174 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



floods the rise and fall, from the extent of the wa- 

 ter being only a few inches, is nearly imperceptible; 

 but when the lakes are low the rise and fall is as 

 apparent as that of the tides in Galway Bay. 

 This phenomenon can be well observed in the 

 " Slug!?aghs " in the vicinity of the mine on the 

 west of Caherglassaun Loush, and at Hawkhill 

 Lough, between three and fo '■ miles west of Gort. 

 There are various ruins in i he vicinity of Gort, 

 that woidd more or less interest the archffiologist ; 

 but special attention must be directed to the old 

 castle a mile S.W. of Lough Cooter, the walls of 

 which were paiuted in fresco," some of which still 

 remain. The flora also is interesting; as, however, 

 nearly all the rare plants are found in the Burreu, 

 one description hereafter will do for all. 



TEMPORAEY APPEARANCES AND 

 DISAPPEARANCES OF PLANTS. 



TTAVING read with much interest the paper by 

 -"-■- Mr. Edwin Lees in the April number of 

 Science-Gossip, " On changes in the localities of 

 some of our rarer plants," I am induced to offer a 

 few notes on some instances of the temporary dis- 

 appearance of species which I have noticed in tliis 

 neighbourhood, with the flora of which I have been 

 acquainted for more than a dozen years. 



Erodium moschatum used to'*grow on an old wall 

 within one hundred yards of where I am now 

 writing : it was observed there by my father nearly 

 thirty years ago. This is the only place in which I 

 have ever found it, and I have observed it there 

 now and then for many years ; but some seasons I 

 have failed to find it after a careful search. lu 1868 

 the wall was pulled down, but the Cranesbill was 

 very plentiful around its site, and, the soil being 

 rich, attained an immense size. The next two 

 summers it grew scarcer, and this year I can find 

 no trace of it. 



In 18G2 a heap of sand was thrown up out of a 

 quarry in Beckington, which in the summer was 

 covered with a scarlet blaze of poppies ; among 

 them two or three plants of P. Argemone, a species 

 which I had never seen in the neighbourhood 

 before, and did not see again, although 1 looked for 

 it in the same place nearly every year, until 1868, 

 Avhen I found it there again, and I have found it in 

 each succeeding year. 



The only_ station for Atropa Belladonna near here 

 is Earleigh, Hungcrford, where a single plant grew 

 among the ruins of an old castle for many years ; but 

 the station being unfortunately too well known to 

 collectors, it grew smaller year by year, until in 



1869, finding none left, I feared that it was lost. In 



1870, however, I noticed one or two young plants 

 on a bank some little distance off, which are now 

 growing nicely, and will, I hope, establish the spe- 



cies firmly, if not pursued by collectors with too 

 sedulous attention. 



When a boy, I remember being shown by my 

 father in a field near Beckington, a plant of Lathyrus 

 Aphaca ; but this singular vetch I never saw agaia 

 until the year 1869, at least fifteen years afterwards, 

 when I found several plants of it growing in a 

 hedge that, I am in the habit of passing several times 

 a week. I refrained from gathering many speci- 

 mens of it, thinking that I would let it remain and 

 seed ; but next time I passed I was mortified to 

 find it all gone — some one having cut the grass on 

 the bank to give to his horse. In 1870 I did not 

 see any ; but last year it was growing there again. 



I never saw Campatmla hyhrida nearer here than 

 the Wiltshire chalk downs, except in the year 1869, 

 when a wheat-field a mile off was quite full of it — 

 probably introduced with seed coim. 



Many liliaceous and orchideous plants bloom 

 very seldom; consequently, if one of them grow 

 sparingly at a station, it may be missed for several 

 years, the root-leaves escaping notice, and yet 

 reappear. I have noticed this with Gagea lutea, 

 Fritillaria Meleagris, CepJialanthera grandiflora, 

 Epipactis lafifoUa, and others ; and hence I have not 

 quite abandoned all hope of meeting with Ophrys 

 muscifera and Tnlipa sylvesiris, each of which my 

 father has once found. 



I have noticed that root parasites, such as 

 Lathr<sa squamaria, Monotropa Hypopilys, and 

 Neottia Nidus-avis are very uncertain in their ap- 

 pearance ; one may find them in this place one year, 

 and then lose siglit of them for several years, till 

 one finds them again in a different place. 



Biennials also, as Verhascum Lychiiites and 

 Blattaria, I have failed to find sometimes in familiar 

 localities, owiug to there being no flowering plants 

 that year, the plants of the last year but one not 

 having been allowed to remain to seed. 

 W One sentence of Mr. Lees's I do not understand. 

 He says, "It is important to know whether a rare 

 plant has increased or diminished, as in the former 

 case its claims to be considered tridy indigenous are 

 belter founded." I should have thought that the 

 reverse was the case. The gradual extinction of 

 many of our rare Britisli plants, as Peucedanmn 

 officinale, Scnecio paludosus, Souchus paludris, 

 Menziesia ccerulea, and Cypripediuu Calceolus, is not 

 held to invalidate their claims to be considered 

 natives, nor does the rapid spread of Elodea cana- 

 densis, Veronica Buxhauinii, &c., establish their 

 titles to be indigenous. 



H. FfiANKiiiN Parsons, M.D. 



Beckington, Somerset. 



"The little birds have neither storehouse nor 

 barn, yet He feedeth them ; and not one of them 

 falleth to the ground without His permission."— 

 '\Beautiful Birds in Far-off Lands." 



