HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



279 



to the late Professor Darwin, who courteously 

 noticed and commented on them in his work on 

 "Variation in Plants and Animals under Domesti- 

 cation." Several years subsequently I became 

 possessed of a copy of De Candolle's '"'Vegetable 

 Organography," and discovered that that eminent 

 botanist had, at least as early as 1836, noted and 

 described this form, and given its simplest and most 

 feasible explanation as the fusion of two opposite 

 axillary flowers terminating a stem which, under 

 unfavourable conditions, had failed to produce the 

 usual ultimate internode terminating with a pair of 

 leaves. — C. J. Savage. 



White Flowers. — I have had in my garden this 

 summer several beds of Eschscholtzia Donglassi, and 

 in one of them I noticed a plant bearing two white 

 flowers, an occurrence I believe to be very un- 

 common, and one which may perhaps interest Mr. 

 Cockerell and others. Both flowers were much 

 inferior in all ways to their more conspicuous and 

 brilliantly-attired companions. Each flower measured 

 one inch and a half in diameter ; and the petals in 

 each case were smaller than those of the common 

 variety. At the base of the petals of the first flower 

 a tinge of pale yellow was faintly perceptible ; but on 

 the petals of the second flower not the slightest tinge 

 of yellow was visible ; this I consider is rather 

 singular. Both flowers were proterandrous, and 

 diurnal, usually closing at sundown. — J. H. A. Hicks. 



Clifton Botany. — In your last issue there 

 appears a bright and chatty account of some of the 

 autumnal wild flowers to be seen during "a day's 

 weeding at Clifton " at the end of August. If I may 

 judge from his concluding paragraph, the writer does 

 not lay claim to critical knowledge of the plants, and 

 it is much to be regretted that his notes upon them 

 were not compared with the recently published 

 flora of the district ; or submitted, before publication, 

 to some competent friend who would have pointed 

 out the errors they contain. I beg permission to 

 make the following comments in correction. 1. 

 Pimpinella magna does not grow within many miles 

 of Bristol, and has never been found upon the cliffs 

 of the Avon gorge. 2. It is very improbable that 

 Anthriscus vulgaris was seen near Chfion. Hitherto 

 it has been quite unknown in the locality. 3. The 

 calamint found by "Wayfarer" in the deserted 

 quarry is either the menthifolia form of C. officinalis, 

 or C. Acinos. C. Ncpeta would be gladly welcomed 

 if it could be proved to exist at Clifton. 4. The 

 "wormwood" noticed at the same spot is mugweed 

 {Artemisia vulgaris). A. absinthium is not a Clif- 

 ton plant. 5. The Diplotaxis so common by the 

 Avon below Clifton is D. muralis. Its woody- 

 stemmed biennial variety is often mistaken for D. 

 tennifolia, which species is also abundant on the 

 other side of the city in St. Philip's marsh, and 

 occurs on walls elsewhere. 6. Thalictrum alpinum 



is of course not to be seen nearer than the Welsh 

 mountains. Nor does the meadow-rue (T. Jlavum) 

 "meet the eye " upon our downs, though it grows in 

 the next county a couple of miles down the river, on 

 the other bank. Mistakes of this kind are the bane 

 of naturalists engaged in working out local botany, 

 and when published in a scientific journal they 

 continue to give trouble for generations, a con- 

 sideration which has induced me to pen these 

 remarks. — James Walter White. 



Unusual Germination. — Under the above 

 heading I find, in the November number of 

 Science-Gossip, an account of lemon pips ger- 

 minating in the lemon. I remember observing a 

 similar occurrence some years ago. All the pips in 

 a lemon were germinating, and many had pushed out 

 the radicle, and the plumule was appearing. I 

 planted them and placed the pot in a hot bed, where 

 they flourished for some time. Two or three which 

 escaped the ravages of the slugs grew into fine little 

 bushes. I have also at other times seen pips ger- 

 minating in oranges and lemons — the fruit being in 

 good condition. — A. E. Mahood, M.B. 



Notes on the Flora of the North Downs. — 

 In the above notes (Science-Gossip, Sep. 18S7), I 

 made two mistakes in the list of plants. The firsts 

 Gentiana campestris, I named from a specimen of 

 Amarella which had four sepals, and a four-lobed 

 corolla. I have since found one or two other 

 specimens like it. The other, Orc/iis militaris, should 

 be O. fusca. — Henry Lamb, Maidstone. 



Var. of Asplenium ruta-muraria. — While 

 collecting in Headley Lane last October, I found on 

 a wall well-known to me from its luxuriant growth of 

 interesting mosses, a form of Asplenium ruta- 

 mtiraria which is quite new to me. It was growing 

 with the commor form of the plant, and differs from 

 it in its smaller size and in the character of its fronds.. 

 Each frond consists of a solitary pinnule, reniform 

 and obscurely tri-lobed, with margins and sori like 

 those of the ordinary form. The pinnules measure 

 from 5-inch to 3-inch broad, and about j-inch long. 

 The appearance of the plant is very different from 

 that of Ruta-muraria. — H. W. Monington. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Argynnis Adippe. — During August of 1887 I 

 caught a specimen of Argynnis adippe, in worn con- 

 dition, near the river and Midland Railway in Wis- 

 bech, Cambs, and having seen in the " Fenland " that 

 only one previous capture is recorded, viz. in 1876, 1 

 thought it might be interesting to mention it. 



II. Virgata, var. alba. — I have lately been for- 

 tunate in finding a locality near Llandaff for the 

 transparent-banded variety of Helix virgata, called 



