CORRESPONDENCE. 67 



Plants at Falmouth.— My Eucalyptus, most of my Veronicas, and 

 many Fuchsias survived last winter. I have had a big plant of Desfon- 

 tuinea epinosa (Gft. high) continuously in flower from last summer till a week 

 ago, quite without any protection. A Rhododendron Nobleanum has been 

 grandly in flower since January. — H. F., Falmouth, February Kith. 



Early Flowers. — On February 18th I found a wbite violet. I 

 have noticed that white violets are much earlier than sweet blue ones. 

 1b that the general experience, and are white the hardier of the two 

 vax-ieties ? In this neighbourhood blue violets are very rare. There are 

 a few pink ones, commoner than the blue, and a great many white. 

 Snowdrops, both wild and in gardens, have been in full flower for the 

 last week, and daisies and primroses are showing the flowers here and 

 there. — O. M. F., Frankton, Salop. 



A Bicipital Anemone. — About two years ago, a Dianthus in one 

 of my tanks developed the above peculiarity, and the second head is 

 now hardly to be distinguished from the original in size. If the animal 

 be fed by both, the food is seized by each separately, and can be seen to 

 enter the stomachic cavity ; if fed by one, its course can be similarly 

 followed ; but whether fed by one or both, there is, during digestion, 

 the usual enlargement and display of tentacles by each head. If one 

 disc be touched, the other contracts synchronously ; if, again, the base 

 or pillar, both heads instantly close. These few observations may interest 

 some of your readers who keep marine tanks. — G. L. B., Denmark Hill. 



Mistletoe (Vlscum album.) — Will any of your readers kindly solve 

 the following problems ? Does the mistletoe male and female occur on 

 the same host, or does each sex occupy exclusively a separate tree ? 

 From a few observations I was able to make last year, I should suppose 

 that the male and female are on separate hosts. Is the mistletoe insect- 

 fertilised or wind-ferfcilised ? The single flowers are inconspicuous, yet 

 the male flowers have a yellow colour, and when in numbers are 

 somewhat attractive. The pollen is not easily detached, and the flowers 

 secrete a gummy substance, while the stigmas are so placed that wind- 

 carried pollen could only reach them if dropped just into the flower ; yet 

 they are well adapted to take the pollen from the head of an insect endea- 

 vouring to get at the gummy substance secreted by the flower. — C. E. C. 



Proliferous Cardamine. — I send some leaves of either Gardamine 

 pratensis or hirsuta, with young plants growing from them, and should 

 be glad to know if it is a common or unusual occurrence. The plant is 

 a very luxuriant one, and is growing on clay soil at the foot of a fernery, 

 having been accidentally transplanted there with others.: — C. E. J. 



[The leaves sent appear to be those of Cardamine hirsuta. This 

 proliferous state is not unfrequent in certain seasons, as when severe 

 cold is followed by mild damp weather. Both C. hirsuta and C. pratensis 

 are liable to this peculiar phase in plant life. Dr. Boswell says of 

 C. pratensis : " In damp seasons the stem frequently bears small bulbs 

 at the base and buds on the leaves, which propagate the plant." (" Eng. 

 Bot.," 3rd Ed., Vol. I., page 159.) This subject has been ably treated by 

 Mr. John Price, M.A., of Chester, and an abstract of his paper was given 

 in " The Proceedings of the Chester Natural History Society, 1878." 

 Both these plants are found wild with double flowers, sometimes in 

 abundance, and in such circumstances are mainly propagated by the young 

 plants, which are produced by the stem and leaves. The writer has 

 found C. pratensis in marshy places in Sutton Park, with foliaceous 

 flowers, the petals being replaced, by ordinary green leaves, similar to the 

 terminal leaflet of the stem leaves. An allied species, rare in England, 

 C. bulbifera, produces bulbs in the axils of the leaves constantly, and in 

 this case, as the flowers are usually abortive, the plant is mainly 

 propagated by these bulbs. — J. E. B.] 



