So 



SCIEXCE-GOSSIP. 



Arum Maculatum with White Spots. — On 

 March 31st, while looking into the hedgerows for 

 signs of spring in the shape of opening leaves, I 

 found three leaves of Arum maculatum spotted 

 white in the place of the usual brown spots. Can 

 any readers of Science-Gossip tell me if this is 

 very unusual ? I think it must be, never having 

 seen an}- so marked before. — Robt. W. Chidwich, 

 4, Dagmar Street, Worthing : April 8th, 1895. 



Ivy-Seeds Carried by Bird. — A gentleman 

 happened to observe among the fasces of a bird 

 some pink-coloured bodies, which he thought to be 

 seeds of some kind or other. He planted them in 

 a pot, when they turned out to be Hedera helix ; but 

 they were not Dicotyledonous, as is usual, but Tricoty- 

 ledonous. I should like to know if it is rare to find 

 Hedera (ivy) Tricotyledonous ; if not, I think that this 

 case may be worth recording. Hedera belongs to 

 order Umbelliflerffi and family Araliacese (Goebel) . — 

 J. H. Barbour, Queen's College, Belfast ; March, 1895. 



The Spring Season. — Plants this spring are in 

 the south of England, exceptionally late. This 

 may be attributed to some extent to the compara- 

 tive absence of rainfall. At Eastertime, or April 

 15th, there was no sign of the blackthorn in bloom 

 in localities where it was well in flower, and even 

 over at the same period last year. The almond 

 trees in the London gardens were also exceptionally 

 late in flowering. It is not probable that the late 

 severe winter added much to this delay, but rather 

 it is to be attributed to the paucity of warm rain. 

 March, and the following month having been very 

 dry until April 24th. 



Impatiens noli-me-tangere. — It may interest 

 your readers to know that I find each autumn this 

 beautiful and eccentric plant, the " touch-me-not," 

 to which you refer (ante page 23), in abundance at 

 the following places, within cycling distance of 

 London : (1) Along the banks of the Wey, from 

 Cart Bridge, Woking, towards Pirford ; (2) by the 

 sides of the brook on the left-hand side of the road 

 leading to Weybridge, from Addlestone ; (3) by the 

 sides of the ditches bordering the road leading from 

 Colnbrook to Longford. — /. C. Dade, 105, Upper 

 Richmond Read, Putney. 



Does not our correspondent refer to Impatiens 

 fulva, rather than /. noli-me-tangere ? — Ed." 



Plants under Glass. — In a recent number of 

 the " Kew Bulletin," it was stated that the use of 

 green glass in the plant houses at Kew will be now 

 altogether abandoned. Since 1886, the use of green 

 glass has been discontinued in all the houses except 

 the fern houses and the palm house, but it having 

 been proved by experiment that even filmy ferns 

 thrive better under white than under green light, 

 if direct exposure to the sun is excluded, the green 

 glass will no longer be used. M. Villon, some 

 months ago, found that the light that favours 

 vegetation most, is the orange light of the chromic 

 glass, and the violet light of the manganic, and as 

 the radiations that these glasses allow to pass are 

 the red and violet, these rays seem to be the most 

 favourable to the development of plants. 



The Poiularitv of Botany. — It has often been 

 a cause for wonder how it is that there are so few 

 popular botanical societies. It is true that most 

 field clubs include this study among their other 

 objects, but we know of hardly any societies where 

 those who take an interest in botanical rambles 

 may meet and exchange notes or assist each other 

 in identification. Can anyone tell us whether there 

 be one such society in the whole of the metro- 

 politan district of London, which has a population 

 greater than that of the kingdom of Belgium ? 

 There must be a great number of persons interested 

 in plants, not only in the metropolis, but also 

 within easy reach of each other in various parts 

 of the kingdom, who would be pleased to meet for 

 winter conversations or summer rambles. 



Aexormal Equisetum. — I send you some fruit- 

 ing stems of Equisetum maximum which I gathered 

 here yesterdav. You will see that the cones are 

 nearly normal at the base, but at the tcp they are 

 divided each into several very small cones which 

 are more or less perfect in themselves. I do not 

 know if this is a common abnormity, but it may be 

 interesting to some of your readers. — Frank Sich, 

 Jan., Niton, Isle of Wight; April 17th, 1895. 



]These specimens are indeed unusual. The 

 extra branches shoot out from the upper end of 

 the fruiting stem to a length of from one quarter 

 inch to nearly an inch in length. They vary in 

 number from three to seven in different specimens. 

 Each branch is perfectly covered with fruit as in 

 an ordinary spike. Possibly the specimens were 

 bruised when immature, and thus sported in the 

 new growth. — Ed.] 



Mr. F. F. Blackman, Demonstrator of Botany in 

 the University of Cambridge, has been making a 

 series of experimental researches on vegetable 

 assimilation and respiration, and has published 

 some of the results of his new method of investiga- 

 ting the carbonic acid exchanges of plants in the 

 " Proceedings " of the Royal Society. He finds that 

 under normal conditions practically the sole path- 

 way for Co., into or out of the leaf is by the 

 stomata, and since oxygen diffuses more readily 

 than Co 2 through fine openings, the same probably 

 holds for oxygen and the whole of the gas exchange. 

 "While on the subject of the paths of gaseous ex- 

 change between aerial leaves and the atmosphere, it 

 may be interesting to state that the oxygen evolved 

 in six hours' time under the action of moderately 

 strong sunlight has been calculated to be as much 

 as would be absorbed by the process of respiration 

 in twenty-four hours. 



Fruiting of Euonymous Japonica. — Here, for 

 the first time, I have seen this plant in fruit, and 

 that only upon two specimens, one on a small shrub 

 of about four feet high, almost covered with fruit; 

 the other a plant of larger growth, some eight or ten 

 feet, with only a very few capsules on the top. In 

 this neighbourhood, the Japanese spindle-tree is a 

 favourite shrub ^with those planting shrubberies or 

 forming screens, and many hundreds are planted. 

 Since seeing Mr. Eccles' note upon this shrub in 

 Science-Gossip (ante page 16), I have kept a sharp 

 look out for capsules, both in the park and in 

 private grounds, but have not found any but the 

 two mentioned. They are both growing in front of 

 cottages with a southern aspect. Now the question 

 arises, why do these plants so rarely fruit ? I think 

 the botanical students who read Science-Gossip 

 might try to explain this fact. I have been trying 

 to unravel the cause myself, but so far have failed. 

 — Robt. W. Chidwich, 4, Dagmar Street, Worthing ; 

 March 13th, 1895. 



