62 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



inches across the broadest lobes ; and another of 

 Salix alba measured 89 inches long (exclusive of 

 the petiole which was 7 inch), and i"5 inches 

 broad. In damp, shady woods I have often found 

 the trifoliate leaves of Oxalis acetosella to measure 

 27 inches across. Fig. i represents a large leaf of 

 Cratagus oxyacantha ; it is 4 inches long, including 



brown maculae, with either of these colours alone or 

 spotless. 



The leaves of Orchis maculata and 0. mascula are 

 variable in the number and size of the spots, and 

 are often spotless as well as the flowers, which are 

 then white, in specimens growing in very shady 

 pine-woods. The median spot of the leaves of 



Fig. 5, sub-sinuose leaf of Leontodon taraxacum ; fig. 6, typical leaf of Tamus communis ; fig. 7, slender 

 form, same species ; fig. 8, narrow form of Merctirialis. All one-third nat. size. 



the petiole, and 3 '25 inches across the lowest pair 

 of lobes. 



The colouration and spotting of leaves is anything 

 but constant ; the leaves of Rammcidus ficaria 

 (which are found from reniform crenate to palmately 

 five-lobed or hederoeform, and consequently 

 resemble those of R. hederaceus, L.) are indiscrimi- 

 nately seen variegated with silvery-grey and dark- 



Lamium maculatum are sometimes wanting ; while 

 the leaves of Arum maculatum may be spotless or 

 more or less covered with minute specks or large 

 spots, which are sometimes concave or saccate 

 beneath. The want of light or something in the 

 soil must be the cause of this great differentiation 

 of colouring. 



3, Cathcart Hill, Junction Road, London, N. 



CHAPTERS FOR YOUNG NATURALISTS. 



(Continued from Vol, II., page loi.) 



Plant Life. 



By Rudolf Beer, F.L.S. 



T F we analyse the life of a vegetable organism, 

 ■*■ we see that it is manifested in various ways. 

 In the first place we notice that there is a curious 

 balance maintained with regard to the weight of 

 the plant, slowly but ceaselessly it is wasting away 

 and losing weight, but just as constantly it is 

 replenishing its loss with fresh material. These 

 two facts present us with two features of vegetable 

 life : on the one hand with the process of breathing, 

 which gives rise to a loss of body substance, upon 

 the other with the process of feeding, by which 

 the loss is again made good. Besides this, every 

 plant is always regulating and adjusting itself to 

 its surroundings by virtue of what is known as its 

 sensitiveness or irritability ; and finally the plant, 

 so to speak, has an eye for the future in that it 



reproduces itself either by seeds, or spores or 

 " cuttings." 



Vegetable life, then, is manifested in four ways : 

 (i) by respiration or breathing ; (2) by nutrition 

 or feeding ; (3) by irritability ; and (4) by repro- 

 duction. 



It requires the aid of a microscope to learn how 

 extremely complex is plant structure, and I may 

 add that there is a far more complicated structure 

 underlying this again, which is, however, too fine 

 and delicate for us to see, except by special 

 methods. A plant has been compared to an 

 engine, in which certain things act upon this 

 structure which I have mentioned, and produce 

 results comparable with the work performed by 

 a steam-engine. There is much to recommend 



