March 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



53 



of the latter name is preserved : the plant being 

 known as " Cuckoo's Vittles." In Wales, the 

 blossoms are called "Eairy Bells." In addition to 

 these, the Oxalis claims, and apparently with reason, 

 to represent the emblem of a sister country — it is 

 supposed by many botanists to be the veritable 

 Irish Shamrock. We are all familiar with the 

 beautiful old legend which tells how St. Patrick, 

 when sent to preach the gospel to the Irish, utterly 

 failed to bring to their comprehension the doctrine 

 of the Holy Trinity. At length, almost in despair, 

 he cast his eyes upon the ground, where he saw a 

 Trefoil. Plucking a leaf, he said, " Is it not as 

 possible for the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be 

 one, as for these three leaves to grow an a single 

 stalk ? " " The act and word," says a modern 

 writer, " were well adapted to fix the attention and 

 convey the idea to an ignorant but imaginative 

 people, aud thus to fix on their memories the im- 

 portant truth of Revelation, though the solemn 

 mystery itself can be explained by no earthly tongue, 

 nor fully symbolised by any earthly emblem." The 

 poet's idea of looking " from Nature up to Nature's 

 God," could meet with no fitter illustration. The 

 same tradition which has instituted St. Patrick the 

 patron saint of Ireland, has allotted the Trefoil its 

 floral representative. — In the first place, Mr. Bent- 

 ham states that the White Clover (now usually re- 

 garded as the Irish Shamrock) "is believed to be 

 of comparatively recent introduction in Ireland ;" 

 and as the visit of the saint is supposed to have 

 taken place about a.d. 433, it seems pretty clear 

 that, if this hypothesis be correct, the White Clover- 

 could not have been selected. Another argument, 

 brought forward in favour of the Oxalis, is the fact 

 that on March 17th, the day dedicated to St. Patrick, 

 this would have its leaves fully expanded, while 

 those of any Trifolium would be very small, and 

 therefore unlikely to attract notice. But against 

 this it may be urged that tradition does not tell us 

 that St. Patrick's day commemorates the gathering of 

 the Shamrock. In Fynis Morison's "History of the 

 Civil Wars in Ireland, between 1599 and 1603," we 

 read: "They (the Irish) willingly eat the herb Scham- 

 rock, being of a sharp taste, which they snatch out 

 of the ditches." If this does not apply to the acid 

 leaves of the Wood-Sorrel, it is certainly less likely 

 to refer to the mild and insipid ones of any clover ; 

 and although the Oxalis does not grow in ditches, 

 it may often be noticed on their banks. The poet 

 of Ireland, Thomas Moore, speaks of the Shamrock, 

 or " triple grass," as being 



As softly green as emeralds seen 

 Through purest crystal gleaming; 



and could any words more graphically describe the 

 delicate hue of our Wood-Sorrel leaves, so different 

 from the darker and more subdued colour of those 

 of the clover ? Many of the older writers refer to 



" curds and sham roots " as being the food of the 

 poorer class of Irish in the early part of spring. 

 Again, " the four-leaved Shamrock," so valuable as a 

 charm and protection against witches, is rarely, if 

 ever, met with in the Oxalis, though many have 

 seen a four-leaved clover ; and in the White Clover 

 this malformation is of by no means unfrequent 

 occurrence. It is but fair to suppose that part of 

 the virtue attending it is due to its rarity in the 

 Oxalis. A friend informs me that, while travelling 

 in Ireland, the Wood-Sorrel was pointed out to 

 him by a guide as the true Shamrock ; but it must 

 be admitted that the White Clover is more generally 

 looked upon as its proper representative. However, 

 any Trefoil will represent the traditional Shamrock ; 

 some of the small Medicks are sometimes considered 

 to deserve the title, and a variety of the White 

 Clover, having a dark brown spot on each leaflet, 

 is frequently cultivated as such. 



The Oxalis is pretty generally distributed over 

 Great Britain, although in some districts, as in parts 

 of Essex and Herts, it is far from common. It may 

 be cultivated with little trouble under a bell-glass, 

 or in a Wardian case, forming a beautiful drawiug- 

 room ornament. In a dried state, the appearance 

 of the Wood-Sorrel is eminently unsatisfactory ; the 

 leaves turn yellow, and the fiow T ers, if much handled, 

 shrivel up altogether ; and the whole plant looks so 

 miserable when gummed down on paper, that it 

 would almost deter one from trying the experiment 

 again. B. 



. FOSSIL TEETH. 



FT1HE upper Oolite which comes immediately 

 -*- under the Wealden or Hastings Sand, is 

 replete with specimens of mauy of the Beptilia ; 

 but more commonly those of the shark-like family. 

 The latter are very perfect in form, and in a good 

 state of preservation; most generally they are 

 found of a light slate colour, with a beautiful 

 enamelled surface. 



|1 



Fig. 38. Fossil tooth, 

 nat. size. 



Fig. 39. Section of tooth magnified. 



Fig. 38 is a specimen of the Otodus obliquus. 

 Fig. 39 and fig. 10 show sections of the same tooth. 

 The enamelled part at a in fig. 39 is of a yellow 



