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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Harvey Goodwin, D.D., Lord Bishop of Carlisle. 

 (London : John Murray.) The Bishop of Carlisle 

 has always been an ardent supporter of scientific 

 investigation, and as loyally accepted its logical 

 results, even when public opinion has been against 

 them. In the present volume, for instance, he only 

 demurs to the illegitimate applications of the doctrine 

 of evolution ; he otherwise accepts it as a grand 

 statement and formulation of the works of the 

 Creator. All the essays forming this volume have 

 appeared in a serial form, and some of them occupied 

 much attention at the time, such as " The Philosophy 

 of Crayfishes," which appeared in the "Nineteenth 

 Century." Dr. Goodwin's grand summary is that 

 " the results of scientific investigation and observa- 

 tion of nature, and the pushing of hypotheses to their 

 legitimate conclusions by all means which the reason- 

 ing powers of man supply, will find their complement, 

 not their contradiction, in the knowledge conveyed 

 by the mission of Him," &c. 



The volume closes with the funeral sermon on 

 Darwin which the bishop preached in Westminster 

 Abbey, on the Sunday after his death. The ten 

 essays make up a most readable and thoughtful 

 volume, which all reverent naturalists will peruse with 

 pleasure and profit. 



Evolution Explained and Compared with the Bible, 

 by W. W. Smyth. (London : Elliot Stock.) Evolu- 

 tion is now rapidly passing through the " Harmony " 

 stage. All scientific and philosophical truths ulti- 

 mately pass through this stage after being bitterly 

 opposed, and, before being so generally accepted that 

 the wonder is people did not accept them at first as a 

 matter of fact. We do not discourage "harmonies" 

 like this of Mr. Smyth (although we do not encourage 

 them), if they are only fairly and intelligently written 

 as this is. It will do much to overcome the foolish 

 and ignorant prejudice against evolution which many 

 tender consciences still maintain. 



Bee-keeping, by Alfred Rusbridge. (London : E. W. 

 Allen.) The author is a well-known apiarian, and 

 this cheap little book is well timed. It is devoted 

 to plain and practical bee-keeping, and, most impor- 

 tant of all, seeing that a good deal of the bee-keeping 

 of our time is merely a "fad " — how to make it pay ! 

 We cordially recommend Mr. Rusbridge's book. 



Agenda die Chimiste, 1883. (Paris : Hachette & 

 Co.) This little work is in French. It is a collection 

 of useful extracts, abstracts, tables, formulas, for the 

 use of engineers, chemists, medical men and apothe- 

 caries, agriculturists, photographers, distillers, &c. 

 There is an enormous amount of work condensed into 

 a small space, which renders it a very useful pocket- 

 companion and hand-book to all who have to do 

 with the details of practical, working chemistry. 



Query as to Fungus.— The small white fungus 

 curtly described by C. L. Fort last month would be 

 Peziza virginea, Batsch. — W. West, Bradford. 



NOTES ON RANUNCULUS FICARIA. 



THE very excellent and thoughtful paper by Mr. 

 Malan, on the peculiarities of the common 

 orchis, have induced me to call attention to another 

 plant, which, though belonging to a different order, 

 possesses much in common with the orchis. 



I refer to the common celandine {Ranunculus 

 ficaria). 



The particular point to which I want to draw 

 attention, is the method of annual production. On 

 this, botanical guides are either silent or misleading. 

 Thus, Hooker's "Student's Flora" says "the root- 

 fibres stout, cylindric ;" but on taking up a celan- 

 dine, I should not recognise the root from that de- 

 scription. On examination, I should find the root- 

 fibres as fine as hair, neither stout nor cylindric, but 

 I should also find these roots springing from the apex 

 of a bottle-shaped tuber. Now this tuber is not a root 

 in the common acceptation of the term, any more 

 than a potato tuber and a hyacinth are roots ; the 

 celandine tuber, in fact, grows very much like a potato. 

 All the nourishment that the growing plant gets from 

 the earth is by means of the fibrous roots ; the tubers 

 supply it with no food. 



It will be well to trace the plant from its babyhood, 

 in order better to understand this. 



For about eight months in the year it exists in a 

 passive state, in the shape of a tuber without roots, 

 or signs of growth ; the colour is a dirty drab, and it 

 often lies on the top of the soil, looking like a small 

 pebble ; thus it remains until the month of January, 

 or earlier, according to the temperature ; then its 

 active life commences, the first signs are a protuber- 

 ance at the apex of a tiny growth. This gradually de- 

 velopes until the plant appears above ground. When 

 deeply buried, it pushes upwards a long white suc- 

 culent stem, and then, as the plant requires food, the 

 real roots are put forth from the apex of the tuber. 

 This now begins to diminish and shrivel up, as the plant 

 is elaborated above ground, and the deterioration 

 continues, until there is nothing left but an empty 

 skin ; and this brings me to a matter I wish to point 

 out, that I have no doubt the undeveloped tuber 

 contains within itself the whole material of the future 

 plant, the office of the real roots being to supply the 

 plant with its food, when made or developed from 

 the tuber. 



Meantime something else is going on; the plant is 

 forming itself for another year. This it does in the 

 shape of new tubers. These are formed directly from 

 the base of the plant where it is attached to the soil, 

 and here is a distinction from the orchid ; as they are 

 not formed by the side of the old tuber, except by 

 accident. At first these appear as mere thickened 

 rootlets, but quite distinct, for they have no fibres, and 

 probably represent Hooker's description of the plant, 

 when he says, " roots stout, cylindrical." When in this 

 state, they are thickly covered with stout hairs. Now, 



