i8 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



of red and blue ; from this sap the colouring matter 

 sometimes crystallises in the form of short and slender 

 needles, for instance, in the Delphinium consolida. 

 Dr. Goodall in another part of his admirable book 

 adds, " Of all colours of flowers, white, pale yellow, 

 and yellow are the most common." — W. J. IVIieat- 

 xrajt. 



The Synthesis op Lichens.— Mr. Bonnier has 

 read a paper before the French Academy, on "Ex- 

 perimental Researches on the Synthesis of the Lichens, 

 in a medium destitute of germs." The researches, 

 carried out by the author since 18S2, have resulted 

 in the complete reproduction by synthesis of a certain 

 number of species of lichens under conditions fully 

 confirming the views generally held regarding the 

 •complex nature of these vegetable organisms. The 

 results clearly show, that a lichen is formed by the 

 association of an alga and a fungus. 



Seasonal Variation in the occurrence of 

 Orchids. — I see by reference to Science-Gossip of 

 1881, that in the year 1879, the spikes of Ophrys 

 qpifera (bee orchis) were very plentiful, and that in 

 the following year, in the same place, there were 

 none, or at least so few as to be hardly noticed. I 

 do not know whether this question has been threshed 

 out. From what I have read in Science-Gossip, a 

 very lucid explanation does not seem to have been 

 arrived at. In the year 1884, spikes of this plant 

 were abundant in Fairford Park. Many of the 

 blooms were very fine, several spikes having as many 

 as six. During 1885, "Apifera" was even more 

 abundant, especially in a meadow which gradually 

 slopes to the river Coin. On the opposite side of the 

 water to where I first observed the plant in the 

 autumn of the same year, there were numbers of 

 young plants showing their glaucous green leaves, and 

 which I watched from time to time, until March of 

 the following year (1886). When time for flowering 

 drew nigh, I looked for my plants, but not one was 

 to be seen, and I have not found one this year at all 

 in this place. What seemed most strange was the 

 disappearance of the plants, so that no traces were 

 left behind. Do cattle in any way interfere with 

 this plant, as the field was stocked with oxen for 

 several months in the year ? — John Taylor. 



" A Dictionary of Plant Names." By James 

 Britten, F.L.S., and Robert Holland (London: 

 Triibner & Co.). Part III. of this excellent book 

 has been published, concluding the volume. It is by 

 far the completest and most exhaustive work we 

 have on the subject. It has doubtless been a labour 

 of love to its authors ; but it has been a labour for 

 all that, and, from a commercial point of view, by 

 no means a remunerated one. The work has been 

 brought out under the auspices of the Early English 

 Text Society, in three parts, at ten shillings each. 

 The last part ranges from " Paddie Stool" to 



"Yellow-Cups," and, besides a very copious and 

 useful index, it also contains a Bibliography, or list 

 of works, more or less treating on the subject of 

 Plant-names. There is also an " Introduction," or 

 preliminary Essay on the subject, by the authors. 

 We heartily congratulate Messrs. Britten and Holland 

 upon the successful completion of their most useful 

 and valuable work. 



Sisyrinchium Bermudianum. — In Bentham's 

 "British Flora" this plant is said to be found 

 " near Woodford, co. Galway, Ireland," and he 

 mentions it as being very common thoughout North 

 America. He says nothing about its being found on. 

 the Continent of Europe, and indeed speaks of the 

 genus as " almost exclusively American." I don't 

 find the plant mentioned in Withering at all. Ben- 

 tham speaks of two varieties, auceps, with broad 

 stem wings and the outer bract longer than the 

 flowers, and mucronatum, with narrow stem-wings, 

 and outer bract shorter than the flowers. I found 

 the former of these two forms at Baveno, in 1882, 

 growing in the grassplot, in the garden of the 

 Hotel Beau Rivage. To all appearance it was wild ; 

 at any rate, I gathered and pressed three specimens, 

 believing them to be wild. The flower is so small and 

 inconspicuous that it does not seem at all likely it 

 would ever be cultivated as an ornamental plant in 

 gardens, though it might have been an escape from, 

 the flower border.—" P." 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



The Descent of Man. — The distinguished 

 American naturalist, Professor Cope, has been engaged 

 in working out the meaning of certain structures in 

 the teeth of mankind. The structures occur generally 

 in the second and third upper molars, where there are 

 only three tubercles. In the anthropoid apes the 

 same teeth have four tubercles ; whereas in the lemur 

 the number is the same as in man. He therefore 

 regards this dental structure as a case of "Lemurine 

 reversion " ; and he finds it most abundantly repre- 

 sented among the Esquimaux (the lowest race of 

 mankind) ; next among the Slavs, French, and 

 European-Americans ; and least marked of all among 

 the Greeks, Italians, and Germans. So that the 

 evidence is accumulating which points to a Lemurine 

 ancestry of the human race, instead of the monkey, 

 which has hitherto done duty in the mind of scoffers. 



The Geological Association. — The last 

 number of the "Proceedings" of this society, 

 contains the following papers : — " On some Trilobites 

 from the Skiddaw Slates," by J. Postlethwaite, F.G.S., 

 and J. G. Goodchild, H.M. Geological Survey, 

 F.G.S., F.Z.S. (with plates). "Observations upon 

 the Stratigraphical Relations of the Skiddaw Slates," 



