HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



253 



India. Dr. Tomes considers that the fly-catching 

 habit of the plant in question is the accidental 

 result of arrangements of which the object is to 

 secure fertilisation. The stigma of the flower must 

 be reached before the pollen ; and pollen adhering 

 to the proboscis of an insect after its extraction from 

 one "trap" would certainly be wiped off upon the 

 stigma of the next flower in which it may chance to 

 be arrested. The formation of the trap by the 

 andrceciu/n is such that its action in seizing flies 

 appears to be purely mechanical. 



After repeated experiments, Dr. Tomes could not 

 discover any indication of irritability or sensitiveness 

 of the stamens ; and he thinks it possible that while 

 in the act of searching the member of the insect 

 becomes jammed, and once caught, all efforts, except 

 in one direction, directly upwards, only cause it to 

 be held the tighter. A lens reveals no teeth or 

 ridges on the free edges of the wings of the stamens, 

 but they are shown to be finely ridged longitudinally. 

 The flower has strong attractions for insects, owing 

 to its handsome, deep red colour, as well as to a 

 peculiar heavy, vinous smell, and the secretion of a 

 syrupy liquid. The insects found entrapped were 

 almost invariably common house-flies caught by the 

 proboscis, but occasionally a rather large species of 

 ant has been seized by the neck : the grip of the 

 trap is so firm that the struggles of a captured ant 

 were once observed to result in its decapitation. The 

 insects after capture were not digested, but died a 

 lingering death, and were devoured by the ants which 

 swarmed over the trees. Dr. Tomes considers it 

 likely that though flies and ants are obviously not 

 destined to be the agents of fertilisation in this case, 

 stronger insects, such as bees, or butterflies and 

 moths, which have a longer proboscis, may release 

 themselves, and so carry the pollen of one flower to 

 another. He has never actually seen a bee, or other 

 larger insect, engaged in the flower, or in the act of 

 releasing itself from the trap, though all the circum- 

 stances appear, in his opinion, to favour the idea of 

 fertilisation by insect agency. 



" Such," he coiicludes, " are the points that I 

 have observed in connection with this apparently 

 wanton destruction of insect-life by the Wrighlia, 

 and the interpretation they appear to suggest, but I 

 by no means claim to have finally solved the mystery." 

 The memoir is illustrated by a plate. 



W. J. Simmons. 



I 



A DOUBLE MARIGOLD. 



N the theory of the possible ancestry of flowers, 

 everything in the shape of a so-called "mon- 

 strosity" is now interesting. These "sports" and 

 " freaks " are no longer regarded as accidents. They 

 are either "reversions" to ancient ancestral con- 

 ditions, or "prophesies" of possible changes to 



come. Nobody can study Dr. Masters' "Vegetable 

 Teratology " without seeing how interesting, in the 

 light of evolution or retro-gradation, the sports of 



Fig. 150. — Double Marigold. 



flowers have become. We therefore make no apology 

 in presenting our readers with the accompanying 

 singular specimen of a double-flowered marigold. It 

 only requires a stalk to the extra flower to make it 

 resemble a species of hieracium. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



nnHE FLORA OF SUFFOLK, by Rev. W. 



J. Hind, LL.D., Rector of Honlngton (London,: 

 Gurney and Jackson). The title of this bulky, well- 

 written book is suggestive. Our native wild flowers 

 have a charm for us that no mere horticultural 

 specimens can possess, be they ever so costly. 

 They have grown with the life and growth of the 

 English people. Around them has clustered the 

 folk-lore of the Saxon people. They were the first- 

 lings of our boyhood's days, and they charm us by 

 their spring resurrection from the dead in advanced 

 age. Suffolk is perhaps not such a rich and happy 

 hunting-ground for wild flowers as some other British 

 shires. It has been too long in cultivation. Most 

 of the wild flowers have been banished from the 

 cultivated fields (where they survive as "weeds") 

 into the green lanes. The Suffolk lanes have been 

 floral arks of refuge for them. -There they have found 

 sanctuary ; there they linger now. But, although 



