HA RD Wl CKE'S S CIENCE- G SSI P. 



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disturbed, and subsequently in a more accessible 

 position, whence a fine spike of flowers was obtained, 

 though not without difficulty. We had no time for 

 further search. Bentham mentions this rare plant as 

 having been found on limestone in Somersetshii-e : 

 we gathered it on the Gloucestershire side of the 

 Avon. The sloping rock on which Sedum rupestrc 

 once grew luxuriantly has been utterly destroyed in 

 blasting for the new railroad. I hope the latter 

 plant has other habitats not far distant. — H. M, C. 

 Allen, Barcoinbe Rectory, Leaves. 



Edelweiss. — I have this year found the Edelweiss 

 to be as abundant in certain localities in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Zermatt as on any former occasion, with 

 the exception of a few places where I remembered 

 having seen it growing by the roadside. The news- 

 paper article to which Mr. Hall refers has been freely 

 translated and copied into most of the Swiss papers, 

 and has led to the imposition of restrictive penalties 

 by some of the local authorities, against the whole- 

 sale uprooting of the plant in endangered districts ; 

 it has also called forth many suggestions for the pro- 

 tection and preservation of this and other botanical 

 rarities. Fortunately for the Edelweiss, it does not 

 grow in such localities as those usually indicated by 

 the guide-books, and those persons who are not 

 acquainted with its habitat are generally obliged to 

 content themselves by purchasing their supplies from 

 the natives, who, for obvious reasons, are naturally 

 reticent as to its whereabouts. So far, however, 

 from being extinct, I may say that in several places 

 (well known to me in former years), at no great ele- 

 vation above Zermatt, it would have been easily 

 possible, in August last, to have collected enough of 

 the plant in full bloom to have filled a bushel basket, 

 within the space of a few hundred yards. — R. T. 

 Lewis. 



Origin of Long Stamens in Crucifer.e. — 

 Mr. Gibbs is very possibly right in his explanation of 

 the " lateral " flowers he has observed in the Water- 

 cress, but I fail to see how their occurrence explains 

 in any way the origin of the long stamens. Every- 

 body knows that a stamen is a modified leaf or leaflet, 

 i.e. a lateral organ, and that it forms a member of a 

 modified leaf-bud, known as the flower. Any leaf 

 may, I believe, produce an axillary bud, and 

 instances similar to those observed by Mr. Gibbs 

 have been previously recorded. Such a bud may 

 form a flower, or not ; but it will most probably con- 

 sist of more than one, if not more than two leaves ; so 

 that it is not a very satisfactory explanation of the 

 origin of a pair of stamens, which, as I recently 

 showed in your columns, are often but branches of 

 one. Moreover, if axillary, the long pairs must be in 

 the axils of the sepals to which they are superposed or 

 opposite. How then do they occur within the petal 

 and not alternating with them in the same whorl ? — 

 C. S. Boulger. 



ver- 



NoTES ON Vegetable Tera- 

 tology. — Probably no genera of 

 British plants display as many 

 vagaries as the Plantains. Dr. 

 Masters, in' his valuable work, often 

 refers to the various species. The 

 one here figured is Plantago lancco- 

 lata. At the summit of the spike, 

 three perfect leaves are seen grow- 

 ing; it is simply the bracts trans- 

 formed into leaves : it teaches a 

 lesson about which there can be little 

 doubt — that the bracts'are only modi- 

 fied leaves, which, under certain 

 favourable circumstances, such as a 

 continuance of humid weather, like 

 what has recently taken place, will 

 again revert to the original form. 

 Our botanical friends might keep a 

 sharp look-out, and when they find 

 any peculiar abnormal forms, they pjg ^^g Y\o^^■^.- 

 would confer a favour if they would ing -spike of P/.z^- 

 send them in a fresh state by an early "^ 

 post. — James F. Robinson, Frods/iam. 



The Cotoneaster.— In answer to your corre- 

 spondent, I might say that last year I searched the 

 Orme's Head, and found the Cotoneaster in the 

 locality described by Mr. Lees, of Worcester, in an 

 interesting paper which appeared in Science-Gossip 

 for 1874, though very sparingly. The same ledge of 

 rocks yielded many other good plants, such as Ileli- 

 antheiniim canum, Epipactis ovalis, Rid'ia peregrina, 

 &c., which would repay a visit. Gentiana acaulis is 

 acknowledged to possess no claims as an English 

 plant, and if it occurs on Cader Idris, it is evidently 

 planted. I saw nothing of it when there last.— 

 G. C. Driice. 



Allium ampeloprasum. — Is not your corre- 

 spondent, Mr. H. Pearce, mistaken in saying this 

 plant " carpets the ground of woods in some places 

 (about Cader Idris) where it has gained the mastery 

 over other plants "? If this be indeed the case, it is 

 a grand discovery in English botany. Hitherto, A. 

 amtieloprasiiin has been ranked among our native 

 plants only as growing on the Steep Holms, a rocky 

 islet in the Severn estuary, where Ray was the first 

 to notice it ; and even there Borrer considers it to be 

 " only a remnant of ancient cultivation." Is not the 

 Cader Idris plant most probably Allium ursinum .? — 

 E.S. 



Notes upon Cader Idris Botany. — I believe 

 that if there be a thankless task in connection with 

 such a pleasant subject as field botany it is surely the 

 throwing of a doubt upon the accuracy of the printed 

 records of a fellow "follower" of Flora. Yet at 

 times, when one sees evident mistakes gaining cur- 

 rency as scientific facts, one feels constrained to 

 put in a word for the benefit of travellers in the 



