May 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICXE'S SCIEN CE-GO S SIP. 



115 



BOTANY. 



TmcoTYLEDOxotrs Embkyos.— I wish to put on 

 record that I lately came across two embryos with 

 true cotyledons. The first case was a seed of Con- 

 volvulus major (Ipomaa purpurea), which sent up 

 in my garden three distinct, fully -formed cotyle- 

 donous leaves, forming a whorl round the plumule. 

 The second "cropped up" (to use an Americanism) 

 during one of my botanical lectures. Some forty 

 boys were examining the embryo of the garden pea 

 (Pimm sativum) ; each had his own embryo for dis- 

 section ; every one agreed that he found his embryo 

 split into two seed-leaves, except one dissentient 

 voice, which asserted the existence of three seed- 

 leaves. On examination, the embryo appeared per- 

 fect in other respects. I did not see any trace of 

 a double plumule, or any other suggestion of a double 

 embryo. Am I then to consider these cases as aris- 

 ing from chorisis ? But then how is it that the seed- 

 leaves of the Convolvulus were of the same shape 

 as the ordinary seed-leaves of the plant, none of the 

 three showing any marks of imperfection ? Or again, 

 does it arise from the union of two embryos ? If so, 

 these cases would bear on the possibility of "vege- 

 table twins," and on the probability of the Cgtisus 

 Adami (Darwin's "Animals and Plants under Domes- 

 tication," vol. i. p. 391) being the result of a double 

 embryo. On the other hand, I was unable to trace 

 any subsequent separation into a double stem in the 

 Convolvulus. Balfoursays, "The appearancebf three 

 or four cotyledons in the seeds of some species of So- 

 lanum and in the Haricot, has been traced to a union 

 of embryos, and not to a chorisis of two cotyledons." 

 (Class-Book, p. 308.) Can any of your readers refer 

 me to the papers in which this evidence is recorded ? 

 I confess the appearance of the two embryos recorded 

 above led me rather to think the plants grew from 

 trifoliar phytons by some accidental variation, pro- 

 bably induced by cultivation, than to have recourse 

 to either the theory of chorisis, or that of double 

 embryo. — F. K Kitchener, 31. J., Rugby. 



Lichens are beautiful objects in their native 

 places, on the tiles of a country cottage, where the 

 house-leek and the stonecrops blow. The red tile 

 often contrasts beautifully with the green and yel- 

 low lichen {Purmelia) growing on it ; to be faith- 

 fully copied in all its pure tints by the Pre-Raphael- 

 ite painter. In our orchards we see the apple and 

 pear trees covered with rich-coloured plants of this 

 class, which are stolen by the gay goldfinch or 

 chaffinch to decorate nests formed of beautiful 

 moss, which are thus made en suite with the tree. 

 This is the beautiful view of these lichens ; but 

 they feed caterpillars and larvse, they grow where 

 little else will grow, and form soils on inorganic sub- 

 stances suitable for higher plants. These lichens, 

 like other parasites, cannot live where health and 



purity exist, whether among animals, vegetables, 

 or minerals. But disease and death are necessary 

 to progress, as things are now constituted. The 

 lichens do not grow in the earth, having leaves and 

 stems in one. They have a strong resemblance to 

 cancers {Morbus Brightii), if they are not to be 

 classed together. They vary much in shape and 

 colour. Some are bright and beautiful in hue ; and 

 we think how lovely they are, how rich their mark- 

 ings; but yet their shape is grotesque, and suggestive 

 of life in death. They are as injurious to the higher 

 vegetable world as the lower fungi are to the ani- 

 mal, producing sores on their substance. Healthy 

 young trees are not nearly so subject to their attacks 

 as the old and diseased. The trees in this case are 

 types of man. Some fungi are bright in aspect, 

 being adorned with orange, green, vermilion, and 

 scarlet hues, which are not found so purely in most 

 divisions of the vegetable kingdom. These are more 

 easily imitated by the use of mineral colours, many 

 of which are virulent poisons ; such as Scheele's 

 green, orpiment (sulphuret of arsenic), chrome yel- 

 low (chromate of lead), and the scarlet periodide of 

 mercury. These colours differ from the genera 

 tints of vegetation, being hardly ever seen covering 

 an entire plant, except among the fungi. The hues 

 of these lichens, which resemble those of our most 

 corrosive colours, illustrate their injurious effect on 

 the plants they infest. — The Book of Nature and 

 Man, by C. O. Groom Napier. 



[We are not prepared to admit either that "lichens 

 are injurious to the higher vegetable world," or 

 " the lower fungi to the animal, producing sores on 

 their substance." It is often stated, but not de- 

 monstrated. — Ed. S. G.] 



Foxglove (p. 91). — By a reference to Cockayne's 

 "Leechdoms" (described in another article), vol. iii. 

 p. 327, it appears that the same plant was under- 

 stood by Foxglove in the twelfth century as now. 

 In the Durham Glossary,-5w//c«s<?=Eoxes gloue, and 

 in an Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary of the eleventh cen- 

 txxry, Buglosse = Eoxes glofa. In the Anglo-Saxon Her- 

 bal (Cottonian MS., Vitellius, C. iii.) we have "Clyf- 

 wyrt sume man hata'S foxes-clife."— (See Wright's 

 Vocabularies, p. 30.) There is also in the above- 

 named Durham Glossary another curious equivalent 

 for Eoxes glova, viz., Trycnosmanicos. In Wright's 

 Vocabularies we find "Eion Camglata, foxes-glove " 

 (p. 140). The only form under which the plant ap- 

 pears in Hollyband, is "Les gans nostre dame. 

 Ladies gloves."— E. T., 2L.A. 



Elora of Italy. — Will any one kindly give in 

 the June Science-Gossip the name of a book that 

 will help towards naming a collection of Italian wild 

 flowers, chiefly Tuscan ? The inquirer will be glad 

 to collect any rare specimens during the summer. — ■ 

 R M. 



