HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



20' 



One that I found in a field, could only hop, being 

 quite unable to fly, and another one was found 

 shortly afterwards in the next field in the same 

 condition. The weather at the time was severe, but 

 the cause of this mortality was undoubtedly disease. 



NOTES FOR APRIL 1S9O, BEING AN EXTRACT FROM 

 A LETTER. 



The greater and lesser periwinkle were both in 

 flower the beginning of this month. Lilac leaves 

 also about this date ; and the hedges are now getting 

 forward in leaf. Young rooks were hatched about 

 the 1st of April, as I find by egg-shells thrown out of 

 the nest. What a large quantity of sticks the rooks 

 drop when busy building, either from their not being 

 suitable, or by accident ! There is enough wood 

 lying under a few elm trees (which contain a small 

 rookery of about eighteen nests) to last a person for 

 lighting a fire every morning for a fortnight. Snow- 

 drops and crocuses have all disappeared now from 

 our gardens. An interesting fact connected with the 

 Christmas-rose I have lately observed in our garden. 

 This plant was in flower about Christmas-time here, 

 and were all faded away, when about the end of 

 March I saw with surprise another flower half 

 opened, which had shot forth from the stem where 

 the flowers of December had died off, and now 

 (April 7th) I notice others on some of the other stems, 

 so that it seems as if it flowers twice in a season. 

 There is now nothing more pleasant than to ramble 

 through the meadows on a clear evening at this time 

 of the year. The rich and clear song of the black- 

 bird reaches us from some leafing hedgerow a little 

 way off, where he sits perched on the top of some 

 bush, cheering his less dusky spouse, as she is keep- 

 ing guard over her blue eggs, snugly placed in the 

 nest at the bottom of the bush. During the second 

 week. of this month the currant and gooseberry bushes 

 came into flower. Ground-ivy was in flower on the 

 9th, song-thrush with young on the loth. Fieldfares 

 I observed on the 13th, also a large flock of them the 

 day before. Cowslips were in flower under hedges 

 on the 13th, and dog-violets and wood-anemones 

 were in flower on the same day. The ivy-leaved 

 speedwell abounds amongst the green corn in a corn- 

 field called " Mill-ditch." Blackthorn was in flower 

 on the 13th of this month along the hedge at the 

 bottom of the same field. 



MAY. 



The trees are now putting on their summer dress, 

 and the hawthorn scents the evening gales. The 

 anemone, primrose and violet have faded away, but 

 others have taken their places, such as the blue-bell, 

 or wild hyacinth, purple orchis, germander speed- 

 well, and tormentil. The birds are as yet singing 

 merrily in the hedges and groves, but in a few 

 months' time all our singing-birds will be silent with 



the exception of the wren and redbreast. The 

 blackthorn has faded from the hedgerows, its place 

 now taken by the milk-white hawthorn, which looks 

 in its full as if a snowstorm had been and left great 

 bunches here and there in every hedgerow. Some- 

 times the flowers of the hawthorn are pale red, 

 which look lovely in contrast with the white. The 

 apple-trees and the wild apple or crab are now 

 looking their best, soon in their turn to wither and 

 die. 



(To be continued.) 



THE LUMINOSITY OF PLANTS. 

 By Canon Russell. 



WILL you kindly allow me to bring under 

 notice some facts connected with the lumino- 

 sity of plants which have been recently attracting my 

 attention? I became acquainted with them quite 

 accidentally, in the following way. 



On the evening of the i6th of June, 1889, I 

 happened to be taking a stroll round the Rectory 

 Garden, and passing by a fine plant of the common 

 double marigold {Calenditla officinalis) of a deep 

 orange colour, I was struck by a peculiar brightness 

 in the appearance of the flowers. After watching for 

 a few seconds, I observed, to my great surprise, that 

 corruscations of light, (like mimic lightning) were 

 playing over the petals. Thinking that I might be 

 only the victim of an ocular illusion, I brought out 

 other members of the household, and asked them to 

 report exactly what they saw. Some perceived the 

 flashes readily enough, but others only slowly and 

 after patient observation, all eyes not being equally 

 sensitive to such rapid vibrations of light. 



These performances commenced about 8.30 P.M. 

 and continued for perhaps under an hour. I after- 

 wards ascertained, that much later on, when it was 

 almost dark, the whole plant seemed to glow with a 

 sort of pulsing phosphorescence. The common 

 nasturtium, and the scarlet geraniums showed a like 

 luminosity. Closely connected with their appear- 

 ances, I could distinctly see a blue vapour of 

 extreme tenuity given off from the leaves of some 

 of these plants, if not from all, in open daylight or 

 under lamplight. This can be best seen by holding 

 the leaf against a dark background, and letting the 

 light fall upon it at various angles. These two last 

 phenomena were not as readily detected by other 

 persons as were the sparks of the marigold. They 

 were made, however, abundantly evident to all eyes 

 in the following way. I put a leaf of the nasturtium 

 on the stage of a microscope — and, having focussed it 

 for the central spot from which the nerves branch off, 

 under an inch and a half objective, I brought it 

 into a room nearly dark. Looking at it then through 

 the microscope I found that the leaf could be dis- 

 tinctly seen almost by its own light. The appearance 



