HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



or six of the petals and imperfect stamens first 

 described, though they evidently belonged to the forty 

 petalled flower, as it would not have had a symme- 

 trical appearance but for them. On this continued 

 axis, about three lines from the base of the perfect 

 normal flower was an imperfect flower containing two 

 perfect stamens and one imperfect one, which were 

 surrounded by about eight bodies, some of which 

 resembled petals, others bracts, and others bracteoles. 

 I may add that in the same district I saw about 

 twenty specimens of Genm intermedium, some of 

 which were near urbanum though more were nearer 

 rivale ; about half the number seemed to be exactly 

 intermediate, on comparing all three in the field. I 

 have often found intermedium, though only where both 

 rivale and urbanum occur together. — William West, 

 Bradford. 



Singular variety of Hartstongue.— This 

 excellent specimen was gathered by Mr. P. Thomp- 

 son, at Milnthorpe. It shows the heteromorphic 

 condition of some leaves, when placed in a posi- 

 tion favourable to their growth. First, the midrib 

 splits into two parts, then, instead of the ordinary 



Fig. 165. — Peculiar variety of Scolopendriwn vulgare. 



bifurcated frond, we have the Scolopendriwn vulgare, 

 perafero-cornutum of Moore's "Nature Printed Ferns." 

 This heteromorphic change is far from frequent ; 

 in the present state, we find it in the shape of horn- 

 like projections, or to be better understood "pitchers," 

 for example, the cuplike ending of the midrib, in the 

 Nepenthes— arising, where it has prominent midribs, 

 in the cohesion of the margin of the leaf. The 

 example here figured is peculiar, because after being 



partially joined, it again separates, with a flattened 

 frond. Our correspondent does not state the con- 

 dition of the remaining fronds in the plant, probably 

 this was the only one found. 



The Powers of Vegetation. — Trees have the 

 power of adapting themselves to suit the locality in 

 which they grow. Waterton tells us of a nut-tree 

 which grew through the axle-hole of a millstone, 

 which happened to be lying on the ground (some 

 nut-eating animal had stored its nuts beneath the 

 stone and one of them had escaped destruction). The 

 tree increased in size till at length the trunk quite 

 filled the hole. It could not then grow any thicker, 

 owing to its millstone collar, and so it grew taller and 

 raised the stone with it from the ground. I noticed 

 the other day a Jasmine tree which was growing up 

 one side of a brick wall. When, having become too 

 large for the wall, it had no place on which to climb, 

 it sent its branches in several places underneath the 

 coping stone of the wall through holes, I suppose, 

 made by the crumbling away of the mortar. These 

 then grew down the wall on the other side, there 

 being quite as much of the tree on this side as on the 

 other. — W. H. Cobb, Winchester College. 



GEOLOGY. 



" An Ornithosaurian from the Stonesfield 

 Slate." — This is the subject of a paper by Pro- 

 fessor Seeley, in which the author described the 

 characters presented by the impression of the skull of 

 an Omithosaur in a slab of Stonesfield slate from 

 Kineton, near Stow-on-the-Wold, the peculiarities of 

 which are such as to induce him to found for it a new 

 genus, to which he thinks it probable that most, if 

 not all, the known Stonesfield slate Pterodactyles 

 may belong. It is distinguished especially by the 

 great length of the roof of the skull posterior to the 

 orbits, by the presence of a very deep constriction of 

 the frontal region between the orbits, by the strongly 

 marked sutures between the bones, and the curiously 

 crocodilian character of the plan of structure of the roof 

 of the skull, which suggests the existence of a lower 

 grade of Ornithosaurian animals than has hitherto 

 been suspected. The genus appears to be allied to 

 some forms of Rhamphorhynchus. The author names 

 the species, which is in the Oxford Museum, Rham- 

 phocephalus Prestwichi, and considers that the other 

 bones of Ornithosauria discovered in the Stonesfield 

 slate support the generic separation of the group. 



Localities for Fossil Starfish. — With refer- 

 ence to your wish that any information respecting the 

 fossil starfish localities might be given you, I am 

 happy to mention that I have found the feathery star- 

 fish (Ophioco/na) in the calc grit which lies immediately 

 under the Kimmeridge clay situated between Sandsfoot 

 Castle, near Weymouth, and the Portland ferry 

 bridge.— H. W. R, Weymouth. 



