li 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July 1, 1869. 



styptic ;* and it has been considered a specific for 

 gout. It is generally distributed throughout the 

 kingdom ; but Mr. Watson tells us that at the 

 village of Castletown, in Braemar, he "saw plants 

 of this species potted and housed as ' geraniums,' 

 with the care which English cottagers bestow upon 

 pelargoniums." 



Time will not permit us here to say much about 

 our cultivated Geraniacece ; but we may just re- 

 mark in passing that both those used for bedding, 

 and the various greenhouse species, are equally 

 Pelargoniums; and those who distiuguish the 

 former as Geraniums and the latter as Pelargoniums, 

 have no ground whatever for the distinction. A pretty 

 variety of G. Robertianum (G. purpureum) grows on 

 shingly seashores in the South of England ; it has 

 smaller leaves and flowers, and is more branched. 



The Crauesbills do not appear to be particularly 

 popular in the rustic mind, if we may judge from 

 the fact that but few have local names. G. phaum 

 is sometimes called " Mourning Widow ; " G. molle, 

 iu South Bucks, is " Starlights ; "and G. lucklum 

 is called "Robins" in South Devon. Even G. 

 Robertianum figures in but few of the lists we 

 have received; but the number, variety, and we 

 may add, incomprehensibility, of its names in our 

 own district somewhat atones for this deficiency. 

 They are as follow :— Bird's-eye (applied to many 

 other flowers) ; Cuckoos (generic for spring flowers) ; 

 Cuckoo's-eye ; Cuckoo's " Vittles " (the usual name 

 for Wood-sorrel) ; Stinking Bob (in allusiou to its 

 odour, and its name, Herb Robert) ; Ragged 

 Robin ; Billy Button ; Sailor's Knot ; Nightingales 

 (from flowering about their time of singing ?) ; Sol- 

 diers' Buttons ; Garden Gate (a common name for 

 Viola tricolor) ; and Knife and Eork (in allusion to 

 the two-flowered peduncle). In Sussex it is Stink- 

 ing Bob ; in Cambridgeshire, Red Robin ; in Glou- 

 cestershire, London Pride; in South Devon, Birds'- 

 eyes, Robin-flower, and the Wren's-flower. Robin 

 may be a corruption of Robert ; but some of these 

 names seem to indicate a more intimate connection 

 of the plant with birds than is at all usual. 



None of the Crauesbills dry satisfactorily, except, 

 perhaps, G. sanguineum ; and drawings of them in 

 most cases fail to represent the blossoms in their 

 proper colours. The illustrations to "English 

 Botany " are no exception to this rule ; and a lady 

 of our acquaintance, whose wild-flower drawings 

 have been greatly and deservedly admired, declares 

 her inability to obtain, by any mixture of colours, 

 the exact hue of the blossoms of G. sanguineum. 

 Under these circumstances, therefore, it is the more 

 necessary that those who would seek to improve 

 their acquaintance with our Crauesbills should do so 

 — not from books, not from pictures, not from dried 

 specimens, but from the living plants themselves. 

 High Wycombe. James Britten. 



* Science-Gossip, v. 134. 



THE BULLFINCH. 



(Pyrrhula vulgaris.) 



ri^HOSE who know the Bullfinch only as a cage- 

 -*- bird would hardly recognize him in his native 

 haunts, so different does he there appear. In a 

 state of nature there is scarcely a more active and 

 restless bird ; in a cage " what a falling off is 

 there ! " Let us take a peep at him in some of his 

 favourite resorts, and compare him with the sluggish 

 songster that hops lazily from perch to perch, and 

 pecks alternately at hemp and sugar. 



We have not to go far from the house, for in the 

 orchard hard by we are almost sure to find a Bull- 

 finch ; but we must go very quietly, for he is a shy 

 bird, and never suffers too near an approach. Do 

 you hear that note ? There it is again ; a soft 

 double, whistle, uttered very plaintively. That is 

 the call-note of the Bullfinch, and there is the 

 author of it on the top of yon cherry-tree. Now 

 he is off. Do you see the white upper tail-coverts 

 as he flies ? You cannot mistake him on the wing. 

 And there goes the hen ; she is much plainer in her 

 attire, but shows the same patch of white when 

 passing from tree to tree. Now let us watch them 

 a little. They are apparently hunting for insects, 

 but, sad to say, they are destroying a great many 

 blossom-buds. Cherries, apples, plums, are all in 

 turn attacked, and it is lamentable to think 

 that a songster of such pleasing exterior is not to 

 be trusted in an orchard. Yet so it is, and those who 

 wish for a good show of fruit must drive away the 

 Bullfinch from the buds ; not, as some thoughtless 

 gardeners do, with a charge of shot, which strips 

 off more buds in a second than a Bullfinch could 

 pick off in an hour, but by means of scarecrows 

 and frequent visits to the trees. In this way you 

 may save your fruit from the destroyer, and still 

 hear his pleasing song. But it is only at a certain 

 period of the year that the Bullfinch can do the 

 damage of which we complain. When the young 

 are in the nest they are fed almost entirely upon in- 

 sects, chiefly caterpillars ; in autumn the old birds 

 find blackberries and various seeds; while in winter 

 the fruits of the hawthorn and dog-rose furnish their 

 chief food. 



In some parts of the country are happily still to 

 be found those delightful green lanes which were 

 formerly more numerous, branching off from the 

 high road for a mile or two, and leading only to 

 green fields. These are known as "occupation 

 roads," being for the most part used only by the 

 occupiers of the adjoining lands for the purpose of 

 carting hay and other produce, and driving sheep 

 and cattle to and from pasture. In these lanes 

 there is no regular roadway. The turf extends the 

 whole way between the hedges, and but for the 

 deep ruts made by the waggon-wheels, one might 



