ms 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



['Nor. 1, 1865. 



BOTANY. 



The Plane-tkee of Vostitza.— The chief 

 ■wonder of Vostitza is the celebrated plane-tree, 

 ■with the fountain close by. We reached it by a 

 good and clean paved road, creditable to the police 

 of Vostitza. The plane-tree, which is now in almost 

 decrepit old age, has suffered greatly since the re- 

 volution. At what period it became hollow, no one 

 knows : but its branches are broken in many places, 

 and the foliage is a scant remnant of its old flourish- 

 ing wardrobe. I well remember it in its better days, 

 with its white, fresh-looking mosque near, its v,rell- 

 arranged encircling seats, its Turkish-built fountain, 

 and all the usual encouragement and provision for 

 true Oriental kief. The plane-tree suffered, about 

 a century ago, from lightning and a fierce whirl- 

 wind ; but the injury was apparently confined to its 

 branches, which still, however, have a circumference 

 of sixty feet : that of the trunk measures thirty 

 feet. A guard keeps watch in the bowels of the 

 tree. It answers capitally as a substitute for a 

 gigantic sentry-box. Not satisfied with this, the 

 Greeks have imposed upon it a sort of cafe. We 

 saw chairs and tables placed inside in the usual 

 confusion. The scooped-out centre is capacious 

 enough for all. These hollow plane-trees are to be 

 found in many parts of Greece. At Cheledonia, 

 near Kephissia, is one, in the interior of which you 

 can dine. — Wyse's Excursion in the Peloponnesus. 



The DucK-^raEDS. — I have found all the four 

 sorts of duckweed {Lemna) so clearly described in 

 the interesting article in your January number, in 

 the Nene, near Northampton. Of the four perhaps 

 Lemna gibha seems most uncommon, the others 

 being abundant. Can you or any of your correspon- 

 dents tell me what is their usual time of flowering, 

 as I should like to look out for what seems to be an 

 unusual occurrence.— ii. S. 



Peak Tkee in Blossom. — There is at the present 

 date, 10th October, 1865, in a garden by the side of 

 Sandford Lane, Stoke Newington, at the back of the 

 post-office, a pear tree in full bloom, on which I 

 counted full eighty bunches of bloom. It can be 

 seen by any one passing down the lane, and has been, 

 of course, the talk of scores in the neighbourhood. 

 — Augustine Gaviller. 



[This is not a solitary instance.] 



A New Silene. — Silene dichotoma, Ehrh., is 

 merely an introduced plant, and not new to this 

 country. In 1853, I discovered it by the Trent side 

 at Norton, near Gainsburg, where it had probably 

 been introduced with linseed. The specimen was 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical 

 Society. S. dichotoma would be a welcome addition 

 to our flora, as it is very fragrant and an elegant 

 ^ower. — John Lowe, 



Toadstools. — More than forty years ago, a great 

 deal of fun was made in the British Critic, upon the 

 names given in Gray 's Natural Arrangement of Biitish 

 Plants, to mushrooms and their more immediate 

 allies, the point of the joke residing in the real mean- 

 ing of the second member of the word " toadstool." It 

 is always desirable that there should be correct in- 

 formation about the most trivial things, and though 

 the subject is rather unsavory, it may be as well to 

 point out that the word toadstool does not indicate 

 a seat for a toad. The ancient herbalists conceived 

 that these plants were the excrements of animals, 

 and hence such names as Lycoperdon, Crepitus Lwpi, 

 and Toadstool. In Dorsetshire poisonous fungi are 

 often called " Erogstools." — M. J. B. 



Large Musnuooar. — At the recent meeting of 

 the Tetbury Horticultural Society, Mr. Ptcynolds, 

 gardener to the Earl of Suffolk, exhibited a very 

 fine mushroom, measuring twelve inches across, 

 which was grown in Charlton Park. — Wiltshire 

 Independent, 



Bltje Eleabane in Cumberland. — The occur- 

 rence of this plant, Erigeron acre, is no''new discovery 

 in Cumberland, for it was sent to me in August, 

 1850, from the neighbourhood of Carlisle by Mr. 

 William Salkeld, and I think was most probably 

 obtained from the same locality as indicated by 

 " Wood Robert." — /. Gifford, Minehead, Somerset. 



Natjdin on Hybridism. — I regard, in accordance 

 with most botanists, all those slight species classed 

 under the names of races and varieties as forms 

 derived from a primitive specific type, and having in 

 consequence a common origin. I go further ; the 

 best characterized species themselves are, in my 

 opinion, so many secondary forms relatively to some 

 more ancient type which actually comprised them 

 all, as they themselves comprise all the varieties to 

 which they give birth under our eyes, when we 

 submit them to cultivation. — Naudin in Natural 

 History Beview, 



New British Moss. — At Southport, in November 

 last, I observed a new species of Brachythecium, 

 intermediate between campestre and ratahulum, 

 differing from the former in its less plicate leaves, 

 and very rough setae, and from the latter in its 

 slightly plicate leaves lanceolate, gradually tapering 

 from a wide base to a very acute point, not at all 

 acuminate, shining ; inflorescence, as in these species, 

 monoicous. If a variety, it must be united with 

 Brachythecium campestre, which has not yet been 

 certainly identified in Britain. — G. E. Hunt, at 

 Manchester Literary and Philological Society. 



The Duckweeds are called in this neighbourhood 

 "Duckmeat" or "Jenny Green Teeth." — C. ^.^ 



Birmingham, 



