April 1, 1869.] 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



91 



BOTANY. 



Winter Mushroom. — While Mr. Leeming, of 

 Casterton, Westmoreland, was out this morning 

 (Wednesday, February 17th), looking after bis 

 stock, he found in a meadow two mushrooms, each 

 about six inches in circumference; and in point of 

 flavour, they were, I can affirm from actual experience, 

 equal to any I tasted last year, when they were so 

 prolific. — S. Morris. 



Capsella bursa -pastoris. — The plants usually 

 united under this name seem to vary very greatly 

 from one another, irrespective of soil or situation. 

 The undersigned, who has been investigating tbis 

 variation for a year or two back, would esteem it a 

 favour if local botanists would kindly forward 

 him specimens of the forms existing in their locali- 

 ties for examination and comparison. The speci- 

 mens may be either fresh or dried, but should as 

 far as possible have fully formed seed-pouches, and 

 should be gathered with the roots attached. British 

 or continental specimens will equally oblige. — Charles 

 P. Hobkirk, Honoria-street, Huddersfielcl. 



Potentilla. — There are several British species 

 of this genus, some of them exceedingly pretty. The 

 P.fragariastrum, for example, with its small white 

 flowers, always attracts my eye, they look so like 

 the wild strawberry bloom, and, as they appear in 

 our hedgerows early in spring, I have often known 

 children mistake them for the latter, exclaiming, 

 "Oh, don't pick those, or we shall not have any 

 wild strawberries." Then comes the " silver-weed," 

 Potentilla anserisna, a roadside plant with yellow 

 flowers and pinnate leaves, the leaves being easily 

 distinguished by a soft white down which grows on 

 them. Another member is the P.fruticosa, a rather 

 rare northern flower, with yellow blossoms and piu- 

 nate leaves. The flowers of this species are not so 

 large as those of the P. anserisna, and the plant is 

 partial to shaded spots ; is found mostly in bushy 

 places. The cultivated kinds of Potentilla are so 

 well known that they need no description here, and 

 the P. reptans and the P.formentilla have already 

 been noticed. I somehow fancy the flowers of the 

 latter are smaller than those of the P. reptans, but 

 as I am a very humble botanist, I will not presume 

 to differ from W. Holland in regard to the difficulty 

 of distinguishing between the two species in ques- 

 tion, or venture to affirm that they are not the same 

 under different aspects, soil, &c, &c. — Helen B. 

 Watney. 



Scolopendrium ceterach.— This plant was used 

 as a bait for cod, just as a piece of red cloth is. Its 

 under side is of a bright brown colour, and a little 

 glossy, which makes it still more conspicuous when 

 used as a bait. It is merely stuck firmly on to a hook 

 and dragged after a boat, or sunk in deep water. It 



is no doubt mistaken by the fish for the sandworm 

 which a good long frond carefully arranged on the 

 hook somewhat resembles. — H. W. 



Cochlearia oieicinalis is rather biennial than 

 annual. It sheds its seed early in the summer, and 

 the seedlings grow to a considerable size by the 

 autumn, and flower the following spring. It might 

 possibly under cultivation, and sown in the early 

 spring, arrive at maturity within the year, but its 

 habit in the wild state is such as I have detailed it. 

 The Cochlearia Danica, which is, perhaps, only a 

 variety of the former, is smaller, but thicker and 

 more succulent in the leaf, and more pungent to the 

 taste, and would, I think, be the best plant to 

 cultivate for the table. — H. W. 



Scurvy-grass {Cochlearia officinalis) is, as far as 

 my observations extend (and I have now been living 

 close to the seaside for the last two years), a peren- 

 nial, and I therefore must beg to differ from Helen 

 E. Watney as to her statement that it is certainly an 

 annual. — Samuel A. Brenan, Vicar of Cushcndun. 



The Shamrock.— In answer to "S. A. S.," Bel- 

 fast, respecting what kind of trefoil is used by the 

 Irish, I have always found Trifolium mimes the 

 one preferred, and not Trifolium repens, as aiiy black 

 spot on the leaves is considered by the lower orders 

 as a blemish. This I have observed in co. Dublin, 

 Wicklow, Meath, Westmeath, Louth, Fermanagh, 

 and this part of Antrim. — Samuel A. Brenan, 

 Cushendun. 



Sundew. — Withering (Botany, ed. III. 1796) 

 states that his friends, Messrs. Whately and 

 Gardom, witnessed the leaf of Drosera anglica curl 

 over so as to enclose a fly, which had been 

 previously entangled in the glandular hairs ; the 

 more distant hairs bending towards the victim to 

 hold it more tightly. Both (quoted by Withering) 

 saw the same occurrence in Germany. Latterly an 

 American entomologist gives an account of a like 

 kind, in the American Naturalist. Will any 

 entomological or botanical reader say whether he 

 can confirm this singular phenomenon ? Drosera 

 (Sundew) is so nearly related to Bioncea muscipnla 

 (Venus' s Ply-trap) that such a faculty is very 

 possible. I never saw it myself, and Withering 

 says that he failed in his experiments. — W. W. 

 Spicer, lichen Abbas. 



Botanical Allusion in Tennyson.— Tennyson, 

 in the first stanza of the 111th section of " In Me- 

 moriam," writes thus of the spring time : — 



" Now fades the last long streak of snow, 

 Now burgeons every maze of quick, 

 About the flowering squares and thick 

 By ashen roots the violets blow." 



Our laureate is usually accurate in all that he says 

 about nature, and I should like to know, whether 

 violets do occur more frequently under the shade of 

 the ash than elsewhere.—/. B. S. C. 



