HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



It appears to be perfectly distinct from any other 

 form, either recent or fossil. 



Retardation of Insect Development in 

 1873. — Many species of the Lepidopterous order 

 have not only suffered notable diminution, but have 

 had their appearance greatly delayed by the un- 

 settled weather which has been'pretty general in 

 Britain during the spring and summer. The delay 

 is easily explainable in some cases, as owing to the 

 check given to the growth of the food-plants, larval 

 life is prolonged ; in others, tlie prolongation 

 of the esg and chrysalis states, is caused by low 

 temperatures, especially at night. Some species, 

 moths chiefly, are naturally capricious, even though 

 there may be but one annual brood ; thus one is not 

 surprised to see imagos of 0. psi, or 0. betidaria, 

 at any time from the middle of May to August. 

 Why certain species, as for instance 0. potatoria, 

 should be behindhand is not so evident. The 

 larva of this moth is little affected by the weatiier, 

 and all grasses have grown in profusion this year, 

 so that there has been no lack of food. Yet some 

 were about the first fortnight of this month (July), 

 just when the moth would be looked for. — 

 J. R. S. C. 



Abundance of C. Cardui in Kent.— Many 

 hybernated individuals of this butterfly were on 

 the wing in the vicinity of Gravesend throughout 

 July, and even at the beginning of August, leading 

 to the conclusion that the species must have been 

 late in emerging from its winter quarters. It may 

 probably happen with this as with F. atalanta, that 

 specimens of the old and new broods are met 

 together occasionally. The persistency with which 

 the "Painted Ladies" will return to a spot where 

 they have been resting, should they have been 

 startled from it, has been insisted upon by a 

 cynical friend as a clear proof of the appropriate- 

 ness of the feminine designation. However 

 battered these butterflies may be, they rarely lose 

 their power of rapid flight, not even when they 

 have attained the venerable age of about ten 

 months.—/. R. S. C. 



BOTANY. 



Eake Plants.— I have great pleasure in inform- 

 ing you that on the 4th August I found Stachjs 

 unmia, in some considerable quantity, on some 

 hills near Sevenoaks, in Kent, in a situation which 

 could not have ever been tilled, and also Ajitga 

 chamtjepitys in profusion. — Jumes Fletcher. 



Double Plowers and Perfumes (p. 1G3).— 

 The double rocket, pink, carnation, saponaria, rose, 

 hyacinth, are all sweet-scented; the double wall- 

 flower, although so closely allied to the stock, loses 

 its fragrance. Ray mentions a variety of Hydro • 



charis with double sweet-scented flowers, but the 

 colour is faintly perceptible in the usual form of 

 the plant. — R. A. Pryor. 



Variation of Colour in Plowers (p. 101).— 

 Neither the daisy or the wood anemone are, strictly 

 speaking, "white flowers;" the ligulate florets of 

 the former are more often tipped with crimson than 

 not, while the sepals of the latter are almost inva- 

 riably flushed with a more or less delicate purple, 

 sometimes, indeed, quite deep in tint, and in an in- 

 stance from, I think, Harrow, recorded in the " Plora 

 of Middlesex," approaching to crimson. Not only 

 is the common Milkwort extremely variable in 

 colour, but the rare Polygala austriaca, whose nor- 

 mal hue is, in German specimens at least, invari- 

 ably white ("y?o?r,? semper f^/ii?,"saysReubenbach), 

 is of a dull blue in both its English localities. The 

 white hawthorn changes to red, the white and pink 

 brambles are almost equally common, and the white 

 water-lily has been found wild of a beautiful rose- 

 colour in one locality in Sweden. As to the lily of 

 the valley, Mr. Robinson, in his interesting work 

 on alpine plants, has enumerated, in addition to the 

 form discussed in your columns, varieties with 

 double flowers, both white and rose-coloured, be- 

 sides others with leaves margined with silver or 

 striped with yellow. — R. A. Pryor. 



Cineraria campestris.— Mr. G. S. Streatfeild 

 records the occurrence of this plant, in the August 

 number of the Journal of Botany, as being found 

 at Ancaster, Lincolnshire. This locality extends 

 its north-eastern range, Cambridgeshire being the 

 highest point recorded on this side of England. 



Grass Gum-tree.— A'^cr^^^re states that Xan- 

 thorrhaa attstralis, one] of the grass gum-trees of 

 Australia, is coming into flower for the first time 

 in Europe, in the Succulent-house at Kew. There 

 is also a [fine plant of Agave jacquiniana, removed 

 to the Palm-house for the sake of space, which is 

 now iu full flower. 



Verification of Lists.— The Prighton and 

 Sussex Natural History Society have issued circulars 

 for the purpose of collecting facts in connection 

 with the Natural History of Sussex, for the pur- 

 pose of verifying existing lists, and preparing, with 

 a view to ultimate publication, an authentic and 

 systematic record of the land and marine fauna and 

 flora of the county. We cordially wish them 

 success in their praiseworthy undertaking. 



GEOLOGY. 



Scottish Bone-Caverns. — It has long been 

 known to geologists that the western and southern 

 coast-line of Scotland is pierced with caves at dif- 

 ferent levels, indicating former successive levels at 



