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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the other side also of Roche Abbey, near Rotherham. 

 At the former place, it fruited more abundantly in 

 two successive seasons than I have observed else- 

 where ; and, I think, in the Peak district. Fruit 

 (near York), on June 1. 



May 18. At Strensall Common, which is soon 

 (and more's the pity) to become a northern " Alder- 

 shot " : the marsh dandelion (Leontodon palustre), with 

 its leaves almost entire, and involucral bracts ad- 

 pressed ; the Andromeda pclifolia, 25, which I have 

 heard called rosemary, the true rosemary being of 

 course a common garden flower, and a labiate. In 

 woods near by, was the lesser winter-green (Pyrola 

 minor), 55, in bud ; this I found later in the fir woods 

 at Lang with ; but there flowerless. In a neighbouring 

 field was a strange form of Geranium dissection (?) with 

 flowers raised erect at a height of a foot and a half, 

 and large, round, deeply indented leaves. In Sand- 

 burn Woods, we noticed that the sepals of the 

 anemone seemed nearly as persistent as those of the 

 green hellebore ; the carpels were already quite large, 

 and well separated from each other. 



May 20. Received from Plym Vale, South Devon, 

 the Tilhia muscosa, 8 (of the stonecrop family, Crassu- 

 lacetz). It was on waste-heaps at the summit of a 

 slate-quarry ; and also by a path leading up to these. 

 ■ — May 22. From Settle came that lovely alpine, 

 the bird's-eye primrose (P. farinosa), 12. Another 

 species of the same order was brought from the Foss, 

 Hottonia palustris, 48 {cf. the whorled inflorescence 

 with that of the Japanese primrose, and with that of 

 the abnormal polyanthus cited above). We have 

 seen this "water violet "in many other stations in 

 York ; e.g. near Wigginton, by the railway north of 

 Church-Fenton, near Clifton, on Tilmire ; but, finest 

 of all, and most plenteous, in Askham bogs. At 

 the Heslington locality for drooping star-of-Bethle- 

 hem [Ornithogalum nutans'], there was nothing but 

 leaves to reward our visit. But in the same field 

 we picked the clustered bell-flower (Campanula 

 glomerata), 47 ; this has fallen under our notice on 

 Clifton Ings, on Severus Mount, on Bishopthorpe 

 Ings — all by the Ouse ; by the Went (a feeder of 

 the Don), near Pontefract ; in Wharfedale, near 

 Tadcaster. True Viola canina is to be obtained, as 

 on this date, upon Tilmire, though the specimens 

 are small ; Strensall is a second habitat. From a 

 field by Clifton (York), a specimen of lesser spear- 

 wort (Rati. Flammula), was brought in ; its flower 

 was almost, if not quite as big, as the usual size of 

 the larger spear-wort (Ran. Lingua). The same day 

 we received from Arley, near Nuneaton (Warwick- 

 shire), the same plant— this time with a double 

 whorl of petals ; along with it came a peculiar form 

 of butterfly orchis (Habenaria bifolia) ; flower, entirely 

 green (var. chlorantha), lip long, narrow, tapering 

 but blunt at the tip ; the sweet-smelling [Narcissus 

 poelicus] ; white blue-bells, or wild hyacinths (Sci/ia 

 nutans). — May 23. Sent from Reigate : — Juniper (J. 



communis), 69 ; man orchis (Aceras anthropophora), 

 1 7. Also from a semi-tidal marsh by the Dart, Tome, 

 South Devon, the summer snowfiake (Leucojum cesti- 

 vutn), 5. Heard of the Tulip [ T. sylvestris'] being found, 

 apparently quite wild, near Bewdley, on the Severn ; 

 its roots were deep in the ground ; its flowers of a 

 pale yellow, and showing themselves sparingly early 

 in May. — May 25. By Nova Scotia Wood, two curious 

 hogweeds (Heracleum Sphondylium) — the one had 

 a rib of its umbrella-like inflorescence fixed below 

 the rest of the umbel ; the other had leaf-bearing 

 stems growing out of the midst of the secondary 

 umbels. — May 26. Henry Ibbotson (53 St. Andrew- 

 gate, York), informed me of a new locality at Lang- 

 with ( = long wood) for the heart-leaved twayblade 

 (Listera cordata), 51. This is usually a frequenter of 

 mountains, woods and moors (amongst the ling 

 or heather). That it should occur in our flat Ouse 

 Vale, will, however, seem less strange when we 

 reflect that the alluvial Plain of York contains the 

 detritus washed down from alpine localities ; hence 

 this with other representatives of a more highland 

 flora. 



May 27. The marsh orchis (0. incamata), 18, by 

 some counted a variety of latifolia ; it has leaves 

 unspotted, narrower, more regularly tapering from 

 the base, and concave at the tip. This was on 

 Clifton Ings ; and here also the var. ebracteata (?) of the 

 common Car ex oralis — this var. grows also at Askham 

 and in a bog at Holgate. 



May 28. From by the "Bog Field" at Harro- 

 gate there was brought for me the Great Leopard's 

 bane [Dorouicum Pardalianches\ The sea spurge 

 (Euphorbia Paralias) 26, arrived from Burnham, by 

 the Parrot's mouth, near Bridgewater. We picked 

 white red clover (T. pratoise) on Clifton Ings; the 

 dwarf dark-winged orchis too, not infrequent near 

 York (Orchis ustulata), 41.- — May 29. In a garden 

 at Holgate we noted a tulip with two petals strag- 

 gling lower down the scape than the rest. — May 31. 

 Also at Holgate, the great water radish (Nasturtium 

 amphibium), 41. 



June 1st, 1878. The var. stricta of Barbarea 

 vulgaris, the bitter winter-cress or yellow rocket, on 

 Clifton Ings, where it is less abundant than formerly. 

 Its marked characteristics are its crowded pods on 

 their adpressed pedicels. On September 11, 1879, I 

 saw this on the stone-work of the Ouse locks at 

 Naburn. Between Skelton and Overton Woods the 

 early purple orchis ( O. mascula) ; this is somewhat 

 rare round York ; it is fine in a wood near Copman- 

 thorpe ( = merchant's village ! ), and I have heard of 

 it in other spots ; Orchis Morio, the green-winged 

 meadow orchis, is far commoner with us. Sanguisorba 

 officinalis, 57, the great burnet, is frequent on the Ings 

 which fringe the Ouse ; it occurs in Askham bog j 

 and again in South Yorkshire, above Rotherham, by 

 the river Rother. A white louse-wort (Pedicularis 

 sylvatica) was this day gathered at Strensall, where 



