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HARDWICKE'S

SCIENCE-GOSSIP

For 1874.

HAEDWICKE'S

9 U U "▼^

AN ILLUSTKATED MEDIUM OF INTERCHANGE AND GOSSIP

FOR STUDENTS AND

LOVERS OF NATURE.

Edited by J. E. TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c.,

AUTHOR OF "geology OF MANCHESTER AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD," "SKETCH OF THE

GEOLOGY OF SUFFOLK," "GEOLOGICAL STORIES," "HALF-HOURS AT THE SEASIDE,"

"HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES," ETC.

LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.

1874.

WYMAN AND SONS,
ORIENTAL, CLASSICAL, AND GENERAL PRINTEKS,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.

/ 0 ef 7 0

PREFACE.

-oO^Kci

^^\i^1^^^^ fi^^^s USTOM lias rendered it an imperative rule that

every volume sliali have a ''Preface/^ A
magazine must submit to the same ordeal as
its more pretentious brethren, whenever it
collects its twelve scattered numbers into one.
But the practice gives the Editor this advan-
tage— once in a year he can address his readers
and contributors ex, cathedra ! He can cry ]3eccavi
to the complaints that may be raised, or smile
with satisfaction at the compliments proffered. He can
give friendly hints to those to whom they may be use-
ful, and not less effective reproofs where these may be
needed. He can draw the bond of union which unites
people of all ages and in every position in life, but
possessing kindred tastes, more closely together ; and feel that he is
addressing them, not as " readers " and " contributors " only, but
as "friends."

One feature in the past year's numbers our readers may have
noticed — we have endeavoured to give, under their respective
headings, abstracts of the most important papers read before scien-
tific societies. This is of great importance, as enabling those who love
natural history, but have little means or leisure to go deeply into it, to
obtain an intelligent knowledge of what is going on in the great world
of Science.

Our " Correspondents " column is that which always lays us under
obligation to our scientific brethren, whose willingness to help is best
known to those who test it most. For ourselves, as well as for our
querists, we return them our sincere thanks for the kindnesses shown
during the past year. Whilst we are referring to this subject, it
might be as well to suggest that nearly one-half of our questioners

PEEFACE.

would save us mucli trouble^ and inform themselves much better, if
they endeavoured first to obtain the information themselves. In many
cases, the simplest manual of natural history, such as few cottage shelves
are now without, would amply supply the knowledge sought for. Nor
is a hint here out of place as to the manner in which the objects sent for
identification are packed. MatcJi-hoxes seem to be the favourite vehicles
of transit, and we should like nothing better than that those who adopt
these otherwise useful packing-cases, should see the postal litter in
which they are frequently delivered !

Natural Science is extending its borders, and increasing in the
range and boldness of its speculations. Only a few, however, are
privileged to stand on its mountain peaks, and view the land that is
afar oflT! But it is surely not too ambitious a hope to entertain that the
facts collected and recorded in such magazines as Science-Gossip afibrd
some additional data out of which the great scientific superstructure is
being built.

"With kindly feelings of gratitude and friendship we dedicate this
volume to our readers, and wish them individually

"A Happy New Year ! "

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Acanthodes, Spine of, 253.

American Otter, the, 133.

Ammonites Ainaltlteus, 26.

Anatomy and Development of Lobster,

228, 229.
Anatomy of Aphrophora spumaria, 53, 54.
Anatomy of Caterpillar, 248.
Antennse of Lepidoptera, 60, 61.
Aphides, 148, 180.
Aphis, Ichneumon of, 180.
Aphrophora spumaria. Anatomy of, 53,

54.
Aquarium, Simple Form of Marine, 224.
Arachnid, New, 121, 122, 234.
Argas reflexus, 121, 122, 234.

Beania mirahilis, 125.

Beetle, the Colorado Potato, 15, l6.

Belemnite, 2".

Blow-fiy, 33.

Bolesoma Olmsfedi, 5".

Butterfly, the Clouded Yellow, 2U4.

, Glanville Fritillary, 204.

, Green Hairstreak, 204.

, Painted Lady, 221.

, Pale Clouded Yellow, 204.

-^, Red Admiral, 220.

Calliphorafulvibarbis, 33.

Callitriche verna, 104.

Carboniferous Fish, 253, 254.

Cardiomorpha oblonga, I96.

Carrot, the Wild, 242.

Caterpillar, Anatomy of, 248.

Cells, PiAich for making Microscopical,

17.
Ceratites nodnsus, 27.
Chert Foraminifera, 188.
Chimpanzee, 13.
Cinijio atrox, Web and Spinnerets of,

200, 201.
Clymenia, 27.
Ceelacanthus (restored), 253.

lepturus. Scale of, 254.

Colius Edusa, 204.

Hyale, 204.

Colorado Potato-beetle, 15, 16,

Colymhus glacialis, 252.

Coryne pusilla, 152.

Crane-fly, Mouth of, 156, 157, 158.

Ctenoptychius, Teeth of, 74, 75, 76, 77-

Cuttlefishes and Anatomy, 4, 5, 26, 2",

28.
Cyrtoceras, 28,

Darter, thk, 57.

Daucus Carotd, 242.

Deilephila Euphorbiae, 205.

Deilephila Galii, 60.

Diadem Spider, 2/1.

Diatomaceen Typen Platte, Moller's, 1 76.

Diatom Frustules, Forms of, 197.

Dionea muscipula, 273.

Diver, the Great Northern, 252.

Earwig, Wing and Elytra-clasps of,

132.
Epeira diadema, 271.
Euchelia Jacobaoe, 204,

Flesh-fly, 33.
Foraminifera in Chert, 1 88.
Forms of Diatom Frustules, 197.
Fortingal Yew, the, 56.
Fossil Carboniferous Fish, 253, 254.
Fossil Teeth, Sections of, 75, 76, 77.
Fossils from the Oolite, 244, 245.
Froghopper, Anatomy of, 53, 54.
Fungus of the Potato Disease, 99.

Gadfly, Mouth of, 108.

Glow-worms, Male and Female, 85.

Golden Minnow, 9.

Goniatiteg sphoericus, 28.

Goose-tree, the, 36.

Great Northern Diver, 252.

Gryphea virgula, 245.

Guernsey, Lepidoptera of, 204, 205.

Holman's Syphon or "Life"-shde,

173.
Housefly, Proboscis of, log.
Hybognathus osmerinus, Q.
Hydrozoau Zoophytes, 152.
Hypoderma, Grub of, 33.

Ichneumon of Apmis, 180.

Illustrations of Mediseval Natural His-
tory, 35, 36, 37,38, 39.

Insects, Mouths of, 108, 109, 156, 157,
158.

Jaculus Sudtonius, 84.
Jumping Mouse, 84.

Lepidoptkra, Antekn.« of, 60, 61.
Lepidoptera of Guernsey, 204, 205,
" Life"-slide, Holman's, 173.
Lizard, Head of, 225.
Lobster, Anatomy of, 228, 229.
Lophopus crystallina, 269.
Lucila hominivurax, 33.
Lutra Canadensis, 133.

Macroglossa fticiformis, 60.
Malvern, resuscitated Yew-tree at, 101.
Marine Aquarium, Simple Form of, 224.
Mediaeval Cultivation of Fruit, 35.

Fishing, 36, 37.

Horse-baiting, 39.

Mode of Trapping Bears, 37.

Birds, 38.

Metallurgy, 39.

Melitiea Cinxia, 204.

Moller's Diatomaceen Typen Platte, 176,
Monkeys, 11, 12, 13, 14.
Moor Monkey, 14.

Moth, Prehensile Organs and Fygidium
of a, 64,

, the Cinnabar, 204.

•^^-^^ Convolvulus Hawk-, 205.

Drinker, 205.

Spurge Hawk-, 205.

Mouse, the Jumpuig, 84.

Mouths of Insects, 108, 109, 156, 157, 158.

Natural History, Illustrations of

Mediaeval, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39.
New Arachnid, 121, 122, 234.
Newt, Development of, 104, 105.

Octopus vulgaris, 5.

Odnnestis potuturia, 205.

Oolitic Fossils, 244, 245.

Orang, 11, 13.

Orthis resupinata, 196.

Orthoceras, 28.

Otter, the American, 133.

FalcBoiriscus and Scale, 253.

Parasitic Flies, 32, 33.

Peronospora infestans, 99.

Philophora plumigera, 61.

Plant-lice, 148, 180.

Potato-beetle, the Colorado, 15, 16.

Potato Disease, Fungus of the, 99.

Prehensile Organs of a Moth, 64.

Proboscis Monkey, 11, 12.

Punch for making Microscopical Cells,

17.
Fygidium of a Moth, 64.
Fyra7neis Atalanta, 220.
Cardui, 221.

Ranunculus Aaiaticus, 153.
Rare Zoophyte, 125.
Rhynchonella pugnus, 196.

Sarcophaga earnaria, 33.
Sarcophaga Sarraceniip, 273.
Sarracenia vnriolaris, 272.
Saw-fly, the Great, 245.
Sections of Diatom Frustules, 197.
Sepia, the Common, 5.
Sepiiila Atlantica, 4.
Slide, Holman's Syphon or " Life," 173.
Sphinx Cimvolvuli, 205.
Spider, Diadem, 271.
Spider Monkey, 12.

Spiders' Webs and Spinnerets, 181, 200,
201.

Tabanus, Mouth of, 109.
Tadpoles of the Smooth Newt, 105.
Teeth, Sections of Fossil, 75, 76, 77.
Tegenaria domestica, W'ebs and Spin-
nerets of, 181.
Terebratula biplicata, 244.
Tarebratula hastata, I96.
Thyutira batis, 61.
Tick, the Canterbury, 121, 122, 2.34.
Trigonia cuslatu, 244.
Turntable, Wheel, &c., of, 81, 130.

Uroceras gigas, 245.
Venus' Flytrap, 273.

Webs and Spinnerets of Spiders, 181,

200, 201.
Wild Carrot, the, 242.
Worm- holes in Hides of Oxen, 32.

Xanthoptera semi-crocea, 273.

Yew, the Fortingal, 56.
Yew-tree, resuscitated, 101.

Zoophtte, Rare, 125.
Zoophytes, Hydrozoan, 152.
Zuotoca vivipara, 225,

NOTES ON THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SEASON OF 1873.

HE seasun of 1873
has been declared
M-^ to have been one
-^^ of the worst for
many years, owing,
probably, to the
fact that the heavy
rains in the pre-
ceding autumn de-
stroyed multitudes
of pupa;, and late frosts in the
spring as many larvae. But
even in this season, which
has earned for itself such a
bad name, there are several
records of the capture of
very rare insects, and other no-
tices of insects less rare having
been taken in localities where
they had not previously been
known to occur ; such, for
instance, as northern insects
having extended their south-
ward range, and other cases
which will presently be
mentioned.

First and foremost amongst the captures recorded
in this journal, and in the Entomologist, we find
twenty-five notices of the occurrence of V. Antiopa
(Camberwell Beauty), distributed over several of
our English counties, and including two captures
in Scotland.

In point of numbers the neighbourhood of London
stands highest, recording four specimens ; viz.,
one at Hampstead, one at Stamford-hill, one at
Clapham, and one in London itself, at Einsbury.

The northern counties furnish us with five cap-
tures : one in Cumberland, one in Lincolnshire, one
in Yorkshire, and two in Lancashire. In the eastern
counties we have four specimens recorded; viz.,
Norfolk one, Suffolk one, and Essex two; while
ten are reported (exclusive of the four captures
near London) from the southern and midland
counties ; viz., Berks two, Worcestershire one,
Surrey three, Sussex two, and Kent two.
No. 109.

The Scotch specimens were taken in Aberdeen-
shire, on the banks of the Dee.

As was also the case in 1S72, there are no records
of any captures of V. Antiopa in Ireland during the
past season. Besides the number of recorded cap-
tures, it is probable that some have been taken of
which no notice has been sent to the entomological
magazines, so that I think we may conclude that
at least thirty have been seen and captured last
year, several of which were hybernated specimens
of the previous season.

This number is considerably less than the "take"
of 1S72 ; but the disparity is probably owing to the
fact that almost all the individuals seen in that year
were netted, so that few were left to perpetuate the
species.

The only other very rare butterflies caught in
1873, whose capture is recorded, are one specimen
A. niobe (by some regarded as a variety of adippe),
and one.3f. dia, &n insect so rare that hitherto it
has only obtained a place in our list of "reputed "
British species.

Turning to the Nodurni, we find recorded two
captures of that very rare sphinx C. celerio, one at
Southport and the other at Boll on.

H. velleda (Northern Swift) has been extending
its southward range ; it has been reported from the
Quantock Hills, Somerset, from Folkestone, and 1
have heard of its capture in Norfolk.

Amongst the Noduce there are several rarities
that have been taken during the past season, of
which the following may be noticed.

F. leucophaa — several specimens captured near
Canterbury.

X. conspidllaris, of which one specimen was
taken at Danbury.

L. albipunda — iviQ captured at Folkestone,
where it has previously been taken.

P.alpina—dL pupa found by Mr. Allinnear Braemar,
at a great elevation, produced this rare species.

C. gnaphalii, both in the larva and imago state,
has again been taken at Darenth Wood.

C. absynthii—Que capture is recorded from Ire-
land, where it had previously been unknown; the
larvae have also been taken near Sevenoaks.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GO SSIP.

A. ojjJiiogramma — one taken in Ireland, where it
is exceedingly rare.

0. lunaris—s. specimen of this insect was taken
near Lewes.

The Pyrales furnish us with one very rare species,
A. nemoralis, which has turned up in two or three
localities ; viz., at Willesden, Lewes, and in Surrey.

"Sugaring" has been condemned as an utter
failure during the season of 1873, and yet almost all
the rare Noctuce mentioned above were taken at
"sugar."

The uncertain appearance of such species as
C. edusa and hyale, and of C. cardui, &c., lias
been repeatedly noticed, but the subjec" of the
occurrence of rarities when common insects are
scarce, is one which, in spite of the attention paid
to it, has not yet met with a satisfactory explana-
tion. M. H.

HISTORY OE THE DIATOMACE^.

T)ROEESSOR H. L. SMITH, in the August
-*- (1873) part of the Lens, commences a transla-
tion of Kiitzing's " Historical Preface " {Ge-
schicJdliche Einleltung) to his " Bacillarien " ; and as
this preface is of considerable interest to the
student of the Diatomacese, we propose to give a
short resume of Professor Smith's translation. The
translator remarks in a note, that Ihe introduction
of Kiitzing's " Bacillarise " {Bacillarien) presents
so many points of interest for the student, and is
so valuable as an historical summary, that I pro-
pose, in the intervals between the appearance of
the different parts of my own synopsis, to give a
somewhat free, though accurate, translation of it : —
"Already, for four thousand years [JaJirtausend ,
lit. 'thousands of years.'— E. K.l has the mind of
man searched the wonder works {Wunderwerken) of
creation, yet (still) a vast field remained unexplored,
closely connected with the numerous forms of that
endless nature which the unaided eye had recog-
nized, and the higher probing mind had arranged,
when in the commencement of the 17th century, a
compound microscope was invented by Zacharias
Janson and his son, in Middelburg; and with that
man ventured upon the unknown, and till then
invisible, field of smallest organisms, the discovery
of which opened an entirely new world in minia-
ture.

Althouzh it is uncertain what particular forms of
the Diatom group the first observers found and
endeavoured to represent by description and pic-
ture, yet it may be taken for granted, with great
certainty, that they must have met with isolated
specimens, since they are so widely distributed.
Eor the first discovery of forms which we are able
to identify with any certainty we have to thank
0. F. Miiller, who, in 1773, described and figured

' a Gomphonema, under the name of Vorticella
i pyraria, and a Fragilaria as Conferva pectinalis,
i and a Melosira as C. armillaris. A much greater
sensation was produced by the discovery of the staff
animalcules {Vibrio paxlllifer) by Miiller, and which
the discoverer did not know where to classify, but
later embodied in the genus Vibrio.

Gmelin, in the 13th edit, of Linue's " Systema
Naturse," corrected this error, and founded a special
genus upon this form, and to which he gave the
name Bacillaria, and from this the whole group
received the name Bacillarioe, or staff animalcules.

The lower Algi3e had, at the end of the last cen-
tury, very zealous friends {sehr eifrige Freimde) in
Germany, in Mertens Trentpohl, Both, Weber,
and Mohr ; in England, Dillwyn ; and in France in
Girod-Chantrans and Draparuaud ; and several
forms now distributed among the genera Fragilaria'
Melosira, Diatoma, Tabellaria, and Schizonema,
were described by these naturalists as Confervce.

In the beginning of the present century some
good figures of Conferva stipitata {^=Achnanthes
longipes) ; C. obliquata { = Isthmia enervis) ; C.
Biddulphia {=Biddulphia yiilchella), were given.

Although De Candolle, so far as is known, made
no special study of these organisms, he was the
first to separate the form previously known as
Conferva flocculosa, as a special genus, which he called
Diatoma. Agardh adopted this genus in his
" Synopsis Algarura," 1817, but combined with
it other species — D.Swartzii, D. pectinalis, D.fiscio-
latum, which are now distributed among as many
different genera.

We are indebted to Nitzsch for the most im.
portant investigations made by him in the same
year. He furnished in his little work, long since
out of print, " Contributions to the Knowledge of
Infusoria, or a Natural History of the Zerkarise
and the Bacillarise," with six coloured copperplates,
the first really good pictorial representations. He
also first -recognized the prismatic shape of these
forms; he correctly observed and explained the
separation into zig-zag chains and the production
of ribbon-like forms from an imperfect separation
(incomplete self-division). In 1819 appeared
Lyngbye's Tentamen Bydrophjiologi(P Danicce ; this
work contained more Bacillarian forms than any
previous publication. Twenty-five different forms
were distributed among the genera Diatoma, Fragi-
laria, and Echinella. The name of this last genus
had been previously given by Acharius, and incor-
porated for several years in the systematic hand-
books, and had even been given by me in my
"Decades of Fresh-water Alga;," to a form which,
in the following year (1835), was recognized as
insect eggs.

In 1820, Link described two new genera, Lisi-
gotiiuni (not Lisogorium) = Melosira and Hydrolinum
^=ScMzoncma.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GO S S IP.

Ill 1822, Bory de St. Vincent treated on some
of the Bacillarice, and described and figured Echi-
nella stipitata as Achnanthes stipitata, but placed
in tliis genus forms not belonging to it. The genus
Fragilaria, Lyngbye, he described as Nematoplata.
In the article Bacillariees (in the " Dictionnaire
Classique d'Histoire Nat."), he constituted the genus
Navicida, and in the article Coiifervees, which ap-
peared iu 1823, he described the genus Gallionella.

In 1821, C. A. Agardh published his " Systema
Algarum," and describes the Bacillarite as a special
order of Algae, under the name of Diatomeae, and
arranged them in a better and more thorough manner
than his predecessors; he placed them in the ge-
nera : — 1. Achnanthes ; 2. Fntstidia ; 3. 3Ieridion ;
^. Biatoma ; b. Fragilaria ; 6. Melosira (=Gallio-
nella, Bory) ; 7. Desmidittm (now excluded) ; 8,
Schizonema ; 9. Gomphonema.

Having thus brought down our resume to this
date, we hope in future numbers to glance at the
history of these forms up to the time of the publi-
cation of Kiitzing's work (in 1844). Those who wish
to read the entire translation will find it in the
Lens, Nos. 2 and 4, vol. ii. E. K.

THE STORY OF MY ROBIN.

ONE morning about the end of May, I saw my
little dog in a great state of excitement in the
garden. She was tossing what looked like a small
ball up into the air, then pouncing on it as it came
down. I went out to see what it was, and found a
poor little frightened Robin at that moment actually
in her mouth. I took it from her, and carried it
into the house, expecting to find it torn and bitten ;
but not even a feather was ruffled, and the poor
little fellow only appeared faint with fright, opening
and shutting his eyes alternately, and trembling
violently. He soon revived, and began to kick and
scream ; so seeing there was not anything really
the matter, I made him eat some bread and milk,
the only food at hand fit for him. He rebelled
against being fed for about a day ; and then, appa-
rently thinking it was not so bad after all, he
submitted patiently, and in a week began to peck
about and feed himself, and even attempted to
sing, in his small way, early in the morning. After
keeping him in a cage for about a month, I turned
him loose in a room. He was at this time rather a
gawky, speckled little fellow, with long yellow
legs. About the beginning of July he began to
moult, and by the end of August he was a beautiful
Cock Robin, with a lovely red waistcoat and pretty
black legs and feet.

Very soon after his transformation, he began to
sing, partly his own natural Robin's song mixed
vrith some notes of a canary, and some whistling
learned from his mistress. At last, 1 heard, one

morning, a very gentle, shy, "Pitchee (pretty)
Bobby." He very soon gained courage, and called
it out loudly, adding, by degrees, " Sweet Bobbee,"
and "Pretty little fellow." The latter, being his
last accomplishment, is not quite so distinct, as
yet.

He sings and dances on the floor, and appears
most amiable and charming ; but if any one (even
his own mistress) puts her hand within his reach,
he perches on it, pecking, and biting and pinching,
like a spiteful child. He has, I believe, caused the
death of several canaries kept in his room. He
has been seen spitefully to twitch out a feather from
a tail, when he could reach it through the wires of
a cage ; and one morning I found nearly all the tail-
feathers of a goldfinch, mixed with sundry pins,
nails, and buttons, collected in a small heap. Since
this discovery, he has had his wing clipped, and so
is kept on the floor beneath the cages.

His temper is peculiar, and he is easily ofi'ended.
If I presume to keep him in a cage for a longer
time than he approves, when I again let him out
he will run away and hide himself, and refuse to
sing or speak for some hours. On one occasion, I
took him to another house, intending him to show
off his accomplishments. He behaved like a wild
bird, refused to be caught, and remained at the top
of the room, on a curtain-pole. He was only at
last driven into his cage by hunger, when the door
was rapidly shut upon him. On his return to his
home, though at once set at liberty in his own
room, he refused to speak, sing, or take any notice
of his mistress for nearly a fortnight.— AT. H.

The above statement is communicated to me by
" K. H." I have witnessed the gambols, and heard
the words mentioned most distinctly pronounced by
the Robin, in a whistle rather than in the manner
that parrots talk. 1 have also noticed another matter
which seems to indicate that birds can communi-
cate by language. The Robin was left in another
room, which contained a window looking out into
the garden, and, whilst there, was visited by two or
three Robins, who flew violently against the glass,
as if trying to liberate him from his confinement.
On each occasion after these interviews, the little
prisoner refused to be petted, remained silent and
frightened, as if ideas had been communicated to
him by his outside friends which rendered him
unhappy and disconsolate. Whatever communica-
tion took place was through the glass, and would
indicate the possession by birds of an audible
language. Alfred Cakpenter.

Croydon.

" A knowledge of science attained by mere read-
ing, though infinitely better tlian ignorance, is
knowledge of a very different kind from that which
arises from contact with idiCi."— Huxley s Physiology.

B 2

HIRDWICKE'S SCIE'NCE-GUSSIP.

CHAPTERS ON CUTTLES.

No. 2.

Br W. H. Booth.

IN geological times the TetrahrancUata were
the more abuudaut forms, as testified by the
numerous species of ammonites, orthoceratites, and
others, whilst the Bibranchiata were comparatively
scarce, and very poorly represented. Proceeding,
we find that the two-gilled are separated into two
sections, A and B, the first of which (A) contains
cuttles which have eight arms, and is hence termed
Odopoda ; whilst the latter section contains cuttles
which, in addition to the eiglit arms, possess two
long tentacles, and so the section goes by the name
Decapoda. The first in order of the eight-footed
cuttles is the Paper N autilus, Argonauta (so called
from the ship Argo, and vavTiXoq, the Greek for a
sailor), a species which is not represented in British
waters. From the times of ^the ancients the Paper

Fig. 1. Common Squid.
{Suligu vulgaris.)

Fig. 2. Pen of ditto.

Nautilus has been a subject of conjecture and
romance. Pliny and Aristotle both mentioned it in
their works, and failed not to weave a most fanciful
story concerning it. They supposed that two broad
arms, with which the animal is equipped, were used
for sails, and other arms for oars, so that the Argo-
nauta navigated its vessel like any skilful seaman.
Even two of our own poets have fallen into the
same error ; Pope's lines, —

" Learn of the little nautilus to sail,

Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale," —

are perhaps the best known ; but James Montgo-
mery gives us some verses to the same effect in his

"Pelican Island." They .are really very prettily
rendered, and, were the deeds they chronicle true,
would be doubly so. Unfortunately, however, the
highly poetical idea of the animal's hoisting up its
sails, and scudding before the breeze, is not true ;
but observers say that it does occasionally make
use of its other feet as oars or paddles. The female

Fig. 3. Sepxola atlantica.

Fig. 4. Pen of ditto.

only is provided with the shell we so much admire,
and the function .of the two broad dorsal arms,
which were supposed to be used as sails, is in con-
structing this. The shell is of a description dif-
ferent from that of the Chamber Nautilus, not being
partitioned off into separate divisions, and also, the
animal is not fastened to it by any muscular attach-
ment, but can leave and resume it^at pleasure.

Fig. 5. Horny jaws, or mandibles, of Cuttle-fish.

People very naturally thought from this' that the
shell was not the production of the animal they
found in it, but that it had been formed by some
other creature, and seized as a convenient dwelling-
place by the cuttle. Madame Jeanette Power,
residing at Messina, conducted several experiments
to test the truth of this, her conclusion being that
the shell was the veritable production of the Argo-
nauta. Having collected a number of living spe-
cimens oi Argonauta Argo, the Mediterranean species
of Paper Nautilus, this lady broke their shells in
different degrees, and was rewarded by seeing some
apply their broad dorsal arms to the fractures, and
deposit a thin film of shelly matter, covering the
broken parts. In about thirteen days, this became
quite as hard and thick as the unbroken part, but

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

slightly more opaque. Should the whole of the
shell be broken, the animal is unable to reconstruct
a new one, and dies. The eggs are kept within the
shell, and are so clustered around the spiral, that
when the animal propels itself, keel foremost, they
are not exposed to the swift current of water, which
otherwise might seriously interfere with their due
incubation. The shell, during the life of the animal.

Fig. 6. Cuttle-fish. {Octopus vulgaris.)

is flexible, and with a little pressure can be squeezed
together. When dry it becomes quite brittle, but
after being soaked in water for some time may be
bent as before. The males, not possessing any
shell, naturally do not require the means of making
one; and so we find that in the male Argonauta

Fig. "• Bone of common Sepia. {Sepia officinalis.')

tbe dorsal arms are not expanded into a fleshy disc,
as those of the female. The males, and also the
females when denuded of their shells, have very
much the appearance of the common Octopus, with
which they are nearly connected. Their usual
mode of progression is that of other cuttles,

namely, by the expulsion of the water from the
gills ; they also crawl along the bottom of the sea.
The Argonauta is very abundant about Messina,
and even enters the port. It is most plentiful
about autumn, and frequents muddy spots. Madame
Power was inclined to believe that the Argonauta
really did use its two dorsal arms as sails, but
another close observer of these interesting crea-
tures, M. Sander Rang, at Algiers, altogether dis-
countenances the idea. He says, — " Watching what
took place around the Poulp (another name for
Cuttle), which we left contracted in the Argonaut
shell, we saw it extending itself from its shell and
protruding six of its arms ; then it threw itself into
violent motion, and travelled over the basin in al 1
directions, often dashing itself against the side. In
these different movements the body leaned a little

Fig. 8. Common Sepia. {Sepia officinalis.)

towards the forepart of the shell, and the long
slender arms, much extended and collected into a
close bundle, were carried before it, as well as the
tube, which showed itself open and protruded. The
locomotion was efl'ected in the ordinary manner of
Poulps, backwards, by contraction of the sac, and
expulsion of water through the funnel." Another
species of Paper Nautilus, Argonauta hians, is found
on the west coast of Africa and in the Chinese
seas; but although it has been discovered in a
fossil state in Piedmont, no Jiving species have
been taken in the Mediterranean. Argonauta Argo
attains the largest size of all the Paper Nautili, the
shell sometimes exceeding nine inches in diameter;
most specimens of other species would average
about three inches.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

The next cuttle which we shall examine is the
Octopus (oKTw, octo, eight, and ttoiic, pons, a foot),
or Poulp. Many are the names that have been
given to this species,— Sucker, Man-sucker, Blood-
sucker, and Devil-fish, being amongst them. _A
species of this genus was the celebrated Polypus of
the ancients, performing all sorts of wonders and
terrible deeds. As I now sit, there are three of
our English Poulpes, Octopus vulgaris, staring at
me witli their huge dark eyes, and in their present
condition looking inexpressibly ugly. These three
creatures I procured a few months ago, and iu order
to be able to examine their organization more
closely, had them immersed in spirits of wine, and
secui ely corked up. As our English Octopus is as
good a representative of its kind as any, we will
take it as our example. Many are the little
adventures 1 have had with the Octopus. By going
out to its haunts, several opportunities of seeing it
in its many different conditions have been offered
to me. For a general appearance of the animal I
must refer my readers to the ilhistration, merely
observing that when in the following lines any
mention is made of " ventral or dorsal " sides or
feet, by " dorsal " is meant the side on which the
funnel is situated ; and by " ventral " the opposite.
As its name implies, the Octopus has eight fleshy
arras or feet, which on an average are about twice the
length of the body, are very muscular and flexible,
and taper down to a point little thicker than ordi-
nary twine. Along the whole under-surface of
these arms is situated a series of circular discs or
suckers, of strange construction. These suckers
are fixed in pairs, except the first half-dozen near
the mouth, which are placed immediately over each
other ; they form the chief means by which the
Poulp is enabled to seize its prey, and are of curious
construction. To describe them, I cannot do better
than liken them to the pneumatic pegs so largely
used by photographers, and for fastening on to
«hop-windows. Like these pegs, the suckers have
around the outside a broad soft band, which in the
■case of the pegs is made of india-rubber, and in
that of the Octopus of a fleshy substance. This
band then leaves a cavity in the centre, and to this
hollow is attached a muscular piston, exactly fitting
the aperture, capable of being worked up and down
at the will of the animal. When, tlierefore, the
surface of this sucker is pressed against any sub-
stance, the withdrawal of the piston creates a
■vacuum, and powerful adhesion takes place.
Having seized its victim by encircling it with his
arms, the Octopus drags the unfortunate animal to
the powerful horny mandibles with wliich it is
furnished, and makes short work of it. These
mandibles are similar to the beak of a parrot, and
are of great strength, being able to break through
the hard shelly covering of crabs or lobsters.
Endued with so much strength, the Octopus makes

its jaws very efi'ective weapons, such that a close ac-
quaintance with them when the animal is alive is far
from desirable. A Mr. Beale has described an en-
counter he had with an Octopus in the Bonin Islands,
where he was searching for shells. It seems that Mr.
Beale, seeing one of these strange-looking monsters
on the rocks, endeavoured to stop its progress by
pressing on one of its legs with his foot. As the
animal still persisted in its attempts to escape, he
caught hold of one of its arms, and tried to dis-
engage it from the rocks, when the animal, evidently
enraged, loosing its hold from the stones, sprang on
his arm, and prepared to bite it with its beak. Had
not a friend been at hand, the consequences might
have been serious ; but, fortunately, a companion
came up, and released Mr. Beale from his ferocious
assailant by means of a large boat-knife. Thus we
see, the Octopus when enraged does not hesitate to
attack man himself, in self-defence. The number
of suckers possessed by our common Octopus falls
but little short of two thousand ; their application
to the human skin is said to cause pain and inflam-
mation. My own experience has not led me to
verify this statement ; for, although in searching
under the rocks, in such places as the Octopus loves
to haunt, I have often had my hand seized by its
tenacious arms, yet on releasing myself, no subse-
quent feeling of pain whatsoever has resulted. The
cold, slimy grasp of this small creature is by no
means pleasant ; how much more so must that of
the larger species be ? The food of this cuttle
consists chiefly of mollusks, which it collects and
brings to its den. The fact of the Poulp having a
regular den is rather curious, as one would have
supposed that an animal so low iu creation, and of
such a predatory nature, would devour its prey on
the spot. The place chosen for the den is generally
an isolated piece of rock, situated on the sand,
where the hollow which is generally to be found
round about such stones, forms a convenient place
for the Octopus to stow itself, and deposit its booty.
The large otter-shells {Lutraria), with those of the
genus Tapes, and various others, form its favourite
food. Often after bringing the creature out of its
den, a feat best performed by means of a large fish-
hook attached to a stick, many excellent shells,
with the animals still undevoured, may be found.
An amusing fact is that the Octopus nearly always
has a number of hangers-on, in the shape of small
Hermit Crabs {Pagums), mostly tenants of a
common top-shell {Trochus chiereus). These para-
sitical hosts, on being disturbed, present a most
ridiculous spectacle in their hurry to be ofl". En-
deavouring to clamber up the bank of sand, they
naturally only bring down a heap of it with them-
selves, and to sec twenty or more of these droll
little creatures rushing franctically up, and then
falling back again pell-mell, is most laughable. As
the Octopus is addicted to getting more food thau

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-G OSSIP.

it can possibly stow away in its capacious stomach,
these small gentry act as its scavengers, and clear
away the remains of each feast in the neatest
manner. The skin of the Poulp is furnished with
several colour-glands, which enable the animal to
vary its tint in a manner very similar to that of the
Chameleon. In a chase after one which I had dis-
turbed, I was pleased to notice that when darting
over sandy ground, its colour became very much
ligl'.ter than before, whilst directly it approached a
rocky or shingly portion of the coast, a darker hue
pervaded its body. Darwin, in that most interest-
ing of books, his " Journal of a Voyage Round the
World," gives a pleasing account of the Octopi at
St. lago. After a description of their rapid motion,
and methods of escaping notice, he goes on to say
that any part of the skin of the Octopus, on being
subjected to a slight shock of galvanism, becomes
quite black : a similar effect, but in a less degree, is
produced by scratching the skin with a needle. These
clouds, or blushes, as they may be called, are said
to be produced by the alternate expansion and con-
traction of minute vesicles containing variously-
coloured fluids. This gentleman whilst looking for
marine animals, with his head near the rocks, was
more than once saluted by a jet of water, accom-
panied by a slight grating noise. On examination,
he found out that this was a cuttle which, though
concealed in a hole, thus led to its discovery. "That
it possesses the power of ejecting water," says
Darwin, " there is no doubt, and it appeared to me
that it could certainly take good aim by directing the
tnbe or siphon on the under part of its body." As
the Octopus darts along, the dilation and subsequent
contraction of the sac is very plain, and the rush of
the water through the funnel is also easily discernible.
Its first action on being disturbed is to discharge
some of the ink with which it is furnished, in order
to cover its retreat. This ink is of a more viscid
nature than ordinary writing ink, and when spurted
forth does not become generally suffused, but forms
a dense cloud about the animal, and ultimately
settles down to the ground. Even if all its supply
of ink has been discharged, the Octopus in a few
hours has a full battery ready for use again. The
flesh of the Octopus is sometimes used as food, but
only by the poorer classes of the seaside population.
In the Levant, (according to "A. M. B.," Science-
Gossip, June, 18G5), a species of Octopus, going by
the name of Octopoda, is very troublesome to the
fishermen, but much esteemed as an article of con-
sumption. The method of preparing it for table in
those Eastern quarters, is to beat it for an hour or
so against a rock, and afterwards serve it up as a
fricassee, or otherwise. Horrible to think of, some
savages eat the Octopus raw — what a strange taste
is this ! In the Octopoda, no shell, internal or ex-
ternal, is visible ; they are said to be highly luminous
in the dark, and Pliny, quoting Bartholinns, says

so great was the luminosity proceeding from them
' ut totum palatium ardere vlderetur." There are
upwards of forty species of Octopus known ; their
eggs are usually deposited in the spring on sea-
weeds or empty shells.

We now come to Section B, the Ten-footed
Cuttles, or Decapoda. The chief peculiarity of the
animals comprised in this section consists ia their
having, in addition to the eight arms such as are
possessed by the Octopus, two long tentacles, whose
ends are expanded and furnished with stickers.
These tentacles, in all but one genus, can be drawn
within a sort of pouch situated below the eyes ; they
are of use to the cuttles for seizing their prey, and
also for mooring the animals fast to the rocks, when
the stormy weather would threaten them with
destruction. The suckers of cuttles of this section
are of a different description to those before men-
tioned, being what is termed pedunculated, and
more prominent. The dissimilarity chiefly consists
in their being surrounded by a horny ring. Their
bodies are rather elongated, and contain a shell
which in some species is calcareous, and in others
horny ; it is not fastened to the body of the animal,
but contained loosely in the mantle. The Decapods
are mostly gregarious, and frequent the high seas
in great numbers, moving about periodically from
the northern and southern zones. They are divided
into four families, the TeutUdce, Belemnitidee.
Sepiadcs, and SpiraUdte, a few genera of each of
which we shall examine in their order. Our first
decapod, a member of the Teuthidce, or Calamaries
is a very abundant animal on our coasts. Refer-
ence to the illustration of the Squid {Loligo
vulgaris), for that is the creature's name, will show
that in this species the arms are very short, and the
body much elongated. An expansion of the mantle
on each side of the caudal extremity forms a pair of
fins, by means of which the Squid is able to swim
very swiftly. The most curious part of the animal
is its shell, or pen, as it is called, a horny substance
analogous to the bone in the Sepia. This pen may
be seen figured, together with the illustration of the
animal ; it resembles an ordinary quillpen in general
shape, and acts as a sort of backbone to the
creature. Several " pens " have been found in the
body of a single squid, so that it is thought that
they increase with the age of the animal. Prom
possessing this peculiar appendage, the Squid has
had the name of Sea-pen given to it. The pen is of
a horny transparent substance, and has been found
in a fossil state. Like most other cuttles, the Squid
is furnished with a supply of ink. Prom these two
characteristics, I think it might very appropriately
be called the " Pen-and-ink Cuttle." A lady at
Lyme Regis, Miss Mary Anning, was the first to
discover the ink-bags of the Loligo in a fossil state
in that neighbourhood. They are found distended
just as when they formed parts of the living animal

8

HARUWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

and retain the same juxta-position to a horny pen,
which the ink-bag of the recent Loligo bears to the
pen within the body of that animal. The state of
preservation of the pens is such as to admit of a
close comparison of their internal structure with
that of the present living Loligo. Similar remains
of the pens and ink-bags of animals of this genus
are frequently found in the Lias shale of Aalen and
Boll, in Germany, Tiie Squid is the animal used for
bait iu the Newfoundland cod-Gsheries, and is also
occasionally used for the same purpose by the fisher-
men on our own coasts. Tlie manner in which it is
caught is as follows : — A party of sailors go out in
boats to a place the Squid is known to frequent,
armed with an instrument know as a " Squid-jigger."
This consists of a number of large hooks fastened
together so as to form a circular chevaux defrise.
To catch the Sc^uid, this weapon is fastened to a line,
and dropped in the water without any bait, but by
giving it a continuous up-and-down motion, all the
Squids that come near are hooked and secured. On
being brought to the surface, they discharge a
torrent of ink, so that to avoid being deluged with
the black stream, a little dexterity is needed. The
Loligo has sets of suckers arranged in two rows
along its arms, as the Octopus ; the suckers on the
extremities of the tentacles are situated in fours.
This is a well-distributed genus, being found in the
Atlantic, Mediterranean, North Seas, and the
Southern Ocean. Of another genus, Sepiola, an
abundant little species is found in our common
Se])iola {Sepiola ailaniica). In this cuttle the body
is short and dumpy, furnished with two compara-
tively large-sized fins situated diametrically oppo-
site one another on the sides of the animal. The
pen is very similar to that of the Loligo. Gosse,
in his valuable work on the aquarium, gives a vivid
description of this animal, portraying in the most
lively terms the various evolutions it is seen to per-
form when kept captive in an aquarium. A striking
feature iu the animal is the propensity it has for
burrowing ; by directing its funnel towards the
sand, and then expelling the water from its gills, it
scoops out, in the most perfect manner, a small
hollow, where it snugly ensconces itself, leaving but
little of its body visible.

Passing over several other genera, we come to
the Onychoteuthis (civug, onyx, a claw, and rtvQiq,
teuthis, a calamary) or uncinated calamary. This
formidable genus, in addition to the suckers on its
arms, is furnished with a terrible set of horuy
hooks on the expanded extremities of its long
tentacles. By means of these hooks it is better
able to retain its hold on fishes, as, from the slimy
nature of their scales, it would frequently be diffi-
cult to get the suckers into action. As if not
sufficiently armed with its suckers and hooks, this
calamary is also furnished with an adhesive disc,
immediately below the hooks on the tentacles ; and

by bringing these two discs together they become
firmly locked. The victim once embraced by these
has no hope of escape left, and is pressed against
the jaws of its destroyer by means of the arms.
The next genus, Enoploteuthis {tvonXog, enoplos,
armed, and nvdic), is a still more formidable one,
for in it all the arms are furnished with hooks.
Professor Owen says that the natives of the Poly-
nesian Islands live in great dread of cuttles of this
genus. One species found dead there by Sir Joseph
Banks, measured over six feet in length. One arm
of this identical calamary is still preserved in the
museum of the College of Surgeons, where it may
be inspected. Another genus, Ommastrephes {puna,
omma, the eye, and otjjs^w, strepho, to turn), much
resembles the Octopus in general form. The eyes
are very conspicuous, and the arms welded together
up a considerable part. Animals of this genus, as
well as those of Loligo, are used in the cod-fisheries.
The former have the power of leaping a great
height out of the water. Mr. P. D. Bennet men-
tions that these calamaries were very numerous in
the vicinity of the Sandwich Islands, where they
are extensively i.used as food, their flesh having
somewhat the flavour of a lobster, and being con-
sidered a delicacy. In that locality the Flying-fish
and this Calamary were most plentiful during a
calm, when they were seen leaping out of the water.
The fate of the Ommastrephes appears to be some-
what similar to that of the Flying-fish ; for whilst
leaping out of the water to escape their aquatic
pursuers, they fall a prey to birds, who diligently
watch for an opportunity to seize them when out
of their native element. Some few, being thus
pursued, leapt up to a considerable height above
the bulwarks of the ship in which Mr. Bennet was,
and fell on the deck. Having now examined a few
of the genera of the Teuthidm, we proceed to the
next family, the Belemnitidce . This family is pro-
bably better known to our geological than to our
conchological friends, as no living species exists,
and all our information as to it is drawn from
fossils. The shell of the Belemnites, which is
nearly the only part ever found, was an internal
one, somewhat similar to that of the Sepia. In the
middle is a sort of cup, termed the alveolus,
divided into compartments, which are connected by
a tube. The alveolus is protected by a calcareous
incrustation (rostrum), rather elongated, whose
function was probably to guard the animal from
the shocks to which it was exposed as it swam
backwards. It is this rostrum which is discovered
so very frequently in a fossil state. An interesting
article on the Belemnites, by our much-esteemed
editor, will be found in the volume of this magazine
for 1872. It is embellished with several illustra-
tions, which will serve to make their construction
more manifest.
Leaving the Belemnitidce, we now proceed to

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

{he Sepladce. The Sepia {Sepia vulgaris) may be
said to be the commonest of our English cuttles.
It is somewhat similar in appearance to the common
Loligo, but larger and altogether more robust, and
has a fin running down both its sides. Though
the animal itself is but rarely seen on our coasts,
except after a storm, yet the bone or sliell with
which it is furnished may be picked up in profusion
nearly anywhere. This bone, sometimes called
sepiostaire, is for the most part constructed of
pure chalk. It is loosely contained under the
mantle, on the dorsal side, the apex being situated
near the end of the body. The bone seems to be
curiously analogous to the backbone of vertebrates,
and forms a sort of link between them and the
invertebrata. Besides being of use to strengthen
the Sepia's body, it is also serviceable in acting as
a float 10 buoy the animal up. On examination
through the microscope, it will be found to consist
of shelly plates, kept a slight distance apart by a
series of innumerable small pillars. Viewed through
the microscope, either as an opaque object or with
polarized light, the effect is very pleasing. One
surface is quite hard, while the other is so soft that
a deep impression may be made with the nail. The
largest-sized sepiostaire I have met with measures
rather over seven inches in length and three in
breadth. From its being of such a light substance,
and formed into air-chambers, it is peculiarly fitted
to enable the Sepia to float on the surface of the
water without any muscular exertion, and so is a
most indispensable adjunct to the animal ; for,
unlike the Octopus, the Sepia does not crawl along
the bottom of the sea, but swims on the surface,
disporting itself amidst a crowd of its fellows. In
places on the sea-coast, the cuttle-bone is often
given to canaries and other cage-birds, who seem
to take a delight in drilling their beaks into the
soft, chalky substance. It is also used as a denti-
frice, and may frequently be purchased at per-
fumers' shops for that purpose. Eorbes says that
about the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean the
common Sepia is so numerous that the "cuttle-
bones " may be seen in places heaped up by the
waves into a ridge which fringes the sea for miles.
Other peculiar belongings of the Sepia are its eggs,
which may be found on the shore sometimes, after
stormy weather. The eggs are strangely like a
bunch of purple grapes, both in shape and colour ;
they are connected in bunches by a sort of footstalk.
The ink from this species is of a more intense
colour than that from other cuttles. Prom it was
originally manufactured Indian ink, and the colour
so largely patronized by Claude, — sepia. This ink
has been found preserved in the fossil sepias, when
none of its qualities were lost. A drawing of a
fossil species, together with a description of it, was
made out of the ink found therein ; and a celebrated
painter, on trying some of the ink, and not being

aware of its origin, asked where he could procure
some more of so excellent a pigment. It is strange
that this ink should lose none of its properties after
the lapse of so many thousand years. The eyes of
the Sepia are prominent, and, when taken from the
living creature, of a pearly tint. In some parts of
the South of Europe they are strung together when
dry and hard, and worn as necklaces. The Sepia
is very voracious, and as its food consists chiefly of
fish and such crustaceans as crabs and lobsters, it
is more especially an object of hatred to fishermen.
It seems remarkable that an animal with so exposed
a body should be able to overpower the hard-shelled
crabs or lobsters; but such is the case, for the
Cuttle makes use of its arms and tentacles to tie
up the claws of the victim, and then proceeds to
tear open the shell with its strong, horny jaws.
Sepias are especially fond of visiting the nets which
have been laid for fish, and, coming, as they gene,
rally do, in great swarms, devour the greater part
of their contents. A friend tells me that at Sea-
combe, in Devonshire, last August, the fishermen,
thinking a shoal of fish was in the bay, put out
their nets, and were greatly disgusted to find them
filled with cuttles instead of fish. Two hauls were
thus taken; the number caught exceeding 400.

{To be continued.)

THE GOLDEN MINNOW.

{Hybognathus osmerimis, Cope.)

By Charles C. Abbott, M.D.

TI^E never pass by a group of urchins fishing,

but we examine their "strings," and, at a

penny a piece, cut off the few golden minnows they

may have hooked ; and to be honest about it, when

Fig. 9. Golien Miimow. {HybogmttUus osmerimis.)

children of a larger growth have been catching
pickerel bait, in the way of cyprinoids generally,
w^hich they wouldn't sell, why the writer has
" hooked " the golden minnows from the mass of
roach, shiners, and dace. We admit a weakness
for preserving them from such common uses ; they
seem to be all our own, for if Prof. Cope is right,
we first detected their peculiarities, and submitting
the fish to him, he named it. Then we only knew
it as " as a new species " ; but now, as the months
have rolled by, we have learned something con-

10

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

cerning it. Curiously enough, our collecting ex-
perience shows it to be most abundant in the Dela-
ware and Raritan Canal. With abundance of
natural watercourse all about it, it nevertheless is
best pleased with the artificial stream, the tame,
even banks of the canal, that have just grass enough
about them to shelter such small fishes. We once
left the realms of science and wondered if the fact
of their own alimentary " canal" being five times
the length of their whole body, and so a prominent
feature of their anatomy, made them prefer a canal
to live ill, on the principle of "a fellow feeling, &c.
&c." ; but enough of this and more of the zoology
proper.

Popularly, i. e. with juvenile anglers, this pretty
fish is known as the " Golden Minnow," and it is a
very correct description of the fish's general ap-
pearance when living. The back and sides to the
lateral line are dull golden-yellow, while down the
back, on a line with the insertion of the dorsal fin,
is a very beautifully bright line of polished gold.
When taken from the water, these metallic tints
are too noticeable to be overlooked, even by boys
intent only on capturing a " big string " ; and they
show to great advantage in an aquarium.

