TOO 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Violets are cultivated on a large scale round 

 London, at Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, Rich- 

 mond, and other places on the banks of the Thames. 

 They are usually grown under orchard trees, a 

 position in which they thrive remarkably well. They 

 are also grown in large quantities in some parts of 

 Kent, Surrey and Sussex, Pevensey, &c. Violet 

 culture is said to be a most lucrative industry. 



HAMrDEN G. Glasspoole. 



NOTES ON NEW BOOKS. 



A BIBLIOGRAPHY, Guide, and Index to 

 ^± Climate, by Alexander Ramsay, F.G.S. 

 (London : W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.). This is in 

 reality a magazine of systematic notes relating to 

 climate, with digests of papers and books, &c, on 

 the subject. The volume exhibits immense industry 

 and research, and the student will save much time 

 by using it as a reference book. 



Edible British Molhtsea, by M. S. Lovell (London : 

 L. Reeve & Co.). The second edition of this nicely 

 got-up book has appeared, illustrated by beautiful 

 coloured plates, and containing a large number of 

 recipes for cooking all our natural mollusca. The 

 reader will be astonished to find what a number of 

 recipes are available. There is a good deal of quaint 

 reading in the work, and altogether it is one unique 

 in this department of literature. 



A Handbook of the Geology of Shropshire, by J. D. 

 La Touche (London : Edward Stanford). Mr. La 

 Touche is well known as a field geologist and ardent 

 worker with the hammer, and he has laid all British 

 students under obligation by bringing out this com- 

 pendious little handbook of the geology of perhaps 

 the most interesting geological county in Great 

 Britain. It is a digest of all that is good and useful 

 from "Siluria" to the last published paper of 

 Callaway, Lapworth, Hopkinson, Maw, and others, 

 besides the author's own original observations ; and 

 it is illustrated by twenty lithographed plates, con- 

 taining above 700 figures of fossils from the Cambrian 

 to the Old Red Sandstone inclusive. 



The Microtomisfs Vade Alecu/u, by Arthur Bolles 

 Lee (London : J. & A. Churchill). This is a valuable 

 book, especially to medical students who are diligent 

 in the use of the microscope, as it describes all the 

 methods of microscopic anatomy. It is intended, 

 however, more for the instructed anatomist than the 

 beginner, and therefore country doctors who wish to 

 keep their "hand in " work they always loved, but 

 have found little time to continue, will hail this little 

 work with pleasure. 



The Collector's Manual of British Land and Fresh- 

 tualcr Shells, by Lionel E. Adams (London : George 

 Bell & Sons). A beautifully got-up little manual, 

 with exquisitely engraved figures of every British 



species. Perhaps no department of natural history 

 has come more to the front lately than that of land 

 and fresh-water mollusca. Mr. Adams is well known 

 as a conchologist, and he therefore knows what he is 

 writing about. Moreover, he also knows how to 

 present his knowledge in a useful form. The present 

 work, besides describing every species, its habits, 

 localities, &c, gives an account of all the varieties, 

 hints on arranging and preserving shells, &c. 



FERTILISATION OF ORCHIS MASCULA. 

 By Edward Mai.an. 



IN a back number of Science-Gossip (Aug. 18S3, 

 p. 181), your correspondent G. M. pointed out 

 some errors into which I had fallen with respect to 

 the fertilisation of O. mascula, and, when, in a 

 subsequent number (Nov. 1883, p. 249), I asked 

 him to favour me with his address, he did so at once 

 with the utmost courtesy. 



To this day, shame on me, he has received neither 

 thanks, answer, nor recognition of any sort. 



But I have not been idle, meantime, and if G. M. 

 will read what I now have to say, he will see, and, 

 I trust, accept the reasons for my lengthened silence. 

 The reasons are two. I waited in hopes that 

 some one would reply to his remarks, for here and 

 there he has not quoted my words quite correctly ; 

 and I wanted to make further observations, by way 

 of verifying my statements. Quod feci. 



First of all, as regards the quotation from Mr. 

 Darwin's book, it was not, of course, given word for 

 word. It wasn't meant to be given word for word, 

 and I thought that the absence of inverted commas 

 would show as much, but I see now that my version 

 is different in words and substance from the original. 

 I am exceedingly obliged to G. M. for correcting me. 

 I will be more careful in future. 



I do not think, however, that my remark about the 

 viscid drop, which exudes directly the roslellum is 

 touched, is altogether wrong. At any rate there is 

 no inaccuracy or confusion in what I said. A viscid 

 drop does exude. I have seen it do so frequently. 

 For instance, a viscid drop almost invariably exudes 

 when the air is dry and the sun shining. Then, for 

 some reason, the pollinia are not inclined to adhere, 

 and bees, as if aware of this, scarcely deign to visit 

 the spikes on fine days. I have fertilised literally 

 scores of orchis flowers in Mr. Darwin's own way, 

 i.e. with a pencil, and repeatedly a tiny drop of 

 milky fluid has remained on the point of the pencil, 

 without either pollinium becoming detached. There- 

 fore please observe that I did not use the expression 

 explosion, nor did I say a pollinia. By explosion, I 

 presume, a forcible expulsion is intended. This will 

 not apply to 0. t mascula. I have, also, on very 

 many occasions, watched with great delight the drop 



