SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



125 



Electricity in Plants. — Lindley states that a 

 phenomenon similar to that described by Captain 

 Cobbett (ante p. 60) occurs in the tuberose 

 (Polianthes tuberosu). It is seen on sultry evenings 

 when the flowers are beginning to fade. — (Rev.) C. 

 Casey, " Grianau," Bournemouth West. 



Erythraea capitata in Sussex. — I gathered 

 yesterday, near Telscombe, the form capitata Willd. 

 b sphaerocephala Towns, of Erythraea, and am send- 

 ing you a specimen. The plants are not uncommon 

 this year at one spot in the locality. — H. Hilton, 

 1 6, Kensington Place, Brighton; July 13th, 1898. 



Flora of Shropshire.- -The members of the 

 Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club are engaged 

 upon a new Shropshire Flora, upon the basis of 

 " Leighton's County Flora." Mr. W. P. Hamilton, 

 of Shrewsbury, is Hon. Secretary of the Committee, 

 and will be glad to receive records or other 

 information. 



Albinism in Flowers. — To the list given on 

 page 93 I can add Viola odorata, Lychnis flos-cuculi, 

 Erodium circutarium, Cnicus lanceolatits and Echium 

 vulgare. Besides these I have a cream-coloured 

 Trifolium incarnatum, Calamintha officinalis, which 

 has a white corolla with yellow markings on the 

 lip, and a variety of Cnicus lanceolatus in which the 

 florets are white just tipped with purple. — J. E. 

 Cooper, 68, North Hill, Highgate, N. 



Bees at Whortleberry Flowers. — I had 

 occasion to be on a moor some successive days at 

 the time when Vaccinium vitis-idae was in bloom. I 

 was astonished to see so many honey-bees in the 

 flowers, as there were no hives within about a mile 

 from where I saw them, and there only some three 

 hives in a garden full of flowers. The next 

 nearest hives are two miles and over away ; so 

 that in any case the bees must have been placing 

 much value on honey to be got from these flowers. 

 ~W. Wilson, Alford, Aberdeen; August, 1898. 



Natural History of the Riviera. — In answer 

 to Miss Helen C. Birne's inquiry (ante p. 60) I beg 

 to state that Commendatore Hanbury, F.L.S., the 

 respected and esteemed owner of the wonderful 

 botanic garden at La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, 

 has lately published privately a volume on the 

 " Natural History of the Riviera and the Maritime 

 Alps." I believe this book to be the only one 

 existing which deals with the subject ; but if any 

 of your readers know of another I shall be glad to 

 be informed of it through the columns of Science- 

 Gossip. These " Riviera Nature Notes " are in- 

 tended to be recreative rather than systematic. 

 They deal mainly with the botany of the region, 

 but there is a list of butterflies, and there are short 

 articles on other branches of natural history. — 

 (Rev.) C. Casey, "Grianau," Bournemouth West. 



Unseasonable Flowering. — We have received 

 from Mr. J. Finden Brown a bunch of particularly 

 fine flowers of Pyrus japonica, which are the more 

 peculiar on account of the attached leaves bearing 

 autumn tints. These flowers are from a shrub in 

 his garden at Anerley, near London, which has 



borne an uninterrupted series of flowers since the 

 end of January last, and has now nearly a dozen 

 groups of inflorescence. We hear of a mulberry 

 tree now well in bloom in South London, and have 

 this week observed a small laburnum tree with 

 numerous little flowers in the garden on the south 

 side of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the centreof the City 

 of London. — John T. Carrington ; August 17th, 1898. 



Newspaper Natural History. — The "half- 

 penny journalist" appears to think anything is 

 good ^enough for his readers. Here is a sample 

 taken from the London " Star " of 19th August, 

 1898, p. 2, headed " Birds are Coming and Going." 

 The article opens thus : " The little summer birds 

 who usually leave us in autumn have dropped into 

 the prevailing fashion, and now go away in August 

 and September. At the City bridges early yester- 

 day morning, flocks of fieldfares and redwings were 

 seen hovering round, making up personally- 

 conducted parties for the sunny south." Further, 

 he writes: "having brought up their spring 

 families respectably, and having nothing more to 

 stay in England for, they are taking flight." 

 Either the writer of this twaddle is grossly ignorant, 

 or, as we have said, thinks anything is good enough 

 for the halfpenny readers. Where, however, was 

 the editor, or even a sub-editor, of the " Star " ? 

 Perchance in Norway, with the fieldfares and 

 redwings, and may return with them in October 

 next, when they come to winter in these islands, 

 after rearing their families there and elsewhere 

 in sub-arctic Europe. 



Phenology in Ireland. — The few notes 

 which follow are the results of observations over 

 a limited area of some miles in County Down. 

 December 23rd, 1897 : m a garden, dark-red 

 roses, gladioluses, wall-flowers and pinks were 

 seen in flower. January 8th, 1898 : primroses 

 in flower here ; also in Moy (co. Tyrone) last 

 week. In another garden, rose in full bioom. 

 Primroses about this district were flowering 

 the whole year round. Garden daisies in flower. 

 January 9th : chamomile and Hieracium in flower. 

 January 13th: starlings began to build about 

 Craigavad. That day I also saw two rose-trees 

 simply one mass of tea-roses in full bloom. January 

 15th: garden anemones in flower at Carrawdore; 

 they here generally do not bloom until April. 

 January 19th : pansies, Veronica chamaedrys in 

 flower, fruit-trees beginning to bud about Holy- 

 wood. January 25th : potentilla and violets in 

 flower. February 13th : fuchsias in leaf-bud in 

 our own garden ; I may add that we are most 

 exposed to wind and storms, being directly on the 

 shore and quite unsheltered. This day I noticed 

 our stocks, which were planted last April, and 

 which did not flower last season, were flowering 

 fairly well, and on May 28th, the stocks were still 

 flowering ; in fact, I never saw so much bloom. 

 February 17th : hawthorn hedges seen well in 

 leaf-bud at Holywood ; some of them had leaves 

 fully expanded and about one inch long. Daffodils 

 were gathered in a garden in Bangor to-day, and I 

 believe they have been obtained still earlier. 

 February 29th : flowering currant in leaf and 

 flowering ; elder well in leaf-bud, snowberry in full 

 leaf, gooseberries in leaf-bud, groundsel in flower, 

 Robin -run -the-hedge well up, hawksbit in flower. 

 March 19th : gooseberries in flower. April 24th : 

 swallows and corncrakes appeared in this district 

 during last week. May 3rd: cuckoo first heard. 

 May 22nd : last week I saw hawthorn in flower in 

 district. — John H. Barbour, Bangor, Co. Down, Ireland. 



