HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



211 



botanist, was searching for plants through the sides 

 of Fcrge Valley, near Scarborough, and, winding 

 our way through the most unfrequented parts, I 

 came upon Maianthemum spread along the brow of 

 the hill on one side of the valley, growing in peat 

 soil, quite undisturbed, and shaded by oak-trees» 

 nearly a mile from any house or garden, and far 

 from any road. I called my friend to the dis- 

 covery, and we both took away specimens. 

 I immediately wrote to Mr. Mitten, the botanist, 

 and sent him a specimen of the plant. Mr. 

 Mitten sent the specimen to Mr. Borrer, who 

 was then the patriarch of British botanists, with an 

 account of its discovery. Mr. Borrer immediately 

 communicated the discovery to Dr. Walker Arnott. 

 Dr. Arnott at once wrote to me for particulars. 

 Just at that time the eighth edition of Hooker and 

 Arnott's "British Flora" was passing through the 

 press, and Dr. Arnott delayed the printiug-off uuti 

 I had satisfied him that the plant I had discovered 

 was truly British. I have before me now a letter 

 dated 5th July, 1360, from Mr. Borrer, in reply to 

 Mr. Mitten's communication, kindly sent me by 

 Mr. Mitten. He writes :— " Thank you for the 

 extremely interesting communication of Mr. Braby's 

 discovery. .... I visited the reported place in 

 Northumberland, and found it scarcely outside of a 

 garden, and the plant entirely carried away by 

 curious visitors. The place where I have seen it in 

 Caen-wood is dubious — oue large spot near a maze 

 walk in a wood. Perhaps Mr. Braby would pruden- 

 ^ially conceal the name of the place where he found 

 his plant ; but I should like to know whether it is 

 beyond suspicion of escape from a garden." I 

 have also before me the second letter I received 

 from Dr. Arnott, dated 23rd July, 1860. He writes : 

 " The packet of Maianthemum, and also your letter, 

 reached me safely this forenoon. I have in conse- 

 quence modified somewhat the observations (in the 

 "British Flora") I have made on the locality, the 

 only one that has any pretensions to be considered 

 genuine. I have said, ' west-side of Forge Valley, 

 near Hackness,' instead of Hackness only, &c." It 

 will be seen th&t Mdianihentumbi/olmmwas unknown 

 as an indigenous British plant, until June, 1S60, when 

 it was discovered by me, and inserted by Dr. Arnott 

 without any doubtful mark as a genuine British 

 plant in the eighth edition of Hooker and Arnott's 

 " British Flora" ; its first appearance in any standard 

 work in that character. I may add that at Dr. 

 Arnott's request I sent him some roots of the plant, 

 which he informed me he had planted in the Botanic 

 Gardens, Glasgow. I have a letter from an ac- 

 quaintance then living at Scarborough, to this effect : 

 that some considerable time after the plant was 

 discovered, he saw Mr. Backhouse on a visit to the 

 locality. That visit I believe forms the whole of his 

 connection with the discovery of the plant. — J. 

 Braby. 



Varieties of Colour in Wild Plants. — The 

 following varieties have been noticed by myself at 

 various times on the soils mentioned in each case : — 

 Varying from Purple to Pink and White : Campa- 

 nula rocundifolia, white, Chalk-downs, Worthing, 

 Sussex ; Trifolium prateuse, white, chalk and gravel, 

 Brighton and St. Alban's (does T. medium ever 

 vary ?) ; Viola cauina, pink and white, chalk, 

 Worthing; Viola odorata, pink and white, chalk, 

 gravel, &c., Worthing; Bartsia odontites, one speci- 

 men, white, chalk, Worthing; Prunella vulgaris, 

 white, gravel, Cambridge ; Erica tetralix, and 

 cinerea, white (I believe from Balcombe, Sussex, 

 sand) ; Calluna vulgaris, white (also, I believe, from 

 Balcombe, Sussex) ; Malva sylvestris, one specimen, 

 white, chalk, Steyning, Sussex ; Malva moschata, 

 white, gravel and clay, St. Alban's, Herts ; Centaurea 

 scabiosa, white, gravel (?), Ingatestone, Essex, — 

 chalk, Worthing ; Stachys palustris, white, gravel, 

 St. Alban's, — chalk, Worthing ; Stachys arvensis, 

 white, river alluvium, Cambridge ; Cardamine 

 pratensis, white, river alluvium, Cambridge ; 

 Erythraea Centaurium, Horsham, Sussex (soil?); 

 Hyacinthus nonscriptus, gravel, St. Alban's ; Poly- 

 gala vulgaris, pink and white, chalk, Worthing ; 

 Achillea Millefolium, varying from deep pink to 

 white everywhere. Varying from Yelloto or Red to 

 White: Primula vulgaris, white, chalk, Worthing ; 

 Papaver Rhoeas, pure white, ballast on railway, 

 Cambridge, one petal nearly entirely white, Brigh- 

 ton, chalk. I have found a double variety of Car- 

 damine pratensis fairly common near Worthing 

 (between Clapham and Finden), also Ranunculus 

 repens, with a double corolla, at Cambridge. I 

 heard my first chiffchaff this year on Sunday, 

 April 2, and swallow April 4, in St. John's College 

 grounds, Cambridge. In 1873 I was staying near 

 Brighton during the autumn, and I used to see a 

 pair of martins every sunny day till December 15. 

 On December 5 I saw a swallow ; it was a cold 

 day, and it could scarcely fly at all. I unfortunately 

 did not stay during the spring, so that I could not 

 tell if they hybernated. The year before last a 

 linnet bred in a gentleman's garden at Cambridge, 

 in November. I do not know if Sthey brought off 

 the young birds, but as the weather became very 

 cold soon after 1 heard of it, I suppose they did not. 

 I have twice found humble bees impaled on thorns 

 near a butcher-bird's nest, both times near Worth- 

 ing. On one bush there were three or four. Last 

 September I found two S. convolvuli near St. 

 Alban's, and the year before one very bad specimen 

 was brought me also from St. Alban's. I saw Edusa 

 aud Hyale also there last autumn. I think I saw a 

 request for a receipt for a cement fit for natural 

 history purposes. Isinglass dissolved in warm 

 vinegar or acetic acid answers very well, and is, I 

 believe, the same as the cement called Coaguline. 

 It needs warming before use.— A. F. G. 



