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HARDW/CKE'S SCIENCE-G OSS/ P. 



NOTES ON FASCIATION. 



THE subject of abnormal growth is always 

 associated with various conclusions as to the 

 origin, use, &c, of such abnormalities, consequently 

 your previous correspondents came to different 

 conclusions. Mr. Gibb does not hesitate to con- 

 clude that fasciation has its origin in the embryo, 

 and in this conclusion I think he is well supported 

 by such instances as the cauliflower, and celosia ; in 

 both, fasciation has become hereditary, and the 

 malformation is perpetuated by seed. Last summer 

 I paid some attention to the subject and found that 

 fasciation was far more common in cultivated plants 

 than iu our wild flowers. Amongst the former I 

 found the compositae especially prone to fasciation 

 of the flower heads, dahlias, zinnias, and heli- 

 chrysums often occurring with misshapen and enlarged 

 heads, due to the cohesion of the capitulum in an 

 early state of growth. Azalea Indica, and rose " Paul 

 Neron " were both affected with a flattened kind of 

 stem, which was clearly traceable to fasciation ; in 

 these two cases the terminal bud died, so that I had 

 no chance of further observing the growth. 



Amongst wild flowers, I noticed the common daisy 

 {Bellis perennis), with an abnormal flower head. The 

 white dead-nettle [Latnium album) I found with a 

 thickened stem, in which I was unable to trace any- 

 thing pointing to two cohesive stems, owing to the 

 whole of the stem being very curiously curved and 

 twisted. I planted last April a few plants of Chry- 

 santhemum k'ueanthemum (the ox-eye daisy), taken 

 from a poor pasture, in good garden soil. From one 

 of the plants a few misshapen flowers were produced, 

 which, on close examination, I found to be due to 

 the fasciation of the capitulum. I isolated the plant 

 by removing it with a large ball of earth, and let it 

 seed itself. This spring there are some fifty or 

 sixty seedlings growing under and around the old 

 plant, and I shall carefully note what proportion of 

 them have abnormal flowers. I noted one other 

 instance where the seed does not seem to me to 

 perpetuate abnormal growth. Sedum glaucum when 

 taken from rockwork and planted in rich soil pro- 

 duces "coxcombs," which are due to coalescence of 

 two or more stems, but I have been unable to find 

 the character in seedling plants. 



In examining cases of abnormal growth, care must 

 always be taken to distinguish between mere 

 redoublement of the parts of a flower, and en- 

 largement due to the phenomenon of fasciation. 



John W. Odell. 

 Pinner. 



Sir John Lubbock points out that in old holly- 

 trees the leaves above the reach of browsing cattle 

 tend to lose their spines. Have any of our readers 

 observed this 1 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The question of civilisation and eyesight still con- 

 tinues to engage attention in recent numbers of 

 " Nature." Lord Rayleigh suggests that the reputed 

 . advantages attributed to savages are not possessed by 

 them, inasmuch as a limit is imposed on the power 

 of sight by the aperture of the eye, which limit he 

 thinks is nearly reached by civilised physicists, and 

 that any superiority which savages enjoy is a question 

 of interpretation of what they see. 'Mr. Rand 

 Capron considers that aperture may not be a fixed 

 quantity, but variable in different cases, and capable 

 of modification ; while Mr. G. A. Berry suggests that 

 among civilised peoples, where the law of the sur- 

 vival of the fittest is to some extent frustrated, those 

 who suffer from short sight naturally tend to those 

 occupations which suit their condition, tending also 

 to perpetuate the condition in connection with those 

 occupations. 



In a paper on British Snakes lately read before the 

 Warrington Field Club, Mr. L. Greening describes in 

 an interesting and popular manner the structure and 

 habits of these animals. 



In a recent lecture on the Solar Corona, Dr. 

 Huggins, F.R.S., is reported (in the " English 

 Mechanic") to have said, with regard to the matter of 

 the corona, as distinguished from gas, that " if there 

 were but one particle of matter in every cubic mile, 

 it would account for the corona, the particles being 

 so close to the brilliant source of the light of the sun." 

 " In the high vacua used by Mr. Crookes, the 

 residual material particles represent a crowded city as 

 compared with the coronal waste." 



The death is announced of Dr. Samuel Row- 

 botham, author of " Zetetic Astronomy," and the 

 upholder of the theory that the earth is flat. He was 

 best known under the nom de plume of " Parallax." 



The council of the Geological Society has awarded 

 the Wollaston medal to Professor George Busk, for 

 his palrcontological researches in the Polyzoa and the 

 larger Vertebrata ; the Murchison medal to Dr. 

 Ferdinand Romer, of Breslau ; the Lyell medal (with 

 a grant of ,£40) to Professor H. G. Seeley, F.R.S., in 

 recognition of his investigations into the anatomy 

 and classification of fossil reptilia, especially the 

 Dinosauri ; and the Bigsby Gold medal to Professor 

 Renard, of Brussels. 



In "Science" for February, is an account of the 

 building of the Washington National Monument, 

 U.S.A. It was begun in 1847, and, after some 

 delay, was finished last December. It is a sharply 

 pointed four-sided tapering shaft, standing on a base 

 of masonry, and built of marble, iron, granite, &C. 

 It is probably the loftiest structure in the world, being 

 555 feet high. 



