June 1, 1S6S.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



139 



BOTANY. 



' Lastrea rigida— As I believe it to be the 

 general, if not the universal, belief that the fern 

 Lastrea rigida grows truly wild in this country only 

 in Yorkskire,'Lancashire,[and Westmoreland, I have 

 the pleasure to send you a plant from North. Wales, 

 which district, I think, is now entitled to be added 

 to those above ; mentioned. During the autumn of 

 last year I met with this fern on the ridge of 

 mountain limestone which occurs to the north of 

 Llangollen. The area occupied by the fern, so far 

 as my observation has gone, is very limited, being 

 comprised perhaps within a circle having a radius 

 of fifty yards ; it is, however, very plentiful within 

 this boundary. Somelof the plants have extended 

 themselves very much, the unfurled fronds in many 

 cases covering a space of two or three square feet. 

 Soon after I first found the fern (about the identity 

 of which I had some doubt) I had ari< opportunity 

 of visiting Arnside Kudt (near Silverdale, West- 

 moreland), a recorded habitat of rigida, and was 

 pleased to find that the plants growing on that hill 

 coincided perfectly, both in habit and structure, as 

 well as in the peculiar and decided odour which 

 they emitted, with those brought from Llangollen. 

 The outline of the fronds is, with scarcely an excep- 

 tion, elongate-triangular, the lowest pair of pinnae 

 being longer than— or at least as long as— any of 

 those above them. The specimen sent you differs 

 from the normal form in as great a degree as any I 

 have noticed, the stipes being comparativelyjshorter 

 than usual, and several of the lowermost pinnae being 

 of about equal length. I may state that the other 

 limestone fern, Polypodium calcareum, grows in 

 company with the Lastrea rigida at the Llangollen 

 station.— George R.Jebb, Chester. 



The Melon.— The history of the melon, and its 

 varieties, is one of the most obscure in botany, for 

 we neither know the origin of the species nor the 

 true cause of the appearance of the many well- 

 marked races, such as the green-fleshed, white- 

 fleshed, netted, cantaloupes, [&c, into which it has 

 diverged. As M. Alphonse de Candolle has clearly 

 shown, there is no good reason to suppose that the 

 Romans were acquainted with it, although it has 

 been thought to be the "melo" of Pliny, which, how- 

 ever, was a sort of cucumber. What is very re- 

 markable is, it appears that the more we approach the 

 southern parts of Asia the more modern does the 

 cultivation of the melon appear to be. It is true 

 that Wildenow says that it is wild in the country 

 of the Kalmucks, but without producing his 

 authority. De Steven, a Russian botanist, also re- 

 lates that he found it far from houses in a barren 

 place on the banks of the Kour, a river of Schirvan. 

 Another German traveller, Hohenacher, also speaks 



of it as growing near Elizabethpol. But all these 

 cases are apocryphal — that is to say, there is nothing 

 to show that the plants found by those travellers 

 were really wild, if indeed they really were melons. 

 The question, then, may be naturally asked, How are 

 we to determine their origin ? Under these circum- 

 stances it would seem that the most probable method 

 of doing so is by cultivating all the varieties that 

 are procurable, marking their variations, observing 

 all tendency to lose the customary characters, and 

 continuing to trace degeneracy till it reaches at 

 length either the point of original departure from 

 some other fruit, or settles down in an unalterable 

 original form. — George Newly n. 



Varieties of the Wood Violet {Viola sylva- 

 tica, Er.)— In Science-Gossip for 1866 (p. 163), I 

 drew attention to a white-flowered variety of this 

 violet which had been found near Wycombe. I then 

 remarked that, had the form known as V. Reichen- 

 bachiana been ascertained to grow in our district, 

 I should have been inclined to refer the specimens 

 mentioned to that sub-species. Recent investiga- 

 tions have convinced me that I should have been 

 quite correct in so doing, as I have now dis- 

 tinguished V. Reiclienbachiana in two or three 

 localities, one of which is the very lane from which 

 the aforesaid specimens came. On the 25th of 

 April last, however, a root of V. Riviniana was 

 found near here by Mr. T. Marshall, on which were 

 four large white blossoms, most beautifully veined 

 with purple ; and close to this another variety with 

 pink flowers. Another white-flowered specimen 

 was found in a different place a few days later; 

 and a plant with a perfectly double blossom of 

 the usual colour was brought me about the same 

 time. — B. 



Bougainvillea spectabilis. — This is one of 

 the handsomest climbers in the world when it will 

 condescend to blossom. It has been in flower for 

 the last two years at Lady Dorothy NevilPs, at 

 Dangstein; and although the plant is some few 

 years old, this is the first time of its blooming. 

 It is grown in a span-roofed pit, which is treated 

 like a stove, and the climber is trained along a 

 trellis immediately under the south side of the 

 roof, at from nine to twelve inches from the glass. 

 Eor a long time it continued to grow rapidly, 

 throwing out strong sideshoots, and was frequently 

 potted, but did not show any signs of flowering. 

 At last an experiment was suggested by Mr. Vair, 

 the very able and experienced gardener there, which 

 ultimately proved a perfect success, and twelve 

 months ago this beautiful plant was literally covered 

 with bloom. The flowers were produced on the 

 previous year's shoots. Bougainvillea speciosa is 

 equally obstinate to flower, but in the gardens at 

 Dangstein both have yielded to the treatment of 

 their careful cultivator. — George Newlyn. 



