IS 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1865. 



roots penetrate to double the depth, of ordinary 

 ploughing ; we raise up the turnip on' drills to help 

 it, and we expect the pulse and grass crop to perfo- 

 rate and deepen the soil to help us. But there is 

 not a cultivated plant which does not naturally send 

 down its roots beyond 9 inches. The cereals on 

 which our agriculture mainly depends are, indeed, 

 endowed with the power of forcing their roots deep 

 and far into the solid earth in search of food, and as 

 the investigation of drainage obstructions has lately 

 shown, it is impossible by any process short of actual 

 tracing, to fix the distance to which tlie roots of 

 trees and hedge plants will penetrate ; so is it found 

 that wheat and our other cultivated grasses extend 

 their roots much further into the soil than is at all 

 generally supposed; Johnston, in his drainage lecture, 

 says that deep-rooted plants, such as lucerne, often 

 fail, even in moderately deep soils, because an excess 

 of water, or the presence of some noxious ingredient 

 which deep drains would remove, prevents their 

 natural descent in search of food. " Even plants," 

 he adds, "which, like wheat or clover, do not usually 

 send down their roots so far, will yet, where the 

 subsoil is sound and dry, extend their fibres for three 

 or more feet in depth, in quest of more abundant 

 nourishment." But, I repeat, it is not tlioroughly 

 understood how deeply the roots even of wheat and 

 clover descend. The Earl of Macclesfield, in a letter 

 to the Society of Arts, mentions that a few years 

 ago, Mr. Badcock, a shrewd, sensible, ol^servmg, and 

 very considerable farmer, at Pyrton, Oxon, having 

 occasion to dig the foundation of a building on a 

 field under wheat, was much surprised hj observing 

 the small fibres of the roots of the wheat much 

 deeper in the earth than he had any idea of. Endea- 

 vouring to trace how deep they really went, he had 

 the ground opened close to some plants, dug per- 

 pendicularly down to the depth of 6 feet, and having 

 fixed a narrow board close against it, proceeded in 

 the same manner on another side of the plant, and 

 so on till he had secured the earth to that depth 

 between four boards firmly lashed together. He then 

 had it placed upon an inclined plane, and~ carefully 

 removing the boards, with great caution and perse- 

 verance washed away all the earth adhering to the 

 root and its very small fibres, and was much sur- 

 prised at their extent. He repeated the trials on 

 several other wheat plants, and traced their depth 

 to within 5 or 6 feet. The late Mr. Pane, M.P. for 

 Oxfordshire, had one of these plants, now presented 

 by Lord Macclesfield to the Society of Arts, secured 

 in a close glass tube. My friend Dr. Atkin and 

 myself have traced the roots of wheat in Berwick- 

 shire, to 5 or 6 feet of perpendicular depth in garden 

 soil. — Wallace Fijfe, Lecture at lloi/al Agricultural 

 College. 



China Grass.— The Prench Minister of Agricul- 

 ture and Commerce has ordered over a quantity of 



China-grass seed {Bcehmeria nioea) from its native 

 couutiy, in order to distribute it to all agriculturists 

 who may apply for it. If unsuccessful in the eiforts 

 to acclimatise it in Prance, it will probably succeed 

 in Algeria. It may not be generally known that 

 this plant (which is a large nettle) yields a beauti- 

 fully soft, strong, and glossy fibre, applicable for 

 the manufacture of linen fabrics. 



Aenokmal Development in the Pimpebnel. — 

 Dr. Marchand, in a recent contribution to botanical 

 science ^on vegetable monstrosities, gives a curious 

 account of abnormal forms in the common pimpernel 

 {Anagallis arvensis), which is thus summarized by 

 M. J. B. in the Gardener'' s Chronicle : — 



"We wiU take that mstance first in which the 

 parts of the flower departed least from the more 

 normal condition, and then the others in their proper 

 order. In all the parts there was a greater or less 

 tendency to assume a green tint ; in some they were 

 entirely green, in others the brighter colours were 

 confined to the more recently developed parts. 



" 1. In the first case, then, the sepals and petals 

 were in their normal position, though rather more 

 dilated than usual; the anthers were fertile, the 

 principal change existing in the ovary, the upper 

 part of which was wanting, so that the ovules were 

 exposed seated on the central placenta. 



" 3. In the next step the calyx, more developed 

 than usual, was separated from the corolla by a long 

 peduncle ; and the ovary, which was ovate, contained 

 instead of a placenta a sort of plumule or young 

 shoot. 



" 3. In this case the corolla and calyx were dis- 

 tant from each other ; there was no trace of stamens, 

 but the axis was continued from the centre of the 

 coroUa, and ended in a leaf-bud. 



"4. The calyx and corolla nearly as before, but 

 instead of stamens a whorl of little leaves was 

 developed, in the centre of which the axis was con- 

 tinued, bearing at its tip two whorls of leaflets alter- 

 nately three and three. 



" 5. In this case two out of the five stamens were 

 normal, the other three changed into leaves, show- 

 ing clearly the origin of the leaflets in the last case, 

 which took the place of the stamens. 



" 6. The ovary varied in dilferent flowers. In 

 some the placenta was crowned with ovules ; iu 

 others the ovules were replaced by a single whorl of 

 leaflets ; iu others there was every shade of change 

 from ordinary ovules to perfect leaflets ; while in 

 others, again, every ovule was converted into a leaf 

 with a long petiole. 



" 7. We now come to another form in which 

 shoots were developed in the axils of the sepals, or 

 on the face of the petals between the point of their 

 insertion and that of the stamens, and, what is most 

 curious, in the interior of the ovaries round the foot 

 of the placenta. 



