l62 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE - G OS SIP. 



shoots proceeding from the bark of mature limbs, and 

 not from the terminal branches. As the spring advances, 

 Aristotdea raceinosa, a shrub bearing a strong resem - 

 blance to the American blossoming currant, is in 

 bloom in the forest clearings. Towards Christmas 

 the woods are in their glory ; then the grand Rata 

 Mctrosidcros robiista is suffused with a rosy blush, by 

 reason of its multitudinous crimson myrtle blooms 

 peeping out among its green leaves all over its great 

 crown ; the curious flowers oi Astelia hang delicately 

 out between the stout grassy leaves of epiphytes, 

 perched high up on tlie branches of the great trees ; 

 then both white and crimson myrtle blooms hang 

 from creejDers running lilce the shrouds of a vessel up 

 the trunks of the giants of the forest ; then sweet- 

 scented dendrobiums hang pendent from many a stem, 

 mingling their yellowish blossoms with silky and trans- 

 parent fronds of Jrichoinancs and Hyinenophylluin ; 

 then the native Screw-pine, bound like ivy with a net- 

 work of rootlets to some supporting stem, expands 

 in the midst of its sedge-like leaves its curious 

 spadices and its white sugary spathaceous bracts, 

 sought after by natives and schoolboys as a delicacy ; 

 then, too, Wenmannia raccmosa is gay with a pro- 

 fusion of racemes, of white veronica-like blossoms ; 

 tlien on the edges of precipices Rhabdothammis 

 Solandri displays its orange-coloured bells, and 

 Knighlia excelsa, a tree whose timber presents a 

 curious interwoven appearance, bears its honeysuckle 

 blossoms. On the mountains, at this season, Ranun- 

 culus nivicola, a robust buttercup, reminds the 

 mountain shepherd of his native fields ; and on the 

 volcanic peaks, just beneatli the snow-line, may now 

 be found, in full bloom, dwarf veronicas, Senecio 

 eleagnifolia, Claytonia, Forstera, GaitUheria, Selmesia, 

 Ozot/iatunus, and other interesting plants. On the 

 sea cliffs to the north, Metrosideros tomentosa puts 

 forth its really splendid cymes of crimson myrtle 

 blooms, and a beautiful crimson veronica, with a large 

 dark gi-een glossy leaf, may be found in the same 

 locality. There is a great dearth of herbaceous 

 flowering plants here : the Buttercup, a white linum, 

 Ouresia, a feeble violet, and daisy, with a small pale 

 mesembryanthemum, being nearly all that we possess. 

 Strangers, however, from almost every clime ai^e 

 stealing in upon and amidst the native plants. The 

 Purple Foxglove of Britain, and the white species 

 from the Canaries, now grow by the sides of the forest 

 roads ; while thistles, hawkweeds, daisies, and butter- 

 cups are everywhere. In our gardens Agave Amtri- 

 cana is quite at home ; variegated and other yuccas 

 send up pillars of tulip-shaped blossoms; camellias, 

 six or seven feet high, bear profusion of -delicate 

 blooms, and rhododendrons open their great cups, 

 shedding rich fragrance around. Near to the sea 

 geraniums and pelargoniums blossom all the winter. 

 Indeed, a bouquet may be gathered in North New 

 Zealand any day in the year, both in the forests and 

 in the gardens—^. Wells, Taranaki, New Zealand. 



Flora, of Cumberland axd Westmoreland. 

 — I beg to inform your correspondent " S. C. L." in 

 Science-Gossip for May, that there is no published 

 completed "Flora "of either Cumberland or West- 

 moreland. One was projected for these two coun- 

 ties about three or four years ago by a society in 

 Kendal, but to the regret of many it was never com- 

 pleted. There are lists of plants in several local 

 guidebooks, but often imperfect and untrustworthy. 

 Dr. Trimen, in "Journal of Botany" for June, 1874, 

 enumerates a great variety of these lists, contribu- 

 tions, remarks, and such-like. He says the list in 

 Mrs. Lynn Linton's book is the best. From a 

 manuscript "Flora of Cumberland" which I pos- 

 sess, from a London catalogue, marked to show 

 Cumberland flowers, by Mr. H. C. Watson, from 

 lists contributed by botanical friends, and other 

 sources, I conclude that a Flora of Cumberland 

 should comprise at least 875 flowering plants. We 

 have great diversity of elevation and soil, from the 

 top of Scawfell Pike, 3,210 feet, to the level of the 

 sea. And the sandy sea-banks, the morasses, the 

 debris covering the red sandstones, the coal-mea- 

 sures, the mountain limestone, and the different clay- 

 slates — not to speak of the plutonic rocks — form a 

 suitable habitat for many classes of plants. Cumber- 

 land can boast of having produced one plant which, 

 as regards England, is unique, — Lychnis alpina, and 

 also that still greater rarity, Alcheinilla conjiincta ; 

 concerning which Dr. Syme doubts whether it has 

 ever been found truly wild in Britain or not. — R. W. 



Anemone Cluster-cup. — I lately found near 

 Windermere the Anemone Cluster-cup {ALcidium 

 leucosperiniiin) on the petals and along the stalk of 

 the flower. This, I think, is a most unusual case, 

 for amongst many thousands of specimens I have 

 found, I never before met with snch a circumstance. 

 — Thos. Brit tain. 



Teratology among the Crucifer/E. — Among 

 plants that bear flowers in racemes or spikes, I know 

 of none in which the characters of indefinite inflo- 

 rescence appear more constant than in the Cruciferae, 

 of whicli I have been so confident as to think it as 

 likely that water would run up hill as that any cruci- 

 ferous plant would produce a flower on tbe top of a 

 branching stalk. This year, however, I am sorely 

 tempted to cast away my confidence in the fidelity of 

 any plants to such a law. For I have in my garden 

 a stock raised from seed sown in 1875, which has 

 flowered for the first time in the present spring, and 

 is covered with purple blossoms. On one of its 

 branches there are three flowers, one at its extremity 

 and the other two at its sides. The flower at the 

 extremity was the first to open, the lateral flowers 

 afterwards. This abnormally terminal flower is evi- 

 dently double, in the sense of being formed of two 

 united, so that it might be thought that they were 

 only lateral flowers coherent; but in that case I 