A lover of deeper waters than cyprinoids usually
prefer, they appear to be rare, judged only by the
few that wander into the shallows and seek the
company of the "red" and "silver fins." To fiad
them abundantly they must be sought in waters
of considerable depth, and resting on or very near
the bottom, close to the shore generally, in patches
of grass ; but the shore must be a steep bank, v/ith
the current moving at a fair rate, keeping the water
clear and cool. '

If, while fishing for other kinds, we chance to
drop the hook near them, they pounce upon it ; and
thus is explained the fact that these little fish are
often cauglit by anglers who are after eels, catfish,
and such larger kinds as frequent the bottoms of
the streams. Just what particular kinds of food
they prefer, we could never determine; but, judging
from the length of the intestine, it must be some"
thing slow in digesting; and this brings up the
question, was the bowel made thus so very long for
the food, or did the food cause, by its presence, the
lengthening of the bowel ? Cyprinoids generally
have an alimentary canal of ordinary length ; all our
New Jersey species have, except this golden min-
now , and we incline to the belief that a predilection
for some peculiar article of diet has Icnglhened,
folded, and refolded this canal, until its present
length suited the time required to take up the
nourishment of the favourite food. Ilather
this than extra intestine was given to this one
species, that it might live on something not suilable
to a short-bowelled species. The known food of the
Gizzard-shad {Dorosoma cepedianum) explains the
strong muscular stomach possessed by that fish;

and the voracious appetite of the " Pirate " [ApJire-
dodirus sayanus) may have much to do indirectly
with the eight or nine caeca attached to the ali-
mentary canal of that fish ; but so far the golden
minnow's diet is not sufficiently known to explain
why so enormously long a digestive tract is a
necessity.

Speaking of cyprinoids generally, Prof. Cope
remarks,* "Differences of habit are associated with
peculiarities of food and of the structure of the
digestive system. Few families of vertebrates
embrace as great a variety in these respects as the
present one. There are carnivorous, insectivorous,
and granivorous genera, which are distinguished as
among mammalia, the former by the abbreviation,
the last by the elongation of the alimentary canal ;
in the former the teeth are usually sharp-edged or
hooked, in the latter truncate, hammer or spoon-
shaped." Guided by this, we should be led to be-
lieve that the Hijbocjnathus, with its alimentary
canal five t times the length of the body, fed ex-
clusively upon vegetable matter, but we do know
that this is not the case ; nor is our common roach %
a vegetable-feeder, in th strict sense of that term,
as stated by many writers. We have generally
found the whole length of the intestine filled either
with moUusca entire, or, as the bowel nears the
vent, with the emptied shells; the juices of the
stomach and bowel having dissolved out the body
of tlie animal. The Golden Minnow is an exception
to the law (?) governing the regulation of diet with
regard to the length of the alimentary canal.

Like the majority of our cyprinoids, this little
fish becomes brighter in all his tints, and more
active in all his movements, in the early spring;
and the silvery sides putting on a ruddy tint, that
in contrast witli the permanent but now brighter
golden, make our little pet second to none in gene-
ral attractiveness.

Prof. Cope has given this species, as we have
seen, the specitic name of osmerinus, which refers
to the fact of the specimens first submitted were
found in company with the Prost-fish, or Smelt
{Osnieiiia morda.r), that ascend our rivers in immense
numbers in February. The Golden Minnow does
not, however, remain with themlong, or follow them
again to the sea. Indeed wc think the association
is occasional and accidental, rather than a habit of
the species.

Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Raineows. — Some years ago I remember having
seen three distinct rainbows. Of these two were
concentric, but the other one intersected them.
Will any of your numerous readers kindly explain
the cause of the phenomenon ? — Theopkilus Bates.

* Cyprinid;ie of Pennsylvania ("Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc,"
vol. xiu. p. asj).

t Prol. Cope gives the length as four times, but it is fully
fioe tnUL-s in thu Hiiliuy;. uS'i,triiiu,-<.

J atilOe aincricunu, LinnO.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

11

NEW r.OOKS*

SCIENTinC readers of all classes cannot com-
plain for want of intellectual pabulum. It is
both varied and abundant, served up in all kinds of

Fij,-. 10. Adult Male Oraiig.

* '• The Graft Theory of Disease." By James Ross, M.D.
London : Churchill.

" Mini and Booy." By Alexander Bjin, LL.D. London:
Henry S. King & Co.

"On the Coi/eervation of En-rgy." By Profjssor Balfour
Stewart. Londoo : H. 8. K ng *; Co.

" Man and Apes," By St. George Mivart, F.R S. London :
Hardwicke.

" Tbe Smaller British Birds." By H. G. and H. B. Adams.
London : George Bell & Sons.

" Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances." By P. L.
Simmonds. London : Hardwicke.

" Where There's a Will There's a Way, or Science in the
Cottage." By James Cash. London: Hardwicke.

"Tbe Telegraphic Journal." Vul. 1. London: Henry
GiUman.

dishes, and garnished with all sorts of attractive
surroundings. Nor can the most captious complain
of the Mcak nature of the material supplied. In
this respect it is unequalled in the history of litera-
ture.

Dr. Ross, whose work we have placed at the
head of our list, modestly states in his preface his
iude'i)tcduess to the great leaders of modern science,
and seems to put forth his volume rather too tenta-
tively. We assure him he need not be ashamed of
his production. It is a valuable evidence of the not
distant utilitarian application of the theory of evo-
lution. Dr. Ross has proved sufficiently that what
many regard as nothing but airy speculations, chiefly
fruitful in their waste of time, may result in a more
thorough knowledge of zymotic diseases, and there
fore lead to the alleviation and possible extinction

Fig. 1 1 . Face of Prohoscis Monkey.

of the direst diseases to which poor humanity is
liable. ;!iln^this essay the author has quoted freely
from the most distinguished of modern writers, so
that,^in]this respect alone, the student will find it a
valuable digest of opinions on the subject discussed.
Dr. Ross is opposed to the theory that contagiuni
particles are parasites in the zoological or botanical
sense. On the contrary, he holds that contagium
particles are living, in the sense of being portions
detached from a living being : that they are not
germs capable of giving origin either to higher
forms of life, or to organisms like themselves, but
that they are anatomical units modified and indivi-
dualized by a diseased process, and capable of im-
pressing upon the healthy organism with which
they come into contact a succession of changes
similar to that which preceded their own modifica-
tion in the body from which they were detached.
In short, the Doctor has applied Darwin's hypo-
thesis of " Pangenesis " (which he shows is as old as
Hippocrates) to the explanation of the phenomena
of zymotic diseases. The last chapter, which deals
with the probable mode in which zymotic diseases
have been dLderentiated, is both valuable and

12

HARDWICKE'S S C lEN CE-GOSS iP.

liighly interesting. Tlie author contends that con-
tagium particles will differ in properties according
to. the kind of epithelial structure from which they
originally descended. These correspond to the
three great tracts into which the tissues may be
divided— the skin, the respiratory, and the digestive
mucous membranes ; and therefore we have the
three groups of zymotic diseases — epidemic, pul-
monary, and intestinal. The clear and spirited
style in which this book is written is a great advan-
tage to the reader, to whom we can conscientiously
recommend it as a genuine treat.

^C;fe

Fig. 12. Proboscis Moukey.

Fig. 13. Chameck Spider Monkey.

It was indeed "a happy thought" to conceive
the idea of giving to the world a complete library of
scientific books on every department of modern
science, each to be written by the most distinguished
writers on the several subjects, English and foreign.

This "International Series," as they are fitly
termed, is now in due course of publication. The
two volumes on our list are good examples of the
nature of these productions. They are handsomely
and attractively got up, so as to make one's library
look a trifle more cheerful than hitherto. Who
could better write on the physiological and psycho-
logical relations of mind and body than Professor
Bain ? Or at whose hands could we expect a more
thorough and exhaustive knowledge of the " Con-
servation of Energy" than from those of Balfour
Stewart, the popular Professor of Owen's College,
Manchester ? These works possess the
rare value of being strictly popular and
strictly scientific, and indicate that such a
combination is not impossible. The limits
of space forbid us to do more thmi to
bring this series before the notice of our
readers with our strongest recommenda-
tions.

Those who read Mr. Mivart's articles in
the pages of the Popular Science Review^
on " Man and Apes," will be pleased to
see them appear in the handsome volume
form in which the publisher has now issued
them. The articles have been consider-
ably enlarged, and fully illustrated. Mr.
Mivart, as the author of that charming
work, the " Genesis of Species," will
always obtain a hearing, not only from
scientific men proper, but also from those
who do not profess to be scientific, and
yet who are deeply interested in the lead-
ing theories and discussions of the day.
The present volume is especially valu-
able to students as containing by far the
fullest and completest comparison of man
with the Quadrumana that has yet ap-
peared. It has been the custom to com-
pare the human fiame with what was
considered the highest member of the ape
family, but Mr. Mivart clearly shows the
fallacy of such a method. Of all the
monkey tribe, the Gorilla is believed to
be that most nearly approaching man in
its structural peculiarities — to be, in
short, the veritable "missing link." Al-
though Mr. Mivart seems inclined to
grant the generally high zoological posi-
tion of the Gorilla, he argues that the
nearest approaches in structural pecu-
liarities to man's frame are not to be
found in any particular species, but are
scattered throughout {the entire series of Quadru-
mana, not even excepting the half-apes. After devot-
ing some space to the zoological position of the Gorilla,
the author proceeds to notice the various degrees of
resemblance to man which the different kinds of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

13

apes exhibit. The Chimpanzee is universally ac-
knowledged to be " anthropoid," especially in its
juvenile condition. It and the Gorilla represent the
highest apes of Western Africa, just as the Oraug
is the highest quadrumauous represenla-
tive in Borneo and Sumatra. Tiie figures
of the latter we have borrowed from Mr.
Mivart's book give a good idea of the
generally more human likeness seen in
the younger stages of the anthropoid apes.
This is seen again in the face of the baby
"Moor monkey" (fig. IG). Of all the
monkey family that whicli approaches man
most nearly in the conformation of its
nasal organ, is the " Proboscis Monkey,"
a native of Borneo. In the attenuated
form of the limbs, the monkeys furthest
removed from humanity appear to be the
"Chameck Spider Monkeys," whose pre-
hensile tails and slender legs show how
truly they are adapted, not to a ground,
but to a terrestrial life. Mr. Mivart com-
pares every part of the human frame with
that of the monkeys in general, and finds
some point of near resemblance in one
or another of this numerous group, but
never all the points in auy one member.
!Nay, some of the species, as the Orang,
for instance, diverges more from man, as
regards its skeleton, than does auy other
latisterual ape. I'he author concludes
that the teaching of the skeleton, as well
as of all the other parts, seems to be
that resemblance to man is shared in
different and very unequal degrees by
different species of quadrumana, rather
than that any one kind is plainly more
human than any of the others. In cerebral
development, the Gorilla is inferior both
to the Orang and the Chimpanzee ; the
difference between the brain of the Orang
and that of man being one of degree, and
not of kind. On the other hand, the
author shows that the difference between
the mi7id of man and the psychical facul-
ties of the Orang is a difference in kind,
and not one of mere degree ! These facts,
the author believes, militate against the
supposition that man has been derived
from the monkey family by the Darwinian
process of "natural selection," but he
does not think they are antagonistic to a
belief in man's origin by the larger and
more comprehensive process of evolution.
The latter part of the book is devoted to
this question, and there the reader will
fiud able arguments for considering this fact of man's
physical peculiarities being shared among so many
members of the Quadrumana, advanced in favour of

the doctrine of evolution as applied to the human
race.

" The Smaller British Birds " is an edition de luxe,
got up in the most attractive style of green and

Fi?. 14. Young Oranjjs.

Fig. 15. The Chimpanzee.

gold, and gilt edges, and having an interior worthy
of the exterior as regards artistic effect. Our
" Smaller British Birds " in point of fact comprehend

14

HAIIDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

niueteen-tweutietlis of all our avian fauna, and as
each is figured in briglit colours (a trifle too bright,
perhaps), our readers may form some idea of the
pictorial wealth of this book. The eggs of each
species are also figured and naturally coloured, and
■we must bestow a word of praise on the really
artistic manner with which the delicate tints, and
shades, and markings are all given. As each is of
the natural size, this part of the book cannot but be of
great value to tlie student. The plan of figuring both
birds and eggs is a good one. The letter-press is
clear, and the paper good, whilst the authors have
collected a good deal of sound information, and have
arranged it in a very distinct manner. By using

Tig. IG. Moor Monkey.

this book, the young ornithologist "will save much
time, and gain his end more speedily than from any
other similar work that we arc acquainted with.

One cannot peruse Mr. Simmonds's book without
feeling how truly we are wasting our substance in
riotous living! Here is a work of above five
hundred pages devoted to showing how materials
may be utilized that we are in the habit of regarding
not only as utterly useless, but many of them as
deleterious. If " dirt is matter in t he wrong place,"
then " waste" is profitable substances in the wrong
place. No man in Great Britain is better able to
deal with the important question of " Waste Pro-
ducts and Undeveloped Substances," than Mr. P. L.

Simmonds ; no otiier writer lias devoted so much
time and attention, or has for so long been regarded
as an authority on these and kindred matters. If
we had to find any fault with this most interesting,
and what we regard as an important volume, it is
that the vast store of material is not arranged under
cliapters or sections. We feel that such an arrange-
ment would materially add to the value of the work.
In a great measure, however, this is atoned for by
a copious index. To the general as well as to the
scientific reader, to the statesman and manufacturer
especially, this book is invaluable. A word should
be said as to its literary style. It is easy and
attractive, and notwithstanding the overcrowding
of facts, interests the reader instead of wearying
him.

Mr. Cash's handsome little volume is just the
book one would put into the hands of an unfledged
naturalist. We know none other better able to
speedily develop him. And to older readers', it
possesses many attractions, in setting before the
world the simple but earnest lives of humble workers
in the field of science. Here we learn how such
" hobbies " can sweeten the most arduous toil, can
render interesting th.e most monotonous of lives.
With some of tiic characters liere described, we
v.ere personally acquainted, and we can therefore
testify to the accuracy of the author's delineations
and observations. Some of these lives read like little
idylls. Shut out from the great world that roars out-
side them, we find them looking to Nature for in-
struction, and studying her great kingdom with never-
tiring zeal. The lives of such men as John Dewhurst,
George Caky, Samuel Gibson (who went by the
name of the "Scientific Blacksmith"), llichard
Buxton (the author of the " Manchester Flora,"— a
man who never earned a pound a week in his life !),
George Crozier, Elias Hall, the geologist, and others
of which this little book treats, read ambitious
worldlings a lesson as to the real enjoyments they
are constantly passirig over. Most of the characters
are Lancashire, for among the factory employes
there is developed a genuine love of nature, and
there may be found some of our best amateur bota-
nists and entomologists. The book is pleasantly and
earnestly written, and is a credit both to author and
publisher.

To notice such books as this first volume of the
Telegraphic Journal is somewlint out of our usual
line. But it is with pleasure that we can mention it
as a most attractively got-up book, the subject-
matter as being various and important, and of a kind
that must place the readers of such a periodical,
a?i courant with all that is taking place in telegraphy
in every part of the world.

" In a man, a nervous or sensory impulse has
been variously calculated to travel at 100, 200, or
300 feet a second."— i/«x%'i' '' Fhysiology"

HARD WICK E'S SC I E N C E-GO S S IP.

15

A NEW ENEMY.

I WISH to say a fe<v words about an enemy which
threatens to lay waste one of Europe's most
valued esculents, the potato. Eor a long time
North America has had to contend against two
foes, which devoured the early shoots and leaves of
the potato, and thus destroyed the hopes of the
farmer and gardener. These were beetles belonging
to the same family as tlie Blister-fly, and named
Lytta atrafa (or vittatci) and Cantharis viniaria.
They can be kept within bounds ; but of late a
third beetle has appeared among us which really

Fig. 17. Colorado Potato Beetle iu diCferent stages, from egg to perfect insects

threatens to drive the potato out of cultivation
altogether. It bears the name of the Colorado
Potato-beetle [Bonjphoru decern -punctata) ; and
should it once reach the Atlantic coast, and be
carried unobserved across the ocean, tiien— woe to
the potato-grower of the old country !

A man must witness the myriad legions of this
insect, and the ravages of its never-tiring larvae, in
order to form an idea of the terrible danger with
which Europe is threatened. For myself, judging
from the tenacity of life exhibited both in its larval
and perfect condition, I have not a doubt that it
will soon overstep the bounds of North America,
and make a home for itself in other lauds.

Its true domicile is in the Ilocky Mountains,
where it feeds on a species of wild potato, Solatium
rostratum (or Carolinianee) . No sooner, however,
had the edible potato [Solanum tuberosum) been
planted by settlers at the foot of these mountains,
than Doryphora attacked it greedily; the more
largely its cultivation extended westward, the faster
did its insect foe travel in an easterly direction, and
scatter itself over the land. In the year 1859 it
was located one hundred miles west of Omaha city,
in Nebraska; in 1S61 it showed itself in Iowa; in

1SG5, not only had it begun to devastate Missouri,
but it had crossed the Mississippi in Illinois, every-
where leaving behind it flourishing colonies. In
1868 Indiana was visited ; in 1870 Ohio and the
confines of Canada were reached, also portions of
Pennsylvania and New York ; and its entrance into
Massachusetts was notified. During the year 1871
a great army of these beetles covered the river
Detroit in Michigan, crossed Lake Erie on floating
leaves and similar convenient rafts, and in a very
short time took possession of the country between
St. Clair and Niagara rivers. Having got thus far,
in spite of all efforts to stay their progress, there
is every reason to believe that be-
fore long we shall hear of them as
swarming in the streets of New
York and Boston (as they already
swarm in the city of St. Louis),
and then their passage across the
Atlantic is a mere matter of time.
Moreover, the beetle in its different
stages is so entirely unaffected by
the extremes of heat and cold, of
wet and dry, which it has met with
here, that I have no doubt it will
care as little for the changes of
climate which occur in the temper-
ate zone of Europe, and, once set-
tled, will quickly become natural-
ized.

The devastations of the Colorado
Beetle are all tlie greater, from
the fact of its propagating itself
with extraordinary rapidity, several
broods following each other in the course of the year.
Thefirstbatchof infant larvse appears towards the end
of May, or, if the weather be mild, of April. In fact
scarcely has the potato plant shown itself above the
ground, before the insect, which has been hyber-
nating during the winter, also wakes to life. The
female loses no time in depositing from seven
hundred to twelve hundred eggs, in clusters of
twelve or thirteen, on the underside of a leaf.
Within five or six days, according to the state of
the weather, the larvse escape from the egg, and
begin their work of devastation, which goes on for
some seventeen days, when the little creatures retire
below the soil, in order to undergo the pupal con-
dition. After a delay of ten or fourteen days, the
perfect insect comes into being, and the business of
egg-laying commences anew. In this way, accord-
ing to recent observations, three broods follow each
other; the last, as just stated, wintering below the
surface of the ground. No description can do justice
to the marvellous voracity of this insect, especially
in its larval state. When once a field of potatoes
has been attacked, all hope of a harvest must be
given up ; in a very few days it is changed into an
arid waste — a mere mass of dried-up stalks.

16

HARDWICKE'S SC 1 ENG E-G OS SIP.

At one time the cultivator indulged in the vain
hope that Doryphora was a mere passer-by, that he
would do his worst, and then [move on, witbout
becoming a permanent nuisance. Others, again,
fancied that a hot summer.and autumn, followed by
along drought in the ensuing year, tended to
diminish its numbers. But it has been proved
incontestably that the diminution was only due to
the circumstance of many of the larvae perishing,
through being unable to enter the ground hardened
and baked by the great heat ; plenty were left to
continue the breed.

Fig. IS. a. Colorado Beetle, i. Foot of ditto, c. Pupa of
ditto, d. Wing-case, enlarged.

Of the many nostrums that have been employed
for the destruction of this beetle, one only has
shown itself to be of any value. I mean, dusting
the plants with the highly poisonous substance
Paris green,— a compound of arsenic and oxide of
copper. However, setting aside the dangers of
inhaling this deadly mixture while spreading it over
the fields, there is the additional peril of impregnating
the soil with it,— a peril which experiments carried
out at Washington iiave shown to be well founded.
There remains, therefore, only the plan of hand-
picking, day after day, the eggs, larva;, and beetle.
But even this operation requires considerable care ;
for the juice of the crushed insect and its larvae
produces bladders and blisters wherever it comes
in contact with the skin. If a wounded spot be
touched by it, severe inflammation ensues, which
is liable to pass into ulcers, and an application of it
to the eye endangers vision to a very serious
extent.

Pig. 17, on page 15, gives an idea of the'.Colorado
Potato-beetle in its dilferent stages. The eggs
are of a deep orange-yellow. The larvae on first
emerging, are of a blackish hue, which passes
quickly into a dark red, with a slight orange tint.
On attaining their full size the colour varies
between orange, reddish-yellow, and flesh. At c,

fig. IS, is shown the pupa; at a the perfect insect,
natural size ; a foot is portrayed at i ; a wing-
case considerably enlarged at d. The ground

colour of the latter is creamy-yellow {rahm-gelb),

with five black longitudinal stripes, of which the

third and fourth unite at the base.

Doryphora does not by any means confine itself

to the potato. In places where that esculent is

wanting, it will support itself on any other member

of the Solanaceous order,— the Egg-plant {S. melon-
gena), the Tomato {S. lycopersicum) , or the Winter-
cherry {Phymlis viscosa). Indeed, in the northern
parts of Illinois and in Wisconsin— incredible as it
may appear— it has established itself in the cab-
bage-garden as readily as in the potato-field.

State of Illinois. Pr. H. .

CELLS POR MICROSCOPIC OBJECTS.

THE introduction of the Binocular Microscope as
a popular instrument has rendered it desirable
to mount objects as much as possible in their natural
form, necessitating the use of a cell more or less
deep to contain them ; but the difficulty has been
to find a suitable material for their construction and
a secure mode of attaching them to the glass slide.
It is by no means improving to one's temper to have
a pet slide come to pieces through a gentle tap on
the table, or some other of the ordinary occurrences
incidental to the handling of them, yet it frequently
so happens, and has so often occurred to myself, that
every fresh slide coming into my possession, either
by purchase or gift, is invariably re-cemented to
make sure of its safety. Out of the great variety of
substances suggested, experience has led me to
adopt the use of three only,— paper, tiu, and glass.
The objection formerly made to the use of paper in
leading to the production of fungoid growths upon
the object and on the surface of tlie glass, has been
overcome by means of varnish ; and slides so pre-
pared, and purposely kept under the most unfavour-
able circumstances, are, after several years' probation,
still as perfect as ever.

There are two ways in which paper cells may be
made; one, by coiling it into cylinders and cutting
off rings in the lathe, and the other, by "punching"
rings out of flat, sheets. The former serves well for
all depths above the thickness of a sixpence, while
the latter is most convenient for all others that are
required to be of less depth, and may be adopted
even for the thinnest writing-paper. The first-
named plan, however, may be dispensed with, as
rings of cardboard can be built up to any height
with very litllc trouble or loss of time. The great
difliculty hitherto has been in punching out these
rings so as to get them of uniform width, that is to
get one punch perfectly concentric with the other ;
but at length a " happy thought " occurred, that
has rendered this dilemma " a thing of the past."
It appeared obvious that, having punched out the
interior of the intended ring, the placing of a kind
of button in the aperture with a shoulder projecting
beyond, and the exact width of the circle required,
would guide the outer punch to its proper place and
give us the hoped-for result, which it has done most
completely.

The first step would be to provide a series of four
1 or five punches of certain relative proportions, with

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

17 ^

Fig. 19. Punches for

making microscopical

cells.

respect to each other. In the auuexed diagram the
three outer circles correspond with gun punches of
the respective numbers indicated, but the two inner
ones are shoemakers' punches
of a commoner description,
although answering the pur-
pose sufEciently well. The
next step should be to obtain
a series of brass cones of the
form represented at A, B, fig.
19, one fitting into each of the
punches except the smallest,
while the projecting portion
B should fit very accurately,
and not too tightly, into the
opening made by the punch
next smaller in size. Then
commencing by punching out
the smallest disc, the smallest
guide-cone is next inserted
and carefully fixed in itsplace,
turning the card over so as
to use the sharp edge of the
aperture ; the puncii is lastly
placed over this, which guides it to its place,
when a sharp blow cuts out the portion re-
quired. The different sized rings being thus cut
in succession leads to the least possible degree of
waste in the material as well as saving in time.
In the diagram the front of the outer punch C has
been cut away to show the position of the cone
in its interior and to give a clearer view of the
arrangement and its action, DD showing the -width
or the resulting ring, which cau be varied only by
the relative proportions of the punches, which must
he determined at the outset.

The next stage in the process will be to saturate
them with varnish. Let a thin solution of shellac
be made in rectified spirit of wine (or if cost be
more a considerationthan ha.gr&\iGe,met//?/lafed spirit
may be used), and placing the rings in a wide-
mouth phial, let them be covered with the solution
and left so for two or three days closely corked up,
when they will be ready to be pressed and dried.
Having provided a few score pieces of common
window glass about one inch square, let these be
spread out on the table and the rings taken out one
by one, placed upon them, one in the centre of each
square, and then placing them one upon another
with a spare piece of glass on the top, in a pile just
sufficient to be taken up in the grip of a wooden
American clothes-peg, which will thus act as a vice
and squeeze them flat, and in which position they
may be left until quite dry. I have a stout wooden
box about one inch deep and five or six inches wide,
partitioned off into compartments, a little over an
inch wide, and these being filled with the glass
squares containing the rings, a common wood screw
is passed through the side opposite the centre of

the squares, which then screws the whole up into
a compact mass with any amount of pressure. Of
course any description of sized or unsized paper,
parchment-paper, leather, or any other soft sub-
stance, may be cut in the same way, and will serve
equally well when only dry objects are to be
mounted in them ; but when required for fluids,
pure tin will be found one of the best materials for
the purpose, especially as it can be cut in the same
manner and with the same punches. This metal
may be obtained of Stanton Brothers, in Shoe-lane,
rolled to any thickness, at about half a crown per
pound, half price being allowed for the spare clip-
pings in exchange, so that but little loss will be in-
curred by waste. As this material, however, can
hardly be cut conveniently of a thicker substance
than about the thickness of a new shilling, glass has
been resorted to in all such cases as require a
deeper cell for the retention of fluids. To " punch "
a hole through a piece of window-glass may seem
a very unlikely proceeding, yet it is in reality one
of very easy accomplishment. If the glass be se-
curely cemented down with shellac upon a piece of
brass not 'less than an eighth of an inch in tliick-
ness and having a hole in it of the size intended,
the centre may be chipped out with a pointed
hammer, in a very few seconds, and a rough file will
then trim it to the edge of the brass, when it may
be removed, and after soaking in liquor potassse for
a few hours to remove the lac, may be ground true, if
greater perfection be desired. Erom the thinnest
covering glass and plates a quarter of an inch thick,
cells may be readily made in this manner.

The last point to be attended to is securing the
ring firmly to the glass slip. If required for fluid,
nothing answers so well as marine glue, taking care
that all parts be sufficiently heated and well pressed
together ; but if only needed as drt/ cells, a far less
troublesome process will suffice. Eor the circular
tin and paper cells I have found no preparation so
effective, or so little trouble, as " Priest's Diamond
Cement." The parts to be put together should
be warm and free from grease, and when metal is
being fixed, the whole should be warmed up after-
wards, to about the melting-point of the cement,
as this keeps secure the attachment of the
latter. Eor putting on covers it has too the merit of
not "running in" while it holds the glass most
effectually and is almost colourless. A thin coating
of this upon all insecurely fixed cells, embracing the
side and touching the cover at the top and the
glass slip beneath, renders the whole perfectly se-
cure by tying together, as it were, the cover and the
slip, with the ring inside as a support. This cement
may be purchased at any chemist's, price one shilling
per bottle, holding about three quarters of an ounce,
and is prepared for use by placing the phial for a
few minutes in hot water.
St. Giles-street, Norwich. W. K. Bridgman.

18

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

MICROSCOPY.

Crystals of Lime in the Pkawn's Skin. —
The skin of the Prawn consists of three layers ; be-
tween the outer and middle coats the crystals of
carbonate of lime appear to lie. In a cast skin no
crystals seem to be ever found, nor do any appear
in a newly-formed skin. What then becomes of
these crystals ? Does the water dissolve them, or
does the new skin absorb them in order to con-
solidate it? Perhaps some reader of Science-
Gossip may be in a position to answer the above. —
F. B. KyngdoH.

On Preserving and Mounting Fresh-avater
Alg^. — The fresh-water algse are not only beau-
tiful but easily procurable, and would no doubt
have received a much larger share of attention from
the microscopist were their preservation as per-
manent objects possible. In the majority of instances,
the beautiful colour and arrangement of the endo-
chrome is destroyed by the death of the organism ;
there are some forms, however, which retain a con-
siderable amount of their pristine beauty after
having been mounted many years. The Nostocs
are but little changed when mounted in fluid; and the
Desmids, although losing their vivid green colour,
retain their elegant outlines. The plan proposed
by Dr. H. Wood* for the preservation of the fresh-
water algse, according to the author, has given tlie
best results hitherto obtainable. After cleaning
them, which he accomplishes in the following way :
— " The large filamentous ones may be washed by
holding them fast on the slide with a bent needle
or a pair of forceps, and allowing water to flow over
them freely whilst they are rubbed with a stifBsh
camel-hair brush, or the mass of specimens may be
put into a bottle half-filled with water and shaken
violently, drawing off the water from the plants, and
repeating the process with fresh additions of water
until the plants are well scoured. I find, after trial
of acetate of ammonia and various other media,
that a very weak solution of carbolic acid is the
best possible fluid to mount these plants in " —
the difficulty of securing eifectually fluid-mounted
forms induced Dr. Wood to try the following plan.
He makes a solution of gum-damar in benzole, to
which previously triturated oxide of zinc is added.
This cement should be of such consistency as to flow
freely from the brusli. It will adhere if washed
properly when the cell-cover is pressed down, even
when glycerine is used as the preservative medium.
Its advantage lies in the circumstance that the
glass cover can be placed upon the ring of it whilst
still fresh and soft, and that in drying it adheres
to both cover and slide, so as to form a joint be-

* " A Contribution to the Natural History of the Fresh-
water Algae of America." By Dr. H. Wood.

tween them of the width of the ring of cement.
The method of mounting with it is as follows : — A
ring of it is made, by means of a " turntable," on a
slide, which is put aside to dry. When required
for use, the slide is again placed on the turntable,
and a new ring of cement put directly over the old
one. The specimen is immediately within the cell,
and the requisite quantity of carbolated water
added. The cover, which must be large enough
to entirely or nearly cover the cement ring, is now
picked up with the forceps, the under-side being
moistened by the breath, to prevent adhesion of
air-bubbles, and placed carefully in position. It is
now to be carefully and equably pressed down with
some force. By this any superfluous water is
squeezed out, and the cover is forced down into
the cement, which rises as a little ring around the
edge. The slide may now be put aside to dry, or
better, an outside ring of cement run round it in
the usual manner. Unfortunately, the author does
not state the length of time he has used this
method. My experience of soft cements is that in
a shorter or longer period they almost invariably
run in, and 1 much fear gum-damar will not prove
an exception.— i^. K.

On Mounting Microscopic Objects.— We beg
to draw the attention of our microscopic readers,
who are always interested in anything relating to
the mounting of objects, to the second edition of
Davies's little book on this subject, which has just
been issued by Hardwicke, Piccadilly. This edition
is considerably enlarged; and, as its author was
too unwell to see the sheets through the press him-
self, this edition has been edited by Dr. Matthews,
to whom Mr. Davies handed over his additional
notes, &c. A prefatory chapter has been added*
and such extensions made as will introduce the
book to a new class of readers— the medical students
and practitioners. The editor has done his work
well, and we can now confidently recommend this
able little book as the cheapest and most compre-
hensive which the young miscroscopist can obtain.

BOTANY.

Plant Crystals.— Professor Gulliver, referring
to his descriptions and figures of Raphides, Sphajra-
phides, and long crystal prisms, given in Science-
Gossip, May, 1873, continues his researches in a me-
moir, illustrated with a plate containing ten figures,
in the Monthly Microscopical Journal, Dec, 1873. Of
this last paper, the subject includes observations
" on the crystals in the testa and pericarp of several
orders of plants, and in other parts of the order
Leguminosaj." These crystals he names " short
prismatic crystals," in order to distinguish them
from the other and very distinct forms mentioned
above. The short prismatic crystals are constantly

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GO S SI P.

19

present in the testa of many orders of plants, and
as constantly absent from the same part in other
orders. But though not occurring in the testa of
Leguminosae, the short prismatic crystals are sur-
prisingly abundant in the calyces, leaves, bracts,
pods, and liber of this order. In one inch of the
midrib of a leaflet of clover, for example, he counts
no less than 21,000 of the crystals. They are very
diverse in form and size, but are comnionly about
3 0*0 0 inch in diameter. They appear to be com-
posed chiefly of oxalate of lime, and, occurring in
such abundance in the leguminous plants most
relished by ruminant and other animals, we may
well admire one of the several sources by which
nature, as now proved, has so plentifully provided
this earth with the very provender on which many
animals most greedily feed. And the necessity of
lime in the animal economy, from invertebrates up
to man himself, has long been known. The short
prismatic crystals in leguminous plants commonly
occur in chains or chaplets of cells, each cell con-
taining in its centre a single crystal; and the
chains are most abundant along the course of the
fibro-vascular bundles of the leaves and legumes,
but occur dotted throughout many membranous
parts. These crystals are beautiful microscopic
objects, and make very pleasing and instructive
preparations, either dried or in glycerine. And as
to the view which has often been entertained, that
such crystals so regularly produced in organized
cells, are merely excremeotitious products or
freaks of Nature of no relation to or value in the
life and uses of the plant, the author concludes
that such an opinion is utterly untenable.

PucciNEA Malvacearum.— Can any of your
readers explain the rapid diffusion of this and other
micro-fungi ? This puccinea first made its appear-
ance during the last summer in the grounds of the
Marquis of Westminster, at Clevedon, near Maiden.
head. I afterwards received a specimen from
Salisbury; and on my return to Devonshire, in
August, found it plentifully on mallows in this
neighbourhood, more than two hundred miles from
the spot wliere it first appeared, and caused such
destruction among the mallows and hollyhocks.
We can understand how the spores of fungi usually
abundant may float about in the air, biding their
time to attack their favourite plant, but here our
conjectures are at fault. Students of micro-fungi
are now so numerous that if this species had
occurred in Britain before, it could scarcely have
failed to be recognized. Whence did it come, and
how ? — /. P. Belmont, Dartmouth.

The Discoveky of Verkijcakia ochkostoma.—
At the November meeting of the Brighton and
Sussex Natural History Society, the honorary se.
cretary, Mr. Wonfor, announced the receipt from
Mr. G. Davies, for the Society's Herbarium, of that

very rare lichen Verrucaria ochrostoma, found this
month by Mr. Davies in the Weald of Sussex. This
lichen had been lost till now, not having been met
with since Borrer first found it in 1850. It was
also mentioned that Artomia spadlcea, new to Sussex,
was found by the same gentleman, December, 1872,
in Ashdown Porest, near where Calicium septatum
grows, and that he had found Lecanora Eageni with
L. sopJiodes, var. lecideoides, near Cuckmere.

Adiflteration of Pepper.— M. Bouchardat has
communicated the result of his examinations of a
large number of samples of ground pepper, as sold
in France. He found that the most common adul-
terant was one prepared by drying and finely pul-
verizing the parenchyma of potatoes, left as a residue
in'tlie manufacture of starch. Among other adulterants
were lentil flour, earthy matter, chalk, and linseed
cake. A microscopical examination will always
enable the observer to detect such adulterants
present.

A New Beech Blight. — In Westphalia the
beech-trees have been recently attacked by a new
form of blight, which commences on the hark, and
finally covers the tree with a snow-white down, to
the ultimate destruction of the tree. Under the
microscope, this blight is seen to consist of fine
threads, among which there occurs a small insect
apparently an undescribed species. The threads,
which are secreted by the insect, are of wax, "which
has a melting-point of about 80 degrees, and
the per-eentage composition of which is, carbon
81"39, hydrogen 13"58, and oxygen 5 03. Both as
regards its composition and melting-point, this new
wax is very near that of Chinese wax.

Asperities or Callous Points in the Leaves
OF Bryonia alba.— At a late meeting of the East
Kent Natural History Society, Professor Gulliver
gave a demonstration of the true nature of tlie
roughness, hitherto but vaguely described by
botanical writers, on the leaves of the Red Bryony.
He showed that each of these callous points is
l-114th of an inch in diameter, and made up of a
congeries of smooth, shining, hyaline, rounded
granules, having an average diameter of l-666th of
an inch ; and that they are composed of carbonate
of lime. Hence, he suggests that for them descrip
tive botany should in future substitute the words
calcareous granules for the vague epithets heretofore
used in botanical books.

Fungological Excursions.— Late in October,
the Woolhope Club made a fungological excursion,
when four species new to Britain were discovered.
These were Bygroplwrus fornicatus, Agaricus icte-
rinus, Clavaria curta, and C. rufa. After the fungus
supper held at the close, papers were read by Mr.
Plowright, of Norfolk ; Mr. Broome, Mr. Renny,
Mr. Phillips, and Dr. Bull, relating to fungology.

20

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

ZOOLOGY.

Stenocephaltis agilis.— The " works on Ento-
mology" to which Mr. J. O. Harper (Science-
Gossip, No. 106, p. 228) has referred for an account
of the "ovipositor saws" of this insect, are, judging
from the one mentioned in the note to his paper,
probably of no scientific value whatever. The struc-
ture of the rostrum and genital segments of the
Eemiptera heteroptera is, of course, noticed in a
general way by Westwood, in his admirable "Intro-
duction;" and intheonlywork exclusively discussing
the Bugs in this country, viz. "The Britibh Hemip-
tera," by J. W. Douglas and J. Scott, published by
the Eay Society (of which all naturalists should be
members) in 186.5, will be found a more recent and
ample account of the structure referred to. The
lancets of the rostrum are simply two of the four
setae representing the normal mandibles and maxillae
of insects, and which in all the Heteroptera are in
eluded in the rostrum. The "ovipositor-saws" at
the terminal segment of the abdomen, are simply the
genital segments, which in the description of the
genus Stenocephalus (as in the account of all other
British genera) are, as to both male and female sexes,
fully described by Douglas and Scott, "Brit. Hem.,"
p. 141. This structure, in one of the type forms of the
order, is also well figured in outline at p. 1 of their
work.— .E". C. Rye.

Helix obvoltjta. — In reply to Mr. C. Griffith's
inquiry respecting Helix obvoluta, I beg to say that
the species has an extensive range on the Continent.
Pfeiffersays ("Mon.Heliceorum," i. 413), "Habitat
in Europse borealis et mediae terris plerisque." In
Lis last edition (v. 423), he gives as the habitat
"Europa media" only. Jeff^reys ("Brit. Con-
chology," i. 230) states that it occurs in Erance,
Germany, Switzerland, and Italy ; and I posssess
specimens from Hungary. Amongst other Erench
localities, it is found in the Bois de Meudon, two
or three miles south-west of Paris. Helix obvoluta,
in fact, is only one of the many instances of species
that are very abundant on the Continent and rare
in the British islands. Clausilia Rolphii is a
similar case, and every entomologist knows of many
such in his branch; e.g. Carabus auratus, Culosoma
sycophanta, &c. — C P. Gloyne.

Indian Insects. — As my duties lead me to
travel a good deal in the districts of western India,
I have, of course, ample opportunity of obtaining
specimens of insects, &c. ; but, having no books of
reference, am unable to say, as a rule, what are
already known to naturalists and what not. The
difiiculty of preserving specimens in cabinets is
almost insurmounlable. 1 have had the work of
two years destroyed in one week during the mon-
soon. I propose in future to send home my gather-
ings in small batches, and with this view would be

glad to correspond with any one interested in the
subject, who would send me the names of the spe-
cimens and where described, or any works on the
entomology of India, in return. — A. Stormont.

Snow-buntings. — Perhaps it may be interesting
to some of the readers of Science-Gossip to know
that an extraordinary number of Snow-buntings
{Emberiza nivalis) were taken the last week in
November. One man caught 250 in a field of oat-
stubble near Brighton, some of which are very beau-
tiful. To the lovers of the feathered tribe these birds
will be very welcome. They are a good aviary bird ;
their food is canary-seed ; they are very hardy, and
soon become tame. — Chas. W. Riidcl.

The Bkeathing of Ekogs.— Mr. W. Muller
has been comparing the amount of oxygen con-
sumed by two species of frog, the Green Edible Erog
{Ram esculenta) and the ordinary Brown Erog
{R. temporaria), in order to ascertain whether the
amount consumed by the more voracious species
was not the greater. Erom these experiments he
has concluded that the Brown Erog consumes more
oxygen than the Green Erog. When hungry they
consume less oxygen, but there is still the same
difference between the species. In winter time,
under water, they consume the same amount of
oxygen as when breathing air. Erogs frozen in
ice for eight hours nevertheless breathed at the
normal rate after being released. The amount of
oxygen consumed by the common mouse {Mus
musciilus) is twenty-four times as great as that of
the frog.

Spontaneous Changes in Eggs. — M. Gazon,
who has previously shown that the putrefaction of
eggs corresponds with the development and multi-
plication of vibrios within them, has contributed the
result of some further investigations on this sub-
ject. He thinks that these organisms might be
easily introduced into the egg during its passage
down the oviduct. Recent experiments confirm
this opinion. M. Guyon examined the oviduct of
a recently killed fowl, and found there both bacteria
and spores of fungi.

GEOLOGY.

Sub-Wealden Exploration.— At the Novem-
ber meeting of the Brighton and Sussex Natural
History Society, Mr. Wonfor reported that Mr. H.
Willett had sent him for examination the second
specimen of Lingula ovalis, found at a depth oi
294 feet, in the Sub-Wealden boring. It was be-
lieved they had reached the Kimmerage clay, and
some even thought they were nearing the Palseo-
zoic rocks.

Shells of tue Lancashire and Cheshire Low-
level Clay and Sands, by T. Mellaud Keade,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

21

r.G.S. — This was the subject of a paper recently read
before the Geological Society of London. The author
commenced by explaining a section in a cutting at
Booth-lane Station, in which most of the beds seen
about Liverpool are typically represented. He then
gave a list of the localities in which shells were
found, and stated that in all forty-six species had
been met with, distributed through the clay-beds,
those found in tlie sand-seams being rare and gene-
rally fragmentary and rolled. The shells most com-
monly found entire are usually of small size, and of
a form calculated to resist pressure, — such as Tur-
ritella communis, Trophon clathratus, and Mangelia
turricula. Fiisus antiquus and Buccinum undatum
are generally represented only by worn fragments
of the Columella, and Cyprina idandica is always
found in fragments. The author thought that the
association of the various species distributed with-
out order through the clays shows that they could
not have lived together on the same bottom, but
that they must have been to a great extent trans-
ported. He contended that the admixture of shells
in the Boulder-clay was due to the tendency of the
sea to throw up its contents on the beach; whence
changing currents and floating ice might again re-
move them, and to the oscillations of the land
bringing all the beds at one time or another within
reach of marine erosive action. He maintained
that it is in the distribution of land and sea at the
period of deposition of the Lancashire deposits, and
not in astronomical causes, that we must seek the
explanation of the climate of that period, the con-
ditions of which he endeavoured to explain by a
consideration of the proportions of the species and
the natural habitats of the shells found in the
drifts.

Geology of the Redesdale Ironstone Dis-
trict.— This is the subject of a valuable paper by
G. A. Lebour, T.G.S., reprinted from the Trans-
actions of the North of England Institute of Mining
and Mechanical Engineers. The author describes
the limits and physical features of the district, the
stratigraphy, and the ironstone shale, as well as
the " faults " traversing the strata. He also gives
a detailed account of the various sections passed
through at the dijGFerent pits. A contour map of
the ironstone district at Bedesdale accompanies
the paper, which is throughout of an important
character.

Mud-Craters on the Persian Coast.— At
the fest meeting of the Geological Society, Lieut.
Stiffe read a paper on this subject. He stated that
the coast of Mekran, extending from near the
western frontier of India to the mouth of the
Persian Gulf, was stated by the author to be a
nearly rainless district, consisting of clay plains
with precipitous tabular hills, the former veined
here and there withcrystalline gypsum, the latter

composed of clay capped and sometimes interstrati-
ficd with coarse, friable, fossilif'erous calcareous
strata, from five to thirty feet thick, supposed to be
of Miocene age, and all horizontal, or nearly so,
except at the extreme east and west, where the
strata are inclined at an angle of from 40° to G0°.
Along the coast there are no distinct traces of
volcanic action, but on the north coast of the
Persian Gulf a similar formation has been much
disturbed by the protrusion of recent volcanic
material ; near Jashak to the west there is a hot
mineral spring, and near Karachi there are springs
of pure hot water. The author described the mode
in which denudation is effected in this region by
occasional heavy rains, and by the constant action
of the sea upon the coast, and then noticed the
occurrence, within a few miles of the shore, of
numerous peculiar mud-craters, forming hills varying
in height from 20 to 300 or 400 feet above the
plain, of a regular conical form, with truncated tops,
and the sides sloping at an angle of about 40\ The
summits of these hills present a circular cup with
a narrow border, Clled with semifluid mud, which
occasionally flows slowly over the margin of the
crater. The author considered that the conical
hills have been formed solely by these overflows.
He believed that a small shoal occurring off the
coast near Jashak might be produced by one of these
craters, and was inclined to ascribe tlieir existence
to hydrostatic pressure rather than to volcanic
action, especially as by the concurrent testimony of
several natives the discharge from the craters is
greater during spring-tides. The thickness of the
clay forming the plain is probably very considerable ;
it extends for some miles from the shore, sinking
gradually to 20 or 30 fathoms, when there is a
sudden and often precipitous descent to a depth of
300 or 400 fathoms. The author suggested that,
since the deposition of the Miocene beds, the great
submarine cliff may have been raised above the sea ;
that the land was then depressed to near its present
level, causing the removal of the beds to tlie pre-
sent coast-line, and that a further depression fol-
lowed by upheaval gave origin to the inland cliffs.
Evidence of the last depression is furnished by the
presence of borings of lithodomous mollusca in the
clifts considerably above the present sea-level.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Pollen-grain. — In the botanical column of the
October number, "R. H. N. B."asks as to the pro-
bal)le plant from which a pollen-grain is derived
of which he gives a figure, numbered 147. It
appears to me that it maybe a representa'iou of the
pollen of Passiflora carulea, of which a good figure
is given in " The Microscope," by Dr. Carpenter,
figure 189; but that the figure is not peifectly
delineated by your correspondent, or may h;ive been
examined by an inferior lens, or possiiily not illu-
minated to the best advantage.— 6'. M. Major.

22

HARDWICKE'S SCI E N C E -G O S SIP.

Sciupus PARVULUS. — In the exchange which you
kindly inserted for me in a recent Science-
Gossip relative to the above plant, I stated that
A.rklow, CO. Wicklow, was "the only British station
at present existing:," wliere it grew. That statement
was erroneous, and I desire with your permission to
correct it at once. The Hampshire station, is, 1 be-
lieve, extinct, but through the kindness of Mr. A.
Bennett, I learn thwl Scirpus parvul us was discovered
in 1S69 near Poole harbour, Studland Bay, Dorset,
by Mr. J. C. Msmseil. I may add, that although I
visited the Arklow station twice this autumn for
specimens, only about ten plants were found in flower.
Thousands occurred in the barren state. — Richard
M. Barrington, Fassaroe, Bray.

CoEN-CEAKE. — I faucy the birds whose decrease
in England during the last few years Mr. Anderson
and Mr. Warner rail attention to, must have mi-
grated to North Wales ; for I really never heard so
many crakes in any place, as I did near Beaumaris,
a small town in the island of Anglesea, where I
have been living for the last three years. I am sure
there must have heen a small colony of them in the field
attached to a house I rented. The rasping noise of
their cry often kept me awake a great portion of the
night, and directly I had the grass cut they moved
to other quarters, sufficiently near the house to be
heard. I like the wild cry of the Plover and of
various sea-birds, as they are borne away by the
night wind over the sea, but the note of the corn-
crake, like the scraping of as late-pencil, puts one's
teeth on edge. — Helen E. Watmy.

