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HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



there must certainly be hundreds of them. The clift" 

 for about 600 j-ards out of tlie 750 is something like 

 70 feet high, and the remaining 150 yards vary in 

 height from 70 to about 20 feet. A simple calculation 

 will show, therefore, that the superficial area over 

 which the plant extends is more than three acres. 

 Two questions will naturally arise in regard to this 

 new locality ; first, how did the plant get to the spot ? 

 and second, how long has it been there ? It appears 

 to me that the plant may have got there in one of 

 three ways {a), seed may originally have been carried 

 by the wind from the garden of the — only — cottage 

 on the cliff above ; or (/'), the seed may have been 

 thrown over the cliff with sweepings from the garden ; 

 or (c), seed may have been carried to the spot on the 

 feet of one of the numerous jackdaws which frequent 

 and nest in the cliffs here, and which are continually 

 flying backwards and forwards between Brighton and 

 Rottingdean. This last means does not seem to me 

 at all improbable, nor will it, I think, appear so to 

 any one who knows how sticky the soil thereabouts 

 becomes after a little rain, and how easily light seeds 

 might be thus carried, I don't think the plants could 

 have originated from seeds blown or thrown over the 

 cliff from the cottage-garden, because this is situate 

 almost exactly midway between the east and west 

 boundaries of the locality, and it seems to me in the 

 highest degree improbable that the plant would have 

 spread in a westerly direction as fast as it has gone 

 eastward, considering that the prevailing winds in the 

 autumn — when the seed could be scattered — are 

 westerly and south-westerly : winds which would 

 certainly, as one would think, cause the plant to 

 travel eastward at a far greater rate than westward. 

 As to the period during which the plant has been 

 here growing wild, I felt certain when I first saw it 

 there that it must have been established for a good 

 many years ; and I have recently been informed by 

 Colonel Stead — son of the late Rector of Ovingdean 

 — that he has known the plant there for at least thirty- 

 five years, and he says that when he first observed it, 

 it had then already spread over a considerable area. 

 I think, therefore, it may be safely assumed that the 

 plant has been growing there for at least fifty years. — 

 a, B. P., Eastbourne. 



Mercurialis perennis, form Autumnalis. — 

 I have once more obtained, in flower, this interesting 

 plant, notes on which I communicated to "Journal 

 of Botany " last autumn, making about the sixth 

 successive year of gathering since I discovered it ; 

 and, so far as I can learn from diligent search, it is 

 still found only in one locality. As I passed the 

 place on Saturday, October 5th, the young plants 

 were full of life and vigour, and apparently spreading. 

 Ditching operations, however, have disturbed it, and 

 will retard its time of flowering this year. From the 

 description given below, compiled from notes taken 

 on the spot, it will be seen that the new form differs 



in some points from the normal spring-flowering 

 form. Specimens of the plant were sent to Kew 

 Herbarium in September, 1889, where I suppose it 

 may still be seen by any one interested. Description 

 of plant as growing : perennial ; rootstock short, 

 stoloniferous ; stem simple, decumbent, then ascend- 

 ing, sometimes rooting at the nodes ; i to 3J feet ; 

 angular, very slightly hairy, leafy to the root ; leaves 

 2 to 6 inches opposite, shortly petioled, oblong ovate- 

 lanceolate, crenate-serrate, ciliate, faintly pubescent 

 on upper surface, stipules very minute. Male flowers 

 in axillary, interrupted spikes ; peduncle I to 2 inches ; 

 flowers very shortly pedicelled. Time of flowering, 

 latter part of August, or early September to No- 

 vember. — F. y. George, Charley, Lanes. 



Comparative Rarity of the Lesser Peri- 

 winkle. — I am obUged to your correspondent for 

 drawing my attention (in the August number) to the 

 fact that V. minor occurs far more frequently than I 

 had supposed in the Tunbridge Wells District ; but 

 the locality "Tovil" is certainly not in the neigh- 

 bourhood to which my remarks were confined ; it 

 being, as is not mentioned, an immediate suburb of 

 Maidstone, which is nearly twenty miles distant from 

 Tunbridge Wells. I only mention this so that those 

 interested in the question, but unacquainted with the 

 details of Kentish geography, may not be misled. — 

 Arehihald L. Clarke, 



Spotted Dead-Nettle. — Can any of the readers 

 of Science-Gossip give me a little information con- 

 cerning the Spotted Dead-Nettie {Lamium maeii- 

 latum) ? To me, though not a very common plant, it 

 has never seemed a very rare one. At present, where 

 I am now living, in North Staffordshire, I have met 

 with it in three large clusters at a distance of only a 

 few miles from each other. One cluster was at the 

 end of a little wood near a once-cultivated garden, 

 another also at the end of a cultivated garden, while 

 the third was in a hedge near a roadside bearing 

 beautiful large reddish purple flowers ; the leaves ot 

 all the clusters had a long white streak up the middle. 

 Professor W. J. Hooker places it under Lamium 

 album, calling it a third variety of L. album, and 

 names Fifeshire as its locality, where it was found by 

 Dr. Dewar. Sir J. E. Smith, in his "English Flora," 

 places it quite distinct from /.. album, calling it 

 "perhaps a naturalized plant," and naming three 

 places where it had been found. When talking to 

 friends in the neighbourhood, who are interested in 

 botany, about this plant, I have always been told 

 that they have not found it a rarity. I shall be 

 grateful for information upon this subject, and to know 

 if it is ever a cultivated plant or not, and if others 

 have also found it fairly common. — B. C. Robinson. 



The Cuckoo's Song. — The male birds are the 

 singers, but I do not state this from my own observa- 

 tion. — \V. P. Hamilton. 



