HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



219 



obovate as those of the cowberry, and have only a 

 slight trace of the glandular dots so conspicuous on 

 their undersurface; netherare their margins revolute. 

 The berries are occasionally scattered and axillary, 

 as in the bilbei-ry, but chiefly terminal, as in the cow- 

 berry, though then solitary or few in number, unlike 

 ■what they are in the clusters of the latter ; on this 

 account called bunch-berry here. The shape of the 

 corolla has already been referred to as exactly that 

 of the bilberry's, but white and transparent, or 

 tinged with pink, not red. The calyx is also leafy, 

 and divided as in the cowberry. The curious 

 stamens are shaped as in Vaccinium generally, being 

 like two slender flasks joined together and opening 

 at the tip of the necks ; they agree with the bilberry 

 in having the side-hoi-ns or processes, but smaller : 

 these are absent in the cowberry; on the other 

 hand, they have the curious hairs on the filaments. 



Fig. 170. Flowers and Leaves of Hybrid Bilberry. 



not seen in the bilberry. The berries are black and 

 large, as in the bilberry, but without its blue bloom ; 

 the teeth of the calyx remain at their summits. 

 The time of flowering agrees with the bilberry, 

 being earlier than that of the cowberry, and so with 

 the fruit ; but it must be observed that both the 

 bilberry and the hybrid flower or fruit to a less 

 extent almost the whole year round, which is less the 

 case with the cowberry, it fruiting in August. There 

 are especially two crops of bilberries in the year ; 

 one about midsummer, the other late in autumn : 

 for instance, we purchased them on October 27th of 

 last year. To our taste the fruit of the bilberry is 

 pleasant when cooked, and, we believe, little likely 

 to disagree with the partaker ; the cowberry differs 

 but little in flavour from the scarcer and much 

 dearer cranberry, for which it is sometimes sold to 

 the unobservant. 



The hybrid is handsomer in its foliage and less 

 straggling than the cowberry. It flowers and fruits 



much more scantily than either of its parents. The 

 microscope shows that the grains of its pollen are 

 generally slirunkeu, though a few present the plump 

 tripartite form common in the genus. In such 

 berries as were examined there were not more 

 than from two to five apparently perfect seeds, 

 whilst there were a dozen or more in the cowberry, 

 and twice as many in the bilberry. 



Such are the characters, pretty carefully observed, 

 and faithfully described, which led the friend* who 

 first noticed the plant, and who forwarded it to me, 

 as well as myself, to consider it to be a hybrid. 

 In fact, no botanist could find good reasons for 

 arranging it with either the bilberry or cowberry 

 exclusive, the two sets of specific characters being 

 so mixed. 



Au eminent observer, who was good enough to 

 look at the plant, suggested that if it were a hybrid 

 it would be found, most probably, to be barren; and 

 the scanty flowers and berries, as well as the very 

 few perfect seeds and the shrunken pollen, bear out 

 the latter surmise to some extent. The wonder is, 

 how it happens that our two common Vaccinia, 

 growing both together in profusion on our hills, arc 

 not oftener crossed. Perhaps the somewhat dif- 

 ferent time of flowering may be one cause, and 

 another the perfect shielding in most of these plants 

 of the pistils from foreign pollen by the globular 

 corolla. The use of the horns on the anthers of the 

 bilberry, and the protrusion or not of the stigma 

 from the corolla in heath plants are also subjects for 

 thought or research. 



Though plants growing in great profusion are apt 

 to vary, yet we only know of one marked variation 

 of the bilberry, and that in a spot two or three miles 

 from the locality already mentioned. On one 

 hillock, in the open glade of a fir wood, the bil- 

 berries are all (instead of their usual black colour 

 with a fine bloom) of a transparent yellowish-white, 

 a little mottled with pink. This, however, con- 

 stitutes a very different case from the previous one. 



E, Gaknee, P.L.S. 



ON THE ABUNDANCE OP VANESSA 

 ANTIOPA IN 1872. 



THE sudden appearance in considerable numbers 

 of that rare butterfly, the Camberwell Beauty 

 {Vanessa Aiitiopa) throughout the east and south- 

 east of England, and more sparingly throughout 

 the country, seems to call for some special notice. 



This species is common in most parts of the Con- 

 tinent of Europe, extending as far north as Lap- 

 land, and seems to be pretty constant in its num- 

 bers ; but the great uncertainty about its appearance 

 in this country has been noticed for a long period . 



* D. Ball. Esq., F.R.C.S. 