Water-rat, or Vole {Arvicola ampliibiiis) . — One
day in August last I noticed a large heap of freshly
turned-up earth among growing potatoes in our
garden, and thinking a mole to be the cause, a trap
was procured, and next morning the culprit was se-
cured. At the first glance I took it to be a common
brown rat, but looking at it more closely found it
was a water rat, and the man from whom the trap
was procured declared that these aquatics burrow
quite as much as the mole itself. This I do not
dispute, seeing the efft-ct of its industry around, but
what I consider very strange, is the fact of this lover
of water being located in a walled-in garden at a
great dis'ance tVom its more congenial haunts. In
Letter 28 of White's "Selborne" a somewhat similar
instance is related, the rev. gentleman being ap-
parently as much puzzled as myself to account for
such a deviati<in from regular habits. In that case,
the animal was turned up by the plough in a chalky
field at a distance froivi water, and was snugly en-
sconced in an " hybernaculum," well provisioned
with potatoes. — W. U. Warner, Kingston, Abingdon.

Duration of Bee-hives. — In a mansion in
Kent, recently renovated, it became necessary to
disturb a colony of bees which had been known for
thirty years to have inhabited the roof. A large
quantity ot honey was procured, and 40 lb. of comb
were removed i'roni between the rafters. Is it an
unusual circumstance for bees to perpetuate them-
selves for such a length of lime in the same locality ?
-A. L.

WASPS.^Sonoe time ago, as I was returning home
from a walk, I strolled into an unfrequented lane
where I saw the following curious incident. In the
middle of the roadway a large wasp seemed evidently
engaged in some very important undertaking. Ap-
proaching carefully, I found it severing the head
from the body of one of its own species. Unfor-
tunately, my presence caused the insect to fly off

before it had completed the separation, leaving the
sufferer, however, quite dead. I have heard that
wasps make war on every other fly, and that even
the spider himself dreads their approach, but I have
neither heard nor read of anything like the above
incident. — G. 0. Howell.

Mounting Microscopical Material.— Is there
any one who will mount microscopical material sent
to him ? I have a great many lingual ribbons of
mnllusca collected in Jamaica, but unmounted,
which, if mounted, would be very useful for ex-
changes.—C. P. G.

Young Mice and their Mother. — On looking
in a mousetrap I found a mouse with six young
ones (apparently born in captivity). On examina-
f tion it was discovered that all the young mice were
headless, their heads having been, evidently, de-
voured by their hungry mother. Is it usual, when
pressed by hunger (there being no bait left), for the
old ones to devour the heads only of their offspring f
When taken out of the trap the mouse was nearly
dead.— £". S.

Mounting Mosses, &c. — Could any of your
correspondents inform me of the best way to mount
the leaves of mosses, &c., for the microscope ? It
has been recommended to mount them between slips
of glass, so that they can be moistened when it is
wanted to examine them; but I find that if this is
often done they ultimately decay. I have tried
balsam, but without good results. Would the
substance called coaguline answer the purpose? —
E. JF. J.

British Shrews.— I think "J. W." will find that
in the new edition of Professor Bell's "British Qua-
drupeds," now in the press, the " Oared Shrew " will
be omitted, as it is inOw considered to be only a
variety of the Water-shrew (Sore.rf odious). I have
examined several intermediate varieties, and am of
opinion th it the S. ciliatus of Sowerby {S. remifer
of Yarrell) is not a true species (the continental *!>'.
remifer), as believed by Mr. Yarrell.— ?. S.

Local Names.— I had a collection of birds' eggs
given me a short time since, and among them were
two labelled " Feather-poke " and " Ground-lark."
Both the egffs are about the size of the House-
spnrrow's. The names are evidently local, but I
cannot find either of them in Atkinson's " British
Birds' Eggs," although it contains most local names.
Perhaps sonie of your readers will inform me. It
would, I think, form a very interesting volume if
some one were to get the name of each bird, animal,
or in fa''t an\ thing of interest from each county,
as almost every bird, &c. has a local name, which is
very puzzling in other neighbourhoods. — Arthur
Smyth.

Microscopical Queries. — Will any of your
readers inform me what are the best media for
attaching ebonite cells to the glass slips? I have
tried Kay's coaguline, cements, marine glue, &c.,
but do not find any of them trustworthy. Could
you also inform me where I should be likely to
procure a micro-lantern on hire for a night or two ?
I want a lantern suitable for exhibiting transparent
microscopic slides on a screen. — Micro, Hull.

Mounting Crystals.— A " Constant Reader "
(p. 237) will find two very good articles on Micro-
scopic Crystals in Science-Gossip for 1S60, at
page 33 (E'ebruary), and page 125 (June).— ^4. S.

HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

23

Steange Companions! — That a spider and a
slap; should choose a restin?-place wilhin an inch
of eacli other seemed somewhat singular. Indeed,
when I noted that the sluj?, which was about an
inch in lens:th, was reposinfj under the angle of a
wall, close to the spider and its abode, I thought at
first that, though the arachnid was much less in
size, it had made a victim of the slimy individual.
I believe instances have been frequently noticed
where snails have returned again and again to the
same spot after taking their excursions. So it was
with this particular mollusk ; for he was sometimes
to be found "at home," at other times absent,
during the few days I observed him. The close
was tragical; the spider quitted her web, having
attached thereto her bag of eggs, and a h\iman
enemy of slugs watched the return homewards of
the spider's companion, and by the application of a
well-adjusted pinch of salt, brought him to his
mother earth — a slimy mass ! — /. R. S. C.

Caged Birds and Cats.— It is noticeable that
caged birds of the Finch tribe are very variously
affected by the approach of a cat. Canaries are not,
in most cases, particularly alarmed, unless a cat
makes some demonstrations of attack ; and I have
known some canaries that will chirp, in a sort of
friendly recognition, as a cat passes that tkey have
been accustomed to. The goldfinch and the siskin,
naturally timid birds, are more fearful of the feline
race than are the linnet and chaffinch. But the
bullfinch exhibits the most excessive and ludicrous
alarm ; the sight of a distant cat throws him into
an asitation, and should one appear near at hand,
tlie bird will continue peering about for a long time
(^ven after it has gone ; still suspicious that its foe
is lurking somewhere. It is probable this strong
instinctive dread of a cat is connected with the
natural habits of the bullfinch ; the bird being par-
tial to fruit, and frequently found in gardens and
orchards, wliere its life is in dancrer from cats
IDrowling about these places. — /. B. S. C.

EuPLECTELLA. — A friend of mine has a specimen
of Etipledella speciosa, within which is some crus-
tacean, what, 1 know not, but it measures quite 2 inches
long, and has somewhat the appearance of a cray-
fish, minus the antennae. How could the animal
have found its way into the interior of the Euplec-
tella, in which there is no opening or fracture of any
kind ? The prisoner (of course long since dead) is
detached, and rolls about in its cage, when the latter
is moved. Altogether the matter has puzzled me as
much as did the apple and the dumpling in the case
of " good King George," and I shall be thankful
for an explanation. — W. W. Spicer, Itchen Abbas.

Praying Mantis.— A correspondent ia your
September number asks for a description of the
Mantis oratoria, ov Praying Mantis. I have fre-
quently seen it. Some years since a mantis nest
was brought, amongst other curiosities, by one of
our family, from the south of France. It was
attached to a piece of quartz. For several weeks
it remained forgotten in a drawer. It was early in
the summer and the weather was unusually cold,
and one day, when it was shown me, I remarked
that if there were life in it, it would have little
chance of developing without heat of sun or fire,
and I forthwit.li placed it on the mantelpiece. It
had not been there two hours, before we were
startled to see a number of little creatures, about
the size of the common gnat, but wingless, emerging
from the folds of the uest, and for the next twenty-

four hours they continued to hatch at intervals, until
about fifty in all were born. On first gaining their
liberty they were exceedingly active, and their antics
were most curious, wliilst they always preserved the
praying attitude, as they fought or ran over one
another, seeking no doubt for the food they could
not find. We tried them with everything we could
think of likely to attract their baby appetites ; but
sugar, flowers, meat, insects, alike remained un-
tasted, and we now saw that our vision of bringing
up a young brood of praying mantises was doomed
to disappointment, as one after another grew weak,
shrivelled, and died. The nest, which is soft and
covered with a thin horny substance, shows a series
of scales or folds, and it is now little changed, except-
ing that it has shrunk a little in &\ze,.— Falmouth.

White Sparrows. — I observed in a recent
impression remarks from " W. F. D." on the
appearance of a sparrow " whose plumage is very
nearly entirely white," &c. Although a sparrow
with white feathers is doubtless a rara avis, yet
they occur more frequently than is supposed. A
few years ago, when living in Hampshire, there was
a white sparrow that bred in the thatch of a barn
close to my house. I shot it, and found it was of
pure sparrow breed, but perfectly white ; and there
were afterwards in the same locality several others
which were piebald ; doubtlessly part of the pro-
geny of the white one.— :Z'. V. C.

Strange Freak of a Sparrow-hawk. — I
was out with my rod towards the fall of the year,
whipping for trout on the higher part of one of the
rivers that take their rise in the centre of Dartmoor.
There was plenty of flood tumbling over the grey
rocks in foamy "cascades, and eddying swiftly past
the sharp turns in its course ; but the sun shone
brightly ; the water was clear, and the wind from
the east, and whip as I would I could not do much
with the fish. They sported to the surface but
would not take home, jumping over the red palmer,
and fiicking the blue dun with their tails ; at last,
after sundry changes of my fly without satisfactory
result, I reluctantly resorted to a worm, and had
better luck, in spite of the clearness of the water.
I had fished up to where a high bridge crossed the
stream, and had struck my rod into the ground
while I sat down for a short time against the
buttress of the bridge. A worm was on the hook,
and dangling by a short line in the air, when
suddenly there was a rush from the other side of
the bridge, and a hawk swiftly emerging from under
the arch seized the worm and flew off to the full
tether of the line, the jerk pulhng the rod to the
ground, and at the same time pulling the bait: out
of the mouth of the bird, which flew off in affright.
I regretted he had not been hooked, as it would
have been satisfactory to know . whether he could
have been held.-^. f. C.

How to Destroy Ants. — In answer to your
correspondent "E. B. F.," I have found that
boiling water will invariably destroy a whole nest
of ants. Of course hot water cannot be used if the
ants have taken up their quarters in grass ; but in
any other locality, I have generally disturbed their
nest and then placed a flowerpot downwards, on or
in close vicinity to the nest. In a short time they
will have reconstructed their home, and large
numbers will have collected under the pot, when
boiling water will soon put an end to their existence.
Half a pint of petroleum and water in equal
quantities will also completely extirpate them.—
A. P. Howes.

' 24

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

E. H. — Your article is in type, and will appear in due
course.

B. Belfield. — Your specimen of female fern (Athyriutn
filix-fcemina) is very remarkable. It answers to the descrip-
tion of the \SiT. trifidum, in Newman's "History of British
Ferns," better than to any other, and we have no doubt this
is the variety the specimen belongs to.

J. Aitkin. — The white crust which you described as so
abundant nn the bark of beech-trees, and of which a speci-
men was forwarded, is not of veg:etable origin, and therefore
not a fungus or lichen. It is of animal origin, formed of a
species of Cj/nj'pg, like the " apple-blight.'" At one time it
was considered to be a fungus, and was then named Psilonia
nivea,

R. Stavden.— Your drawing is that of the Great Saw-fly
{Urocerat giga$).

Mrs. W. — You had better consult a practical nurseryman
about the roots of your cherry-trees. His experience will at
once lead him to say what you had best do to arrest the
attacks of the insects anU fungi.

C. L. — Read the paperon "The Formation of Chlorophyll,"
in the November number of H.-G., for information as to
whether sunlight affects a fire You will there find experi-
ments related which prove that it does.

R- W.— Genuine thanks for your hints as to the matter on
our last page.

T. L. — Your specimen is evidently a stunted form of Deles-
teria atata.—W. H. G.

J. V. — Your specimen of Bryopsis plumosa, with a so-called
green parasitic growth attached, was forwarded to one of our
best algologists for identification. He writes, " It looks like
half a dozen different things, but it is so muddled together
and so interwoven that I hardly know what to say of it. I
have given what time I had to spare to it, and believe it to be
some abnormal or undeveloped filaments of Bryopsis plumusa.
I do not think it is a parasite."

J. "P. Greelv. — The specimen inclosed was one of the
wire-worms, the larva of a beetle It is difficult to prescribe
a remedy for its af:arks. Perhaps some of our readers can,
and will reply.

J. B. Da VIES. — Your fronds are undoubtedly those of
Lastrea cristata, var. uliginoaa, now very scarce. Pray,
preserve the habitat.

H. G.— They are caused by an insect, a species of Cynipg,
and are known as "Oak-spangles" and "Buttons." See
" Half-Hours in the Green Lanes." (London: Hardwicke).

E. W. — The fern is Aspleniutn lanceolatum ; the lichen a
Cetraria.

W. E. Sharp.- Your eggs never reached us. Perhaps
they were disposed of in the transit, unless well packed.

J. Wilson. — The parasites on the badger were Tricltodectes
crastug, Denny's "Monograph," plate 17, fig. 3. It is dis-
tinguished by the notch on the top of its head.— 7. O. W.

J. P. B.— We are sorry that your notice reached us too late
fOr insertion in the December No. of Gossip.

J. M.— We shall be happy to get your Mosses named for
you if you will forward them (properly packed) to our office.

H. W. I. -Fungus on Peltia from Brazil is Uredo Marchan-
ficB — I think It is undescribed. — M. C. C.

J. H. S. J. (Lewes).— The fungus on leaves of Sinyrnium
olueatrum is Tiichobasis pelrosclini.

EXCHANGES.

Clausilia Rolphii, C. laminuta, and Helix Cartusiana, for
Clausilia biplicata, Cliiusiiiii rugusa, var. dubia, Helixrevflatii,
Helix larnetlatii, LimncBa gluttnutu, and L. mtio/u/u.— Address,
J. Fitz Gerald, 10, West-terrace, Folkestone.

Pvrj& of H. Pisi, for other common pupae or ova. — J.
Pickles, 12, 13, Warehouse-hill, Leeds.

Fifty Australian Seaweeds, named and mounted, for East
or West Indian, North or South American Seaweeds, mounted
or unmounted — Address to be obtained from Mr. Hardwicke,
192, Piccadilly.

Tub First Vol of " Grevillea," unbound, for Land or Fresh-
water Shells.— T. Hagger, Repton, Burton-on-Trent.

Lkpidoi'Tera and Pupa of P. Bucephala, and H. Fid, in
exchange for other Pupae or Birds' Eggs ; many common
species of each repuirtd.— Thos. H. Hedworth, Dunston,
Gateshead.

British Land and Fresh-water Shells for American Land
and Fresh water Shells.— David Whitehead, 70, Phoebe-street,
Regent-road, Sallord, Manchester.

PoLARiscopE Scales of Sea Buckthorn (S.-G., p. 278) and
Vegetable Ivory, for other mounted objects. —Send list to C. C.
Underwood, 25, Gloucester- place, Portman-square, London.

I HAVE the following Duplicates: — Blysmus compressus ;
Campanula patula; Cuscuta europsea; Epipactis grandi-
flora; Geranium ph^um ; Monotropa hypopitys ; Neottia
nidus-avis ; Ophrys apifera; Orchis ustulata, O. elatifolia, O.
pyramidalis; Orobanche minor; Polygonatura multiflorum ;
Thesium linophylliim. Desiderata— other plants.- E. A.
Hall, Whatton Manor, Nottingham.

! have an Album (Oppen's) containing 702 stamps, also
Lichen Hypnoides. Anything useful taken in exchange. —
Mr. W. Thomas, Ray Lodge, Lingfield, E. Grinstead.

3a, 16, 31, 46, 68, 122, 259, 286, 977. 1325, l.^SS, &c., Lon-
Cat., offered for 36. 4 vars., 1) vars., 22, 24, 33, 36, 45, 47, 228i»
235A, 237, 238, 2406, 242, 243, &c.— John E. Robson, Sea View.
Hartlepool.

Lbpidoptera and specimens of H. virgata, H. caperata,
var. nrnata, H. hinpida, H. arbustorum, H. rnfuniiata, &c.,
for other Shells and British Birds' Eggs. — W. K. Mann, 17,
Wellington-terrace, Clifton, Bristol.

Can any one oblige with living Plants, or Seeds, of
Eleagnus, Deutzia, or Hippophw rhamnoides (Sea Buck-
thorn) ? Say what exchange.— J. G. R. Powell, Braw-hill
House, Leek, Staff.

Wa.vted, well-mounted slide of Tricemtium ; will give a
well-mounted slide in exchange.— F. M. Swallow, Blackrod,
near Chorley, Lane.

Section of Cuttle-bone, ground-plan (opaque), and of
Charob-seed (polar), for other good objects. — Send list to
R. H. Philip, 23, Prospect- street, Hull.

Section of Leg of Camel in exchange for other Microscopic
objects. — J. M. Hoare, The Hill, Hampstead.

Fossil Diatoms from Isleof Mors, Jutland, in exchange for
other good slides or Barbadoes polycistina, uomounted. —
Apply to F. Lazenby, Sarum villas, Basingstoke.

British Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, Foreign and British
Shells and Limaces offered for Foreign Shells, or British
Land, Fluviatile, and Marine.— M. M., Post Office, Faver-
sham, Kent.

" The Microscope," by Jabez Hogg (fifth edition), and a
good Writing Diamond, tor well-mounted Microscopic
Objects.— A. C. Rogers, Red Lodge, Bassett, Southampton.

Wkll-mounted Microscopic Slides of Marine Algae, 40
varieties, also some small btar-flsh, unmounted, for good
Slides.— R. T. Smith, 25, St. Alban's-street, Weymouth.

Good specimens at Helix arbustnrum, H. ericetorum, Clau-
nlia laminiitii, C. riignsa, Plunorbis vortex. Pupa secale, P.
umhilicatii, and Cyclostoma elegans for other Shells. — R.
Taylor, 6 Everleigli- street, ToUington-park, N.

Collection of 50 Species (I60 specimens) of British Birds'
Eggs arranged in trays, in box, for Microscopic material or
Works on the subject.— R. Taylor, 6, Everleigh-street, Tol-
lington-park, N.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." December.

"Journal of Applied Science." December.

" Les Mondes." December.

" Land and Water." December.

" The Conservation of Energy." By Prof. Balfour
Stewart. London ; King & Co.

" The Telegraphic Journal." Vol. I. London : H, Gill-
re an..

" Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle Ages."
By P. Lacroix. London : Chapman ik Hall.

" Man and Apes." By St. George Mivart. London :
Hardwicke.

" Waste Products and Undeveloped Substances." By P.
Simmonds. London: Hardwicke

" Mind and Body." By Dr. Bain. London: King & Co.

CoMMu.viCATiONs Received upto the 12th ult. fro.m —
W. K. B.— F. K.— K. H.— A. C.-C. G. B,-E. R —J. R. S. C.
—J.J. R. B.— G. G.— G. W. V. S.— W. H. B — E. E.— T. W. W.
— J.S.H.-J.A.— S. S.— E.G.— G. R.-H. B.— T. B. K.— J. H.
— T. H. H.— J. P. B.— W. W. S — E. M. M.— J. G.— H. G.—
W. S.- D. W.— S. T. P — C. C. U — J. W.— E. W.— C. E. F. G.
— T. O. W.-R. S.— A. H. S. T.— Dr. T O. W— C W. L.—
W. T.— H. T. M.— M. W. T.— H. A. M.— J. G. R. P.— J. H. M.
—A. A.— H. W.— J. L. H.— A. C. L. — M. A. L. — R. W.— R. T.

— A. S — W. D. E.— C. E. B.-C. P. G.-W. H. W.— R. A P.
— J. O. H.— J T.— R. T. S.-F. A. A.— W. C — R. H. P.—
E. A. H.— A. S.— W. S. P. — F. M. S.— E. B. F.— F. B.— J. C.

— H. E. W.— J. P.-C. J. W. R.- J. M. H.— W. K. M.- J. E. R.
— G. B. C— J. E.— F. L.— R. M. B.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

25

HISTOEY OF THE DIATOMACE.E,

{Continued.)

N the year 1S27
C. A. Agardh dis-
covered several
new diatoms,
wliicli he descri-
bed in the Regeus-
burg Botanical
Journal, and men-
tions for the first
time the genera ^licromecja,
Licmophom, and Homaocladia.
The same algologist wrote
more particularly of this family
in four theses, which appeared
with the title "Conspectus
Criticus Diatomacearum ;" in
the first and second he descri-
bed a great number of forms,
partly already known and
partly new, under the genera
Cymhella, ScJtizonema, 3Hcro-
mega, Berkeleya (this genus was constituted by
Greville in 1S27), Homceocladia, Gloeodidyon, Hy-
drurus, and Gloenema. In the third part (1S31) he
gave the genera Gomplionema, Styllaria {=Podo-
sphenia, Ehr.), Meridian, Licmophora, and Frustulia ;
in the last part (1832) Isthmia, Odontella, Desmi-
dium, Achiantlies, Striatella, Fragilaria, Grammo-
nema (belonging to the Desmidiece), and Melosira.
(Kiitzing was wrong in referring Grammonema to
Desmidieae. This form is probably an imperfectly
siliceous Eragilaria, and it is, moreover, a marine
species. — F.K.) lu the whole the author describes
about 116 species of Diatomacea?. Greville had
already described (1827), in the " Scottish Crypto-
gamia Elora," vol. v., the genera Exilaria, Monema,
and Berkeleya.

In 1S2S Turpin founded the genus Surirella, and
Gray, in 1830, the genus Biddulphia, from Conferva
Biddulphiana and C. obliqtiata of the Eng. Bot.
No. 110.

Thus, till the year 1S32, stood the systematic
labours on these microscopic organisms, most of
the writers mentioned considering them partly as
animals (the moving forms) and partly as plants
(the fixed forms). Agardh, Lyngbye, and Leiblein
advocated decidedly their vegetable nature; but,
beside Schrank, there was none who decidedly ad-
vocated their animal character ; of their life-history
nothing was known beyond the thorough communi-
cations of Kitzsch, and the more' superficial obser-
vations of Gaillon, that might have brought the
question as to their nature nearer solution.

In the same year (1832) appeared the second-
" Contributions to the Knowledge of the Minutest,
Organisms," by C. G. Ehrenberg. In this the
Diatomacese were considered as decided animal
forms, and were included with the infusoria under,
the family of "staff auimals" (Stiibthierchen, in-
cluding Desmidieae); in the class of "stomach-
animals." (Magenthiere). But, at that time, sto-
machs were as little recognized by the author as-
mouth, entrails, or rectum ; but a bivalve shell and
a changeable foot (verjinderliche Sohle) (like the
Gasteropods) and said to stretch out the longitudinal
cleft of both valves, was mentioned. Another com-
munication from the same author followed in 1834,
in which were described sixteen newly observed
forms. The descriptions communicated in these
observations are of the greatest importance, and
are given with a care hitherto unknown in this
field. The author had this advantage over his pre-
decessors, that in his investigations he could make
use of the best microscopes. (The best microscopes
of this period probably did not equal in performance
such as may now be obtained for four or five pounds.
In 1831 Messrs. Goring and Pritchard published
the " Micrographia," in which is a dialogue be-
tween Tobias Oldbuck, Esq., naturalist, and Mr.
William Putty, optician, on the comparative merits
of the old-fashioned simple microscope and the

c

26

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

newly-iuveuted engiscope (or aplanatic microscope),
the performance of metal reflectors (amiciaii reflect-
ing engiscope), and achromatic objectives are also
discussed. — E. K.)

Within Navicula Amphisbana he considered the
coloured substance as an ovary, and took the lighter
cysts appearing therein as polygastric stomach-sacs.

In the year 1S3S appeared the great work by
Ehreuberg "Die lufusiousthierchen als vollkom-
mene Organismeu," in which he still adhered to
the animal nature of the Diatomaceie, and fancied
he saw openings or mouths, stomach-cells, sexual
organs, and foot-like projections. The filamentous
forms he compared to Polypi stems.

Since the first attempts to bring the Diatoms
into several genera, the outward form of the shell-
covered body, the manner in which the single indi-
viduals are united, and the presence or absence of
stipes whereby they are attached, have been prin-
cipally taken as the foundation of classifications
since Ehreuberg introduced also the presence or
absence of shell-openings for the distinction of
genera ; but the main groups were arranged accord-
ing to the presence or absence of stipes, a mistake
which caused the author to mention Lyugbye's
Biatoma arciiatum not only as two different species,
but also under two different genera, viz. as Tessella
catena, and Striatella arcuata. His 15i species,
contained in the work already mentioned, are
mostly accompanied with very carefully drawn
figures. In 1839 he published, in the Proceedings
of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, " The Formation
of the European, Libyan, and Arabic Chalk Rocks,
and the Chalk-marl from Microscopic Organisms."
In this communication he described the new genera
Coscinodiscus and Dictyocha. [The latter genus is
now removed from the Diatomacese, with which it
has no afiinity.— E. K.] In 1840 Ehreuberg dis-
covered that many of the fossil forms were still
living in sea-water (also published in the Proceed-
ings of the Berlin Academy). He also published
the new genera Amphitetras, Ceratoneis, Grammato-
phora, Lithodesmmm, Podosira, Triceratium, Tri-
podiscus, and Zygoceros. In the same year a further
communication contained a description of about 100
new species ; and the genera Amphipentas, Campy-
Jodiscus, Discoplea, and Himantidium. He also pub-
lished, in ISiO, his work on the extent and influence
of microscopic life in North and South America.
Professor Bailey had already, in 1838, given the
outlines of American Bacillarige in Sdliman's
" Journal of Science and Art," and had also espe-
cially reported on the fossil forms of North
America.

Ehreuberg received abundant material from North
America, and at the same time he received contri-
butions from South America through his brother,
Carl Ehreuberg. He also obtained earth from
various parts of the Continent, which was brought

to Europe in the transportation of lumber {Pfiunzen-
transport), so that he obtained a view of the forms
from forty-four different localities in America, from
the Falkland Islands to Kotzebue Sound.

In the same year in which Ehrenberg's great
work on the Infusorise appeared, A. de Brebisson
had diligently studied the Algse of his neighbour-
hood (Falaise), the results of which he published in
his " Considerations sur les Diatomees," in which
he introduces the genera Cymhophora and Epithemia.

About this time Greville (in Hooker's " British
Flora ") and Harvey (in the " Manual of British
Algse") became co-workers among the Diatomacese.
The latest discoveries appeared to have been quite
unknown to them ; at least, they have no influence
on their labours.

Ralfs has furnished the most recent work on
British Diatoms in a single monograph, which is
printed and accompanied with figures in the twelfth
vol. of "Annals and Magazine of Natural History."

Rail's excels his predecessors in the correctness
of his descriptions ; but his figures are mostly crude
(with the exception of those of Amplutetras, Bid-
diilphia, and Isthmia).

F. K.

CEAPTERS ON CUTTLES.

No. 3.

Br W. H. Booth.

WE have now arrived at the last family of sec-
tion B, the Spirulidce. The little Spirula,
or Ram's-horn, is a shell familiar to most of us,
though we may not be acquainted with the animal
that formed it. Many of these shells are brought
by the Gulf Stream and strewed along the coast of

Fig. 20. Ammonites amaltheus, showing foliation of chambersj

the Peninsula, whilst a few find their way to our
own coast. For a long time the animal to which
this shell belonged had not been discovered, and it

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

27

•was geueraliy supposed that it was an exterior
shell very much like that of the Nautilus in its
function. Such, however, was found not to be the
case, for a living specimen was lately procured by
Mr. Percy Earl on the coast of New Zealand, which
proved that in this cuttle the shell is contained
within the mantle, and is in no part external.
There are three different species of Spirula, differing
from eacli other but slightly ; they are all divided
into separate chambers connected by a siphuncle.

f^)

S,

' '''' Wh- c .f ^ ■ > ^

••'^'i/f'\J\. :lt'**

Fig. 21. Ceratites ■iiodosiis, from the Muschcl-Kalk limestone,
showing; lobed chambers.

We now come to the second order of cuttles, the
Tetrahranchiata, or "four-gilled." The animals of
this order are all protected by an external shell,
they progress in exactly the same manner as other
cuttles ; but their arms, which are very numerous,
are not furnished with suckers. Three families
only, the Nautiliche, Orthoceratidtc, and AmmonitidtP,
are contained within this order, many hundred dif-

;^^- - ^?

Fig. 22. Clymenia, from Devonian limestone, showing zig-
zagged chambers.

ferent species of shells belonging to these three
families are known, but of these three only are
recent, all the rest being fossils. We are all well
acquainted with the shell of the Pearly Nautilus
{Nautilus pompilius), which will serve as a type for
its family. The shell of a Nautilus, when cut into

>\

h

two halves, appears to be divided into a number of
cells {septa), wliich are connected by a small tube,
the siphuncle. All the four-gilled cuttles have
shells similarly partitioned off, although in some the
shell is straight, in others only slightly spiral, and
others often coiled. The Nautilus is furnished with
a number of tentacles, which are of two kinds, those
about the mouth being of a different description to
those which serve as arms. It occupies the front
cavity of the shell, and can shut itself in by means
of two arms, to which is attached a leathery sort of
hood corresponding to the operculum of some uni-
valves. The other chambers which do not contain
the body of the animal, but are connected with the
heart by the siphuncle, which contains a mem-
branous tube exactly fitting all the cavities, are
used to float the animal. Although water could
not gain access to the cavities, because
the entire circumference of the mantle
in which the siphuncle originates is
firmly attached to the shell by a horny
girdle quite impenetrable to any fluid,
yet it is supposed that the chambers
can be filled with a liquid from the
pericardium, which compresses the air
already contained in them, and so the
centre of gravity is changed. By thus,
so to speak, shifting its balance, the
Nautilus rises to the surface or sinks
down to the depths at will. Owing
to the paucity of living specimens
examined by scientific men, but little
is positively known about the habits
of the Nautilus. Mr. G. Bennet, I
believe, was the first man of science
who had the good fortune to obtain a
living specimen. This gentleman was
in Mare Kini Bay, near Erremanga,
when a Nautilus was seen not very far
from the ship, floating on the surface
of the sea with the upper portion of
the shell raised above water, and kept
in a vertical position by means of the
included air, and, in the w"ords of the
sailors, looking very much like a dead tortoise-
shell cat in the water. On being captured
the upper portion of the shell got broken by the
boat-hook, as the animal was just sinking when
caught. The shell is so well known that a descrip-
tion of it would be superfluous ; but a few remarks
on its ingenious structure, formed so as to resist
the great pressure it would have to encounter when
at the bottom of the ocean, may be of some interest.
The shell is constructed in every way on the prin-
ciple of the arch, so as to offer the greatest resist-
ance to pressure, by making each part bear its
share of the weight. In some fossil species the
strength of the shell is greatly increased by its
being formed into ribs, thus fortifying it in a man-

Fig. 23.

Ancient
Bi^lemnite,
(restored).

28

HA.P.DW1CKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

uer similar to that by which iron is strengthened
by being corrugated. And, last of all, the divisions
between the chambers serve as supports, acting as
cross-beams, and enabling the shell to resist all
lateral and inward pressure. Probably more of the
living animals have been lately observed, as they
are by no means rare in the Indian seas, their
favourite haunts being along the coral reefs. The
Eiji Islanders are said to catch them by letting down
large wicker baskets of the same construction as
ordinary crab-pots, baited with crayfish, and loaded
with stones to make them sink. After catching the
Nautili they broil them, when they are reputed to
be very good eating.

Fig. 2-1. ConiatH's spftirru-tts. from Carboniferous formation,
showing angulated chambers.

Of the second family, the Orthoceratidci', we have
no examples, save in the fossil state. In the typical
genus, Orthoceras (opQoQ,orthos, straight, and Kipaq,
keras, a horn), the shells are straight, and, as their
name implies, very like a straight horn. Like the
Nautilus, these shells are multilocular, and have
their chambers separated by transverse plates, con-
cave externally, convex internal])', and connected
by a siphunele. Some species of this genus attain
to a length of nearly six feet ; their shells are
found in great numbers in blocks of marble of a
dark-red colour, from the limestone of Oeland. Of
this marble many pavements of our public buildings
have been constructed; amongst them part of that
in Hampton Court Palace, and that in the Hall of
University College, Oxford. Several other genera
belonging to this family possess shells of very
pretty and varied forms ; of these, the genera
Cyrtoeeras and Gyroceras, are good examples. We
now reach the last family, the Ammonitido', contain-
ing the well-known Ammonites and other kindred
forms, which must have existed in great numbers
during the Secondary epoch, as testified by the
number of their shells which have been found. They
are very similar to the Nautilus in most respects, and
.are far too well known to require description. The
name of Ammonite is said to be derived from the
Romans, who called it the "cornu xVmmonis," or
Amnion's horn. Another name is that of St. Hilda's
beads, so called from a supposition that they were
•3nakes turned into stone at that saint's prayer.

The good people of Whitby went farther than this,
for they made plaster heads of snakes and fixed
them on to the Ammonites ; alleging that they were
found in that condition. Ammonites are occasion,
ally found of a great size, almost as large as a cart-
wheel, and in some parts are so plentiful as to be
used for mending the roads. They are very gene-
rally distributed, most numerous in portions of the
Oolitic system ; two species found in England, at
Whitby, have also been discovered at an elevation
of sixteen thousand feet on the Himalavas.

m

IS*

ll i

Fig. 25. Ortltocerns ; the upper
part is one of the perforated
chambers.

Fiff. 26. Curved
Orthocerus {Cyrtoeeras).

It nov.' only remains for me to notice a class Oi
shells which, from their structure, might be sup-
posed to be closely connected with the Ammonites
and other chambered shells ; I allude to the Eorami-
nifcra, and more especially the Nummulites. These
beautifully sculptured little shells, existing as they
do in countless myriads on our coasts, the delight
and great pleasure of the microscopist, are of much
lowlier rank. They appear to be more closely allied
to the Amceba, animals (very nearly vegetables),
notliing more than a piece of mucus, colourless,
plastic, and just retaining voluntary motion. When
one of tliese creatures approaches any minute plant
or animal that cannot get out of its way, it so con-
torts itself as to send out brauolies or arms of its
body, which clasp the prey all round, and make it
embedded in the living mucus until quite absorbed.
Thus, of very much lower organization than the
Cuttles are the Foraminifera.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

29

We have taken a cursory glance at the maiu fea-
tures of the Cuttles, animals which, from their fero-
cious disposition and terrible weapons, may fairly
rank as the tigers of the deep. Yet we must by no
means look upon these destroyers as beings whose
absence would leave no gap, or be even beneficial.
On the contrary, they are most necessary, and are a
part of the scheme of nature by means of which
creatures are kept within bounds from excessive
increase through counterbalancing causes. It is
one of the precepts of Providence that seems strange
and revolting at first sigiit, that throughout all
creation there should be such a sanguinary scene as
that of the cruel methods by which the carnivorous
tribes procure their prey. As it is with the higher
mammalia, so is it with these cuttles ; the more the
difficulties and dangers that beset the existence of
an animal, the more are its means of defence aug-
mented. Tbe pursuit of prey forms a large part of
the occupation of the Cuttles, as also does flight
from their numerous foes. These twofold require-
ments bring into action a number of accomplish-
ments, so to speak, which, but for their carnivorous
nature and that of their enemies, would never have
been called into existence. But for the urgent calls
for self-preservation, both as shown in flight from
enemies and pursuit of prey, a great sameness and
inactivity would be visible in all the manifold pro-
ductions of nature. It was never meant that
animals should drag on a miserable existence merely
to keep gorging themselves with food. No ; under
such a state of affairs what would be the aspect the
world would present ? A number of beings grovel-
ling on the earth with no other care than that of
filling their paunches to satiety, and totally destitute
of the life and busy activity which is to be seen
everywhere around under the present state of affairs.
The sudden extinction of all cuttles would also
create a great blank in the police of nature; we
should have several creatures increasing at such a
rate as to become positively baneful. It is interest-
ing to notice the many forms which cuttles possess,
all called into being by a felt need. The female
Argonauta fabricates a delicate shell wherein her
eggs are laid to prevent their being injured by the
rapid rush of water or devoured by predacious
fishes ; the male, having no eggs to protect, does not
require a shell, and so has not got one. Nearly all
cuttle are provided with a supply of ink to aid them
in esciping from their enemies, by rendering the
water so dark and turbid that they are not visible^
Yet the Nautilus has no ink — and why ? Because
its mode of protecting itself is by simply retreating
within the shell, where it is perfectly protected
from all foes by the strong membrane which forms
a cover to the mouth of the shell. And we might
miiltiply instances indefinitely, but the few above
will show how a variety of powers is called forth by
the needs of self-preservation.

THE ANTENNJil OF INSECTS.
By Mk. T. W. Wonfor.

'\17E copy the report of the following very inter-
' ' esting and instructive paper, recently read
before the Brighton Natural History Society, from
the Brighton Daily News, a paper which has already
distinguished itself by the prominence it gives to
popular scientific subjects.

Few, if any, organs belonging to the different
members of the animal world present such a diver-
sity of form, or have led to so great a difference of
opinion among naturalists respecting the special
office they fulfil in the animal economy as the an-
tenna, the jointed organs situated on the head in
most of the different members of tbe great family of
articuhita. "While the Crustacea possess two pair,
the myriapoda and insecia are furnished with a single
pair only ; in the last-named the form, number of
joints, and sundry other particulars are used as a
means of classifying the different genera and species.

They are generally spoken of as consisting of three
parts,— the basal joint, connected with the head by
a ball-and-socket movement called the torulus, is
designated by the term scapus ; the next portion,
generally cylindrical in form and often very minute
in size, is called the pedicella ; while the rest of the
antenna is called the clavola. That the form is
different is evident to all who have examined any
class of insects, while the terms moniliform, seta-
ceous, clavatc, pectinated, eusiform, plumose, lamel-
late, &c., indicate the nature of some of these differ-
ences; and simply as objects exhibiting diversity
of appearance with possible identity of office, they
form an instructive series worthy the attention o?
the microscopist.

Apart from this diversity of form, the antennae
deserve especial attention, because, as before men-
tioned, it is not yet absolutely determined what is
their especial function, or in which part any one of
the functions attributed to them is situated.

Different writers have assigned to the antennai the
three several senses of touch, hearing, and smelling
and all adduce illustrations, or the existence of parts
in these organs, to warrant their respective views.
That they are organs of sensation none deny, but
which, or how many of the three senses above named
they constitute, is still a moot question, though the
microscope in the hand of Dr. Hicks and others has
done much in recent days to help to unravel the
mystery.

Those who have watched the actions of ants or
bees must have been struck with the use made by
these creatures of their antennae, as a means of
communicating information to each other. How
this information is conveyed, or how they converse,
apparently, by the mere contact of their antennae is
certainly not known ; but that they do convey infor-

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

inatiou from one to auotlier, ask for help, and give
orders, is borne out by the observations of many
dihgent students of both the tribes.

That in many cases they are admirably adapted as
organs of touch or feeling would appear to be the
case from the great number of joints, their extreme
delicacy, and the easiness of movement in every
direction. Many insects, when at rest, fold back
the antenna;, so as to conceal them, but as soon as
they begin to move, the antennae are thrust forward,
the parts are separated widely, and while in some
they are vibrated from side to side, in others, as in
some species of wood lice (as observed by Ivirby and
Spence), they are used as organs of touch. It has
been urged that they cannot well be organs of touch,
on account of the hard horny character of their
outer surfaces, and that this function is performed
by another set of organs, — the pa/pi.

Many naturalists incline to the idea that they are
the organs of hearing. Now it is generally conceded
that in the Crustacea, especially the higher ones, the
organs of hearing are situated at the base of the long
external pair of antennce, and, as in the case of the
crayfish, consist of a hollow cylindrical process,
closed internally by a drum or thin membrane, behind
which is a vesicle filled with fluid, which receives
the termination of a nerve ; but the organ of smell,
as has been principally observed with crabs, consists
of cavities lined with a mucous membrane, situated
at the base of the inner pair of anteaure, and pro-
tected externally by fine bristles.

Many observers have noticed that, if a noise is
made, the antenna; of some insects are turned in
the direction of the part from which the noise comes.
This has been observed in the case of the longicoru
beetles, grasshoppers, and crickets, which, when
suddenly surprised by a noise, have been seen to
stretch out their long antennae and stand, as it were,
attentively listening for the sound. Rennie mentions
a green grasshopper inclining its antennae to the
rustle of a piece of paper under the table on which
it was placed, and bending one of them in the direc-
tion of the sound.

On the other hand, many circumstances seem to
prove that insects possess a very acute sense of
smell. It has been observed in "Episodes of
Insect Life" that "no flocks of vultures can be
directed more unerringly to their revolting prey by
its odours from afar than certain insects, such as
dung-flies and carrion beetles, whose corresponding
office is to assist in ridding the earth of offensive
objects." That it is the sense of smell which
•directs the blow-fly to the deposition of the larva;
is shown by the fact that she has laid them on sta-
pelias, a carrion-odoured hothouse plant, and on
silk with which tainted meat had been covered.
Equally keen-seented are butterflies and bees; the
latter have flown miles in the direction of particular
flowers, whose odour had been wafted by the wind.

while the former have alighted from a considerable
height on their favourite flowers. Then, as is well
known to lepidopterists, night-flying moths are
attracted from long distances by anointing the
trunks of trees with sugar or treacle, and this, we
should think, by the sense of smell alone.

Again, as we have stated on several occasions,
the males of some species of moths are attracted by
the females under such conditions as to lead to the
idea that either the sense of smell is wonderfully
acute, or that they possess some sense not yet deter-
mined by physiologists. Placed in boxes either
carried in the coat-pocket, put in a basket, or shut
up in a leather bag, the perceptive faculty has been
so strong in the male that they have been seen
flying over the top of a wood at least 300 yards off-
Nay more, we have had them settle upon ourselves
when the box containing the female was no longer
in the pocket. Our idea is that some of the (to us)
imperceptible scent clung to our garment.

Among the authorities inclining to the idea that
the antennas are the organs of hearing are Sulzer^
Scarpa, Schneider, Rockhauser, Burmeister, Carus,
Oxen, Kirby and Spence, Newport, and Hicks : the
last named we have more particularly to refer to
presently. On the side of those who consider them
organs of smell are Reaumer, Lyouet, Robineau,
Desvoidy, Kiister, Erichsou, and Vogt.

It might be asked — Has the microscope done
anything, and if so, what, in solving these difficul-
ties ? Newport in ISol (" Transactions of the
Entomological Society," vol. ii. p. 229) found all
the joints, except the second, of Ichneumon Atropos
perforated all round by very minute holes. He
observed also tracheae passing up the whole length
of the antennte, and giving ofl" branches at every
joint, and which, as he considered, communicated
with the holes in the wall of the antennae. Of this,
though, he was not quite certain. He states that
thesamestructurecxisted in most setaceous antennae.
E. E. Erichson published at Berlin, in lSi7, his
"Dissertaito de Eabrica et Usu Antennarum in
Insectis," in which he enunciated these laws: 1st. The
wall of the antenna; in insects is by no means solid,
but perforated by numerous openings. 3nd. These
openings are closed on the inner side by a mem-
brane. 3rd. The openings in the antennae of differ-
ent insects are arranged in different ways. He also
shows that these openings are never found in the
basal joint. He considered the numerous hairs
found in the antenna;, between the pores or open-
ings, protected them from extraneous bodies, and
that the pores were organs of smell, because, " as
the olfactory organs of the higher animals are moist
membranes, in order that the odorous particles may
be dissolved by the humour secreted, in the same
way these membranes perform the same office, are
protected by the downy hairs, and kept moist by
them." xVuother reason why he considered them

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

31

organs of smell was that they are most numerous in
those tribes of insects whose scent is acute. Vogt
pointed out in 1S51 that " if the uniform antennas
are examined with a sufficiently high power, the
outer surface of all the divisions, except the articu-
lating joint, is found to be covered with minute
punctures, which are closed in at the bottom by a
thin membrane that appears to be clothed with
numerous hairs. In the antennas that are not of
uniform shape throughout, there is a shaft or style,
and these indentations are then found only upon the
toothed branches, processes, and feathers of the
antennae, whilst the integument of the shaft is like
that of the remaining portions of the body." He
further says of them, "We are of opinion that these
minute pores, filled with fine hairs, perform a func-
tion combining those of smell and touch. Now
Dr. Hicks, iu two papers read before the
Linnsean Society in 1S57 and 1S59, and published
in the 22nd vol. of ' The Transactions of the Linnocan
Society,' pointed out that on the whole surface of
the third joint of the antennae of the blow-fly are a
multitude of transparent dots, apparently vesicles,
which on closer examination are found to be cavities
in the wall of .the antennae, filled with fluid, closed
in from the outer air by a very thin membrane, and
that each little sac is connected with the nervous
system by a distinct nerve." There are 17,000 of
these perforations on the surface of each antenna
in the blow-fly. Besides these, there are about
eighty larger sacculated chambers irregularly dis-
persed, 'and connected with the nervous ganglia.
He points out the existence of similar organs in the
antennae of the difi'erent tribes of insects, and comes
to the conclusion that they are organs of hearing,
because—" 1st, they consist of a cell, sac, or cavity
filled with fluid, closed in from the air by a mem-
brane analogous to that which closes the foramen
ovale in the higher animals ; 2nd, that this membrane
is for the most part thin and delicate, but often
projects above the surface, in either a hemispherical,
conical, or canoe-shaped, or even hair-like form,
often variously marked ; 3rd, that the antennal
nerve gives off branches which come in contact with
the inner wall of the sacs ; but whether the nerve
enters or ends in the small internally projecting
papilla is very difficult to say. Dr. Hicks considered
it impossible that the essential nature of an olfactory
organ could be included in such structures, or that
odorous particles could pass, first through a mem-
brane, sometimes even spinous, then through a
cavity filled with fluid, and thirdly through another
membrane to reach the extremity of a nerve, but
that they were well suited to the transmission of
sound. Notwithstanding the conclusions of Dr.
Hicks, we cannot help thinking that one of the
functions of the antennas is that of smell. In those
moths which exhibit "sembling," that is, the attract-
ing the males by the female from long distances,

not only the shape of the antennae in the sexes
differs in a marked degree, but the pectination in
the males is very deep, and the number of hairs is
many times greater than in the female, while the
organs pointed out by Dr. Hicks are more numerous.
This is a good time of year for such members as may
feel an interest in the subject to investigate the
matter for themselves, and we would advise that
not only the method of bleaching recommended for
rendering the antennae more transparent be adopted,
but that sections similar to those so admirably made
by Dr. Halifax be tried, and so some further light
may be thrown, either way, on these organs, though
the question whether they be coiifined to one sense,
or whether they perform the office at times assigned
to them of common sensation, may not be made out
to demonstration. The process recommended for
bleaching by Dr. Hicks is one drachm chlorate of
potash, one drachm and a half water ; mix in a
small wide-mouth bottle holding about an ounce ;
after five minutes add 1-1- drachm of strong hydro-
chloric acid. In this mixture place antennae, and let
them remain from a few hours to a week, according
to their nature.

THE GOLD-CRESTED WREN.]
By ^y. H. Warner.

SHELTERING one side of the house is a row
of the tall, graceful, and swaying spruce-firs
{Abies excelsa), and here, at various times of the
year, but especially in spring and summer, may be
seen a pair or more of those extremely beautiful
little birds the Golden-crested Wrens {Recjulus oris-
tatus), the humming-bird of the British isles. This
tiny bird is about three inches and a half in length,
with plumage of an olive-green, and a pale yellow
crown, bordered with black at the top of the head.
In the male bird a dash of orange enriches his golden
crown, giving him a still further claim to the title of
Regulus — a king.

You may see the tiny Gold-crest in the most
lonely woods, as well as near houses, but always
among trees of the fir tribe, for which it has an
especial predilection. And here it hunts for minute
insects the livelong day with the greatest industry,
disporting itself in all manner of positions. It flutters
like a butterfly from bough to bough, peers with its
bright eye into every cranny and crevice, hangs
head downwards like the restless tits, and is gene-
rally so absorbed in its busy search, that it will
allow the spectator to approach quite close with-
out its testifying the slightest alarm. So fearless
too is its disposition, thut I have several times
approached within arm's length of it. During the
severe weather which ushered in the year 1871,
a little Gold-crest came to receive our bounty, and
on one occasion flutt^^"®J down to my feet with the

32

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOS S I P.

greatest coufidence and trust. "When busily bunt-
ing for food among the boughs of the pine and the
fir, the Gold- crest frequently repeats its shrill call-
note, which closely resembles the sharp squeak of
the Shrew. Its song proper is a sweet feeble little
strain, consisting of a few short notes — tweetie,
tweetie ! ending in a long-drawn twee ! This is
repeated while the tiny performer is swaying about
on the branches of the fir. It first begins to sing
in Eebruary (in mild seasons in January) and on
till August or September.

