HARD W I CKE ' S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P. 



259 



our coast, and described by our naturalist Risso. 

 There were stripes on the body, as in the present one, 

 but the forehead was even more flat, and the dorsal 

 fin trapezoidal instead of triangular ; so, at any rate, 

 it was represented by a drawing. No description 

 was given of the skeleton. — Hippolyte de Pierlas, Nice. 



BOTANY, 



Alpine Flowers. — Hermann Midler writes to 

 Nature to say that in the Alps he has found some 

 instances of different forms of flowers in plants of 

 the same species, which, as far as he knows, have 

 been hitherto undescribed ; of which he gives a short 

 notice as follows : — Geranium sylvaticum is in one 

 locality near the Albula Pass gynodioecious, with 

 large-flowered hermaphrodite, and small-flowered 

 female stems. Veratmm album, Dryas oetopetala, 

 and Geum reptans are in all the localities where he 

 has examined them androdicecious. Astrantia minor 

 offers a quite peculiar sort of androdioecium, some 

 stems bearing, as in other Umbelliferce, in the same 

 umbel hermaphrodite flowers and male ones, other 

 stems producing solely male flowers. Dianthus 

 superbus seems at first sight to exist in three forms : 

 (1) Stems with hermaphrodite flowers, being per- 

 fectly proterandrous and producing a moderate quan- 

 tity of whitish pollen ; (2) stems with female flowers 

 containing very conspicuous rudiments of stamens, 

 but pollenless anthers ; (3) stems with pistils remain- 

 ing imperfectly developed, and with anthers con- 

 taining abundance of a brown powder. At first 

 sight H. Midler thought their flowers to be male, and 

 the brown powder to be pollen- grains ; but under 

 the microscope the latter proved to consist of grains, 

 the diameter of which is only about one-eighth of 

 that of the pollen-grains of the hermaphrodite flowers. 

 He supposes, therefore, these grains to be the spores 

 of some species of fungus, and Dianthus superbus 

 to be gynodioecious. 



Vegetable Teratology. — The state of Plantago 

 .lanceolata in which the spike is replaced, surrounded 

 ■or surmounted by a tuft of leaves, appears to be very 

 plentiful this season, as I gathered no less than 

 thirteen such specimens, all growing in different 

 places, when taking a walk on August 16th. In 

 several of these the spike is surmounted by from two 

 to five leaves, while in others a second spike springs 

 from the centre of the leafy tuft. In one specimen 

 the rosette of leaves surmounting the stem is pretty 

 large, and ten spikes spring from its base, their stems 

 varying from half an inch to four inches in length, 

 and the whole forming a sort of irregular umbel. 

 The dry summer, succeeded by showers at the end of 

 July and beginning of August, has probably some- 

 thing to do with the unusual abundance of these 

 ■curious aberrations. — D. Douglas, Leith. 



Beeches and Hollies ; Oaks and Haw- 

 thorns. — A friend of mine tells me that about the 

 middle of September he was in the New Forest, 

 where he noticed that beneath the large beech-trees 

 there was an abundant under-growth of hollies, but 

 no hawthorns, whereas under the oaks there was an 

 abundant growth of hawthorns, but no hollies. I 

 should be glad to have an explanation of this. — R. H. 

 Alcock. 



" Flowerless Plants." — Under this title Dr. 

 Franklin Parsons has contributed two most readable 

 articles in the recent numbers of The Naturalist, 

 which, as our readers are aware, is the journal of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and their general field 

 club record. Some time ago we heard a whisper 

 that The Naturalist would have to be discontinued 

 for lack of support. We sincerely hope our York- 

 shire friends will not allow such a stigma to fall on 

 their hearty and generous county. 



Vegetable Moth-trap. — Mr. W. Simpson, of 

 Dartmouth, has described a large plant of Physianthus 

 albicans, belonging to the Asclepiadce, which flowers 

 there in the autumn very profusely. He says it is 

 one of the most deadly moth-traps he knows. Many 

 days running he found from two to eight Humming- 

 bird Hawk-moths caught by their probosces in the 

 flowers, where they died in about two minutes. 

 Other insects were also found dead in the flowers. 

 The plant is of trailing habits, and easily trained 

 over porches. Have any of our correspondents 

 noticed its insecticide habits ? 



European Fungi. — All botanists will be rejoiced 

 to hear that Dr. M. C. Cooke, A.L.S., and Mons. 

 L. Quelet, M.D., have written conjointly a work, 

 entitled " Clavis Synoptica Hymenomycetum Euro- 

 preum," which has been just published as a handsome 

 little volume by Messrs. Hardwicke & Bogue at 7s. 6d. 

 In this book every species of fungus heretofore found 

 in Europe is described in brief but excellent and 

 easily understandable Latin ; so that it is a work 

 which thus requests a world-wide circulation. The 

 high reputation of its authors as fungologists must 

 make the present work a hand-book to all botanists. 



Double Flowers. — A few days ago we examined 

 the flowers of the common Petunia, and found the 

 stamens had developed into petals. Each, so-formed 

 petal was distinct, so that the internal structure was 

 thus polypetalous. We have noticed that whenever 

 the stamens are thus modified in gamopetalous flowers, 

 the newly-formed petals do not cohere. Does not 

 this indicate that polypetalous corollas must have 

 preceded the gamopetalous in the order of floral 

 evolution ? 



"The Herefordshire Pomona." — Under this 

 title the first part, price 15s., has just been issued by 

 Messrs. Hardwicke & Bogue, of a most magnificent 

 work, containing coloured figures and descriptions of 

 the most esteemed kinds of apples and pears. 



