253 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



people being unable to appreciate the binocular, 

 as in the case of my friend. — 7F. S. Palmer. 



Photographing Microscopic Objects. — 

 " M.B." would like to"know if a negative could be 

 got by putting a wet plate in a special adaptation into 

 the place of the eye-glass of the eye-piece. This 

 seems to " M. B." the most natural method of getting 

 a true magnified image, provided that it is only feasi- 

 ble. " M. B." is aware that Davies directs the entire 

 removal of the eye-piece all through the process, so 

 that the only amplification one would get is that 

 through the objective. And so, when one wanted 

 to photograph diatoms or Polycistina, the gth or 

 t^ath would probably be necessary to get an image 

 sufiiciently large ; whereas by the new suggestion 

 the \i\\ or ;^th would seemingly answer best, with a 

 C eye. 



BOTANY. 



Hastings Alg^. — I have perused with interest 

 Mr. Grattann's paper in Science-Gossip on the 

 irregularity of appearance of some algse, and can 

 quite indorse his remarks in many instances. With 

 regard, however, to Bryopsis plumosa at Hastings 

 and St. Leonards, I may inform him that I have 

 never once failed to find it growing in rather muddy 

 pools nearly opposite the Boundary Archway, 

 which used once to go by the local name of the 

 Rocks of Gibraltar. There it flourished abundantly 

 in all its forms, including one which approaches so 

 nearly to B. hypndides as almost to suggest that 

 they may, after ail, be but extreme varieties of one 

 Protean and polymorphous species. That these 

 adjectives can be applied to it, I can from personal 

 experience testify, as in the early part of last year 

 I found a small well-nigh irrecognizable form grow- 

 ing on the coral reefs at Keylvert, Gulf of Mexico, 

 showing plainly that the tropic of Cancer was 

 essentially its most southei'n limit, while at Charles- 

 ton harbour. South Carolina, where it attains its 

 maximum growth, 8 to 10 inches in length, it 

 grew in handfuls, and seemed, in company with 

 the rare Crateloupia Gibbesii, for which this is, I 

 believe, the only known locality, to usurp the place 

 of all else. Like Mr. Grattann, I only succeeded 

 in finding Polysiphonia bysso'ides one season at 

 Hastings, and then towards the Ecclesbourne Rocks 

 — rocks hitherto very favourable to the growth of 

 algse, but already beginning to be ruined by the 

 new drainage system, which has, under the super- 

 intendence of Mr. Bazalgette, been within the last 

 three yeax'S transferred there. 1 once obtained 

 Sphacelaria plumosa, a fine but small specimen, at 

 St. Leonards, after the equinoctial gales in Septem- 

 ber, 1866 : it was parasitical upon Hhnanthalia lo- 

 rea. The same root produced some small specimens 



of Basya arbusoula. I am quite at a loss to 

 account for algas shifting their position and becom- 

 ing extinct in certain localities, where formerly 

 they were known to grow profusely. I only know 

 that when I visited Torquay last July, and explored 

 the rocks at low water, I found that nearly all the 

 locaUties I had known seven years ago for Tasaia 

 atomaria, Delessericc rnscifolia, Wrangelia, &c. &c., 

 had materially changed. But seven years is a long 

 time ; the very rocks are continually being worn 

 away by the repeated undermining action of the 

 waves, and this must be, to some degree at all 

 events, one of the causes of their spontaneous 

 removal and extinction. I have no doubt that 

 certain seasons possess certain atmospheric condi- 

 tions either favourable or unfavourable for the 

 growth of certain species. The same influences tell 

 also in case of the Phanerogamia, though perhaps to 

 not so great an extent ; but at all events, if we keep 

 to the Cryptogams, it can hardly have escaped the 

 attention of the most unscientific how very much 

 better one year is than another in the propagation 

 of fungi and the like. — /. Cosmo Melvill, F.L.S. 



On the Eertilization of certain Plants. — 

 1. ScropJiularia aquatica, L. — In the common aSiJ^o- 

 pJiularia aquatica the anthers may be seen — [a) pro- 

 jecting some distance above the lower lip of the 

 flower, while the style is still undeveloped, and 

 concealed some way down in the tube. In other 

 cases {b) the stamens and styles alike have risen, 

 but not to the same extent as in {a), above the 

 level of the orifice ; while in a third instance (c) 

 the anthers are barely visible, but the greatly 

 lengthened style is closely reflexed over the lower 

 lip of the corolla, and indeed almost reaches the 

 upper border of the sepals. Are these several 

 changes only the result of growth, or is there any- 

 thing like trimorphisra in these plants ? More pro- 

 bably, perhaps, as in the case of some of their 

 nearest allies, they are regularly protandrous, and 

 these appearances would thus find a ready explana- 

 tion. 2. Callitriche verna, L.— If any one watches, 

 in an aquarium for instance, a living specimen of 

 the more deep-water form of CaUitriche, the long 

 stamens will be seen protruding to a considerable 

 height above the rosette of floating leaves : these 

 are far too closely set to allow of the pollen finding 

 its way between them, so as to reach the female 

 blossoms, which are below the water, and the concave 

 surface of each leaf forms a cup that would efi'ectually 

 retain any grains that might chance to fall on it. 

 Again, in many cases the fertilization seems to be 

 effected altogether beneath the water ; and even 

 when, as is generally the arrangement, the male and 

 female flowers occupy opposite axils, it is difficult 

 to see how the pollen can be conveyed from one to 

 the other; and yet the carpels appear almost 

 invariably to have been successfully fertilized. A 



