90 



HARD WTCKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



have furnished me with many beautiful objects for 

 the microscope, and have afforded many pleasant 

 evenings to myself and friends. — G. L. P., Camber- 

 well. 



BOTANY. 



Crystal Prisms ix Allium Porrum. — Mr. 

 F. W. T. Williams has given a very useful note on 

 this point (SciENXE-GossiP, No. 147), to which may 

 be added that these crystals are very beautiful in the 

 bulb-scales of many other species of Allium, as may 

 be easily seen in the Shallot, &c., always to be had 

 at Covent-garden. — Q. F. 



Insect-trapping Plants. — Besides Apocynum 

 androsamifolhtm, mentioned by Mr. T. Britain in tlie 

 March number of Science-Gossip as a carnivorous 

 species, there are other plants of different orders 

 which entrap insects, and this by means and for an 

 end which would appear to be obscure . Thus, at a 

 late meeting, at Canterbuiy, of the East Kent Natural 

 History Society, Major Hall read an interesting 

 paper, to which Professor Gulliver contributed an 

 historical introduction, showing that the flowers of 

 PhysiantJms albens catch and kill such large insects 

 as humble-bees and noctua-gamma moths, a fact 

 which, so far as is known, cannot be beneficial to the 

 plant.— (?. F. 



Cornelian Cherry {Cornus mascnla). — The 

 Brighton town gardener has asked for the name of a 

 shrub, 10 or 15 ft. high, in the Pavilion Gardens, 

 very old, evidently planted when the Palace grounds 

 were originally laid out eighty or ninety years ago. 

 It is the Corinis mascida, a native of Austria, but 

 little cultivated, I believe, in England. From the 

 beginning of February it has been (and is still) in full 

 flower, very conspicuous, presenting as it does one 

 mass of yellow. I have seen it in fruit in shrubberies 

 in Switzerland, and tasted the cornelian-coloured 

 berries : they have an acid taste, and are eaten by 

 children and made into sweetmeats and tarts. I 

 think it might be a pleasing addition to our shrub- 

 beries, as the flowers appear before those of any 

 shrubs. — T. B. IF., Brighton. 



Teucrium Cham/EDRYS (from Teucer, son of 

 Scamander, and father-in-law of Dardanus, king of 

 Troy). — The Germanders and their allies form a most 

 extensive genus of herbs and shrubs, comprising 

 nearly a hundred species, widely dispersed through- 

 out the world, but abounding chiefly in the northern 

 temperate and sub-tropical regions of the eastern 

 hemisphere. Several species of Teucrium were for- 

 merly reputed to possess medicinal virtues, and found 

 a place in the Materia Medica ; but they are now 

 discarded by all except rustic practitioners. There 

 are only three British species. T. Chaiinrdiys was 

 once much employed in medicine, and entered as an 



ingredient into the celebrated Portland powder. It 

 was at one time employed in gout and rheumatism, 

 and also as a febrifuge. T. Scordhim was once highly 

 esteemed as an antidote for poisons, and as an anti- 

 septic and anthelmintic. T. Scordonia, wood ger- 

 mander or sage. The smell and taste of this plant 

 resemble very much the hop. In Jersey it is some- 

 times used as a substitute for hops in beer, and by 

 some persons the bitter given by the germander is 

 preferred to that of the hop. T. Maritin, or cat- 

 thyme. This was fonnerly included in the " London 

 Pharmacopoeia," and employed in the pi-eparation of 

 compound powder asarabacea. It has been recom- 

 mended as a stimulant and aromatic in various 

 diseases. Cats are very fond of it, and destroy it 

 when they get near it. — Dipton Burn. 



Lady Smith. — A link between the periods which, 

 in the history of botany at least, we may call the old 

 times and the new, has been severed by the death of 

 Lady Smith, wife of Sir James Edward Smith, the 

 celebrated botanist, and first President of the Linnean 

 Society. Her ladyship, who died at Lowestoft, on 

 the 3rd of February, lived to the ripe age of 104. 



GEOLOGY. 



Remains of the Mammoth and other Mam- 

 mals FROM Northern Spain.— Prof A. Leith 

 Adams recently read a paper on this subject before 

 the Geological Society. The author said that the 

 remains were obtained by MM. O'Reilly and 

 Sullivan in a cavern discovered at about 12 metres 

 from the surface, in the valley of Udias, near San- 

 tander, by a boring made through limestone in search 

 of calamine. They were found close to a mound of 

 soil which had fallen down a funnel at one end of the 

 cavity, and more or less buried in a bed of calamine 

 which covered the floor. The cavern was evidently 

 an enlarged joint or rock-fissure, into which the entire 

 carcases, or else the living animals, had been pre- 

 cipitated from time to time. The author had 

 identified among these remains numerous portions, 

 including teeth of Elephas priinigcniiis, which is 

 important as furnishing the first instance of the 

 occurrence of that animal in Spain. He also recorded 

 Bos primigenius and Cervus elaphiis (?), and stated that 

 MM. O'Reilly and Sullivan mention a long curved 

 tooth which he thought might be a canine of hippo- 

 potamus. 



Geological Honours. — At the annual meeting 

 of the Geological Society of London, the WoUaston 

 gold-medal was presented to Mr. Robert Mallet, 

 F.R.S., for his researches in the phenomena of 

 earthquakes ; the Murchison medal was presented to 

 the Rev. W. B. Clarke, for his investigation of the 

 geology of New South Wales ; the Lyell medal was 

 given to Dr. Hector for his services in working the 



