HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



257 



" villages of little dogs," or dormice, are sometimes 

 pretty large, e.g., ball" a kilometre in diameter. One 

 was in a fertile district covered with high herbs, 

 but tbe ground of the village was entirely denuded 

 by the animals, and little earthworks thrown up, 

 with boles in them, and communicating together. 

 The dormouse takes a survey from the top of these 

 eminence 5 !, with only his head thrust out. Iu coming 

 out, which they do most cautiously, they give a 

 small sharp bark. In another village the author 

 saw a little owl issue from one of the burrows, 

 which was also evidently frequented by dormice ; 

 and in another burrow was a rattlesnake ; but this 

 burrow had evidently been long deserted by the 

 other animals. 



BOTANY. 



British Fungi. — We are pleased to notice the 

 timely issue of Dr. M. C. Cooke's " Plain and Easy 

 Account of the British Fungi." The coloured plates 

 are all new, and are not exceeded by anything of the 

 kind yet published. This is the third edition, and Dr. 

 Cooke has thoroughly revised it, and made many 

 important additions. As a popular work on fungi 

 it is the best, cheapest, and most attractive of the 

 kind in our language, and students of this interest- 

 in.? and much neglected group of plants cannot do 

 better than procure it. 



Elodia canadensis. — This plant is rapidly 

 spreading and flowering in the streams of West 

 Sussex. Can any one tell me how this pretty pest 

 is best kept down ? — F. H. Arnold, Fishbourne, 

 Chichester. 



Snowdrops. — With reference to Mr. Wesley's 

 note in the August number of Science -Gossip, 

 ccncerning the question as to whether or not the 

 Snowdrop is indigenous, I can inform him that the 

 plant flourishes in the greatest profusion on 

 the sandy banks of the rivers in Mid Devon, which, 

 indeed, during the spring-time are, for miles and 

 miles, white with the blossoms of the flower. From 

 this I consider there can be no doubt but that the 

 Snowdrop is a native of this country ; for it seems 

 to me impossible it could ever have been planted in 

 such abundance as to have spread over the very 

 large extent of ground these river-banks occupy. — 

 J. L. Vincent, Forest-hill. 



" Plant Crystals." — I do not wish for a moment 

 to deny that the crystals of calcium-salts in fallen 

 leaves may serve, as Professor Gulliver suggests, a 

 manurial purpose. Recent researches show that the 

 leaves annually shed by an acre of beech-trees 

 between thirty and a hundred and twenty years 

 old, yield 73 lb. of lime, 9 lb. of phosphoric acid, and 

 3 lb. of sulphuric acid. I do not, however, believe 



either that the crystals are formed chiefly, or origi- 

 nally, for the purpose of manure, or that their pre- 

 sence constitutes by any means the chief value of 

 leaf-mould. I am not aware of any case iu which 

 crystals of calcium-phosphate occur in plants ; the 

 carbonate and oxalate are common. As far as we 

 yet know, calcium itself is not directly necessary for 

 any physiological purpose. Compounds of phos- 

 phoric acid seem, however, necessary to the forma- 

 tion of albuminoids, as also are those of sulphuric 

 acid. Oxalic acid (C 2 H 2 OJ is formed in the 

 plants themselves, and in a free state is poisonous to 

 the plant itself. The plant obtains its sulphuric 

 acid chiefly, or perhaps entirely, from calcium sul- 

 phate (gypsum), which is probably decomposed by 

 the oxalic acid, calcium oxalate being thus formed, 

 which in its insoluble crystals is harmless to the 

 plant. So also calcium acts as a vehicle for phos- 

 phoric acid. Thus, calcium oxalate must, as 

 Holzner and Sachs, from whom I have derived 

 much of the above information, have pointed out> 

 be looked upon as a secondary product of metas- 

 tasis {stoffwechsel) ; that is to say, as formed in the 

 separation of formative materials from the as- 

 similated food of the plant, but being perfectly 

 inactive, and of no use in building up the cells of 

 the plant. — 0. S. Boulger, Agricultural College, 

 Cirencester. 



Buppia spiralis.— The aestivation of this slender 

 and delicate flower at so late a season as the middle 

 of September is worth notice. The curiously-curled 

 rings of the peduncles, as they are now to be seen 

 in plants from Chichester Harbour, are a good 

 criterion, but another is the period of flowering. 

 Can any one inform me of the precise time when 

 Ruppia rostella flowers ? — F. H. Arnold. 



Varieties of Colour in Wild Plants.— To 

 "A. F. G.'s" list in the September Science-Gossip, 

 I can add the following short supplemental one, — of 

 course, from my own observation: — From purple to 

 white — Campanula glomerata, chalk downs, Fresh- 

 water, Isle of Wight; Ajuga reptans, chalk, near 

 top of Bulbarrow, Dorset, and old red sandstone, 

 near Sidmouth, South Devon. From purple to pink 

 — Prunella vulgaris, chalk banks, Stapleford, South 

 Wilts ; Scabiosa succisa and Scabiosa columbaria 

 (together), in undrained wet ground (chalk), Staple- 

 ford. From red to white — Ballota nigra, chalk 

 bank, Shrewton, South Wilts ; Thymus (serpylluu 

 or chamadrys), chalk, Stapleford Down, South 

 Wilts; Galeopsis tetrahit, chalk, top of Bulbarrow, 

 Dorset ; Lychnis diuma, Yarcombe, South Devon ; 

 Carduus palustris and Carduus arvensis, both fre- 

 quent, chalk, South Wilts. From red to pink, or 

 flesh-coloured — Papaver rhceas, Anagallis arvensis, 

 and Orchis morio, all chalk, Stapleford, South Wilts. 

 From yellow to cream-coloured — Helianthemum vul- 

 gare, chalk bank, Woolland, Dorset. In Harpfoid 



