Boys and their toys

Buchan on Hymenophyllum

I very much enjoy John Buchan's novels and have been getting to know some of the less prominent ones that Polygon have recently brought back into print. I am currently reading John McNab (an old favourite about a group of prominent public men who take up a poaching challenge in the highlands) and in the second chapter occurs this sentence:

"Scrambling in the dell of a burn, he had observed both varieties of the filmy fern and what he knew to be a very rare beast, and, though an ardent botanist, he had observed them unmoved"

So that would be Hymenophyllum tunbridgense and H. wilsonii. The "very rare beast" might be a reference to Trichomanes speciosum as the habitats are similar. However, this might well be considerable artistic license as the distribution of H. tunbridgense is very westerly in Scotland. Nonetheless, it's pleasing to find Buchan talking up these beautiful plants.

Travels to the west

M and I have just returned from a few days in Worcestershire. We enjoyed Worcester and spent considerable time looking at the stained glass in the cathedral: particularly impressive was the west window, depicting creation and the fall; this picture doesn't do it justice.

We also spent an afternoon in Stratford on Avon and attended an evening performance of The Comedy of Errors at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre - a really superb production.

On the way home, we were also able to stop at Fibrex and I know have a beautiful collection of ferns in my garden ... more details to follow.

Travels to the East ...

of England, that is.

My wife and I both have relatives in Norfolk, with the result that we travel to the East of England quite regularly, however we rarely break our journey for anything other than a quick cup of tea. This time was different, though.

On our journey down we stopped at Bressingham gardens. This is an excellent garden which, although it appears quite small on the outside, turns out to be quite extensive. They have an excellent collection of ferns, with many cultivars. Osmunda spp were a particular delight, with O. regalis, O. purpurens and O. regalis grandiceps. There were also many Dryopteris spp (which are my personal favourite) and also a range of Polysticum cultivars. Well worth a visit - we didn't have time to look at the steam exhibits - you should allow several hours to really look round properly.

On the return journey we stopped at Anglesea Abbey Gardens (National Trust). A very well laid-out set of gardens within very extensive grounds. M was a bit disappointed that there were lots of hedges and not enough flowers, but again the ferns were very fine. It's a large estate and although we walked for about two hours, we ran out of time before we'd seen half of it.


I'd love to be able to include pictures, but I just can't seem to get into the habit of taking a camera with me!

In England's green and pleasant land...

I thought this was a very encouraging news item by Mark Easton on BBC News.

It turns out there's really quite a lot of non-urban land out there in the UK. I can't say I was that surprised by the data (I put my guess on around 10% urbanised land) but it is comforting to think that there are still many places where our landscape remains natural.

So little time ...

One of my university friends once said to me (as we took our post-lunch walk around the college gardens)
"If we just had more time we could be such polymaths".

Oh how true: there just aren't enough hours in the day.

Chasing molecules ... and Vitamin C

During the course of this week I have finished both Chasing Molecules and an RSC monograph - Vitamin C - its Chemistry and Biochemistry (Davies, Austin and Partridge).

Whilst Chasing Molecules has prompted me to think more carefully about the leaching of pollutants from plastics, I found the book somewhat frustrating; as a scientist I didn't feel I was being presented with real evidence - just a sort of trust-me-I've-read-the-reports. However, the book is clearly written for the educated layman rather than a trained scientist this is probably an unfair criticism, and it is extensively referenced so I could look these studies up if I had time and appropriate library access. Overall, I thought that it was well-written and well-informed, if perhaps a little paranoid.

The book on vitamin C was a delight and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone wishing to know more about ascorbic acid. Undergraduate-level chemistry is probably needed to make the most of the text, particularly the latter sections on redox chemistry and complex formation, but the early chapters covering the discovery, isolation and structure determination of ascorbic acid, as well as scurvy as a medical condition, would be accessible to the general reader.