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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1S6S. 



BOTANY. 



Abnormal Eoxglove.— A correspondent has 

 furnished us with what at first sight might pass for 

 a small hunch of hops, but which a closer inspec- 

 tion shows to be a portion of the infioreseuce of 

 Digitalis purpurea so much disguised that its 

 identity might fairly be questioned by any one who 

 had not seen the plant itself. As far as we can 

 make out from the small portion sent us for ex- 

 amination, the flower is replaced by a small branch 

 thickly beset with green tracts arranged spirally 

 and quite similar to those found on the normal 

 plants. This branch at its upper extremity divides 

 into ten or a dozen divisions, each clothed like the 

 primary branch with green tracts. These clusters 

 of tracts resemble hops as aforesaid. Quite hi the 

 centre of each cluster is an imperfect ovary, with 

 indications of styles and of ovules, but tbere are no 

 traces of any other part of the flower. This re- 

 placement of the flower by a branched axis bearing 

 green scales or imperfect leaves is not of very un- 

 common occurrence. In the garden pea, in some 

 willows, plantains, and other plants, a similar 

 change occasionally is met with, but we do not 

 remember to have seen it before in Digitalis. — 

 M.T.M. 



Oxalis.— Surely the plant mentioned by"B." 

 in Science-Gossip is the oxalis which once 

 upon a time was known by the long sounding title 

 of " Oxalis Corniculata atro-purpurea." All the 

 oxalis close their flowers when the sun sets. The 

 common, but uncommonly pretty little plant, 

 wood sorrel, is one of the genus— a British 

 cousin of the more brilliantly-coloured natives of 

 the Tropics. ^The Oxalis crenata we get from Peru. 

 The ladies out at Lima are so fond of its acid 

 leaves that they cultivate it largely in their gar- 

 dens. It produces a tuber not unlike a small 

 potato in appearance, but very inferior to that 

 vegetable in taste. The flowers are exceedingly 

 fine — bright yellow streaked with purple— and many 

 of our gardeners consider it the best spring 

 bloomer of all the kinds yet introduced into 

 England. I planted some of the wood sorrel 

 {Oxalis acetosella) ir amongst my ferns in a cold 

 greenhouse, togethei with the woodruff and the 

 wood anemone, last year, and they well rewarded 

 me for my trouble this spring. All three wild 

 flowers were much improved by shelter. I wonder 

 why the monks called the wood sorrel " Alleluia." 

 —Mrs. Alfred Watney. 



Lemna gibba. — This plant is to be found in the 

 ditches with which the marshes near the mouth of 

 the Avon abound, and which are more or less stag- 

 nant, but by no means half-putrid. I find it also 

 quite as abundantly in a stream which turns a 



flour-mill, about two miles from Devizes. The 

 current, though slow, must be constantly on the 

 move from the action of the mill-wheel. — W. W. 

 Spicer, Clifton. 



Lythrum hyssopifolium in Pkestwich. — It 

 may be interesting to some of your Manchester 

 readers to learn that so rare a plant is occasionally 

 found in this neighbourhood. I observed it first in 

 the early part of August, 1867, and again on the 

 21th of July last, in a place about a mile from 

 where I found it on the first occasion. I should 

 be very glad if any of your readers would be kind 

 enough to inform me whether it is common, either 

 indigenous or otherwise, in any part of England, as 

 it is almost entirely unknown in this locality, and I 

 cannot conjecture from what source we have re- 

 ceived this addition to our local flora. — S. S. 



Origin op the .Tea-plant.— The following 

 "mighty pretty" legend, which I quote from a 

 German work on Botany, is worth preserving in 

 the pages of Science- Gossip : — "Long long ago," 

 a Hindoo king, named Darma, left his own dominions 

 and travelled through China, with the avowed 

 object of reforming the native population, and im- 

 parting to them a knowledge "of religion. Un- 

 successful in his missionary work, Darma thought 

 to win the barbarous people by an example of un- 

 paralleled asceticism and devotion. Eor this 

 purpose he gave himself to the practice of good 

 works, and constant prayer ; nay, he registered a 

 vow that not even sleep should interfere with his 

 daily and nightly exercises. But, alas ! nature 

 would claim her privileges, and slumber closed the 

 eyes of the holy man for a time. Vexed at his 

 own weakness, Darma settled the point about 

 closing his eyes by deliberately snipping off the 

 lids ! Then it Was (say the Chinese) that the Deity 

 interposed by a miracle, which has resulted in the 

 benefit of mankind for ever. No sooner did the 

 two eyelids touch the ground, than there sprang up 

 from each a plant, new in appearance, and new in 

 its properties. Supernaturally instructed, Darma 

 prepared the leaves, and found himself wonderfully 

 strengthened and enlivened by the precious 

 beverage. Of course he was not slow in com- 

 municating the valuable secret to his disciples ; and 

 so it has come to pass that in the written language 

 of China an eyelid is the symbol of the tea-plant. — 

 W. W. S. 



Utricularia. — If your correspondent "B.," the 

 writer of " Splits" in August number of Science- 

 Gossif, will refer to the " Journal of Botany " No. 57, 

 September, 18G7, he will find my discovery of 

 Utricularia neglecta in Gloucestershire ; and last 

 mouth of this year I sent specimens to Professor 

 Babbington and a gentlemen at Manchester.— 0. S. 

 Winth. 



