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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1867. 



BOTANY. 



Ctjeiotts Elowek,. — One of the most singular 

 flowers growing in this pretty garden (of the Panama 

 Railway Company) was an orchid, called by the 

 natives " Elor del Espiritu Santo," or the " Elower 

 of the Holy Ghost." The blossom, white as Parian 

 marble, somewhat resembles the Tulip in form ; its 

 perfume is not unlike that of the Magnolia, but more 

 intense. Neither its beauty nor fragrance begat for 

 it the high reverence in which it is held, but the 

 image of a dove placed in its centre. Gathering the 

 freshly-opened flower, and pulliug apart its alabaster 

 petals, there sits the dove ; its slender pinions droop 

 listlessly by its side; the head inclining gently forward, 

 as if bowed in humble submission, brings the delicate 

 beak, just blushed with carmine, in contact with the 

 snowy breast. Meekness and innocence seem em- 

 bodied in this singular freak of nature ; and who 

 can marvel that crafty priests, ever watchful for any 

 phenomenon convertible into the miraculous, should 

 have knelt before this wondrous flower, and trained 

 the minds of the superstitious natives to accept the 

 title, the "Elower of the Holy Ghost," to gaze upon 

 it with awe and reverence, sanctifying even the 

 rotten wood from which it springs, and the air laden 

 with its exquisite perfume? But it is the flower 

 alone I fear they worship ; their minds ascend not 

 from "nature up to nature's God;" the image only 

 is bowed down to, not He who made it. The stalks 

 of the plant are jointed, and attain a height of from 

 six to seven feet, and from each joint spring two 

 lanceolate leaves ; the time of flowering is in June 

 and July. — J. K. Lord's "The Naturalist in Vancouver 

 Island" 



The Tulip. — It is related that a sailor, having 

 taken some goods to a Dutch merchant, had a 

 herring given him for his breakfast ; but seeing what 

 he supposed to be a kind of small onions lying on the 

 counter, the tar carelessly took up a handful, which 

 he immediately ate with his dried fish. These proved 

 to have been tulips of so much value, that it was 

 estimated a magnificent breakfast might have been 

 given to the heads of the Dutch government for 

 less expense than the cost of the sauce which the 

 sailor so inadvertently took with his salt herring. — 

 Flora Historica. 



Talipat Palm {Corypha umbraculifera). — The 

 most majestic and wonderful of the Palm tribe is 

 the talpat or talipat, the stem of which sometimes 

 attains the height of 100 feet, and each of its enor- 

 mous fan-like leaves, when laid upon the ground, 

 will form a semicircle of sixteen feet in diameter, 

 and cover an area of nearly 200 superficial feet. 

 The tree flowers but once, and dies ; and the na- 

 tives assert that the bursting of the spadix is accom- 

 panied by a loud explosion.— Tennent's Ceylon. 



Wintek.gb.eens. — In a fir-wood not far from my 

 residence several plants of JPyrola minor, Lesser 

 Wintergreen, are growing in a patch of a few yards 

 in extent. I have examined them occasionally, three 

 or four years last past, for the purpose of procuring 

 specimens for friends. Last season I was somewhat 

 surprised to find six or eight plants of Pyrola secunda 

 growing in the midst of the other species. I had 

 never observed a single specimen before. I cannot, 

 of course, be positive that this is the first appearance 

 of P. secunda ; but if it is, it would lead to grave 

 doubts about the permanency of distinction between 

 closely-allied species. Is it possible that P. minor, 

 under certain conditions, stretches out its style till 

 it becomes P. secunda ? for this length of style 

 seems the principal difference between them. — W. B. 



Eungi. — Has the past year been noted for an 

 unusual growth of fungi ? In this district (Knap 

 Hill), immense numbers and in great variety have 

 appeared ; although, singularly enough, the common 

 mushroom {Agaricus campestris) has been far from 

 plentiful. A fir plantation, adjoining the Woking 

 Necropolis, was especially rich in many forms of the 

 larger kinds of fungi. On the side of a recent road 

 cutting, and apparently springing out of the bare 

 sand (the mycelium had probably fallen there from 

 the top of the bank), appeared a group of the 

 Amanita muscaria, some of large size, the pileus of 

 a bright scarlet hue, and studded with white warty 

 excrescences. Amongst the heath on the adjoining 

 common, were found several examples of the hollow- 

 stemmed Marasmius scorodonius, rather uncommon 

 in this country. But the most remarkable form of 

 fungus for extent, beauty, and persistency, was due 

 to a singular cause. Bather more than two months 

 since, the sleepers (firwood) of a^temporary tram- 

 way, of several hundred yards in extent, and which 

 had been down for two and a half years, were re- 

 moved, leaving in the shallow trenches, portions of 

 decaying wood. Erom nearly every trench, sprung 

 up immense clusters of orange cups (Peziza 

 aurantia), successive crops of which have continued 

 to appear for two months. The earlier growths were 

 of a dark orange red (even darker than the one 

 figured on the title-page of M. C. Cooke's British 

 Fungi) ; but the later ones were much paler, some 

 being almost yellow. The fierce and sudden way in 

 which some of the matured groups, when gathered, 

 ejected their spores, in the form of a minute dust- 

 shower, was very amusing. — T. N. Brushfield,M.D., 

 Broolcwood, near Woking. 



Anachaius alsinastrtjm. — We may state a 

 singular fact that has recently come to our know- 

 ledge with reference to this plant ; that whereas 

 some time since it was very abundant in the lake in 

 front of the palm-house at Kew, it was this season 

 all but supplanted by Nitella Jlexilis. — Gardeners' 

 Chronicle, Dec. 1, 1S60. 



