HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



211 



relied upon ? The difficulty is how to answer it. 

 As the only flora of the Bath District in print is one 

 by Professor Babington, published in 1834, I began 

 one two years ago, and made use of the seventh 

 edition of the London Catalogue, in order to save my 

 labour. Now that the eighth edition has made its 

 appearance, I find that my labour has been all but 

 lost, and that I must do my work over again. The 

 editor of the eighth edition gives very sound reason 

 for the publication of the new edition. What I 

 complain of is, not the new classification, but the 

 alteration of names which have become familiar, and 

 for which there seems to me to be no sufficient reason. 

 I should like to know, in cases where the doctors 

 differ, to which doctor he has deferred. I have used 

 Professor Babington's Flora, and, on the whole, prefer 

 it to Hooker's " Students' Flora." I cannot help 

 thinking that the editor of the London Catalogue 

 inclines to Hooker. What I should like to know is 

 in whom implicit reliance is to be placed ? Human 

 nature is fallible. Why should that part of the 

 human family which includes the savants in botanical 

 learning be expected to be exempt from the common 

 infirmity ? I hope Mr. Hanson's suggestions will be 

 carried out, and that some eminent botanists will 

 favour their humbler brethren, through the medium 

 of your columns, with their opinions upon the eighth 

 edition of the London Catalogue. I am inclined to 

 think that the new edition is all it purports to be, but 

 I leave it to those who are more competent to judge 

 to give authoritative opinions. — IV. G. ]Vhcatcroft. 



Abnormal Form of Plants. — In August of 

 1S84 I found, and have still in my collection, an 

 abnormal form of Stachys sylvatica. It has all the 

 blooms of each whorl on peduncles about three 

 quarters of an inch in length. The plant averaged 

 four flowers in each whorl, and in one whorl two of 

 the blooms produced other blooms on peduncles more 

 than a quarter of an inch in length, one growing 

 from the centre of the other, somewhat after the 

 fashion of the hose in hose primula. The whole 

 plant was about eighteen inches in height, with leaves 

 cordate, acutely crenate, green, with a reddish-brown 

 edge. In the same year I also found an abnormal 

 form of Melilotus officinalis, which had, instead of the 

 yellow racemes of flowers, unshapely masses of green 

 growth. It looked at first sight like a strange 

 Chenopod instead of a leguminous plant. — John 

 Taylor. 



Crepis Setosa in Wilts. — I observed, a few 

 days ago, a considerable quantity of Crepis setosa in a 

 field close to this town. It is, I believe, generally 

 considered to be introduced with foreign seed, but I 

 am not aware that it has been noticed in this county 

 before. Besides the hairiness and bristles, the whole 

 plant is of a peculiar pale green which distinguishes 

 it from Crepis virens. — IV. A. Clarke. 



Alien Plants at Chiswick. — An interesting 

 case, illustrating the introduction of aliens into our 

 flora, has just come under my notice. There is a 

 garden in Bedford Park, which was formerly solely used 

 for the rearing of poultry, and consequently did not 

 support any sort of vegetation. Last March, however, 

 the occupiers and their poultry left, and the garden 

 has since remained empty, except that in the interval 

 a profusion of weeds have sprung up, for the most 

 part Chenopodium bonus-henricus and C. album, with 

 Brassica sinapis (S. arveusis), Polygonum convolvulus, 

 P. lapathifolium, Galeopsis tetrahit, and Cannabis 

 saliva. Mixed with these I found several plants which 

 were new to me, and certainly not indigenous to the 

 neighbourhood ; these I took to Kew, where Mr. 

 J. G. Baker very kindly named them for me, as fol- 

 lows : — Panicum mileaceum, P. crus-galli, Setaria 

 viridis, Alyssum incanum, Saponaria vaccaria, 'Pago- 

 pyrum esculenlum, and Stachys annua. Besides these, 

 I have also found three other casuals growing in 

 Bedford Park, Potentdla recta, Impatiens parviftora, 

 and Salvia verticillata.— T. D. A. Cockerell, Bedford 

 Park. 



Botanical Monstrosities. — The first abnormal 

 specimen that attracted my attention was Anemone 

 nemorosa, which had its sepals transformed into leaves 

 with a white streak up their centre. Of this, I found 

 four or five specimens on different plants and in 

 several situations. Having noticed the above, I 

 had a very strong desire to find other monstrosi- 

 ties, and the following will best indicate the success 

 which attended my searches : — Primula vulgaris, 

 with four petals, about twenty specimens. Primula 

 vulgaris, with ten petals, one huge specimen. Ra- 

 nunculus repens, a flower completely metamorphosed 

 into leaves, even to its stamens and carpels, which 

 existed as scales in their usual position, inside the 

 leafy petals. Caltha palusiris* with the usual five 

 sepals, and also an extra one upon the peduncle, 

 about an inch below the calyx. Saxifraga granulata, 

 a forward step in the direction of a double, as most 

 of the stamens were converted into petals. Centaurea 

 cyanus, this plant had Tour fasciated stems, each of 

 which was about an inch wide ; it was growing in a 

 particularly barren position, behind a gate-post at the 

 entrance of a drive. Will some of your readers who 

 see the above, kindly write us their experiences, as I 

 am somewhat curious to know if others have seen 

 likewise? — Edwin E. Turner, Caggeshall, Essex. 



Bellis Perennis. — Mr. Swinton's experience 

 with the daisies on the downs is similar to what we 

 find on the moors here. On the millstone grit no 

 daisies grow, and all the vegetation is rough and 

 strong — brackens, ling, bilberry, &c. ; but on the 

 limestone moraines we find a fine short wiry grass, 



* A friend of mine called my attention to a tulip in his garden 

 which had the same curious arrangement as the above, i.e., an 

 extra sepal lower down the stem. 



