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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



it in every case evolved from precisely the same 

 organic constituents in the plant. The physical test 

 now indicated is the only reliable means of detecting 

 its presence ; and therefore any solution not yielding 

 the absorption spectrum aforesaid cannot be said to 

 contain chlorophyll. This comment raises a further 

 suggestion as follows. On reading the illustrations 

 of vegetable teratology, so tastefully exhibited by the 

 editor in last year's volume, many examples may be 

 noted where sepals, petals, and other floral parts have 

 been converted into green leaves or green foliar 

 organs, or vice versa. The quandary here is to de- 

 finitely settle the highly interesting and important 

 problem whether these verdant appearances are really 

 due to chlorophyll or not. It is obvious that a 

 decisive solution either one way or the other would 

 tend to eminently fortify or to seriously undermine 

 the famous " Gothic " conception that floral organs 

 (sepals, petals, stamens, &c.) are developed, or are 

 modifications of foliar organs. Any vegetable out- 

 growth whatever, though it be as green as the emerald, 

 and present a foliar aspect and structure, cannot, if 

 destitute of chlorophyll, be regarded as a leaf in any 

 functional sense of the term. — P. Q. Keegcin. 



Note on Scolopendrium vulgare, var. 

 LoBATUM, AND ITS ALLIES. — During a recent walk 

 {5th March) from Aust, Gloucester to Bristol, I 

 found the roadsides, owing to the absence of other 

 vegetation, very favourable to the observation of ferns. 

 In sheltered places, notwithstanding the severity of 

 the past winter, I noticed some fine specimens, chiefly 

 of the common hart's-tongue, as green as at mid- 

 summer. The majority showed, by their semi-withered 

 state, the advanced time of year ; but, as a whole, I 

 should be inclined to think that the excessive and 

 long- continued cold has not unfavourably affected 

 them. I was fortunate in finding two or three good, 

 and, I hope, constant varieties, which I have yet to 

 name or get named, and a very large number of 

 specimens of the variety above mentioned. In look- 

 ing at Swayne's old work on the Botany of the neigh- 

 bourhood, I find but a single variety recorded, and 

 that from the neighbourhood of Ashton ; but, of course, 

 vei7 much more must be known since the date of the 

 publication of that book ; but I regret that I am 

 unable to refer your readers to these sources of infor- 

 mation. The Botanical Secretary of the Bristol 

 Naturalists' Society is editing in its Proceedings a very 

 valuable record of the local flora ; but I expect that 

 the cryptograms have not as yet been dealt with. 

 The variety Lobatum may be looked upon as occupy- 

 ing a middle place between the simply bifurcated 

 fronds and those which are much dissected and 

 tasselled ; all of them are undoubtedly related, and 

 very inconstant, especially when transplanted, revert- 

 ing almost invariably to the specific form. This fact 

 has always been known to collectors and growers of 

 British ferns. Ferns gathered with dormant fronds 



in spring burst during the same season. In the 

 natural state the amount of variation on the same 

 plant is very great, extending from a simple tendency 

 to bifurcate at the growing point of the midrib, and 

 hardly visible on the margin, to a distinct separation 

 of the fronds on a common stipe, a simple form of 

 pinnation. This is the most notable case that has 

 come under my own observation ; but I have not as 

 yet observed a sufficient number of plants to be able 

 to say much as to the amount of variation in fronds 

 growing from a single crown. Varieties, when they 

 occur in nature, I find often occur together, and some- 

 times it requires a careful examination, by digging up 

 the roots, before the fronds can be relegated to the 

 crowns that support them. Although this variety, 

 Lobatum, and its bifurcated and tasselled allies is 

 generally distributed over the neighbourhood of 

 Bristol, it can hardly be said to be common, except in 

 a few favoured localities. Indeed, I have travelled 

 long distances along our Somersetshire and Gloucester- 

 shire lanes without observing a single specimen. 

 .Speaking generally, I fancy they are rather more 

 frequent in sheltered situations near the coast ; but 

 in returning from Aust to Bristol on the date 

 mentioned, I observed so many that I thought the 

 fact deserving of mention. In a lane running east 

 and west on Keuper soil, near Aust, 90 yards long^ 

 with high banks, well shaded by hedges and elms, I 

 counted no fewer than 117 separate plants, varying 

 from simple bifurcation to strong cresting at the 

 opposite extreme, the majority belonging to the inter- 

 mediate variety Lobatum. These were nearly all 

 strong, growing, handsome plant clusters, which, if 

 divided, would double or treble the above mentioned 

 number. Of the total number of Scolopendrium 

 plants, normal and abnormal, I should think, at a rough 

 estimate, that the bifurcate and crested kinds must 

 number probably a third. Both sides of the lane are 

 sheltered and shaded by trees, but naturally the south 

 side more than the other. Of the 117, 40 grew on 

 the side facing the sun, and 77 on the other, a 

 difference of nearly a half, and this difference would be 

 true for the normal forms also. In the close vicinity, 

 but on the sides of the main road, I observed several 

 plants of the same variety. Proportionally, however, 

 they were much scarcer. Both localities have a 

 southern exposure. — T. Stock. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Anniversary Address of the President of 

 THE Geological Society.— Dr. A Geikie delivered 

 the above address on February 20th. He dealt with 

 the history of volcanic action in Britain during the 

 earlier ages of geological time. He proposed to confine 

 the term "Archaean" to the most ancient gneisses 

 and their accompaniments, and showed that these 

 rocks, so far as we know them in this country, are 



