20 



HA RDWICKKS S CIE NCE-GOSSIP. 



welcome to scientists and of the most reliable 

 description. That this anatomist takes a great 

 interest in cetalogy is evinced by his numerous 

 papers on the cetacea and the fine series of articulated ' 

 skeletons he is now forming in the new museum of 

 the University, among which may be enumerated 

 Bahvnoptera Sibbaldii, B. borealis, B. rostratus, 

 Balana mystketus, ITyperoodon rosti-atus P , Rleso- 

 plodon bideus, Glabrocep/ialus mclas, G. macro- 

 rhyncJius, Platanista Gangetica <S P, &c. — Is. Simpson, 

 Edinburgh. 



BOTANY. 



The Waratah (Australian Bush-flower). — 

 I have a splendid specimen of the above which was 

 picked about 150 miles from here. This flower was 

 at one time very plentiful about Sydney, but by 

 reason of building and ruthless destruction of the 

 plants is now almost extinct there. A great outcry 

 has been made lately about the wholesale and 

 reckless gathering of this and other wild flowers, 

 the plants being frequently torn up by the roots. 

 The flower I have is as large as a saucer, and com- 

 mences with a fringe of flat petals, from out of which 

 rises a close mass of petals very much like an un- 

 expanded honeysuckle flower, and these eventually 

 open. The whole is a brilliant scarlet set in a bed of 

 dark green foliage. — E. C. 



Floral Varieties. — I should be glad to know if 

 any of the following have been noticed by readers of 

 Science-Gossip : Erophilaverna, with purple petals, 

 growing very strong ; Erophila verna, with orbicular 

 seed pods ; Geranium Robertianum, with white 

 blooms, otherwise like ordinary specimens, though 

 all plants growing near had pure white petals ; 

 Geranium molk, with white blooms, larger than 

 ordinary and with petals more deeply fid and con- 

 stant, this being the second year of observation. Not 

 a single purple specimen amongst either batch of 

 seedlings. Last and most curious. While hunting 

 for insects during the month of October, 1885, I 

 found a leaf of Cardaminc pratensis bearing on its 

 under side several small plants ; one with two or 

 three fully developed leaves. I have not heard or 

 read that plants of this order are reproductive from 

 the leaves, or, perhaps, I should say, the venation of 

 the leaves. Of course the preceding may have been 

 mentioned before, but being only a recent subscriber 

 to your valuable GOSSIP, I have not had the chance of 

 knowing. — Joint Taylor. 



Primroses and Cattle.— Dr. Spencer Thompson, 

 in his " Wild Flowers : How to See and Gather 

 Them," says, p. 174— I quote from the edition of i860 

 — about the common primrose {Primula vulgaris) : 

 "Pretty favourite as the primrose is, both its leaves 



and flowers are rejected by all grazing animals, pigs 

 excepted." This is a curious point about which I 

 would like to know more, and I hope your corre- 

 spondents will favour your readers with their know- 

 ledge as to the facts. I want to know what cattle 

 eat primroses. When I first read the sentence 

 quoted from' Dr. Spencer's volume, now more than 

 twenty-five years ago, I made this note in the margin 

 of my copy : " Sheep are, on the contrary, extremely 

 partial to primroses." I then lived in a primrose and 

 sheep country among the hills, six miles south of 

 Ballymena, in the co. Antrim, where it was noticeable 

 that no primroses were permitted to put forth leaves 

 and flowers along the hedgerows and in the shadowy 

 grass of those fields wherein they were pastured, while 

 they abounded in the same places when under tillage. 

 Such is my experience of sheep eating primroses, and 

 I have since come to know that goats — animals that 

 I am sorry to say abound in my present parish, 

 Artmore, co. Armagh — have the same partiality for 

 " the primrose stars." It would, moreover, be inter- 

 esting to know how the cowslip (Primula vcris) is 

 treated by the same animals. — H. W. Lett, M.A. 



Botanical Drying Paper. — We have received a 

 beautiful specimen of demy botanical paper manu- 

 factured for Messrs. Spicer Bros., 19, New Bridge 

 Street, London, by Mr. Josiah Rose, of Southport, 

 and sold by Messrs. Spicer to the trade. This state- 

 ment will be an answer to one of the many queries 

 which frequently appear in our columns. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Fossil Insects. — Apropos of the note on fossil 

 insects in Science-Gossip, the following letter dated 

 1836, from an old number of the " Edinburgh 

 Journal of Natural History," may be of interest to 

 your readers. It is as follows: — "I have in my 

 possession the wing of a fly encrusted with calcareous 

 spar, found last summer, about twenty-four feet from 

 the surface, and near the bottom of a freestone rock 

 twenty feet in thickness, at Fairy Bank, parish of 

 Bothwell. It was discovered ... in a spot from 

 which a mass of stone weighing two tons had just 

 been removed. The wing is rather larger than that of 

 a dragon fly ; it is of a golden colour, and beautifully 

 membranous, It retains all the freshness of the 

 natural wing, having undergone no petrifying process, 

 and is set, as if by the art of the lapidary, in the 

 spar." The letter, which I have considerably 

 abbreviated, is signed "John Craig," and accom- 

 panied by a rough sketch. — J. A. Wlieldon, Burgess 

 Hill, Sussex. 



Fossil Insects.— Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., has 

 recently published, in the " Proceedings of the Geo- 

 logists' Association," another of his capital papers oa 



