HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



1^5 



BOTANY. 



Comparative Rarity of the Periwinkle 

 {Viiica fiiiiior). — In Hooker's "Student's Flora of 

 the British Isles," this plant is not mentioned as 

 being either rare or local, yet it would seem that 

 such was the case in some districts, at any rate. The 

 flora of the Tunbridge Wells neighbourhood, a dis- 

 trict with which I am well acquainted, is considered 

 both rich, and, I believe, representative, yet I only 

 know of three localities there for V. minor: (i), on 

 a bank in a footpath off the road between Rusthall 

 and Southborough ; (2), on the roadside beyond the 

 church at Eridge Green, Sussex ; (3), near Pembury, 

 Kent, on the banks skirting the road from " Blue- 

 boys," Pembury to Frant Station, Sussex. At the 

 last-named locality it is very plentiful. It would be 

 interesting to know of any places where it is abun- 

 dant without being even local, and what soils suit 

 its growth best. In connection with what has just 

 been said, it is worth noting the interest taken in 

 the rarity of a plant by children and others who only 

 gather (lowers for the pleasure it affords. The first 

 locality I mentioned is known as " Periwinkle Lane," 

 and quite recently, on the occasion of my visiting it, 

 I was forestalled in my search for the flowers by 

 several children, who said, "There were no peri- 

 .vinkles, and it was no use looking for them ! " — 

 Archibald T. Clarke. 



Forms and Colours of Flowers. — After 

 reading the article on "Red Leaf," and the reflec- 

 tions to which it has given rise, contained in several 

 numbers of Science-Gossip, I cannot avoid thinking 

 it not only possible, but likely that the brilliant 

 colours assumed by petals were evolved previously to 

 the operations of winged insects upon them. My 

 reasons for this opinion are, that in the growth of 

 leaves there is a progress from the cotyledons through 

 the primordial and cauline leaves to the bracts, all of 

 which are produced before winged insects take notice 

 •of them, unless it be to lay eggs on their surface from 

 which live caterpillars may be hatched to feed upon 

 them. Nevertheless, red leaves appear in autumn 

 when also other colours may and do come out on 

 plants previously green, and with no propensity to 

 flower, as in the variegated kale, which I have raised 

 myself from seeds of Portugal cabbage. Plants of 

 this race, if white or purple in their infancy, com- 

 inonly die young, I suppose from inability on the 

 part of their discoloured leaves to perform the func- 

 tions of nutrition. If green when young, they may 

 L'row to accumulate a store of nutriment whereon to 

 live till they become, as my neighbours tell me, too 

 pretty to eat ; then they either run to flower or 

 assume a snowy whiteness till they fade away and 

 die. Why may not such a process have been carried 

 on in the evolution of the hly ? If it were, one can 

 understand the theory of Grant Allen that wheat and 



other grasses are florally degraded lilies. If other- 

 wise, I cannot understand how lilies could have 

 existed at all before they were degraded into grasses, 

 for I suppose that grasses may have covered the 

 earth when all its flowers that were not self-fertilised 

 were anemophilous, and insects had not yet learned 

 to fly. Most liliaceous plants have regular though 

 highly-coloured flowers. If they were formed, or if 

 their colours were evolved or even stereotyped and 

 fixed by insect agency, how came they to retain 

 their symmetry ? Plowers whose forms had not 

 become already fixed became irregular after insects 

 had come to play their pranks upon them. This 

 took place independently of their colour. Blue and 

 yellow crocuses are equally regular in form. Species 

 and varieties of gladiolus are all irregular, Init neither 

 the ministration of insects nor the art of the gardener 

 has made them blue. Blue and yellow lupines are 

 alike irregular ; insects having modified their shapes 

 alike, but left their colours different. Other instances 

 might easily be quoted, but the above may serve at 

 present as enough to make it probable that flowers 

 owe their shapes to one set of causes and their 

 colours to another. — John Gibbs, Cheltnsford. 



The Bee and the Willow. —With reference to 

 Mr. Bulman's paper on this subject in Science- 

 Gossip for last month, some recent observations of 

 my own seem to me to support his views as to the 

 fertilisation of the willow ; in examining some catkins 

 last spring, I was led to the conclusion that the fine 

 silky hairs of the bracts (the chief characteristic of the 

 little-geese of school-days) play an important part in 

 the intricate process of fertilisation. These downy 

 bracts retain the pollen until carried oft" and conveyed 

 by a gust of wind to pistiliferous plants. If the 

 anthers were to shed their pollen on a still and quiet 

 day it would be prevented from falling direct to the 

 ground, and, being lost by these silky hairs, such a 

 temporal retention of the pollen may prove to be 

 advantageous, to protandrous plants especially. 

 However, whether the willow be anemo- or entomo- 

 philous, the silky down of the bracts appear to be 

 an admirable contrivance to ensure fertilisation. — 

 G. Rccs, Aberystwyth. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Origin of Movements in the Earth's 

 Crust. — A paper on this interesting subject has just 

 been read before the Geological Society by James R. 

 Kilroe. The author thinks that a very important 

 factor has been omitted from the usual explanation 

 offered in accounting for the vast movements which 

 have obtained in the earth's crust. From a some- 

 what conflicting mass of figures he concludes that 

 about twenty miles would remain to represent the 

 amount of radial contraction due to cooling during 

 the period from Archcean to recent times, corre- 



