HARD WICKE 'S S CIENC E-GO SSI P. 



257 



hood. Almost any number may be taken among the 

 heather, and even in the town, on a summer day. 

 C Editsa is also somewhat abundant this season, and 

 larv?e of the Emperor moth [S. Carpini) are common 

 on the heaths. Some years ago I used to find the 

 larvae of the Cinnabar {E. yacobcEo) in large numbers 

 on the ragwort growing by the roadside ; but I have 

 not since been able to meet with a single specimen. 

 Is this species known to be thus capricious in its 

 appearance ? — W. H. Grosci: 



Pied Blackbird. — A very fine pied variety of the 

 Blackbird ( Turdiis Jiicntla) was shot at Ryhope, co. 

 Durham, on 27th September, iZ^T.—J.T.T.R., 

 Ryhope, Ditrhain. 



Supposed Occurrence of the Atlantic Right 

 Whale. — Since my article on the Greenland Whale, 

 the following paragraph has appeared in Nature, 

 which renders it extremely probable that the Atlantic 

 Right Whale still lingers in its old haunts : — " Mr. 

 P. J. Van Beneden has made a short communication 

 to the Academie Royale de Belgique, published in 

 that society's Bulletin, with reference to a letter by 

 M. Capellini, on a true whale captured in the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, near Taranto. The Italian author 

 suggests the new specific name, Bahzna tarantina ; 

 but M. Van Beneden much more reasonably thinks 

 it most probable that it is a stray specimen of B. bis- 

 cayensis.''' I hope something more will be heard of 

 the interesting stranger. — T. SoutJnuell, Norioich. 



BOTANY. 



Inflorescence of Gourds and Pumpkins. — 

 Gourds and Pumpkins are an interesting group of 

 plants, whose large yellow flowers, having the appear- 

 ance of golden vases, richly ornament the trailing 

 stems in the quiet months when summer is passing 

 into autumn. The solitary flowers in the axils of 

 their leaves form, what botanists call, the simplest 

 form of indefinite inflorescence. But in every gourd 

 or pumpkin plant that I have noticed, the simplicity 

 of its inflorescence has been interrupted by the appa- 

 rent impatience of the fruit-blossoms to expand. The 

 male flowers, oi", in popular language, false blossoms, 

 are in the proportion to the fertile flowers of about 

 ten to one ; but the latter rigorously insist upon the 

 rule of "ladies first " in the order of their expansion. 

 A fruit-blo5Som will open while three or four other 

 buds remain below it unexpanded, and a gourd ac- 

 quires considerable size before its brother blossom 

 next below it will have come to display its two 

 stamens and a half. I should not have written about 

 this perhaps familiar fact, but that I have never read 

 of it, which may be in consequence of the very limited 

 circle of my reading : but there may be among your 

 readers others besides me, who have more ready 

 access to plants themselves than to what learned men 

 have written about them, and who may be able to 



confirm what I say. But how is the phenomenon to 

 be explained ? At every node of the stem are three 

 germs or buds. One of these becomes a branch, one 

 a flower, and the third is developed as a tendril. I 

 have been sometimes tempted to suppose that male 

 and female flowers do not belong to the same series 

 of buds, but was obliged to give up this hypothesis on 

 observing that whenever two flowers appeared at the 

 same joint, they were invariably similai-, whether 

 barren or fertile ; so that the matter remains unex- 

 plained, except by consideration of the necessity for 

 the fertile flowers to make haste, in order to ripen 

 their fruit during the few days of hot weather in which 

 they have to live. — John Gibbs. 



Erica Mediterranea. — Mr. Mason rather mis- 

 understands my.remarks in the July number of Science- 

 Gossip, as to Erica Mediterranea. What I said was 

 that I felt " considerable doubt" as to the continued 

 existence of that plant on Urrisbeg, and that it was 

 " nearly, if not altogether" extirpated in that station. 

 I am glad to learn from Mr. Mason that my doubts 

 were unfounded, and that this beautiful heath is still 

 to be found at Roundstone, though I failed to find it. 

 I observe that it has also been seen recently by 

 Prof. Balfour {vide Proc. Bot. Soc. Edin.). This 

 elegant heath appears, however, to be in very small 

 quantity as compared with its former abundance. 

 Mackey says, ^' eoz'eriiig a space of three acres," and 

 Mr. Ogilby, who gave, in the pages of the Phyto- 

 logist, a good account of this plant at Urrisbeg, says 

 that it occurs for more than a mile along the stream. 

 Erica Mediterranea does not seem to be well known 

 to the common people of that region. The only native 

 I met on the hill was an old man looking after cattle, 

 and he rather thought I was a greenhorn to be looking 

 for heather in bloom so early : he said there would be 

 none in flower until July. I cannot concur in Mr. 

 Mason's advice to procure a guide. I have never yet 

 employed one, and would much rather miss my plant 

 than have it shown to me by a professional guide. I 

 spent another day at Roundstone in August of the 

 present year, and before breakfast succeeded in finding 

 Nais flexilis in "some plenty. This plant should have 

 been called /;-«^//w, as it breaks off" with a slight touch, 

 and you usually get only the upper portion. I also 

 found Adiantwn Capilliis- Veneris, but in very small 

 quantity, and the plants insignificant. District VIII, 

 is to be credited with Elatine hexandra and Carex 

 pallescens : the former grows sparingly along with 

 JVais, and the latter occurs at Killery Harbour, not 

 far from Leenane. — S. A. Stezvart. 



Fructification of Sycamore. — The large 

 quantity of Sycamore fruits with more than the 

 usual number of winged seeds that made their ap- 

 pearance this season, as noted by Mr. Holland in the 

 August number of Science-Gossip, was also very 

 noticeable in the neighbourhood of Bristol ; but, so 

 far as I observed, there were seldom more than three 



