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The Sun-dew (Drosera rotundifolia).—Of course the peculiar leaves of this plant are familiar to most of the readers of Science Gossip. Professor Babington says in his handbook, "leaves covered, as in all other species, with hairs, terminating in large glands, secreting a viscid fluid, which retains insects that settle upon them." In Bentham's "Flora," the leaves are said to be "covered on their upper surface with long red, viscid hairs, each bearing a small gland at the top." These remarks hold good in the greater number of species, which have the hairs tapering, red, and with a gland. In a tolerably common variety, however, the hairs are scarcely tapering, much longer, colourless always, frequently without the terminal gland, and in such forms the plant is always much smaller. Moreover the leaves are always uniform on the same plant, and the absence of colour is not due to etiolation, since the plants all grow together equally exposed to the light. The plant (both forms) may be found plentifully on Hampstead Heath. In some plants (Myosotis, for instance) the hairs are recognized as of specific value, and if so in Myosotis, why not in Drosera?—A. P. H.

Erucastrum Pollichii.—This plant appears again this season abundantly; it likewise has made its appearance among a large crop of common Charlock in part of an old pasture broken up this spring, which has certainly been undisturbed for fifty years, and probably for a much longer period.—Joshua Clarke in Journal of Botany.

More Uses for Nettles.—When a swarm of bees has been shaken into a hive, a number of them often cluster again round the branch on which they were knit, and it is sometimes not very easy to dislodge them. It is a common practice in Cheshire to hang over them a bunch of nettles dipped in liquid manure, which either does or is supposed to drive them away. In all probability it is the foul smell that the bees dislike, but as nettles are always the plants used, not only in Cheshire but elsewhere, as appears from the letters of "The Times' Bee-master," it would seem as though there were an idea that bees had a natural antipathy to nettles, perhaps from the fact of the plants being, like themselves, furnished with stings. Nettles are also used with a decoction of oak-bark as a cure for diarrhœa in calves. The oak-bark is the important ingredient, but the nettles are also beneficial, being slightly stimulant. It is a good and effectual remedy, but superseded, like most native remedies, by more powerful foreign drugs, in this case by catechu and other ingredients, of which a much smaller dose is required, a great advantage in physicking refractory animals.—Robert Holland.

A Triple Mushroom.—A physician of my acquaintance as a mushroom-bed in his cellar. A few weeks ago he eat one which was about five inches in breadth, leaving the lower portion of the stem projecting from the bed. This afternoon he was surprised to find a peculiar double mushroom

on the spot. It is formed of two mushrooms attached by their upper surfaces; the smaller one being placed in the inverted position on the upper one, and the cuticle of the two being continuous. The stem of the upper one was continuous with that of the large one which was cut off. The annexed sketch will give some idea of the nature of this curious monstrosity. The part above the dolled line represents the one cut off a few weeks ago; the part below is the double mushroom at present in my possession.—C. A.

Bog Asphodel.—Dr. Buchenau, of Bremen, has called attention to the poisonous properties of Narthecium ossifragum. Cows which have eaten of this plant have died after a severe attack of dysentery, their milk turning as bitter as gall; and cats known to have partaken of this milk have died also.—Journal of Botany.

Irish Ivy.—There is in gardens a very fast-growing large-leaved plant, commonly called "Irish or Scotch Ivy." This plant, as I understand the species, is one of the many varieties of Hedera Helix. There is, besides, a plant which gardeners call "Sharp-leaved Irish Ivy," and this I hold to be one of the varieties of Hedera Canariensis. It occurs wild in Ireland, and is evidently the plant alluded to by Mackay in his "Flora Hibernica."—Dr. Berthold Seemann.

New British Fungi.—Dr. Capron has found the Balsam brand (Puccinia nolitangeris) plentifully on Impatiens fulva at Albury. Also a brand, not hitherto recorded in Britain (Puccinia virgaurea) on Golden rod (Solidago virgaurea), and a white mildew on the spindle-tree, allied to that found on the Berberry, and named Microsphæria comata, Lev., also new to the British list. All these are interesting microscopic objects.