At the end of April or the beginning of May, the
Gold-crest begins to exercise its skill as a designer
and weaver, and in this accomplishment it has but
three rivals among the British birds; viz., the
Chalfinch, the Goldfinch, and the Long-tailed 'J'it.
Early in May, 186S, I watched the progress of a
nest, which was built in a spruce-fir close to this
house. Noticing the tiny builders flying about M'ith
materials in tlicir hills, I watched them for some
time, and at length discovered the nest at the
extreme end of one of the fir boughs. The tiny
owners worked most industriously, and in the space
of a week the nest was completed, and two eggs
laid. The nest hung between two small end boughs,
to one of which it was attached by ropes of cocoon-
silk, and the other was woven in with the materials
of the nest. The nest was about four inches and
a half in length, and was moulded and woven in the
most neat and beautiful manner. It was open
above, and the opening abruptly narrowed as it
reached the top. The walls were composed of soft
green moss and wool, felted together and covered
OQ the outside with the webs of spiders, the cocoons
of insects, and a few shreds of bark. The inside
was small and plentifully lined with feathers, whicii
near the top were so arranged as to almost hide
the opening. In this soft bed the eggs were laid,
and from their diminutive size appeared almost
lost among the feathers with which the hoUovv was
so plentifully adorned. The eggs were of a delicate
cream-colour, with a pale brown zone or band at
the large end.

In June tlie Gold-crest brings out its little family
into public life, and they hunt for food in company,
resorting frequently in winter to the hawtlioru
hedges, and often collecting into flocks of some
numbers. Selby affirms that this tiny creature
sometimes migrates, and says that in October, 1823,
after a very heavy gale and fog from the N.W.,
thousands of these birds were seen to arrive on the
seashore and sandbanks of the Northumbrian
coasts.

To conclude. Though not an advocate for keep-
ing birds in confinement, having always preferred
studying the really wild denizens of the woods and
fields, yet in deference to those who hold a contrary
opinion, I may as well give a few second-hand
hints as to the management of these tiny creatures

in the aviary. Bechstein, that great authority on
such matters, says that the young Gold-crests may
be easily reared if taken hffore they are fully fledged.
He recommends as food, meal-worms cut small,
flies, ants'-eggs, and wheaten bread soaked in milk :
care must be taken to make the latter neither too
stiff nor too moist. He also says that insect food
is necessary to them and seeds injurious. These
pretty little creatures live and thrive well in a
warmed and ventilated greenhouse with a small pine-
tree in the centre, or a large cage in a moderately
warm room.

Kingston, Abingdon. *

PABASITIC FLIES.

"O y this term I do «o/ mean the hosts of black
-L' flies, sand-flies, gnats, mosquitoes, et id genus
onine, which try men's patience and temper by
sucking their blood; but a still worse "crew,"
whose mission it is to deposit eggs either upon or
within the human body. In these cases it is the
larva or grub which works all the mischief. The
period of occupancy occurs before the perfect insect
comes to light ; and therefore man's tenant, in the
instances to which I allude, is the grub, — not
the fly.

t

m

Fig. 27. " Whorbles," or " Worm-holes," in hides of oxen.

The last place perhaps in which one would look
for the larva of a flower-fly (I know no better
way of rendering the technical name, Anthomyid)
is the human stomach. Yet at least two species
{scalaris and canicularii) occasionally occupy this
singular locality. How can they get there ? is the
first and most natural question ; but one which it
is by no means easy to solve. The most probable
suggestion is that they are introduced with vege-
tables which have been standing for some time, and
on" which the mother-fly has,' in the innocence of
her heart, laid a batch of eggs, unwitting of the
evil consequences likely to follow. But in what-
ever way they have been brought into their tem-
porary lodgings, they appear to adapt themselves
readily to surrounding circumstances, and to make
themselves quite at home, clinging to the inner sur-
face of the intestine by means of minute spines
with which the back and sides are armed. While
there, they cause, as may be supposed, considerable
irritation.

HARDWICKE'S SCI EN C E-GO SSIP.

33

The occupation of tlu; ricsh-flyis more legitimate
than that of those just named, and the insect seems
lo be but fuUilling its proper mission when it oc-
casionally assumes tlie role of the parasite. It is
true, its feeding-ground is more generally tlie dead
than the living subject ; still it is not averse, when
the occasion offers, to ciioose man as the nidus
on which to deposit its eggs or larvae (for several
species are vivipaious), and to rear its young. In

Fiff. 23. Grub of
Myiwdtfrnia.

Fi(j. 29. FlesVi-fly [S irco/ihaga
cuniuriii).

this way it has often caused serious annoyance and
evendauger to life, laying its eggs in hot weather
on wounds and sores, where they speedily hatch,
and the grubs, instead of dropping to the ground,
eat their way into the flesh. A terrible story is
given by Kiiby and Spence (Introduction vol. i.
p. 137, ed. 4), of a beggar being almost literally
devoured alive by the larva of Hies, attracted by
some meat placed by the wretched man " betwixt
his shirt and skin."

Fig. 30. Blow-fly {^Cadijihora fulmharbU).

A similar story of a not less painful nature is re-
corded by M. Aristide Ptoger, in his "Lcs Monstres
invisibles " (p. 55). It has reference to the death
of a chiffonier, who was found a few years ago in a
ditch just outside Paris, still living, but with his
features completely destroyed by the multitude of
blow-fly grubs feeding on him.

Man's perverse ingenuity has converted this
propensity of flies to devour living flesh into an in-
strument of torture ; for Plutarch assures us, that
in Persia state criminals were sometimes thus
punished. Por this purpose the wretched individual

was fixed securely between two boats, the upper
being inverted over the lower, with only the feet,
hands, aud face exposed ; the latter being besides
smeared with honey. The result may be imagined.
Countless swarms of scav-enger flies, attracted by
their prey, deposited masses of eggs on the victim ,
who was thus eaten alive. Persons have been
known to live for several days before they suc-
cumbed to this liorrible torture.

Fig:. 31. Lucila honiinioorajt. Fig. 32. Grub of ditto.

The principal parasites, at least in this country,
arethe different kinds of Tlesh-fly {Sarcophaga,^\g.'2^)
and Blow-fly or Blue-bottle {Calliphora, fig. 30), the
prolific parent of the " gentles," dear to the heart
of youthful Izaak Waltons. Prolific indeed they are !
Degeer calculated that a single flesh-fly may deposit
about fifty larvse (for she is viviparous), and in the
course of six months may become the happy
mother of more than five hundred million descend-
ants! (Leunis, " Naturgeschichte des Thierreichs,"
s. G20.)

In addition to the above there are two flies,
whose habits have not been thoroughly studied ;
but the effect of whose parasitism is, in one case at
least, very serious. They are confined to the warmer
regions of America, and are known to the natives
under various names : in Brazil they are the Ura ;
in Costa Rica, the Torcel ; in New Granada, the
Gusano peludo; in Cayenne, the Ver macaque.
With regard to one of these flies. Bates speaks as
follows :— " A species of (Estrus or gadfly, on the
Upper Amazons, fixes on the flesh of man as a
breeding-place for its grub. I extracted five at
different times from my own flesh. The first was
fixed in the calf of my leg, causing there a sup-
purating tumour, which (being unaware of the
existence of this (Estrus) I thought at first was a
common boil. The tumour grew, and the pain in-
creased until I became quite lame, and then, on
carefully examining the supposed boil, I saw the
head of a grub moving in a small liole at its apex.
The extraction of the animal was a difficult opera-
tion, it being an inch in length and of increasing
breadth from head to tail, besides being secured to
the flesh of the inside of the tumour by two horn

34.

R A R 1) W J C K E' 8 S C ! F K C E - G O S 8 1 P.

hooks. An old Indian of Ega showed me the most
effective way of proceeding, which was to stupefy
the grub with strong tobacco-juice, causing it to
relax its grip in tiie interior, aud then pull it out of
the narrow orifice of the tumour by main force."
("The Naturalist on the Amazons.")

Alexander von Humboldt had already published
an account of a fly witli similar habits, which he
named CEdrus Jiomiiiis. According to his observa-
tions, the larvse of the insect are not rare on the
arms, back, and abdomen of the natives, within
large tumours, at the top of which is a minute
orifice, through which the grub communicates with
the outer air. At a fitting period the larva forces
its way through this hole, falls to the earth, and
there undergoes its final changes.

All this is piecisely what occurs in the case of
the European gadflies. Every resident in the
country must have noticed lumps or swellings on
the backs of oxen, especially of heifers, which are
called by the rusticswhorbles (fig. 27) or wormuls, no
doubt meaning worm-holes. Within each of these
swellings lies ensconced a grub, the produce of a
large brownish fly, which was named by Bracy
Clark Ilypoderma bovis (fig. 28). From August to May
the head of the little creature is plunged in a mass of
purulent matter, on which it feeds, while the tail,
in which the breathing apparatus is situated, is
thrust through a minute hole at the apex, in order to
come in contact with the outer air. During the
month of May the larva manages to enlarge the
orifice, through which it drops to the ground and
seeks a convenient place of shelter.*

This little bit of life-history points to a close
analogy between our gadfly and the human parasite
of South America. Moreover, a connecting link is
found in a narrative given us by Don Ramon Paez
in his "Life in the Llanos of Venezuela," wherein
he writes: "Agapito, our host, had an easy time
as overseer of this domain, his only occupation
being from time to time to scour the savannah in
search of young foals which might have been at-
tacked by the 'gusano.' This is the larva of a
species of fly deposited in the umbilical cord of the
new-born foal, and which, if not promptly remcved,
will eat into their very vitals."

It will not escape observation that the horse-fly
of Venezuela aud the human parasite of the neigh-
bouring state of New Granada both pass by the
name of Gusano.

On the whole, wc can scarcely avoid the conclu-
sion that some species of ox-fly not unfrequently
leaves its proper pasture-ground, and deposits ils

* No great harm follows from the attacks of tlie gadfly to
our herds; but we are told by Dr. Bernard Altum, in his
lately published work, '• Forst-Zoologie Saugethiere,'' that in
Germany the hides of the wdd deer are often so riddled by
these srubs as t ) render them unfit for the purposes oi the
tanner.

eggs on the human frame. Certainly Van der
Hoeven ("Handbook of Zoology," i. ) is inclined to
think that the injury is due to this cause, or else to
some species of Tachiiia.

Other authorities, however, introduce us to a fly
whose mode of action bespeaks it a place among
the flesh-flies, — a group very far removed from the
gadflies.

One species infests the valleys of Mexico, both
North and South, though not found on the high
table-lands. This fly lays its eggs in the nostrils of
human beings ; the larvfe are quickly hatched ; and
then follow rapidly ulceration, erysipelas, and
meningitis. The insect gradually eats its way into
the mouth, eyeballs, cheeks, &c., until in a fortnight
or three weeks the miserable victim succumbs to
his fate, ("Archives medicales Beiges," 1867.)
The same or a similar plague is not uncommon
farther south. Captain Burton does not appear to
have been himself cognisant of any case in Brazil,
but he speaks of hearing "many tales told of
negroes losing their lives in consequence of the
grub being deposited in the nose and other places."
("Highlands of the Brazils,") A more detailed
account I translate from M. Girard's work, "Les
Metamorphoses des Insectes," published in 1867,
" Since the transportation of prisoners condemned
to hard labour to Cayenne has been in vogue,
several fatal cases have been traced to the opera-
tion of a fly named by Dr. Coquerel Lucilia homini-
vorax (fig. 31). Other convicts have escaped with the
loss of their nose ; for it is into the nose and cheeks
of sleepingmen, especially whenin a condition of help-
less intoxication, that the insect introduces its eggs.
The maggot, which is furnished with strong hooked
mandibles, establishes i'self in the interior of the
nostrils, and in the frontal sinus ; from thence it
passes to the eyeballs, and causes gangrenous
wounds in the eyelids; or it enters the mouth, and
gnaws away the gums, the palate, and the pharjTix,
causing intense anguish. The patient experiences
at first an itching sensation in the nostrils, accom-
panied by severe headache and swelling of the nose,
which is soon followed by ulceration of the parts
<'i{fected, during which the larvai force their way
through the skin, and make their appearance on
the surface. As tiie evil advances, violent inflam-
matory action sets in, with all the symptoms of
meningitis and erysipelas, until death releases the
victim. The grub in question is known in Cayenne
as the ver macaque, and was published to the world
so long ago as 1735 by M. Arturc, physician to the
king of Cayenne. It is probable that the ver
motjacull of Mexico, which attacks men and dogs, is
an analogous species.

"Dr. Coquerel has a^so made known another fly
under the name of Idia bigoti, indigenous in Senegal,
which stings the soldiers on duty near the coast.
In all likelihood this stinging is the introduction of

H Aim W 1 C K E'8 S CI E N C K - G O S S I F.

35

the animal's ovipo^itoi• previous to placing its eggs
under the skin. The larva has been met with in
tumours in the back, arms, and legs. The negroes
are often attacked by tbis tly, ai]d are skilled in
extirpating the larva."

From what has been related, and from the cases
of assault quoted by Moquin Taudon in his valuable
" Medical Zoology," I infer that at least two species
of fly, belonging to distinct groups of the Dipterous
order, are concerned iu this kind of parasitism.

MEDIAEVAL KATi:HAL HISTORY AKD
SPOKT.*

THIS is a work to cause a student of mediteval
history almost to break one of the ten com-
mandments, and so far covet his neighbour's goods.
It presents itself in all the attraction of excellent
paper and clear type, with fifteen full-page ehrorao-
litliographic priuts, and four hundred wood-en-
gravings. The character of the latter may be best

Vis '^i- Cultivation of Fru t; fi-om a 51 S. of the Filteeuth centui'y.

One, an (Entricl, to be ranked witii the European
Hypoderma, causes swellings and so.-es on the legs
and arms of the person alTected. This is probably
the Cuierebra noxialis of Guudot. The other, a
Muscid, nearly related to our Blue-bottle {Calli-
phora), attacks ^the face of its victim : it is the
Lucilia hominivorax of Coquercl. — W. jr. Spicer,
Itchiii Abbas.

judged of by tliose which illustrate the present
notice, and for which wc are indebted to the kind-
ness of the publishers. Thework^is compiled by
one of the best -known students of mediaeval lore, M.
Lacroix, better known as " Bibliophile Jacob," the
curator of the Imperial Library of the Arsenal, Paris.

* '• Manners, Customs, and Dress during the Middle Ages."
By Pdul i.ac.-oix. London: Chapman & HaU.

36

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

In tlie six luindred large octavo pages which
make up the volume before us, we have the Middle
and Renaissance periods brought before us like a
panorama. Their social habits and requirements,
their art and science, love and war, homes and
prisons, spoits and pastimes, are described with
inimitable skill, whilst the accuracy of the state-

former will thank him for so ably introducin:? them
to the habits and modes of life of their mediaeval
ancestors. The book is divided into sixteen chap-
ters, of which the most interesting to us are those

Fig: 34. " Goose Tree," from Minister's "Cosmographi;
Universelle."

ments are substantiated by the illustrations, which
have been derived chieily from the art-efforts of the
periods in question. The pictures very effectively
tell the talc, and it would not be difficult to infer
from them an accurate idea of the life of six cen-
turies ago, even without the aid of antiquarian

Fig. 35. Tlie Pond Fisherman, from Munster's " Cosmographie," A.n. 1549.

research. The great merit of M. Lacroix's work
is that it does not treat of its interesting subjects
in a dry-as-du5.t manner. It is written for the in-
telligent public, not for antiquaries merely ; and the

Fig. 36. The River Fisherman, from a 16th century engraving.

on the "Private Life in th^ Castles, Towns, and
Rural Districts," " Food and Caokcry," " Hunting,'*
" Games and Pastimes," " Guilds and Trade Cor-
porations," ''Punishments," and "Con-
dition of Persons and Lands." In fig.
33, we have' an illustration of the medie-
val mode of cultivating fruit, from which
the reader will gather that we have not
altered the method very greatly. A
little change in the dress and position
of the figures employed in pruning the
trees, and the picture would stand for
a scene in a modern nursery-garden.
The illustration is taken from a miniature
in the library of the arsenal of Paris.
As is well known. Western Europe was
exceedingly poor in fruits before the
Roman conquests. And although we find
from certain statutes of Charlemagne
that many of the imported fruit-trees
were reared in gardens, no extensive or
particular attention seems to have beea
paid to them until the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries. Of course, the fable of
the " Goose-tree," which !^Ir. Southwell
has already described in the last volume of Sciexce-
Gossip, makes its appearance in M. Lacroix's pages,
as we do not see how it could be kept out. The illus-
tration, however, is of a simple character (6g, 3-i),

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE-GOSS IP.

37

Fig. 37, Whale fishing-, from Munstcr's " Cosmographie."

Fig. 38. Bear Trap, Irom a 15th century MS.

and tells its own tale as to the
supposed origin of Barnacle
geese, believed in five centuries
ago, not only by the ignorant
and untaught, but also by the
learned. In fig. 35 we have a
pictorial description of the
mode of obtaining fish from the
ponds. In those fervent Ca-
tholic times, the breeding and
rearing of fish was an import-
ant matter, and all large man-
sions and religious houses had
their fish-ponds. The illustra-
tion is a fac-simile of a wood-
cut from that storehouse of
mediaeval art, the " Cosmogra-
phie Universelle" of Munster
(a.d. 1549). The net used by
the river fishermen (fig. 36) is
identical with that employed
in pond-fishing, and the eel-
basket seen on the edge of the
boat is precisely similar to those

3S

H A R U W I C K E' S S C 1 E N C E - G 0 S S I P.

still used for eel-snaring ia tlie eastern counties. In
the chapter on "Hunting," we' get, inciden-
tally, a few glimpses of the natural history of the
periods described. We are introduced to animals

' ^

^mifm^'^rnfHf

rig. .30. Mode of Catchin,2r Woodcocks, from a Uth
century MS.

In fis:s. 39 and 40 we have two of the methods of
snaring birds in use during the Middle Ages. Pig.
40 shows a man hidden in an improvised bower of
leaves, attracting the birds by imitating their notes
on a pipe. The other plan is more ingenious. The
bird-fowler was covered with clothes of the colour
of dead leaves. lYhen he saw a bird he knelt down
noiselessly and kept perfectly still. When the bird
was not looking towards him he cautiously ap-
proached it on his knees, holding in his hands two
little sticks covered with red cloth, which he gently
waved, so as to divert the bird's attention from him-
self. In this way he gradually got near enough to
pass a noose, which he kept ready at the end of a
stick, round the bird's neck, so as to capture it.
This was tlie usual plan adopted of taking woodcocks
alive, as is shown in fig. 39, a copy of a fourteenth
century MS.

The brutal pastime of bull-baiting was preceded
by horse-baiting, carried on in a similar manner with
dogs, as shown in fig. 42, copied from a thirteenth
century manuscript. Old horses were those gene-
rally utilized for this kind of sport. The sports most
popular with all classes were those which entailed
torture and suffering on the poor animals which

Fig-. 40. Manner of Catching Birds by Piping, from a 14th century MS.

since rendered locally extinct, or exceedingly i'are
For instance, in fig. 3S we are introduced to a bear-
trap, showing how bears were caught aud killed with
a dart. The profuse hfemorrhage which ensues, shows
how efi^ectively the machine has done its work. The
illustration is a fac-similcof a miniature in the MS.
of Phoebus, in the fifteenth century. The part de-
voted to bird-fowling is very interesting, as the
illustrations prove. Tricks were resorted to that
seem to us more of the nature of that infantile
fowling operation which consisted in putting a pinch
of salt on the tail of the bird, than anything else !

furnished it. Thank Heaven, we are growing out
of this degrading practice, and we know of nothing
more likely to entirely suppress it than the cultivation
of a love and sympathy for animals ! In propor-
tion as natural history has increased in popularity,
brutal sports, of the kind referred to, have declined
in favour.

Pig. 37 introduces us to a busy scene, first sketched
in Munster's " Cosmographie Uuiverselle." A
whale has been towed ashore, and the blubber is
being removed, the work going briskly on to the
sound of bagpipes. The naturalist will observe

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E- G O S S I P.

39

Fie. 41. Extraction of Meta!s, from Munster's "Ciii-nir grape,'' a.o. 1552.

how this then supposed fish is
amply provided wilh mammillary
glands ! In the back-ground we
have incidentally introduced some
of the dangers to which the frail
whaling-vessels of the time were
exposed. An infuriated whale is
seen capsizing a ship. In fig. 41
another busy scene is represented,
copied from the same work, show-
ing men engaged in extracting
metals from the ores. In some
of the small washings carried on
by miners in Derbyshire on their
own account, we have almost the
counter-part of this picture.

Where an outlay of capital is required, and
cannot be obtained, it is surprising how long primi-
tive appliances maintain their ground. M. Lacroix's
magnificent work is crowded with instances of this
kind, and every now and then we come across an
outlier that has remained in the same condition for
five hundred years at least. We have said enough,
however, to indicate to our readers the high merit

Fig. 42. Horse-baiting, from a I3th century MS. in the British Museum.

and general interest of the book we have briefly
brought before their notice.

How TO Polish Shells.— Having some "green
snail" and " Manilla pearl" shells, and wishing to
polish them myself, I should be greatly obliged by
being informed through your columns as to the
best books to be bad on the subject of shell polish-
ing.— Querens.

40

HARDWICKE'S SC IE NO E-G U S S IP.

A GOSSIP ABOUT RAEE PLANTS.

"DESIDES the plants I spoke of iu a former
-'-' article, other specialities may well claim the
attention of any botanist who makes Anglesea the
ground of liis rambles. There is Potamogeton Ian-
ceolatus, which grows in the river Lligwy, a small
stream that has its exit near to Moelfra, the scene
of the deplorable Royal Charter wreck. This Pota-
mogeton was sent to Sir J. E. Smith by the Rev.
Hugh Davies, author of " Welsh Botanology," and
■was doubtless gathered in the above locality,
although Smith vaguely mentions " Lakes in North
Wales." After a lapse of more than half a century
we find that Dr. Syme (than whom no higher autho-
rity can be quoted on such a matter) repudiates all
other British localities recorded for this "most
distinct" species; and he does not M'ith certainty
identify this Lligwy plant with anything known
from the Continent or elsewhere ; thus rendering
our Anglesea locality the sole source of this pond-
weed. The species stands, in fact, as a pure Welsh
(Anglesea) product; and truly it grows in a most
" dim Sassenach " quarter of the island. Here and
there, along the full course of the above-named
stream, specimens may easily be obtained and in
plenty, but the plaut in fruit has never yet been
met with, so that the fruit remains unknown,
although flowers in plenty are produced. Either to
procure the fruit, or to show the why and the
wherefore of its absence will be appreciated work
for a botanist to accomplish.

Long years ago there was found on the Anglesea
coast the Z'/o//s maritima. The celebrated naturalist
John Ray thus mentions its occurrence in his
" Synopsis :"— " Gnaphalium maritimum C. B.,
maritimum multis J. B., marinum Ger., marinum
seu Cotonaria Park; Sea Cud-weed or Cotton-
weed, We found it plentifully on the sand near
Abermcney Ferry, in the isle of Anglesea, where
the common people call it Calamus aromaticus."
Although in plenty and well recognized when Ray
made his itinerary, it does not, as far as I know,
occur in subsequent records as having been met
with, and Anglesea is now judiciously bracketed
with the lost habitats on the south of England
coast, as it is not likely that so conspicuous a plant
would be overlooked by any botanist. Still, a per-
son in the neighbourhood would do well to institute
inquiries and explorations. Personally I have not
identified the locality given. Another rare com-
posite, the Linosyris vulgaris, or Chryfocoma Lino-
syris, also hails from the Anglesea seaboard, I
understand, in some old records, and if so, requires
recent confirmation, as it is hardly likely to occur,
being a limestone-loving species ; the plant has
lieen well authenticated from the not lar-distant
Orme's Head: whether it is to be found in this
latter station now is a question I have asked some

who have botanized thereabouts, and have been
answered with the negative. The attractions of
Llandudno have doubtless drawn thither some of
the botanical readers of Sciekce-Gossip, who may
be able to make an authoritative response, and I
shall feel obliged if any can and will do so through
your pages.

On the Aberffraw Common, near Llyn Coron, the
little Viola Ctirtisii grows in large quantity ; it is the
same form as that found at Braunton Barrows, fur-
ther north on the English coast, and is a diiferent
form to that which used to grow on the sandhills at
New Brighton, and passes under the same name.

Callitriche autumncilis is also a good Anglesea
plant, first found by the late J\Ir. Wilson in the
outlet of Llyn Maelog, and this celebrated botanist
also discovered tlie true Carex punctata near Beau-
maris. In the spring and early summer Knappia
agrostidea — to give it the best-known title amongst
English botanists, of its many aliases, — is common
on AberSVaw Common, and Euphorbia Portlandica,
Inula critlunoides, Blysmui rufus, Erodium mos-
ehatuum, E. maritimum, Anthyllis Dillenii, Utricu-
laria minor, &c., are all gatherings the collector will
probably appreciate.

Another rarity occurs to me to write a few words
about, although it is not in reality a plant of our
" Mona," but the history of the plant associates
with Anglesea botany. I refer to ErythrfPa latifolia,
concerning which so ranch misunderstanding has
arisen, and an Anglesea specimen incorrectly named
as such, is the cause of the bulk of the said mis-
understanding. The species E. latifolia was insti-
tuted by Sir J. E. Smith, and we are informed by
Dr. Syme that specimens from the neighbourhood
of Liverpool are existent in the Smithian Herbarium
at the Linnasan Society. It was, no doubt, in one
of Smith's several visits to his particular friend,
Mr. Roscoe, at Liverpool, during the first decade
of the century, that he became acquainted with the
plant through Dr. Bostock and Mr. John Shepherd,
had it not been for the contrary statement in the
" English Flora," namely, that he had never seen
the living plaut. One would have surmised, from
the very exact diagrams assigned to it, that Dr.
Smith had both seen and studied it in the growing
state, and proljably, I should have suggested, under
the direction of Mr. Shepherd, who was the then
able curator of the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, as
he was highly thought of by the doctor, and accom-
panied him in his botanical rambles during his
sojourns at Liverpool. The plant is referred to in
tiie "Addenda et Corrigenda" of "Flora Britan-
nica" (1S04), as a marked variety of E. centaurium,
and it is only in Smith's later work, his "English
Flora" (1828), that it is raised to the rank of a
species. It had not been included in the issue of
English Botany which was published up to 1814
but some short time after the untimely death

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

41

Sir J. E. Smith, in 1S2S (I say untimely, for his
■widow is still alive, aud attained the somewhile dis-
puted longevity of a century last May — a fact that
was duly celebrated), a supplement to Smith and
Sowerby's naticmal work was commenced. In the
second volume of this supplement, t. 2719, is given
us a representation of E. latifolia; but it is not E.
latifoHa at all, it is merely a figure of a stunted and
unusual-looking specimen of E. centaurium, and the
specimen from which this drawing was made was,
as Sir W. J. Hooker's accompanying text informs
us, gathered in Anglesea. Subsequently, many
English and foreign botanists, led astray from the
true plant by tiiis faulty plate, have been in the
practice of calling E. lafifoVui, some abnormal,
broad-leaved, squat-growing examples of the com-
mon species ; and not until Dr. Syme, in the third
edition of " English Botany," what I may term re-
established the true plant, has the confusion promul-
gated through the blunder I have specified been
prevented for the future. The bona-fide plant has
not been found in Anglesea, and, so far as is known,
is still confined to grassy places in the valleys
amongst the sandhills north of Liverpool. There,
too, it is very uncertain in its appearance and
quantity, and it is ten years since more than a few
odd specimens have been found. About that time
back, I remember the pleasurable satisfaction of
coming across a plentiful growth amongst the sand-
hills, three to four miles south of Southport. Mr.
Wilson was in company on the occasion, and he
then stated that our find revealed a new plant to
him, that it was characteristically difTerent to any-
thing he had met with before, and that he should
judge it worthy to rank as a species. I am almost
certain, he also said, that he had never been satis-
fied with the integrity of the English botany plant,
which, as I have already stated, was figured from
an Anglesea specimeu (our culprit above indi-
cated) gathered by Mr. Wilson, himself near Holy-
head. F. M. Webb,

MICROSCOPY.

Sand-blast. — The discovery of the erosive power
of sand when impelled with great force against a hard
surface, might at first sight appear to have little
interest to the microscopist in connection with his
favourite instrument. This new power has, how-
ever, been made to serve his purpose ; as most of
the readers of Sciekce- Gossip are probably aware
that the impact of sand has been made either
slightly to abrade the surface of glass, marble, or
other hard substances, or to make deep excavations
in them. (I have seen a piece of glass about \ of
an inch in thickness with a pattern cut into it
nearly t in depth, and wliich was done in two or
three minutes.) One of the members of the Quekett

Club (Mr. H. F. Hailes, of London) makes use
of the sand-blast for the purpose of perforating
or excavating cells (of various depths and diame-
ters) in the ordinary shape. The former require a
disc of thin glass cemented over the aperture, and
the cell thus formed can be used for either trans-
parent or opaque objects : the latter are only adapted
for opaque objects. For fluid mounting he says,
" I find it desirable to varnish the bottom of the
cell with ' white, hard varnish,' which obliterates
the sandmarks and dries in a few minutes." The
cost of the perforated or excavated slips is about
double that of an ordinary one. — F. Kitton.

Ebonite ('ells.— I do not think Micro. Hull
will find any cement that can thoroughly be de-
pended on for fastening ebonite cells to glass. I
have many objects in my collection mounted in
ebonite cells fastened as follows-.— I roughen the
smooth surfaces of the vulcanite ring with sand-
paper, and fasten it to glass with that marine glue
which is of about the consistency of india-rubber.
1 bought some once which was quite hard and
brittle, and it did not stick a bit. Lately I have
used tin cells, which stick very firmly, and are quite
to be depended on. — U,

Mounting Leaves of Moss.— "H. W, S," will
find the following plan as good as any : — Wash the
moss well, drain off superfluous water, lay it ou the
centre of a slide, and put on a thin glass cover.
Secure this with a brass clip, and take hold of the
slide with another clip. Now let a little melted
glycerine jelly run under by capillary attraction, and
boil the slide over a spirit-lamp with a small flame,
moving it about so that, being heated equally all
over, it may not crack. When cold, all air-bubbles
will disappear if the jelly used be not too stiff.
Clean the slide and varnish with gold size, I have
mosses prepared in this way which have been
mounted three years, and the colour has not faded
in the least. Glycerine jelly cau be bought at any
optician's, but if " H. W. S." wishes it, I will send
him the recipe by which 1 make mine. It costs
about four times as much to buy it ready-made. I
think that the empty fruit-capsules and the peri-
stomes look better in glycerine jelly than when
mounted dry, for the colours are better preserved. —
H. M. J. V.

ZOOLOGY.

Death of Pbofessor Agassiz.— All lovers of
natural science will regret to hear that one of the
worthiest of its followers. Professor Agassiz, has just
passed away. This celebrated naturalist was born in
1S07, in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. Since
18 f 6 he has been professor at Harvard College. As
a geologist he is best known as first propounding the
Glacial theory ; as an ichthyologist, on account of

43

HARDWICKS'S SCIEN CE -GO SS I P.

his celebrated classification of Fishes. Recently he
has been engaged in deep-sea explorations along the
American coast, and the last object of his attention
was the establishment of a large aquarium, on the
same principle as that of Dr. Dohrn, at Naples.

Gigantic Cuttle-fishes.— The Rev. Mr. Harvey
has just made a communication to tlie Natural
History Society of Montreal, respecting the occur-
rence of a huge cuttle-fish a few miles from St.
John's, Nowfoundland. It was seen by two fisher-
men, on October 26th, floating on the surface of the
sea, and by them was supposed at first to be a por-
tion of some wreck. On reaching it, one of the
men struck it with his "gaff," when immediately it
showed signs of life, reared a parrot-like beak, with
which it struck the bottom of the boat violently.
It then shot out from about its head two huge livid
arms and began to twine them round the boat. One
of the men seized a small axe and severed both
arms as they lay over the gunwale of the boat;
whereupon tbe fish moved off and ejected an im-
mense quantity of inky fluid, which darkened the
water for two or three hundred yards. The men
saw it for a short time afterwards, and observed its
tail in the air, which they declare was ten feet across.
They estimate the body to have been sixty feet in
length, five feet in diameter, of the same shape and
colour as the common squid ; and they observed
that it moved in the same way as the squid, both
backwards and forwards. One of the arms which
they brought.ashore was unfortunately destroyed, as
they were ignorant of its importance ; but the
clergyman of the village assured Mr. Harvey it was
ten inches in diameter and six feet in length. The
other arm was brouglit to St. John's, but not before
six feet of it was destroyed. Mr. Harvey heard of
it, and took measures to have it preserved. It
measured nineteen feet, is of a pale pink colour,
entirely cartilaginous, tough and pliant as leather,
and very strong. It is but three inclies and a half
in circumference, except towards the extremity
where it broadens like an oar to six inches in cir-
cumference, and then tapers to a pretty fine point.
The under surface of the extremity is covered with
suckers to tlie very point. At the extreme end
there is a clustre of small suckers, with fine sharp
teeth round their edges, and having a membrane
stretched across each. Of these there are about 70.
Then come two rows of very large suckers, the
movable disk of each an inch and a quarter
in diameter, the cartilaginous ring not being
denticulated. These are twenty-four in number.
After tiiese there is another group of suckers, with
denticulated edges (similar to the first), and about
fifty in number. Along the under surface about
forty more small suckers are distributed at intervals,
making in all about 180 suckers on the arm. The
men estimated that they left about ten feet of the

arm attached to the body of the fish, so that its
original length must have been thirty-five feet. A
clergyman assured Mr. Harvey that when he resided
at Lamaline, on the Southern coast, in the winter of
1870, the bodies of two cuttles were cast ashore,
measuring 40 and 45 feet respectively.

Cak Animals commit Suicide ?— Some time
ago this question was raised in the pages of Science-
Gossip, and the following paragraph would seem to
favour the idea that animals really do sometimes
put an end to their own lives. — " A cattle disease of
so disagreeable a nature that it causes the animals
affected by it to commit suicide, has broken out on
the Asiatic shore of the Bosphorus, and has been
officially reported at Constantinople. Is is charac-
terized by frothing at the mouth, running from
the eyes and nose, a total loss of appetite, great
heat, and a thirst so insupportable that some of
the beasts attacked by the illness cast themselves
headlong into adjacent rivers and streams, and are
drowned. The disease, it is stated, has been in
existence for upwards of a month in several villages
between Eeicos, on the Upper Bosphorus, and
Scutari. It attacks bullocks and cows exclusively,
and is believed to have been introduced from Ada-
Baza, beyond Ismidt."

Stenocepiialus agilis.— Replying to the re-
marks of Mr. E. C. Rye in Science-Gossip for
January, the words in my paper were upon refer-
ence to several, not all, published works on "Ento-
mology," for at that time I was fully aware of the
valuable one of Messrs. Douglas and Scott on
" British Hemiptera." Unfortunately microscopists
and naturalists in the country have not that facility
of book reference as those residing in the Metro-
polis. In whatever light Mr. R, may tiiink or
fancied I have erred, my simple aim has been
accomplished by bringing before the readers of
SciENCE-GossiP the structure of "ovipositors" in
general: the numerous applications for mounted
slides of these organs fully justify my inference.—
/. 0. Harper, Norwich.

BoAPv-nsii {Zeus aper).—Th\?, fish was not long
since supposed to be very rare, and the occurrence
of a single specimen worthy of note. The ichthy-
ologist placed it among the elite of his museum.
Now they present themselves by thousands occa-
sionally, as this note will show. Is this owing to
emigration to " fresh scenes and pastures new,"
found necessary in the sea as on our earth, or to
the growing interest taken by us in the observation
and study of natural objects ? " All nature is so
full," says Gilbert "White, "that that district pro-
duces the greatest variety which is most examined."
If this fish is stationary on our coasts it is gregarious,
and very local in its habits. In December, 1873,
thousands of fishes were washed on shore at St.

HARDWlCkE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Miu-tin's, one of the Scilly islands. Tliey were of
a sort new to the iuhabitauts, four or live inches iu
length, and gave rise to some conjecture. Not only
were they wondered at, but experimented on, and
found to be excellent eating. The species was
identified by Mr. Cornish, of Penzance, an excel-
lent ichthyologist, as Zetts aper.—T. Q. C.

BOTANY.

Medicago aeborea.— Attempts are being made
at Brighton to find some shrubs sufficiently hardy
and well adapted to bear the exposed spray and
winds of the new Undercliff road, but as yet only
two (the Euonymns and Tamarisk) have been found
to stand the variations of heat and cold of that spot.
Some years back I suggested to Mr. Spary, the
Brighton florist, that the Medicago arhorea, being
entirely a seaside plant, though a Southern one,
M^ould be likely to stand the climate of Brighton,
and he in consequence procured some seeds and
raised several plants, which are now grown to large
shrubs, and which may be seen in his garden, greeii
all the year round, and for the greater part of that
time bearing pretty yellow flowers ; it is a remark-
ably handsome and very bushy shrub, and being a
seaside plant, and growing so luxuriantly near the
sea, it would in all probability thrive on the Under-
cliff road, not only as a standard, but particularly
also if trained up against the cliff wall : it may
be seen growing eight feet high against the
southern aspect of Mr. Balchiu's cottage in his
garden at Hove, as also against the north wall
opposite; at Florence it forms beautiful hedges
close to the sea. The Tamarisk, it will be remem-
bered, was many years back introduced as a seaside
plant, and though only indigenous in the south of
Europe and along the coast of the Mediterranean,
is found to stand the winter and grow freely
by the seaside in England, and there is no reason
why the Medicago should not flourish there also. I
trust that this notice in Science-Gossip may induce
the authorities of Brighton, who are expending large
sums in planting all over the town, especially on the
Undercliff, where nearly ail the trees so lately
planted there are dead, to try the Medicago there,
which, if it succeeds, as I verily believe it will,
cannot fail to be an attractive object and a most
desirable addition to the shrubs of Brighton. —
T. B. IF., Brighton.

Bark of the Azadiragta ikdica. — Mr.
Broughtou has recently communicated the result of
an examination of this bark to the Transactions of
the Pharmaceutical Society. The Azadiracta indica
is commonly known as the " Nim-tree," and the
use of its bark is very general throughout India, as
a tonic and febrifuge. It is generally used in the

form of a decoction, and sometimes as a powder.
Some autlioritieS' state that it possesses the same
febrifuge properties as cinchona bark. The taste
of the bark, and especially that of the inner layer,
is intensely bitter. The leaves also have a bitter
taste. The seeds yield a large quantity of oil, which
has also a strong and bitter taste. The roots are
stated to have vermifuge properties. This bitter
principle consists of a neutral resin, which may be
obtained by exhausting the bark with alcohol.
The leaves contain a small amount of bitter sub-
stance of a similar nature, but more soluble in
water.

Calla palustris in Surrey (p. Til).—Calla
palustris was originally planted in North Surrey so
far back as ISGl, and is now quite established. I
have no doubt that this is Mr. Gardiner's station.
It is also one of the plants recommended by Mr.
Robinson for naturalization :—" It is thoroughly
hardy, and though often grown in water, likes a
moist bog much better. In a bog, or muddy place
shaded by trees to some extent, it will grow larger
in flower and leaf, though it is quite at home even
when fully exposed. Those having natural bogs,
&c., would find it a very interesting plant to intro-
duce to them, while for moist spongy spots near
the rock garden, or by the side of a rill, it is one of
the best things that can be used."— (Robinson,
"Alpine Plowers," p. 1G2.) Its occurrence in
Surrey is noticed in the " Journal of Botany," vol.
ii. N.'S., p. 339.— iZ. A. Pryor.

Eeetilization of Elowers.— The Scrophilaria
is, I find, satisfactorily recognized as protocjijnoics .
In the same connection has any one observed what
species of insects haunt the unattractive-looking
3Iercurialis peremiis ? The female plants too seem
very generally to come into flower when the males
are almost ]3a3t blossoming ; thus presenting an ad-
ditional obstacle to their successful pollenization,
but are they usually infertile? I do not know
whether, as in M. annua, male flowers are occasion-
ally intermixed. — R. A. Pryor.

Royal Botanic Society.— It may be interest-
ing to notice that specimens of the Eucalyptus
j globulus, described in Science-Gossip, December,
1873, are to be seen flourishing in the Economic
House at the Regent's Park Gardens.— it. E. L. B.

Changes in the Vegetation of South Africa.
— Dr. Shaw has communicated a paper to the Lin-
naean Society showing the changes which have been
caused in the flora of South Africa by the intro-
duction of the merino sheep. He says that the
original vegetation of the colony is being in many
places destroyed or rapidly deteriorated by over-
stocking and by the accidental introduction of
various weeds. Amoug the most important of the

44

HARDVVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

latter is the Xanthiunt spinosum, introduced from
Europe, the aclienes of which cling to the wool
with such tenacity that it is almost impossible to
detacli them, and render it almost unsaKable. It
spreads with such rapidity that in some parts legis-
lative enactments have been passed for its extirpa-
tion ; and where this is not done, it almost usurps
the place of the more useful vegetation. The
President (Mr. George Bentham) stated that the
Xantldum has in the same manner deteriorated the
pastures in Queensland ; whilst in the south of
Europe, where it is equally abundant, it does not
appear to cause such injurious results. Though
generally distributed through Europe, the plant is
probably of Chilian origin.

Vegetation of Bermuda.^ — Mr. H. N. Moseley,
one of the naturalists to the Challenger expedition,
has recently communicated a paper on this subject
to the Limucin Society. He states that about 160
species of flowering plants were gathered on the
island, but of these not more than 100 were cer-
tainly native. Those of West-Indian origin were
probably brought, as Grisebach had suggested, by
the Gulf Stream or by cyclones, there being no
winds blowing directly from the American coast
which would be likely to carry seeds, which might,
however, be conveyed from the continent by mi-
gratory birds. A note by Professor Thiselton-Dyer
appended to the paper stated that 1G2 species sent
over by Mr. Moseley had been determined at the
Kew Herbarium, of which 71 belong to the Old
World, while two, an Enjthraia and a Spiranthes,
were plants hitherto known as confined to single
localities in the United States.

GEOLOGY.

Mode of Occurrence of the Diamonds in
South Africa. — In a paper on this interesting
subject just read before the Geological Society of
London by E. J. Dunn, the author stated that the
diamonds of South Africa occur in peculiar circular
areas, which he regards as "pipes," which formerly
constituted the connection between molten matter
below and surface volcanoes. The surrounding
country consists of horizontal shales, through which
these pii)es ascend nearly vertically, bending icp-
wards the edges of the shales at the contact. The
rock occupying these pipes was regarded by the
author as probably Gabi)ro, although in a very
altered condition. Intercalated between the shale-
beds there are sheets of dolerite, &c., and dykes of
the same rocks also intersect the shales at frequent
intervals. Within the pipes there arc unaltered
nodules of the same dolerite. With regard to the
relation of the diamonds to the rock of the pipes in
which they are found, the author stated that he

thought it probable that the latter was only the
agent in bringing them to the surface, a large pro-
portion of the diamonds found consisting of frag-
ments. At the same time he remarked that each
pipe furnished diamonds of a different character
from those found in other pipes.

The Mineral Wealth of Virginia. —The
recent opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio railway
from Richmond, on James River, to Huntington, on
the Ohio, and the consequent laying open of a large
tract of country hitherto almost inaccessible, has
directed much attention in the United States to the
resources of a district perhaps the richest and most
valuable in mineral wealth of any in America. The
railway crosses, at an oblique angle, several parallel
belts of useful minerals. Near Richmond is a triassic
coal-field long known and worked, though the coal is
not first-rate and the expense of getting is consider-
able. To the west of this belt is a large deposit of
iron pyrites, much of it auriferous. Still further
west is Charlottesville, where the C. and O. rail-
way is crossed by another of older date, abounding
on both sides with some of the purest and finest
magnetic oxides of iron known. These ores are
very free from all injurious mixtures. A little
further west there are several bands, or rather one
band presented in several folds of exceedingly pure
and rich brown hematites. Parallel with these is
another line of railway, partly opened, connecting
with the north. After an interval of 100 miles we
come upon the coal-measures. The lower part con-
tains a few good seams, but the middle part is
exceptionally rich and valuable. There is here
about 60 feet of coal in several workable seams,
and a thickness of less than 300 yards of measure.
The seams are intersected by the deep and pic-
turesque gorge of New River and the Kanawha
and reached by numerous tributaries. They can be
worked with great ease at small cost, and no coals
in the world can be better adapted for the coal-
cutting machine. Some of the seams have been
opened and are in moderately active work, yielding
three kinds of coal,— splint, a hard variety, well
adapted for steam and marine engines ; cannel
greatly valued for enriching gas ; and a moderately
rich bituminous coal, good for household use, and
believed to make excellent coke for iron-making
and locomotives. All these minerals are capable of
being worked as soon as the coal-fields are open,
and it is satisfactory to know that measures are
being taken to do this, and that English capital is
being diverted in this direction. One English
company has already started, and a branch rail is
being constructed to enter the coal-seam and carry
the mineral to the main line of the Chesapeake and
Ohio railway. The coal is here about 150 miles
from the iron ore, and iron can certainly be made
for a price not exceeding 60s. per ton, either where

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

45

the ore occurs or where the coal is worked. Be-
sides coal and iron, there are valuable deposits of
kaolin and china clay ; brine-springs that have been
used for a century to make salt ; important deposits
of corundum used in making emery ; exceedingly
good mica in large plates, and a great deal of steatite
or soap-stone. The development of these minerals
is likely before long to alter veiy materially the
relative importance of Virginia and West Virginia
among the States.— Z). T. Ansted, F.R.S.

" Missing Links." — The researches of Professor
Marsh in the tertiary strata of the neighbourhood
of the Rocky Mountains promise to yield some of
the most important results to palaeontology that
have yet been laid before the public. Most of the
generic forms are intermediate connecting groups
that are now widely separated, and therefore are to
be regarded as veritable " missing links." Among
them is a six-horned rhinoceros, that undoubtedly
connected the ruminants and the pachyderms. An-
other interesting form is a small horse, no bigger
than a fox. Prof. Marsh is engaged in preparing
his already great store of material for publication,
although the beds have not yet been half investi-
gated. The investigations had to be carried on at
great risk, an account of the Indians.

New Species of Eossil Deer. — Mr. Randall
Johnson has described a new species of fossil deer
in the " Annals of Natural History " for January,
under the name of Cennts latifrons. He obtained
the specimen from the Norfolk Eorest-bed. This
makes the ninth species which has been obtained
from that interesting deposit.

Hornblende Rocks, — Hornblende rock may
in some places be schistose, or nodular, or con-
cretionary. Some of the schistose portions of this
kind of rock, from lar-Counaught, Ireland, have
been proved by Forbes to be derivate rocks; con-
sequently such portions must be metamorphosed
tuff. Where hornblende rock is nodular or con-
cretionary, it may have spheroids from the size of a
man's head to four or five feet in diameter, irregu-
larly heaped up together, with the interstices filled
with schistose-looking stuff, that has a foliation
rudely curling round the nodules ; or the interstices
may be occupied with a felsitic rock, or even with
a quartzitic stuff, or perhaps with two or more of
these substances mixed together, — Kinahati's Handy
Book of Rock Names.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A Mythical Man-eater.— In Science-Gossip
for June, _1SG7 (p. 128), in an article upon an old
natural history more than a century old, I described
a strange beast called the Lamia. This creature is
said to be bred in Libj-a ; to decoy men to it bv ex-
posing its bosom ; to have a face and breast like a

beautiful woman ; and its hinder parts like a goat.
This is said to be the creature mentioned as the
Lieliath in the 3ith_ chapter of Isaiah and the ith
chapter of Lamentations. So runs the old chronicler.
Never having heard of the monster I was amused to
read of a legend existing in modern Abyssinia re-
garding it, which seems to require some explanation,
as it is so very circumstantial. Mansfield Parkyns
says, in his very interesting work entitled " Life
in Abyssinia," published by Murray in ISGS (on
p. ■iOi) : " There is an animal, which I know not
where to class, as no European has hitherto suc-
ceeded in obtaining a specimen of it : it is supposed
by the natives to be far more active, powerful, and
dangerous than even the lion, and consequently held
lay them in the greatest possible dread. Tliey call
it 'wobbo' or 'mantillit,' and some hold it in
superstitious awe, looking upon it more in the light
of an evil spirit with an animal's form than a wild
beast. Their descriptions of this animal are vague
in the extreme : some say that its skin is partly that
of a lion, but intermixed with that of the leopard
and hyena ; others, again, assert that its face is
human, or very like it. It appears in the valleys,
happily only rarely ; for they say that when it takes
its abode near a village, it pays nightly visits, enter-
ing the very houses, and carrying off the children,
and even occasionally growu-uu persons. One had
been killed some years ago on the river AVeney, and
its skin presented to Oubi (king of Tigre) ; but I
could never discover what became of it. I heard of
a village which had suffered considerably from its
depredations, and for several days watched every
night in the neighbourhood, but without success."—
F. A. A.

