HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



155 



In wild flowers, I have on strict examination 

 scarcely ever failed to detect the cause to be the 

 work of some small insect, often the eggs of a tiny 

 fly", which, in laying them, burrowed into the plant : 

 not always close to the monstrosity, but rendering 

 the plant unhealthy. An accidental cut with a spade 

 at the base of the stem will often cause abnormal 

 growth. 



A very large number of my back numbers of 

 Science Gossip were burnt accidentally last sum- 

 mer, so I am unable to state the date of the number 

 in which there was a beautifully-executed illustration 

 of a cabbage-leaf, which had fashioned itself into 

 something like the shape of an old-fashioned cham- 

 pagne glass. There was, to the best of my recollec- 

 tion, a slight idea put forward that the progenitors 

 might have been some of the cup-bearing plants of 

 South America. 



Allow me to give you the history of a bed of cauli- 

 flowers in my own garden. The ground was pre- 

 pared as usual and the plants set, when the gardener 

 showed me some half-dozen left over, and informed 

 me that they were all very " poor plants," pointing 

 out a small wart about the size of a pea on the root 

 of each close to where the stalk started ; he pro- 

 ceeded to pull off the wart, and show me a small 

 insect inside, and finished by giving me the pleasing 

 information that every plant he had put down had the 

 same; but assuring me he had constantly "seen the 

 like," and it was "no harm." When the time for 

 cutting cauliflowers came, it would have puzzled any- 

 one to pick out to what primitive type they were 

 retrogressing, as not one of them presented the same 

 appearance, or resembled a respectable cauliflower 

 plant. Four or five of them were long-stalked plants, 

 with a bunch of small leaves at the top, and soon 

 withered away without any appearance of flowers ; 

 others were short and stout, with a cauliflower the 

 size of a walnut at the base of each leaf ; one outgrew 

 all the others, and developed leaves more than two 

 feet long, one of the outside leaves being similar to 

 the illustration in Science Gossip — a large funnel- 

 shaped monstrosity — but no attempt at a flower. 

 The whole plot produced but a couple of cauliflowers, 

 and those half-diseased and unfit for use ; had I not 

 seen the insect mischief at the root, the abnormal 

 growth would have been a mystery to me ; as it was, 

 I could attribute it to nothing else. 



I have seen a whole row of auriculas, with fascicu- 

 lated stems produced by over manuring. They be- 

 longed to an old gentleman who was devoted to 

 them, and he fed them so assiduously that the flower- 

 stems at last reached the dimensions of nearly an 

 inch across, flat and striated, with very crowded 

 heads of very small blossoms, curiously distorted. 



A young rose-tree in my garden, during two sea- 

 sons a healthy and stalwart bloomer, began in the 

 third to produce small bunches of leaves in the 

 middle of the blossoms, and many other eccentrici- 



ties, and continued to do so the following year ; it 

 was pruned and doctored, but to no purpose. It 

 occurred to me that perhaps it wanted more air, as I 

 had set other plants quite close to it. These were 

 removed, and from that out there were no more 

 sprouts of green leaves in the blossoms, no buds 

 half leaf half corolla, etc., etc. 



In wild plants it is of course far more difficult to 

 account for abnormal growth, but it can be dis- 

 covered in most cases by close scrutiny, so as to war- 

 rant the belief that such growth is always caused by 

 some insect or other damage. 



I have found several times patches of the common 

 birdseye growing in a way sufficiently different to 

 the usual habit to attract attention, with softer and 

 more downy leaves, and a larger and more straggling 

 growth ; at first I could see nothing to account for 

 it, and thought it was a variety. However, after 

 many attempts I found the difference was caused 

 by minute soft protuberances here and there on the 

 plant, generally at the base of a leaf-stalk, locking 

 quite like a part of the stalk's growth ; but on open- 

 ing them there was to be seen the reason for the 

 unusual form of the plant, a bunch of minute eggs, 

 or the insects just ready to emerge. 



I. G. 



EXPERIMENTAL SECTION OF HYDRA. 



TTYDRA VIRIDIS— taker's Binocular, ij in. 

 J. J. A eye-piece. The Hydra was divided in 

 the live-box in which it had been living for three 

 days. It was apparently in good health. The section 

 was performed with a sharp, curved knife, and at the 

 site of junction of "head "and body. In the same 

 live-box were Cypris, Cyclops, Vorticellse, Daphnia 

 and Duckweed. The experiment began on March 

 27th, 1892. Before division the Hydra had eight 

 processes. 



1.40 p.m. — Firmly fixed ; stump actively con- 

 tracting and extending. 



Tentacles moving actively ; no attempt at fixation ; 

 3J tentacles have disappeared. 



2.30 p.m. — Apparently one arm is fixing cephalic 

 fragment to the trough ; the other arms are moving 

 actively. 



The body is swaying about and extending with 

 great vigour. 



3.30 p.m. — No alteration in body, A Cyclops 

 became motionless for a while after contact ; the 

 cephalic fragment is now free, and moves very 

 actively. One of the tentacles has been apparently 

 wounded in process of section ; it is swollen and 

 twisted, and is not nearly so active as are the others. 



6 p.m. — During the last 2I hours but very slight 

 alteration has taken place. The cephalic fragment 

 is unchanged ; the tentacles (or stumps) on the body 

 seem a little longer. The only noteworthy point is 

 that a swelling has developed at the junction of the 



