Oct. 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE. GOSSIP. 



235 



OjST the Re-FIKDING of EpIPACTIS liTJBr.A IN 



Gloucestershire.— I am glad to find that my old 

 county lias again produced some specimens of this 

 interesting orchis, and long to know more of its 

 locality and the circumstances connected with its 

 growth, &c., and more especially as I have so often 

 hunted for this plant in vain, and that, too, with B. 

 L. Baker, Esq., late president of the Cotteswold 

 Club, whose grandfather was the original discoverer 

 of the species in the county. This discovery reminds 

 me to notice that some years since I recorded the 

 finding of Epipadis ensifolia in Gloucestershire. It 

 occurred in a beech plantation in Oakly Park, Cireu- 

 cester^ and myself and Mr. Robert Holland, then 

 one of my pupils, each secui'cd a single specimen, 

 which would appear to have been the whole of this 

 species there grown, as most patient search for 

 hours, both then and year by year afterwards, has 

 failed in affording another example from this habitat. 

 The Epipadis grandiflora is still in Oakly Park, in 

 the greatest abundance. Can it be possible that 

 E. ensi/olia is but a variety of E. grandiflora, or that 

 E. rubra is in any way indebted to hybridization of 

 E. latifolia and E. grandiflora, both of which are 

 abundant at Mr. Baker's station for E. rubra ? — 

 Frofessor Buckman, 



Paris Qtjadbifolta. — The abundance of Taris 

 qtiadrifolia in a damp wood in my neighbourhood 

 has given me many opportunities of searching 

 for a specimen in the state mentioned by A, 

 Grugeon (page 143), and I have examined a great 

 number of specimens with that view, but hitherto 

 without success. Meeting with large quantities of 

 the plant, not only in the normal form but also with 

 three,: and five leaves, I divided the specimens ex- 

 amined into three groups. In the first group, with 

 four-leaved perianths, the number of stamens was 

 8 (one specimen with 9) ; in the second group, with 

 three-leaved perianths, the number of stamens was 

 from 6 to 9 (two specimens with 3 sepals) ; in the 

 thu-d group, with five-leaved perianths, the number 

 of stamens was from 7 to 11 (one specimen with 5 

 petals) ; with these exceptions all other parts of the 

 flowers were normal. The late Professor Henslow 

 has recorded the result of a similar examination in 

 Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 429, showing 

 that in 1,500 specimens the number of parts de- 

 veloped in the whorls of leaves, sepals, petals, and 

 stigmas ranged nearly between 3 and 6, and in the 

 whorl of stamens between 6 and 12. In no case did 

 I discover an agreement in the aggregate similar 

 to that mentioned by A. Grugeon. Would he kindly 

 state if he has met with more than one specimen 

 in that state ?— i?. A, 



Association of Plants and Animals.— Many 

 instances are not wanting of the intimate relation 

 subsistmg between the lives of plants and animals. 

 The association, and apparently necessary condition 

 of hfe, of fungi to certain species of animals and to 

 the refuse of others is well known ; also the at- 

 tachment of a large number of plants, constituting 

 a group of what may be called domesticated 

 species, as the nettle, &c., to the haunts of man, 

 and following in his footsteps throughout the world, 

 is a subject of every-day observation. The case 

 that I here refer to is one of novelty, pointing to the 

 appearance and disappearance of two agral plants 

 with the mtroduction and removal of cattle. On 

 the Holm of Gloup, North Yell, Shetland, the daisy 

 and white clover appeared in the year 1852, afier 

 cattle had been pastured on it ; the plants began to 

 disappear at the end of two years, and, on the 

 entire removal of the kine, disappeared in toto, and 

 have not reappeared. No cattle have been pastured 

 on the island since 1853-4. The two plants were 

 confined to a limited area, supposed to be where tlie 

 cattle MvtA.— Ralph Tate, F.G.S., &c. 



MmuLUS LxJTEUS.— A large quantity of this 

 beautiful plant appeared in the bed of the river 

 Dodder, at Templeogue, co. Dublin, in July, 1863, 

 where I saw it in full bloom. It had not, I believe, 

 been observed there before. The seeds had pro- 

 bably been carried down from some garden by the 

 river when flushed by heavy rains, at which times 

 it rises considerably. Beutham ("Handbook of 

 British Flora ") says that the plant is indigenous in 

 " north-western America and Chili ; long cultivated 

 in our flower-gardens ; and now naturalized in boggy 

 places in many parts of Britain." 3Iimuhis luteals 

 is not mentioned in Smith's "English Elora," 

 Hooker's "Elora," nor Mackay's "Flora Hibernica." 

 — Vincetit A. Smith. 



Apetalous Stitchwort. — As you take notice in 

 your little publication of abnormal states of plants 

 (although I cannot consider that mere white varieties 

 of plants are worth insertion), I send you a speci- 

 men of an abnormal state of the Stelkma Holostea, 

 sent to me by Mr. Pughe, of Aberdovey, and which 

 is one of the most remarkable I have met with. It 

 is, as you will see, an apetalous variety of that plant ; 

 and the singularity of it is, that it has for many 

 years covered several yards of a hedge in the neigh- 

 bourhood of his house, and always presents the same 

 appearance every year. — T. Salwey. [We have de- 

 posited this specimen in the botanical department 

 of the British Museum, where it may be examined.] 

 —Ed. 



Tinctorial Bedstraw. — The roots of Galium 

 tataricum and Q. physocarpum dye red, like madder, 

 but the colorific power of the former is only f, and 

 of the latter f that of madder. — Bull. Soc. Imp., 

 Moscow, 



