191 



IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1SGS. 



antimony and home silver, rather scarcer, hut still 

 very profitable to work. Another ore is of a fine 

 olive-green colour, from the presence of carbonate 

 of copper, which is here combined with the home 

 or chloride of silver ; it is a new mineral, and is 

 called Stetefieldtite. In one beautiful and very rare 

 specimen I have, spots of carbonate of copper of an 

 apple-green colour are seen on the white quartz, 

 but even this I am told contains some silver. In a 

 larger specimen, copper pyrites, argentiferous 

 galena, and home silver are combined. The " surface 

 ore " shows some finely - coloured carbonate of 

 copper and home silver. The argentiferous galena 

 assays to £20 a ton. The amalgamation process is 

 pursued for extracting the gold which has been 

 found in one district in Nevada. A red copper ore, 

 oxide and native copper, combined with, I think, 

 sulphuret of antimony, is abundant on the Battle 

 Mountain district of Nevada, but it has not as yet 

 been worked. The quantity of chloride of silver 

 found in this region is interesting, in connection 

 with the abundance of rock-salt, which affords a clue 

 to its formation; for metallic silver (also found here) 

 is corroded and reduced to a state of chloride by 

 contact with salt. Chloride of silver abounded in 

 the Middle Ages in Saxony, but the mines were 

 exhausted, and it became one of the scarcer ores. 

 In conclusion, let me remark that this region 

 appears to afford good prospects to miners, labourers, 

 and speculators. The ground is public. Any man 

 by finding gold, silver, or other ores, can make the 

 ground on which they are found his own, in fee 

 simple. The mines of the precious metals in 

 Europe are royal prerogatives ; but here the 

 humblest citizen may possess them. 



C. 0. G. Napier, F.G.S. 



ASTRANTIA MAJOR. 



I~T is of some importance, I think, in the case 

 •*- of very local plants, either natives of Britain, 

 or so long established at certain places as to 

 become permanently naturalized, that the spots 

 where they are found should be distinctly and cor- 

 rectly described ; and also that occasionally com- 

 petent botanists should report upon the plants thus 

 circumstanced. I find the Astrantia major is only 

 mentioned in our Eloras as occurring in two places 

 in England, and one of these is, I believe, erroneous. 

 The place that is fully authenticated, though not quite 

 sufficiently marked out for a wandering botanist to 

 find, is " above Stokesay Castle, near Ludlow." 

 This is Professor Babington's notice in his " Manual 

 of Botany ; " and he further says that " in the 

 latter place Mr. Borrcr considered it to have been 

 introduced ' ages ago.' " This is rather vague, es- 

 pecially as to the " ages ; " for if really at the place 

 indicated in ancient British times, it has better 

 claim to nativity than several other presumed native 



plants that pass muster without any dagger (f) 

 affixed to their names. 



But I' mean only now to report upon the locality 

 fox Astrantia major — " above Stokesay Castle," with 

 which castle it has in fact nothing to do, except 

 being on a hill full one mile and a half from the 

 castle. The "Worcestershire Naturalists' Club had 

 a meeting in July last, at the Craven Arms Station 

 of the Hereford and Shrewsbury Railway, not far 

 from Stokesay Castle, and I took the opportunity of 

 paying a visit to the Astrantia. The plant would 

 scarcely have been found but for the aid of the 

 Rev. J. W. La Touche, incumbent of Stokesay, 

 who was, of course, familiar with the vicinity. 

 The plant really grows within a wood near the sum- 

 mit of a rugged hill capped by Aymestry limestone, 

 called the View Edge, from which, indeed, there is 

 a splendid view of numerous broken and lofty Sa- 

 lopian hills. There was at this time a considerable 

 quantity of the Astrantia major just coming into 

 flower, and growing dispersed among brambles and 

 rising underwood. The wood had been lately felled, 

 and the underwood now growing up rather choked 

 the plant, which in several places was drawn up 

 very tall. Mr. La Touche said that the plant was 

 in greater quantity before the felling of the trees, 

 but there was quite sufficient now to give support 

 to the idea of the plant being really indigenous 

 here, and that this was a favoured locality for the 

 Astrantia, as is the case with the Potentilta rupes- 

 tris, only known to grow in Britain, on Craig 

 Breidden, Montgomeryshire, and Coloneaster vulgaris, 

 on the rocks of the Orme's Head, in North "Wales. 

 Opinions may differ, but Mr. Borrer's inquiries led 

 him to believe that the Astrantia had been here for 

 " ages," and the purposed introduction of the plant 

 within a natural wood for no useful purpose seems 

 a very doubtful proposition — unless it could be 

 shown that the Astrantia had been planted in other 

 places. 



My friend Mr. La Touche, who favours Mr. 

 Borrer's idea, and supposes that the Astrantia was 

 brought here by the Romans, puts the matter 

 thus :— On the very summit of the View Edge, 

 above the wood where the plant grows, is a quarry 

 of the Aymestry limestone, which abounds with a 

 particular shell, and has been worked, it is believed, 

 many centuries. Some six or eight miles away, 

 the relics of a Roman villa were discovered a few 

 years ago, and amoug its stones or mortar the shells 

 of the Aymestry limestone were identified, from 

 whence it was inferred that this View Edge quarry 

 had been worked by the Romans, some of whom 

 had brought the plant here. Even if the Roman 

 villa had been found close at hand, instead of eight 

 miles off, it seems unlikely that the Astrantia 

 should have been planted here, and got into the 

 wood from a Roman garden, flourishing there 

 thenceforth to the present day ; but that labourers 



