SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



187 



B6T71NY* 



Professor J. Bayley Balfour, in his admirable 

 address to the Biology Section of the British 

 Association, remarks : " Perhaps as good an illus- 

 tration as could be given of the slight practical 

 importance attached by the lay mind nowadays to 

 botany, is the fact that the Scottish Universities 

 Commissioners have made it — though I must add, 

 it is bracketed with zoology — optional with mathe- 

 matics for the degree in agriculture ! " 



Plants merely growing and actually 

 flourishing. — In Professor Boulger's address to 

 the Selborne Field Club, as given ante page 144, he 

 remarks: "There is all the difference between a 

 plant merely growing in a soil and actually flourish- 

 ing." This, it seems to me, is a very important 

 point too frequently ignored, and one which, if 

 carefully borne in mind, would often tend to check 

 fads and reduce fantasies. For instance, not long ago 

 (see Science-Gossip, July, 1892, page 162) a loud 

 Darwinian trumpet was blown announcing the fact 

 that red clover could only be got to produce seed in 

 New Zealand, when and after it had been fertilised 

 through the agency of bumble-bees conveyed 

 thither from England for that special purpose. It 

 appears that the late C. Darwin laid before the 

 public the interesting fact that red clover could 

 only be fertilised and produce seed in the way 

 described, and here indeed was apparently a con- 

 summate illustration of the fact (hypothesis). On 

 the other hand, certain non-imaginative scientists 

 held that all annuals are capable of self-fertilisation, 

 and, indeed, as a matter of fact, the leguminosse are 

 generally self- fertilised. How it could be otherwise 

 with such a highly nitrogenous tribe of plants it 

 was not easy to see. In what way, then, could the 

 state of affairs in New Zealand be accounted for? 

 The simple explanation is that the clover grows but 

 it does not actually flourish there. The soil may be 

 defective in some nutrient substance, or the climate 

 is not suitable for the complete development of the 

 plant tissues. The mischievous irritation of bees 

 may, therefore, in this case have been more or less 

 necessary in order to arouse into activity the 

 dormant powers of reproduction. The nectariferous 

 tissues, which in the normal plant are merely special 

 internal nutritive reservoirs in direct relation with 

 its life, are thuswise stimulated to produce an un- 

 necessary and abnormal external liquid (the nectar) 

 in direct relation with chance external circumstances 

 (feeding bees). But the splendid opportunity for 

 tracing an imaginative analogy between one thing 

 and another, which is so palatable to your rhetorical 

 evolutionist, was too good to be lost ; and this is 

 the real secret of the arrant rubbish that has been 

 penned and preached on the subject ever since. On 

 the whole question it is better to conclude with 

 Claude Bernard that, " (1) The sugar formed is for 

 the consumption of the plant itself, not for any 

 feeding animals. (2) The law of physiological 

 finality is in each being in particular, and not out- 

 side of it ; the living organism is made for itself, it 

 has its own intrinsic laws, it labours for itself and 

 not for others." — Dr. P. Q. Kccgan, Pattevdale, near 

 Penrith. 



Definite Inflorescence of Digitalis. — The 

 remarkable freak of the Fox-glove which 1 

 reported in Science-Gossip four years ago, has 

 this year been repeated on the same spot. The 

 plant was very much branched, and, reversing the 

 usual order, flowered from the top downwards, 

 the uppermost (first) flower being very large, bell- 

 shaped and opening skyward, just the opposite of 

 its usual pendant state. As before, I was away 

 during the latter part of its flowering season, but 

 returned just in time to secure a few seeds, the 

 growth of which I shall look forward to with 

 interest.— Joseph Wallis, Deal. 



A Geminated Greengage. — The double green- 

 gage, a reproduction of which is given below, was 

 obtained by Mr. C. A. Briggs, at Leatherhead. 

 Surrey, last month. The fruit had been plucked 

 without the stalk, so that it is impossible to say 

 whether it was in any way different from the 

 ordinary stem. Each fruit was full-sized and 

 perfectly symmetrical in shape, the jointure being 

 homologous, i.e., having the same relative position. 

 Shakespeare was evidently familiar with double 

 fruits, for in the " Midsummer Night's Dream " he 

 says, 



" So we grew together, 

 Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, 

 But yet a union in partition : 

 Two lovely cherries moulded on one stem." 



Mr. Bateson, in his " Materials for the Study of 

 Variation," page 559, says : " It is now a matter of 



Double Greengage. 



common knowledge that in animals and plants divi- 

 sion may occur in such a way that two or more bodies 

 may be formed from what is ostensibly one fertilised 

 ovum." Mr. Bateson did not pursue the subject to 

 any definite conclusion ; but speaking more gene- 

 rally he further says: "If well developed the 

 component groups are most often united by homo- 

 logous parts, so that there is a geometrical relation 

 of images between the groups together, forming 

 the compound structure, the whole being one 

 system of symmetry." Concerning the relations 

 of the various parts of such a system to each 

 other numerous questions of interest arise. The 

 whole question of what is generally termed 

 " Sports" is one that will well repay study, and a 

 large field is open to the naturalist who is interested 

 in variation and its causes. 



Whilst on this subject, there is an interesting 

 contribution in the " Proceedings of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia," Part 1., 94, 

 on "The Origin of the Coreless Apples," by Thomas 

 Meehan. Two figures are given illustrating the 

 article. In summing up, the author says : " It may 

 be tersely stated that navel oranges and coreless 

 apples are feeble attempts at proliferation." — 

 D. J Rice, 7, John Street, Bedfi rd Ron , W.C. 



