HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



57 



Everywhere this Rhaetic starfish bed occupies, I 

 believe, the same relative position, viz. about half- 

 way between the commencement of the black shales 

 and the first band or nodular layer of limestone, in 

 which Estheria muiuta var. Brodicana is usually 

 found. 



It is somewhat singular that this beautiful brittle-star 

 should turn up almost simultaneously at so many 

 points, after having so long remained unknown. 

 It shows the importance of knowing "what to look 

 for," as Faraday said, and thin and almost im- 

 perceptible as this starfish bed of Rhaetic age may 

 be, I believe from its occurrence at points so far 

 distant as Leicester and Penarth, that it will be 

 found on or about a definite horizon in almost every 

 Rhaetic section. The fossil is of some interest too, 

 as proving the undoubtedly marine origin of the 

 Rhretic strata. 



THE ROSE OF JERICHO. 



IN the January number of this Magazine, there is 

 an interesting account of the Anastatica Hiero- 

 chwitica, commonly, but erroneously (as I think) 

 known as the Rose of Jericho. 



Old Gerarde gives capital figures of this plant in 



\ round the Dead Sea,' 

 with reason, that it is 



Fig. 41. — Rose of Jericho [Saulcya ?). Expanded by three 

 minutes' immersion in tepid water. 



its expanded and unexpanded state, and quaintly 

 remarks that " the coiner spoiled the name in the 

 mint, for of all plants that have been written of there 

 is not any more unlike unto the rose, or any kind 

 thereof than this plant." 



There 'is however another plant growing in the 

 same country as the Anastatica and possessing the 

 very same hygrometrical properties, but in a far 

 higher degree, which closely resembles a rose in its 

 general form, and above all the heraldic or crusader's 

 rose. It is described by De Saulcy in his "Journey 



and, he thinks, apparently 

 " the real Rose of Jericho, 

 long lost sight of after the fall of the Latin kingdom 

 of Jerusalem, and replaced by the Anastatica or 

 Kaff-maryam." 



Now some years ago I had for a short time in my 

 possession a specimen of this plant, which together 

 with one of the Anastatica, was found in a small box 

 in the collection of the late Sir James Smith, and I 

 forward you three drawings which I made of it ; two 



Fig. 42. — True Rose of Jericho [SauLya ?). There are neither 

 leaves nor roots. (Natural size). 



of them represent the unexpanded head (a back and 

 front view) (fig. 42) and the third (fig. 41) the same 

 with the carpels fully expanded, and of the rich 

 brown colour I have painted it, after immersion in 

 warm water for three minutes. 



The drawings are of the natural size and the late 

 Sir William Hooker, to whom they were shown, 

 pronounced them to be very accurate representations 

 of some kind of Mesembryanthemum. The lady 

 who lent me the specimen is long since dead, but 

 I have no doubt it is still in the possession of her 

 daughter who is an accomplished botanist. It had 

 neither leaves nor root. I can find no mention of the 

 plant in Tristram or elsewhere. 



Diss. T. E. Amyot. 



Mortality of Shrewmice. — The Rev. J. G. 

 Wood in his "Garden Friends and Foes," writing 

 of the common shrew, says :— " It has many enemies, 

 and, moreover, is liable to a kind of epidemic in the 

 later months of the year, which kills it in great 

 numbers, hundreds being found lying dead without 

 any apparent cause for their death." I should think 

 that the fact of their death being caused by an 

 epidemic of some kind, would account for cats, owls, 

 &c, not eating the dead bodies. I believe it is a 

 fact, however, that cats, though they are always 

 ready to kill a shrew, never eat the body, as they do 

 that of a mouse. — G. M. Doe, Torrington. 



