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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



there was only one specimen to be seen. The two 

 plants were Centaurea nigra and Knautia arvensis. 

 I should add that all these specimens are in our 

 possession, mounted in such a way as to show their 

 attachment to the plant they were living upon. 

 Perchance some among your many subscribers may 

 have seen one or other orobanche on different host- 

 plants to those I have mentioned. If so, might I 

 ask them to communicate the result of their observa- 

 vations to Science-Gossip, for it would certainly 

 be very interesting to note how many flowers 

 are "favoured" by these parasites? — L. Creaghc- 

 Haward, Bramford, Ipswich. 



The Everlasting Pea and its Fickle 

 Colour. — The note anent the everlasting pea by 

 Mr. Edward A. Martin in the January number, 

 p.. 22, is eminently interesting to myself. Here at 

 length is one mystery solved, one difficulty explained. 

 During last summer, I was presented with a bunch of 

 everlasting pea, which grew on the very wall -of the 

 very house wherein the late C. Darwin resided for 

 some time, and I forthwith determined to scientifically 

 examine the flowers for the first time. Having 

 analysed them in the manner already described in the 

 October number, I found that the result was 

 decidedly curious, not to say staggering. "These 

 petals are red," I exclaimed, "but my experiment 

 infallibly demonstrates that their true and original 

 colour is blue. Nobody has ever seen a blue rose, or 

 a blue dahlia, but if somebody doesn't see, or hasn't 

 seen a blue pea, then I'm a duffer." Meanwhile, I 

 took a note of the contradictory circumstance ; and 

 judge of my delight, when on opening this month's 

 Science-Gossip, I read the remarkable words, 

 " the highly-coloured flowers gradually changed in 

 colour, to a pale chalk-blue ; nor was the colour one 

 which gave the impression as of a fading flower ; it 

 was as though the adopted colour was the natural 

 and original one. " This last clause is prophetic ; 

 but it now turns out to be absolutely correct. The 

 natural colour of this pea is a pure blue ; a volatile 

 acid emitted somewhere from its rich leguminous 

 treasury of constituents, has, pro tern, as it were, 

 turned to crimson. — P. Q. Kecgan. 



Sillgreen; — The late Richard Jefferies, in one of 

 the chapters in the recently-published volume, " Toilers 

 of the Field," speaks of a plant called "Sillgreen." 

 The name is unknown to me, and I cannot find the 

 word in the " Encyclopedic Dictionary." It is, pro- 

 bably, provincial and local. Can any of your readers 

 enlighten me as to the plant referred to ? The pass- 

 age in which the name occurs is as follows : "The 

 dull tint of the thatch is relieved here and there by 

 great patches of sillgreen, which is religiously pre- 

 served as a good herb, though the exact ailments for 

 which it is ' good ' are often forgotten." The common 

 house-leek may be intended, and " sillgreen " may 



be a corruption of "seagreen," by which name it is 

 sometimes known. But as no botanical authority 

 with which I am acquainted g'ives the former, I 

 should be glad of fuller information on the point. — 

 J. Halsey. 



GEOLOGY. 



Fossil Myriapod in Forest of Dean. — I 

 note the occurrence of a fossil myriapod, in the coal 

 measures, Forest of Dean, in an insect bed discovered 

 by me near Cinderford. This is the first ttiat has 

 been discovered in that coal-field. — T. Stock. 



A new Fossil Fish-Bed in Warwickshire. — 

 The Rev. P. B. Brodie recently described a new dis- 

 covery of fossil fish remains. The vertebrate remains 

 occur in a very thin band of marly friable sandstone 

 lying between two beds of green marl, though in 

 some places the same bed has itself no admixture of 

 sandy material. Bones and teeth are so numerous 

 that it might almost be called a bone-bed. It does 

 not exceed three inches in thickness. It contains 

 ichthyodorulites of Cestraciont fishes, abundant 

 palatal teeth of Acrodus keuperinus, ganoid fish-scales 

 and abundant broken bones, some of which may 

 belong to fishes, others to labyrinthodonts, and 

 amongst the latter a fragment of a cranial bone. In 

 the discussion which followed, Mr. J. W. Davis 

 congratulated the author on the discovery of another 

 horizon containing the remains of fossil fishes and 

 labyrinthodonts. In the Keuper strata of Yorkshire 

 no such beds had yet been discovered, and this 

 addition was peculiarly interesting, on account of its 

 rarity. Only a short time ago the Semionotiis was 

 discovered in the beds a little higher in the series ; 

 and it was a great pleasure to find that Mr. Brodie 

 still retained his love for field-work, and was able to 

 bring the results of his observations before the 

 Society. 



Scandinavian Boulders at Cromer. — Mr. 

 Victor Madsen, recorded at a recent meeting of 

 the Geol. Soc, that during a visit to Cromer in 

 1891, he devoted attention to a search for Scandi- 

 navian boulders, and obtained three specimens : one 

 (a violet felspar-porphyry) was from the shore, and 

 the other two were from the collection of Mr. Savin. 

 The first was considered to come from S.E. Norway, 

 and indeed Mr. K. O. Bjorlykke, refers it to the 

 environs of Christiania. He considered that the two 

 specimens presented to him by Mr. Savin, who had 

 taken them out of Boulder Clay between Cromer 

 and Overstrand, were from Dalecarlia ; and these 

 were submitted to Mr. E. Svedmark, who compared 

 one of them (a brown felspar-hornblende-porphyry) 

 with the Gronklitt porphyry in the parish of Orsa, 

 and declared that the other (a blackish felsite- 

 porphyry) might also be from Dalecarlia. 



