HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



the first week of November this year to be clean. It 

 weighed just under three pounds, was very silvery, 

 with about thirty jet-black starlike spots. The flesh 

 cut pink, and the flavour was that of a fish a week in 

 fresh water. This salmon had been fed exclusively 

 on clams (pectctt), and was a fair specimen of those 

 still alive at Howietoun of the same spawning. The 

 smolts and grilse which have been bred from these 

 fish are growing more rapidly than their parents, and 

 we hope to show that although the first generation of 

 artificially land-locked salmon are usually dwarfed, 

 yet their progeny may attain to the size of Loch 

 Leven trout— viz., 6 to lo lbs. weight. The 

 American land-locked salmon (.S". sebago) have not 

 yet spawned, but a few of the rainbow trout {S. 

 irideus) spawned in April, and the fry are thriving ; 

 the largest irideus weighed, when three years old, 

 between three and four pounds. The crosses between 

 salmon and trout, and between trout and salmon, are 

 growing at the average rate of Loch Leven trout at 

 Howietoun. The experiments in inter-breeding 

 these crosses will be continued this season. — Thomas 

 Winder, 8 1 Watson Road, Sheffield. 



Sinistral var. of Littorina rudis.— It may 

 be interesting to record, that I found two young 

 reversed specimens of Littoriita rudis the other day, 

 whilst examining some drift from the Weymouth 

 Backwater. They are very immature and of course 

 only dead shells. I fancy that there is a large 

 specimen of this monstrosity in the Liverpool public 

 Museum from the Gaskoin cabinet. — B. Tomlin. 



BOTANY. 



The Sunflower. — Permit me to add to Mr. W. 

 Lett's remarks on the Sunflower, that the popular 

 notion as to the movement of the flowers has been 

 exploded in Dr. Vine's Vegetable Physiology, but in 

 that work it is stated that sunflowers have a fixed light 

 position which is towards the S.E., if the situation is 

 an open one. In my garden the aspect is open on all 

 sides except the west, and there are two groups of 

 sunflowers. In one I counted ninety heads, of which 

 thirty-eight faced the S.E., and in the other, twenty- 

 seven heads, of which eleven turned to the S.E. In 

 the two groups eight flowers turned to the N.W., 

 and the others were at intermediate angles between 

 that point and the S.E. A closer examination showed 

 that at least one hundred of S.E. heads were the 

 larger terminal ones which first open, and that with- 

 out exception the large terminal heads were turned to 

 the S.E. I therefore came to the conclusion, that the 

 fixed light position only applies to the terminal heads. 

 It is well known that light from the S.E. is most 

 active in producing heliotropism. Sonchus arvensis is 

 an example of several plants in which the flowers 

 bend to the sun at dawn, and following it with at 

 first an increasing and then a decreasing rapidity 



until the S.E. is reached, when the more intense light 

 checks growth. In the evening, when the light fails, 

 the peduncles straighten themselves by negative 

 geotropism, and are ready to repeat the operation next 

 morning. The peduncles of sunflowers are less sus- 

 ceptible to changes of light, as the permanent stage 

 of growth sets in earlier than in plants where the 

 peduncle continues elongating. The sunflower be- 

 haves similarly to, though not quite the same as the 

 flowers of (Egopodium podagraria, Anthriscus vulgaris. 

 Milium, Achillea millefolium, and the ox-eye daisy, in 

 which the fixed light position is upright in an open 

 situation, and lateral, where the plants grow under a 

 wall or in a hedge. — y. Jfavison, Bedford. 



Abnormal Growth of Plantago Maritima. — 

 Is it not unusual to find the small bracts of this plant 

 developed to a length of two or more inches ? A 

 considerable number of examples I have met with at 

 Hermitage, Emsworth, had all the flowers on the 

 spike subtended by monstrous bracts, taking the form 

 of leaves. Indeed, in some instances, all the floral 

 organs seemed to have assumed that appearance. 

 Has any one observed a similar instance ? — F. H. 

 Arnold. 



Alchemilla Vulgaris. — In the "Student's 

 Flora," 1878, Sir J. D. Hooker, in describing this 

 plant, says : '* Moist pastures and streams, except 

 in the S. E. of England." In May, 1886, I found 

 a patch of A. vulgaris by a country roadside, not 

 far from Maidstone. A. arvefisis was alco growing 

 near. Is A. vulgaris rare in the south-east ? — Henry 

 Lamb, Maidstone. 



SoNCHUS palustris. — This summer I found the 

 marsh sow-thistle growing abundantly in this district. 

 Many of the plants were about 7 feet in height, with 

 stems about an inch and a half in diameter. — Henry 

 Lamb, Maidstone. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Supposed Cones in the Chalk. — Since sending 

 my note about the cones in chalk, Mr. Etheridge, in 

 consultation with Mr. Carruthers, has changed his 

 mind, and says they are coprolites. One thing is 

 certain, that they resemble cones exactly, whicli 

 coprolites have never done. There are also copro- 

 lites more resembling the ordinary form found with 

 them.— A Piffard. 



Society of Amateur Geologists. — We are 

 pleased to observe the steady progress of this 

 Society, which has now entered on its fifth year. 

 Abstracts of the following papers read before the 

 Society during the past year have been issued : " The 

 Metallic Ores of Cornwall," by W. Semmons 

 (Presidential Address) ; "Geological Age of Moun- 

 tains," by J. Logan Lobley, F.G.S. ; "Lizard Dis- 

 trict," by A. H. Williams; " Some Older Volcanic 



