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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



which exposes the offender to a fine : — Avocet 

 bittern, blackcap, chiffchaff, coot, creeper, crossbill, 

 cuckoo, curlew, dotterel, dunbird, dunlin, fly- 

 catcher, godwit, golden-crested wren, goldfincli, 

 greenshank, hawfinch or grosbeak, hedgesparrow, 

 kingfisher, landrail, lapwing, mallard, martin, moor 

 (or water) hen, nightingale, nightjar, nuthatch, owl, 

 oxbird, pewit, phalerope, pipit, plover, ploverspage, 

 pochard, purre, quail, redpoll, redshank, redstart, 

 robin redbreast, ruff and reeve, sanderling, sand 

 grouse, sandpiper, sea-lark, shoveller, siskin, snipe, 

 spoonbill, stint, stone-curlew, stonechat, stonehatch, 

 summer snipe, swallow, swan, swift, teal, thickneci 

 titmouse (long-tailed), titmouse (bearded), wagtail, 

 warbler (Dartford), warbler (reed), warbler (sedge), 

 whap, wheatear, whinchat, whimbrell, widgeon, 

 woodcock, wild duck, woodlark, woodpecker, wood- 

 wren, wren, wryneck. 



Spiders in St, Helena.— The Rev. 0. P. Cam- 

 bridge has recently sent a communication to the 

 Zoological Society, on the Spiders of St. Helena, in 

 which he states that the number of known species 

 is forty. Eleven of these were now described for 

 the first time, the communication being based on 

 the collections made in the island by Mr. Melliss. 

 Singularly enougli, nearly all the species are 

 European as regards their form. 



Scientific Societies.— It may interest some of 

 the readers of Science-Gossip to know that there 

 is a very good society formed in the East end of 

 London, entitled " The East London Naturalists' 

 Society." Its end is the mutual improvement of 

 its members in the study of the physical sciences. 

 If any one should care to join this society, they 

 may write to tlie Secretary, John W. Love, Esq., 

 23, Fairfoot Road, Bromley-by-Bow, E., who will 

 forward them particulars of the society, rules, &c., 

 on application.— F". S. Palmer. 



BOTANY. 



Botanists' Pocket-Book.— Mr. W. R. Hay- 

 ward has just published a handy little volume 

 bearing the above title, with which we are much 

 pleased. It is the best thing of the kind we know 

 of, and cannot but prove exceedingly useful, both 

 to students and more accomplished botanists. It 

 contains, in a tabulated form, the chief character- 

 istics of all our British plants, their botanical and 

 common names, soil, situation, colour, growth, and 

 time of flowering. Each plant is arranged under 

 its own order. The publishers are Bell & Daldy, 

 London. 



Fertilization of Grasses. — The mode in -which 

 the fertilization of grasses, and especially of cereals, 

 is effected, has recently been the subject of a series 

 of observations by Delpino in Italy, and Hildebrand 



in Germany. Both these observers are at issue 

 with previous writers, who maintained that the 

 flowers of cereals, and especially of wheat, were 

 self-fertilized in the unopened flowers, and conse- 

 quently that the process could not be influenced by 

 the wind. Hildebrand asserts, on the other hand, 

 that impregnation takes place while the flower is 

 open, and while the stigma is in a condition for the 

 access of foreign pollen, that is, from other flowers. 

 The opening of the flower of wheat, however, is 

 completed in such a very short space of time that 

 in a wheat-field there is probably never more than 

 one in 400 of the flowers open at the same time. 

 The contrivances by which in this case, as well as 

 in other grasses, cross-fertilization is at least ren- 

 dered possible, are described in detail in the paper. 

 In barley, on the other hand, the majority of the 

 flowers never open, and self-fertilization is the only 

 condition possible. Delpino states, however, that 

 there are in an ear of barley a very small number of 

 flowers differently constructed from the rest, in 

 which cross-fertilization is possible. In the Oat the 

 process is stated to vary according to the weather ; 

 in fine warm weather the flowers open freely, and 

 cross-fertilization is favoured ; in cold wet weather 

 they remain closed, and self-fertilization is inevitable. 

 In Rye, fertilization from the pollen of other flowers 

 is provided for. The agent in the dissemination of 

 the pollen is scarcely ever insects, almost invariably 

 the wind, to which end both stigma and pollen- 

 grains are specially adapted. 



Saxifeaga florulenta. — For many years there 

 was so much mystery regarding this plant, which 

 is still unknown to most botanists, that some ac- 

 count of it may be interesting to the readers of 

 Science-Gossip. Some thirty years back a coloured 

 drawing of a newly- discovered Saxifrage was 

 brought to Mons. Veranni, a botanist at Nice, said 

 to have been discovered at St. Martin de Lantosco, 

 a district in the maritime Alps north of Nice, 

 almost unknown, a sort of terra incognita, being 

 distant from any frequented route. For many 

 years afterwards it was generally believed that such 

 a plant did not exist, that it was in fact a myth, 

 till Professor Moris, of Turin, director of.the Botanic 

 Garden, sent the head gardener, with two or three 

 others, in search of it, who, after scouring the 

 district of St. Martin for three whole days, dis- 

 covered the plant in flower, and brought away 

 several specimens, one of which Mons. Moris was 

 kind enough to give me, as he had already done to 

 several Italian and Swiss botanists ; among others, 

 Mons. Decandolle, who had already given, in his 

 " Prodromus," a description of it, taken no doubt 

 from the drawing referred to. Mons. Edmund 

 Boissier, of Geneva, and Mons. Reuter, director of 

 the Botanic Garden, there, afterwards made an 

 unsuccessful search for the plant at the spot indi- 



