224 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



but a continuation of the bark ; the roots were but 

 a continuation of the stem. Plants changed accord- 

 ing to physical conditions, and this change was due 

 to their power of adapting themselves to their con- 

 ditions. Hence it was that we had annual, biennial, 

 and perennial plants. Many of the former, when 

 removed to other conditions, assumed the charac- 

 ters of the latter. Thus, the mignonette of our 

 gardens became a woody shrub when taken to 

 Algeria. This change was due simply to the 

 materials of the plant falling from an unstable to a 

 more stable condition, when woody tissue would be 

 formed. It was possible to pass imperceptibly in the 

 shapes of leaves from one extreme to the other. 

 Taking ferns as an example, Mr. Taylor showed that 

 when furnished with additional stimulants for growth, 

 prolification ensued, and that when ferns did not 

 possess sufficient nutriment, fronds became pinnated 

 and pinnules became pinnatifid. In the case of 

 the bramble, it would be found that the most 

 luxuriant leaves were towards the bottom of the 

 plant, and the smallest and simplest at the furtlier 

 extremity, where, of course, the nutritious materials 

 were not so abundant. Plowers were but modified 

 leaves, specialized for the act of reproduction. This 

 specialization was the result of poverty of nutritious 

 material, not of abundance. Hence it was that 

 flowers were usually found at the terminal parts of 

 plants. Leaf-buds could be transformed into flower- 

 buds by the simple process of crippling, or pre- 

 venting due nutrition, as every horticulturist was 

 aware. When wild flowers were removed to gardens 

 and more nutritious conditions, they frequently 

 became monstrosities ; thnt is to say, the floral 

 organs had a tendency to be reconverted into foliar ; 

 this being due, first, to their being removed from 

 the stiff "battle of life" with other plants, and 

 their having rich soil, well weeded ; thus being 

 furnished with exactly the opposite elements that 

 in the course of ages had resulted in the various 

 types of the Phsenogaraia. The gorgeous colours 

 of autumnal leaves were due to failing growth. The 

 same cause might be assigned to the colours of 

 flowers. This was undoubtedly the original cause 

 of floral colour, and, in the ages of the past, natural 

 selection had preserved it. The shapes of flowers 

 were not difficult to understand. Their clustering 

 was generally due to the elongation or suppression 

 of the internodes, — the vertical spaces between the 

 parts of the stem whence the leaves spring. Mon- 

 strosities of flowers, so called, were now included 

 in a special science called Teratology, and it was 

 found that the marvellous number of aberrations in 

 form were assignable chiefly to excessive or de- 

 fective nutrition. The abnormal conditions of 

 growth in which certain orders of plants indulged 

 were the normal conditions of other orders ; and 

 this suggestive fact, he thought, threw great light 

 upon the ancestry of living forms. Referring to 



the abortedffloretsof some of the composite plants, 

 Mr. Taylor showed the changes through which they 

 must have passed, and how these modifications, 

 studied in the light of the great antiquity of the 

 earth, under the physical changes which have con- 

 stantly been going on, could be understood. The 

 geographical distribution of plants, the physico- 

 geographical alterations that have resulted in their 

 isolation and diff'usion, and the antiquity of the 

 various orders, were next referred to by the lecturer, 

 who concluded by showing that it was impossible 

 to understand our existing flora without taking into 

 consideration the flora of every past epoch of our 

 planet, of which the present was but the outcome 

 and the climax. The lecture, which lasted over 

 an hour, and of which the foregoing is only an 

 outline, was illustrated by specimens of the various 

 orders of plants, gathered in the gardens round the 

 house on whose lawn the lecture was delivered. 



THE SILVER-FIN. 



{Uypsilepis amlostanus, Cope.) 



By Charles C. Abbott, M.D. 



IE any one examines our various small fishes closely, 

 collectively known tomost peopleas "minnows," 

 he or she cannot fail to detect many points of 

 difference among them ; and attention once drawn 

 to them as they dart and glisten in every babbling 

 brook, the observer will be sure to note with 

 especial delight the beauty of form, brilliancy of 

 colour, and graceful movements of the " Silver-fin." 



Wherever there happens to be a projecting root 

 of a tree, or prominent boulder in the bed of the 

 stream, causing by its presence an extra whirl and 

 current in the water, there a dozen or more of these 

 quick-motioned fishes will be sure to congregate, 

 now diving deeply down, and then as quickly 

 leaping upward, even above the surface ; darting at 

 even passing insects, and ever and anon frightened 

 at some real or imaginary danger, all disappearing 

 in an instant, but only to return as quickly, and 

 repeat their mad-cap movements in the sparkling 

 water. 



Their gambols are all as mad and meaningless as 

 the giddy May-flies' sunset dances,— so, at least, we 

 are apt to think ; but is not this rather a too hasty 

 judgment?— for we have yet to learn what impres- 

 sions of the outside world they have, if it be 

 possible, and prove their antics less rational than 

 the wild capers of the rudest savage. 



At all events, fishes are very far from being fools. 

 Like animals higher up in the scale— even to the 

 upper end of it,— they vary in the range of their 

 intellectual capacities ; but we have yet to see one 

 that did not display some cunning, and often give 

 good evidence of unquestionable thought. 



