HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



9i 



BOTANY. 



Botanical Monstrosities, 1S91.— Primula vul- 

 garis — coloured variety, five blossoms, which consisted 

 of one whorl of gTeen leaves, with aborted organs in 

 the interior after the fashion of an ovary ; they 

 evidently came from more than one peduncle, as they 

 occurred on both sides of the plant. One of the 

 coloured flowers on the same plant had but four 

 corolla divisions. Another specimen of the yellow 

 type had a leaf-like calyx enclosing a very diminutive 

 corolla ; while some gigantic blossoms were also seen, 

 whose calyx and corolla had six and eight divisions, 

 one possessing two pistils. Anemone nemorosa — with 

 pink flowers. Plantago lanceolata — a lot of spikes 

 having many heads, some with small leaves inter- 

 mixed between the sessile heads ; one also had a 

 double fasciated stem. Scilla nutans — white speci- 

 mens. A/uga reptans — white specimens. Chrysan- 

 themum leucantkemum — several having yellow disc 

 flowers only, with no rays. Garden geranium — in 

 which the peduncle was suppressed, leaving a cluster 

 of flowers in the axil of a leaf. Trifolium pratense — 

 two-headed. Scabiosa arvensis — several flowers with 

 leaf-like involucre. Potentilla reptans — with four 

 instead of five petals. Sisymbrium officinale— stem 

 aborted, so that instead of the inflorescence being 

 elongated with blossoms extending all the way up, 

 they were all produced in a bunch. Plantago major — 

 a number of spikes having several leaves at base of 

 each. Bartsia odontites — fasciated stems after the 

 fashion of a cockscomb. Centaurea nigra — fasciated 

 two-headed stem. Achillea ptarmica — being a mass 

 of flocky material somewhat like a miniature cauli- 

 flower, possibly caused by insects; about a dozen 

 specimens. The above list comprises the abnormal 

 forms found in the above season, which were new to 

 me ; others were also seen for the third or fourth 

 time, which have been recorded in earlier years. — 

 Edwin E. Turner, Coggleshall, Essex. 



Diseases of the Primrose Family. — Two years 

 ago I examined the flowers of the primrose (Primula 

 ■vulgaris) and cowslip (Primula veris), and found in 

 my investigations that the former is more subject to 

 disease than the latter. Last year I was not able to, 

 but hope to resume my examinations this year ; and 

 I should like the readers of Science-Gossip to aid 

 me in doing so, and to help me to answer the 

 questions at the end of this letter. The following 



are some of my notes on the subject that I took : 



(i.) that out of thirty-two (taking this as an average) 

 specimens of Primula vulgaris, two-thirds of them were 

 diseased, (ii.) As regards same number of Primula 

 veris, only one-third of them were diseased, (iii.) That 

 the thrum-eyed Primula vulgaris was more liable to 

 disease than the pin-eyed, (iv.) That in both cases, if 

 one flower on a plant was diseased, all were, (v.) The 



disease was in the tube of the corolla and seemed 

 to be of a fungous nature, but I did not take particular 

 note of it at the time. My specimens were all, with 

 one exception, found in hedges, copses, and woods of 

 Shropshire and Cheshire ; the exception was got in a 

 garden, but in all cases I found the same result. All 

 specimens seemed from external appearances more or 

 less perfect and healthy, in size varying from J to I J 

 inches in diameter. I shall be glad and beg your 

 readers to furnish me with any notes on this during 

 the spring and summer, and I give my address 

 below. The questions are : — I. Are Primula 

 vulgaris flowers more liable to disease than those of 

 Primula veris, and in what ratio ? II. Is the Thrum- 

 eyed Primula vulgaris more so than the Pin-eyed ? — 

 J. H. Barbour, 1 Hamilton Villas, Ballyholme, 

 Bangor, Co. Down, B-eland. 



GEOLOGY. 



Notes on Trees. — We are very glad to steal 

 the following notes from a short paper, communicated 

 by W. Whitaker, B.A., F.R.S., to the Hampshire 

 Literary and Philosophical Society : — The labour of 

 a field-geologist leads him much into out-of-the-way 

 places that are rarely seen by others than those who 

 are employed in them ; so that he has chances of seeing 

 notable things outside his own special line of work. 

 Moreover, in the detailed mapping of the various 

 formations, he has often to depend on indirect 

 evidence, the direct evidence of sections being absent. 

 Besides the character of the soil, the form of the 

 ground and the outbreak of springs, he may note 

 the general character of the vegetation, though 

 perhaps having but the smallest amount of botanical 

 knowledge. These notes, therefore, must be taken 

 as those of a geologist, not of a botanist, and con- 

 sequently as in great part from a geologic point of 

 view, referring somewhat to the connection between 

 soil and growth. They are written in the hope that 

 they may be of interest to that large class, lovers 

 of trees, and that they may lead to other records of a 

 like kind. (1). Beeches on London Clay. — On the 

 higher parts of the escarpment of the London clay 

 northward of Southampton and in some other places, 

 there are very fine beeches, often in groups, as may 

 be well seen in the eastern and western parts of 

 Ampfield Wood, where one spot indeed is named 

 The Beeches. These sites are at or near the 

 junction of the London clay with the overlying 

 Bagshot sand, or rather one should say about the 

 passage of those beds into one another, and in other 

 cases the beeches are also on the uppermost loamy 

 part of the former formation. Now beeches, it is 

 well known, grow best on a calcareous soil, oaks 

 and elms being more proper to clays and loams ; and 

 so, seeing so many fine beeches at this particular 

 geologic horizon, one is led to think that the beds on 



