HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



19 



natural science. Mr. James Walker, of Mossley, 

 was one of these. As a botanist he had no superior 

 in his district; and his kindly disposition and will- 

 ingness to assist those of his class who were desirous 

 of "knowing something about plants," drew round 

 him a host of sincere and earnest disciples, who 

 followed him to his grave in November last. This 

 is very meagre tribute to Mr. Walker's talents and 

 moral worth, but we are thankful to pay it. Nearly 

 every large town on the borders of Lancashire and 

 Yorkshire has its botanical society, where a stranger 

 would be surprised to meet with an amount of 

 knowledge rarely to be seen elsewhere. 



The Rarer Species op Dianthus.— From a 

 note in last month's Science-Gossip it is pleasant 

 to know that the scarcest species of Dianthus in 

 our flora (D. casius) is not only far from being 

 extinct at its sole station, Cheddar, but that lady 

 botanists do not fear to scale precipices to obtain 

 it — we hope soon to persuade ladies to join the 

 West Sussex Natural History Society ; — and this is 

 very encouraging. The pretty Dianthus Armeria, 

 witli its bright red petals, is to be found here ; but 

 Dianthus prolifer is one of our rarest Sussex plants. 

 Can any one inform me if it occurs in plenty else- 

 where than in Jersey, or spare me a specimen from 

 any of its six habitats ?—F. H. Arnold, LL.B. 



Parietaria officinalis. — I have lately ob- 

 served a very singular phenomenon in the flowers 

 of Pellitory-of-the-wall. The stamens of the flowers 

 of this plant have their filaments fixed upon them- 

 selves, and are partly concealed by the corolla, the 

 anthers alone being perfectly visible. Whilst ex- 

 amining a specimen, I happened to touch one of the 

 filaments with the point of my knife, when sud- 

 denly it unbent itself with some degree of force ; 

 at the same instant the anther burst, and a cloud 

 of pollen was discharged into the air. Upon further 

 examination I found that only those stamens whose 

 pollen was ripe could be made to perform this 

 curious feat. — H. C. Crew. 



Curious Poppy Elower. — A correspondent 

 most kindly sends us a peculiar variety of the Corn 

 Poppy (Papaver Rhceas, L.), in which one petal is 

 of the normal colour, the opposite one on the axis 

 is a clear white; then the other two opposite ones, 

 on the floral axis, are streaked claret-colour and 

 white intermingled. This to us remarkable flower 

 was found in a field at Kingston, Hants, amongst 

 barley ; probably hundreds of others in the same 

 field were of the usual colour, whilst the present 

 example, certainly a very uncommon colour, shows 

 this strange freak of nature. We should feel most 

 grateful if all our readers who are botanists would 

 pick up any species they meet with in their rambles 

 possessing any peculiar abnormal formation in either 

 leaves or flowers. The past autumn has been very 



prolific in these teratological specimens. As they 

 are sent to us, if deserving of notice, we shall both 

 figure and describe them, so as to extend our 

 limited knowledge of this branch of botany. Very 

 few persons seem to # know much about it, but a 

 good chapter on " Vegetable Teratology " is as 

 deeply interesting to read (better, we hope, to most 

 readers) than the best work of fiction ever published. 



Mealy Surface op Chenopodiace^;.— Instead 

 of indulging in vague speculations, such as that 

 about " pure ammonia " by your correspondent in 

 Science- Gossip, No. 131, p. 260, the cause of the 

 mealings of the .Chenopods should be investigated 

 by rational examination. Almost everybody with 



k€B¥b % 



l'"ig. 10. Utricular shining hairs of Chenopodium Olidium. 



the slightest pretension to natural science has a 

 microscope, and a very poor instrument would at 

 once show that the white, glistening appearance on 

 the leaves and stalks of these plants is due to the 

 pubescence. The whole subject was demonstrated, 

 by drawings and preparations, at the meeting of the 

 East Kent Natural History Society, Dec. 4, 1873, 

 noticed about that time in several periodicals, in- 

 cluding, I think, Science-Gossip. On the occasion 

 mentioned, as recorded in the report given in the 

 Quart. Journ. Micros. Science, April, 1S74, Professor 

 Gulliver proved that the so-called mealiness of the 

 Chenopods is produced by simple hairs of two or 

 more cells, the terminal cells being dilated into a 

 globular vesicle, numbers of which so vividly reflect 

 the light as to produce the white and glistening 

 appearance. And hence Mr. Gulliver called this 

 pubescence "utricular." It is really a beautiful 

 object when viewed by a low power on a dark 

 ground and reflected light. The accompanying 

 rough sketch shows a portion of the leaf and its 

 stalk, studded with these utricular hairs, as seen 

 under an inch objective ; and to the right are four 

 detached hairs, more highly magnified, the lower 

 one of which is collapsed. 



