172 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



windows and see in the pines about the house a flock 

 of crossbills flitting among the branches, that is for 

 me a red-letter day. 



But we have other winter birds besides the sparrow- 

 hawk and sparrows. We have two kinglets, and 

 one, the golden-crowned wren, so called, is with 

 us always from November to April, inclusive ; 

 the other, the ruby-crowned wren, less regularly. 

 Both are dainty birds, darlings wrapped iu fluffy 

 down that mind no weather, that sing as cheerfully 

 during the tempest as when the sun shines brilliantly 

 on our warm south hillsides. Likewise the nut- 

 hatches, one of which, the red-bellied, comes in 

 autumn, and is so restless and small, that many a 

 time he is overlooked, unless our eyes are open to 

 every bird that flies. This nuthatch is not a songster, 

 it is true, but has a cheerful chirp at times, and adds 

 to the landscape a charm by its lively manner ; that 

 is, when we happen to spy him out and follow the 

 mazy paths he takes over our tallest trees. 



Emerson has immortalised our little black-capped 

 titmouse : 



" Piped a tiny voice hard by, 

 Gay and polite, a cheerful cry, 

 Chic-chicadeedee ! saucy note 

 Out of sound heart and merry throat, 

 As if it said, ' Good day, good sir ! 

 Fine afternoon, old passenger ■ 

 Happy to meet you in these places, 

 Where January brings few faces.' 

 * * * * 



Hopped on the bough ; then, darting low. 

 Prints his small impress on the snow. 

 Shows feat> of his pymnastic play. 

 Head downward, clinging to the spray." 



Lastly, the grand Carolina wren, a bird unlike any 

 of the British fauna. What I have had to say of him 

 has been already printed, and I will not repeat. Grand 

 singer ; lively companion ; never a day can be called 

 dreary when he is abroad. 



I have had my walk ; even gathered stray violets 

 in the sheltered woods, and am ready for another 

 book on British Birds. No, our native songsters do 

 not suffer by comparison. Even in winter they loom 

 up as a never-ending charm of our hills and valleys. 

 Nor are those that I have mentioned, all. I have 

 said nothing of many a land and water bird that 

 frequent the wilder tracts, and make of them, to him 

 who loves an outing, gladsome spots indeed. 



If ever it should be my happy lot to listen to British 

 song birds, on British soil, I think I can do so 

 without blushing for mv feathered friends at home. 



SCHIZANTHUS— A BOTANICAL STUDY. 



IN my garden there grows an annual which sprang 

 from seed that I sowed under the name of 

 Schizanthus phmatifolius. It is undoubtedly a 

 Schizanthus ; but, as I can find no reference to the 

 specific name, I think it must be the gardener's name 

 for a variety of some better known species. However 

 that may be, there are some suggestive peculiarities 



about the flowers which have much exercised my 

 mind. As it may be doubtful whether I have 

 satisfactorily solved the rationale of the mechanism, 

 I write these notes to elicit the opinions of other 

 observers. 



Schizanthus belongs to the natural order Scrophu- 

 lariaceae, and is apparently very closely allied to the 

 genus Veronica. 



An examination of a flower of Veronica will show 

 that the sepals and petals are each four in number, 

 and the stamens two. The single posterior and 

 two lateral petals are much larger than the anterior 

 one. The corolla is gamopetalous, is easily detached 

 and slipped over the style. In Schizanthus the same 

 characteristics hold good for the corolla ; but the 



Fig. 113. — Front view, stamens 

 not shown, a, hood of pos- 

 terior petal ; b, lateral petal ; 

 c, ridges and groove: d, two 

 staminodes ; e, style (nat. 

 size). 



Fig. 114. — Latera' view, a, 

 hood of posterior petal ; 

 /', anterior petal ; c, lateral 

 petal; d, style, two fertile 

 stamens parallel with i-tyle ; 

 f, ridge and staminodes 

 (nat. size). 



Fig. 115. — J, staminodes 

 (enlarged). 



Fig. 116. — s, staminodes ; 

 r, ridge (enlarged). 



structure is much more complicated, and the sepals 

 are five in number. P"ig. A will show that the 

 posterior petal has assumed a trilobed form. The 

 two lateral lobes are curved towards one another, so 

 as to meet at the points, but lie in one plane, and 

 surround an oblanceolate opening. The two lobes 

 form what I term the platform. Within and below 

 the opening lies the mid-lobe, which is hood-shaped, 

 with a deep terminal emargination. This lobe I will 

 call the hood. Next, the two lateral petals, which in 

 Veronica are entire, are here deeply divided, and each 

 segment so produced is again deeply notched. There 

 remains the anterior petal, which corresponds in size 

 to that in Veronica ; but towards the centre of the 

 flower it is elevated into two ridges with a deep 

 groove between them, giving externally the appearance 

 of the entrance to a spur. The ridges are yellow, w ith 

 spots of purple, and a streak of the same colour 

 passes, into the groove. There is always a blotch of 

 purple on each side the entrance to the groove, and a 

 larger blotch on each front lobe of the lateral petals. 

 The rest of the corolla is pink. It also agrees with 



