138 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



["Jtoe 1, 1869. 



BOTANY. 



Wolefia arhiza, Wimm — I have discovered a 

 new locality for this very minute, but very 

 interesting Lemnad— viz., Byfleet, a village about 

 three miles from "Weybridge, in Surrey. It occurs 

 in some quantity in a pond within the precincts of a 

 garden. The pond is quite unconnected with any 

 river or stream, excepting a ditch which forms an 

 outlet from it. I observed that the plant has found 

 its way into the ditch, but only for two or three 

 yards from its junction with the pond. There is no 

 other Lemna in the pond, or in the immediate 

 neighbourhood. This is the third British station 

 for Wolffia, the other two being Staines and 

 Walthamstow — W. W. Spicer, Itchen Abbas. 



Claytonia near Norwich.— "When out walk- 

 ing with a friend at Eaton, looking for early wild 

 flowers, we discovered a curious little plant, which, 

 upon examination, proved to be the Claytonia 

 perfoliata, a native of the Rocky Mountains. I 

 showed my specimen to a gentleman, who told me 

 he had found it also growing in the village of 

 Rockland— #. A. N. [See also p. 114, and (1868) 

 pp. 115, 140, and 162] 



The Shamrock..— As the question of the iden- 

 tity of the Shamrock has [interested me for some 

 time, perhaps I may be allowed to say one word 

 respecting it. 1 have read the notes on the sub- 

 ject in the March and April numbers of Science- 

 Gossip, and I am inclined to favour the view that 

 Trifolium minus is the plant in general use. Last 

 year I had some plants of the Shamrock from 

 Wexford, which I cultivated, and in no particular 

 could I distinguish them from the Trifolium minus. 

 This year I have some more authenticated Sham- 

 rocks from Cork, and as far as I can judge at 

 present^ they are plants of the same species. On 

 the other hand, however, an Irish friend from 

 Kildare showed me a sprig of "true Shamrock" 

 (as he termed it), and this was a large-leaved trefoil, 

 having a beautiful purple spot in each leaflet. This 

 must have been the Trifolium repens, I imagine. I 

 have seen a great number of plants received from 

 various parts of Ireland this year and last, and in 

 every instance, save the one just mentioned, I 

 believe them to have been plants of the Trifolium 

 minus. I may further add that a friend from 

 Limerick assures me that the trefoil with spotted 

 leaves is not considered in that county to be the 

 true Shamrock.— II. A., Oscott. 



Root-cuttings.— At a meeting of the Royal 

 Botanic Society on the 8th of May the secretary 

 called attention to a novel method of propagating 

 such plants as geraniums, fuchsias, &c— viz., by 

 cuttings taken from the roots instead of from the 

 branches. The result, in the case of geraniums, 

 was the production of a variety with leaves marked 



quite differently from those of the parent plant, 

 the flower apparently remaining unchanged. For 

 instance, the plants grown from a root-cutting of 

 the well-known geranium, Mrs. Pollock, produced 

 leaves marked with a simple horseshoe of a dark 

 colour. Erom this and other specimens exhibited 

 on the occasion it would seem that the varieties 

 produced by root-cuttings had a tendency to revert 

 to the original form from which the species have 

 been derived; but the experiment is well worth 

 pursuing further— R. H. Nisbett Browne. 



The Mistletoe.— I certainly had no intention, 

 when classing the Mistletoe with Christmas berries, 

 to imply, by so doing, that the ancient rites con- 

 nected with it, and which your correspondent 

 "T. W." evidently alludes to, were exclusively 

 associated with Christmas Day. Neither did I think 

 it necessary to allude to the Druidical ceremonies 

 performed at the commencement of the New Year, 

 when the plant in question, being distributed among 

 the people as a sacred relic, was considered an 

 effectual charm against every evil. Nor did I deem 

 it requisite to mention local or county customs. I 

 simply called it a Christmas berry, because it was, 

 and is— so some of my young friends assure me— in 

 great repute at Christmas time for decorative pur- 

 poses ; and the associations and ceremonies in which 

 it then plays a part are still as much in vogue as 

 ever in most of our English counties ; but perhaps 

 the good old custom of " kissing under the mistletoe 

 bough" may have gone out of fashion in Hereford- 

 shire ! ! The Oak could never have been its common 

 habitat, otherwise why should the Druids have 

 made a search for it at a period when this little 

 island of ours was densely covered with huge forests 

 of Oak ? But I know that many botanists say that 

 the Loranthus Huropceus, which is now very fre- 

 quently found in the South of Europe upon the Oak, 

 was the true Mistletoe plant of our forefathers, and 

 that when Druidism was driven from Britain, the 

 sacred plant was also entirely destroyed.— Helen 

 E. Watney. 



Symphytum tuberosum (£.).— I do not know if 

 this rarity has been noted as a Middlesex plant. I 

 discovered it a few days since growing luxuriantly 

 a few miles north of London.— James W. While. 



Ophbys lutea?— At a meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, held on May 3rd, "Dr. 

 Masters exhibited, on the part of G. C. Oxenden, 

 Esq., some drawings representing a plant found 

 wild in East Kent, which was said to be Ophrys 

 lutea, but which, far more probably, was a yellow- 

 fiowered variety of the Bee Orchis. The drawings 

 differed materially from the true Ophrys lutea. In 

 any case, the present is a singular variety, which 

 has, as it seems, hitherto escaped observation."— 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, May 8, 1S69. 



