers and snowfields. On the striated surface, 

 close to the junction with the corroded one, we see 

 here and there little depressions with irregular bottoms 

 — plainly the lower parts of pits once similar to those 

 intact hard by ; so that we have here a horizontal 

 surface not touched by ice, bordered by a slightly 

 sloping one from which several inches of rock must 

 have been planed away by glacial friction. Equally 

 good examples of unmistakable ice-action are exposed 

 south of Port St. Mary, where quite a considerable 

 cliff of boulder clay rests upon striated limestone. 

 South of the pier at this little fishing village, the ice 

 has passed over the upturned edges of the strata 

 grooving and rounding them ; producing outlines as 



