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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1867. 



BOTANY. 



Primroses.— While shooting at East Hothley, 

 in Sussex, on Saturday, the 8th of December, I 

 picked a fine bunch of Primroses ; and on the fol- 

 lowing day, one of my little boys found a bunch of 

 the ripe fruit of the Wild Strawberry (Fragaria 

 vesca) in this parish. — W. N., Uckfield. 



Proliferous Hart's-Tongue. — Daring the end 

 of last summer, a plant of the curly-leaved variety 

 of the hart's-tougue fern (Scolopendrium vulgare), 

 which I had frequent opportunities of seeing, put 

 out on the surface of an oldish frond two little 

 brown specks, which grew and developed just as the 

 similar outshoots of the Asplenium bulbiferum do. 

 In a little time, the mother frond began to wither, 

 was cut off and planted in soil ; the two young ones 

 flourished, put out roots, and are now healthy grow- 

 ing plants. — Leonard W. Sedgwick, M.D. 



The True Papyrus— The Ptev. H. B. Tristram 

 has communicated to the Linnean Society that he 

 found the true Cyperus Papyrus L. in Palestine, by 

 the shores of the Lake of Galilee, sometimes grow- 

 ing to the length of sixteen feet. He afterwards 

 found, in the almost inaccessible marshes of Huleh 

 (the ancient Merom), many acres of the same plant. 

 The stems are cut down by the Bedouins for thatch- 

 ing their huts and for mats. This plant was only 

 known to occur in the marshes of the White Nile, 

 in Nubia, prior to this discovery, it having dis- 

 appeared from Egypt. — See Joiirn. Linn. Soc, 

 No. 38. 



Cocoa-nut Milk. — A tropical sun soon makes 

 one thirsty. I wanted " a drink," and, for the first 

 time in my life, tasted iced cocoa-nut milk. Never 

 in my life have I drunk anything half as delicious. 

 Do not imagine that in the least degree it resembles 

 the small teacupful of sweet insipid stuff dribbled 

 out from the cocoa-nut as we buy it here in England. 

 What we eat as kernel is liquid in the young nut, 

 and the outer husk soft enough to push your thumb 

 through. Surely the cocoa-nut palm must have 

 been specially designed for the dwellers in the 

 tropical world. It supplies everything uncivilized 

 man can possibly need, to build his ships, rig, paddle' 

 and sail them ; from its products too, he can make 

 his houses, and obtain food, drink, clothing, and 

 culinary utensils. Strictly littoral in its habits, the 

 cocoa-palm loves to loll over the sea, and let the 

 frothy ripple wash its rootlets. This also looks like 

 another link in the chain of Divine intentions. The 

 nuts necessarily fall into the sea — winds and currents 

 carry them to coral reefs, or strand them on desert 

 shores, there to grow, and, by a sequence of won- 

 drously ordered events, in time make it habitable 

 for man. — /. K. Lord's " The Naturalist in Vancouver 

 Island." 



Holly in Elower. — I observed a holly-tree 

 (Ilex aquifolium) in flower last month, at Pickers- 

 leigh, near Malvern. It still continues in flower, at 

 a very unusual time of the year, when other trees 

 are bearing ripe fruit. — Arthur D. Melvin, Dec, 1SC6. 



The Moss-rose. — Madame de Genlis tells us 

 that, during her first visit to England, she saw moss- 

 roses for the first time, and that she took to Paris a 

 moss rose-tree, which was the first that had been 

 seen in that city ; and she says, in 1810, " the cul- 

 tivation of this superb flower is not yet known in 

 Erance."— Sylva Florifera. 



The Jordan Almond-tree was first planted in 

 England in the reign of Henry VIII., 1518 (Hortus 

 Kewensis). Dr. Turner notices it in the year 1615, 

 and says, "Almond-trees growe muche in hyghe 

 Germany beside Sypre in a cytie called Newstat, 

 and great plentye in Italye, and some growe in 

 England, but I have hearde of no greate store of 

 the fruyte of them that growe in England." 



The Myrtle. — It was upon a memorable occasion 

 that the myrtle was introduced into this country, — 

 as it is said to have been brought from Spain by Sir 

 Walter Raleigh and Sir Erancis Carew, in 15S5, 

 when they resided in Spain, and discovered the pre- 

 parations for the Spanish Armada against us. — Sylva 

 Florifera. 



The Sweet-Pea, the emblem of delicate pleasures, 

 was unknown in the British gardens until the first 

 year of the eighteenth century, when it blossomed in 

 the garden of Dr. Uvedale, at Enfield, in Essex (sic), 

 who is supposed to have been the first cultivator of 

 this favourite flower in England, which has now 

 spread itself over the whole of Europe, — entering 

 every garden where the florist is disposed to 



— — " Lend a staff to the stili gadding pea." 



Flora Historica. 



Holy-Ghost Plant. — The Orchid described in 

 your last number under the foregoing title is the Peri- 

 steria elata of our stoves. It may be seen in flower 

 during the months of July and August, at Messrs. 

 Veitch & Son's, Koyal Exotic Nursery, or at any 

 other nursery of eminence in the vicinity of London. 

 — W. J. D. A. 



Dove-plant. — It may be interesting to some of 

 your readers to know that the " Flor del Fspirito 

 Santo" or Dove-plant, Peristeria etata* (Hooker), 

 is in cultivation in this country. It was introduced 

 as early as 1826, and flowered for the first time in 

 1S30, and a figure and description of it appeared in 

 the Botanical Magazine, vol. lviii., p. 3116. 



W. B. H. 



* From 7rcpi<TTfpa : a dove, from the resemblance in the 

 shape and colour to that bird. 