Solution for Preserving Sea Anemones. —
I find in my note-book the fullowiug recipe, extracted
from the "Manual of Scientific Euquiry" (p. 361,
published by Murray & Co.) : — Take bay salt 4 oz. ;
alum 2 oz. ; corr. sublimate 2 grs. ; rain or distilled
water 1 quart. Place the actinia in sea-water until
fully expanded ; then add the solution slowly and
quietly, when the animal will be killed and fixed in
the expanded state. It should then be transferred
to a bottle containing fresh solution.-/. P. Belmont,
Dartmouth.

Ipswich Science-Gossip Society. — Thisflourish-
ing society, founded several years ago by readers of
and contributors to our magazine, held its annual
conversazione on the lOth December. About 750
of the principal inhabitants of the town were pre-
sent, who evinced their interest in scientific matters
by discussing the various objects exhibited. Among
the principal exhibitors were Messrs. W. Ladd, J.
Wiggin, B. Edwards, Powles (with a patent sand-
blast, in full action), Dr. Drummond, Messrs. W.
Vick, Howes, Garratt, Budden, and others. Physical
science was especially well represented, and natural
history by collections of mosses, shells, fossils, but-
terflies, flint implements, &c. A collection of pic-
tures, by the late Henry Bright, a local artist, added
to the variety ; and the performances on two of
Whiglit & ;^lann's magnificent pianos (an Ipswich
manufacture) lent a charm fo the evening. Great
credit is due to the chairman, Mr. W. Vick, and tiie
hon. sec, Mr. Henry Miller, for the successful
issue of the meeting.

SnoRE-LARK. — It may be of interest to note the
occurrence of the Shore-lark {Alauda alpesfris).
The bird, a fine male, was observed in a bird-
seller's window in Bristol. The man had it brought

46

HAllDWICKE'5 SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

to him with several yellow-hammers, caught within
a short distance of the city. I had tlie pleasure of
seeing it, and noting its characteristic markings.
The yellow head, elongated feathers, and black
patches on top of head, side of beak, and breast
being specially prominent.—^. Wheeler.

Pine-apples. — At a meeting of the Royal Horti-
cultural Society, held at South Kensington, very
recently, I was much interested at some re-
remarks made by Mr. Liggins, F.R.H.S., upon the
great size wiiich the pine-apple attains in the cele-
brated Pitch Lake of Trinidad. Tliis gentleman's
observations are reported in the Gardener's Chronicle
of December 6tli, which also, in a foot-note, quotes
Canon Kingsley, from vol, i. of his work " At Last ;
a Christmas in the West Indies," which corroborates
Mr. Liggins' statements. The lake appears to con-
sist of soft powdered pitch and reddish-brown sand.
Could not the attention of gardeners be drawn to
this (to rae) novel culture of pine-apples in this
country ? I seek advice of some practical geologist
or chemist on this matter, who, perhaps, would be
good enough to recommend some artificial suId-
stauce, consisting of bitumen and brown ,sand in
certain defined proportions, but which should an-
swer all practical purposes of horticulture. It woiild
be an immense boon conferred upon English garden-
ers, if, by a happy combination of pitch and sand, they
should be able hereafter to grow the most luscious of
fruits to a much greater size than it has liitherto
attained here. I may also remark, that, at the same
meeting of the society, the Rev. M. J. Berkeley
alluded to some splendid Cayenne pine-apples as
having been grown in the Royal Gardens at Prog-
niore, under the influence of heat obtained from
cak -leaves (decayed) ; the plants standing on about
six feet of this material— Jo/i;i Colehrooke, F.R.H.S

The Queen Eee.— Major Munn was the first to
put bar-frames into (not with) a box or case in 1S34,
the same as the modern bar-frame hive, whicli has
raised bee-keeping to (not in) such perfection, &c.
The fructification of the queen bee is always the
death of the drone. (This is what your correspon-
dent on p. 2G2 (1873) wants to kmw.)—Wm. Curr.

A Youacious Perch.— Fishing a short time since
in a mill-pool, I hooked a perch weighing three-
quarters of a pound. Just as I was on the point of
landing him, my hook snapped in the middle of the
bend, and the fish escaped. An hour or two after,
a friend, who was with me, landed, on the opposite
ydc of the pool, a perch, which on examination
proved to be the one J had lost, as we found the
broken hook securely fastened in his mouth. — The
perch was plump, and evidently a well-fed fish ; and
the pool, I have no doubt, abounds in food, from the
fact that twenty roach taken in one afternoon from
the same spot, with the rod and line, weighed, to-
gether, over thirty pounds.—/. Henry Vauglmn.

MuscA rorxMiciFOMiis.— This is, I believe, the
name of a small fly resembling a winged ant, which
I have, now and then, seen in great numbers in hot,
dry, summer weather, but at no other times. They
crowd as close together as they can find room on
the branches of low bushes, and on blades of grass,
■within the space of a few feet square. They move
a good deal among themselves, but do not seem to
take wing. They remain in the same spot for many
successive days. I have noticed a peculiar odour
from them. The plants, on which they stay do not

seem at all injured. I should wish to learn more
of their nature and habits. — S.T.P.

The Snake and the Toad.— One hot summer's
afternoon — it was a Sunday in August, — I remember,
and a good many years ago— my'father called us all
out into his melon-garden. "There was something
for us to see," he said. In a corner of a pit, coiled
up and fast asleep, lay a full-grown snake, evidently
digesting a large meal, for his stomach was enor-
mously distended. A toad, which was kept in the
pit to destroy the vermin, was nowhere to be seen. —
The snake had eaten him up ! — M. A. Livelt.

The Postal Microscopical Cabinet Club.—
In the first box of the Northern circuit of the
"P.M.C.C." (Postal Micro. Cabinet Club), Mr. R.
Harris Philip, of Hull, inclosed a slide of " Sting of
Scorpion," to which he appended the following
note :— " The ' beastie ' from which I prepared this
slide was cauglit by a friend amongst some cotton
seed imported from Tahiti. I kept it for about two
months, at the end of which time it died— for want
of food, I suppose ; for, thou<?h I tried it with all
kinds of insects (which books say are its usual
diet), yet I could never induce it to eat anything.
Indeed, one small larva I put in, finding the
scorpion's back easier for walking on than the sand
at the bottom of the jar, used to make a regular
promenade of it, without molestation, so long as it
kept off the head ; but Scorpio evidently considered
touching his head too great! a liberty, and used to
project the trespasser to the other end of the jar
with a fillip of the tail, apparently, however, not
using the 'sting." Mr. P. would he obliged to any
one who can tell him what they would eat, in case
he should have the luck to find another. Since
sending you copy of rules, which appeared in the
December part of Science-Gossip, I have received
letters from several gentlemen wishing to join the
club : these, as we have now our jfuU complement of
members, I have been obliged to refuse ; but have
since determined that, after the 1st of January, the
president and myself will be pleased to conduct a
second club (if agreeable) under the same rules as
our present club. 1 shall be glad to receive all
applications for membership as early as possible. —
Alfred Allen.

Eara Avis. — During December, 1873, three
Hoopoes were observed in the parish of Freshwater,
Isle of Wight. One of them was seen by the Rev.
C. Poweu, of Heatherwood, Freshwater, to alight
under the verandah of his house. Several years
ago a pair of these birds were shot in this neigli-
bourliood ; but they have not again made their
appearance until the present time. — A. 0. Weld.

Markings on Lepidoptera. — In reply to J. W.
Russell, I cannot find, on reference to Stainton's,
Ivewman's, Wood's, or Morris's works, that there
is any difference in the markings between the male
and female of F. Urticce or C.^Phla-as. But in C.
Famphilus, according to Morris, the brownish mark-
ings at the edge of the wings are darker and more
decided in the 3 than the ? specimens,— /iT. L.
Sarjeant.

Signs used ro Denote Sex (p. 201).— The sign ?
has no connection with the goddess Ceres, or her
sickle either. Your correspondent will find the whole
matter treated of in Mr. RodweJl's " Lectures on
the Birth of Chemistry." Suffice it here to say
that the sigu ? is the symbol of the planet Venus,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

47

and the corresponding metal, copper, of the ancient
planetary worship of the East. It is apparently
closely connected with the emblem carried by the
Assyrian goddess Astarte and the crux ansata of the
Eyptians, and the figure itself occurs abundantly
among the hieroglyphics of the papyri. It has
been thought by some to represent a looking-glass.
— R. A. Trijor.

Ancient Tkees (p. 237). — "On an oak in
Hampton Court Park, perhaps the oldest in
England, see 'Jesse's Gleanings,' pp. 153-4." —
Flora of 31iddlesex, p, 425.

Sucked Eggs. — A friend of mine was look-
ing over a recent number of Science - Gossip,
and saw the paragraph headed " Sucked Eggs,"
when he informed me that he had discovered a
blackbird's nest in a tree in his garden, containing
three eggs which had been similarly treated. —
James J. R. Bate.

Substitute eou a Water-net. — I have used
occasionally of late, instead of a net of canvas or
other material, a metal culinary implement (called,
I believe, technically, _ a small colander), which
answers well for securing some insects and larvae,
being fastened to a long handle. Its shallowness is
one objection ; but the water runs off more speedily
from the debris brought up, and the metal does not,
of course, wear away, while ordinary nets are soon
frayed or torn. — /. B. S. C.

Edplectella. — Mr. Spicer, in last mouth's num-
ber of Science-Gossip, expresses his surprise at
some crustacean having gained admission into the
interior of the Euplectella speciosa-. Attached to
the case containing my specimens is a printed de-
scription, which states "that the Spaniards in
Manilla regard them as formed by the soldier crab,
which must take up its place in the tube before the
network in the upper end is formed." Whether
this is a correct explanation of the formation of
this beautiful sponge may be open to grave doubt,
but the presence of the crustacean in question
would seem to favour the supposition. — W. R. T.

The CoinioN Hedgehog.— In your Notes and
Queries for November a coiTespoudent, who signs
himself " L.," gives some interesting facts respecting
a captive female hedgehog, a mother, with four young
ones. He states as follows : — " 1 fear that the
mother died from exhaustion, as she suckled her
young, and I did not know what to give her except
bread and milk." The writer further says, as to
hedgehogs, " I should like to know more about their
food and habits." Very much has been written as
to the food and habits of the hedgehog, but, never-
theless, no writer with whom I am acquainted has
at all indicated the amount of sustenance really
needed and taken by these comparatively small
mammalia; and a delusion prevails, that a very
small quantity of food, a few slugs and beetles, will
suffice to feed this animal. The Hedgehog belongs
to the order Insedivora, its teeth clearly indicating
that its food is entirely of an animal character.
Hedgehogs require a large amount of food. In
your journal, of two years ago, " L." will find, under
the heading Common Hedgehog, a communication
signed "J. H., M.D.," in which it is stated that a
hedgehog, after an evening meal of six drachms of
cooked mutton, actually contrived to capture and
devour a redbreast which roosted in a small fernery
within the reach of the thorny-backed marauder.
I have frequently kept hedgehogs, small and large,

and find that they will eat all animal substances
freely — slugs, beetles, meat, either fresh or high (so
called), also skin, and the softer feathers of birds ;
and they will take bread or oatmeal soaked in
milk, as cats are taught to do. If well tamed,
they will come when called to be fed, in the day-
light, but they are nocturnal in their habits, from
twilight to dawn foraging about, seeking whatso-
ever feeble or imprudent animal may be captured,
or whatsoever animal substance may he. found on
the ground; and eating in this way they act as
scavengers. On account of the nocturnal habits of
the Hedgehog, this animal is a capital destroyer of
cockr9aches. A jackdaw will pick these creatures
up with much more activity, but, unfortunatelv,
Jack begins to blink and falls asleep when the sun
goes down, so that he is of no use when all is still
and dark, and the Blattidip are out seeking their
food. I may mention that hedgehogs die occasion-
ally from scrofulous glandular disease. Some years
ago I met with a large male hedgehog, which, from
some cause, could not coil itself up when alarmed.
It shortly died, and on examination I found that
the lymphatic glands of the neck were diseased, and
that, on account of the great thickness of the skin
of the animal's neck, tlie matter from the glands
could not reach the surface of the body, and so dis-
charge itself; hence the poor animal's sufierings
and death. In Norway the Hedgehog is named Pin
Swiu. — John Barker, M.D., ^c.

A Wasp and Spideu Battle.— In last mouth's
Science-Gossip, Mr. Howell mentions having seen
a_ wasp decapitate a brother. A precisely similar
circumstance took place in my presence a few weeks
since. That spiders are most afraid of wasps I
infer from a circumstance I witnessed many years
ago. A wasp became entangled iu the web of a
spider, located iu the upper corner of a window
when the spider rushed out to secure his prey, and
a battle of some minutes' duration occurred, ending
in a dear-bought victory by the spider, the wasp
falling dead on the floor, and the spider dying a
few minutes afterwards.—^. Nicholson.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

" Animal Locomotion." By J. B. Pettigrew, F R.S., &c.
London : H. S. King & Co.

"Journal of Applied Science." January.

" Popular Science Review." January.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." January.

" Grevillea." January,

" Land and Water."

" Les Mondes."

" Evenings with the Microscope." By Philip Gosse.
London : Society for Promoting: Knowledge.

" The Garden Oracle," for 18/4.

" Insects of the Garden." By A. S. Packard, jun. Boston
Estes & Lauriat.

"Christian Evidence Journal," No. 1.

"The Argonaut," No. 1.

" British Marine Algae," No. 5. By W. H. Grattann.

COMMU.N'ICATIONS ReCEIVKD UP TO THE I2TH tJLT. FROM —

T' B. W.— S. W. jun.— C. B.-C. P. -J. L. L.-C. C. U.—
F. H.— A. W. L.— S. T. P.— J. S. jun.— F. T. M.— T. R.—
F. B.— W. R. T.— H. M. J. U.— M. B.— H. B. T.— E. C. L.—
W. J. B.— R. H.— E. C— R. H. N. B.— F. W. H.-A. F. B.—
E. E.— J. H.— E. F. K— J. W.— D. H.— T. Q. C— A. G. W.—
J. S.— H. G.— J. A. jin\.— J. J. v.— J. A.— F. M.— W. L. W. E.
— E. F. E.— A. N.— R. H.— W. C— J. L. H.— H. E. T.-F. H.
—J. E. T.— E L — M. M— VI". W. S. — W. R. W.— J. R. S. C.
-J. G. M.-G. G.— J. H. L.— A. A.— W. L. S.— S. A. 8.—
J. L. C— W. O— H. G.— C. J. W. R— O. B.— E. S. B.—
D. T. A — T. J. E.— J. D.— R. M. G.— E. D. M.— J. F. C—
C. C. U.— R. H. N. B.— H. C— K. P.— A. G.— F. I. B —
W. G. P.— W. W— E. L.— C. P. G.— R. D.— E. B. K. W.—
W, A. T.-E. A, H.-R. T.— A. S., &c.

4S

H A RDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A. F. Buxton. — Carbuncle is the name pivea to a variety
of the precious pmet [Pympt;). It belongs to the cubical
system, and it is composed principally of silica, alumina,
protoxide of iron, with lime, magnesia, and protoxide of
mangnnese. !t is found ia Bohemia, Saxony, and Ceylon.

H. T. M.— The following are the names of the moths
sent:— No. 1. Lesser Broad-border {Tiyphaena ianthina) ;
No. 2. Large Mallow (Eukitlia cercinaria) ; No. 3. Cabbage
MotU (Mumeitra hrus-ica:) ; No. «. Marbled Minor (Miana
gtrigilis) ; No. 5. Small China Mark (Catarlysta lemnalis).

John Dawsov. — The Testucelln Mangei isof adark brown
colour, sometimes mottled or speckled with black, red, or
white. Its shell is larger and more cylindrical than that of
the nearly allied species T. haliotuiea. The Black Slug
(Arion ater) is carnivorous, and devours earth-worms. Tne
Teft'wella haliotidea also preys upon the earth-worms, and
will follow them up inio their burrows.

W. K. — The name of the Horse-eye Nut is Mucunn
vigiintea, a native of the East Indies, but extensively grown
in the West Indies. The Calabar Bean is quite distinct from
it, being oblong, round, slightly curved, and of a deep
mahogany. colour. The Horse-eye Nut is round, compressed,
grevish in colour, with a black band round the margin.—
J. f.

A. Stormont. — Will you kindly communicate your address
to us, as it was not given in your note ?

"When the Swallows Homew'ard fly." — We received
several scores of notices of the late stay with us of the
Swallows, all testifying to the extraordinary mildness of the
present winter up to Christmas. We thank our correspond-
ents for their trouble, and this reference to the number sent
will be an apology for not publishing them all !

W. H. W. — Your description of the animal answers exactly
to that of the Barbastelle Bat (Burbastellus Ouubentonv),
given in Bell's " British Quadrupeds." It is well known as
a native of France, but only of late years discovered to inhabit
this country. It is in the southern comities that one would
expect to find it most commonly ia England.

W. Bknn'et.— It is the Pellucid Limpet {Patella pellucida),
of deeper water habits than the common limpet, and known
by its pellucid she.l and pretty bright blue lines radiating from
the apex.

J. A., juN'.— The only trustworthy work on Exotic Butter-
flies that would come within your means is Hewitson's,
published in parts, by Lovell Reeve, at, we believe, 2s. fid.
each.

J. L. H. — Exchanges of Natural History objects are inserted
gratis, if not more than three lines in length.

E. L.— You will by this doubtless have seen that the
announcement of the Dodo being still alive has been con-
tradicted. It was a bird called by Prof. Owen a " Dodlet."

R. P. — Your sketch is that of the fossil root of the Sigil-
laria, one of the commonest of the coal plants. It goes by
the name of Stigmarta /icoides.

P. Thomas. — It is the Hair-worm (Gordiua aquaticus),
usually believed by schoolboys and others to be the transfor-
mation'of horse-hairs by immersion in running water. The
larval stages of these worms are usually passed parasitically
in insects.

S. A. S. — You had best obtain the volume of Labels for the
Herbarium, by Robson, published by Hardwicke, Piccadilly,
last year. It is the completest list yet i«sued, printed on one
side for herbarium use. The generic names are, if we re-
member right, given as you desire.

Bklkmnitk. — For preserving your Gault fossils, first gently
brush them with a weak solution of common glue. This
will prevent them falling in pieces. Afterwards, when this
has dried, brush them over with copal varnish, to produce
the shiny appearance you desire. We think, however, you
had better omit the latter, as it warms in summer and gets
sticky, so that the dust adheres to it.

J. P. Greklv. — A crirrespondent has kindly recommended
us the following receipt as an antidote to wire- worms: —
Sprinkle the ground well with soot, and then plant it with
potatoes ; when the potatoes are taken up, the wire-worms
should be taken out and destroyed. If this be done for a year
or two, the ground will be entirely cleared from them. If
the land is heavy and clayey, a heavy dressing of lime, at the
rate of so tons per acre, will prove beneficial.

Erratum.— On page KS of last No. of S.-G., and in 32nd
line, for " terrestrial," read " arboreal."

E. C— You will find a note respecting the connection of
the Eagle with St. John, olfered as an explanation of the
" Liver '' on the seal of the Liverpool arms, in the February
Ko. of SciE.vCE-Gossip for 1372. For St. James and the
Scallop, and other hagiographical matters, consult Husen-
beth's " Emblems of the Saints."

W. L. W. E. — We are very torry to remark that, though
we got your note, the bees have not yet " turned up " !

Original SuBscRiBKR. — We are not aware that you can
purchase collapsible tubes ready filled w.th Canada balsam
but it is not difficult to get the tubes first and to fill then\
afterwards. You had best inquire at a gtiod chemist's. The
cheap perfumery is sold in the collapsible tiibe>. 2nd. You
had better apply to any good microscope dealer for the
material you desire, and we doubt not he will be glad to
send you hiu catalogues. 3rd. For the purpose of studying
the dissection of animals, you cannot do better than obtain
Hulk & Henfrey's " Anatomical ManipuUtinn." London:
Van Voorst. The second edition (just issued) of Davies " On
Mounting, &c.'' (London : Hardwicke) is still cheaper.

EXCHANGES.
W'anted: Clansilia biplicata, C. dubia, and Bulimus mon-
tanus. Offered: B.monlanus, C laminatu, Cyclontuma elegant,
and others. — Miss F. Hele, EUenslea, Redlands Grove,
Bristol.

Pkiilaris paraduxa, Sisymbrium pa7i»onicum, Sic., for
grasses in general, particularly of genera Bramus, Fentuca,
and Paiiician.—J. Harbord Lewis, 18o, Mill-street, Liver-
pool, S.

From eighty to a hundred Foreign Land Shells all duly
reported, tt)r which should be pleased for Northern English,
Irish, and Scotch Algae. — Henry Goode, 13, CUrence -street,
Penzance, Cornwall.

A Stamp Alb CM containing about 650, open to ofiers. —
Address, J. L. Copeman, 12, The Walk, Norwich.

I SHOULD like to exchange Bird Skins with some British
reader of the Scikxce-Gossip.— Frankhn W. Hall, 14, Park-
street, New Haven, Ct., U.S.

Wanteo, good mounted Injections. I will give Stained
Tissue. — Send stamped envelope to Wm. Sarjcant, Jan.,
Caverswall, Stafford.

Wanted, good slides of Js/Amia necL'osrt,goodNaviculEE, and
Cuxhaven Mud Diatoms for first-class Slides. — H. B. Thomas,
Boston, Lincolnshire.

Wanted, Storm-tossed Scraps, Marine objects of interest,
Sec, dried and named. Can offer Slides, Fossils, and other
objects of natural history. — E. Lovett, Holly Mount,
Croydon.

Wanted, Larvre of P. cratiegi, C. Darus, E. Medea, L.
Sibylla, A. hvs. and ova of any hairstreak exc-pt Quercus, for
Microscopic Slides, or other Lepidoplera. — W'. L. Sarjeant,
0, Dagnallpark Terrace, Selhurst, Surrey.

Arhimenes, Gestieru, and Euconodium bulbs, for well-
mounted Slides, Diatoms, &c. — Address, 135, St. Owen. street,
Hereford.

Bone Sections, long and transverse. Camel, Horse, Ox,
Sheep, and Pig, mounted or unmounted, for good Slides or
material.— W'. Officer, Wilmington, Hull.

Scales of Bream unniouned, for other good objects. —
Stamped envelope to Miss Watkins, 15, Union-street, Deptford,
S.E.

Microscopic FvNc,i,(Ecidiumrubelht>ii, (E.i(rticcE,C\iister-
cups from Coltsfoot, Pilewort, and Goat's-beard, all mounted,
for well-mounted objects — Anatomical or Polarizing subjects
in preference.— G. Garrett, Harland House, Whersted-road,
Ipswich.

I have the following duplicate Nos. in the London Cat. of
British Plants :— 762, 746, 92i), 103tJ, 1052, 1037, 732, 418, 229.
67tj, y57, 8(i7, 881, 698, 472, 1165, 187, 425, ] I'y, 1168,1234,
897, 180. Ueniderata sent on application. — E. A. Hall, Trinity
Hall, Cambridge.

Wanted, Papilio Machaon. Will give Pumphila Actceon. —
R. M. Glazbrook, Lower Caversham.

Hair from tail of Indian Elephant (trans-section), part of
Wing of Locust, and many other good objects. Shell
sections preferred.- Send list to C. C. Underwood, 25, Glou-
cester-place, Portman- square, London.

Diatoms (rom Litcham, cleaned.— Send stamp and address
to W. White, Litcham, Norfolk. Any material acceptable.

Foraminifera and other Microscopic Shells, and Diato-
macese well mounted for other mounted objects. — H. Cock-
son, 24, Rodney-street, Liverpool.

Beautiful Crystals of Spinel Ruby and rough Amethysts,
Topazes, and other precious stones, for Microscopic Slides. —
G., 20, Maryland-road, Harrow-road, W.

Alq.'b frora the Channel Island-!, North and South Devon,
and Cornwall, for any or all of the following Sea-weeds —
good specimens required : — Caltithamniun floccnsum, pluma,
and liriidicei, pucus Machieii, Dehssrriu angustissima, Pfiyl-
li)/i/iora Brudiai, JtlwJymenia cristata, Punctitria tonuissima,
Sphdcelaria plumosa, Arthrocladia tilloiia. S/ioructienes pe-
duncutalus, Polysiphonia parasitica (very fine in Scotland),
Nitophyllum laceratum (very fine in the 0:kneys).— Henry
Gaode, 13, Clarence-street, Penzance, Cornwall.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GO S SIP.

49

MOLLUSCAN THEEADS.

By G. SHERRIFF TIE.

'ONTAGU, at the beginning of this
century, noticed the hcabit in Phym
fontinalis of thread-spinning. He
says : " Physa fontinalis spins a
filament by which it lets itself
down from the surface after float-
ing." Later, Mr. Kobert Waring-
ton ' gave an exceedingly interest-
ing account of this thread-spinning
by Limncea glufinosa, L. stagnalis,
various species of Planorbis (not
named by him), and Physa fontinalis.
The latter upon one occasion formed
a thread so tough that he was enabled
to lift the snail seven inches above
the surface of the water by it. The
author includes in his list of thread-
spinners Neritinafluviatilis — of this I shall
speak further on — and concludes by
his belief that "all the fresh-water snails I
are possessed of this power."

Now, after this well-proven fact of spinning,
stated upon the authority of so good an observer,
you would scarcely expect to find such an observa-
tion as this :— " The Physse, especially P. hypnorum,
are active in habit, whether swimming foot upper-
most, on the surface of the water, holding them-
selves stationary at different depths in the water,
or gliding through it in sudden jerks by an hydraulic
action of the foot. By bringing the lateral margins
of this organ into contact, the animal constructs a
tube for inhaling and suddenly expelling the water
either upwards or downwards.' Montagu stated, and
the statement has been repeated by Jeffreys, that
the anunal spins a mucous thread for letting itself
down in the water and rising again for respiration ;
but I have not succeeded in confirming this observa-
tion, and have great doubts of its accuracy."!

* Zoologist, 1852, pp. 3634-5; 1855, p. 4533.

t LovcU Reeve, "British Landand Fresh- water Mollusks,"
pp. 150-1. 1863.

No. 111.

Mr. Reeve does not tell us how he proved his
assertion about the " hydraulic action of the foot,"
and does not seem to have tried to ascertain how
they " hold themselves stationary at different depths
in the water,"— coolly " doubts " Montagu's state-
ment about the "mucous thread," and does not
notice Mr. Warington's observations at all. I may
state that a moUusk is only capable of " holding
itself stationary at different depths in the water "
when attached to a thread, and that no " hydraulic
action " of the foot takes place. When a mollusk
is forming a thread, the "lateral margins " of the
foot are brought together, forming a channel for the
natural flow of mucus down the sides of the foot
to the tail; thus adding to the thread, which is
gradually extended. The existence of a thread may
be proved, as stated by Mr. Warington, by passing
a rod under the creature, by which means it can be
swayed to and fro.

I have taken great interest in this thread-spin-
ning, and long before I had read Mr. Warington's
excellent notes I had been observing this seeming
phenomenon, and had tabulated the species abso-
lutely seen by myself in the act, and noted the
conditions under which moUusks are capable of
producing and using a thread.

Let me here explain that the words thread and.
spinning are used descriptively, and it must not be
supposed that these threads, or the production of
them, bear any analogy to the spinning of spiders-
In the case of the mollusk the thread is gelatinous—
in fact, is formed of the slime of the creature, the
process of forming it being, to a certain extent, an
involuntary act, although it is used for a set
purpose ; whereas the spider's thread is silken, and
its formation is entirely under the control of the
creature. Neither are they to be confounded with
the byssal filaments of the Mytilidm, Pectinid<e,
Dreissena polymorpha, &c., these latter being of a
fibrous nature, and the product of a special organ.
As members of the order Pulmonohranchiata —
breathers of atmospheric air— spin and use threads

D

50

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

oftener tliau any other of the Gasteropoda,
especially the aquatic members of the group, and as
their method of using them differs from the Pedini-
branchiata — water-breathers — we will consider them
first.

In order to be better understood, let us describe
briefly their process of respiration. On the side of
the creature is situated a sac, or branchial chamber,
formed by a fold in the mantle, and having an
opening outwards, which the animal can open and
shut at will. The air in this sac is renewed by
diffusion while the mollusk is at the surface of the
water, which air oxygenates the blood through the
veins, which ramify in an arborescent form over the
roof of the cavity. Now it will be obvious to the
reader that when this sac is distended with air, the
creature becomes of less specific gravity than water;
hence it will float, even against its own will, when
dislodged from its hold ; and, on the other hand,
when the air in its branchial chamber is exhausted
by natural respiration, or expelled by reason of some
annoyance, the creature, becoming heavier than
water, at once sinks to the bottom ; and on this
simple fact hangs the capability of the mollusk to
spin an upioanl or downward thread.

I have never seen a member of this order descend
by a thread unless it had first ascended by one, in
which case it might return upon the same thread.
It would no doubt be possible for it to descend by
a thread if its air-chamber was sufficiently empty
to allow of its sinking ; but, atmospheric air being
essential to the creature's existence, it very rarely
voluntarily descends without a supply, and never in
such a case by a thread, although it will creep
about in the water when the air in its branchial
cavity is sufficiently exhausted to allow it to fall
to the bottom of the water when loosed from its
hold.

As soon as a young Limnseid issues from the &gg
it appears to be capable of rising to the surface of
the water by a thread, its air-sac being no doubt
sufficiently charged with air to render it buoyant
enough.

The method of anchoring these threads to the
surface of water is singular : a minute concavity at
the upper end acts like a small boat — of air, and
thus sustains the thread.

When one of these mollusks descends by the
thread it spun in ascending, it generally carries
back the thread with it, gathering it together by a
muscular action of the foot, although these threads
are sometimes fixed and made to last a considerable
time. The longest threads I have seen are those of
the Physse, and I have had in a vessel containing
fourteen inches depth of water, a number of them
fixed by Physa hypnorum, up and down which they
were creeping for eighteen or twenty days together.
I have no doubt they can extend their threads to a
much greater length, say three or four feet ; but.

owing to some difficulty in constructing a vessel of
such a depth convenient for observation, I have not
been able to verify my belief.

Permanent threads are kept in position and strong
enough for use by the addition of a film of mucus
each time a mollusk crawls over them ; and I may
here explain what I wish to convey by saying that
the process of spinning is to a certain extent an
involuntary act.

t When a snail crawls (either a terrestrial or an
aquatic species) it leaves behind it a trail of mucus,
which is discharged for the purpose of lubricating
the foot in its passage over any surface, and if the
continuity of this mucus be not ruptured, we have
a thread in all respects analogous to those I am
speaking of.

In the case of an aquatic species, this trail of
mucus is usually invisible ; hence it may be sup-
posed that mollusks inhabiting water do not secrete
such a copious supply as their brethren of the land,
and that the water itself would act as a sufficient
lubricant ; but such is not the case, for not only do
the bodies of mollusks require lubricating in their
passage through water (as in the case of fishes), but
the foot especially, in its passage over the surface
of any object. This mucus may readily be seen
when fresh water is put into any vessel in which
mollusks have been kept for a few days, as the
bubbles of oxygen then given off by the plants
{Anacharis alsinastrum shows it well) adhere to the
network of mucus which stretches from leaf to
leaf, making it plainly visible : of course the change
must be conducted gently. The best plan is to lift
out a bundle of Anacharis from the vessel in which
the snails are, and drop it gently into a vessel of
fresh water.

The slugs possess this mucus-secreting pro-
perty to a remarkable degree; each species produces
mucus of a colour and consistency peculiar to
itself, some species being provided with an im-
portant slime-gland near the tail. This property
is essential to their well-being ; having no shelter-
ing shell, it serves to keep their body moist and
cool in dry weather. Slugs often suspend them-
selves by a thread, but do not use it as a means of
ascent. The Pectinibranchs, extracting oxygen
from the water as it passes over their comb-like
gill, are not capable of altering their specific
gravity; hence they cannot spin an upward thread;
bat several species, both fluviatile and marine,
often suspend themselves from the surface of the
water or from a floating object, by a thread, but do
not ascend by it again. The same remarks apply
to the Nudibranchs,

Instances of thread-spinning occur among the
Lamellibranchiate mollusca. Sphcerium lacustre
has been observed by the late Dr. Lukis, of
Guernsey, to suspend itself below the surface of
the water by a filament half an inch in length, the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

51

spinning of which occupied the creature tliree
jiours. M. Bouchard-Cbantereux has recorded
that the young of S. corneum possesses the same
power of spinning a thread. I have myself seen
the latter^ anchor itself by a mucous filament. The
uses of these threads to the Pulmonobranchs appear
to be: —

1st. They enable the mollusk to reach the
surface of the water gently when no other means
present themselves.

2nd. It is a much easier method of locomotion.

3rd. It is a much quicker mode of travelling ;
for if the surface traversed be smooth, as the
side of a glass vessel, it will take the mollusk
twice the time to creep as to float by a thread,
while if the surface be uneven, as the side of a
pond or the leaves of a plant, it would be longer
still in creeping.

4tli. As a great part of the lifetime of the Lim-
nseidte, especially the Physfe, is spent in floating
upon the surface of the water, where they feed upon
particles of decaying vegetable matter, this property
of thread-spinning seems admirably suited to their
requirements.

It enables the slugs to descend from considerable
heights, as from branch to branch of a tree, quicker
and easier than by the process of creeping.

Among the Pectinibranchs, it enables the snail to
reach the bottom gently, instead of falling roughly
or suddenly. It serves the same purpose among
the Nudibranehs.*

The Sphseridae, through their capability of climb-
ing and floating, in which exercises they are fond
of indulging, especially when young, are enabled
to enjoy a more extended range of habitat and food ;
and when, during their excursions, they desire to
rest, this mucus-cable (always short, generally
hardly to be spoken of as of any length, but simply
a mucous attachment) keeps them safely moored,
while, with foot and siphons withdrawn, they take
a short period of repose.

Having thus far, I hope, succeeded in indicating
the "why and wherefore" of moUuscan threads,
I will tabulate the species I have seen spin, and
those seen by others, commencing with the species
that spins oftenest and best, and relate one or two
incidents connected therewith.

PULMONOBRANCHIATA.

Physa hypnormi. — As before stated, I have had
the young of this species creeping up and down
permanent threads for eighteen or twenty days
together. In one case, I saw three Physse and a
Limncea glabra upon a thread of the former at one
time. Often, when two Physse meet upon the same
thread, they fight as only moUusks of this genus

* Alder and Hancock, " Monograph of the Nudibranchiate
Mollusca."

can, and the manoeuvres they go through upon
their fairy ladders outdo the cleverest human gym-
nast that ever performed. I once saw one ascend-
ing, and when it was halfway up the thread it was
overtaken by another; then came the "tug of
war " ; each tried to shake the other off, by repeated
blows and jerks of its shell, at the same time creep-
ing over each other's shell and body in the most
excited manner. Neither being able to gain the
mastery, one began to descend, followed by the
other, whicli overtook it, reaching the bottom
first. Yet they are not always bent upon war, but
pass and repass each other in an amicable spirit.
One of the most beautiful sights iu moUuscan
economy is to see these little " golden pippins "
gliding through the water by no visible means ; and
when they fight, to see them twist and twirl, per-
forming such quick and curious evolutions, while
seemingly floating iu mid-water, is astonishing,
even to the patient student of Nature's wonders.

Physa fontmalis stands next as a thread-spinner,
usingthe thread in a similar manner, but not so often.

Limnaa glabra, although not using this means of
locomotion so often, nevertheless spins well and
easily.

L. stagnalis is active when young, but its habit of
spinning decreases as it grows older.

L. palustris. — The same remarks apply to this
species also, although I have not seen it spin so
commonly as stagnalis.

L.jjeregra. —This species has been observed to
spin by my friend Mr. R. M. Lloyd, but it very
seldom uses a thread.

L. glutinosa, recorded as a thread-spinner by Mr.
Warington.

Planorbis complanatits, P. spirorbis, P. con-
tortus. — These species spin very much less often
than the foregoing.

Limax arborum. — M. Bouchard-Chantereux has
seen young individuals of this species descend from
branch to branch of a tree by a mucous filament,
and he supposes this species to be the Limax filans,
or spinning slug of some English authors of the
last century. Mr. Daniel has also seen this species
suspended in couples from the branches of trees
during the breeding season.*

L. agresfis uses a thread in a similar manner, f

L. maxinms has been observed to lower itself a
distance of three or four feet by a thread. %

Megalomastoma suspensum, inhabiting the IV^est
Indies, derives its name from its habit of suspend
ing itself from the branches of trees by a thread. §

* Jeffreys, " Brit. Con.," vol. i. pp. 136-/.

t Ibid., p. 135.

t Lovell Reeve, " British Land and Fresh- water MoUusks,"
p. 26.

§ Guilding, quoted by Woodward, "Manual of the Mol-
lusca," p. 209.

D 3

52

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE -GO SSIP.

Pectinibkanchiata.

Bythinia tentaculata.—1\\\% snail suspends itself
by a thread, after floating, whicli is usually
attached to the surface of the water.

Rissoa parva is well known to conchologists as a
thread-spinner. Mr. J. G. Jeffreys thus pleasantly
speaks of it :— "Lying on a rock, by the brink of a
seaweed-covered pool left by the receding tide, it is
no less pleasant than curious to watch this active
little creature go through its different exercises,—
creeping, floating, and spinning."

Several other species of Rissose spin threads, also
Barleeia rubra, Eulima intermedia, CeritJmm reticu-
latum, Cerithlopsisttuhercularis, and Pleurotoma
nebula. An account of their different modes of pro-
cedure will be found in Mr. Jeffreys's work, under
theii" several headings.

Litlopa, a genus of small mollusks living on
floating seaweed far from land, are said to use a
mucous filament for the purpose of regaining their
station, after having been swept off the weed.* If
this be correct, we have a water-breathing mollusk
using its thread as a means of ascent, after having
spun it downwards, a circumstance I have not
myself seen. My observation teaches me that these
threads are not used by mollusks against the laws
of gravitation.

With regard to the spinning of Neritina fliivia-
tUis. This species is an inhabitant of running
streams, and will not live long in confinement. Its
structure renders it impossible for it to spin an
. upward thread, as the nature of its habitat alike
precludes it, and as it could not float in running
water, it could not therefore spin a doiomcard thread,
. as obtains with other members of its order. "While
making these observations, I do not discredit Mr.
Warington's statement, because, although the act of
floating is not a normal one with the creature, it
might have performed it as mollusks sometimes
do,t when placed under circumstances which allow
of it, albeit in their natural condition they could not
possibly do it ; and if it floated, there is no reason
why it should not have spun a downward thread.

Having kept nearly every British species of the
Limnseidfe in confinement on purpose to observe
their habit of spinning, and not having seen some
species use this means of locomotion at all, others
seldom, and some often ; some when young but less
often as they grow older, and others all their life-
time, I have been led to advance a theory whereby
to account for this varied use of these threads. To
this end I have drawn up the following table. While
writing it, I am sensible of its imperfections ; but if
it only serves as a nucleus to stimulate other ob-

servers of the economy of these creatures to frame
a more] perfect one, I shall be the more satisfied
with my attempt.

I must ask the reader to bear in mind that the
time and opportunities at my command for ob-
serving their life and habits do not admit of my
coming to the conclusion, that, because I have never
seen a species spin a thread, therefore it does
not do so. On the contrary, I believe that all the
Limnajidffi use this method of travelling, more or
less ; and, doubtless, in their native habitat, when the
eye of man is not present to pry into their secrets,
these seemingly insignificant creatures perform
these their appointed acts, while we, most wishing
to see, see them not : —

Flanorbis /i«m^«s.t— Inhabiting streams ; could
not spin a thread in its native habitat, 1 have not
succeeded in keeping it alive long.

Flanorbis nitidus,f P. naiitileus,-\ P. albus,-\ P.
glaber,-\ P.vortex,-\ P. spirorbis,*P. contortus,* Lini-
naa truncatula.-\—Oi these species, some spend
their lives on vegetation near the surface of ponds
or pools, and others inhabit shallow ponds or
ditches, which sometimes become dry in summer ;
hence the necessity for using a thread does not
often occur.

Planorbis carinatus,* P. complanatus.^ — Living
in the larger ponds and pools where the water is of
considerable depth, this capability of thread-spin-
ning often serves them to good purpose.

Physa hypttorum,*P.fontinalis,* Limncea glabra.^
—Inhabiting deep ditches, ponds, or pools, and fond
of indulging in subaqueous excursions, the habit of
spinning is essential to their mode of life.

Limntsa stagmlis,* L. palustris,* L. auricularia,-\
L. peregra,% L. glutinosa,X Planorbis corneiis.-\—
When full grown, these species, being much larger
and stronger than any of the foregoing, are able to
traverse more ground in a given time ; hence they
do not feel the necessity .of using a thread so
often as the smaller species.

* Johnston, " Introduction to Conchnlofy," p. 134.
ir For an account of this habit in Trochiis occidentalis, a
■deep-sea species, see Jeffres'S, " Brit. Con.," vol. iii. pp. 335-6.

HEMIPTERA.

(Continued.)

HoMOrTERA.— The EEOG-HOPrEE [ApJirophora
spumaria).

IN last October number of Science-Gossip I
drew the attention of its readers to the ovipo-
sitor saws and suctorial tubes of the Nettle-bug
{Stenocephalus agilis), order Heteroptera, or " dif-
ferent wings."

From communications received, and numerous
applications for mounted slides of ovipositors, from

* Species I have seen spin a thread.

t Species I have Icept, but not seen spin.

X Species seen to spin by others.

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOS S IP.

53

several contributors of this journal, I fancy some
little interest has been excited to further investiga-
tions of these organs ; for that reason I feel induced
to give a brief sketch of another order of Homo-
ptera, section Trissiene, genus Aphrophora, species
Aphrophora spumaria.

fig. 43. Suctoricil tube, lancets, &c., seen from beneath,
X 120.

This insect, the " Frog-hopper," will probably be
of more general interest, for, although so common,
it is little known. Many persons no doubt have seen
the frothy secretion upon the branches and leaves
of shrubs during the summer months, and probably
know that it is commonly designated cuckoo-spit,
and this, perhaps, is the only idea of many concern-
ing it. This secretion is effected on the larva leaving
the egg. It covers itself with a froth, fixing its ros-
trum into the cellular tissue of the plant on which
it is fixed ; it draws up a sufficient quantity of sap to
cover itself, pouring out a secretion from the organs
placed at the terminal portion of the abdomen (this
secretion is the spit) ; but a more careful observer
will find, upon breaking it up, a small green larva,
with yellow eyes ; the insect thus protected passes
through its larva of different stages until it arrives
at maturity.

Upon subjecting the larva to the microscopic
glass, the suctorial tube, lancets, &c., will be seen
(fig. 43) composed of the labrum, which forms a
jointed sheath for the slender trestle-like mandibles
and maxillae, and also a canal for the passage of
the juices upon which the insects live.

In its mature state it is a dull, stone-bodied, incon-
spicuous insect with awl-like antennae (fig. 44), from
the last joint of which springs a trestle appendage.
Posterior legs adapted for springing, the extremity

of tibia and tarsus being terminated with tooth-
shaped spines (fig. 45).

The elytra when subjected to microscopical ex-
amination will be found very beautiful. The ground-
work is seen to be made up of cellular tissue or

Fig. 41, Head and Awl-like antenna of Froghopper.

oval spots, arranged in irregular transverse rows,
ihese spots are of uniform dimensions,* consisting
of a centre, surrounded by a white circle, each spot
bemg divided from its fellow by a space nearly equal

Fig. 45. Posterior leg and terminal claw.

to its own diameter; and, when viewed as an
opaque object, stand out in relief. The females are
furnished with a singular and beautiful apparatus
(fig. 4C), by which they are enabled to form excava-
tions or grooves in the twigs or leaves of plants, for
the purpose of depositing their eggs (which are
large and few in number). It is analogous to
the instrument possessed by the Tenthredo or Saw-
flies. On the under surface of the terminal segment
of the abdomen, nearly at the extreme point, are seen
a pair of valves or palpi, which form the sheath for
the auger or boring instni,meut. Upon a casual
view this auger appears like a denticulated arrow-
headed spear, but on a more minute examination it
is seen that what appears at first sight a single
instrument, is made up of four distinct portions,
two deeply indented blades set back to back, and a
middle support, in which they slide : the remaining
two have their outer edges smooth, but the inner
are cut into the most regular minute serrations.
These facts are probably known to many ; still there
may be a few to whom this brief sketch may be in-

* This is more discernible when the elytra is mounted on

balsam.

54

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

teresting. My only aim is to advise tiie study of
Nature.

Ou the advantages attending the study of Natural
History it is superfluous to enlarge ; to every one
whose heart is well attuned Nature presents a
thousand charms.

Vis. 46. Saws and Sheath, seen under pressure, side view,
X 60.

So various and manifold are the subjects of
Nature's empire, that were the life of one man, how-
ever zealous he might be, lengthened out to twenty,
nay, a hundred times beyond his allotted term, his
materials wouldnotbe exhausted; he would still have
much to study, much to investigate, and, after all,
leave a " Systema Naturte " to be enlarged and cor-
rected by those who should come after him. Hence
the great advantage of co-operating numbers, each
working in his favourite department, and contribut-
ing his portion of labour to the public good.

Fig. ij. Upper saw, more highly magnified.

The result is an accumulated mass of riches,
which, being transmitted to our immediate succes-
sors, may be by them assayed, refined, and increased,
and, in due order, passed on to generationsyoUowing.
The utility, then, of selecting a portion of Nature's
empire on which to concentrate our energies, is

very apparent. We may, nay we must, survey the
whole, in order to study a portion to advantage ; but
while in the one case we content ourselves with a
general outline, in the other we follow out the
minutest lines, tracing them through all their several
curves and ramifications. Every one can, I am sure,
do something towards adding to the common stock
of information already obtained, even with a mode-
rate degree of attention as opportunity serves. The
immense variety of objects which comes under the
investigation of a lover of Natural History, so far
from discouraging the beginner, should have the
effect of stimulating his exertions, as of by far the
larger part of "creation" little is comparatively
known; norevenof »^«;^ himself can our knowledge be
regarded in any way perfect. And none but those
who have tried the experiment can form an estimate
of the pleasures which arise from this branch of
study. There is a simple pleasure in the acquisi-
tion of knowledge, worth to many far more than
the acquisition of wealth. There is a pleasure in
making it useful to others ; there is a pleasure in the
contemplation of beauty and harmony wherever
presented to us ; and is not this pleasure increased
when we reflect, as in this branch we become experts,
that the sources of them are never-ending, and that
our enjoyment of them becomes more and more
intense in proportion to the comprehensiveness of
our knowledge ? And lastly, does not the feeling
that we are not investigating the acts of human
handiwork, but studying the wonders of a creative
design, immeasurably heighten the sources of
gratification ?
Bereham Road, Norwich. J. 0. Hakpee.

ON MOUNTING IN GLYCERINE JELLY.

SOME of the members of our Postal Micro-
Cabinet Club have asked us how we work with
glycerine jelly, and as there seems to be no book
which gives a really satisfactory method, we ask for
a space in Science-Gossip to detail our plan, which,
as it is very effective, and though not quite original
is perhaps new to many, we trust will be useful to
those microscopists who mount their own subjects.

This medium possesses the advantage over Canada
balsam that, whilst it renders objects transparent,
it does not give them that homogeneous and glass-
like appearance which, though sometimes advan-
tageous, often leads one to form a very erroneous
idea of the nature of the object. Glycerine jelly
may be used for almost every class of objects ; and
it is, we think, easier to manipulate than any other
medium now in use.

To begin at the beginning. — The jelly may be
bought at most opticians', but it is very easily made
at one fourth of the cost. We have found our
recipe as below superior to any given in books : —

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

55

Soak i oz.* best amber gelatine (as sold by the
chemist or grocer) in loz. distilled water; when it
has absorbed all the water, put it in a Florence flask
with 50 grains of powdered chloride of barium,
warm it in a water-bath and agitate till the barium
salt is dissolved. Allow it to cool below blood-heat,
and while still fluid add 1 oz. Price's glycerine and
a teaspoonful of white of egg ; shake until well
mixed, replace in the water-bath, and boil at full
speed until the albumen compleielp separates from
the jelly in the form of a single lump. Now filter
through well- washed fine flannel, and it should be
as clear as crystal ; but if through mismanagement
it be a little cloudy, filter it again, this second time
using filter-paper, and placing the funnel with the
jelly, &c., in a cool oren. During the coagulation of
the albumen, the jelly must on no account be stirred.
It is well to beat up the white of egg before use,
lest it should be stringy. In lieu of a water-bath a
saucepan may be used ; and a little salt thrown into
the water causes it to boil at a greater heat.

