Dec. 1, 1S6S.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



205 



WHY? 



T came about iu 

 this way. We 

 —that is, I, and 

 a writer well 

 known to the 

 readers of these 

 pages — were 

 rowing lazily 

 about on the mill-pool at 

 Mobberley, Cheshire, and I 

 was thoroughly enjoying the 

 delicious feeling of indolence 

 which steals over one upon 

 such occasions when the 

 work is done by another, es- 

 pecially after a six hours' rail- 

 way journey on a hot summer 

 clay. It was one of the glori- 

 ous evenings of last August ; 

 the sky was all aglow with the 

 rays of the setting sun, and we 

 were both in a mood for conversation, which, not un- 

 naturally, turned on the plants which fringed the 

 water's edge. "Why is it," said I, " that this Willow- 

 herb is called c Codlins-and-Cream ' ? " " Here," was 

 the reply, " we call it ' Apple-pie ' ; and if you will 

 wait a moment you will soon discover the reason." 

 So we rowed on, pushing our way up a narrow stream, 

 passing under over-hanging osiers on which the 

 swallows had composed themselves for the night, 

 and from which they hardly took the trouble to 

 rouse themselves, and at length a thicket of 

 Epilobium Mrsiitum revealed itself, not only to the 

 sight but to the smell, leaving no doubt as to the 

 meaning and appropriateness of the name above 

 referred to. Long as I had known the Great Willow- 

 herb I had never noticed its peculiar smell; and 

 thinking of my own want of observation I put to 

 myself questions, sometimes answering them, some- 

 times leaving them unanswered, thinking how little 

 one knew, and how much there was to know, and 

 some of these questions, with others, which have 

 since been brought before me, I now purpose to lay 

 before the readers of Science-Gossip. 

 No. 48. 



Why is it, thought I, as we made our way through 

 great masses of water-lilies — yellow ones, relieved 

 here and there by a patch of white — that one writer 

 after another states that the flowers of water-lilies 

 " sink beneath the water to sleep " ? They do 

 nothing of the kind ; and why should those who 

 write books, professedly for the instruction of the 

 unlearned, continue to make statements which a 

 small amount of observation would correct ? And 

 then I remembered that Sir J. E. Smith had made 

 the above assertion, and, although it has been since 

 corrected, one after another, recognising that great 

 botanist as an infallible authority, has copied his 

 remarks without taking the trouble to verify their 

 accuracy ; and the result is that one after another 

 has stated what is positively incorrect. The idea of 

 the water-lily sinking to sleep may be very romantic 

 and poetical, but if we wish to retain it we must do 

 so at the expense of fact. 



Again, why is an entirely false account of the 

 means by which the Bladderwort (JJtricidaria, 

 vulgaris) is reproduced allowed to appear in one 

 book after another ? We are told by more authors 

 than one that the bladders on the leaves at a certain 

 period fill with air, that the flower-stem is thus 

 buoyed up to the surface, that the flowers are pro- 

 duced, and that "after the germination of the seed" 

 the bladders " again fill with water, carrying down 

 the seed to ripen and germinate in a suitable soil." 

 This sounds very plausible ; but like the sleep of 

 the water-lilies, it has one drawback — as far as the 

 seed goes it is incorrect. Anyone who will take 

 some plants of Bladderwort in September from their 

 place of growth, and put them in an aquarium, or 

 other suitable vessel, may easily observe for himself 

 what really does take place. The Bladderwort is one 

 of those plants which, like the Bulbiferous Coralwort 

 (Cardamine bulbifera) seldom, if ever, perfect seeds ; 

 its propagation is effected in another way. At the 

 close of the season the leaves gradually decay, 

 leaving nothing but the terminal buds, which are 

 oblong and compact, of about the size of a pea ; and 

 it is from these buds that the next year's plants 

 arise. 



M 



