236 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the variations in the predominance of our wild flowers 

 as the season advanced from spring to summer and 

 autumn. In our hedge-banks the pure white of the 

 Larger stitchwort and " Jack-by-the-hedge " gave way 

 to the bright blue of the speedwell, and then to the 

 reddish-purple of the black horehound and the various 

 shades of the mallows. In our meadows the golden 

 yellow buttercups were gradually replaced by the pink 

 of the sorrels and ragged robins, and then by the 

 yellow ragwort and purple knapweed. Our river- 

 sides were gay in the early spring with the golden 

 marsh marigold, in the early summer with the yellow 

 flag, in the later summer with the purple loosestrife. 1 

 The bright scarlet of the poppies and the pimpernel 

 only appeared in the ripening corn. The blue 

 campanulas, the bright yellow St. John's-wort, the 

 purple heather do not brighten the landscape till the 

 summer is in its prime, when the green or incon- 

 spicuous flowers of the hazel, the elm, the oak, and 

 nearly all our timber trees have long since passed away. 

 He did not know, however, whether any attempt 

 had ever been made to reduce those facts to a general 

 law. Out of a total of 64 species he found in the list 

 26 white, 9 green, 13 yellow, 5 red or pink, and 11 

 blue and violet. He had not been able to prepare a 

 list of our common summer and autumn flowers, but, 

 even without that, there were a few striking points. 

 There was for instance a very great preponderance of 

 white flowers, A\'hich was not the case at any other 

 time of the year ; yellow was also greatly in excess, 

 compared with other seasons ; and the number of red 

 and pink flowers was extremely small. It was obvious, 

 therefore, that if the excluded natural orders were 

 restored, the plants belonging to them being mostly 

 inconspicuous green or brown flowers while some 

 had bright yellow anthers, the j^roportion of red and 

 blue in particular would be greatly diminished. Com- 

 paring those results with the spring flora of Switzer- 

 land, although difirculties in the way of any exact 

 enumeration were very great, he found that out of 

 50 species 18 were white, I was green, 10 were 

 red or pink, and 8 blue or violet. In endeavouring 

 to arrive at any general conclusion for these data, 

 it should be borne in mind that the two colours, white 

 and green, stood on a diff"erent footing from all the 

 rest, and might be regarded as an indication of the 

 absence of colour. With regard to yellow, he found 

 an exceedingly interesting observation by M. Flahaut, 

 that "a solid insoluble pigment, the Xanthine of 

 Frcmy and Cloez, is in the first place to be distin- 

 guished from all the soluble colouring matters — blue, 

 yellow, red, and their mixtures — all of which are acted 

 on very readily by reagents, and which are usually 

 formed only in epidermal cells." The difference 

 between the prevailing spring flowers in England and 

 in Switzerland seemed to him to be due to the same 

 cause. Owing partly to the spring being a month 

 later, partly to the more southern latitude, and conse- 

 quent greater elevation of the sun, partly to the clearer 



air of a high altitude, the light which opens the 

 earliest spring flowers is much stronger in Switzerland 

 than in England. 



The Botanical Exchange Club.— The Report 

 for 1880 is of great interest to botanists, in spite 

 of the smallness of the number of specimens sent. 

 Among the Orkney plants is a new variety, Riippia 

 rostcllata, var. nana, Boswell. 



The Flora of Michigan. — Messrs. C. F. 

 Wheeler and E. F. vSmith have compiled a most 

 valuable work, entitled " Catalogue of the Phsenoga- 

 mous and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants of Michi- 

 gan : Indigenous, Naturalised, and Adventive." The 

 paper was originally prepared for the Michigan 

 Horticultural Society. 



Mrs. E. Edwards. — We regret to have to an- 

 nounce the death of this accomplished lady, whose 

 papers on botanical subjects, and "notes" in other 

 parts of our volume, have been familiar to our readers 

 for many years past. 



ViciA tetrasperma. — It may interest your Scotch 

 and other readers to know of this vetch having been 

 found by me growing last month in the outskirts of 

 Aberdeen, indicating a more northerly range for thu 

 plant than mentioned in Hooker's Flora. — Alexander 

 Somerville, 1 1 South Park Terrace, IJillhead, Glas^inv. 



GEOLOGY. 



Discovery of Fossil Fishes in the New Red 

 Sandstone of Nottingham.— Mr. E. Wilson, 

 F.G.S., read a-paper on the above subject in section 

 C, British Association. The paper stated that the 

 discovery was of great rarity. It was also observed 

 that during the construction of the Leen Valley 

 outfall sewer in 1878, a remarkably interesting 

 section was given by the tunnelling driven through 

 Rough Hill, or Colwick Wood, near Nottingham, 

 showing the lower beds of the Waterstones resting 

 on a denuded surface of "basement beds" of the 

 Keuper. The lowest stratum of the Waterstones 

 was a sandstone about a foot thick, with streaks 

 of red and green marl, and a seam of pebbles 

 at the base. The fishes occurred in this bed, and 

 chiefly in a thin seam of red marl, overlying the 

 pebbly seam at the very bottom of the " Waterstones ; " 

 they were present in large numbers, as if in a 

 shoal, for a distance, in the line of section, of about 

 33 feet. The specimens obtained had been examined 

 by several competent authorities, but unfortunately 

 their state of preservation is so bad that nothing 

 certain can be made out as to their precise zoological 

 affinities. Dr. Traquair, however, believed that they 

 probably belong to some species, new or old, of the 

 genus Semionotus. 



