Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/251
BOTANY.
On the Re-finding of Epipactis rubra in Gloucestershire.—I am glad to find that my old county has again produced some specimens of this interesting orchis, and long to know more of its locality and the circumstances connected with its growth, &c., and more especially as I have so often hunted for this plant in vain, and that, too, with B. L. Baker, Esq., late president of the Cotteswold Club, whose grandfather was the original discoverer of the species in the county. This discovery reminds me to notice that some years since I recorded the finding of Epipactis ensifolia in Gloucestershire. It occurred in a beech plantation in Oakly Park, Cirencester, and myself and Mr. Robert Holland, then one of my pupils, each secured a single specimen, which would appear to have been the whole of this species there grown, as most patient search for hours, both then and year by year afterwards, has failed in affording another example from this habitat. The Epipactis grandiflora is still in Oakly Park, in the greatest abundance. Can it be possible that E. ensifolia is but a variety of E. grandiflora, or that E. rubra is in any way indebted to hybridization of E. latifolia and E. grandiflora, both of which are abundant at Mr. Baker's station for E. rubra?—Professor Buckman.
Paris Quadrifolia.—The abundance of Paris quadrifolia in a damp wood in my neighbourhood has given me many opportunities of searching for a specimen in the state mentioned by A. Grugeon (page 143), and I have examined a great number of specimens with that view, but hitherto without success. Meeting with large quantities of the plant, not only in the normal form but also with three and five leaves, I divided the specimens examined into three groups. In the first group, with four-leaved perianths, the number of stamens was 8 (one specimen with 9); in the second group, with three-leaved perianths, the number of stamens was from 6 to 9 (two specimens with 3 sepals); in the third group, with five-leaved perianths, the number of stamens was from 7 to 11 (one specimen with 5 petals); with these exceptions all other parts of the flowers were normal. The late Professor Henslow has recorded the result of a similar examination in Loudon's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 429, showing that in 1,500 specimens the number of parts developed in the whorls of leaves, sepals, petals, and stigmas ranged nearly between 3 and 6, and in the whorl of stamens between 6 and 12. In no case did I discover an agreement in the aggregate similar to that mentioned by A. Grugeon. Would he kindly state if he has met with more than one specimen in that state?—R. A.
Association of Plants and Animals.—Many instances are not wanting of the intimate relation subsisting between the lives of plants and animals. The association, and apparently necessary condition of life, of fungi to certain species of animals and to the refuse of others is well known; also the attachment of a large number of plants, constituting a group of what may be called domesticated species, as the nettle, &c., to the haunts of man, and following in his footsteps throughout the world, is a subject of every-day observation. The case that I here refer to is one of novelty, pointing to the appearance and disappearance of two agral plants with the introduction and removal of cattle. On the Holm of Gloup, North Yell, Shetland, the daisy and white clover appeared in the year 1852, after cattle had been pastured on it, the plants began to disappear at the end of two years, and, on the entire removal of the kine, disappeared in toto, and have not reappeared. No cattle have been pastured on the island since 1853–4. The two plants were confined to a limited area, supposed to be where the cattle laired.—Ralph Tate, F.G.S., &c.
Mimulus Luteus.—A large quantity of this beautiful plant appeared in the bed of the river Dodder, at Templeogue, co. Dublin, in July, 1863, where I saw it in full bloom. It had not, I believe, been observed there before. The seeds had probably been carried down from some garden by the river when flushed by heavy rains, at which times it rises considerably. Bentham ("Handbook of British Flora") says that the plant is indigenous in "north-western America and Chili; long cultivated in our flower-gardens; and now naturalized in boggy places in many parts of Britain." Mimulus luteus is not mentioned in Smith's "English Flora," Hooker's "Flora," nor Mackay's "Flora Hibernica."—Vincent A. Smith.
Apetalous Stitchwort.—As you take notice in your little publication of abnormal states of plants (although I cannot consider that mere white varieties of plants are worth insertion), I send you a specimen of an abnormal state of the Stellaria Holostea, sent to me by Mr. Pughe, of Aberdovey, and which is one of the most remarkable I have met with. It is, as you will see, an apetalous variety of that plant; and the singularity of it is, that it has for many years covered several yards of a hedge in the neighbourhood of his house, and always presents the same appearance every year.—T. Salwey. [We have deposited this specimen in the botanical department of the British Museum, where it may be examined.]—Ed.
Tinctorial Bedstraw.—The roots of Galium tataricum and G. physocarpum dye red, like mudiler, but the calorific power of the former is only , and of the latter that of madder.—Bull. Soc. Imp., Moscow.
