J40 



HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIENCE ■ G SSI P. 



Aquaria. — We understand that Mr. W. A. Lloyd 

 is collecting material for a work on Aquaria he is 

 engaged upon, in which he will narrate his varied 

 experiences. Such a work, from Mr. Lloyd's hands, 

 cannot fail to be a valuable contribution to practical 

 zoology. 



BOTANY. 



CORNUS MASCULUS (CORNELIAN CiIERRY).— In 



Science-Gossip for the month of April, page 90, 

 I drew attention to this shrub, growing in the Pavilion 

 Garden at Brighton, which was in full flower at the 

 beginning of Februaiy. The flowers were all 

 perfect ; but as there is now (April 28th) no appear- 

 ance of the young fruit, and I cannot learn that the 

 shrub has ever been known to bear any, I wrote to 

 Mr. Baker, of Kevv Gardens, to know if the shrub 

 bore fruit there, and if he could account for the failure 

 of it at Brighton. In answer, he says " Cornus mas. 

 fruits sometimes near London, but I do not think the 

 fruit is common in England." It M-ould seem, there- 

 fore, that the climate of England, with some few 

 exceptional localities, is too severe at so early a season 

 to allow the flowers to fertilize. In France and 

 Switzerland it fruits, I believe, freely. I have met 

 with it in fruitat Lausanne, in Switzerland. — T.B. W., 

 Brighton. 



Cornus masculus. — Your correspondent, 

 "T. B. W.," describes this valuable but much- 

 neglected old plant "to the life," in one of your 

 recent issues. We have here at Valentines, an old 

 seat of Archbishop Tillotson's, several aged trees of 

 the same. It might aptly have been named nttdijlora, 

 as the mass of yellow blossoms come long before any 

 sign of foliage, and afford a pleasing floral feature 

 C[uite devoid of accompaniment at a veiy early season- 

 I have seen them in bloom, "full out," late in 

 February. The cornelian cherry it bears in Britain 

 is very small and acrid, and such as few children, I 

 think, would care to eat. If my memory is to be 

 depended upon, the wood is superior for gunpowder 

 manufacture ; whilst the cherry abroad, in its native 

 home or habitat, is as large as the fruit of the olive. 

 If this be so, what a gorgeous fruiting i^lant ! espe- 

 cially when we note the contrast between the small 

 leaves and fruits of such colour and proportions. The 

 fruit is more or less flat-sided. The old trees have 

 bloomed indifferently this season. Corinis, from wood 

 as hard as horn. Some species are highly valued 

 in America for their tonic properties. — JV. EarJcy. 



Death of Celebrated Botanists. — Such of 

 the botanical readers of Science-Gossip as have been 

 in the habit of pursuing their vocation at Genoa will 

 be sorry to hear of the recent death of Mr. De 

 Notaris, who was so many years Professor of Botany 

 at that University, and subsequently, on the changes 

 in Italy, transferred to the University of Rome, where 



he was also Professor. All who were fortunate 

 enough, as I was, to make his acquaintance, will bear 

 testimony to his courtesy and readiness to render all 

 the assistance in his power. He was a great au- 

 thority on cryptogamy as well as botany in general. 

 His most extensive production was his "Bryologia 



Italiana," a folio volume of 781 pages. Another 



botanist (an Englishman), I regret to say, died a 

 shoil time back, Mr. Giles Munby, of York, who for 

 a great many years was residing in Algeria, and con- 

 tributed largely to the flora of that country, of which 

 he published a catalogue, taking as his foundation 

 the Flora Atlaiitica of Defontaine, to which he added 

 many hundred plants. He M'ill also be remembered 

 as having brought conspicuously before the world the 

 " Manna of the Desert" {Lecanora esciilenta), which 

 is so abundant in the desert beyond the Atlas moun- 

 tains in Algiers, and fed the French army for three 

 days. (See Science-Gossip, viii. 60, 186; xi. 146.) 

 I had the pleasure of his acquaintance in the province 

 of Oran for four seasons, when he gave me great 

 assistance in collecting and forming a herbarium of 

 the extensive and interesting flora of that country. — 

 Thomas Birch Wolfe. 



Rare Plants. — Mr. Thomas Rogers, the hon. 

 sec. of the Manchester Botanists' Association, sends 

 us a copy of a paper recently read by him before the 

 above society, entitled, "A Botanical Excursion to 

 the Grampian Mountains." It is a well-written and 

 agreeable account of the peculiar and attractive flora 

 of this region. The paper is published by Mr. James 

 Nield, Oldham. 



Glaucium luteum. — With reference to the 

 article in January's number, entitled "An Early 

 Summer Tour in Kent," the term corniciilatiini, 

 as applied therein to Glaucium hiteiim, is an obsolete 

 one, and more a synonym of the garden species, I 

 am told, than of the common seaside sort. — E. de C. 



Vegetable (Parthenogenesis. — The following 

 looks veiy much like the phenomenon known among 

 zoologists as Parthenogenesis. In an Alpine dioecious 

 flowering plant, Antennaria Alpina, a native of the 

 high Alps and the Arctic regions, the male plant is 

 extremely scarce. Professor Kerner has never seen 

 the male plant, and he relates how, in 1874, he cul- 

 tivated the female plant with very great care in the 

 Botanical Gardens at Innspruck, excluding all pos- 

 sibility of foreign impregnation either by this or any 

 allied species. Notwithstanding this, the plants pro- 

 duced a number of seeds. These were sown the 

 following spring, and six out of ten germinated, two 

 only reaching maturity, but showing no signs of 

 hybridisation. 



Sexual Modifications of the Glumes of 

 Grasses. — M. Fournier gives the following as the 

 result of his examination of Mexican grasses. Among 

 those with sexes separated, if the sexes are borne on 



