94 



SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



Fruiting op Moschatel. — We have lately been 

 discussing the fruiting of the lesser celandine. 

 Another early flowering and fruiting plant is 

 Adoxa moseliatellina. The moschatel has a creep- 

 ing rootstock, and produces many white scaly buds 

 underground. I have found that it spreads rather 

 rapidly by this means, when introduced to the 

 garden, and hence freed from competition with 

 other hedgebank plants. I have been assured 

 that it is rarely found in fruit ; but I am inclined 

 to think this is as erroneous a statement in the case 

 of the moschatel as in that of the lesser celandine. 

 The idea may have been fostered by its possession 

 of another and an efficient means of propagation. 

 Otherwise I should say that the rarity consists, 

 not in the fruiting, but in the finding of the fruits. 

 With us the plant begins flowering towards the 

 end of March, and continues for a couple of 

 months. In a shady corner some flower-heads 

 were opening early in June. Meanwhile the 

 earlier flowers are ripening seeds. The calyx per- 

 sists as a green fleshy mass surrounding but not 

 overtopping the ovary. The peduncled head 

 usually contains five flowers, but the number 

 varies. It often happens that some of the flowers 

 on the head are abortive. Here are some ex- 

 amples : — 



Head Ripe Fruits Abortive 



No. 1 5 2 



2 2 2 







The flower-heads are borne erect on a slender 

 peduncle well above the stalk leaves when flower- 

 ing, but when the fruit is forming the peduncle 

 thickens and becomes curved. This process con- 

 tinues until the ripening head which is increasing 

 in weight is completely hidden beneath the 

 cauline leaves. The last stage is when the whole 

 plant becomes flaccid, falls to the ground, and soon 

 withers or rots away. Summer vegetation grows 

 over the spot, and by July it is almost impossible 

 to find a trace of the plants which were quite con- 

 spicuous earlier in the year. As late as that 

 period I have not been able to detect any fruits, 

 though searching on the exact spot where the 

 plant grew. By that time the seeds would have 

 shed or might be germinating. Can any explana- 

 tion be offered as to why the central flower in a 

 head of moschatel should, be built up in fours and 

 all the others in fives 1 — E. Armitage, Dadnor, Soss, 

 Herefordshire, June 15t7i, 1901. 



Chalk Down Plants. — I send a few jottings 

 on the Chalk Down flora around Winchester at the 

 end of June. The surface of the Downs is covered 

 with very low, close herbage. Owing to several 

 rainless weeks it was brown in colour. On this 

 the brilliant hues of the gregarious Down plants 

 show up brightly, occurring as they do in numbers. 

 The most abundant plants are bird's-foot trefoil, 

 wild thyme, Our Lady's fingers (Anthyllis vul- 

 neraria), and squinancy wort (Asperula cynan- 

 cliica). They grow in round spreading masses 

 flat on the ground. Blue and white milkwort was 

 also dotting the turf, with horseshoe vetch, 

 cathartic flax, sometimes with double flowers, and 

 dwarfed specimens of oxeye daisy and of Scaliosa 

 columbaria. On a higher level are isolated speci- 

 mens of wild mignonette (Iieseda lilted) and 

 saintfoin, with its rosy pink flowers. There is 



much salad burnet, and large dark green patches 

 reveal the presence of rest harrow, just coming 

 into flower. Some interesting orchids are found. 

 Senecio campestris was growing six to eight 

 inches high with one to three heads of flowers. 

 The radical rosette of spathulate leaves shows a 

 white cottony clothing of hairs beneath and a 

 rough wasting of short glandular hairs on the 

 green upper surface. On the flower-stalk are a 

 few narrow leaves. The flower-heads, an inch 

 across, are bright yellow, and the ripe fruits are 

 narrow, light brown, furrowed lengthwise, and 

 thickly covered with short white bristly hairs. 



Senecio campestris. Abnormal flowering. 



They are crowned by the long white silky pappus. 

 The interesting part of this plant was the arrested 

 development I observed in some of the flower- 

 heads, which can be seen in the accompanying 

 drawings. I conjecture the cause for this pecu- 

 liarity is the seven weeks or so of drought pre- 

 ceding my observations. Most of the specimens 

 seem to have intended to produce three flower- 

 heads. The earliest I obtained, those which had 

 already ripened their seeds, had three well- 

 developed heads (fig. 1). Then I found plants 

 with two flower-heads and one abortive, or with 

 one head and two abortive (fig. 2), or even an 

 empty bract without a head (fig. 3). In some cases 

 these minute bud-heads were still green, in others 

 quite brown and withered. Thus it appears to me 

 that as the Down became drier and hotter the 

 plants had to abandon their first intention. To 

 make sure of the important business of seed- 

 ripening all the vigour of the plant was con- 

 centrated in one head, the others remaining 

 dormant. As the drought continued they withered 

 at last ; but plants later in development might, on 

 the coming of the rain, which occurred soon after, 

 have got renewed vigour to develop these waiting- 

 buds. — E. Armitage, July] 1901. 



ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



E. A. (Dadnor). — Your interesting notes on 

 Moschatel recall to my mind a short article on 

 this species which appeared in Science-Gossip 

 for 1880, p. 90. Reference is there made to the 

 fact that although typically there are five florets 

 in the capitulum, yet " occasionally one or two 

 florets are inserted between the lateral ones and 

 slightly superior to them." Are not these usually 

 abortive 1 As to your query with reference to the 

 reason that the terminal floret is tetramerous, 

 while the others are pentamerous, may I suggest 

 that this gives a symmetrical arrangement to the 

 inflorescence 1 At least, that was the impression 

 produced on my mind when examining the plants. 

 You have probably noticed that the terminal floret 

 always opens first. — /. S. 



