Sept. 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



BOTANY. 



The Sun -dew {Drosera rotiindifoHa). — Of course 

 the peculiar leaves of this plant are familiar to most 

 of the readers of Science Gossip. Professor 

 Babiugtou says in his handbook, "leaves covered, 

 as in all other species, with hairs, terminating in 

 large glands, secreting a viscid fluid, which retains 

 insects that settle upon them." In Bentham's 

 " Plora," the leaves are said to be " covered on their 

 upper surface with long red, viscid hairs, each bear- 

 ing a small gland at the top." These remarks hold 

 good in the greater number of species, which have 

 the hairs tapering, red, and with a gland. In a 

 tolerably common variety, however, the hairs are 

 scarcely tapering, much longer, colourless always, 

 frequently without the terminal gland, and in such 

 forms the plant is always much smaller. Moreover 

 the leaves are always uniform on the same plant, 

 and the absence of coloui- is not due to etiolation, 

 since the plants all grow together equally exposed 

 to the light. The plant (both forms) may be found 

 plentifully on Harapstead Heath. In some plants 

 {Myosotis, for instance) the hairs are recognized as 

 of specific value, and if so in Myosotis, why not in 

 Drosera ?—A. P. H. 



EEtrcASTEUM PoiLiCHii.— This plant appears 

 again this season abundantly ; it likewise has made 

 its appearance among a large crop of common Char- 

 lock in part of an old pasture broken up this spring, 

 which has certainly been undisturbed for fifty years, 

 and probably for a much longer period. — Joshua 

 Clarke hi Journal of Botany. 



MoeeITses eob Nettles. — When a swarm of bees 

 has been shaken into a hive, a number of them often 

 cluster again round the branch on which they were 

 knit, and it is sometimes not very easy to dislodge 

 them. It is a common practice in Cheshire to hang 

 over them a bunch of nettles dipped in liquid 

 manure, which either does or is supposed to drive 

 them away. In all probability it is the foul smell 

 that the bees dislike, but as nettles are always the 

 plants used, not only in Cheshire but elsewhere, as 

 appears from the letters of " ll\iQ Times'' Bee-master," 

 It would seem as though there were an idea that 

 bees had a natural antipathy to nettles, perhaps 

 from the fact of the plants being, like themselves, 

 furnished with stings. Nettles are also used with 

 a decoction of oak-bark as a cure for diarrhoea in 

 calves. The oak-bark is the important ingredient, 

 but the nettles are also beneficial, being slightly 

 stimulant. It is a good and effectual remedy, but 

 superseded, like most native remedies, by more 

 powerful foreign drugs, in this case by catechu and 

 other ingredients, of v/hich a much smaller dose is 

 required, a great advantage in physicking refractory 

 animals. — Robert Holland. 



A Tkiple Mushroom.— a physician of my 

 acquaintance has a mushroom-bed in his cellar. A 

 few weeks ago he cut one which was about five 

 inches in breadth, leaving the lower portion of the 

 stem projecting from the bed. This afternoon he 

 was surprised to find a peculiar double muslu-oom 



on the spot. It is formed of two mushrooms 

 attached by their upper surfaces ; the smaller one 

 being placed in the inverted position on the upper 

 one, and the cuticle of the two being continuous. 

 The stem of the upper one was contmuous with 

 that of the large one which was cut off. The 

 annexed sketch will give some idea of the nature of 

 this curious monstrosity. The part above the dotted 

 line represents the one cut off a few v.^eks ago ; 

 the part below is the double mushroom at present 

 in my possession.— C. A. 



Bog Asphodel.— Dr. Buchenau, of Bremen, has 

 called attention to the poisonous properties of 

 Narthecium ossifragim. Cows which have eaten of 

 this plant have died after a severe attack of dysen- 

 tery, their milk turning as bitter as gall ; and cats 

 known to have partaken of this milk have died also. 

 — Journal of Botany. 



Irish Ivy.— There is in gardens a very fast- 

 growing large-leaved plant, commonly called " Irish 

 or Scotch Ivy." This plant, as I understand the 

 species, is one of the many varieties of Hedera Helix. 

 There is, besides, a plant which gardeners call 

 " Sharp-leaved Irish Ivy," and this I hold to be one 

 of the varieties of Hedera Canariensis. It occurs 

 wild in Ireland, and is evidently the plant aUuded to 

 by Mackay in his " Flora Hibernica." — Br. Berthold 

 Seemann. 



New British Fungi. — Dr. Capron has found 

 the Balsam brand {Puccinia nolitangeris) plentifully 

 on Impatiens fulm at Albury. Also a brand, not 

 hitherto recorded in Britain {Pticcinia virgaurea) 

 on Golden rod (Solidago virgaurea'), and a white 

 mildew on the spindle-tree, allied to that found on 

 the Berberry, and named Microsphceria comaia, Lev., 

 also new to the British list. AH these are interesting 

 microscopic objects. 



