SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



87 



looked for the two forms of flower here represented. 

 I was curious to learn whether the tree which bore 

 fertile flowers only had done so on former 

 occasions by a mere freak, or whether it was a 

 persistent habit. I soon found that the habit was 

 persistent. One solitary shrub by the roadside, on 



Normal Guelder Rose (Viburnum opulus). 



the left hand a few hundred yards before entering 

 the village, is rendered peculiar by the utter ab- 

 sence from its cymes of all the large white florets 

 which make the other plants so conspicuous. 

 Not only are the flowers wanting in barren forms, 

 but the fertile ones are much more crowded and 

 compact (as will be seen by the illustrations), 

 so that if it was not for the foliage one might 

 easily imagine, at first sight, that the two shrubs 

 were totally unrelated. This lack of ray florets for 

 advertising purposes, however, does not result in 

 barrenness, for in the autumn the one tree is just as 

 heavily laden with fruit as the other. The question 

 then arises : which is the typical form ? That the fact 

 I have stated has an important bearing on evolution 

 is clear ; but it would be interesting to know whether 

 in the unusual form we have a case of reversion to 

 type, or in what other way the peculiarity may be 

 accounted for. I shall not myself venture on a 

 suggestion. In such cases it is, in my opinion, 

 better to collect a sufficient body of evidence first, 

 and I give mine for what it is worth. 



2. — The Smooth Tower Cress. 



On June 6th, 1895, when I was at Isel, my eye 

 was arrested by the presence on a hedgebank of a 

 plant which I had never seen growing wild in the 

 district before. Having often found it among 

 aliens at Silloth and elsewhere, I was perfectly 

 familiar with its form, and instantly recognized it as 

 a choice record. On reaching home, I looked up 

 its history in Baker's " Flora of the Lake District." 



It reads as follows. " Tmviiis glabra, L. (long- 

 podded or smooth tower mustard). Native, English 

 type. Range i. Dry banks, very rare. Cumber- 

 land — Stainburn, near Workington (Mr. Tweddle). 

 Westmorland — in the red sandstone tract at Clib- 

 burn, near Penrith (Lawson)." 



I sent on the specimen to Mr. W. Hodgson, 

 A.L.S., of Workington, who has a revised Flora of 

 the district ready for the press, and received a 

 reply to the effect that this was an entirely 

 new locality, and, curiously enough, the only 

 locality in which the plant is at present found, it 

 having become extinct elsewhere.* There were at 

 least half a dozen plants in seed last year, and 

 I fully purposed this year to visit the spot during 

 the flowering season, in order to obtain her- 

 barium specimens for correspondents. Owing 

 to my being at the time in Ireland, I was unable 

 to do this, and when I visited the spot 

 on June 7th (just a year after making the 

 discovery) I found that the plant was again in 

 fruit. There were at least a score of the most 

 vigorous specimens. Some were not less than 

 four feet in height, while the weakest were a yard 

 from root to tip. Each plant was crowded with 

 seed-pods, and if the herbage should not be cut 

 down within a fortnight of my visit, the seeds 



Abnormal Guelder Rose. 



would be ripe and become dispersed ready for 

 next year's growth. 



And this leads me to the last point on which I 

 can dwell in this article, namely — 



3. — The Distribution of Plants. 



The subject of phyto-geography is one of 

 intense interest and value. Everyone who can 

 give well-ascertained facts and careful observations 

 on the subject should do so. During my recent 

 visit to Ireland, I made notes of several facts which 

 struck me ; but nothing created so great an 



• On July ijth I received a letter from the Rev. Basil W. 

 Lovejoy, enclosing a specimen of the plant found by him 

 about half-a-mi!e from Edenhall \'icarage, on the Great 

 Salkeld Road. As it is in all probability indigenous in this 

 locality, we now have the tower cress from two Cumberland 

 habitats. 



