SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



^55 



Dried Plants Wanted. — May I venture to ask 

 permission to appeal through your columns to 

 amateur botanical collectors to help me to form a 

 herbarium, as complete as possible, for the Free 

 Public Library now in course of erection at 

 Chorley, Lancashire? So lively is my recollection 

 of the difficulties I have had to encounter in 

 deciphering the characteristics of plants, through 

 lack of access to authentic specimens, that I am 

 anxious, if possible, to save others some of that 

 drudgery. I would also show to the casual 

 observer the wealth of beauty that lies about 

 him in the wayside weeds, and perhaps awaken 

 an interest in the beauties and mysteries of nature 

 that cannot help being educational in the highest 

 and widest sense. I would undertake to do the 

 mounting, and append the name of each donor as 

 well as locality to eacb.^ specimen. If duplicate 

 specimens were sent, the excess could be returned 

 or passed on to the school museums of the town, 

 as might be the wish of the donors. If we get the 

 assistance and donations hoped for, I would 

 suggest the name of the herbarium be " Science- 

 Gossip Collectors' Herbarium." — F. J. George, 96, 

 Park Road, Chorley, Lancashire. 



Plants by the Itchen. — After entering the 

 Winchester Meadows the River Itchen no longer 

 flows in one broad stream, but becomes sub- 

 divided into numerous smaller channels. The most 

 important of these streams affords, by the luxu- 

 riant vegetation of its banks, a veritable botanist's 

 paradise. Meadow-sweet (Spiraea ulmaria) grows 

 in wild profusion all along the banks, and in 

 some favoured spots the large yellow blossoms 

 of the Mimuhis line the water's edge. The willow- 

 herb {Epiiobium hirsntnm), hemp-agrimony (Eupa- 

 torium cannabinum) and water-figwort [Scrophularia 

 aquatica) here attain great size, the latter frequently 

 reaching a height of over five feet. As we follow 

 the narrow path skirting the stream we notice the 

 bedstraws {Galium) covering the grass with a 

 carpet of white and yellow, whilst the trefoils 

 (purple, yellow and white), vervain, enchanter's- 

 nightshade {Solanum dulcamara), field -knautia 

 {Knatitia arvensis), kidney-vetch [Anthyllis viilner- 

 aria), common flea-bane (Pulicaria dysenterica), rag- 

 wort, St. John's - wort [Hyperictmi perforatum), 

 woundwort (Stachys sylvatica) and horehound 

 (Ballota nigra), the latter, always unmistakable from 

 its extremely disagreeable odour, meets the eye 

 on every side. Travellers' joy (Clematis vitalba) 

 festoons the bushes, and the white flowers of the 

 great bindweed peep out from among the foliage. 

 The watercress and forget-me-not (Myosoiis palustris) 

 grow abundantly in the shallow water. No less 

 rich in flowers is the railway embankment which 

 follows the course of the stream for some little 

 distance. A few yards to the left of our path 

 wide-spreading patches of wild thyme cover the 

 bank from base to summit, and tufts of wild 

 mignonette (Reseda lutea) revel in the chalky soil. 

 Here also we find the snowy blossoms of the 

 bladder campion (Silene inflata) and the purple- 



tufted vetch (Vicia cracca), together with the 

 harebell and common mallow. An occasional 

 group of scarlet poppies gives the finishing touch, 

 by their brilliant hue, to a scene of much beauty. 

 — (Miss) Helen C. Brine, Westdean, Winchester. 



Proliferation in Rose-Bloom. — The case 

 figured on this page is from the garden at " Mona," 

 Anerley, and from a photograph by J. H. Brown. 

 The specimen flowered in the usual manner, shed 

 its petals, and then the proliferation commenced, 

 producing another flower from the point where the 

 fruit ought to have grown in the ordinary course. 

 This " sport " is not rare, and Dr. Maxwell T. 

 Masters, in his " Vegetable Teratology," figures a 

 rose bearing two flowers at the same time. He says : 

 " Proliferous roses have a special interest, inas- 

 much as they show very conclusively that the 

 so-called calyx-tube of these plants is merely a 

 concave and inverted thalamus." We recently 



Abnormal Growth of Rose. 



recorded (ante p. 92) a similar case of proliferation 

 in Geum rivale, in which species Dr. Masters gives 

 instances of a like character. — John T. Carrington. 



Albinism in Flowers. — There is a considerable 

 quantity of the white bugle in a wood near Masbury 

 Station on the Mendips, the only place where I 

 have seen it. I have seen several plants not yet 

 mentioned in the late lists in Science-Gossip with 

 white flowers, viz., Cardtius crispen L., C. nutans L., 

 Colchictim autumnale L., Saponaria officinalis L., 

 Geranium pyrennicum Burne fils, Scilla probatis Salisb. 

 (pink as well as white). A pink specimen of the 

 Scilla was sent me from the Castle Hill, Barn- 

 staple, where, I was told, it is abundant. Of course, 

 all plants bearing red, pink, blue or purple (— red, 

 or pink + blue) flowers more or less frequently 

 produce white flowers ; though to know the reason 

 would be of interest. Yellow and white are not 

 often interchangeable, yet Verbascum blattaria L., 

 is found with white flowers. — A. E. Burr, Bath. 



