276 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



to my friends' disgust and sometimes alarm ; but I 

 like all such things, and I suppose that is part of 

 the secret. — /. Tyerman, Tregoney. 



The Locust in England. — A specimen of the 

 true Locust was brought to me a short time since, 

 and was found in a bean-fleld near Wells, Somerset. 

 The species {Pachyiylus migratorius) is identical 

 with specimens in my cabinet from Australia and 

 Egypt, and is very different from the large green 

 grasshopper {Acrida viridissima) which is often 

 found in this country. The specimen measures 



in the open air, exposed to the severe weather all 

 last winter in the spot where it now stands, without 

 the slightest sign of having suffered from the frost, 

 — a proof that it will thrive in this quarter. By 

 making the fact generally known, all doubts as to 

 its easy cultivation in any part of England will be 

 set at rest; and there is every reason to suppose 

 that this beautiful sweet-scented evergreen will in 

 a short time become a general and pleasing addition 

 to the evergreens of Brighton and the country 

 generally by all admirers of ornamental shrubs. I 

 understand the Pittosporum, as well as another 



Fig. 16l. The Locust {Pachytylus migratoriut). 



about four inches across the wings, which are of a 

 greenish hue, the wing-cases and body being brown. 

 —H. W. Livett, Wells, Somerset. 



BOTANY. 



Pittosporum Tobira. — In the observations on 

 this plant in Science-Gossip for August last 

 (p. 180), I stated that although 1 found it as an 

 ornamental shrub at Folkestone, I had never seen 

 or heard of it at Brighton, and that the nurserymen 

 there thought the climate was too severe for it. I 

 was agreeably surprised, on the 28th of October, 

 to observe a fine specimen of the plant in a large 

 flowerpot in full flower, with heads of flowers quite 

 as large and as fragrant as those I saw at Folkestone 

 in June last, in the front of No. 30, Hove Villas, 

 Cliftonvillc, adjoining Brighton. It had been out 



evergreen, noticed at the same time in Science- 

 Gossip, viz. the Lonicera Ledebourii, will shortly be 

 introduced into Brighton. — T. B. W. 



The Classification of Monocotyledons.— 

 At the first meeting of the session of the Linna;an 

 Society, held recently, Mr. George Bentham, F.R.S., 

 the late President, presented a paper on the classi- 

 fication and nomenclature of monocotyledons. In 

 the brief account he gave of the contents of his 

 paper, he urged that in describing plants, care should 

 be taken to employ terms that state facts and do 

 not involve a theory as to what the parts described 

 represent in other plants. He complained of the 

 carelessness with which many writers indiscrimi- 

 nately employ terms. His new classification involves 

 great changes. It was especially pointed out that 

 external appearance is often misleading, and, for 

 example, the Iris and the Lily in the new scheme 



