HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCR- GO SSI P. 



277 



of your readers experienced in the use of high powers 

 please give me the benefit of their opinion as to the 

 best kind of achromatic condenser to be used with 

 such a stand? Is it necessary that, in order to 

 obtain the full value of the objective, a condenser of 

 somewhat similar aperture should be used ; or would 

 a condenser of much smaller aperture suffice (say, 

 Ross's ^ths combination of no''), the value of any 

 higher angle being obtained by the obliquity of the 

 swinging tail-piece ? — P. B. J. 



Photo-Micrographic Lantern Slides. — The 

 lantern is rapidly superseding all other methods for 

 lecture illustration. Mr. L. Ratcliffe, Carr Terrace, 

 Luddenden, has forwarded us specimens of his own 

 mounting, to which we are glad to call attention on 

 account of their faithful and yet artistic eff"ects. The 

 "Pond Life" slides include Akyotiella fungosa, 

 Pahidicella artiadata, Stephanoccros Eichornii, diatoms 

 magnified to a diameter of two inches, so as to show 

 every dot and line, insect structures and organs. 

 We cordially recommend Mr. Ratcliffe's lantern slides 

 to lecturers. 



BOTANY. 



Notes on Damasonium stellatum. — As 



Science-Gossip is an excellent medium for recording 



the occurrence of rare plants in fresh localities, I 



would, in these notes, first state the discovery of a 



habitat for it in a previously unexplored nook in the 



western extremity of Sussex, When searching for 



molluscs in Chidmere, a large marsh or swamp at 



Chidham, in September last, Mr. W. Jeffery brought 



it me for determination ; and, as not before met with in 



Sussex, west of the Adur, it proved the best floral 



find in that county for the year. It was growing 



with Alisma raimnciiloides and was out of flower, but 



had abundance of its curious, peculiar, star-like fruit. 



As to its distribution, only few counties are given by 



Watson, and all our botanists agree in considering it 



a scarce species. Since little is said about it by our 



great authority, Syme, I would also offer a few 



observations on its English names and its scientific 



synonyms. Apparently, its earliest designation was 



Thrumwort, doubtless in allusion to its roots of many 



fibres, consisting hke the water plantain, as an old 



botanist observes, of "a tuft of threds or thrums." 



Johnson defines "thrum" as the ends of weaver's 



threads, and as all know. Bottom as Pyramus, thus 



invokes the Eumenides to end his grief at the death of 



Thisbe : 



" O fates ! come, come ; 

 Cut thread and thrum ; 

 Quail, crush, conclude, and quell." 



Its other excellent appellation, star-fruit, may have 

 been borrowed from its description by old Gerarde, 

 who has, by the way, a capital woodcut of it. " This 

 plant in his roots and leaves, is like the last described 

 Alisma planiago-aqitatica, as also is the stalke ; but 



much lesse in each of them, the stalke being one 

 fcote high, at the top whereof stand many pretty 

 starre-like seed vessels containing a yellowish seed." 

 He speaks of it as rare, and says : " I found it a little 

 beyond Ilford, on the way to Romford, and Mr. 

 Goodyer found it upon Hounslow Heath," describing 

 it as Plantago acjuatica minor stellala. " Starry - 

 headed, small water Plantine," he observes. Lobell 

 calls it Alisma pusillum angiistifolium vmricatuni, 

 and in the Hist. Lugd. it is called Damaso- 

 nium stellatum. Under this last title it now stands 

 in the last London Catalogue, as its earliest designa- 

 tion. One almost regrets that its excellently expressive 

 name, Adinocarpus, has to be abandoned, and hopes 

 that this pretty plant may have not have a more 

 ancient name discovered for it than any of those 

 which it has previously rejoiced in. — F. H. Arnold, 



Matthiola incana. — In Bentham's British Flora 

 he says of this plant, " fully established as a wild plant 

 on the cliffs in the Isle of Wight, and perhaps in 

 some other parts of the south coast, although probably 

 originally escaped from cultivation." Withering 

 speaks of this species as "growing on rocks near 

 Hastings," but " not truly wild " there. It has, 

 however, long since been extinct in the last named 

 locality, and so far as I can learn there is now no 

 acknowledged station for incana except that in the 

 Isle of Wight ; yet Bentham evidently seemed to 

 have heard of some other place on the south coast 

 where the plant was supposed to occur. I have for 

 some time wondered whether that place could be the 

 cliffs at Rottingdean, near Brighton, where the plant 

 has certainly been " fully established as a wild 

 plant"— although perhaps "escaped from cultiva- 

 tion "—for at least thirty-five years. It is now more 

 than five years ago since I first saw it at that place, 

 and identified it by means of Bentham's Flora. I did 

 not then know how very rare incana really is, nor did 

 I then make a careful inspection of the locus with the 

 view of ascertaining the precise area occupied by the 

 plants, though I did observe that they were of all 

 ages and sizes, and that they were distributed over 

 the cliff from top to bottom for a distance of several 

 bundled yards. About eighteen months ago, I first 

 became aware that Sussex botanists know nothing of 

 the locality in question as a station for incana, but it 

 was only last spring that I had an opportunity of 

 making a more careful survey of the locus when I 

 obtained plants which have since flowered and 

 seeded. I have submitted flowers and seed pods to 

 the Rev. F. H. Arnold— author of a Sussex Flora— 

 and he tells me there can be no doubt about the 

 plant being Matthiola incana. The new locality 

 begins about a quarter of a mile west of Rottingdean, 

 and from that point colonies of it may be seen at 

 intervals all over the cliff from top to bottom for 

 about 750 yards. It would be impossible to say how 

 many plants there are altogether, but small, and great, 



