44 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



LEeb. 1, 1870. 



cereal, and to its true home. Numerous facts have 

 been brought forward, and imposing authorities 

 have been quoted in proof of its having been 

 brought originally from America; and this is the 

 view which is generally adopted by botanists. In 

 consequence, not only do writers on the geography 

 of plants, almost without exception, point to the 

 New World as the proper cradle of this precious 

 grass, but we even read in Meyer's " Report on the 

 Botanical Proceedings of 1834," the following 

 strongly-worded passage: — "There is not, at the 

 present day, anything more certain in geographical 

 botany than that maize originated in the New 

 World." Meanwhile, and in spite of these positive 

 dicta, the question is not, perhaps, conclusively 

 settled. One thing is certain, that M. Bonafons, 

 after having admitted the American origin of 

 maize, and its acclimatization in Europe subsequent 

 to the sixteenth century,® has been led, by deeper 

 and more recent researches, to adopt a precisely 

 opposite conclusion. It is in the first chapter of 

 his monograph on the subject that the learned 

 author expresses himself in the following terms 

 (after, it should be added, having gone thoroughly 

 into the matter) : — ■" It is certain, as numerous 

 historians bear witness, that the maize was in culti- 

 vation in America when the first Europeans landed 

 on its shores, towards the end of the fifteenth 

 century; but it seems to be equally certain that 

 this cereal was widely cultivated in India at an epoch 

 prior to this. The treatise on Natural History 

 written by Li-tchi-tchin, in the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, fixes the existence of maize among 

 the Chinese at a period so near that of the discovery 

 of the New World, that it is impossible to attribute 

 the introduction of the plant into Asia to that 

 event. Finally, the maize found at Thebes in the 

 coffin of a mummy, by M. Rifaud, in 1819, after a 

 repose of thirty or forty centuries, is a precious but 

 unique relic, which proves its existence in Northern 

 Africa at a very early period.f These points once 

 admitted, we may conclude that Indian corn was 

 known to the ancient world before Columbus sailed 

 to America; that it is not impossible that the Arabs 

 or the Crusaders were the first to introduce it into 

 Europe ; and that, at a later period, the discovery 

 of the New World led to fresh importations of this 

 cereal and to a more extended cultivation, which 

 was probably before this confined to very narrow 

 limits."— P. Decaisne (Diet, d'llistoire Naturelle). 



Campanula kotundifolia takes its specific 

 name of "round-leaved" from a few of its lowest 

 leaves being of that form, but which generally 

 wither and fall off before the time of flowering. 

 Should a person not be acquainted with this circum- 



* *' Sur une nouvelle Espece de Mais."— Ann. des Sc. Nat., 

 vol. xvii. 



Scarcely to be relied on.— W. W. S. 



stance, he may think it strange that the plant should 

 be called round-leaved, when he sees on it no other 

 leaves than extremely long and narrow ones. There 

 is, however, a variety, found growing on mountains, 

 with very differently-shaped leaves. Botanizing on 

 Ben Lawers last July, my companion met with a 

 very curious plant of this kind: jits stem-leaves 

 were quite as broad as those of the common daisy ; 

 it had only one flower, and this, instead of hanging 

 on a slender stalk, and being moved by every pass- 

 ing breezy stood bolt upright. But the most 

 strange departure from the common form was, that 

 another stem rose from the midst of the flower, two 

 or three inches high, which, with its curving leaves, 

 very much resembled a palm-tree in miniature. Had 

 such a plant been found in fairyland, it would have 

 formed a fitting shade under which Oberon might 

 have pitched his royal tent. At first sight of so very 

 strange a form, it would not have been so very un- 

 reasonable if the discoverer had entertained a hope 

 that his name might descend to posterity as one 

 who had found a new genus ; but, alas ! it was only 

 a monstrosity. — R. W. 



Journal of Botany. — A new issue of this 

 journal is announced. It is to be reduced iu price 

 to 12s. per annum to subscribers, who are requested 

 to forward their names and a year's subscription to 

 the publishers, Messrs. Taylor & Co., Little Queen 

 Street, Lincoln's Inn Eields, W.C. The charac- 

 teristic feature of the new issue is to be the 

 greater prominence given to British botany ; 

 everything of interest relating directly or col- 

 laterally to the British flora is to find a place. Dr. 

 Trimen and Mr. J. G. Baker are to superintend 

 this portion of the work, and other leading 

 British botanists have promised their assistance. 

 We hope that our botanical readers will come 

 forward to support the only magazine especially 

 devoted to their interests. 



Phragmites communis, Linn. — I have met 

 with the form of this plant described by " R. W." 

 as occurring at Southerness, in several localities, 

 maritime or otherwise, notably a few years since on 

 the undercliff above the Smallmouth Sands, Dorset, 

 where I have seen aerial stobolcs in lengthfully equal- 

 ling Ray's " 30 pedes longum." Many erect flower- 

 ing stems arose amongst the ones there prostrate, 

 but were stunted and of weakly growth, as far as I 

 can recollect, not exceeding four feet in height. 

 At the time I relerred this condition of the plant to 

 defective nutrition, the soil being loose and sandy, 

 constantly slipping on the clay beneath, and sup- 

 porting but a scant sprinkling of herbage. A sterile 

 tract, however, always furnishes a noteworthy plant 

 or two, and here I collected Lathy r us Nissolia, Linn., 

 with other specimens scarcely less welcome. — Jas. 

 W. White. 



