BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



i°5 



pressed down on to the damp moss, must absorb at 

 least as much moisture through their delicate surfaces 

 as the roots take up ; they are remarkably thin in 

 texture, with rolled-in edges and a net-work of rami- 

 fying purple veins, but they are not as greasy-looking 

 as in P. vulgaris. It may also be remarked that no 

 dead flies were found upon them. On the freshly 



Fig. 58. —Section of flower of Pinguicula lusilanica (enlarged 

 projection). 



Fig. 59. — Pinguicula lusitanica. 



w 



Fig. 60. 



Fig. 61. 



Fig. 62. 



Fig. 60. — Jointed white hairs on lobes of corolla. 



Fig. 61. — Projection of mouth of Pinguicula lusitanica. 



tig. 62. — Projection and hollows (highly magnified). 



gathered specimens there were numbers of tiny beetles 

 that seemed to walk about with great ease ; perhaps 

 their hard covering and little wiry legs enabled them 

 to set at defiance the cloggy stickiness that might 

 have been fatal to more delicately-formed insects ; 

 sometimes, however, the horny beetle-cases were 

 transparent and empty, but since the plants have 

 been living in captivity the old leaves have died and 



with them their little denizens have departed, so that 

 special observations have not been made on this point. 

 The flower of P. lusitanica has not the personate 

 appearance of P. vulgaris, the corolla is rather 

 inflated than compressed, and the spur instead of 

 being acute, is obtuse and almost inclined to be lobed 

 at its saccate base. The enlarged section of the 

 flower shows a projection that rises near the entrance, 

 covered with a short velvety pile of fine clubbed hairs. 

 It is tucked up from the outside, like the lip of a snap- 

 dragon, and a ridge beyond it continues still further 

 into the throat, crested with orange-tipped hairs. 

 There is a hollow on each side of the ridge perfectly 

 free from hairs, and their opposite sides are bounded 

 by two more ridges, with hairs reaching still further 

 into the throat. The position of the stamens and 

 pistil is similar to that which obtains in P. vulgaris : 

 and the arrangement of hairs within the corolla sug- 

 gests that they are intended to act as guides to those 

 insects who may visit the flower in search of the 

 honey contained in the spur, for no insect of the 

 proper size could possibly reach it without at the 

 same time touching both stamens and pistil in suc- 

 cession. In default of this agency, the flower can 

 doubtless fertilize itself; for the pollen oozes out 

 plentifully from under the pistil-lobe, and might 

 easily overflow on to its upper stigmatic surface"; 

 indeed this must be the case, for the plants that for 

 the last six weeks have been living in a make-believe 

 bog in a soup-plate, have blossomed and set their 

 seed, and are now scattering it from their ripe cap- 

 sules, as if they were quite at home, and are only a 

 trifle paler than they were in the bog at Lyndhurst. 

 The flowers lasted a long time without withering, and 

 as this is usually a question of fertilization, the little 

 butterworts probably waited as long as possible for 

 the insects who never visited them in their captivity, 

 and at last were obliged to dispense with their ser- 

 vices. It is pleasant to see the capsules split and 

 scatter the pretty seeds upon the moss. The leaves 

 of P. vulgaris have the remarkable property of giving 

 consistence to milk, and preventing it turning into 

 whey or cream. The product is a sort of solid sour 

 milk, not at all unpleasant to the taste, especially in 

 hot weather. It is much used in Norway and 

 Sweden. 



M. D. D. 

 Hawkshead, Ambleside. 



A REMINISCENCE OF MALTA. 



IT was about six o'clock in the morning when 

 the S.S. Orontes dropped anchor in the , Grand 

 Harbour at Malta ; and shortly afterwards we re- 

 ceived the welcome intelligence that pratique had 

 been given, and that we were at liberty to go on 

 shore to amuse ourselves, as best we could, in the 

 Fior del Mondo for the space of twenty-four hours. 



