Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/274

The Plane-tree of Vostitza.—The chief wonder of Vostitza is the celebrated plane-tree, with the fountain close by. We reached it by a good and clean paved road, creditable to the police of Vostitza. The plane-tree, which is now in almost decrepit old age, has suffered greatly since the revolution. At what period it became hollow, no one knows: but its branches are broken in many places, and the foliage is a scant remnant of its old flourishing wardrobe. I well remember it in its better days, with its white, fresh-looking mosque near, its well-arranged encircling seats, its Turkish-built fountain, and all the usual encouragement and provision for true Oriental kief. The plane-tree suffered, about a century ago, from lightning and a fierce whirlwind; but the injury was apparently confined to its branches, which still, however, have a circumference of sixty feet: that of the trunk measures thirty feet. A guard keeps watch in the bowels of the tree. It answers capitally as a substitute for a gigantic sentry-box. Not satisfied with this, the Greeks have imposed upon it a sort of café. We saw chairs and tables placed inside in the usual confusion. The scooped-out centre is capacious enough for all. These hollow plane-trees are to be found in many parts of Greece. At Cheledonia, near Kephissia, is one, in the interior of which you can dine.—Wyse's Excursion in the Peloponnesus.

The Duckweeds.—I have found all the four sorts of duckweed (Lemna) so clearly described in the interesting article in your January number, in the Nene, near Northampton. Of the four perhaps Lemna gibba seems most uncommon, the others being abundant. Can you or any of your correspondents tell me what is their usual time of flowering, as I should like to look out for what seems to be an unusual occurrence.—R. S.

Pear Tree is Blossom.—There is at the present date, 10th October, 1865, in a garden by the side of Sandford Lane, Stoke Newington, at the back of the post-office, a pear tree in full bloom, on which I counted full eighty bunches of bloom. It can be seen by any one passing down the lane, and has been, of course, the talk of scores in the neighbourhood.—Augustine Gaviller.

[This is not a solitary instance.]

A New Silene.—Silence dichotoma, Ehrh., is merely an introduced plant, and not new to this country. In 1853, I discovered it by the Trent side at Norton, near Gainsburg, where it had probably been introduced with linseed. The specimen was exhibited at a meeting of the Edinburgh Botanical Society. S. dichotoma would be a welcome addition to our flora, as it is very fragrant and an elegant flower.—John Lowe.

Toadstools.—More than forty years ago, a great deal of fun was made in the British Critic, upon the names given in Gray's Natural Arrangement of British Plants, to mushrooms and their more immediate allies, the point of the joke residing in the real meaning of the second member of the word "toadstool." It is always desirable that there should be correct information about the most trivial things, and though the subject is rather unsavory, it may be as well to point out that the words toadstool does not indicate a seat for a toad. The ancient herbalists conceived that these plants were the excrements of animals, and hence such names as Lycoperdon, Crepitus Lupi, and Toadstool. In Dorsetshire poisonous fungi are often called "Frogstools."—M. J. B.

Large Mushroom.—At the recent meeting of the Tetbury Horticultural Society, Mr. Reynolds, gardener to the Earl of Suffolk, exhibited a very fine mushroom, measuring twelve inches across, which was grown in Charlton Park.—Wiltshire Independent.

Blue Fleabane in Cumberland.—The occurrence of this plant, Erigeron acre, is no new discovery in Cumberland, for it was sent to me in August, 1850, from the neighbourhood of Carlisle by Mr. William Salkeld, and I think was most probably obtained from the same locality as indicated by "Wood Robert."—I. Gifford, Minehead, Somerset.

Naudin on Hybridism.—I regard, in accordance with most botanists, all those slight species classed under the names of races and varieties as forms derived from a primitive specific type, and having in consequence a common origin. I go further; the best characterized species themselves are, in my opinion, so many secondary forms relatively to some more ancient type which actually comprised them all, as they themselves comprise all the varieties to which they give birth under our eyes, when we submit them to cultivation.—Naudin in Natural History Review.

New British Moss.—At Southport, in November last, I observed a new species of Brachythecium, intermediate between campestre and ratabulum, differing from the former in its less plicate leaves, and very rough setæ, and from the latter in its slightly plicate leaves lanceolate, gradually tapering from a wide base to a very acute point, not at all acuminate, shining; inflorescence, as in these species, monoicous. If a variety, it must be united with Brachythecium campestre, which has not yet been certainly identified in Britain.—G. E. Hunt, at Manchester Library and Philological Society.

The Duckweeds are called in this neighbourhood "Duckmeat" or "Jenny Green Teeth."—C. A., Birmingham.