5° 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTES OF AN AMATEUR ON SOME 

 CANADIAN PLANTS. 



THE pitcher-plant, Sarracenia purpurea, which 

 grows in great abundance in our swamps and 

 marshes, is said to be possessed of very valuable 

 medicinal properties, as a mitigator of the severer 

 symptoms of smallpox. I am not prepared to 

 hazard an opinion respecting the properties thus 

 claimed for it, but I think it probabk that there are 

 many plants, wild plants especially, whose virtues 

 are still undeveloped ; nor is it unlikely that it may 

 have pleased the God of Nature to provide that our 

 discovery of those virtues should be gradual and pro- 

 gressive, for the purpose of inciting us to persevere 

 in our endeavours to increase our stores of know- 

 ledge, and thus to be constantly adding to the fresh 

 disclosures ever coming to light of His wisdom and 

 His goodness. 



The pitcher-plant, belonging to the Order Sarra- 

 ceniaceae, is a semi-aquatic plant, belonging to the 

 water-pitcher family, and luxuriates in moist situa- 

 tions ; but I have grown it, although without signal 

 success, in my garden, and, with better effect, in 

 large pots or boxes filled partly with rough peat-soil 

 and partly with sphagnum moss. I never found the 

 leaves of the plant without cold water in them, even 

 in the hottest weather, floating on which are in- 

 variably discovered a number of minute drowned or 

 drowning insects. 



There is a swamp, in the neighbourhood of this 

 town, in which, in addition to pitcher-plants, are 

 found many other interesting specimens of our flora, 

 e.g. Ledum palustre, Ledum latifolium, Kalmia an- 

 gustifolia, &c, plants known in England by the con- 

 ventional term, "American Plants," and cultivated 

 "at home" with great care and at considerable cost. 



The milkweed, Asclepias. — This family is variously 

 divided, by different botanists, into, 51, 36, and 22 

 species. The last is the American limit. 



The spring-shoots of one of these plants, A. Syriaca, 

 are used by the habitans of the Province of Quebec 

 as an esculent ; and the cotton, soft as down, con- 

 cealed within its pods, forms, in some cases, the 

 stuffing of their beds. This cotton is of peculiarly 

 soft texture, and has, in consequence, been called 

 " Virginian silk." 



Another of the milkweeds, A. iuberosa, is a com- 

 mon plant in the county of Peterborough. It is a very 

 showy plant, with bright orange umbellate blossoms. 

 The English name of this species is the pleurisy-root. 

 The family, as we are informed by Gray, derives its 

 name from ^Esculapius. 



I do not think there would be much difficulty in 

 cultivating the milkweeds with beneficial commercial 

 results. The requisites would be a very light soil 

 and abundant space. 



New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus Americanus. — This is 

 an ornamental shrub, growing to the height of from 



three to four feet, and embellished, in summer, with 

 clusters of elegant white flowers possessing a faintly 

 sweet perfume. The shrub dies down to the roots 

 every winter. It has, not unfrequently, been used as 

 a substitute for the Chinese leaves ; but although by 

 no means unpalatable, we Canadians cannot flatter 

 ourselves that it will ever prove a formidable rival to 

 either Hyson or Bohea. 



It is, however, satisfactory to know that in the 

 event of our supply from the Celestial Empire being 

 at any time cut off, we may still indulge, —furnished 

 by our own soil, for I have tasted the infusion, — in 

 the "cups that cheer but not inebriate." 



Vincent Clementi, B.A. 



Peterborough, Cauda. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTER OF 



FENESTELLA. 



By G. R. Vine. 



{Continued from page 276, vol. 187S.) 



IN the study of the polyzoa — whether recent or 

 fossil — two distinct characters are presented to 

 our view : A true morphological, and a true physio- 

 logical character. The morphology of the fossil 

 polyzoa seems to come more fully within the de- 

 scriptive range of the palaeontologist than the other ; 

 but if the biologist is allowed.to speculate when dealing 

 with living forms, surely when dealing with the 

 more ancient forms, sound physiological knowledge 

 will be an advantage rather than a disparagement. 

 Hence, in applying the results of modern investi- 

 gation into the biology of the polyzoa, I have been 

 guided in my selection more by the necessity on 

 the part of the reader of the accurate appreciation 

 of these results, than by the many and varied cha- 

 racter of the investigations ; some of which are too 

 elaborate for general appreciation. 



It seems to me then to be an axiom by no means 

 inappreciable that the life history of the palaeozoic 

 polyzoa can form no exception to the life history of 

 polyzoa generally. The definite forms of the one are 

 as truly characteristic as the definite forms of the other. 

 Among recent polyzoa no type exists bearing the 

 close affinities with the palaeozoic types, the nearest 

 approach to the Fenestella being the Retihornera of 

 Kirchenpaur. These, however, differ in many parti- 

 culars — especially so in the mode of development of 

 the cells along the sides of the fenestrules, and of 

 the non-existence of a central keel. But the vital 

 actions of the individual animals of the Retihornera 

 were essentially of the same character as the vital 

 actions of the animals of Fenestella. It will be well, 

 therefore, to devote a few paragraphs to the record of 

 the ordinary modes of propagation noticeable among 

 the polyzoa, so that we may be able to appreciate 

 more fully the value and the bearing of the facts which 

 will follow. 



