HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



115 



where they form clusters terminating the stem, or in 

 OrtJictrichuiJi Lyellii and PliyUaiitliitiu, where they 

 are produced on the leaves. But this is not all ; for 

 in various GrinimiiC and Tortiilcc tubercles are deve- 

 loped on the roots, which produce protonema and 

 new plants ; and some are tnily viviparous, for some 

 species of Campylopns and Leticobiyu in throw out 

 young plants among the radicular tomentum which 

 besets the stem, which fall off and continue the 

 species ; and it has been observed in the common 

 Fiinaria hygromctrica that from the basal cells of a 

 cast-off leaf protonema has been thrown out M-hich 

 has produced a new colony of plants. — R. Braith- 

 waiie. 



Note on the Nettle.— With respect to the 

 Nettle [Urtica dioica), the sudden appeai^ance and dis- 

 persion of which a correspondent of Science-Gossip 

 has remarked upon as my not having accounted for, 

 it is certainly true that this pestilent stinging plant 

 does follow any human settlement or resting-place in 

 a manner that is surprising ; but this in a different 

 way to the sudden appearance of plants where woods 

 have been felled. The Nettle appears to follow the foot- 

 steps of man, or rather more probably of the animals 

 that are in his train. Nobody would willingly dis- 

 seminate the Nettle, and it seems difficult to suppose 

 how men themselves could bear the seeds about 

 them. But the animals attendant upon or kept by man 

 unquestionably do. Sheep especially, as I have fre- 

 quently noticed, are harbingers of the Nettle, 'and they 

 may cany its seeds about in their fleeces. Indeed, 

 as to the instance of the beds of nettle observed in 

 some of the present deer-forests of Scotland, as men- 

 tioned by " Daccort Ackone," it will be found that 

 these deer-forests, so called, were formerly sheep- 

 walks, and that the sheep were really instrumental 

 in bringing the seeds of the Nettle. Only last year I 

 noticed in a pasture near Worcester, which I have 

 been cognisant of for many years, the introduction of 

 nettles by sheep. Till lately it had been only used 

 for the produce of hay, and though horses were fed 

 on the aftermath, no sheep were introduced. But 

 now, sheep having been turned in the next year, I 

 observed numerous tufts of nettles scattered over the 

 field. So I have noticed in the Malvern Hills, where 

 sheep alone are depastured, that nettles are rampant, 

 not only on their sides, but on the very summit of the 

 Herefordshire Beacon. In fact, wherever sheep are 

 placed theNettle soon appears, not on fresh turned-up 

 ground, but in the midst of the pasture itself. Very 

 probably, also, dogs may carry the Nettle about, 

 which does not so much attach itself to man's actual 

 residence, as spots where he has had only a tempo- 

 raiy lodgment, or been occasionally, and then left the 

 ground to neglect. But there it remains with singu- 

 lar tenacity, pointing out where, at some time or 

 other, a wandering human footstep or some domestic 

 animal has been. It is rather curious, therefore, that 



no botanist should have suspected that the Nettle is a 

 plant that has been furtively introduced into Britain, 

 and though now become a "denizen," has had a 

 foreign origin as much as any agrarian of our corn- 

 fields. Its inroad may have been at a very early lime, 

 brought, perhaps, with the very first wanderers that 

 set foot on our island ; but I do not believe that they 

 found it already established. It is certainly a sticker, 

 like the American water-weed, which has become a 

 curse in our streams and canals ; and the Nettle can 

 never be got rid of from its perennial roots, though 

 sharp frosts cut it down to the ground. Its dissemi- 

 nation by animals is clearly shown by its abounding 

 in rural churchyards, where sheep are often jDlaced to 

 graze ; and it is in pastures rather than in gardens 

 where it becomes so pestiferous, and grows so tall. 

 In some sequestered spots I have found it growing 

 nearly six feet in height, and forming a dense thicket 

 difficult to get through. I never saw the Nettle in 

 such abundance as within the area of Norton Camp, 

 Shropshire, an eminence about 800 feet high, which 

 it entirely occupied, excluding every other j.lant. 

 Here, no doubt, sheep had some time previously been 

 depastured, though no blade was left for them until 

 the Nettle was displaced.— ^^/ewV^ Lees, F.L.S., 

 Worcester. 



Science-Gossip Botanical Exchange Club. 

 — We are glad to be able to inform our numerous 

 botanical friends that there are several enthusiastic 

 members who are working most heartily to make this 

 club a success. We hear of fair collections having 

 already been made ; the Easter holidays witnessed 

 many presses and diying-boards again brought into 

 use. We trust this success may be maintained with 

 vigour all the year. 



Notes on Ferns.— I send you a fern from my 

 W'ardian case as I plucked it last summer, but I am 

 sorry that I do not remember where I obtained it 

 originally. Its peculiarity is the existence of dark- 

 green fleshy buds or galls, springing apparently from 

 the rachis of the pinnules on the under side. Can 

 you determine — first, what the fern is ? and secondly, 

 what is the nature of the bodies in question ? — R. G. 



Seeds. — On two occasions certain seeds, of which 

 I inclose specimens, have been sent to me as taken 

 from or around blackbirds' and thrushes' nests. I 

 cannot think of any plant to which they belong unless 

 it be the Arum or Wake-Robin. They are covered 

 with husks, and I presume have passed through the 

 bodies of the young birds. But are not these fledged 

 before the scarlet berries of the Arum are ripe? 

 Being very acrid, are they not strange food for young 

 biixls ? The Blackbird in the district where the seeds 

 were found is not seen in the immediate environs of 

 the towns, neither is the Wake-Robin. — R. G. 



Fertilization of the Flowers of Broom. — 

 The mechanism by ^vhich the flower of Broom is 

 fertilized through the visit of the bee is very admir- 



