HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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pulled up. The only chance was for young plants 

 which did not blossom — these of course are bound to 

 go this year ; next year the last lingering vestiges will 

 be swept away, and Spiranthes astivalis shall never 

 again flourish at its celebrated station in the New 

 Forest of Hampshire. Nothing can save it. Other 

 bogs will, when this one is exhausted, be searched, 

 and if, as is said, the Spiranthes occurs elsewhere in 

 the neighbourhood, it will soon be a thing of the past, 

 and one of the very rarest plants in the United King- 

 dom will be extinct, unless specimens are procured 

 from the Channel Islands and planted. Can anything 

 be done to prevent its complete extirpation? I do 

 not for a moment blame the cottagers ; if a wild plant 

 will fetch a given number of shillings in the market, 

 these people have, undoubtedly, as great a right to 

 sell them as have more wealthy collectors to travel a 

 long distance in order to gather them for themselves. 

 The plants do not belong to anybody in particular, 

 and the cottagers may as well make money out of 

 them as by the sale of a Vanessa antiopa, a Montagu's 

 Harrier, or a nest of raven's or honey-buzzard's eggs. 

 The error lies in making the habitat of a rare plant 

 publicly known. When will kind-hearltd uotanists 

 learn that it is a grand mistake to publish the exact 

 habitat of a rare or local species ? It is disheartening 

 enough to know that a plant is gradually becoming 

 more and more scarce in a district, yet it is some con- 

 solation to know that it grows in other parts; but 

 what must be the feeling of all right-minded botanists 

 on learning that the only spot in the kingdom in 

 which a species flourishes is being rapidly and surely 

 shorn of its glory? Spiranthes cestivalis, compared 

 with other orchids, has but small pretensions to 

 beauty, and is far from being a conspicuous plant; 

 and growing in the very wettest part of a peat bog, 

 might have escaped destruction, and continued to 

 flourish for many long years to come. The (per- 

 haps) well-intentioned, but most injudicious, publi- 

 cation of half-a-dozen lines will, in all probability, be 

 the means of extirpating it, and robbing the British 

 flora of one of its brightest gems. — E. D. Marquand, 

 Brockenhurst. 



Orobanche on Begonia. — We have in our 

 greenhouse an Orobanche that has arisen from the 

 roots of a Begonia. In the field close to the house 

 every year we have many Orobanche minor, arising, 

 we presume, from the roots of clover. We therefore 

 thought that it might be this plant, but from the descrip- 

 tion, which I send you, you will see it is not. Sepal 

 with no vein, or if with one vein, very indistinct ; 

 ovate below, narrowed into one subulate point shorter 

 than the tube of the corolla ; corolla tubular arcuate ; 

 lips denticulate, wavy ; lobes of the lower lip nearly 

 equal, middle one largest ; upper lip emarginate, 

 sides patent. Stamens inserted near to the base of 

 the corolla tube, slightly pilose, anthers dark brown. 

 Stigma approximately two-lobed, pale red. Bract 



one. Leaves none. Stem purplish, four inches high. 

 — T. y. Edwards. 



Look at the Hedgerows during June. — 

 Mr. Hobkirk some few years since, in the pages of 

 the "Naturalist," gave us an admirable article- on the 

 sub-species of the Hawthorn ; until then they ap- 

 peared to be overlooked by British botanists, or they 

 merely regarded them as a single species. For several 

 years they have furnished to us matter for thought 

 and study, so that now we can generally when riding 

 rapidly along the lanes point out any of the species, 

 or varieties, when in flower. What we particularly 

 wish, in fact our object in drawing the attention of 

 our readers to them, is to ascertain their distribution. 

 For the present, and as the space at our command 

 must be limited, we describe only two of the species, 

 probably both will be discovered in many counties : — 

 i. CraLegus oxyacanthoides, Thnil, may be recognised 

 with ease, by having from two to three carpels, and 

 the peduncles and calyx tube being glabrous or 

 smooth. — 2. Cratcegus monogyna, J acq. Carpel 

 solitary, peduncles and calyx pubescent (clothed 

 with fine down). The leaves are large, and deeply 

 lobed. No. 2 is our common species in the North 

 of England, No. I more rare. — F. 



Fertilization of Mergenia Erecta. — At a 

 recent meeting of the Linna;an Society, Mr. R. I. 

 Lynch read a paper on the mechanism for the fer- 

 tilization of the above plant. It is a West African 

 Acanthaceous shrub, bearing funnel-shaped corollas, 

 with hairy anthers midway in the tube, their backs 

 pressed against the wall. The lower slender flexible 

 style has its double-lipped stigma so formed and 

 placed, that insects alighting and entering towards the 

 nectar at the bottom of the flower, on their return so 

 move the lever-lip of the stigma as to produce pol- 

 lenization. 



Position of the Pasque Flower. — I have 

 noticed that whenever I have found the Anemone 

 Pulsatilla it has always grown in belts of a certain 

 altitude, as for instance : last year on the Blewberry 

 Downs I found the above specimen ; it was growing 

 in a belt at about 40 feet elevation, and the belt only 

 being about 25 or 30 feet broad. I was rather sur- 

 prised at this, and determined to take notice this year ; 

 I have done so, and again noticed the same pecu- 

 liarity. I have never found one out of the belt. I 

 have consulted many Botanies, but have seen no 

 record of so marked a peculiarity in this specimen. 

 The question is whether this is a universal fact or 

 only a partial one, occurring only in the localities in 

 which I have found the Pasque Flower. — Albert 

 Henry Barrett. 



Experiment with Mistletoe Berries. — 

 Having just been making an experiment with the 

 above, I thought it probable that some of the 



