186 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



for containing the extracts of the Journal of f 

 Robert Marsham, giving an account of the severe 

 winter of 1739-40 ; and also the correspondence of 

 that naturalist with Gilbert White (not before pub- 

 lished). The latter paper makes above CO pages. 

 The Proceedings of the Liverpool Naturalists' 

 Eield Club show us that this society continues' the 

 very doubtful plan of offering prizes for plants, &c. 

 The address of the president (Rev. H. Higgins) is 

 exceedingly valuable, beiDg devoted to the ety- 

 mology of plant-names. The present number also 

 gives an account of the excursions of the year. 

 The Chichester and West Sussex Natural History 

 and Microscopical Society's report shows us that in 

 the South amateur naturalists are doing good work. 

 The Lewes and East Sussex have also just issued 

 their twelfth annual report, containing extracts of 

 some valuable papers. 



BOTANY. 



Pittosporum: Tobira. — Many years back I was 

 struck with the beauty of the Pittosporum Tobira, 

 an evergreen abundant at Jersey. I have since 

 urged nurserymen at Brighton to introduce it 

 there ; but there was a strong impression that the 

 cUmate was too severe. In Paxton's "Botanical 

 Dictionary" it is said, "P. Tobira will succeed 

 against a soutli wall, with the protection of a mat 

 in severe weather ; and in the Heatherside " Nur- 

 sery Manual " it is spoken of as " not hardy, and 

 the more the pity, as the flowers are very fragrant." 

 I have, therefore, been not a little surprised to find 

 it growing freely and flourishing at Eolkestone, 

 where the shrubs are from twelve to twenty years 

 old, six feet and more in height, and as many in 

 breadth, exposed to the very severe easterly and 

 south-easterly winds in front of the sea, on the 

 highest part of the west cliff, as well as in other 

 parts of the borough (in one place it is more than 

 ten feet high, and wide in proportion), and never 

 against a wall. It is now (June) in full flower ; 

 the leaves are verticitate, shining, thick, aud tough, 

 with umbels of very abundant white flowers, which 

 have a powerfully fragrant odour of the orange - 

 flower and jasmine. If it succeeds so well at 

 Eolkestone, where it is so exposed, and without 

 protection, why should it not do so at Brighton and 

 elsewhere? I find another very pretty evergreen 

 flowering-shrub abundant at Folkestone in shrub- 

 beries and gardens in the most exposed spots, viz. 

 Lonicera Ledebourii, which a Eolkestone nursery- 

 man tells me is as hardy as the common laurel. It 

 bears very pretty orange and red flowers, with 

 large crimson bracts, is four feet high, and altoge- 

 ther a desirable addition to the shrubbery. I do 

 not remember to have seen it at Brighton, where it 

 certainly should be cultivated in the Pavilion and 



other gardens. The same may be said of the P. 

 Tobira. The bay-trees at Eolkestone have all had 

 their leaves destroyed during the late severe winter, 

 but the two evergreens above mentioned have not 

 suffered in the slightest degree.— T. B. W., Folke- 

 stone. 



Decay of the Trees in Hyde Park. — In 

 Science-Gossip for May, 1S73, is a memoir on 

 raphides and other plant- crystals by Professor Gul- 

 liver, E.R.S., illustrated by numerous woodcuts ; 

 and he has subsequently given descriptions, with a 

 plate, of the short-crystal prisms in various plants, 

 more especially of the order Leguminosse, in the 

 Monthly Microscopical Journal, Dec, 1873. As to 

 the use of raphides and other plant-crystals, he 

 regards them as valuable manure, to be restored at 

 the fall of the leaf to the earth for the nutriment of 

 the parent plant ; and besides to afford at other 

 times important botanical characters, in which 

 respect true raphides are very significant. The 

 report of the June meeting, 1876, of the East Kent 

 Natural History Society contains some applica- 

 tions of these facts to the sad state of the trees in 

 Hyde Park, so much deplored of late in the news- 

 papers and elsewhere. As if'to remove the natural 

 food of these trees, their fallen leaves aud fruit 

 have for many years been carefully swept away, and 

 no suitable manure substituted. These leaves and 

 fruit are very rich in sphseraphides and short pris- 

 matic crystals, consisting chiefly of phosphate or 

 oxalate of lime, the very food required for the 

 preservation of the plant. And indeed every gar- 

 dener well knows the excellence of leaf-mould as 

 manure ; but in no work on botany or horticulture 

 or arboriculture has the main cause of that excel- 

 lence been explained or even recognized. But now 

 we see how the fall of the leaf is a provision of 

 nature for the welfare of the plant. In such a soil 

 as that of Hyde Park the calcareous salts are 

 especially needed for the preservation of the trees. 

 No wonder, then, when so long and regularly de- 

 prived of the fallen leaves and other parts, these 

 trees should show signs of decay, just as beasts 

 would pine and waste away if their natural food 

 were taken from them. Had the old forests been 

 always cleared of the fallen leaves, there would long 

 since have been a decay of that noble vegetation 

 which still excites the admiration of the traveller. 

 Rich and deep soils may afford for long periods a 

 sufficiency of calcareous salts for the preservation 

 of the plants, but not so shallow and poor soils. 

 The quantity of saline matter annually taken up 

 even by a single tree from the soil, and appearing 

 as microscopic crystals in the plant, is prodigious ;. 

 and unless this saline material be returned to the 

 earth, exhaustion thereof must sooner or later occur. 

 The Legumens, too, are very rich in short prismatic 

 crystals, and these no doubt in such plants as the 



