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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



officinale, L. arvense, Atropa belladonna. (The deadly 

 nightshade grows in clumps of bushes and small 

 trees in many places on the hillside, also the henbane 

 (Ifyoscyamus niger). 



Linaria spuria, L. Elatine, and L. minor, in the 

 cornfields at the foot of the hills. 



Verbascum Lychnitis. (I have seen the white 

 mullein in one or two localities in this district.) 



Bartsia odontites, Verbena officinalis, Nepeta cataria. 

 (I know of two localities for the latter plant.) 

 Calamintha Acinos, Galeopsis ladanum and Ajuga 

 chamapitys are plentiful in some of the hillside 

 cornfields.) Cynoglossum officinale, Daphne laureola. 



Buxus sempervirens, in the woods at Boxley. 

 Taxus baccata. (The yew is one of the chief trees of 

 the North Downs.) 



Juniperus communis. (Common, but generally 

 small shrubs.) 



Seventeen or eighteen of the orchids are found in 

 this district ; the following are more frequent on the 

 chalk. 



Aceras anthropophora (plentiful in some localities). 



Orchis pyramidalis, O. us tula ta, O. mililaris. 

 (The last two very local. I remember, a few years 

 ago, one wet summer's day stepping into a wood, on 

 the northern slope of these hills, with a thick under- 

 growth of beech, and stooping and looking under the 

 dripping boughs I first saw the handsome purple and 

 white spikes of the military orchis.) O.fusca also is 

 found here, I believe. Herminium monorchis, 

 Gymtiadenia conopsea, Ophrys apifera, 0. ?nuscifcra, 

 O. aranifera (the last is plentiful in one locality, it is 

 the variety Fucifera). 



Epipactis latifolia, Cephalanthera grandiflora, and 

 Iris fostidissima grow in the shady woods on the 

 hillside, the purple iris in abundance in some places. 



Many other interesting plants are found here, but 

 those I have mentioned are the most important in 

 the flora of the North Downs. 



Henry Lamb. 



Lime Villas, Bower Street, Jlfaidstone. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



It is intended to form, some time during the present 

 autumn, an entomological society in Birmingham. 

 All who wish to join should apply to W. Harcourt 

 Bath, hon. sec. (pro tern.), Ladywood, Birmingham. 



The following has been recommended as a capital 

 method of clarifying muddy water. Filter paper is 

 dipped into a solution of 43 per cent, ferric chloride 

 in 57 per cent, of water, and after thorough satura- 

 tion is dried between filter paper. In the same way 

 a second piece of filter paper is treated in a saturated 

 solution of bicarbonate of soda. Now, if a piece of 

 the yellow paper that has been treated with ferric 



chloride is first placed in muddy turbid water, the 

 fluid is coloured yellow by the iron salt. Next, into 

 the same water, a piece of the same size of the bi- 

 carbonate of soda paper is dropped, turning the 

 yellow-coloured water into brown. Thus a ferric 

 carbonate is formed, which absorbs all impurities. 

 The water thus treated can be filtered through a 

 funnel whose neck is filled with a piece of sponge. 

 It will be as clear as crystal, and can be used as 

 drinking-water. For I litre (1 quart) of water about 

 15 square cent. (23"io in.) of each kind of paper is 

 sufficient. A piece of sponge, weighing 5 grammes 

 (i"6 oz.), filtered 1 litre in 3 minutes. 



We are sorry that the publication of Mr. W. 

 Barwell Turner's projected " Monograph of the 

 Desmidiacece " has been postponed, owing to ill- 

 health. It will be postponed, so that certain valuable 

 memoirs, now in progress, can be incorporated. 



Through the energy and enthusiasm chiefly of an 

 old and valued contributor, Mr. W. J. Simmons, a 

 microscopical society has just been started in Calcutta. 

 We wish it genuine success. The President is Dr. 

 Simpson, and the hon. sec. Mr. W. J. Simmons. 



"The Garner" is publishing lists of the Birds 

 of Harrogate and the District, by Mr. Riley 

 Fortune. 



The Annual Report and Proceedings of the Liver- 

 pool Science Students' Association has just been 

 issued. It contains excellent summaries of the 

 papers read, and of the excursions made by the 

 members. 



"Industries" states that Herr Ottomar Anschutz, 

 a German photographer, of Lissa, "has succeeded in 

 preparing plates so sensitive that an exposure of one 

 five-thousandth of a second is sufficient. The experi- 

 ments connected with these improvements were begun 

 in 1882, and were carried out by Herr Anschutz with 

 a large number of animals kept in a small zoological 

 garden attached to his photographic establishment. 

 He began by photographing troops whilst performing 

 evolutions, and large masses of people assembled on 

 occasions of historic importance, progressing then to 

 the photography of animals, such as pigeons, storks, 

 horses, wolves, and stags. In all, 1300 of these 

 photographs have been taken by him up to the 

 present. The rapidity with which the pictures must 

 be taken necessitates the employment of a small lens, 

 and hence the photographs are very small, generally 

 only seven-sixteenths of an inch in length and breadth. 

 These are enlarged to i£ inch and transferred to thin 

 glass plates. The twenty-four transparent pictures 

 thus obtained are mounted upon an iron disc con- 

 taining twenty-four windows near its circumference 

 for their reception, and this disc is rapidly revolved 

 before a Geissler tube bent into a spiral. Four 

 Bunsen elements and a large induction coil supply 



