244 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



NOTES FROM MY DAY-BOOK. 



MAY I first confirm the words of a recent writer 

 in Science-Gossip? I quite agree with 

 him in thinking that the true "Rose of Jericho" is 

 not the Jericho Resurrection-Plant (Anastatica Hiero- 

 chuntina). The latter plant I possess, given to me 

 by my brother, who received it at Algiers from the 

 eminent botanist, M. Durando. It grows in the 

 desert south of Algeria, as well as in more Eastern 

 lands, and is used by Orientals as a charm. The 

 plant figured in Science-Gossip for March last is 

 much like one which I have seen in the possession 

 of Silvanus Thompson, of York. 



In the next place, I venture to refer to a paper on 

 •'Botanical Curiosities," contributed by me to the 

 Science-Gossip of May, 1879. I send drawings of 

 the there-mentioned varieties of Plantago major, the 

 common roadside and cornfield weed ; these were 

 kindly executed by my friend Percy Corder of 

 Sunderland. A (fig. 143) is a separated flower of 

 the ordinary form. B is the freak by which 

 the bracts have gone far towards foliage-leaves ; 

 the flowers themselves being still present, though 

 obscured (see /<). This is noticed and figured in 

 Deakin's " Florigraphia Britannica," vol. i., p. 193. 

 Ray called it the " Besome Plantain, or Plantain 

 with spoky tufts." It was found in Thanet, Kent, 

 by Dr. Johnson, 1732. (Deakin reads 1632 — probably 

 a misprint, for 1 709-1 784 marks the term of the 

 doctor's life.)* Deakin says further that it has been 

 "occasionally observed in various parts of the 

 country." C (fig. 144), as also B, is a copy from a 

 seven-year-old specimen in my herbarium ; the draw- 

 ing is a fair one, but can by no means give the mind 

 an adequate picture of the beauty of the living plant. 

 B and C were found near together — if not in the same 

 field — at Woodhouse, near Sheffield. Several C's 

 have been found from time to time, but never out 

 of the one field. One of these, discovered and trans- 

 planted in the last summer holidays, has survived the 

 hard frosts in my garden. Usually the plant lives 

 with us but a few years. It produces no seed. The 

 flowers are, as will be seen, in a kind of compound 

 raceme, or panicle, instead of being arranged in the 

 ordinary spike inflorescence of this species.f 



In the following, the numbers after the names of 

 species are from the London Catalogue. They indicate 

 the frequency of occurrence in the 112 "provinces " 

 into which the London Catalogue marks out Great 



* No, I am quite mistaken after all ! As Ray lived from 

 1638 to 1705, and refers to this plantain, the date must be 1632. 

 The finder was not the writer of the still excellent dictionary, 

 the dictator in his age over English literature, Samuel Johnson, 

 LL.D. There was a botanist, Thomas Johnson, M.D. In 

 this year, 1632, he wrote on " Hampstead Heath"; in 1620 

 another Latin work on an " Excursion into Kent "; in 1633, he 

 published an edition of Gerard's " Herbal." He took the 

 Royalist side in the great Civil War, and was slain in a skirmish 

 in 1644. 



t See illustration in the " Gardeners' Chronicle " for March 20 

 18S0. 



Britain. Square brackets stand around species which 

 are italicised in the catalogue as not truly wild. Those 

 plants whose " census numbers " are under forty may 

 well be set down as rare. We may note, however, 

 that various matters should be taken into account 



Fig. 143.— Variety of riantago major. 



in attempting to get ideas from these statistics as to 

 the comparative rarity or abundance of any plant. 

 For example : — (1) one species may be certainly 

 much rarer than another, and yet occur in nearly as 

 many "provinces." I think an instance of this is 

 patent in the two louse-worts. The marsh Pedicularis 



