HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



25 



"SCIENCE-GOSSIP" BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB 



REPORT FOR 1880. 



E are again glad to 

 report success in 

 our efforts to en- 

 able each member 

 of the club, or in 

 fact our readers, 

 to found good, as 

 well as reliable 

 herbaria. 



Fifteen of our 

 members have sent 

 us parcels for dis- 

 tribution, all of 

 which are worthy 

 of praise, as re- 

 presenting local 

 floras. The ma- 

 jority of working 

 naturalists are un- 

 able to leave 

 home to gather the 

 rarities of well known, though, in many instances, 

 distant localities, but they allow nothing whatever 

 to escape their notice within a few miles of their own 

 residences. A mechanic who has each year sent in 

 large parcels of excellently-selected specimens, is 

 compelled to be out by 2 a.m., in the summer 

 morning, so that he may lose no time from his 

 employment. Week after week he spends in the open 

 air, only reserving Saturday and Sunday evening for 

 his own bed; he is thus enabled to collect largely, for 

 not unfrequently he finds himself more than twenty 

 miles away from home, by nine o'clock in the evening; 

 then, generally snatching a few hours' repose in some 

 quiet woodland nook, he is again at work as soon as 

 the day breaks, searching the bogs, &c., for rare 

 species. It is to such men as these we are indebted 

 for our best specimens. We have sent out nineteen 

 parcels, i.e. nineteen members are enrolled on our 

 register. We are deeply sorry to record that three or 

 four of them have not been able, owing to protracted 

 sickness, to send their usual contribution of speci- 

 mens. We give such our heartiest sympathies, 

 No. 194 — February 1881. 



which we feel we shall be cordially joined by the 

 whole of our readers. 



Space forbids we should do more than merely 

 mention a few of the species we have had the 

 pleasure to send out this season. One old corre- 

 spondent, as usual, sends a parcel of novelties. We 

 should have been still more delighted if there had 

 been more duplicates for distribution. We now refer to 

 Mr. Curnow. Long may he live to help his brother 

 collector. In his selection we find Ment/ia rubra, 

 now found as a Land's End specimen. Mentha citrata : 

 about this he remarks, " it is more glabrous than the 

 Lamare plant, and less hairy about the calyx ; the 

 smell too seems to be retained when dry, when in a 

 growing state the perfume is identical." Mentha 

 viridis, Mounts Bay, Cornwall : " this variety is the 

 plant used in Cornwall for lamb's sauce, it is more 

 hairy than the type." Zostera marina, a broad-leaved 

 form from St. Mary's Sound, Scilly Island. Scirpiis 

 carinatits, Calstock, on the Tamar. 



The Rev. W. H. Painter sends Polygoiiatum 

 officinale, from Leigh Woods, Bristol. ' ' This'species 

 did not flower this season here. Convallaria majalis, 

 growing on the same spot, flowered very sparingly, 

 although not so generally recognised or known, yet 

 in any season, if wet and cold during autumn, the 

 following summer will show but few flowers, the 

 gardener knows well this law, for he is looking out 

 for fruit. ' Non flores, non fruges.' " Mr. Turner for- 

 wards Sagitta nivalis, Fr., Ben Lawers, added to the 

 Br. Fl. within the past few years ; Cystopteris montana. 

 Link, Fynarum, Perthshire ; Potaniogeton Zizii, 

 M, & K., Cauldshiels Loch, Perthshire. 



Mr. Rossall, Vicia Bithynica, Exmouth ; OrobancJie 

 Hcdenx, L., Torquay. We well remember finding this 

 species on Conway Castle in our youth, we then 

 gathered it with joy as a great prize, since which we 

 have never seen it in a living state. Lotus hispidits, 

 Torquay. 



Mr. Watkins sends Bromus Benehenii, collected 

 at Downton, Salop, with many more valuable plants. 

 Mr. Bennett again makes up a good selection, fore- 

 most of which we find a series of the little understood 



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