232 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSSIP. 



The streams are gay with the purple Lythrum and 

 various species of willow-herb, while the tall yellow 

 Lysimachia is common in some places, and makes a 

 beautiful show. That curious and interesting plant, 

 the butcher's broom (Ruscus) is plentiful between 

 Bulverhythe and Hollington, while the woods and 

 hedgebanks yield earlier in the year a profusion of 

 primroses, cowslips, sweet- violets, adoxa, bluebells 

 or wild hyacinth, and other bonnie blooms. The 

 broom and gorse are accompanied by Genista 

 Anglica and tinctoria, while the spotted medick (M. 

 macula ta), the yellow melilot, the strawberry clover, 

 with the haresfoot and subterranean varieties, 

 Trifolium scabnn/i, Lotus angustissimus, Lathyrus 

 .lpliaca, L. Nissolia and other interesting legumes are 

 to be found. The two buckthorns, the spindle tree, 

 the beautiful marsh-mallow, the musk mallow, sea 

 heath, sea convolvulus, sea holly, sea spurrey, 

 germander [Teucrium Chammdrys), vervain, thoin- 

 apple, dodder, periwinkles, Cardans tenuiflorus, 

 carline and stemless thistles, and a host of other 

 autumn plants are to be obtained. 



Fortunately I was able to study the cryptogams 

 under very favourable circumstances, and have been 

 able to add a good number of micro-fungi to the 

 already existing kinds. Clustercups, of course, were 

 not to be expected in any quantity at this season of 

 the year, but among the Pucciniaei the following were 

 the principal records. The rose brand {Phragmidium 

 mucronatum) with its uredo form, very plentiful on 

 both cultivated and wild roses. Bramble brand 

 (r/i. bulbosutn), with its uredo, raspberry brand 

 {Ph. gracile), and strawberry brand (Ph. obtusatuni). 

 Pucciniaei on the reed, wood rush (P. Zuzulr), 

 amphibious polygonum (/'. ampliibii), primrose, mint, 

 mallow, composites (P. compositarum on Centaurea 

 Calcitrapa), thistle, golden-rod, nipplewort, dandelion, 

 goose-grass (Puccinia difformis, rare at Baldslow), 

 hog-weed (plentiful near Catsfield), violet, willow- 

 herb, and plum-tree (plentiful at Pevensey, Hurst- 

 monceux, and elsewhere). Besides the uredo form of 

 many of the foregoing, we find St. John's wort uredo 

 plentiful near Netherfield Church, on Tutsan, Uredo 

 potentillarum, and U. bifrons. Rust abounds on the 

 coltsfoot (Coleosporiu/u Tussilagiuis), campanula, sow- 

 thistle, and groundsel. The birch in some places 

 was covered with rust, summer spores of Melanipsora 

 letuliua, while nearly every willow had one form or 

 other of Lecythea. It was interesting to find the 

 sandwort whiterust (Cystopus Lcpigoni) both at Bulver- 

 hythe and Pevensey, while the ubiquitous crucifer 

 whiterust of course turns up. Lecythea on bramble, 

 rose, spurge, willow, plentiful. Corn-rust, luzula- 

 rust, with rust (Trichobasis) on mint, nipplewort, 

 fool's parsley, hog-weed, and bean, clover, thistle, 

 knot-grass, violet, willow-herb and primrose, were 

 also secured. The dirty mould on figwort (Perono- 

 spora sordida), Ramularia Lapsaine, Poly act is, hop- 

 blight (Sp/ucrotheca castag/tei), maple blight (Uncinula 



bicornis), Burdock blight (Erysiphe montagnei), 

 buttercup blight [E. communis), Polystigma rubrum 

 on sloe at Pevensey. Clustercup on coltsfoot and 

 goose-grass (CEcidium Galii), Sepedoniuin chiysosper- 

 mum parasitic on fungi in woods, and a few others, 

 certainly make- a by no means meagre list for one 

 collector to take within a fortnight. To give details 

 of mosses, lichens, ferns, and other cryptogams 

 would be impossible in this paper, but enough has 

 surely been said to make out a good case for any one 

 who wishes to decide whether he could spend his 

 next holiday profitably in this part of the country. 

 The local lists and supplement of nature's productions 

 around the classic town cf Hastings are already 

 amazingly long, but they are said to be receiving new 

 additions every year. I am happy to be able thus to 

 add my mite to this store of useful information. 



SCIENCE DIRECTORY. 



Dcwsbury A T aturalists' Society. President, C. P. 

 Hobkirk, F.L.S. Hon. Sec, J. Summersgill, Moor- 

 lands Terrace, Dewsbury. 



Rochester Naturalists' Club. President, H. L. 

 Dampier, F.C.S. Hon. Sec, J. Hepworth, Union 



Street, Rochester. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The American vessel Enterprise has run a line of 

 deep-sea soundings from Wellington, New Zealand, 

 to the Straits of Magellan. The depth was but 

 1562 fathoms, the depth increasing east and west of 

 this. This line of soundings runs very close to the 

 ice-limit. The Challenger, in 1S75, ran a line in about 

 40 S. lat., and in the same year the German ship 

 Gazelle executed a series of soundings between that of 

 the Challenger and that of the Enterprise. 



The United States Hydrographic Office has laid 

 out a plan by which the entire Pacific, north of the 

 Challenger 1 ?, line, can be sarveyed by lines run at 

 short distances apart. This will be carried out by 

 the United States war vessels. 



At a recent meeting of the Philadelphia Academy, 

 Dr. H. Allen called attention to changes in the form 

 of limb bones depending upon the weight they bear. 

 The sloth, bat, and seal, different through their 

 habits and limbs, agree in placing no compression 

 upon the bones of the hinder limb ; and in all three, 

 the neck of the femur is shortened, and its shaft 

 flattened, while the astragalus is lengthened. The 

 direction of the condyles of femur has constant 

 relation to the weight supported. The effects of 

 suspension were also considered. 