The jelly made after this recipe is of the proper
consistency for entomological objects ; but for deli-
cate vegetable structures it should be softened by
adding to it a third of its volume of a mixture of
equal parts of glycerine and distilled water.
:^ Put the jelly into test-tubes i inch.in diameter, and
■when you wish to mount a slide, warm the upper
part of the tul)e; in this way you can pour out any
quantity free from bubbles. It is perhaps well to
put a trace of varnish or some essential oil on the
corks, lest they should get mouldy. The chloride of
barium prevents fungi in the jelly : this is the best
preservative we know of, but something is absolutely
necessary. By all means avoid putting alcohol,
creasote, &c., in the jelly, as they dissolve varnishes,
and also spoil the colour of some objects.

TVe will now proceed to the mounting operations,
and will take an insect for the first example. —
Having dissected the fly, or whatever it may be, put
the transparent parts (wings, and perhaps halteres)
in a little folded piece of cream-laid note-paper with
a drop or two of glycerine, and torite the name on the
outside, or you are sure to forget the particular
insect which they belong to. Soak the opaque parts
in caustic potash solution as usual ; boil them once
or if necessary twice, in distilled water, using fresh
water each time. The objects may now be mounted
at once, or kept in glycerine till wanted, and at the
time of mounting rinsed in water to remove the
glycerine. To mount them, arrange them neatly
on a slide, suck away the superfluous moisture
through a fine-pointed glass tube ; lay on the thin
glass cover, and secure with a strong brass clip, or,
if the cover be large, use two or more clips. Now
drop a little liquefied jelly round the edge of the
cover : it will run under, and look too full of bubbles
to be good for anything, but that is no matter ; just
warm it over a small lamp-flame until it boils and

the air is driven out, and when the slide is quite
cold it will be free from bubbles, or any bubble left
near the edge will disappear in a short time. The
jelly must actually boil, hut 7io more. A great many
bubbles will be given off before it really boils, but
when the heat reaches a certain point the jelly will
burst out from under the cover with a slight noise,
and the slide should be taken away from the flame
immediately. Every now and again you will get a
slide so full of bubbles that they will take a week
to go away, and perhaps even a second boiling will
be necessary; but this is very seldom. : After leaving
the slide for a few hours for the jelly to set, clean it
with a tooth-brush and cold water, carefully wipe
it dry, and cement at once with gold size, of which
two or three coats should be applied. India-rubber
varnish is perhaps better than gold size for the first
coat, for the latter cement sometimes runs in and
spoils the object ; but if it be only laid ,on thin
enough, this will not often happen. Any varnish
containing alcohol is worse than useless, because it.
will mix with the jelly.

The above plan may be applied to palates of'
moUusks and all animal objects that are not injured
by heat. Injections of course would be spoilt by
it. Many vegetable objects, such as wood-sections,
tough cuticles, and others of a like nature, may be-
mounted in the same way as an insect, but delicate
vegetable structures and objects in cells must be
mounted as follows. Air may be expelled by boiling
in water, or, in extreme cases, in alcohol, and after-
wards washing in water. If that which you wish to
mount be such as an alga, you cannot boil it at all,
but must merely wash it in clean water, and absorb
superfluous moisture with a glass jet.

To proceed. — Drop a little jelly on the centre of
a slide, warm it slightly, but not above blood-heat ;.
place the object in the centre ; move it gently with
a needle to let the jelly penetrate it ; lay the cover
on quite horizontally — and not one side first, as
usually recommended, — and when cold clean and
varnish. Cells are not often required : only for very
thick objects and certain algpe, &c. They may be
made of glass, tin, or vulcanite, and should be stuck
with marine glue, which is about the only trust-
worthy cement, or they may be of rings of gold size
heated strongly until of a brownish hue. When
mounting in a cell, the boiling method is imprac-
ticable.

If you wish to use balsam in the same way,
after the objects are boiled in water rinse them in
methylated spirit, and soak for a time in absolute
alcohol ; transfer to oil of cloves or carbolic acid
(oil of cloves is the better of the two) ; then lay
them on the slide, and mount and boil as above.

For Dammar.— On taking the objects from water,
arrange them on a slide with cover and clip, and
set it aside till dry ; then allow a drop of benzole
to run under the cover ; about one minute afterwards

56

HARDWICKE'S S CIEN CE-GO S S IP.

let the dammar solution run under, and boil out the
air as above. Dammar seems to be a rather too
fractious medium to use oil of cloves, &c. with, as it
is inclined to turn opaque, especially with alcohol.
The results with balsam and dammar are less satis-
factory than with jelly, and bubbles are apt to
remain.

H. M. J. Undekhill and F. J. Allen.

ANCIENT TREES.

rnillS subject is evidently one of great interest,
-*- judging from the number of correspondents
who have contributed information upon it, in your
ma2;azine.

Fig. 48. Fortingal Yew.

During a short stay in Wrexham last summer, I
visited with our friends the churchyard of Overton,
formerly a village, now a town situated in Elint-
shire, just divided from Denbighshire by the Dee.
The churchyard is planted thickly with splendid
yews, and from this circumstance forms one of the
lesser wonders of North Wales. I send you a
sketch of the church and churchyard, copied from
the Art Journal, May, 1873, but it does not do
justice to the trees, which are well worth a minute
examination. The yews are of various ages : one
very old one I examined was fast going to decay,
the trunk was quite hollow, and the cavity large
enough to hold several people comfortably. As
neai-ly as I could guess (for I did not measure the
tree) its circumference must have been 30 feet three
feet from the ground.

Again, there are twenty large yew-trees in the
churchyard at Gresford, in Denbighshire ; but the
noted one mentioned in Science-Gossip for April
(1873), is a fine specimen. My brother-in-law
walked over from Wrexham recently to examine

it for me ; he girthed it, and found it measured 29
feet in circumference five feet from the ground ; it
is more than 60 feet high, and is supposed to be
about 1,450 years old, planted in the year 426, when
the Romans finally left Britain, Wales being at
that time a Roman province.

Both the old sexton and the former church-
warden give a similar account respecting this tree,
which several scientific men have been over to
Gresford to examine.

In the churchyard of Darley, Derbyshire, there
is a very large old yew-tree, which is always a
source of attraction to Peak visitors, and is said to
be the largest and oldest tree in the kingdom. It
measures 33 feet round the trunk, and though
bereft of many of its branches, is still in full vigour.
In the churchyard, Tisbury, Dorsetshire,
there is now standing an immense yew-
tree, which measures 37 feet in circumfer-
ence. The trunk is quite hollow: it is
entered by means of a rustic gate, and
seventeen people lately breakfasted in its
interior. One in Staines is upwards of
1,000 years old.

The great yew at Eortiugal, Perth-
shire, N.B., alluded to in Mr. Lee's
most interesting paper in the December
Gossip, 1873, page 265, is stated by
Gilpin in his "Eorest Scenery," vol. i.
page 282, to measure 564 feet in circum-
ference, and is supposed to have been a
tree at the commencement of our Chris-
tian era. It still remains, and was visited
by Mr. Neill, the naturalist, in 1833.
This yew is figured by Mr. Strutt.

Many interesting accounts are further
given of the yew, in Evelyn's " Silva,''
and also by Gilpin in his first volume of " Forest
Scenery." White, in his History of Selborne, note,
page 7, says it is calculated that there are yews
in Britain upwards of 2,000 and 3,000 years old.

There are some fine yews round Fountains Abbey,
curious in themselves, as well as historically interest-
ing : they are said to have been full-grown when
the abbey was built in 1132. (Gilpin, page 280.)

At Hanchurch, near Newcastle, there is a spacious
quadrangle formed by many old yews : a church is
once supposed to have stood there. Also there is a
remarkable avenue of yews at Hales Hall, near
Cheadle, Staffordshire, and again some remarkable
yews at Himley, Caverswall, and Tixall. The yew
was a sacred tree among the Northerns. Its ancient
British name was ytc, or ywen ; the former (pro-
nounced yew) is the plural, the latter th» singular ;
its botanical name is Tcixus baccata.

Evelyn speaks of a holly hedge in his garden mea-
suring 160 feet in length, 7 feet high and 5 feet in
diameter. In Keele gardens, near Newcastle, the seat
of the Rev. Walter Sneyd, there is growing a holly

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Ledge ilO years old, 100 yards iu length, 6 feet wide
at the top, 20 feet wide at the bottom, and 32 or 35
feet high. Speaking of the old trees of North
Wales, 1 must mention that there is a splendid
avenue at Wynastery, near Wrexham, upwards of
a mile iu length, formed of fine oaks, elms, limes,
and beeches : one ash, called the " King," measures
3G feet in circumference. There are likewise many
fine oaks mentioned in the " Natural History of
Staffordshire," page 40S, which are worthy of
investigation.

It will be with great pleasure I shall look forward
to further information upon the subject of old trees
in the pages of your magazine.

E. Edwakds,

THE DARTER.

{Boleosoma OlmstecU, Storer.)
By Chakles C. Abbott, M.D.

A TOT all of our little fishes are "minnows,"
-J-^ although a very common want of knowledge
of fish generally results in persistently calling every-
thing not a shad or sturgeon, a "little minnie."
Now, these ignorant people notwith-
standing, there are pretty little fish in
all of our streaais that bear as little
relationship to small cyprinoids or
minnows, as do these to the bulky
sturgeons that visit our large rivers.
Among all these little fishes there are
none that are more interesting to the
field naturdlist than the pretty Darters,
or Etheostomoids, as we prefer to call
them.

In the upper Maters of the Delaware
river (U.S.A.), where jagged outcroppingsoftriassic
sandstone and smooth glacial boulders dropped here
and there in the bed of the stream, make little
eddies in the current, and short stretches of smooth
sand bottom, just below the bases of such projecting
rocks, there are to be found, from June to Novem-
ber, dozens of bright yellow and deep black fishes,
narrow-bodied, extravagantly supplied with fins,
that vary in length from one inch to five; and it
will be noticed, if you approach quietly, that they
are always resting upon the sand, or some flat
pebble, or smooth projecting ledge of the rock about
which they linger. If you disturb them, away they
go, with a most laborious movement of all their fins,
that send the fish but a yard or two, at most, on-
ward and upward, when they again sink to the
bottom ; uidess a second effort is made to give them
an additional " send." Take it altogether, it is the
poorest apology for locomotion that we have ever
seen in either fur, feather, or fin. Why, actually,
if you find them in shallow water, which is fre-
quently the case, you need but follow them up for a

S&i2

little way, and you can run them down. A dozen
yards, without rest, tires them out, and they can
be caught with the hand.

The most abundant of the several species of this
family found in New Jersey is the one we have here
figured, the Tessellated darter, Boleosoma Olmstedi
{B. tessellatum, in vol. i. of " Gunther's Catalogue
of Acanthopterygian Fishes," p. 77). Although^
like all the family, it is a poor swimmer, it cannot
be called a sluggish or inactive fish. Its prominent
eyes readily spy out wee crawling creatures, that
soon escape the notice of the ichthyologist, as he
watches the fish before him ; and when such minute
forms as Etheostomoids largely feed on, do coihe
creeping near, the little " darter " puts his every fin
in rapid motion, and pounces down on the unsuspect-
ing object, which it appears never to fail in seizing ;
and then, with every fin wide-spread, the fish sails
off, with stately mien, that is somewhat ludicrous,
and settles down quietly, in the spot from which
it started, to leisurely devour the morsel it has
secured.

Unlike many of the Etheostomoids, the males of
this species are not arrayed in gorgeous colours in
ilie spring, but are merely brighter in their tints,

"^ ^ ^ V

,<-^ V - \^^.

•'■<''%>» ^ N^^

^

Fig. 48. The Darter {Boleosoma Olmstedi).

the yellow and pale brown colouring especially be-
coming orange, or even red ; but, while we have often
noticed this deepening of the coloration, and also
found many females heavy with ripe and ripening
ova, \\Q have not yet one fact to relate with refer-
ence to their breeding habits. Just how and where
the ova are deposited, we cannot tell ; but tliis we
do know, that soon after the 1st of June, lisuall//,
the darters, young and old, make their appearance,
not only in the river, where they are, perhaps, most
abundant, but in nearly all our smaller streams, and,
selecting such spots as peculiarly suit them, they
take up their abode for the summer and autumn,
and, indeed, until winter, when they hybernate in
the mud, burrowing down to the depth of several
inches (?)

There is, perhaps, no species of fish that is found
in such a variety of localities as this tessellated
darter ; and be the bottom of the stream muddy,
sandy, stony, smooth, or rough, they find an appa-
rently comfortable halntation, provided the water is
constantly changed, and not too warm. So far as

58

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

our own experience goes, this species will not live
in an aquarium, because the water is not in motion,
and thereby well aerated ; but there arc Etheosto-
moids that are not so sensitive in this respect.

In Science-Gossip, No. 86, we briefly hiuted at
catching " darters" with a hook and line. This is
not a difficult matter, but is rather a slow way of
collecting them, if that be the object of captur-
ing them. Like all percoids, darters are cer-
tainly very voracious, and will bite at anything,
even though unable to seize it fairly, letting alone
the possibility of swallowing it. So, if a very small
hook is properly baited, it will be readily seized, if
dropped immediately in front of and near them.
This disposition to snap at everything that presents
itself, places these little fish among the scavengers
of our streams ; for we have noticed that a decom-
posing fish or other animal, when caught by a pro-
jecting rock or stick, will be frequently surrounded
by great numbers of these darters, and the carcase
will be continually pounced upon and bitten at, until
the bones are pretty well picked.

Of the several other species of this family of little
fishes, we will not say anything now; but if, in any
of our rambles during the pleasant autumn months
to come, we succeed in learning something new con-
cerning the tessellated fellow, or in noting pecu-
liarities in allied species, we will agaiu jot down
what we have seen, and, perhaps, make a drawing of
another "darter."

Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

A CHAPTER ON ANTS.

TT is two years since I reported the progress of
-*- my formicary, and I intend now to add a few
acts which have come across my notice in addition
to my observations of previous years. I mentioned
in Science-Gossip for 1S71, p. 2iS, the fact of such
large numbers of my ants {Myrmica rtiginocUs)
escaping suddenly in a body. I thought at the
time that my formicary must be very nearly emptied,
but in the spring of the following year, 1S72, when
they woke up from their torpidity, I was pleased
to find the colony stronger and of greater numbers
than I had expected. They never again attempted
to escape in the same manaer, but got to look upon
their nest as their legitimate home, and Avould I
think have been unwilling to leave it. 1 often let
the trough remain some little time dry before I
refilled it, for I found that the stragglers only ran
about the stand on which the formicary was placed,
but seldom strayed any further.

At one time the gloss sides of my formicary got
so obscured with moss and rubbish, that the view
into the interior was nearly shut out, so I removed
them with the purpose of cleaning them, leaving
the block of earth standing sufficiently safe. On

replacing the glass, since many ants were running
over the perpendicular mound of earth in some
excitement, unavoidably two or three of them got
pressed into the earth, in places where there were
no burrows, and were fixed between the glass and
the mould, quite unable to move at all. Not long
afterwards I was astonished to see several ants
with much eagerness running a burrow straight
towards the very point where one of these ants
was incarcerated. They worked very hard, and
after a time they excavated until they reached the
imprisoned ant, upon which they pulled away and
loosened the soil around it, until they had made
sufficient room for it to wriggle out. Having
watched the completion of this wonderful sight, I
looked to see what was the fate of the other im-
prisoned ants. I found that there were two other
parties of ants eagerly digging out two more of
their comrades. They accomplished their object
in due time, in one case running their separate
galleries from three directions, all meeting at the
precise spot where their lost companion was. A
fourth ant was lightly pressed against the glass
close to the very bottom of the case, and in a very
unfrequented part of the hive, at some distance
from any burrow, where I expected that he must
remain ; but the next morning I found a fresh and
narrow path leading straight to where he had been,
and the ant gone. When the first one of these had
been liberated, it naturally seemed weak and stiff
after the compression it had been subjected to, and
crawled away in a feeble manner; but it was pre-
sently met by a companion and then remained
motionless, whilst the other began at the head,
stroking it all over, round and round, and elabo-
rately pursuing the same course with the thorax
and abdomen, feeling down each leg. It looked
exactly like a surgeon examining a patient to see
the extent of the injuries, and no doubt its inten-
tion in doing it must have been something of the
same nature. Soon afterwards another ant came
up and went through a precisely similar process.
Finally the injured ant slowly disappeared out of
sight into the formicary, surrounded by several of
its companions.

How these ants knew that any of their com.
rades were incarcerated at all, and how that even
then they knew precisely in what direction they
should burrow, is one of those mysteries vrhich
baffles all conjecture. It shows, however, that they
must possess some sense developed to a pitch of
great intensity, and though the theory that insects
possess a subtle sense unknown to us seems scarcely
warrantable, yet it is hard to see which of our five
senses, however much developed, would in this case
have helped to the discovery of the plight of their
companions. If it is the sense of hearing which
they have so acutely, it must be modified to their
special requirements, for they appeared quito obli-

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-GO SSIP.

vioiis to any sounds, however loud, which I have
made for experiment close to the nest.

At one time my ants collected all the rubbish
which they generally threw into the water, as well
as a considerable quantity of eartli, and piled it to-
gether just at the very edge of the platform over-
hanging the water. They kept steadily adding to
it, until it hung halfway across the moat, being
kept together by the moisture sucked up from
the water below. It really seemed as if they
planned bridging over the moat itself; but if such
was the case, their design was frustrated by the
bridge giving way before it reached the other side.
I once cleared it all away, but they forthwith set to
work to construct it again as before.

I may mention here, that I should advise the
platform being made quite three inches in width
from the glass sides to the edge of the bank. When
anything unusual occurs to excite the ants they
come crowding out, and in their eagerness often
slip on the glass and fall down into the trough.
They were not often drowned, but were apt to
crawl out on the wrong side, and so escape. A
wide platform would generally obviate this con-
stant inconvenience. During last summer, I
saw an extraordinary contest between a large
Daddy-longlegs {Tipula) and my ants. The Tipula
incautiously alighted upon the nest, and was imme-
diately seized by two or three of his legs by several
ants. This was the most exciting of the many
battles that I have witnessed in my formicary.
The Tipula whirled round and round, striking with
its legs in its efforts to free itself from its assailants.
They pertinaciously grappled afresh as fast as he
shook tliem off, until at last he got free from them
all, with the exception of one, who still maintained
its hold. The Tipula then Hew away from the for-
micary ; up and down, against the windows and ceil-
ing, and tumbling over and over, but without any
effect. The ant kept its hold, and after looking
for a long time, I left them to their fate.

Sometimes my ants sucked greedily at a piece of
cooked beef, which formerly they used scarcely to
touch, and then I noticed that when they have a
large and tempting morsel, they continued eating all
night without cessation, contrary to their ordinary
habits.

Gould mentions that he has fixed threads to a
flowerpot in which some ants were confined, reach-
ing to the ground, which they used as means of
escape. I have often tried the same thing with
my colony, but they took no notice of it.

A large number of young ones were born into
the colony in 1S72. The eggs from which they
sprung must have either been laid before
the males and females swarmed, or else a female
must have been left behind. In either case
fecundation must have been effected in the nest.
It is usually stated that the males and females

pair in the air at the time of swarming, and
that a female returns, or is dragged back to the
nest, by the neuters to lay her eggs. My own ob-
servations have never borne out this statement,
and in this case I know for certain that no female
could have returned to the nest after the swarming.
With regard to the nests which I have had under
my notice, my idea has always been that, the two
sexes having fecundated and the eggs being laid,
these males and females, there being no further
use for them, then leave the nest or are even ejected
from it Ijy the neuters. It is very noticeable how
carefully the neuters keep the males and females
from straying away for a certain period, and when
that season has expired relax all their vigilance,
and even seem by their eager excitement to en-
courage and accelerate their departure. During
the year I am speaking of (1872) I never saw a
single female, and only one small and young male,
and I never saw a trace of any swarming at ail.
The formicary.being situated in a constantly used
room, such an event could have hardly taken place
unobserved by anybody. This year my formicary
has come to an cud ; I find that it docs not do to
keep one individual colony too long in confinement.
They lose energy from always having their food
found for them and ready at hand, and get listless
from the absence of need for the constant foraging,
which forms so considerable a part of the labours of
an ordinary out-door nest. Besides this, whentwo or
three generations have been bred up in confinement*
they naturally inherit the kind of artificial habits
adapted to that peculiar mode of life. My ants
ceased to repair damages, ceased from keeping their
nest clean and neat, and finally in August I resolved
to take it carefully to pieces and see what had been
done in the interior of the nest. On doing so I
found a comparatively inconsiderable number of
neuters, and not a single male or female. The
nest was not nearly so universally excavated as I
had expected, and there were considerable masses
of it with no burrows at all. The principal pas-
sages widened every now and then into small
caverns, in which the ants were congregated. Ptight
down in the bottom of the nest, in the very centre
of the mound of earth, close to the wooden platform
at the bottom, I found a large, low, and irregularly-
shaped cavity, filled with many ants and also con-
siderable stores of eggs, larvoe, and pupse. The
eggs were little tiny white globules, semi-trans-
parent under the microscope, full of granules
sliglitly kidney-shaped, and collected together in
small compact masses. The larva; were small
white annulatcd maggots, studded with long and
stiff bristles and with large and prominent jaws.
The pupss looked like small white, and soft, per-
feetly motionless ants with larger heads than
ordinary, and with very prominent eyes. The
larvse spin no cocoon. The eggs, larvte, and pupaj

60

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

of his

were really piled in this cavern at the bottom of
the nest, and there were more ants here than in
any other part of the colony. They of course began
anxiously to remove and carry about their young
when I looked in upon them. It seems to me a
remarkable fact, there not being any males or
females at all. I ihave seen no trace
of a female since the swarming of August
30th, 1S71. I cannot account for the
young which I found in the formicary
this year.

I have now had ants under my notice
in my formicaries for more than three
years, and have kept two kinds, Formica
nigra and Myrmica ruginodis. Whether
I shall next year start a colony of some
fresh species, I do not know; but any-
how my ants have afforded me many
happy hours. They are a class of in-
sects intensely interesting, and little
understood. In recommending the study
to others I cannot give a better motto
than Huber gives on the title-page
" Recherches sur les Eourmis " :

" Cherchez, et vous trouverez."

Edward Eentonb Elwin.
Cuius College, Cambridge.

THE ANTENNA OF LEPIDOPTERA.

THE antennae of insects are of themselves a
study, as Mr. Woufor has shown, and the
closer the observation we give them the more
charmed shall we be with their diversity of form
and tint. Much has been written as to the part
these important organs play in the economy of the
insect; but hitherto no definite conclusion has been
arrived at. My own opinion is that they are
employed as a means of communication. I have
frequently seen beetles strike one another with their
antenna, causing sometimes a great ebullition of
wrath, at another time a rush together in one
direction, or asimultaueousattackonafoe. Though,
after all has been said, they may be endued with a
sense altogether unknown to us. But leaving the
strictly scientific portion of the subject to abler
pens, my desire in the present paper is to draw
attention to the great and varied beauty of these
adornments of creatures, perhaps the most lovely in
the whole kingdom of nature. " Quis enim eximiam
earum pulchritudinem et varietatem contemplans
mira voluptate non alliciatur ? "

One of the characteristics by which the Papilio-
uidfe are to be distinguished from the Heterocera is
the antenna, the former, with but few exceptions,
having a knobbed extremity, which is wanting in the
latter, and being incapable of folding them under
the wings, or of much flexibility. Although butter-

flies do not present us with such difference of
antenna-form as moths, a strict examination will
detect a great distinction between the several
families. Those of the Purple Emperor are the
longest, and the tapering of the club in this species
is exceedingly graceful. The ringed antennae of

Fig. so. Deilephila Gatii, showing uncinate antennae.

the Lycenid;!; are very pretty objects. Considering
its size, the Swallow-tail— the largest of English
butterflies— has them very short. This is a distinc-
tive feature of the Rhodoceridae and Pieridae. In
the Hesperidffi, Paniscus, Comma, and Sylvanus
have hooked antennae, a character in British insects
Confined almost exclusively to the Heterocera; but
existing in many exotic species of butterflies. In
some of the older works on entomology this little
family was omitted altogether in the Papilionidae.
Having thus rapidly glanced at the antennae of

Fig. 51. Macroglossa fadfurmis, showing uncinate antennae.

butterflies, we will proceed to those of moths ; and
here, as the scientific name given them by Boisduval
implies, the variety of " horns " we shall meet with
will be very great. They may be divided into three
kinds : the filiform or simple, uncinate or hooked
and the plumed or pennate : they have furthermore
been called pectinated, ciliated, serrated, and pubes-
cent. The Sphingidai will furnish us with instances
of uncinate antennae, those of Atropos being the
most prominent examples ; but the silvery white of
Ligustri and the delicate pink of Porcellus are the
most beautiful in this group. The Zeuzerida; and
Hepialidae, excepting iEsculi and Ligniperda in the

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOSS I P.

Gl

first-named family, are remarkable for the extreme
shortness of these organs. Those of the male
Leopard-moth are of a pretty globular shape, taper-
ing into a fine hair. The antennae of Filipendulse
partake of the shining metallic lustre of the fore-
wings. The filiform, or simple, is decidedly the
commonest form, and is to be found both in males

Fig. 52. Philophora plumigera, showing plumed antennfe.

and females, whilst plumed antennae are peculiar,
without exception, to males alone. Nearly all the
Noctuas have them simple ; but in some of the
males they are slightly pectinated. The simple
form seems to be the rule too with the Geometers.
Of course of all the various kinds none are so
beautiful as the plumed or feathery. We will take
from the several genera a few of the most striking.

Fig. 53. Ihyatira batis, showing simple anteimse.

The male Monacha, with its pure white shafts, is a
pretty exam.ple. Potatoria has the rays so closely
placed together as to appear almost united. Those
of Carpini are of a very elegant leaf-like shape.
Amongst the Geometers we have Pennaria — the
Feathered Thorn, with the handsomest antennae in
the entire group. Roboraria is a type of strongly
pectinated autennse tapering gradually to a point.
Pagi, in the Cuspidates, is another instance of the
tapering form. But to my mind few are comparable
to those of Plumigera, which resemble in miniature
a lovely and delicate fern. Tenebrosa, Valligera, and
Segetuni are about the only examples in the Noctuas,
and though serrated, they can scarcely be called
plumed. The illustrations are taken from insects
in my own cabinet, that of Galii from a bred speci-
men. Joseph Anderson, Jun.
Alresford, Hants.

"We never collected a flowering plant, insect, or
egg, without feeling that if there were any other
way of getting at the knowledge we sought, we
should prefer it. ^ Life, however or wherever repre-
sented, is a sacred thing to the true naturalist." —
Half-Hours in the Green Lanes.

THE BLUE GUM-TREE.

{Eucalyptus globulus.)

QO much has been said lately of this tree, and of
^ its medicinal qualities, that I have thought
a short account of it in Science-Gossip would
perhaps be acceptable. It is a native of Tasmania,
more particularly of the shores of d'Entrecasteaux
channel, and of Tasman's Peninsula, preferring the
damp slopes of the valleys which face the south, to
those which have a northern aspect, and which are
exposed in summer to the dry scorching winds from
Australia. It is one of the most valuable timber
trees in the world, and is admirably adapted for
ship-building, for bridges, and all works requiring
strength and durability. It is very rapid in its
growth, so much so in fact, that any man in twenty
years' time could find himself, if he chose, surrounded
by a forest of his own planting. I have myself cut
down a large grove, which I planted sixteen years
previously, the individuals of which averaged
72 feet in height and 6 in girth. It attains at matu-
rity enormous dimensions, probably excelling those
of any other tree in the world. The Blue Gum has
been known to attain the height of 350 feet, measur-
ing 100 feet in circumference. Planks have been cut
of IGO feet in length, 20 inches broad by 6 inches in
thickness. In dense, forests it rarely sends out a
branch below 100 feet. It yields a highly astringent
gum, which has been extensively used and found to
answer as a "kino," and its leaves, by distillation,
were found byDr.^now Sir Robert) Ofiicei-, to yield
an essential oil, having the same properties as caje-
put oil.

From analogy it might be thought that the £'ir^ra-
lyptus globulus yiQ\i\A.[fi.o\ixh\i where the Myrtle does
in the warm sheltered valleys of South Devon, and
if it could be nailed to a wall, as proposed by a
a writer in the Times, no doubt this would prove to
be true ; but from what I have said above it must be
manifest that in the course of a few years the wall
would give way from lateral pressure, and that
both would perish together. I have no doubt that
it would be an invaluable tree to plant in the pesti-
ferous swampy regions of the West Coast of Africa,
provided that the roots were not affected by salt
water. No drains would be half so effectual as the
pumping power exerted by the far spreading roots
of this gigantic tree. It grows well in all parts of
Italy, and at the Cape of Good Hope, and it has
also been introduced into different parts of Victoria
and of South Australia, and I have often wondered
why it has not been established in Spain, Asia Minor,
and Palestine, when we should once more see the
hills of Judaea covered with forest.

In its early stages the foliage is quite different from
that which it assumes when about five years old,
being of bluish glaucous hue, with a very strong
and pungent odour. When m blossom, the young

62

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

trees have a beautiful appearance, and their large
white globe-shaped myrtle blooms are the resort of
innumerable parroquets, ■ especially of the hairy-
tongued Trichorjlossi and of Lathamus discolor, which
feed ou the nectar extracted from the flowers.
Gould has taken as much as a teaspoonful of honey
from the mouth of a bird, shot by him whilst it was

feedins

T. J. E.

A COLONY OE NATTERJACKS.

ONE day in June, 1871, with my curious instinct
in " full swing," I happened to be strolling on
a small heath a few miles from Kingston, Abingdon,
and made a somewhat noteworthy discovery. In a
quarry on this heath are several small pools, which
at the proper season absolutely swarm with aquatic
creatures. On the above day, after spending some
time in exploring these pools, I was about re-
tracing my steps to the high-road when a very
dandy of a toad ran across the path. He was lighter
and more active than ordinary toads, and sported
a bright yellow stripe down the back. This was my
first introduction to the curious Natterjack {Btifo
calamitd). He did not seem to be greatly prepos-
sessed with my appearance, however, and scrambled
away in the most surprising fashion ; so that to get
at all a correct idea of his appearance I was com-
pelled to gently detain him with my stick. Com-
pared with the bloated garden-toad, I had no hesi-
tation in pronouncing my new acquaintance to be
a decidedly handsome fellow. What he thought
of me I know not.

Being anxious to witness his aquatic gyrations, I
used a little persuasion with my stick and induced
him to take to the water, where, after splashing and
frolicking about with the agility of a frog, he
attempted land, but being kept in awe by the afore-
said stick, he sat upright in the shallows and stared
at me with a most doleful expression of coun-
tenance.

Presently a hoarse croak rose in the air ; my
acquaintance started, and so did I. We soon found
out the Cause, for on the opposite side of the pool,
and perched on a clod of earth, was Natterjack
No. 2, croaking as if his dear little head would
break. Discarding my first acquaintance, I stepped
across to welcome No. 2 ; but he suddenly ceased
his song, and took a desperate "header" into
the pool.

In June of the following year I learned a little
more about " natterjackery," or, in other words, 1
became more conversant with the internal arrange-
ments of the Natterjack's household. One day,
while peeping about the pools, 1 saw the eggs or
ova of the Bufoldif ; but how to distinguish between
the spawn of calamila and that of vulgaris I know
not. This beautiful spawn (I say beautiful with

emphasis) is in the shape of double strings of clear,
transparent jelly or gluten, in which are distributed
iudiscrimiuately the jet-black, bead-like eggs of the
toad, about the size of ordinary shot. These strings
of ova were wound round the weeds and about the
stones at the bottom of the pool in the most sin-
gular and fantastic way.

On my next visit (July 13tli) the pool was peopled
with hundreds of black tadpoles, frisking, wriggling,
and twirling about in all dii'ections, and "enjoying
life " as only tadpoles can. Some of them, how-
ever, had assumed hind-legs, others sported four
and a tail to boot, and a few were toads in reality
furnished with tails.

Then squatting in depressions of the sand near
the edge of the water, were dozens of little natter-
jacks, crowded together, tiny fellows, whom the
most spider-hating of spinsters could not call any-
thing but " dear little things." These tiny toads had
the vertebral stripe quite plain, and were active little
creatures. Others were issuing from the pools.
They appeared in sight from the dark part of the
water, sat for a time in the shallows, and at length
crawled out of the water, which they did not care
about entering afterwards. On August 1st I went
again, and found the little toads appearing very
fast from the water. On September 11th, but few
tadpoles and fewer toads were to be seen, and on
October 12th every vestige of toad-life had dis-
appeared.

A gentleman who resides within a short distance
of this "colony of Natterjacks," informs me that,
having taken several specimens of these toads from
the pools and placed them on his lawn, he found
theui to be great travellers, as they wandered away
in all directions. He also says he has often heard
the evening choruses of the "colony" when nearly
three-quarters of a mile away.

Kingdon, Abiiir/don. W. H. "Waunee.

ZOOLOGY.

EjiBra'CLOGY of Biiachiopods. — Professor
Morse has recently shown that the embryo of the
Braehiopods commences life as a little worm of
four segments. After enjoying itself in swimming
freely about the water for a time, it attaches itself
to the sea-bed by its last segment, and thus settles
permanently. The middle segment then protrudes
on each side of the iiead segment and gradually en-
closes it, thus producing the dorsal and ventral
shells so characteristic of the entire class.

Habits of Siltjroid Pishes.— Mr. P. Day has
just made a communication to the Zoological
Society. "When fisliing at Cassegode he found that,
after having cauglit a large number of specimens of
various species of Arius and Osteogeniosus, there
were several siluroid eggs at the bottom of the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

G3

Doats, and in the fish-baskets. These eggs were,
on an average, half an inch in diameter ; and on
looking into the mouths of several of the males of
both genera, from fifteen to twenty eggs were seen
in each ; those in the boats and baskets having evi-
dently dropped out from a similar situation. The
eggs were in different stages of development, some
advanced so far as to be just hatched. They filled
the mouth, extending as far back as the branchise.
No food was found in the alimentary canal, though
in the females it was full of nutriment.

Neav Classification of Birds. — At a recent
meeting of the Zoological Society, Mr. A. H. Garrod
reada paper in which he proposed a new classification
of birds, founded mainly on the disposition of their
muscles and other soft parts. The five muscles
which he had observed to vary most were the
ambiens, the femoro-eaudal, the accessory femoro-
caudal, the semi-tendinosus and the accessory semi-
tendinosus. lifter stating which of these are pre-
sent or absent in the different families of birds, he
showed that the presence or absence of the ambiens
muscle is so ultimately correlated with other cha-
racters, that a division of the whole class into IIo-
maloijoiiaii aud Anomnlogonuti, depending on that
peculiarity, would stand the test of much criticism.
The Homalogonatous birds were divided into the
Galliformes, the Auseriformes, the Ciconiiformes
and tiie Charadriiformes ; the Auomalogonatous
into the Passeriformes, the Piciformes, and the
Cypseliformes. Among the most important changes
proposed or substantiated were the placing Serpen-
tarius and Cariama with the Otididaj, the Cypselidae
with the Trochilidse, aud the Musophagidse among
the Galliformes.

The Basking Shark. — An interesting ichthyo-
logical discovery has lately been made by Professor
Steenstrup, of Copenhagen. He finds that certain
comblike bodies, which have been supposed to be
appendages of the skin of certain sharks, are really
sifting organs appended to the interior of the gill-
apertures of the Basking Shark ; and he infers that
this fish, the largest shark of the northern regions,
which attains a length of thirty-five feet or more,
lives, like the still more gigantic whales, upon the
bodies of small marine animals strained from the
water by these peculiar fringes. The very fine rays
composing the fringes are five or six inches long
and were some years ago shown by Professor Han-
nover to consist of dentine, so that each of them
may be regarded as, to a certain extent, the analogue
of a tooth. It is remarkable that Bishop Gunnerus,
who originally described the Basking Shark {Selachus
maximus), and regarded it as the fish that swallowed
the prophet Jonah, had noticed the existence of
these branchial sieves more than a century ago ;
but although some subsequent writers (such as Low,
Pennant, Mitchell, aud Foulis) have mentioned

them, no one, except perhaps Gunnerus himself,
seems to have recognized their importance in the
economy of the fish. The late Sir Andrew Smith,
however, describes the occurrence of a similar
structure in \\\s, Rhinodon tuplcus ("the largest of
living animals," according to Dr. Percival Wright,
"the north whale excepted"), a near ally of our
Basking Shark, which inhabits the Indian Ocean.
Low states that the stomach of a specimen examined
by him " was full of a red stuff, like bruised crabs^
or the roe of the sea-urchin," but he could find no
fragments of fish in it. It is very curious to find
these monsters of the deep depending for their sub-
sistence on creatures whose minuteness presents
such an absolute contrast to their own gigantic
bulk.

Disappearance of Colias Edtjsa.— Though I
have been frequently about this autumn (1S73) in a
district of North Kent, where this butterfly is a well-
known frequenter of the clover-fields, I have not
seen a single individual. Irregularity in the ap-
pearance of the species is no new phenomenon, open
as it is to various explanations. Having seen
Edusa on the wing for several successive seasons, I
have doubts as to the feasibility of the notion of a
periodical disappearance. There is one circumstance
that occurs to me tuat I have not as yet seen pointed
out, viz., that as the larva feeds in clover-fields, the
customary plan of the rotation of crops is highly
against its increase. Thus, between Gravesend and
Cobham are some extentiive fields, a few years since
covered with clover, where Edusa abounded ; these
are now cropped with cereals or potatoes, and the
change was made just at the season when the larvae,
if hatched in the autumn, would be in a state of
hybernation, and therefore, in such an event, likely
to be destroyed. No doubt, occasionally at least^
the species follows the habit of /. rhamni, aud the
eggs are not laid till the spring ; but I am not in-
clined to the beUef that tliis is the invariable
practice,'as some entomologists suppose. Were it
so, we should more frequently meet with C. Edusa
in the spring months ; whereas, in fact, it is hardly
ever seen then. There can hardly be any difference
of opinion regarding the change the English climate
has undergone during the last thirty or forty years,
it having become, on the whole, decidedly milder ;
and it is an interesting subject of inquiry, in con-
nection with the economy of our Lepidoptera, and
indeed of insects generally, how far this alteration
has affected, and will alfcct, their periodical times
of passing through their transformations. — J.B. S. C.

LoNGEYiTY OF BiRDS.— At a reccnt meeting of
the Dublin Zoological Society it was announced
that a pelican, which had been living in the gardens
of the Society for forty-two years, had just died.
He was believed to have been eight years old when
he was brought to Dublin. How thoroughly he had

Ci

HARDWICKE'S SC I E N C E -G O S SIP.

become acclimatized to Irish ways, is shown by the
fact that liis food for some time back had consisted
of whisky ftinch and live eels. The report some-
what naively adds that "the spirit was taken with
avidity."

MICROSCOPY.

MoTTXTixG ExTiiAORDiNARY. — As an illustration
of what may be done in the way of mounting, we
beg to notice a slide which has been sent to us by
Mr. H. Dalton, of Dieppe, intended for a thi'ee-inch
objective, ou which is arranged a vase of liowers, of
various species, in the most elegant and artistic
manner. The flowers are formed of naturally
coloured scales of butterflies' wings, and some
hundreds have been curiously utilized for this pur-
pose.

Crystals in Skin of Pbawn.— On the subject
of crystals in the skin of the Prawn, I do not think
that tlie observation of Mr. Kyngdon, that " in a
cast skin no crystals seem to be ever found," is
quite correct, as in my Micro-cabinet are two home-
mounted slides of prawn's skin, both, I feel certain,
from those shed in the Aquarium, and one is labelled
" Exuvia of Prawn." Either of them shows nume-
rous crystals when examined by polarized light. —
George Gityon.

AspnALTUM AND EuBBEK. Varnish.— -The diffi-
culty I have experienced in making this varnish
with mineral naphtha (as per the receipt given in
Davis's book) has led me to try some other solvent.
Eor some time I have been using " rectified spirits
of tar" in lieu of alcohol, in all cases where the
colour (sherry) is not objectionable, and on placing
a piece of rubber in a small quantity of that spirit,
I dissolved it in six hours, and the asphaltum in
about the same time. "Spirits of tar" can be
purchasedat the oil and colour shops. I do notknow
the retail price, but 1 pay 45s. per cwt. for it whole-
sale. To test its purity, shake well in a bottle with
an equal quantity of water, and note if separation
takes place in a few seconds.— 77/ owr/.? Lisle.

Tjie Optic Nerve, &c.— By a microscopic
examination of the retina and optic nerve and tiie
brain, M. Bauer found them to consist of globules
of 25Wth to ToVutli of an inch diameter, united by
a transparent viscid and coagulable gelatinous fluid.
— E. Lovett.

Mounting. — Having found considerable difllculty
n keeping the objects in the right position when
pressing down the cover on the balsam, it being so
apt to slip out at one side, I tried fixing it first
with gum-tragacanlh, and I find it answer very
well : the balsam seems to dissolve the gum, and
removes all tracesof itfrom the object. Perhapstliis

may be a valuable hiut to young amateurs like my-
self; but I should like to know from some one
experienced in mounting, if the minute quantity of
gum will at all injure the specimen or produce
fungoid growth on the object after a lapse of time. —
R. B., Jim.

Prehensile Organs of Moth.— I inclose you
a sketch of a microscopic slide, supposed to be the
preliensile organs of a male moth, and shall be much

t V V

t-«l ■•

^. ' / ., ,1

Fie-- 54. Prehensile Organs of a Moth, x 40.

Fi^. 55. Pygidium ('; of ditto, x 240.

obliged if any one of your readers can recognize and
name it. I prepared the object about three years
ago, and do not recollect upon what insect I was
operating. — it. H. N. B.

BOTANY.

Botanical Extracts. — The following extracts
from Childrey's "Britannia Baconica" (1660) maybe
of interest. In Cornwall " grows greater store of
samphire and sea-holly (whose roots, commonly
called Eriugo-roots, are a great restaurative and
corroborative, being preserved in syrup) then in any
other part of England. Some of the gauUy grounds
do also yield plenty of Ilosa Solis (more properly
called Ros Solis, a plant that grows indeed on
boggy and quagmiry grounds). Upon the sea-cliffs
in Cornwall grow wilde Hysope, Sage, Pela-mountain,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

G5

Majoram, Rosmary, and otlier fragrant herbs."
"For fruits they have a sort called //'7/«r/5." Again:
" In the forest of Savernac (i.e. Savernake) grows a
kind of sweet Eerne : " " in the Eenus of Cambridge-
shire grows Scordium or Water Germander : " "in
the Isle of Axholme grows a sweet kind of shrub
called Gales, as alsoPd?/5in the Moores [I know not
what that is], and dead roots of Firrc-wood which
in burning give a rank sweet smell." Again : " At
Strattou in Cornwall grows the best Garlick in all
the Countrey. It may be old Mr. diamond, (uncle
and great-uncle to, at least, 300 persons) owed part
of the cause of his great age, to his living so near
the best Garlick, the countreyman's Treacle." He
states elsewhere that the countrymen in Cornwall
are great eaters of garlic for health's sake; whence
they call it there, the Countryman's Treacle. —
E. T., M.A.

Medicago akbokea. — I wish to correct an
error in the paragraph under this head in last
month's Science-Gossip. It was stated that the
plant forms beautiful hedges at Florence, close by the
sea, instead of Leghorn. The shrub is now (Feb-
ruary) in full flower in Mr. Balchin's Nursery at
Hove, and is a perfect picture, at least ten feet
high.— T. B. jr., BrhjMon.

The Potato Disease. — Our readers will re-
member that in an article on this subject which
appeared in our columns in the autumn of 1S72,
Prof. Dyer recommended the culture of an early
potato, one that would be fully grown before the
period when the potato disease set in. The Royal
Agricultural Society of England have now offered
two prizes for disease-proof potatoes, one of £100
for earhj tubers which shall be disease-proof for
three years, and another of the same sum for a late
potato, to be tested for the same period. A policy
like this is worth any number of prize essays.

Seaside Shrubs. — It is most desirable that in
selecting shrubs, &c. for the most exposed spots on
the seashore, it should first be ascertained which
are most appropriate and best calculated to stand
the strong winds and salt spray from the sea. Elms,
sycamores, and chestnuts have been planted on
the new UnderclifF-road at Brighton, and have, of
course, all died ; there are, however, British shrubs
whicli not only thrive by the seaside, but (one at
least) never found at a distance from it ; in fact, the
sea-air, saturated as it is with saline matter, is its
natural element. The Stalwort or Sea-blight {Salsola
frut'icosa, L. ; Swada fruticosa, Forsk) is a shrub
that is only indigenous on the seashore, or in saline
plains and other places where the soil is impreg.
nated with salt : it is one of the rarer British
species, found only on some parts of the eastern
and southern coasts ; it is a shrubby, erect, branch,
ing, evergreen perennial, from three to four feet

high, with thick, succulent, and bluntish green
leaves and small .'stalkless flowers (see Hooker's
"British Flora" and the "Treasury of Botany").
Several strong clumps of tlie shrub may be seen in
Mr. Spary's Nursery at Brighton. There is an.
other shrub which, though not confined to the sea-
side, is found to thrive on the most exposed parts
of the coast, viz., the Ilippophae rhamnoides, or sea-
buckthorn ; it is indigenous on exposed sandy cliffs
in the town of Folkestone, at the back of and above
the Coast Guard Station. It is described by II. G. G.,
in the last December number of Sciexce-Gossip,
as growing on the coast of Norfolk in abundance
for about half a mile in extent, in spots clumped
together in dense masses and covered with orange,
coloured berries; it is indigenous on the sand-
hills and cliffs on the coast of Kent, Essex, Norfolki
Lincoln, and Yorkshire, also on the Firth, the
Clyde, in Islay, and Kintore in Scotland; it is
dioecious, the male and female flowers being on
different plants ; the pretty orange-coloured berries
will therefore not be produced unless the two sexes
are near to each other. For a fuller description of
it the reader is referred to the December number
of Science-Gossip. It appears that seaside plants
have generally small leaves, which are but little
aifected by the strong cutting winds. It is hoped
that this notice will induce a reference by the
readers of Science-Gossip to other shrubs found
applicable to exposed seaside spots. — T. B. IF.

Acclimatization of Eucalypti. — In a letter
in the Times, 17tli January, 1874, it was stated that
some Eucalypti (blue gum-trees) had been grown in
the open air at East Grinstead, Sussex, and that
they had survived two winters without anyprotec
tion. The leaves of the Eucalyptus manufactured
into cigars, were shown at the Great Exhibition at
Paris, 1SG7, and recommended as being very efB-
cacious in aiding digestion. And in the Gardeners'
Chronicle it is stated that a species of this plant had
been recently used on the Continent in the place of
lint, the leaves being merely laid on the wounds.
Their balsamic nature not only cures, but after a
few hours all unpleasant odour ceases. — E. G. G.

GEOLOGY.

The Ancient Volcanoes of the Highlands.
— This was the subject of a paper recently read
before the Geological Society by J. W. Judd, F.G.S.
That the rocks forming the great plateaus of the
Hebrides and the north of Ireland are really the
vestiges of innumerable lava-streams, is a fact
which has long been recognized by geologists. That
these lavas were of suba'&rial and not subaqueous
origin is proved by the absence of all contempora-
neous interbedded sedimentary rocks, by the evi-
deutly terrestrial origin of the surfaces on which.

