202 



ANOMALY IN THE STRAWBERRY 

 LEAFED CINQUEFOIL, {POTENTILLA FBAGABIASTRUM.) 



r.Y J. B. DAVIES^ ESQ. 



While searching a lane near the race-course at Ripon a few days ago, I 

 found a specimen of the common barren Strawberry, (PotentiUa Fraganadmni,) 



having six petals, the normal number being 

 five, and one of them occupying the very centre 

 of the flower, (Fig. 1;) in fact it was an 

 altered carpel, becoming petaloid. It is no 

 ,^^ uncommon thing for stamens to be so con- 

 Q verted, and even occasionally the pistil, but 

 ^/ we seldom find the latter taking the lead in 



the development. In the case of the double- 

 flowered Cherry, we have all, or nearly all the stamens converted into petals; 

 and the pistil, which is composed of a single carpel, assuming the form of 

 an ordinary leaf, (Fig. 2.) In short, in all cases where flowers become double, 

 the change proceeds from without inward; but here, nature, to shew that she 

 will be bound by no law, reverses this order, and converts one of the carpels 

 into a perfectly-formed petal, (Fig. 3,) differing in no particular from the 

 ordinary petals, while the remainder of the carpels, together with the whole 

 of the stamens, are left unchanged. 



Ripon, March 22nd., 1852. 



3^^{3tdlnnpnu0 JfhWm. 



Hare taking a bath. — A friend of mine, upon whose veracitj' I can safflj' rely, tells me the 

 following strange freak of a Hare: — He was walking bj' the side of a large pool on a verj' 

 hot day last summer, when he observed at some little distance some animal swimming about 

 very leisurely in the water. He thought it must be an Otter, but, on approaching it, discovered 

 that it was a Hare, which, on seeing him, swam leisurely to the bank, jinnped out of the 

 water, shook herself, as a Dog would under similar circumstances, and toddled quietly ofi'. — 

 M. CuKTLER, Bevere, Worcestershire, March, 1852. 



A Sow killed by the bite of an Adder. — In the month of June 1851, a full-grown Sow, 

 belonging to a farmer on the borders of the New Forest, in this parish, while grazing in a 

 meadow, Avas bitten by an Adder on the tongue. The poor animal in a short time began to swell 

 and foam at the mouth, and in a few hours after she died, in great appai'ent pain. One rather 

 remarkable feature in the case was, that after the bite she could not be induced to move 

 forwards, but persisted in going backwards, and this retrograde movement continued until the 

 poor creature baeked out of existence. It is not quite easy to decide which was the first 

 aggressor, the Adder or the Sow. I am inclined to think it very probable that the Sow made 

 the first attack; fancying, perhaps, the Adder would be a choice morsel, she seized it, and 

 thus became "the biter bit." It is possible, however, that she miglit have seiiied it accidentally 

 while eating, and thus received the fatal wound ; and, were it not for the well-known carnivorous 

 propensities of Pigs, and Sows in particular, this would appear the most probable cause of the 

 interview between the quadruped and the reptile. I was once intimately acquainted with a 

 Sow which took great delight in devouring fowls. Whenever these unfortunate birds, tempted 

 by the meal on which she was fed, or a stray cnist or potatoe floating about her wash, ventured 

 into her sty, in the hope of sharing her repast, she would make a furious grab at them with 



