Oct. 1, 1808.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE - GO S SIP. 



235 



BOTANY. 



Isolation of Plants.— After a good night's rest 

 at the comfortable little inn close by the foot of 

 Ben Lawers, Perthshire, you prepare at an early 

 hour to ascend the Ben itself. It requires a pretty 

 stiff climb of at least two hours to reach the top, 

 and during the late oppressive heat some little 

 courage and strength of muscle were requisite to 

 attempt it. Erom the summit, with a clear atmo- 

 sphere, the view is most magnificent. But I am 

 not going to speak of that in detail now ; I want to 

 point out the habitat of one of our rarest British 

 wild plants, Saxifraga cer/iua, Drooping bulbous 

 Saxifrage. Erom the topmost peak, turning towards 

 the south, you see the head of Loch Tay, about 

 eight miles distant, where the river Dochart through 

 its rocky bed enters the Loch near the little village 

 of Killin. Your descent is to be made in a straight 

 line with this. It is no smooth road. Boulder 

 heaped upon boulder in the wildest confusion. The 

 appearance, however, is perhaps more formidable 

 than the reahty, and with a little care there is no 

 danger. Immediately below the summit grows 

 another rarity, Draba rupestris. It is not in any 

 great quantity, but may be found by careful search- 

 ing. Keeping to the left, you descend alongside 

 an almost perpendicular escarpment of rock, and 

 when about a hundred feet or so from the top, you 

 light upon that treasure in the estimation of the 

 botanist, the Saxifrage above mentioned. This is 

 the only recorded locality in which it is found. The 

 plant is in tolerable abundance, and not likely to be 

 soon extirpated. On the day (July 23rd) I first 

 beheld it growing there were not many plants in 

 flower, but plenty with bulbs. The seeing of this 

 small, delicate, beautiful flower cut off in its lonely 

 retreat from all its brethren, cannot but awaken 

 some strange thoughts in the minds of the most 

 unobservant. Was this the place of its original crea- 

 tion, or did it spread from some centre in far-off 

 Scandinavia ? Were its seeds deposited here by 

 chance, or is it the sole survivor of a larger colony of 

 its kind which had spread and spread from their native 

 home ? Much remains for man to learn, much which 

 he never can know in his present state. Descending 

 a hundred feet more or so, you come upon another 

 wilding, not perhaps so rare, but still more beautiful 

 than S. cernua. It is the Myosotis alpestris, Bock 

 scorpion grass, or Eorget-me-not. Large spaces are 

 almost covered with the bright green leaves and the 

 vivid blue flowers of this plant, presenting a striking 

 coutrast to the^surrounding debris of the mica slate, 

 and affording one of the most beautiful sights im- 

 aginable. It is a perfect gem, seldom seen, I 

 imagine, in its lonely habitation. But I must not 

 weary the readers of Science-Gossip with a cata- 



logue of one-tenth of the rare and interesting plants 

 to be found on the different sides of Ben Lawers. 

 I would only say, go and look at them yourselves, 

 and if any love of Nature in her wildest or loveliest 

 moods be yours, you will not be disappointed. — 

 R.W. 



The Tea -tree. — The~Box.thon\ (Lycivmbarbantm) 

 belongs to the nat. ord. Solanese, and, although it is 

 vulgarly known under the vernacular appellation of 

 " Tea-tree," must not be confounded with the Tea 

 shrub (T/iea), which latter plant furnishes us with 

 the tea of commerce. The generic name is derived 

 from Lycia (in Asia Minor), some of the species 

 inhabiting that country ; the specific name is'derived 

 from Barbary, from whence the plant in question 

 was introduced as long ago as 1696. Your cor- 

 respondent W. C. C., p. 213, was quite correct in 

 his conjecture that it came from a warmer climate 

 than our own, the mean temperature of Barbary 

 ranging between 70° and 80°, that of England being 

 about 50°. This plant blooms continuously during 

 the summer months, and in the autumn has ripe 

 and green fruit, and flowers upon it at the same 

 time. The fruit is of a brilliant scarlet colour, 

 borne in the acils of the lanceolate foliage, forming 

 perfect wreaths of green and scarlet, a most 

 beautiful contrast, the warm scarlet being cooled 

 down by the cool refreshing green. In the garden 

 of the Boyal Horticultural Society at Chiswick, 

 there exists a fine specimen of this interesting 

 shrub, which bears an abundance of fruit, some of 

 the branches being borne down to the ground by its 

 weight. Nineteen species of Lycium are described 

 in the " Synopsis Plantarum seu Enchiridium Bo- 

 tanicum," an interesting work in the Latin, pub- 

 lished in 1S05, in which is the following specific 

 description: — " L. Barbarum (Barbary), Stem pro- 

 cumbent, angular, simple, rarely spinose, foliage peti- 

 olate, elliptical, calyxbibid, lacinate, bidentate corolla 

 villous at its margin, fruit oval." A variety of this 

 plant {L. barbarum, /3 Chinense) was introduced to 

 our gardens from China. This variety has the style 

 longer than the pentandrious stamens, and on its 

 introduction was commonly supposed to be the true 

 tea plant of commerce. Although this idea is well 

 known to be erroneous, the name is still retained. 

 In 1S65 I saw a plant with a little fruit upon it 

 at the end of an old cottage in the pretty little 

 village of Owston, Leicestershire. The plant is 

 common in old cottage gardens in Yorkshire, but 

 I never saw it in fruit so far northward. The 

 present season being hot and dry, I suspect it 

 will fruit freely in the southern parts of England, 

 the circumstances under which the plant exists in 

 its native country— viz., heat and dry winds— being 

 very nearly imitated by the season we have lately 

 had.—-? 7 . IF. Burbridge, Royal Horticultural Gardens, 

 Chiswick, W. 