G6

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SIP.

they lie, and by the intercalation among them of
old soils, forests, mud-streams, river-gravels, lake
deposits, and musses of unstratified tufTs and ashes.
From the analogy of existing volcanic districts, we
can scarcely doubt that these great accumulations
of igneous products, which must originally have
covered many thousands of square miles, and which
still often exhibit a thickness of 2,000 feet, were
ejected from great volcanic mountains ; and a care-
ful study of the district fully confirms this con-
clusion, enabling us, indeed, to determine the sites
of these old volcanoes, to estimate their dimeusious,
to investigate their internal structure, and to trace
the history of their formation. The following is Mr.
Judd's conclusion on his paper: — It appears that during
the Newer Palaeozoic and the Tertiary periods, the
north-western parts of the British Archipelago were
tiie scene of displays of volcanic activity upon the
grandest scale. During either of these, the erup-
tion of felspathic lavas, &c., preceded, as a whole,
that of the basaltic ; and in both the volcanic action
was brought to a close by the formation of "puys."
Tlie range of Newer Palaeozoic volcanoes arose
along a line striking N.E. and S.W. ; that of the
Tertiary volcanoes along one striking from N. to S. ;
and each appears to have been connected with a
great system of subterranean disturbance. It is an
interesting circumstance that the epochs of maxi-
mum volcanic activity, the Old Eed sandstone and
the Miocene, appear to have been coincident with
those which, as shown by Prof. Ramsay, were cha-
racterized by the greatest extent of continental land
in the area. The Secondary strata were deposited
in the interval between the two epochs of volcanic
activity, and the features which they present have
been largely influenced by this circumstance.
Apart from this consideration, however, the vol-
canic rocks of the Highlands are of the highest
interest to the geologist, both from their enabling
him to decipher to so great an extent the " geolo-
gical records " of the district, and from the light
which they throw upon some of the obscurest pro-
blems of physical geology.

The Geology of the "Ear "West."— Prof.
Marsh has just communicated tlie results of his
recent expedition to the Ear 'West in search of
fossil remains of extinct vertebrates. The richest
field for exploration was found in the great basin of
the pre-historic lake which is now drained by the Colo-
rado river. This body of water was originally as large
as all the present lakes of the North- West combined,
and had existed so long that the sand washed down
from the surrounding hills had accumulated to the
depth of a mile. In the different strata of this bed
at least ten distinct groups of extinct animals could
be detected, among them some extremely remark,
able forms. One of these was a rhinoceros with
two horns ; but these were placed, not like those

of the modern rhinoceros, in the axis of the body
but transversely. In a space of 10 feet square he
had sometimes found the bones of 30 different ani-
mals. Tue number of species of extinct mammals
in these remains he estimates to be three times as
great as that at present inhabiting the same locality.

Pal^othebium magnuh. — In Nature of the 12th
February is an account of the discovery of a com-
plete skeleton of this early eocene mammal. The
woodcut shows its outline to more nearly resemble
that of the Llama than any other known creature ;
thus completely disabusing the old Cuvierian idea
that it was bulky, and more or less resembled the
Tapirs. The height was just below that of a middle-
sized horse. This important specimen, which is
now in the Museum of Natural History at Paris,
was obtained from a gypsum quarry at Vitry-sur-
Seine. All its bones, including those of the toes,
are in their natural position.

The Origin of Precious Stones. — Mr. Gre-
ville WiUiams has recently contributed his re-
searches on this interesting subject to the Proceed-
ings of the Royal Society. The colouring matter
of the emerald has been attributed to iron, chro-
mium, and organic matter. With regard to the
latter, Mr. Williams thinks that both emeralds and
beryls contain carbon ; but that it is probably in the
form of diamond, and has nothing to do with the
colour of the emerald, as colourless beryls may con-
tain as much carbon as the richest tinted emerald.
The colour is really due to the presence of chromic
oxide. ]\Ir. Williams then gives the results of his
experiments on the effects of fusion on opaque
beryls, emeralds, and an artificial mixture of beryl
ingredients. The author expresses his opinion that
whatever may have been the temperature at which
beryls and emeralds were formed, rubies must have
originated at a very high temperature, since the
peculiar reaction between alumina and chromic
oxide, to which the red colour of the ruby is due,
takes place only at a heat as high as that of the oxy-
hydrogen flame.

A NEW Species of Fish in the j\Iillstone
Grit of Yorkshire. — At the monthly meeting of
the Manchester Geological Society, held on the 27th
of January last, Mr. John Aitkin, F.G.S., of Bacup,
exhibited and described a number of very fine
spennens of fish of the genus Acrolepis, new to
science, which he had obtained from the debris
brought out in excavating a tunnel through Wads-
worth Moor, in the neighbourhood of Hebdea
Bridge, near Halifax, in a bed of fine black shale
separating the third from the fourth or Kinder
Scout Grit; the principal specimens having been
obtained from nodular concretions which abound in
the shales at this horizon. The specimens com-
prise two nearly perfect heads (in the jaw of one a

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

tooth is exhibited in situ) and several parts of the
body illustratiug the form and structure of the fish ;
amongst which are remains of two or three fin-
rays. The scales and liead-plates are beautifully
ornamented and covered with a fine enamel, the
former being rhomboidal in form and profusely
sculptured, having a number of distinct waving
ridges and furrows traversing them in the du-ection
of their longest axis, varying in number according
to the position they occupied on the body of the
fish, the ridges having a strong tendency to bifur-
cate, and not unfrequently to further subdivide into
two or three branches ; these often again converging
and becoming again reunited. The genus Acrolepis
has been figured by Professors Agassiz, M. Coy,
and King, the specimens having been obtained from
the magnesian limestone of this country and Ger-
many. The specimens, however, under consider-
ation have much larger scales, and differ in the
style of ornamentation, as well as in many other
essential particulars, from any of the figures re-
ferred to, leaving no doubt as to their constituting
a new species of this rare fish. The discovery also
carries this genus into a new horizon, which lias
previously been considered as almost barren ground.
It is now known to be co-extensive with the car-
boniferous system, ranging from the mountain lime-
stone througli the millstone grit and coal-measures
into the Permian formation, where it appears to
have attained its maximum development, its re-
mains having been found there more plentifully
both in our own country and on the Continent than
in any of the older members of the system. It is
intended shortly to have the specimens described
and figured, so that palaeontologists may have an
opportunity of judging of the value of the discovery-
In addition to the specimens above referred to, Mr.
Aitkin also exhibited remains of four or five other
genera of fish, viz., Acanthodes, Cladoclus,Rhizochs (?)
Ctenocantkus, and Paleeoniscus, together with a
considerable variety of other fossils, all from the
same locality.

NOTES AND aUESIES.

The Barbastelle Bat.— On the 15th of Decem-
ber last, a specimen of the Bat tribe was brought
to me by some children, having been found behind
a tradesman's sign-board in this village. Handling
the queer little creature rather cautiously, I placed
it on the window-seat, and then proceeded to "take
stock" of its appearance. It seemed almost torpid,
but after a time it revived a little, and on being
touched raised itself half-upright, and opening its
mouth to its fullest extent, uttered a spitting hiss
like an angry cat. While watching these evidences
of " bat temper," it occurred to me that 1 had
never seen such a queer little specimen of the
Cheiro-pterci before, so, after taking as minute a
description of his tiny person as his ill-temper
and my fears would allow, I popped a wire meat-

cover over him, and then fell to consulting my
books, &c. The result of these inquiries satis-
factorily proved my bat to be a specimen of the
Barbastelle {Barhastellus communis), a decidedly
uncommon species. With additional respect I ap-
proached the captive once more and raised the
cover, when, behold ! after turning up his queer
little nose as if in derision, he took to flight with
the greatest ease, and was flying in smootli circles
round the room before I could say "Jack Robinson;"
thus negativing the general opinion that bats cannot
rise into the \air from a flat surface. Adroitness
and tact, however, soon consigned him to the cover
again, and when in it, he ascended to the top, and
began to traverse tlie roof with great rapidity,
putting himself into all sorts of queer positions, and
proving himself to be a decidedly impatient and ill-
tempered little fellow. I have reason to believe
that this bat was not hybernating where it was
found, but had merely chosen the sign-board as a
temporary resting-place.— /r. H. Warner, Mngsion,
Abingdon.

Local Names (p. 22).— The name "Peather-
poke" signifiesthe Chifl'-chad' {Sylvia hinpola'is). The
word "poke" means a sack, and therefore the name
is, literally, a sack of feathers. The nest of the
Cliiff-chafl^ is found completely lined with feathers,
and hence the local name has arisen. " Ground-
lark " is a name which has been applied both to the
Pipit {Anthus), and the Bunting [Emheriza). —
Udward Fentone Mwin, Cuius Coll., Camb.

H. A'ELLEDA (NoRTIIERJi SwIFt).— In " NotCS

on the Entomological Season of 1S73," p. 1, No. 109,
there is the following paragraph :—"i?. velleda
(Northern Swift) has been extending its southward
range : it has been reported from Somerset, Polke-
stoue, and Norfolk." It may be interesting to the
wi'iter and other entomologists to know that, in
June last, I took the insect in this neighbourhood,
which is almost to the extreme south. Tiie mark-
ings closely resemble the northern specimens,_but
are of a much fainter colour. — Joseph Anderson,jun.,
Alresford, Hants.

The Postal Micro-Cabinet Club.— The above
club, of which a notice appeared in Sciexce-Gossip
for December last, togetlier with a copy of rules, is
now working well, and is likely to prove quite a
success. The "Notes and Queries" department,
to which every member is invited (and mostly ac-
cepts the invitation) to contribute, being by no
means the least attractive part of the scheme. We
shall be glad to increase our number of members,
now nunrbering thirty-six, divided into three circuits
of twelve members each. Any microscopist who
would like to join us, will please write to Alfred
Allen, Hon. Sec, Pelstead, Essex.

Local Names of Birds. — In answer to Arthur
Smyth's inquiry as to the h)cal names of birds, I
beg to say that " Feather-poke " is that by which
the Longtailed Titmouse {Parus caudatus) is ordi-
narily known to the rural population of Notting-
hamshire and the adjacent Midland counties ; as a
boy, I knew it only by that designation.^ The name
originates from the interior of its beautiful globular
nest being a mass of feathers of the softest kind.
The term' " ground-lark " is also commonly used in
Notts for the Meadow Pipit {Alauda pratensis).
The egg of the Feather-poke is not nearly the size
of the house-sparrow, nor at all resemljles it in
appearance, so that Mr. Smyth's friend has misiu-

r.s

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

formed him : it is about the size of a pea, white,
with obscure markings. The number deposited
varies from twelve to eighteen. The old and young
birds keep together during the autumn and winter
months, and at the present season may be occa-
sionally seen actively engaged in company searching
the branches and twigs of shrubs for insect food,
running up and down, turning and twisting, head
or tail uppermost, in true "Tit" fashion. — George
Gascoyne.

Rare Insect. — In " Notes on the Entomological
Season of 1S73 " (Science-Gossip, No. 109, p. 1),
" M. H." says, " ti. velleda has been extending its
southward range; it has been reported from the
Quantock Hills, Somerset, from Eolkestone," &c.
As far as Kent is concerned, //. velleda is quite an
old inhabitant, as, on referring to Westwood and
Humphrey's "British Moths," I find "the species
has been found plentifully in Darentli Wood,
Kent ;" I have not heard, however, of its having
been taken there of late years. In a wood in the
neighbourhood of Chatham, I have been in the
habit of taking this species for the last twenty years,
my first record bearing date May 23rd, lS5i, since
which time scarcely a year has passed without an
entry of its capture, my last date being June 23rd,
1873. _ It must, therefore, have been many years ago
since it extended its southward range iuto Kent, as
Westwood's statement must have been written quite
thirty years ago. In some years I have seen this
insect in great profusion ; it seems to prefer under-
wood of about two years' growth, through and be-
tween which it flies very rapidly between sunset and
dark. From the above facts, both as to the time it
has been observed, and the moth not being at all a
■weak insect on the wing, we need not be surprised
at its occurrence at Folkestone, nor, indeed, at any
other part of Kent, and may expect to hear of its
turning up both in Sussex and Surrey. I may also
add that, in addition to the two L. albipuncta taken
at Folkestone, which I have seen, several others
were taken there by another collector ; two were
also taken in the Isle of Sheppey. — W. Chaney.

Snakes and Toads.— One day, while hunting for
specimens in the early summer with a friend, we
came across a fine snake, measuring a little more
than a yard. While measuring it we remarked a
sort of protuberance or lump midway between its
liead and tail. We took no further notice of this,
carrying the snake with its head downwards, till it
appeared that the lump moved gradually toward the
head. Fastening a piece of grass to the end of its
tail, and hanging it to a tree, we anxiously awaited
the result. At last its mouth began slowly to open,
and a large toad made its appearance. The load
was covered with a greenish slime, and after some
minutes recovered, and was, seemingly, little the
worse for its imprisonment. My friend still has
both the snake and toad preserved in spirits of
wine. The snake was the common grej', and not by
any means the largest of that kind that I have
seen. — Brynffynnon.

Microscopic Fungi.— I have lately been search-
ing among some large beds of Iris fetida for its
Puccinia, and have discovered one plant only with
sori ; but on bringing it home found that the spores
were only in the iircdo state. Will some of your
" Pucciueous " correspondents be so good as to tell
me something of the history of P. lnnicata--dLO the
t)rand-spores succeed, or precede, the urcdo form ?
It is inconvenient to me to watch this infected plant

of Iris, so that I should like to know at what season
to find the characteristic spore. — /. O. M.

How TO Prepare Skeleton Leaves. — Skeleton
leaves obtained by boiling in caustic soda (see vol.
viii. p. 30) are of a light brown colour, and require
so long an immersion in chloride solution to whiten
them, that they are quite destroyed unless the fibres
are unusually stout, and even then the stems seldom
become white. Would Mr. J. F. Robinson, or any
of your readers, oblige me by stating how the
specimens may be properly bleached and attain the
whiteness of such as are prepared iu the old way ?—
/. L. B.

A Protest. — As the collecting season is approach-
ing, pray allow me to enter an emphatic protest
against the gradual extermination of the rarer
species of our birds, insects, and plants, carried on
from year to year by a number of persons calling
themselves naturalists, who can, however, have little
of that true love for nature which can admire the
beautiful and interesting without their hands itch-
ing to take possession. There can be little doubt
that if something is not done to check this injurious
propensity, in a very few years nothing but the
more common varieties will be left. How many
beautiful kinds of birds might have become natu-
ralized amongst us, had not the first-comers invari-
ably fallen before the guns of brainless fellows whom
it would be absurd to call sportsmen ? Then with
regard to the destruction of tb© rarer kinds of
butterflies, &c., I need only refer to the January
number of Science-Gossip for the present year,
pagel, where the writer says, amongst other things,
that the " take " of V. antiopa last year is consider-
ably less than in 1872, and that the disparity is
probably owing to the fact that almost all the
individuals seen in that year were netted, so that
few were left to perpetuate the species ! Then as
to the exterminating collection of botanical speci-
mens, a case in point appears at page 91 of Science-
Gossip for 1870, In reply to_ an inquiry as to
whether the rare Pyrola media is stiU to be found
at Stock Ghyll, Ambleside, the writer states that
on a certain date, after a long search, he obtained
fee specimens, and apparently not content with this
large number, three weeks later went over the
ground again with a friend, but without finding a
single plant. Is it any wonder, after reading the
above, that the habitats of many of our choice wild
flowers are yearly becoming fewer in number ? It
ought to be an invariable rule with all true natural-
ists—^ lake nothing that is rare. When a species
becomes plentiful then specimens in moderation may
be taken ; till then the motto should be "Eyes on
and hands ofl'." — C.

Grafting: Strange Freak. — A moss rose
graftedonthecommon cabbage rose produced a shoot
on the top of graft same as the parent stock, the
ilowers on which were cabbage roses and those on
the centre of same shoot moss roses.— /S'. A. B.

Winter Stores. — Five or six weeks ago, in a
walk with one of my neighbours, we found several
patches of a brightish substance which, at first,
Mc thought was a sort of fungus. On procuring
a portion, we were somewhat surprised to find
that the supposed fungus was a collection formed
of fragments of hips and haws. These fragments
wore found in detached cemented masses of irre-
gular form, from four to seven or eight inches
across. 1 send you a piece : it may, perhaps, be not

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

69

worthy of your notice, a great part of its beauty
being gone. When we first saw them, on a bright
December day, among the dry grass at the roots
of a quickset hedge, they really looked beautiful.
Your piece, collected yesterday, is dull after being
exposed for weeks to the weather. I suppose the
authors are the little field-mice. — Thomas Cape.

Spakrows' Eggs in Decembek.— On the 4th of
December last whilst going over an old steeple
near here (Orlestone, Kent), I accidentally found a
nest of the house-sparrow {Passer domesticus)
containing four eggs. Upon breaking one, I found it
to my great surprise to be perfectly fresh, and
evidently laid within a few days. The weather had
been very mild for some time past. Is this a com-
mon occurrence, or not ? — U. IF.

British Orobanchace.b. — I shall feel much
obliged if you or some of the correspondents of
SciEXCE-GossiP can furnish me with any new
observations with reference to the British Orobau-
chacese. I shall be very glad of specimens of the
plants, and especially so of the seeds of the different
species of this family, as well as notes of experiments
that may have been tried in their culture. I shall
be happy to send specimens of other plants or seeds
in exchange. — James Fletcher.

Saxifraga grantjlata. — I should be glad to hear
the general opinion as to the nature of the character-
istic granulations in the stem of Saxifraga granulata.
Hooker in his Student's Flora says, " Stem bulbifer-
ous," and further describes the " bulbs as large as a
pea, brown." Bentham, in his British Flora, says that
the " perennial stock is reduced to a cluster of
small bulbs." Now Bentley in his Manual says
that bulbs are confined to monocotyledonous plants.
How can the contradictions be reconciled ? — W. G.
Piper.

Verbascum and Digitalis.— During a short
stay at Brentwood this last summer I was struck
with the almost entire absence of anjr plants of the
genus Verbascum, the only plant which I saw of it
being a dwarfed seedling. Their place seems to be
entirely filled up by the Digitalis purpurea, which
was a conspicuous object in many of the hedgerows.
Eound Norwich, and indeed throughout Norfolk,
the reverse is the case, Verbascums being common,
and the only plants of Digitalis which are found
being escapes from cultivation. Is this absence of
Verbascum in presence of Digitalis a general thing,
or is it merely confined to the above-mentioned
localities, and how may it be explained? — W. G. Piper.

Theobroma. — In Humboldt's " Views of Na-
ture" I find it mentioned tluit the flowers of Theo-
broma cacao are frequently found on the root. Are
there any analogous cases of this anomalous produc-
tion of flower-buds on roots, or is it a frequent or
only a casual occurrence ?—W. 0. Piper.

A Natural Barometer. — In some countries
frogs are used as barometers : the species employed
for this'purpose is the green tree-frog. They are
placed in tall glass bottles with little wooden ladders,
to the top of which they always climb in fine weather
and descend at the approach of bad weather. This
is a cheap and highly interesting weather-glass
where the green tree-frog is to be procured in its
natural state. — E. Lovett.

Insects' Eggs.— Could any of your readers inform
me why, or if it is usual, that Tliecia quercus
should lay their eggs on Fraxiims excelsior, when

Qiierr.us pedunculata is more plentiful in the same
locality, as I have constantly noticed it to be the
case ? — II. Glazbrook.

Larva from Paris. — Last September, in some
of the parks of Paris, I found six larvae, about two
inches or two inches and a half long, very thick and
fleshy, of a delicate pale green colour, and bearing
a few sliort spines. By the beginning of October,
they had all spun cocoons, varying in colour from
dirty-white to light reddish-brown, rather small in
size, compared with the larva;. The trees on which
they feed grow luxuriantly in the Boulevards, parks,
and suburbs of Paris, and somewhat resemble the
Ash, but the foliage is brighter green. These trees
appear to be rather scarce here, or, at all events, not
common enoush to obtain food easily for a brood of
caterpillars. Now, as I expect to get a good supply
of eggs, from Avhich I should like to rear a number
of larvse, I shall feel greatly obliged to any of the
readers of Science-Gossip who will inform me
if _ they know of any common tree or plant which
will answer as a substitute for their natural food-
plant. I should be glad to know the name of the
moth, which I fancy has been recently introduced
from China or Japan. — E. D. JU.

Stag-Beetles.— Several old and decayed trees
have been recently cut down in Greenwich Park,
and a few days_ ago a piece of wood, a foot in
length, and four inches in thickness, taken from the
root of one of them, was brought to me ; the outer
part was perfectly decayed, so that it crumbled at
the touch, and it contained about twenty larvse of
the Stag-beetle {Lucanus cervns). The larvtB, which
had the usual white fleshy appearance, were
from one to two inches in length, and very
sluggish. Among them I found an extremely
small male stag-beetle, rather more than half an
inch in length. I placed the wood in a box, and
in two days the larvae had buried themselves
completely, and were out of sight. About Black-
heath and Greenwich Park, in July and August, the
perfect insects may often be found on fine evenings
in considerable numbers, crawling up fences or
flying about, I have sometimes obtained a dozen
or more in an hour's search. — E. H. Glaishier.

The Aqxjariuii in Winter.— I don't see how
W. Swatman is to keep his aquarium out of doors
successfully during the winter, and would not re-
commend any plan for so doing. Can he not remove
it for the season and place it near a window ? The
pleasure of studying the aquarium, I should say,
would be considerably enhanced if he could do so. I
keep golden and Prussian carp, roach, and a swarm
of minnows, and some mussels. These I find, after
much experience, to be far the best for a furnished
aquarium. Your perch doubtless gobbled the newt,
for they are most hungry creatures, though I never
heard of one doing so before. I would add, that
I filled my tank with water, Sept. 1S72, — it contains
about twenty gallons and tliirty fish, and have never
lost one. — M. H. Clare, Cheltenham.

Ionian Snipe. — The late Lord Lytton, in his
translation of the Epodes of Horace, in a foot-note
at page 421, of the second Epode, alludes to the line
" Non attagen lonicus ; " the " attagen," he writes,
being variously interpreted woodcock, snipe, and more
commonly moorfowl. The Ionian Snipe is, to this
day, so incomparably the best of the Snipe race,
that 1 venture to think it is the veritable " attagen
lonicus." Would any of your correspondents kindly

70

HA-PtDWlCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

supply me with a few particulars relative to the
superiority of this suipe over the other varieties ?
Does it bear the palm for flavour aud size ? On a
reference to Montague's " British Birds," edited by
Newman, nine kinds of snipe are mentioned, but I
fail to see any allusion made to the Ionian kind.—
John Colehrooke.

Etjplectella.— At p. 23 Mr. Spicer asks for an
explanation of the presence of a crustacean in the
interior of a specimen of the above. This is easily
furnished; the fact being that the crustacean is
invariably placed in the Euplectella by the dealers ;
or, at any rate, by the native preparers of the speci-
mens. If any one possessing one of these sponge-
skeletons will open carefully_ the ends of the tuft of
spicules forming the anchoring-means at the base,
the end of the tube will be found quite open and
ready for the introduction of the crustacean, or any
similar object that the ingenuity of the preparer may
suggest.—^. B. K. U.

How TO Destroy Ants.— If "E. B. P." will
place a brood of young chickens or pheasants in a
coop near to the ant-hills, aud then with a trowel
turn the eggs and ants to the surface, he will find
them quickly disappear. The birds must not be
more than a fortnight old, or tliey will do harm to
the plants. By this method I have quite cleared
my garden of these troublesome intruders. — L.

Presh-water Aquarium. — In reply ' to
" M. A. H.," I may say that the kind of tank suit-
able, would, of course, depend on his own fancy :
some prefer oblong, some round tanks. _My own
is a common propagating-glass, about 16 inches in
diameter. The first thing he must do is to get
some yellow loam, wash it well, place a layer, about
two inches .thick, inside the glass; he must then plant
his aquatic plants in this loam. Next procure a
small quantity of gravel, which lie must strew on the
top of the loam, the object of this being to keep the
water clear. Now fill it up with water, let it stand
for about a week before putting a,ny fish in. The
fish should be gold carp, a few minnows, tench; a
small eel or two might also be introduced with ad-
vantage. The mollusks should be a few Palialina
vivipara and Planorbis corneus, which act as sca-
vengers, by eating up the green confervas which ac-
cumulate, more especially during [the summer
months, on the sides of the tank. Now as to the
insects. The only insect I find that agrees with the
fish is Hydrous piseeus, a specimen of which I have
kept for the last six months. I may say that I am
only an amateur in aquariums, having only kept one
for a little over twelve months, but I think very
successfully, as I have maintained the balance
between the animal and vegetable life so well that
I have not changed the water once since I first put
it in. My plants are Vallisneria spiralis and Ana-
charis alsinastrum. If " M. A. H." cannot obtain
them, I shall be most happy to send them to him, or
any one who wishes them ; if he will forward to my
address a box suitable for thepurpose. — /. L., Wigan.

Vipers Swallowing their Young.— In No.
104, for August, 1873, I find quoted from Jas.
Kirby, an article on the tapic of " Vipers swallow-
ing their young," which still keeps alive the inquiry
as to the motives or objects of this well-known
habitude of some reptilia. That alligators swallow
their young I have had ocular demonstration in a
single case ; and have the universal tradition of
negroes and whites in this region of Louisiana,

Mississippi, and Texas, that such is tlieir habit. In
the winter of 1843-4-, I was engaged making a sur-
vey on the banks of the Homochitto Lake, near the
Mississippi river, S.W. front of that State. The
day was warm and sunny, and as I halted near the
margin of a pond nearly dried up, to pick up some
shells, I startled a litter of young alligators, that
scampered off, yelping like puppies ; and retreating
some twenty yards, to the bank of the Lake Homo-
cliitto ; 1 saw them reach their refuge in the mouth
of a five-foot alligator. She evidently held open
her mouth to receive them, as, in single file, they
passed in beyond my observation. The dam then
turned slowly round and slid down beneath the
water, passing into a large opening in the bank,
beneath the root of an ash-tree. The water was
rendered turbid here and nowhere else, enabling
me to find the mouth of what was, probably, the
place of hybernation. I made a communication of
these facts to Sir Charles Lyell, who visited me
shortly afterwards. Some notice was made_ of it,
and I think the statement will be found in the
volume of liis " Second Visit to the United States."
Doubtless, this refuge is temporary, and the young
are released at their own or the mother's pleasure ;
the descent being but partial, in no way reaching
or interfering with the process of digestion. I have
found the stomach of an alligator, killed during
winter, when nearly torjiid, almost empty and clean,
excepting the two or three pieces of wood— cypress,
if I correctly remember — rounded off, as if by attri-
tion or lateral friction, of three, six, and ten cubic
inches. Tliese are common, and taken in doubtless
for slow digestion during hybernation.— 6'«/e6 Q.
Forshey, Felloto N. Orleans Academy of Science.

The Hedgehog.— The interesting paragraph on
the common Hedgehog in last month's number of
Science-Gossip, I am able to supplement from
experience. The Hedgehog is frequently infested
by a mite, which lays its eggs in the skin ; the mites
increase with astonishing rapidity and weaken the
Hedgehog by their constant feeding upon it. The
frequent use of soap and water is absolutely neces-
sary to free the Hedgehog of the parasites ; tobacco
juice may be used also with advantage. No animal
is fonder of water than the Hedgehog, which swims
and floats in it, with evident delight. When
domesticated, the Hedgehog requires a roomy deep
box or basket, well filled with hay'.or paper shav-
ings ; it likes to be well covered and warm ; it
requires milk, and for food any scraps from the
dinner-table, bones of pigeon, partridge, chicken,
the small bones of lamb, pieces of liver, and bits of
lean meat. In autumn, hedgehogs begin to look
out for a winter sleeping-place, and ought to have
a convenient box prepared for them, with plenty of
hay; they make a neat iiest for themselves and
ought not to be disturbed ; it is sufficient to feel if
they are warm ; if they are uncoiled aud cold, they
must be attended to directly, warmed and well fed,
after which they will probably go to sleep again.
Hedgehogs that are thrown out of their natural
habits by being domesticated, seldom lie dormant
for more than a week at a time. The Hedgehog
becomes a most interesting pet, soon knows its
name, and is very gentle and most grateful for kind-
ncss, aud patient under the M'ashiugs necessary for
keeping it free of parasites, making itself sleek to
the accustomed hand.— /a?^e Bartcell Carter.

Derivation of "Ladt-bird."— Could any of
the numerous readers of Science-Gossip inform
me the correct derivation of the word " Lady-bird "

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

71

{Coccinella septempundata) ? It never struck me
as anything out of the way till the other day, when
I happened to hear an argument upon the subject,
which was brought to a termination by my friend
saying he had tried to find this point out but had
not succeeded, it had therefore been allowed to fall
through. — T. Palmer.

Remounting Objects. — I bought some old but
very fine injections in fluid the other day. But
they all want remounting, as the cells contain air
more or less. I have remounted several in fresh
Goadby solution, but I am not sure whether the'old
fluid was the same. How can I find it out? I
notice some of the newly mounted specimens have
shrunk a little. I have tried the old solution with
various tests, and I think proved that it was not
spirit and water, or chloride of calcium. Please
advise me, as I should be sorry to spoil them. —
Wm. Statham.

A White Robin. — Much has been said lately
by some of your correspondents about white spar-
rows; doubtless they would be interested to hear
of what I consider a far greater rarity. Some
years ago an uncle of mine caught in a trap (what
was said to be) a white robin. It was identical
in form with the redbreast, but its plumage was of
a creamy white, and it had bright pink eyes. The
bird was kept in a cage for some weeks after its
capture, but at length it died. Its body was pre-
served, and, of course, regarded as a great curiosity.
— G. 0. Howell.

Extracting Lingual Ribbons.— What is the
best method of extracting the lingual ribbon (palate)
of very small mollusca ? I find liquor potassa- answer
in most cases ; but with Clausilife and other small
shells I have completely failed. I suppose that the
membrane is so delicate that the liquor potassae dis-
solves it.— C P. Ct.

A Mysterious Mousetrap.— Last night when
I left the office an _ ordinary Id. mousetrap was
baited and set. ; This morning, in looking for a
prisoner, the trap had gone, and after a\hile I
found it removed some little distance from where it
was set, covered with blood, bait gone and within
a foot of it was the mutilated remains of a mouse.
Not a bit of flesh could be seen, and it seemed as if
it had been nicely skinned, minus one or two small
portions of which were missing. The head was
scalped. Can any of your readers tell me how this
could have occurred ? The trap was set in a large
drawer, consequently out of a cat's reach, and no cat
is kept. I may mention that a mouse caught two
days previously swarmed with small insects very
like fleas. Could these insects have done the
mischief, or would other mice have eaten their
brother ? — Joseph J. Warry.

_ Eresh- WATER Aquaria.— There have been, from
time to time, so many hints given with regard to
aquariums in the pages of Science-Gossip, that it
seems almost like sending coals to Newcastle to
forward any further information ; but since " M. A.
H." requests it, I will just say that I found a slate
square tank, with a glass front and glass top slides,
answer most admirably. I purchased this tank for
a marine aquarium, changed my mind, and converted
it into a fresh-water one. I put a little rockwork in
it to afford shade for the fish, and introduced a few
plants, Vallisnena spiralis, CJiara vulgaris, and
Anacharis ahinastnim (confervas will usually ap-
pear spontaneously if the aquarium is in good

order). The Water-boatman, and the large Water
beetle. Hydrous pisceus — not the carnivorousWater-
beetlc mind — and tiie Caddis-worm are all suitable.
Sticklebacks are very amusing, but I gave them a
glass globe to themselves. 1 went in largely for
fresh-water aquaria at one time. 1 had a small
pond in the garden stocked with gold-fish, the snig-
eel, the common frog, and the smooth water-newt;
I also had a large round glass aquarium in the green-
house with millers'-tliumbs, small water-tortoise, and
minnows. Much depends, of course, on the size of
the aquarium "M. A. H." wishes to stock. He
must not over-crowd it. _ The fresh-water Limpet
and the viviparous Paludina are desirable inmates,
but I should neverput the Duck-mussel, or either
of the Mud-shells in a tank ; they are better suited
for a pond out-of-door aquarium. Small Cray-fish
are interesting, if, like the Sticklebacks, they have
a glass house to themselves. Whirligig-beetles do
well in an open aquarium, and the least mud or
earth put at the bottom of an aquarium the better.
I used to put river-sand and well-washed pebbles
in mine, water alone being sufficient to nourish
the aquatic plants. I had a small jet of water over
the glass tank in the greenhouse, which I could
turn on at will, and I found it a great aid in keeping
the inhabitants of the aquarium healthy. — Helen
Eliza Watneii.

WooB Ants (page 2S3, last vol.).— I have fre-
quently observed wood ants ejecting formic acid in
the manner described by Mr. N. M. Richardson, and
have pointed out the fact to others. If, after the nest
has been [disturbed, the hand be passed over, the
surface of the ant-hill, the drops of fluid produce a
sensation of cold upon the skin, and if a clean steel
knife be waved rapidly several times close to the
insects, the effect of the acid is as if the knife had
been dipped in strong ammonia, and the smell is
sufliciently powerful to take away the breath for
the moment. — Francis Brent.

Marine Aquarium. — Could any reader of
SciENCE-Gossii^ kindly give me some hints as to
the formation and maintenance of a small marine
aquarium in London, also as to where I could
obtain my supply of water to start it with, as it
would be inconvenient to bring it from the sea.
—J.G.

Hedgehogs. — I have had several tame hedge-
hogs, and 1 always found that they would eat meat
with avidity. They had the run of the garden, and
they would generally come to the house in the
evening for a piece of meat or a bone. One that I
had for some time got very tame, and would readily
take food from the hand. He would lick up milk
or jam with great pleasure. We gave him a little
box with hay in it, but he preferred to make a nest
for himself, which he did among the ferns in the
garden. His end, like that of many pets, was un-
fortunate— he was found drowned one morning in a
tub of water in the garden. — T.

COMMUMICATIONS RECEIVED UP TO THE 14TH C/LT. — F. J*

—J. F.— T. L.— T. McG.— R. B. jun.— B. W. F.— J. L.— E. L-

— E. H. G.— J. H. M.— C. E. L.— J. F. G.— H. W.— T. D.—
C. C. U.— T. C— J. W.— S. U. B.— T. W^. H.— A. D.— A. W.—
T. P.— T. J. W.— G. O. H.— C. P.— G. E. B.— A. W. L.—
O. M.— G. S.T.— J. H. M.— V\r. H. H.- H. B.T.-J.D.— J. L. H.

— H.M. J. U.— F. J. A.— R. T.— J. L.— W. H. W.— E. W.— W. S.
—J. B. C— J. W. R.— H. G. G.— J. R. S, C— J. T.— J. G.—
E. M.— J. E. B.— C. J. W.— J. F. C— T. B. L.— R. T.— F. S.—
B. T.— H. A. M.— L. A. V^.- M. C. C— T. B.W.— J. BW.R. T. S.

V\rH. W. J.V^.— W. K. B.— H. D.— G. H. K,— G. I. J.—

J. H.— H. S.D , &c.

HARDWICKE'S SC I E N C E - R O SSI P.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

F. J.— The occurrence of vegretable remains in the chalk is
exceednigly rare, and generally limited to fragments of wood.
We have no doubt whatever that your supposed " seaweeds,"
in flint (of which you send a sketch), are the dendritic mark-
ings of oxide of manganese. They are of common occurrence
in cracked flints, as well as on the suifices of the cracks in
the harder chalk.

J. I-.— See an article in Srii-vcuGossip for February, 1872.
on " How to Prepare Skeleton Leaves." It will give you all
the information you require.

R. n., jun., reads us an editorial lesson on our remissness
in not inserting his own communications. We assure him
we shfiU be very glad to do so, when we get anything wnrth
inserting. Our space obliges to defer many paragraphs we
vrould like to publish.

Naming Plants. — We have received from " Bfiss H." a
packet of above '20 species of plants to be named, some of
them of the commonest forms. This is rather a vthaletale
attack upon editorial labour and patience, but place au:i
dames !

C. — Your specimen of microscopic fungus on the leaves of
the Bo.\ is Pucctjiiu /-u.»(. See Cooke's " Handbook of British
Fungi," No. 1514. Can you forward us a specimen?

F. Barnard. — The specimens inclosed, of the groundsel
leaves from Australia, are attacked by variety d of ^^icidium
compositarum. Bee Cooke's " Handbook," No. \6H.

J. W. RussBLL. — The fossils are rather obscure, but those
on the fragment of rock from Hastings appear to be Cyrena
media, a common W^ealden fossU. The chalk fossil from East-
bourne is only part of the impression of an ammonite.

C. J. W. — Iron-ore is not found in the Sussex chalk, that
we are aware of, except, perhaps, as detached nodules of iron
sulphite. A good elementary Mineralogy is published by
Lockwood & Co. (Weale's series), at a low price ; but your
best plan would be to get Dana's " Student's Manual of
Mineralogy."

Sub. — Perhaps you are not aware of our rule not to answer
anonymous queries. W'e are obliged to adhere to this ; and
if you will put your query in the ordinary way, we shall bo
glad to answer it.

P. A. — We cannot undertake to return the specimens sen*
us to be named. They have frequently to pass from us to
more competent judges, and we cannot guarantee their safety
from accident or being mislaid. Those of our querists who
have to await replies, must remember that we are obliged to
consult the leisure of those gentlemen who are good enough
to answer queries or name specimens.

T. Orams. — The Hibincus lUiflorus is a native of Bourbon,
and was first introduced into this country in 1822.

W. S. E. — See a capital article in the Popular Science
Review for January last, by the Rev. T. R. Stebbingg, entitled
'• What are we to believe in Science — Teleology or Evolu-
tion?"

T. DvER. — The word Octopua should be accented on the
first syllable — the practice of accenting it on the second is
bad, and has no grammatical warrant. We do not see why
you should not speak of this animal in the plural as " Octo-
puses." It is now thoroughly anglicised, and to use the
plural " Octopuses " is as correct as to say " Elephants," or
" Rhinoceroses."

T. R.— Cooke's " Handbook of British Fungi " is the best
and most e.xhaustive of its kind published in any country.
We know of no other introduction to the study of micro-
scopic fungi than the work by the same author, published by
Hardwicke, Piccadilly.

H. A. M.— 1. The publisher of Gw5-n Jeffrey's "British
Conchology" is Van Voorst, Paternoster-row, London. It is
in five vols. 2. You had better apply to the Hon. Sec. of the
Folkestone Natural. History Society concerning their " Guide
to the Natural History of the Neighbourhood," and its price.
Or perhaps some of our readers will take tho hint, and send
usvthe information.

J. Groves. — For information respecting the Botanical
Exchange Club, apply to H. C. Watson, Escj., Thames Dilton.

H. S. RiCHARusoN. — You will find an account both of the
Glass-rope sponge (il^aiowema), and investing I'olythoa, in an
article by Mr. F. Kitton, which appeared in Scik.vck-Gossip
for February, 18/2.

EXCHANGES.

Eggs of the Kestrel, Jay, Rook, Magpie, Garden Warbler,
fic, for Lepidoptera or Pupae. — Address, J. L. H., South-
street, Reading, Berks.

Wki.l-mountkd and well-prepared Polycistina and rare
Diatomacese, Springfield, Barbadoes, for diatomaceous
material.— H. B. Thomas, Boston, Lincolnshire.

Microscopic Slides of Marine Algae and Star-fish, also
small unmounted Star-fish, for good Slides. — R. T. Smith, 25,
6t. Alban'«-street, Weymouth.

Dl'plicatks, Templi, and probably eggs of same, for dis-
tribution about the 2nth March; send small box prepaid. —
John Harrison, ". Victoria Bridge, Barnsley.

For Palate of Limpet unmounted. Patella vulgaris, send
stamped envelope, to Jas. Lumsden, 1!)7, Dorwigstreet,
Wigan. Any Microscopic material acceptable.

A. sL-pKRioR Galvanic and Electric Apparatus for a Micro-
scope.— J. W., Luidow-grove, Alderley Edge, near Man-
chester.

Spartiva ALTKRN'irLORA, for Lond. Cat. Nos. 154, 32'f
429,511, fiJl, 6i)fi, ti97, 711, 871, 873, 958, 1149, U76, U8i.
Ii25, l.-,72*.— J. Groves, 13, Richmond-terrace, Clapham-road.
London.

A. coLLKCTOR of British Birds will be glad to exchange
si)«cimens with another collector. — Address, W. H. Hunt,
Hendford, Yeovil, Somerset.

For beautiful Transparent Spines of Ecliintta sphmra,
send stajnped envelope and any Microscopic object of interest
to John Butterworth, Goats, Shaw, near Oldham.

IIeli» ohviiluta for named Cyclade$. — J. E. Blomfield>
Culvers-close, Winchester.

Wantkd, a Geologist's Pick Hammer for a book entitled
" Insect Architecture," nearly new. — T. B. Linley, 88, Black-
friars-road.

The Monthly Microacnpical Journal, unbound, for I869, in
good order, open to otTers. — F. T., Eaton Lodge, Rugeley,
Staffordshire. Has any one a small printing-press to part
with?

Fossil Diatoms, well mounted, for Selenites. — Thos. Lisle,
Moorfields, Wolverhampton.

Sekds : a few opaque slides of Portulaceae, for other slides.
— E. Lamplough, 17, English-street, Hull.

Wanted, Limncea glutinnsa, L, peregra (varieties), ^cm<'
lineata, offered for Foreign Marine Shells, or sundry British
species. — A. W. Langdon, 4, Castle-Down-terrace, Hastings.

Sea Anemones, Marine Algse. Fronds or Living Plants of 35
different Irish and Scotch ferns, Gentianaverua, Neotiagpiraht,
and several other interesting Alpine and native Orchidea.
(Descriptive list sent for 3d.), for choice Alpines, Books, Papers,
Sic, on scientific subjects, &c. &c. — Terence McGann, Burrin,
Oranmore, Ireland.

Wanted, vols. 6, 9, and 10, bound or unbound, of the
tlonthty Microscopical Journal, and Rabenorst's "Die Silss-
wasser Diatomaceen," for each of which I will give 18 well-
mounted slides of Diatoms, all type Species. — B. Taylor, 86,
Lowther-street, Whitehaven,

Fossil speoiraens of Rhizodus, Spirifera, Inoceramus,
Terebratula, Leda, Nucula, &c., for mounted Diatoms,
Foraminifera, &c. — L. A. Waddell, 36, N. Frederick-etreet,
Glasgow.

Vertigo pygmncua, var. pallida, for Pupa ringens. Vertigo
alpestris, or Vertigo untivertigo, or Claut'lia Rolphii, for
Limneea initoluta or Lucaneaoblonga. — J. Fitz Gerald, West-
terrace, Folkestone.

Send stamped addressed envelope for the following hairs :
Sea otter, land otter, roebuck, astracan, fox, tutch, mink,
opossum, Russian sable, French sable, gill sable, American
squirrel.— J. H. M., 17, Walham-grove, St. John's, Fulbam,
S.W.

Helix lamellata, Zonites excavatus, for Vertigo antiverligo,
V. alpestris, V. suljttrtata, V. anguntior, or H.fitsca, or Acme
lineata,— J. Whitenham, Cross-lane Marsh, Hudderstleld.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

" The Treasury of Botany." 3 vols. London : Longmans
& Co.

" American Naturalist." December and January.

" Twentieth Annual Report of Brighton Natural History
Society."

" Report of Lower Moseley-street Schools Natural History
Society."

" Botanische Zeitung," Nos. 1 and 3.

" Reports of Eastbourne Natural History Society."

" Boston Journal of Chemistry." January.

" Journal of Applied Science." February.

*' Grevillea." Edited by Dr. M. C. Cooke. February.

" Monthly Review of Dental Surgery." January.

" The Naturalist in Nicaragua." By Thos. Belt, F.G.S.
London : John Murray.

" Organic Chemistry." By Dr. H. E. Armstrong. London :
Longmans & Co.

" Microscopic Relations of Air." By D. Douglas Cunning-
ham, M.I?.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

73

THE OKIGIN OF GEEAT FIKES EEOM A NATUEAL

HISTOEY POINT.

a recent meeting of the
Lower Mosley-sti-eet
Natural History So-
ciety, I submitted a
piece of leaden water-
pipe, sent to me by
Captain Drew, who re-
ceived it from Mrs.
Bakewell, St, Mary's Gate, in
January last. It appears, Mrs.
Bakewell's kitchen in St. Mary's
Gate is infested with rats : they
have, on several occasions, bit-
ten through the water-pipe and
flooded the place. The pipe has
been twice bitten through, and
the hole soldered up. The
rats, no doubt, being thirsty,
bit through the pipe to allay it.
Two instances have occurred at Phillips's ware-
liouse, Church-street; one in 1851, the other in
1856: in both cases the rats gnawed through a
leaden gas-main-pipe a few inches above the floor.
Other similar instances have occurred of rats
gnawing a gas in mistake for a water-pipe : it has
been thought that they heard the water bubbling
in the gas-pipe, and have not found their mistake
until tliey had penetrated the pipe. Phillips's
warehouse was on both occasions damaged by fire
through some of the employes seeking for the
escaping gas with a light.

A fireman, in the performance of his duty, often
meets with many curious and interesting instances
of causes of fires, a few of which I will give, which
you may, perhaps, think worth wtile to find a corner
for in your very interesting Gossip on natural
history, &c.

I have attended and traced several instances of
fires occurring through rats and mice gnawing
lucifer-matclies. Matches are now dipped in
paraffin wax instead of sulphur, as before ; the rats
or mice have carried them under the floor for the
No. 112.

purpose of gnawing off the wax ; in doing so their
teeth have come in contact with the phosphorus at
the ends, and so fired them. In 185G I attended a
fire at the Sultan's Palace at Scutari, Asia Minor.
After the fire, I gathered from under the flooring
a quantity they had been gnawing. Some years
ago a fire occurred in London, caused through a
jackdaw getting at a box of lucifers, and pecking
them until it set them on fire.

Pires have occurred through rats and mice con-
veying under the flooring-boards oily and fatty
rags, which have afterwards spontaneously ignited.
This is rather a common cause of fires in cotton-
mills.

The following is an extract from the Journal of
the United Service Institution, Whitehall-yard,
London, No. 52, for 1868 : " One of the presents
sent to the Museum of this Institution is a rat's
nest and young. The nest was set on fire by a
lucifer-match, ignited by the old rat as she worked
it into her nest. Lieutenant A. H. Gilmore, E,.N.,
states a fire occurred on board Her Majesty's ship
Revenge from a similar cause."

Cats and dogs have caused fires in various ways ;
such as upsetting explosive and inflammable things
into fires and lights, also through lying inside
fenders and under fireplaces. Hot coals have
fallen and adhered to their backs, which caused
til em to beat a hasty retreat, no doubt being
anxious to get rid of the annoyance as soon as
possible. They have sometimes succeeded by
rolling or rubbing on carpets, curtains, beds, straw,
shavings, and other inflammable things. The last
instance I recollect occurred at a baker's shop in
Albion-street, Gaythorn. A dog was lying under
an oven fire, a piece of chip fell from the fire on
to his back ; he immediately ran to some shavings,
rolled upon them, at the same time setting them
on fire before the eyes of his master. In 1863,
three distinct fires were caused in one room of a
gentleman's house inCanonbury, Islington, through
a cat lying inside the fender, when some hot ashes

E

74

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

fell out of the fire on to its back, which caused it
to rush about the room, when the cinders were
deposited iu different places, which set fire to the
carpet.

That mischievous animal the monkey has lent
its aid to the devouring element. Fires have
occurred through its agency, in a similar manner to
cats and dogs, also through its playing with fire in
various ways. In one instance a monkey upset a char-
coal brazier, and set a room on fire. Many— yes, very
many— fires have occurred through our domestics
hunting bugs and other small fry by the light of a
candle or lamp. In their anxiety, especially, to
hunt fleas, they forget they may and have produced
an enemy more to be dreaded. Many fires also
occur through persons fumigating apartments to
get rid of bugs and various kind of vermin.

A few instances have occurred through the con-
centration of the sun's rays upon glass fish-globes.
On the 19th October, 1845, at two p.m., Mr. Phil-
brook's residence, Mill-street, Worcester, was set
on fire through the concentration of the sun's rays
upon a water-croft standing upon a table. Coloured
bottles in chemists' shops, cracks, and bull's-eyes
in glass have been known to focus sufficient heat
from the sun to set buildings on fire.

Fires have occurred through the spontaneous
ignition of pigeon's dung under the slates and tiles
of houses. Professor Buckland traced two fires to
this cause.— See Builder, 28th September, 1844.

Birds' nests under the eaves and wooden crevices
of houses, have been frequently set on fire through
sparks from a neighbouring chimney, and have con-
tained sufficient inflammable matter to set fire to
the buildings.

Although I have given dogs the credit of pro-
ducing work for the flremen, still it would not be
fair if I were to omit to mention that they have
frequently discovered and given timely notice of
fires ; and many an anecdote can be told of the very
great interest dogs take in and at fires.

Alfred Tozer.

Chief Fire-station, Manchester.

FOSSIL TEETH FROM THE NORTHUM-
BRIAN COAL-MEASURES.

