15S 



HAEDWICKE'S SCI ENCE- GOSSIP. 



the saw is withdrawn into its sheath, the large size 

 of the egg, and the very structure of the saw itself, 

 making it impossible for the process to be accom- 

 plished as described by them. This can readily be 

 proved by obtaining a saw-fly full of eggs, and sub- 

 jecting it to pressure under the microscope, when 

 the exact relation of the parts will be sqgu.— James 

 W. Gooch. 



THE AECHJilOLOGY OP EARE PLANTS. 



HAVING seen a paper by my friend Mr. Edwin 

 Lees in Science-Gossip for April, in which 

 he mentions the occurrence of the Adrantm major 

 on the Weo Edge in tiiis parish, I beg, with your 

 permission, to make a few remarks on its probable 

 history in that spot. 



When a plant is found growing some hundreds of 

 miles away from its native country, it becomes an 

 interesting questiion to determine how it may have 

 been transported to its new abode. That it lias 

 spontaneously started into existence, I presume no 

 one will at the present time maintain. Few either 

 would contend that the introduction of plants has 

 taken place in a capricious way without law or sys- 

 tem. The researches of Darwin and Lyell have 

 clearly shown that the flora of every district is more 

 or less related to that of the adjacent country, and 

 that if any strange forms occur, their presence may 

 be traced to some distinct cause. In many cases, 

 this cause may be extremely difficult to determine ; 

 but in some, by carefully attending to the sur- 

 rounding circumstances and conditions, it may 

 be possible to form a more or less probable con- 

 jecture. 



Now it seems to me that the suggestion which 

 was made to me some years ago by a friend wlio 

 takes much interest in the antiquities and natural 

 history of this neighbourhood, as to the occurrence 

 of the Astrantia on Weo Edge, has much force, and 

 is, moreover, particularly interesting, as it connects 

 the spot where it grows with tliose dim ages of a 

 remote past which we all delight to picture to our 

 minds, and so to jealize the kind of people who 

 lived in them. 



The place — and it is the only place in England 

 where the Astrantia grows with any appearance of 

 being indigenous— is tlie summit of an abrupt cliff 

 of Lower Ludlow shale, some 550 feet above the 

 valley through which a small stream, called the 

 Onny, flows. As elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 

 this formation or ridge of hills is crowned by a band 

 of what is known by geologists as the Aymestry 

 limestone, and it is on the soil formed from the 

 decay of this limestone that the plant in question 

 has found a congenial home. 



And now, a few words as to its foreign abode. 

 Mr. Bciitham in his Botany has the following notice 



of it : — " In woods and pastures in central and 

 southern Europe, not 'nearer than central France ; 

 occurs apparently wild in Stokesay Wood, near 

 Ludlow, and between Whitbourne and Malvern in 

 Herefordshire ; probably originally escaped from 

 some old cottage garden." 



I remember a few years ago taking a friend, who 

 had travelled in Italy, to the top of the Weo Edge, 

 without telling him of the fact of the Astrantia 

 growing there, and was much struck by his ex- 

 clamation of pleasure and surprise when he 

 recognized the plant, then in full blossom, which he 

 had last seen flourishing on one of the mountains in 

 the north of Italy. 



Can we show that any inhabitants of Italy ever 

 had access to this spot? An answer to this ques- 

 tion has been found in a most unexpected way. 

 Within a few miles of the Weo Edge, and close by 

 an ancient Eoman road which wends its way 

 between the two places, was discovered a few years 

 ago the remains of a Eoman villa, including the 

 hypocaust,';or thick'mass of concrete, supported on 

 a number of little pillars, by which the rooms were 

 warmed. Imbedded in this concrete was found, by 

 Mr. Staekhouse Acton, on whose ground the villa 

 was discovered, a peculiar shell, the Peutamerus 

 Knightii. Now it so happens that this fossil, which 

 is of a remarkable and unmistakable character, is 

 very abundant indeed at the Weo Edge, but is ex- 

 tremely rare, if it occurs at all, which is very 

 doubtful, anywhere nearer to the site of the vUla 

 than that hill. 



The inference from this is apparently inevitable ; 

 the Eoman mason who constructed the hypocaust 

 used lime brought from the iWeo Edge, which is, 

 moreover, the best to be had in all the country 

 round. 



Many other facts tend to the same conclusion. 

 The Astrantia grows chiefly on a kind of bank which 

 formed part of an old encampment, such as might 

 have been constructed to defend a few dwellings, 

 as we may well suppose the Eoman colonists had 

 frequent occasion to do. (3) The ground all round 

 the spot is completely honeycombed by the remains 

 of ancient limekilns, and there are innumerable 

 mounds everywhere of the rubbish which was thrown 

 out in raising the limestone ; and (3) that the spot 

 was frequented by waggons long before the present 

 roads were made is shown by the remains of roads, 

 long since unused, deeply sunk below the level of 

 the soil, showing how much they were frequented 

 in early times. 



Is it then improbable that whenthe villa of which 

 I have spoken M^as in the course of erection (and 

 there is reason to thiuk that many others of a similar 

 kind once existed in the neighbourhood), a number 

 of Eoman workmen may have settled on this spoi, 

 and that they, in some way, brought this plant vith 

 them ? How many instances are there of flowers 



