SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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Plants Flowering in Winter. — On the 31st 

 December I found in this neighbourhood no fewer 

 than 42 different specimens of plants in flower. 

 They belonged to the following natural orders : 

 Compositas 13, Caryophyllas 4, Rosacea; 4, Umbelli- 

 feras 3, Geraniaceae 3, Leguminosae 2, Ranunculaceae 

 2, Boraginaceae 2, Labiatae 2, Cruciferae 1, Primu- 

 laceae 1, Violaceae 2, Apocynaceae 1, Gentianaceae 1, 

 Euphorbiaceae 1 ; the following being the list as 

 regards colour — yellow 14, white 13, pink, etc., 10, 

 blue 4, green 1. — Joseph Halliday, 2, George Street, 

 Wellington, Somerset. 



Botany in Fiction. — It is difficult to be quite 

 accurate throughout a whole book, even a novel 

 being subject to mistake. A friendly correspondent 

 points out that Mr. W. H. Chesson, in his story 

 " Name this Child," has, by implication, con- 

 founded the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) 

 with the common corn poppy (Papaver rhceas). 

 On page 134, a little boy is described as becoming 

 ill through eating the latter flower. " It is all 

 right," says the father, afterwards, " but your boy 

 has, as you say, too much nature. Will you 

 believe it, he was inviting me to the feast. ' They 

 will make you quite sleepy ' he said. ' My boy ' I 

 answered, ' leave them alone, we oversleep half our 

 lives already.' " We fear this boy must have been 

 very sick before he went to sleep on the petals of 

 our corn poppy. 



Leguminous Plants in Aberdeenshire. — It is 

 of value to notice that the sulphur-coloured trefoil 

 (Trifolium ochreulucum), has acclimatized itself in 

 Mony-musk, in the Don Valley. This has evidently 

 been the result of being introduced among agri- 

 cultural seeds. When I saw plants of it there 

 several years ago, they were in flower in the month 

 of July, and had evidently thoroughly established 

 themselves. While hop-trefoil (Trifolium procumbens) 

 at one time only occurred at the outside of its 

 limits, when its seeds were introduced among 

 agricultural seeds, it is now supporting itself in some 

 parts by the seeds of the local grown plants, pro- 

 ducing plants, being an advance from the time 

 when the seeds did not mature sufficiently to 

 germinate or at least strong enough to produce 

 plants. The common vetch (Vicia saliva), which 

 has always been occasionally met with here on 

 agricultural fields, has of recent years established 

 itself in manner similar to the last-mentioned, along 

 various tracts of the Valley of the Don, where its 

 attractive flowers adorn the landscape among the 

 other flowering plants. I have been unable to 

 find large birds-foot trefoil (Lotus major Scop.), in 

 Alford, where it was once found. Although I have 

 seen it in Midmar, nearer the sea coast, growing 

 on damp pasture. Birds-foot trefoil (Lotus comiat- 

 latus) has not been so abundant here for some 

 years as it once was, but perhaps the increase of 

 any particular class of animals might cause this 

 for some seasons, which might just revert to the 

 former quantity during the next few years, or 

 there might be a permanent decrease. — W. Wilson, 

 Alford, Aberdeen. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — The Annual 

 Meeting of this Society was held on Wednesday 

 evening, January 16th, at the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, Great George Street, S.W., Mr. R. 

 Inwards, F.R.A.S., President, in the chair. The 

 Council, in their report, reviewed the work done 

 by the Society during the past year, and also stated 

 that additional accommodation had been provided 

 to meet the growing needs of the library. Forty- 

 five new Fellows had been elected during the year. 

 Mr. Inwards, in his presidential address, dealt with 

 the subject of " Weather Fallacies," which he 

 treated under the heads of saints'-day fallacies, 

 sun and moon fallacies, and those concerning 

 animals and plants. He also referred to the 

 almanac makers, weather prophets and impostors 

 who have from time to time furnished the world 

 with fit materials for its credence or its ridicule. 

 Mr. C. Harding read a paper on " The Gale of 

 December 2ist-22nd, 1894, over the British Isles." 

 This storm was one of exceptional severity, especi- 

 ally over the Northern portions of England and 

 Ireland, and in the south of Scotland. It developed 

 energy very quickly and travelled with great 

 rapidity. The self-recording anemometers show 

 that the greatest violence of the wind occurred at 

 Fleetwood, where the velocity was 107 miles in the 

 hour between 8.30 and 9.30 a.m. on the 22nd, and 

 for four consecutive hours the velocity exceeded 

 100 miles. This is the greatest force of wind ever 

 recorded in the British Isles, and is ten miles an 

 hour in excess of the highest wind velocity in the 

 great storm of November i6th-20th, 1893. At Holy- 

 head the wind in squalls attained the hourly 

 velocity of 150 miles between 10 a.m. and noon on 

 the 22nd. The strongest force was mostly from 

 the north-westward. 



South London Entomological and Natural 

 History Society. — At the meeting of January 

 10th, 1895, T. W. Hall, Esq., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. Mr. Thornhill, Castle Cosy, Ireland, and 

 Mr. Brooks, Grange Hall, Rotheram, were elected 

 members. Mr. C. G. Barrett exhibited a speci- 

 men of Hydrilla palustris from Wicken, and four 

 specimens of Caradrina ambigua from the Isle 

 of Wight. One of the latter had an indentation 

 in the hind margin of the fore wing which was 

 perfectly ciliated. The malformation had caused 

 the orbicular and reniform on that side to coalesce. 

 Mr. Tutt stated that the species he had reported as 

 C. superstes, Tr., had turned out to be a form of 

 C. ambigua, but he was of opinion that some of his 

 Deal captures were C. superstes. Mr. W. A. Pearce, 

 a bred specimen of Achenontia atropos. It was 

 stated that the pupa of this species had no free 

 segments and was thus unable to work its way 

 through the earth. Mr. Carrington, the sections of 

 wood naturally stained, which had recently been 

 described and figured in Science-Gossip, also a 

 series of Dendritic Crystals on flints, from 

 Chatham, Kent, and described their origin and 

 composition. Mr. R. Adkin, bred specimens of 

 Vanessa urtieis, from Sutherland, one of which had 



