HARD WICKE ' S S CIEN CE-GO SSI P. 



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effects " ; but neither of these authors says if the 

 berries were swallowed by man or beast. I think 

 I should have a difficulty in finding any one 

 who would eat even two or three berries, as they 

 are almost universally considered poisonous. — Dr. 

 Morton, New. Brompton, Kent. 



Hybrid Primula. — The frequent tendency of the 

 Primrose family to hybridize often causes a difficulty 

 in determining a plant and its varieties. The Primula 

 clatior is by some supposed to be a hybrid between 

 the P. veris and the common primrose ; and Sir 

 William Hooker " was not satisfied that the Primula 

 clatior of Jocquin was really distinct from the nu- 

 merous hybrids between P. vulgaris and P. veris." 

 In one locality near Geneva I found both growing 

 together in abundance, producing different forms of 

 hybrids, some approaching one parent plant and some 

 the other. Many Swiss botanists call the P. vulgaris 

 acaulis, as it appears to be stemless, with a variety /3, 

 which, as having an evident, though very short, stem 

 or scape, they place the Primulas in two divisions, 

 as "especes legitimes capsule fertile," and "especes 

 hybrides capsule avortee " : under the former they 

 include P. veris, P. vulgaris, and P. elatior ; under 

 the latter, Primula acatdi-officinalis, P. acanli-clatior, 

 and P. elatiori-qfficinalis. — T. B. W. 



Anomalous Parts of Plants. — I gathered 

 some Trifotium repens this last summer at Esholt, 

 near Bradford, the calyx segments of which were 

 transformed into leaflets ; in some of the heads all 

 gradations betwixt leaflets and calyx segments could 

 be observed. I afterwards gathered some in Chee 

 Dale (Derbyshire), in which all the calyx segments 

 were converted into leaflets, some of the latter being 

 on petioles several times the length of themselves. 

 Two friends of mine have noticed this also, but I 

 have not seen it recorded. I gathered some speci- 

 mens of Ctaytonia perfoliata at Bakewell, in all of 

 which the leaves that are usually perfoliate were not 

 so at all. The several text-books I have been able to 

 consult (including Symes) do not give any habitat 

 for this plant : the specimens I gathered were grow- 

 ing amidst Chrysosplenium oppositifolium in the 

 middle of a wood, which appeared a very unlikely 

 place for its introduction as a weed of cultivation. 

 I collected also in the same wood a Myosotis, having 

 the corolla nine-partite. Near Bradford I gathered 

 Sitene inflata with two complete flowers (except the 

 calyx) in one calyx ; also in this neighbourhood, 

 Lotium pe?-enne, in which the spikelets were trans- 

 formed into spikes. Near Leeds I collected y uncus 

 bufonius in a viviparous state, like that which J uncus 

 supinus often assumes ; but I have not seen this state 

 recorded. I gathered a specimen of Lychnis diurna 

 near Miller's Dale, in which the stamens were trans- 

 formed into petals. At Eldwick, near Bradford, I 

 got a specimen of Orchis maaelata, which agreed 

 with the description of that plant in every particular 



save the lip, which was about twice as long as usual 

 and strap-shaped, with parallel sides, tridentate, the 

 central lobe being less than the others. I have re- 

 ceived from Scotland a specimen of the common 

 Dandelion, the peduncle of which is furcated, bear- 

 ing two capitula. — Win. West, Bradford. 



Inflorescence of Gourds and Pumpkins. — 

 In Science-Gossip for November was an interesting 

 note on the above topic by John Gibbs. He notices 

 that the fruit on fertile blossoms appear first — before 

 the sterile blossoms on the same plant. In this 

 country (Michigan, U.S.A.) I have often noticed 

 many staminate or sterile flowers open before a single 

 pistillate flower had opened. This I have repeatedly 

 seen in case of Hubbard squashes, summer squashes > 

 and several varieties of cucumbers. I do not make 

 this assertion as doubting what Mr. Gibbs has said, 

 but as a curious difference. If he is correct, perhaps 

 our warmer and drier summers may have something 

 to do with it.— W. J. Bcal. 



Gourds and Pumpkins. — The fact to which Mr. 

 Gibbs calls attention is one of considerable interest. 

 The separation of the sexes is common enough in 

 flowering plants, and in the Gourd tribe is of two 

 degrees : on distinct flowers (moncecism), or on dis- 

 tinct plants (dicecism). It has also been noticed in 

 these delicious flowers, as well as in those structurally 

 "hermaphrodite" or "monoclinous," that the sexes 

 are sometimes developed simultaneously (synacmic), 

 sometimes successively (dichogamous); but of the two 

 possible cases of the latter — at least in "monoclinous" 

 flowers — the precedence of the male (protandry) is 

 far more frequent than examples similar to the one 

 Mr. Gibbs describes (protogyny). This might be ex- 

 pected in single flowers, since the stamens occupy an 

 older whorl than the carpels ; at least, are generally 

 believed so to do. But when we come to diclinous 

 plants, new interests arise. A most careful and as- 

 siduous American observer, Mr. Thomas Meehan, of 

 Philadelphia, has shown that there is a close relation 

 between sex and energy, and that female flowers are 

 more characteristic of strong shoots than male. 

 Might we not, therefore, expect a plant to produce 

 male flowers only after its energy has been to a cer- 

 tain extent exhausted in producing female ones ? 

 Numerous cases are on record, especially of figs and 

 oranges, of the swelling of the "fruit" without the 

 fertilization of the ovule : it would be interesting to 

 learn if this ever is so with gourds. Of course, how- 

 ever the "fruit-blossoms" may "make haste," they 

 cannot set seed without pollination. In this case, 

 the pollen must be derived from another plant pro- 

 bably, perhaps from another situation where different 

 conditions make gourds flower earlier ; so we may 

 have here an illustration of Mr. Darwin's rules that, 

 while pollen from another flower of the same plant is 

 little, if at all, better than that of the same flower, 

 pollen from another plant is an advantage, and if 



