SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



137 



Forced Germination of Seeds. — I have heard 

 that by some application of an acid, the seeds of 

 plants may be made to germinate quickly. Can 

 any of your readers tell me anything about this, if 

 it be a fact ? — Geo. Nowers, Blackpool Street, Burton- 

 on-Trent. 



Green Petunia Flower. — Mr. Dorothy, the 

 head gardener of our public gardens, has just picked 

 from a petunia bed a remarkable flower which I 

 send you. The centre is purple and the margin 

 which is usually white, is green of exactly the same 

 tint as the stem and leaves. — E. Henivood Teague, 

 Penzance; June 12th, 1895. 



[The chlorophyll of the leaves seems to have 

 invaded the flower and produced a curious effect of 

 colouration. On inquiry, this form seems to occur 

 at times in this country, but is almost established 

 as a race in some parts of Germany. The florists, 

 however, who are, like the tailors and drapers, our 

 masters in fashion, discourage the growth of these 

 green flowers. — Ed.] 



Dry-rot. — I beg to enclose a piece of fungus 

 cut from a mass about a yard square and an inch 

 thick, growing under my drawing-room floor. 

 The room under which this was found was re- 

 boarded twice during the past seven years, and 

 it is now to be done again. The house forms one 

 of a row of four, all of which suffer in a similar 

 way. Can any of your readers help me, through 

 your columns, to get rid of this pest ? — William 

 Hodgson, The Sycamores, Poulton-le-Fylde ; June 13th, 

 1895. 



Artificial development of Flowers. — Some 

 interesting lectures have been delivered at the Royal 

 Botanic Society during the month. On May 31st, 

 the Rev. Professor George Henslow lectured on " A 

 Century of Progress in Floriculture." He exhibited 

 specimens of the original wild plants from which 

 some of our most admired garden flowers have 

 been developed, illustrating with numerous 

 diagrams the various stages in the way of cultiva- 

 tion and hybridization through which they passed 

 before reaching the perfection of to-day. 



Variety of Beech Foliage. — When staying at 

 Wastdale Head, Cumberland, at Whitsuntide last, 

 I noticed in the very beautiful woods of Wastdale 

 Hall, close to the shore of the grand mountain lake 

 of Wastwater, a peculiar variety of the beech tree, 

 the leaves being divided into narrow segments, 

 giving the tree a beautiful appearance of fine and 

 thin foliage. What I wish to mention is that one 

 branch, and apparently one only, had, for a small 

 portion, gone back to the typical form of leaf, thus 

 having the strange effect of two totally distinct 

 shapes of leaf on the same branch. Nature's effort 

 to revert back to original, or at least to well- 

 established forms, was very marked. — Horace Pearce, 

 F.L.S., Stourbridge ; June 18th, 1895. 



Wild Hyacinths near London. — The wild 

 hyacinth still grows in profusion in all that remains 

 of old Fernham Wood, between here and Streatham 

 It may perhaps be worth noticing that some cut 

 specimens which were placed in water in the 

 middle of May developed, in some three weeks' 

 time, seed capsules, somewhat similar in shape to 

 the seed of the nasturtium. It was also noticeable 

 that whereas the blossoms, as they faded, turned, 

 as most blue flowers do, more or less white, those 

 petals which surrounded the swelling ovaries still 

 retained the blue colour, even after they had 

 become withered and dry. — Edward A. Martin, 

 Thornton Heath ; June, 1895. 



Vorticellidans on Daphnia pubex. — Sherren. 

 in his recently-published book, " Ponds and Rock- 

 Pools," refers to an impression being current that 

 the above Entomostracon is never infested by 

 parasites, owing to. its secreting a slimy film 

 which covers the body. Last April, from a pool 

 on Wimbledon Common, I took a plentiful supply 

 of Daphnia, almost all of which were infested with 

 Epistylis digitalis. Although I have frequently 

 found Cyclops covered with parasitic Vorticellians, 

 this has been the only time I have taken Daphnia 

 so infected. — George G. Harris, 33, Lindore Road. 

 Clapham Junction, S.W. ; June ijth, 1895. 



Crystalline Lens of Cod Fish — If Mr. 

 Tomlinson boils a lens until it is quite hard and 

 opaque on the surface, he will find (ante page 81) that 

 he can, after removal of the exterior opaque layers, 

 tear off fine fibres flat and riband-like. These 

 fibres all end in the antero-posterior axis, and the 

 lens viewed from before or behind has the appear- 

 ance of a globe marked by lines of longitude. 

 The margins of the fibres are united by minute 

 interlocking serrations, which differ considerably in 

 different fishes, and form beautiful objects for 

 mounting. The serrations are larger and coarser 

 in the conger eel than in most other fish. — 

 Norris F. Davey, Havering House, Abergavenny; 

 May ijth, 1895. 



Incinerated Leaf of Deutzia. — The " Micro- 

 scopical Bulletin " states that at the annual 

 exhibition of the Department of Microscopy of the 

 Brooklyn Institute, Mr. Geo. M. Hopkins, of the 

 " Scientific American," exhibited a beautiful pre- 

 paration of Deutzia leaf, which seems to have the 

 merit of novelty. The leaf was reduced to white 

 ashes, leaving the star-like hairs in situ. Some of 

 the hairs were blackened by the carbon of the leaf, 

 others were white, with pearl-coloured nodules 

 ranged along the rays of the star, like so many real 

 pearls. Mr. Hopkins' method of preparing this 

 object is as follows : a small piece of the dried leaf 

 is placed upon a thin, flat copperplate, and another 

 flat copper plate is laid upon it to keep it straight. 

 Strong pressure is not required The plates are 

 now heated slowly over a flame until they become 

 red hot ; they are then allowed to cool, and the 

 upper plate is removed. The piece of leaf is found 

 to be carbonized and considerably shrunken. 

 Without replacing the upper copper plate the 

 lower plate with the carbonized leaf is again 

 brought to a red heat, and lastly the flame is 

 brought into actual contact with the leaf, thus 

 removing the last trace of carbon, leaving nothing 

 but the stars and the white ash. The object is 

 very tender, but it may be handled with proper 

 care and may be mounted dry. If it is desired 

 to secure the stars separate from the ash, one or 

 two incinerated leaves may be placed in a 

 small metallic box and shaken up until the 

 leaf is disintegrated, when the stars may be 

 picked out. 