TOURING the last few months I have been
-^-^ examining microscopically all the teeth that
are known and named as belonging to tlie upper or
true coal-measures, and while pursuing these inves-
tigations, I alighted upon two teetli that were
certainly quite new to me, and I am inclined to think
they have never been discovered in any other locality,
as I cannot find mention of similar or anything like
similar teeth in Owen's " Odontography," Agassiz's
^' Poissons fossiles," or any other paloeontological
work to which I have access. One tooth resembles

somewhat in shape and structure a tooth of the
Selachian Ctenoptychiiis, though there are striking
diff'erences to be observed ; the other has no ally that
I can discover.

The first was sent to me as a specimen of
Ctenoptychius by Mr. Salt, of Newsham, but a mi-
croscopical examination at once made it evident
that it could not be a tooth of that fish, though
probably belonging to the same family. It is very
small, being rather more than half an inch in length,
and one-fifth of an inch in height ; the superior
surface is convex and the inferior is concave; the
edges are narrow and rounded, from the convexity
being greater than the concavity. The superior
surface is denticulated, but the denticles are not
approximately uniform, as in Ctenoptychius (fig. 57),

Fig. 56. Vertical Section of
New Tooth, nat. size.

Fig. 57. Typical Tooth of
Ctenoptychius, nat. size.

but decrease rapidly to mere points (fig. 56). The
four large denticles are rounded, and have on their
free surfaces from two to three sharp shining points,
the largest of these points being only -^ in. in height.
There is also a marked difference between the two
teeth in the form of the base, as will be easily seen
on comparing the above two engravings.

The minute structure also differs very much, so
much, in fact, that it alone would cause the two
teeth to be allotted to different genera.

In Ctenoptychius, the medullary canals are large
throughout the whole body of the tooth, they do not
become smaller as they approach the denticular
surface, they branch and anastomose very freely,
the branches being quite as large as the original
canal; thus it is impossibletosay whether the canals,
as a rule, run parallel with the axis of the tooth
(fig. 61). From all the canals spring numerous and
very large calcigerous tubes, some of the largest
measuring as much as ToVir of an inch in diameter,
the average being about TciroOf ^^^ 'mc\\. Thetubules
which arise from the canals in the body of the tooth
are very short, branch once or twice, the branches
anastomosing with their neighbours, and they ge-
nerally run at right angles to the canal from which
they spring; but those that proceed from the canals
near the denticles run parallel with the axis of the
tooth, tend to a fasciculate arrangement, do not
branch nor anastomose much, and retain the same
diameter throughout their course until they are
close to the periphery, when they become a little
finer, but are still comparatively coarse tubes (fig. 63).
The tubules can be easily observed under a power
of 20 diameters. There is not a vestige of ganoine
or fish-enamel in any of the sections in my posses-
sion, or in the sections that I have examined belong-
ing to other collectors.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

75

In the new tooth the canals in its base are quite as
large as those in Cteuoptychius, but they become
rapidly smaller as they proceed towards the denticu-
lar surface; the larger canals branch and anastomose
freely, but less so when they become smaller : they
all give off tubules, but very sparsely, with the
exception of those near the first and second denticles,
where the tubules are rather numerous (figs. 58, 59),

are merely sharp points. The first four denticles
have from two to three small points on their free
surface: these are seen in figs. 58 and 59 to be com-
posed purely of ganoine, each point of ganoine being
continuous with its neighbour of the same denticle ;
but the enamel of one denticle is not continuous
with that of the denticle next to it, except between
the second and third. The middle points or denticles

Fig. 58. Vertical Section of Fig. 66, magnifled 20 diameters.

and being the largest they are the only ones seen
under a power of 20 diameters : the finest tubules
require a power of about 400 diameters to resolve
them. The calcigerous tubules are very fine, the
largest measuring
beins

O 10 0 0 0

in.

15000 1^

seldom, and do not anastomose

in diameter, the average

they branch dichotomously, but

The tubules in

the body of the tooth run at right angles to the

are also tipped with this fish-enamel; but beyond
these the points are composed purely of dentine, the
enamel, it may be, having been worn off. The fish-
enamel, or ganoine, is permeated by calcigerous tubes,
which are continuous with those of the dentine; they
are similar in size to the dentinal tubules, but ap-
pear larger, and therefore more distinct, by force of
contrast with the clear substance in which they

Fig. 59. Vertical Section of Tootli (fig. 56) continued, x 20.

canal from which they arise, while the denticular
tubules proceed parallel with the axis of the tooth,
with the exception of those in the first denticle, at
the base of which they run at right angles to the
axis, becoming vertical towards the apex (fig. 60).
The denticles, as I have already said, rapidly de-
crease in sizCj from one side to the other, till they

ramify (fig. 60). The largest point of enamel is only
3^0 of an inch in height.

The second tooth was found in 1868, lying em-
bedded in shale, and is the only one in my possession.
On account of its shape being unlike that of auy
other tooth that 1 am acquainted with, a section was
made in order to ascertain its structure under the

E 2

76

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

microscope, and also in the hope of obtaining by this
means some clue to its family or genus. The sec-
tion showed very evidently that the tooth was a new
one, that it belonged to the class of fishes, andj^if
one could judge from such small data as a single

\>

^>^

Fig. 60. Vertical Section of largest denticle, x 80.

tooth, that it was a Selachian; for no long tissue is
attached to its base, and it was clearly not inserted
in a socket. The tooth is very small, being only 4^
in. in height and t;\ in. in breadth : its shape is
that of a shortened cone, the point being slightly

Fig. 61. Vertical Section of Tooth of Ciewop/ycAiMS, x 20.

rounded, giving the tooth a rather squat appear-
ance. Microscopical examination shows that it is
composed of unvascular dentine, M'ith a layer of
enamel all round the free edge. The pulp-cavity

proceeds '-gV ill- up the tooth. At its commence-
ment it is very broad, stretching from enamel to
enamel ; but as it passes up the tooth it rapidly
contracts, so that when it has proceeded ,'gth of an
inch, the cavity is only ^V in. broad : from this point
it gradually becomes narrower. The dentine varies
in its thickness according to the shape of the pulp-
cavity. The tubules which ramify in it are very
numerous and exceedingly fine, varying from
in. to -^rnhrn in. in diameter ; they do not

the

20000 •"■ '" 30000

branch or anastomose except when close to
periphery, some of the branches being so fine that
I cannot measure them. The tubules spring from
the pulp-cavity and proceed in straight lines ; their

Fig. 62. Vertical Section of two denticles of Ctenoptychius,

X 80.

course is parallel with the axis of the tooth, and
those that arise from the sides of the cavity have
a slight tendency outwards. The enamel borders
the whole of the free edge of the tooth ; at the
base it is unsupported by the dentine, and forms
one of the boundaries of the pulp-cavity; its
average thickness is 1-1777 in. : no structure can be
detected, although I have examined it under a
power of about COO diameters ; nor do any of the
dentinal tubules pass into it, as is generally the
case in fish-enamel.

Until I am more certain that these are really
newly-discovered teeth, 1 shall not attempt to
name or classify them, for I do not wish to commit

hARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

77

the error that some distinguished palaeontologists
have fallen into, of founding new genera upon
single teeth, without knowing whether collectors
in other districts have discovered any similar to
them. In all coal districts there are many col-
lectors of fossil remains, who, in their searchings,
often find teeth, bones, &c., the descriptions of
•which are not published in books or periodicals,
and it may be that they are allowed to be forgotten
from want of knowledge as to their worth. I am
sure that if some well-qualified palaeontologist
were to spend a few mouths in visiting all the pit
districts where fossils are known to exist, and in
examining the specimens in the possession of the
local palaeontologists, and of some of the more in-
telligent pitmen who are to be found in many of
the colliery .villages (many of these pitmen have
excellent collections — for instance, Messrs, Simm
and Taylor, of Cramlington, and Mr. Salt, of

Fig. 63. Vertical Section of New Tooth, x 20.

Newsham), he would find much that would clear
the way for a better knowledge of the fishes,
reptiles, &c., already known, and much that would
be entirely new to science. It is the scattered way
in which these researches are undertaken, and the
want of a systematic work illustrating and de"
scribing all the latest discoveries, that render the
study of the fossils of the carboniferous strata so
difiicult and unsatisfactory. Agassiz's " Poissons
fossiles" is certainly a splendid work, but it con-
tains much tiiat is now known to be incorrect, and
nothing of the discoveries of the last twenty-eight
years. Owen's "Odontography" is excellent as
far as it goes, but it is also much in arrear of our
present knowledge. The late Professor Agassiz
evidently saw the necessity for a work in which the
latest discoveries should be described and classified,
for in a letter which he wrote to Sir P. de M. Grey
Egerton just before his death, he lamented the
want of time to pursue investigations into the fossil
teeth of Selachians. If he had been spared to
make these researches, it was his intention to have
published the result as a continuation of his
" Poissons fossiles." Such a work, comprising
only Selachian teeth, would leave a large field to
be inquired into ; viz., the teeth of ganoids, laby-

rinthodonts, reptiles, and^ mammals. But as the
Professor has been removed before he could prepare
this work, tiie whole field of Odontography is open
to other inquirers.

W. J. Bakkas, M.R.C.S.E., &c. i

THE HISTOUY OF OUR COMMON CULTI-
VATED VEGETABLES.

By H. G. Glasspoole.

No. I. The Potato.

IN the following pages I purpose to give an his-
torical account of those vegetables which are ia
common use among us, and may be classed as some
of the necessaries of life.

When the Romans invaded England, we are told
by their historians, they found the natives support-
ing themselves on the rudest fare, — uncultivated
roots and wild fruits. This must be rather an ex-
aggerated account, as no doubt the brave inhabi-
tants who opposed Caesar and his legions fed upon
the flesh of animals taken in the chase, and which
at that period abounded in this country. The
Romans we know, from the works of Pliny, Colu-
mella, and others, were famous for agricultural and
horticultural pursuits. The market-gardens around
ancient Rome were cultivated by the chief men of
the city, who were also the proprietors, and they
themselves tilled the ground with their own hands.
To this nation we undoubtedly owe much of our
present civilization, for, amidst all their conquests,
they never forgot to carry forward the useful arts of
life ; and the remains of their beautiful and extensive
villas, which every now and then are discovered,
under our soil, show us plainly that they did not
neglect to introduce, even to this their distant pos-
session, some of the comforts and gratifications o£
their luxurious city. When the Romans left our
shores, the country was given over to the ravages
of the Saxons and Danes, who kept up almost a
constant warfare with the inhabitants, so that agri-
culture and the other sciences of a civilized race
gradually disappeared.

There are many excellent roots and nourishing
herbs indigenous to Britain, but as the art of culti-
vating these was unknown, they could not have had
that nutritious character they now possess. Many
of the fruit-trees and plants introduced by the
Romans were never altogether lost, but became
degenerated for a time, until restored in after-years
by the monks, those constant guardians of horti-
culture.

We have no works on plants in English before
the sixteenth century. In 1552 all books on geo-
graphy and science in this country were ordered to
be destroyed, being, as it was supposed, infested with

78

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

magic. So it is almost impossible to know much
about the state of gardening before the reign of
Henry VIII. Harrison, who wrote " A Descrip-
tion of England," mentions that " herbs, fruits, and
roots, such as yearly grow out of the ground, were
very plentiful in the reign of Edward I. and after
his days, but in process of time they were neglected ;
so that from Henry IV. to the beginning of the
reign of Henry VIII. there was little or no use for
them in England." But it is most likely in those
days the constant wars between the houses of
Lancaster and York prevented persons turning their
attention to anything like horticulture.

During the reign of the last-mentioned monarch
rapid strides were made in horticulture — the surgeons
and apothecaries began to cultivate medicinal herbs ;
but Hume the historian says it was not until the
end of Henry's reign that any salads, carrots, tur-
nips, or other edible roots, were produced in Eng-
land : all such vegetables were chiefly imported from
the Netherlands, and were very dear ; for it is stated
that in 1595 a sum equal to 20s. was paid at the
port of Hull for six cabbages and a few carrots. In
the sixteenth century a cabbage from Holland was
deemed an acceptable present.

The inhabitants of Elanders and the Low Coun-
tries were very industrious God-fearing people, and
had long been famous for their horticulture.

About 1524 a cruel religious persecution drove
numbers from their country, and tliey came to Eng-
land, where au asylum was offered them. Many
settled at Sandwich, and soon discovered the suit-
ability of the soil for gardening, wliicb, after a short
time, enabled them to supply the country round
with plenty of vegetables, and at a more reasonable
price. The demand for their produce in London
was so great that a body of the exiles were induced
to remove nearer the metropolis, and they settled at
Battersea, Bermondsey, and Wandsworth, where
many of the garden-grounds planted by them flou-
rish to the present day.

Since the reign of Elizabeth horticulture has
steadily progressed in all its branches, and those
vegetables which were once a luxury confined to
the tables of the rich, have now become a necessary
with the poor.

The most important class of roots that first de-
mands our attention is the Potato ; and the history
of its discovery and culture affords us an interesting
example of progress under difficulties, as for some
time after its introduction it was undervalued and
its cultivation neglected by the scientific and prac-
tical gardeners of those days. The discovery of
America by Columbus, which had aroused the spirit
of maritime adventure and the thirst for foreign
dominion in Europe, at last infected our country,
and in 158i Queen Elizabeth sent out a fleet " to
discover and plant new countries not possessed by
Christians," under the auspices of Sir Walter

Raleigh. Thomas Heriot, the mathematician, was
one of these adventurers : he, with the rest, returned
home within two years, and it has been supposed
that to him we are indebted for the first knowledge
of the potato, which he describes, under the article
of Roots, as au American plant called openawk.
" The roots of this plant," says he, " are round,
some as large as a walnut, others much larger ; they
grow in damp soils, many hanging together as if
fixed on ropes. They are good food either boiled or
roasted."

From numerous passages in the Elizabethan
dramatists, it appears that the potato was a great
dainty in those days ; but this refers to the sweet
potato {Batatus edulis), which was cultivated in
Spain and Portugal and imported to this country.
It is to this plant that Shakespeare alludes in the
" Merry Wives of Windsor" (Act v. Sc. 5), where
Palstaff says —

"Let it rain potatoes, and hail kissing comforts ! "

Gerarde mentions in his Herbal, published in 1597,
the common potato as Battatci Virginiana, having
received the roots from Virginia, which he cultivated
in his garden, and gives au accurate description of
both the plant and flower. He recommends the
root to be eaten as a delicate dish, and not as com-
mon food.

The introduction of this root into Ireland by Sir
Walter Raleigh is well authenticated, for it is stated
in the manuscript minutes of the Royal Society that
S. R. Southwell mentioned to the fellows that his
grandfather was the first to cultivate the potato in
that country, and for this valuable root he was
indebted to Sir Walter. Among the anecdotes re-
lated of Raleigh is, that on his returning to his estate
at Youghal, in the county of Cork, he gave some of
the roots of the potato to his gardener, desiring him
to plant them in the spring. In August these
plants flourished, and in September produced fruit,
but so different to the gardener's expectations that
in an ill humour he carried the potato-apples or
berries to his master. "Is this," said he, "the fine fruit
from America you prize so highly ? " Sir Walter
either was, or pretended to be, ignorant of the matter,
and told the gardener, since that was the case, to
dig up the weed and throw it away. The gardener
obeyed, and in rooting out the weeds found a bushel
of potatoes.

Dr. Campbell, in his Political Survey, states that
this plant was not introduced into Ireland imtil the
year 1610, while other writers afi&rm that it was
grown there at a much earlier period, and indeed
try to make it equally probable that it is a native
vegetable of the country. It is known, however,
that Captain Hawkins carried the Spanish potato to
Ireland in 1565. The claim to its greater antiquity
in that country was made by Sir Lucius O'Brien,
who stated to Mr. Arthur Young, that the venerable
Bede mentioned this plant as being in Ireland about

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

79

the year 700 ; but there is no passage in Bede's
works that would prove such an assertion ; and
largely as the potato is cultivated in that country,
it has not yet made out its title to a place in the
indigenous flora of Ireland. It appears to have
been cultivated and its value appreciated in that
country long before any notice of it was taken in
England; for, some time after its introduction, it was
planted only in the gardens of the nobility as a
curious and rare vegetable.

The potatoes furnished to the table of the queen
of James I. bore the high price of 2s. per lb., and
through the succeeding reign and Commonwealth it
remained extremely scarce, nor did its cultivation
spread till more than a hundred years after the
discovery of Virginia.

In 1663, Mr. Buckland, a Somersetshire gentle-
man, drew the attention of the Royal Society, by
letter, to its value in case of famine, and such mem-
bers as had lands adapted to its culture were
entreated to plant the new vegetable ; and Evelyn,
the celebrated practical gardener of that period, was
requested to notice the subject at the close of his
Sylva ; but so little was he aware of its importance,
tliat he took no notice of it till thirty years after-
wards, and then in rather sligliting terms. In his
"Kalendarium Plantarum" (the fu'st gardeners'
calendar published in Britain) he writes thus : —
«' Plant your potato in your worst ground. Take them
up in November for winter spending ; there will
enough remain for a stock, though ever so exactly
gathered." In Mortimer's "Gardener's Kalender"
for 1708 the potato is directed to be planted in
February ; and it is added : " The root is very near
the nature of the Jerusalem artichoke, although not
so good and wholesome ; but it may prove good to
swine." A writer at the end of the seventeenth
century admits that "potatoes are much used in
Ireland and America as breads and may be propa-
gated with advantage to poor people."

Woolridge, who wrote in 1687, describes potatoes
as being very useful in " forcing fruits," stating
that they are planted in several places in the country
to good advantage. He adds, " I do not hear that it has
been yet essayed whether they may not be propa-
gated in great quantities for the use of swine and
other cattle." The celebrated Ray, who published
his "Historia Plantarum" in 1686, takes no further
notice of this vegetable than by saying that it
is dressed in the same manner as Spanish batatas.
Lisle, who wrote on husbandry from 1694 to 1 722,
is wholly silent about the potato, and so are the
eminent nurserymen Loudon and Wise, in the
seventh edition of their " Complete Gardener."
Bradley, who wrote about 1719 very extensively on
horticultural subjects, makes only a passing note on
this vegetable. " They are," he says, " of less note
than horseradish, radish scorzoners, beets, and
skirret ; but as they are not without their admirers.

I will not pass them by in silence." The first
district of England where the potato was cultivated
was on the western coast in Lancashire, at North
Meols, about the year 1691; : with this exception, its
progress continued at an extremely slow pace. In
1760 it was known only in Yorkshire as a garden
plant, and in Somersetshire we must date its intro-
duction as an article of farm produce at least ten
years later.

After this period, however, the value of the
potato came to be very generally appreciated, and
in the year 1796, in the county of Essex alone, no
fewer than seventeen hundred acres were planted
with this root for the supply of the London
market.

The introduction of the potato into Scotland
was probably earlier than any part of England,
with the exception of Lancashire, for the name of
this plant is mentioned in the " Hortus Medicus
Edinburgensis," published by Sutherland in 1683,
but perhaps only grown as a curiosity in some of
the gardens about Edinburgh ; and it was not until
the year 1728 that it became an object of useful
cultivation in the country. The Scotch are in-
debted to a labouring man named Tliomas Pentrice
for the more extensive cultivation of this root. He
resided near Kilsyth, in Stirlingshire, and cropped
the little plot of ground from which he drew
his subsistence with potatoes. This crop proved
extremely valuable, and was almost instantly in
demand for propagating other crops, first among
the cottagers, aud then among the farmers.
Pentrice continued to cultivate this root very care-
fully, and to supply his neighbours with the pro-
duce. After a few years he found himself in
possession of two hundred pounds ; this he sank
in an annuity, at a good interest, upon which he
lived independently to an old age. The last years
of his life were spent at Edinburgh, where he died
in 1792 at the age of eighty-six, having thus been
for sixty-four years a witness to the happy effects
of the blessmg which he had been instrumental in
conferring on his country.

Eor some time, it appears that the cultivation of
the potato was confined to the cottagers and small
farmers of Scotland, but it found no favour with
the higher classes ; indeed, some of the Scotch
were hostile to the use of this root on religious
grounds. "Potatoes," said they, "are not inen-
tioned in the Bible." Thus the same anathema
was pronounced against them as against the
spinning-wheel and the corn-farmers.

The year 1742, which was long remembered in
Scotland as the " dear year," gave an impulse to
the cultivation of the potato, aud indeed to the
whole agriculture of the country; so that during
the latter half of the eighteenth century the
practice and science of husbandry made much
more rapid progress iu Scotland than in England.

•80

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

But in some parts of the country, as late as 1756,
they appear to have been unknown. There is an
anecdote told of a lady of VVigtonshire bringing
some potatoes in her pocket to church to present
to a friend as a rarity, but the string of her pocket
breaking as she was in the act of going out, on the
dismissal of the congregation, she lost her burden
■in the passage, the contents of which created con-
siderable speculation. We have uo records of the
«early practice and progress of potato husbandry in
Ireland ; but towards the end of the seventeenth
century, we are informed by Houghton, in his
" Collections on Husbandry and Trade," that during
the wars of that period, when all the corn was de-
stroyed by the plundering and pillaging of the
soldiery, the potato crop seemed, in a great mea-
sure, to supply the inhabitants with food, for he
observes, " unless the soldiers had dug up all the
ground where potatoes grew, and sifted it, they
could not have extirpated them."

These facts and extracts serve to show how, by
what gradual and almost imperceptible steps, this
most valuable root has been brought to its present
state of perfection, for there can be indeed but
little doubt that the imperfect modes of cultivating
and cooking the potato were, in a great measure,
the cause which prevented its more speedy adoption
as a wholesome article of food.

It is related by a person who was invited to taste
the first potatoes grown in Forfar, that the roots
had been merely heated, and that they adhered to
the teeth like glue, while the flavour was far from
agreeable. The food was about to be condemned,
when a gentleman, who had tasted the potato in
Lancashire, accidentally arrived, and caused the
rejected roots to be put back into the hot turf-ashes,
till they became as dainty as they had before been
■aiauseous.

{To be cont'umed.)

"TURNTABLES" AND "MOUNTING."

•Til HERE are few microscopists who, from being
-*- unable to prepare their own slides, have to put
up with purchasing such at the dealers', but meet
with the annoyance every now and then of the cells
or covers giving way ; and although they may go to
the unlucky vendor and complain, and perhaps have
them exchanged, yet it is touching an innocent
party on a tender point, while the real culprit may
have the good luck to escape scot free. It would
seem to be a very simple and easy matter to cement
two pieces of glass together with an intermediate
ring of some sort or other to hold them apart for
the reception of the object ; but in practice tiiere
are so many obstacles to contend against that it is
by no means so easy of accomplishment as might be
expected, and scarcely any of the uninitiated would

be able to form any adequate conception of the
amount of anxious care and forethought that has
been expended upon such a seemingly trivial affair;
and yet, in spite of all ordinary care, failures will
sometimes occur, although it is probably owing as
much to defective means as to want of care. The
first great obstacle to be considered is the effect of
expansion and contraction, or the different degrees
of expansibility among the various substances em-
ployed ; for even if the cell itself be also of glass
the contents of the cell, whether air or fluid, expand
in a different ratio to the glass, and thus tend to
loosen the cell or the cover from its attachment, to
the detriment of the mounting. An apparently
obvious remedy against these results would be to
make use of a softer and more tenacious cement,
such as would admit of this contraction and expan-
sion without becoming detached ; but, unfortu-
nately, another evil then makes its appearance in
the shape of "air-bubbles" and "running in" of
the cement, so that a certain degree of consistence
as well as adhesiveness is essential to success. The
composition of these cements, however, must be left
for some future opportunity, as the immediate object
of the present communication is to call the atten-
tion of mounters, both amateurs and professionals,
to one other serious defect that is quite within their
power to remedy without putting tbemselves to any
great cost or inconvenience in so doing.

Whatever may be the materials of which a cell is
composed, or may be put together with, it is indis-
pensable to its security that the outside shall be
well coated over with some protective composition
wdiether it be ornamental or plain, and in the case
of fluid mountings it is desirable to repeat this ex-
ternal varnishing at intervals, as a precautionary
measure of safety — hence, for this purpose a " turn-
table " becomes a necessity ; but as cells are very
rarely fixed in tbe middle of the slide, or any two of
them in the same relative place, the latter defect
involves an unnecessary amount of trouble and in-
convenience, besides a very serious loss of time,
through having to centre each slide separately,
which, by a little better arrangement of the turn-
table, may be easily avoided for the future.

Glass slips are intended to be exactly one inch
wide and three inches long ; but as there is often a
variation of a tenth of an inch or more in both length
and width, it becomes evident that any mode to be
universal must admit of compensation in this re.
spect ; therefore the only possible plan is to make
two sides only of the parallelogram available to
measure from, and which is, fortunately, the easiest
plan to put in practice. The annexed sketch, half
tbe size of the original, represents the principal
wheel of a turntable I constructed about twenty
years ago, and which has been in use ever since
without having ever given rise to a feeling that any
further improvement could be made, seeing that it

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

81

is capable of effecting very satisfactorily all that
can be required of it. The wheel is formed out of
a, brass pulley about three eighths of an inch thick,
having a groove around its circumference to receive
a large gut band by which it is rotated. The screw-
head and washer in the centre are sunk below the
level, in order to avoid the lubricating grease getting
on the slides, while the whole sm-face has been made
as true as possible. The two pins b and b sup-
port the slide exactly half an inch from the centre,
while the pin A stops the slide at exactly an inch
and a half from the right-hand end : the slide
being pressed firmly down by the spring above, is
thus kept in its position, and is prevented from shift-
ing during use. It is here apparent that all devia-
tion frona tlie standard inch by three inches will
present itself at the sides d and e, where it will
not interfere with the centring, nor can it be suf-
ficient to be in any way detrimental to appearance.
The preceding may be taken to represent the
normal arrangement of the table, but when required

Fig. 61. Wheel of Turntable, i nat. size.

for accommodating misplaced cells, the two pins a
and B require to be taken out, when the end of the
slide E falls down upon the " cam " f, which is a
screw with a flat eccentric head of the form shown

s

the thin line indicating a piece of mainspring for
greater steadiness. Then by turning the screw f
aud pushing the slide to the right or left, any cell or
mounting may, witli a little practice, be readily
brought into the centre; when it will be firmly held
by the spring above it. This centring may be
greatly facilitated by having a few circles made on
the brass surface of the wheel beneath the slide.

The foregoing adjustments may be very readily
obtained in the following manner. First, describe a
circle o/ie inch in diameter in the centre, by rotating
the table on its own axis. Next, draw a line quite
across, just toucJdtig the outer edge of the circle, and
let the holes for the two pins be drilled, not on the
line, but just so mucli below as will bring the edge of
.ihe holes up to the line as accurately as possible.
Lastly, as the radius of the circle is just half an inch.

another inch beyond this circle will give the exact
distance for the line and pin A, equal care being
taken to have the latter beyond and up to the line,
but not on it. Now, if every turntable were to be
readjusted to this standard, namely, one and a half
inch from the right-hand end and half an inch
above the lower edge, slides and turntables would
be rendered as interchangeable as modern stands
and object-glasses have become through the adop.
tion of the universal screw.

But it is not for "cells" alone that this centring
is here pleaded ; it is equally desirable that every
object, even in balsam or dammar, or in any other
medium, should be so placed that its cover may be
cemented down for greater security, and which may
readily be done in a very simple manner. Having
placed the slide in its position, draw upon it a circle,
with ink, as large as the slide will admit of, as at
c, making a dot opposite a for future guidance.
(I use " Draper's dichroic ink," because it flows
freely, is a brilliant black, and does not corrode or
clog steel pens ; but its greatest merit for this pur-
pose is, that when thoroughly dried the glass may
be afterwards cleaned with spirit of wine with-
out disturbing it, yet it may be removed by
the slightest touch of a piece of wood wetted
with liquor potassa : it may be had of almost
any stationer at sixpence the half-pint bottle.)
Having made the ink circle on the tipper side of the
glass, then with a pair of compasses, make a similar
circle on a piece of cardboard ; when dry, turn the
glass over with the ink circle next the card, placing
the two circles concentrically, and mark a dot or
small ring around the central spot indicated by the
point of the compass, or a second glass slip marked
with a ring and central dot may be used instead
of the card. This latter central spot will
now be exactly under the spot corresponding with
the centre of the turntable, and over which the ob-
ject should be placed, the large circle being left till
the last, as a guide for the final centring of the
cover before completion.

W. Kencely Bridgman.

AMONG THE ANDAMANS.

TN the Bay of Bengal, between the 10th and 14th
•-*- parallels of north latitude and the 92nd and
94th degrees of east longitude, lie the beautiful
tropic islands of the Andamans, known to us since
the Indian mutiny chiefly as a penal settlement,
but latterly painfully associated in our minds with
the mournful tragedy enacted there on the 8th
Eebruary, 1872.

The Andamans proper consist of four large
islands aud a multitude of smaller ones, mostly
covered with luxuriant forest, and almost every-
where locked in a fringe of coral, which in many

82

HARDWICKE'S'SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

places forms extensive reefs, usually so steep and
sudden as to be most dangerous of approach. The
three largest, called respectively North, Middle,
and South Andamans, are only separated from each
other by narrow straits, which are not navigable at
low water ; and hence they commonly bear the one
general designation of Great Andaman, in contra-
distinction to Little Andaman, the name given to
the southernmost of the four, which is divided
from the others by the broad, deep channel 0/
Duncan Passage.

The larger islands of the group are said to
possess many good harbours and anchorages, as
well as an abundance of fresh water,* but very
little is known about them, as they are not often
visited, chiefly, I imagine, in consequence of the
danger of their coral reefs and the inhospitality of
their inhabitants, a woolly-headed, savage race,
whose origin has been for some time, and is still,
I believe, a puzzle to ethnologists.

Nature has everywhere scattered her beauties
over this region with a lavish hand, and some of
the smaller rocks and islets are said to be lovely as
a fairy dream.

Many years agof the Honourable East-India
Company formed a settlement at Port Cornwallis,
a noble harbour of the north island, but it was
soon afterwards^ abandoned on account of its
extreme unhealtbiness, and, since then, until the
establishment of the present penal colony at Port
Blair, where the interest of the group is now
centred, the Andamans were left to the unrestrained
dominion of wild and unfettered nature.

Port Blair is a large, irregularly-shaped bay or
inlet at the south-eastern end of the Great Anda-
man, indenting the coast to the westward, and then
bending downwards to the south. Within it are
most of the settlements of the colony, but the
chief station is the little island of Ross, which
lies athwart the entrance of the harbour, and, not-
withstanding its small size, contains nearly all the
principal public 'buildings, including the church,
Government House, and the barracks.

Ross Island is a somewhat bold and rather pic-
turesque triangular mass of rock, consisting, ac-
cording to Mr. Ball,§ of bluish-grey limestone,
with interbedded layers of argillaceous shales,
rising at its highest point to 195 feet above the sea,
and covering an area of about one-third of a square
mile ; its length being nearly 1,700 yards, and its
greatest breadth— in the centre, where it runs out
abruptly into a long, projecting point— rather less
than the same number of feet. Mr. Ball remarks
that, owing to the great inclination of the strata,
and other causes, there is considerable risk of

* Rosser and Imray's " Sailing Directions."

t 1791. t 1796.

t "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," xxxix. 232.

destructive landslips; and if some precautionary
measures are not adopted, the eventual stability of
the island itself may be endangered, by the removal
of stones from the face of the cliff for building
purposes, and the disintegration of the exposed
surface by the sea and other natural influences.

The indigenous vegetation of Ross has almost
entirely given place to ornamental and useful
plants, introduced from India, the Malayan Penin-
sula, and the larger islands. Amongst the trees
are cocoa-nut palms — which have probably been
brought from the Cocos, as they do not appear to
be anywhere natives of the Andamans proper-
oranges and lemons, with other species of Ciirus ;
the Bullock's-heart {Anona reticulata), custard-
apples {A)iO)ia squamosa), guavas {Psidium pomi-
ferum et pyriferum), acacias of two or three kinds,
including the fragrant A. farnesiana, Agati grandi-
flora. Cassia fistula, the Mango {Mangifera iiidica),
the Plantain {Musa paradisiaca), and the Durian
{Durio zibethinus). There are also numbers of
small and beautiful trees of Mesua ferrea, a noble
and gigantic Calophyllum inophyllum near the Com-
missariat office, and, round the coast, occasional
fine specimens of the common screw-pine {Pan-
danus vei-us). Besides these, many flowering plants
and a number of so-called weeds, with ten or twelve
species of grasses, have followed the footsteps of
settlement and cultivation, all of which seem to
thrive and flourish in the genial climate of this surf-
lashed outlying sentinel of Port Blair.

Peacocks of both species {Pavo cristatus et
viuticus), as well as the common Indian crow
{Corvus splendens, Estrelda amandiva, Acridotheres
tristis etfuscus, and Palceornis torquatus), have been
introduced since the formation of the colony ; but
the amaduvats have disappeared, and the prevailing
form of Corvus now seems to be C. andamunensis,
though C. ciilminatus is also found.

Various genera and species of fishes— many of
them brilliantly coloured— are abundantly repre-
sented in the blue waters of the bay ; and rare and
beautiful creatures constantly reward the researches
of the malcologist, even on the shores of Ross
itself; but my personal experience does not extend
to either of the branches of natural science which
include these denizens of the deep, and I must
refer those desirous of information on both points
to the papers scattered over the Journals of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, and Surgeon-Major
Day's article on the Fishes of the Andaman Islands,
in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of
London for 1870.

The sea was curling up into white-lipped wavelets
one day in the beginning of November, 1871, when,
accompanied by a brother officer, I crossed the bay
en route to Mount Harriet, a hill overlooking the
harbour, and easy of access from Hope Town, which
is a little native village situated in a cove to the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

83

westward of Perseverance Point, and nearly op-
posite to the settlement of Chatham. As we left
the jetty at Ross, the dark nimbus clouds which had
obscured the morning began to break and give place
to a fairer sky, and ere we had completed half our
voyage, the truant sun peeped out upon us, and
shed such a magic light around, that the superb
land-locked inlet, with its picturesque islands and
wooded shores, seemed all aglow with gold and
amber, while the white breakers dashing over the
coral reefs, and gathering force and grandeur at
every fresh breath of the sea-breeze, lent such an
additional charm to the rich green forest, still
dripping and sparkling with pendent rain-drops,
that the scenery attained an almost, ideal beauty,
impossible to describe.

The distance across the bay is rather more than
three miles, and it was about eleven o'clock when
we landed at Hope Town, on the still unfinished
pier, which scarce three months later earned such
a melancholy celebrity by the assassination of Lord
Mayo.

After a shoit delay at the village, until the
servants arrived with our supplies of food and other
impedimenta, we commenced the ascent by a very
good bridle-road of thirteen furlongs in length,
which climbs easily and pleasantly through a
beautiful virgin forest to the commissioner's
bungalow upon the summit of the hill, 1,185 feet
above the level of high tide. Nothing can be more
charming than this pathway, winding, as it does,
amidst the profuse and irrepressible vegetation of
the tropics, and vocal with the many strange and
singular sounds with which creation speaks in these
voluptuous latitudes. Noble trees of great height,
andremarkable for their hugebuttressed trunks, stand
all around like mighty sentinels, and cast grateful
shadows from their green canopy of foliage over
much of the ascent, tempering the heat and
affording shelter to hundreds of gay and often sweet-
voiced birds and marvellous insects, which make
their home amidst these vast storehouses of nature ;
while clinging to the giant stems and round the
great spreading arms of the patriarchal trees, are
myriads of parasitical and climbing plants, rejoicing
and luxuriating in the moist warm climate, which,
though almost free from the oppressive sultriness of
the calm regions, possesses much of that fervent
life-giving humidity so characteristic of the equa-
torial zone.

It is not the least of the attractions of this
delightful roadway, that in its immediate vicinity
a beautiful brook comes dashing down the mountain-
side from a perennial spring near the summit, and
after a sparkling and rapid journey, falls into the
bay near Hope Town.

Escaping a drenching shower on the way by the
opportune occurrence of a sheltering rock, we
reached the summit of the hiU in due course of

time, and, taking possession of the Commissioner's
house, regaled ourselves with cool draughts of
magnificent milk, which appeared to be tbe only
purchasable article within reach, notwithstanding
that a considerable portion of the extensive clearing
round the bungalow was devoted to the cultivation
of vegetables of different kinds. Other houses,
inferior in size and aspect to that which we had
temporarily appropriated, combined to form a sort
of village in this charming locality, which seemed
to rejoice in a most cool and pleasant climate, and
afforded us such a view as is rarely seen even in the
tropics. The panorama unfolded by our elevation
embraced a vast extent of sea and laud, including
Rutland Island and Macpherson's Straits, as well as
some of the lofty elevations of the North Andaman,
which culminate in the Saddle Mountain, visible
at sea sixty miles away, and estimated to be 2,400
feet in height. Almost below us lay the beautiful
harbour of Port Blair, with its various rocky islands,
and stretching away to the southward, the forest-
fringed lagoons leading to Port Mouat.

Mr. Ball, Avhose interesting paper on the geology
of the vicinity of Port Blair* I have already quoted,
states that the principal rock of Mount Harriet
is a coarse yellowish-green or grey sandstone,
apparently very absorbent of water ; also that close
to the top of the hill the sandstone appears in
vertical beds, but that on the ascent the rocks are
much obscured by humus.

During the alternations from gloom to sunshine
which the moving clouds so frequently created, the
effects of light and shade upon the extended land-
scape open to our view were exceedingly beautiful,
and sometimes so wonderfully rapid and complete as
to be almost startling. In a single instant it seemed
as if the forest changed from a brilliant combination
of vivid greens to a solemn and uniform heavy-
looking, almost blue tint, while perhaps, after the
lapse of a few seconds, it would suddenly reveal
itself again in all its former sunny brightness. The
luminous play upon the water under these conditions,
though perhaps not quite so striking, was even more
lovely still, — now presenting to our gaze a sapphire
sea, and anon passing quickly to chrysophraze and
emerald, to flash back upon us next moment with
an intensity of blue rivalling the deepest azure o^ a
southern sky.

There were scarcely any flowers in bloom, except-
ing orchids, which seemed to be chiefly representa-
tives of various species of Dendrobium, but they
were all out of reach, and I did not procure a single
specimen. Many of the trees were unknown to me,
but in the forests I recognized a few that I was
familiar with; amongst which were Dipterocarpus
lavis, Mesua ferrea, and Pterocarpus dalbergioides .
There was also a tree with brilliant red decaying

* J. A. S. B , xxxix. p. 231.

84

HAKDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSS I P.

leaves, so like Termitialia catappa, that I have no
doubt of its having been T.j^rocera, as mentioned by
Mr. Kurz ; * an Acacia in tolerable abundance, and
a Lagerstroemia ; also in the lower and denser forest
extending down to the beach, StercuUafcetida and a
gigantic Dillenia, which was probably D. pilosa of
Roxburgh. I met with no tree-ferns of any kind,
and scarcely any palms, excepting a prickly climbing
Calamus, which was very common, while the great
pendulous lichens, such as I have seen adorning the
damp forests of the eastern Himalaya in profuse
quantities, were altogether absent. P.ot/ios scandens,
however, another characteristic plant of the moist
Himalayan woods, was everywhere plentiful and
luxuriant. Mangroves abound in some places
fringing the shore with their brilliant green foliage
and growing upon them. One of my friends found
large quantities of Orchidacece^ chiefly species o^
Dendrohium and Pholidota.

Of birds, we obtained specimens of a beautifu}
parrakeet {Palceornis nicobaricus) which seemed
very abundant, but generally kept well out of reach
of shot in the upper branches of the great trees ; of
the peculiar-looking black woodpecker {Muelleri
pious Hodgii), and some of the Indian green imperial
pigeons {Carpophaga sylvatica). We saw also a good
many bulbuls {Otocompsa jocosa) and sunbirds
{Nectarinia pectoralis) ; a Pericrocotus, which was
most probably P. peregrinus; and a few others
which I failed to identify. A small collection, how-
ever, made by a brother officer on Mount Harriet,
and in the forests stretching downwards to the sea-
beach, furnished me with the following species : —

Palceornis erythrogenys, Myth.; Centropus anda-
mane7isis, Tytler ; Macropygia mfipeiwis, Blyth ;
Chalcophaps indieus, Linn. ; Osmotreron chloroptera,
Blyth ; Pericrocotus peregrinus, Linn. ; Loricuhis
vernalis, Sparm.; Irena puella. Lath.; Oriolus
andamanensis, Tytler; Merops quinticolor, Viall;
Myiagra Tytleri, Beavan ; Alcedo asiatica, Swains. ;
Todiramphus collaris. Scop. ; Picus andamanensis,
Blyth ; Edolius malaharicus. Scop.

After a most delightful sojourn of some hours
on the summit of the hill, the lengthening shadows
warned us to retrace our steps. But before we
reached Ross Island the soft obscurity of evening
was fast settling down over land and sea.

G. E. BuLGEE, r.L.S., &c.

THE JUMPING MOUSE.

{Jaculus Iludsonius, Wag.)

npHERE is no one feature of our smaller tracts
-*- of woodland that is, to us, at least, more
attractive than the lively, timid, jumping mouse.
If, happily, we chance to come upon him unawares,
and can keep ourselves unseen, we never weary

• " Report on the Vegetation of the Andaman Islands,"
p. 37.

watching his varied, graceful movements, and
always laugh when at last we have alarmed him at
his hurried bounds, as, with a few kangaroo-like
leaps, he hides amid the long grass, or seeks the^
safer precincts of his hidden nest.

We have an abundance of other mice, both in
the forest and on the fields and meadows ; some,
beautiful and sprightly, as the white-footed mouse-
{Hesperomys leucopus, Wag.) ; others, dull, uninter-
esting creatures, as the meadow-mouse {Arvicola-
ripnria, Ord.) ; but not even the vivacious Hes-
peromys can compare to the little leaping Jaculus.

Fig. 65. The Jumping Mouse {Jaculus Hudsonius).

While properly a "wood" mouse, this little
animal does not confine himself to shady groves
and tangled underbrush, but wanders about the
open fields, and not unfrequently contents himself
with the scanty shrubbery of our country zigzag
fences, in some tangled angle of -which he builds a
soft nest of grass.

Summer gone, and the sharp frosty autuma
nights have come, down a foot or more into the
ground he burrows, and curled into a little ball,
with head, feet, and tail all hidden, soundly to sleep
he goes, happily oblivious to all earth's troubling
cares, until the genial warmth of the cheery April
days rouses him from his lethargic* slumber, and
Jaculus " is himself again."

* Prof. Penney, in "American Naturalist,'' vol. vi. p. 332,
says of this mouse, " a colder night than usual seems to

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-G OSSIP.

We have said this pretty creature is called the
"jumping" mouse, aud very correctly is he named,
although we have never, as stated by Godman,*
seen it elude our "most eager speed by clearing
five or six feet of ground at every spring." Our
efforts to measure their longest leaps were not
altogether satisfactory, but doubt if they ever
reached three feet. A half-tamed specimen, when
chased about a room, would usually, in leaping,
about clear a breadth of Brussels carpet, i. e.
twenty-seven inches. Doubtless, in their native
haunts they exceed this, but we have never seen a
Jersey mouse double it, on any ground, cleared,
grassy, or woodland.

It must not be thought that leaping is this
animal's only mode of locomotion. It can as easily
and as rapidly run as any of the mice. Indeed, it
is only when frightened, whether pursued or not,
that it leaps rather than runs away. Why should
this mouse have this advantage over its cousins ?
It is very natural to ask this, especially when the
" reason why " of every fact in zoology is being so
carefully sought out. We have puzzled ourselves
with this query for a long time, and close obser-
vation has suggested to us this mere ghost of a
solution, viz., that whether in woodland or in
meadows, we have found these mice almost inva-
riably where the grass or underbrush was exceed-
ingly dense, and usually long also ; and where,
therefore, the ability to leap above rather than to
run through such tangled vegetation was an advan-
tage in eluding the pursuit of enemies, especially
such as could only run upon the ground ; and again,
it is only in escaping from danger that the ability
to leap, such as possessed by this animal, is advan-
tageous to it, so far as we can determine. Nothing
but escaping from a pursuing foe, in the habits of
the animal, suggest the desirability of great leaping
powers, either in its nesting, food-gathering, or
the character of the localities frequented by it.

Again, it is the most timid, certainly, of all the
mice, and if now, or in times past, it has, or has
had a swift-footed enemy, then the advantage of
being able to elude pursuit by long leaps rather
than by running would be of great service, and the
better jumpers having thus the better chance of
escaping, would unquestionably leave a more nume-
rous progeny inheriting this advantage ; so that in
time natural selection would in this way gradually
eliminate the slower-footed and less nimble indi-
viduals, and secure to the descendants of the more
ancient form that increased length of the hinder
limbs which is now the one marked peculiarity of
the lively little Jaculus.

A word and we have done. It has not been our

furnish the occasion for it to go into a state of the most
profound lethargy."
* "American Natural History," vol. i. p. .321.

experience, in studying this mouse, to find that it
was strictly nocturnal in its habits, as stated by
Audubon.* That it is more lively and active then
than during the day is certainly true ; but it is not
an unusual sight to see them in broad daylight,
during summer, running to and fro with their cheek-
pouches distended with food that they are busily
hoarding away in their underground nests ; and
sometimes the females do not leave their little ones
behind when sunning themselves, but move with
apparent ease with one or more babies hanging to
their teats; and it is well known that when frightened
they will bound away with all their little ones, and
give as long leaps as though not thus encumbered.
Charles C. Abbott, M.D.
Trenton, N. J., U.S.A.

THE GLOW-WORM'S LIGHT.

nyrOTWITHSTANDlNG its notoriety, there is
-'-^ still much doubt associated with the economy
of this insect. Possessing such a peculiar, noticeable
property, we are not surprised that it attracted the
attention both of the Greeks and Romans. Aristotle
(" Hist. Anim.," 1. iv. c. 1) says the glow-worm is
found both in a winged and apterous state. If, as
some believe, the glow-worm of Aristotle and that
of this country are identical, then he was referring

Fig. 66. Male Glow-worm. Fig. 6/. Female ditto.

to the sexes ; but he tells us (1. v. c. 17), the wing-
less kinds proceed from a small, black, hairy grub,
and are finally metamorphosed into winged creatures
termed bostrychi. There is some confusion here ;
the name Pygolcmpis (i. e. " sbining-tail ") evi-
dently points to the female, which in L. nodiluca
is wingless, but which in L. Italica has wings. It
is likely, then, that Aristotle confounded these two
species.

The larva of our common glow-worm agrees with
the philosopher's description in changing, soon after
it has emerged from the Qg^, from a whitish to a
sable hue.

Pliny is plainer. He dilates on the light which
Aristotle does not even mention. He says the
luminosity, or, as he terms it, the colour, emanates
from the sides and posterior portion of the beetle
(laterum et clunium colore). (" Hist. Nat.,"
1. xi. c. 34.)

• Audubon and Bachman, "Quad, of North America,"
vol. ii. p. 252, 8vo. ed.

S6

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

He was, probably, speaking of L. Italica. The
Homau naturalist, too, notices the appearance and
sudden disappearance of the light when the beetle
is on the wing (nunc pennarura hiatu refulgentes,
nunc vero compressu obuinbratse) : in wingless
females, at least, this light is subservient to the
will of the animal. In another portion of his work
(1. xviii. c. 66), he tells us that harvest-time is
always accompanied by the presence of these insects.
Dr. Holland thus quaintly translates the passage :
" Now the signe common to them both, testifying
as well the ripenesse of the one as the seednes of
the other, are the glo-birds, or glo-worms, Clcitidelae,
shining in the evening over the corn-fields : for so
the rustical paisants and country clownes call
certain flies or wormes glowing and glittering star-
like, and the Greekes name them Lampyrides ;
wherein we may see the wonderful! bountie and
incredible goodnesse of Nature in teaching us by
that sillie creature."

It is perhaps fair to mention that Pliny does 7tot
attempt to lower the insects in the estimation of his
readei's.

There have been many speculations concerning
the nature of the light ; some would call it an
electrical, and some a chemical phenomenon. "It
is probable," says Goldsmith, " that the little animal
is supplied with some electrical powers, so that by
rubbing the joints of its body against each other,
it thus supplies a stream of light." (" Animated
Nature," ed. 1782, viii. 141.)

Goldsmith, maybe, developed this hypothesis
from the fact that when the yellow matter of the
light-producing organs is rubbed between the
fingers, luminous streaks become apparent. Hum-
boldt thought that the luminosity ia living animals
depended on " nervous irritation," as it was ex-
cited by galvanism ; for when he brought zinc and
silver in contact with the ganglion of the fore-foot
of an expiring Elater noctiluciis, strong phos-
phorescence was emitted. ("Views of Nature,"
ed. Otte, p. 250.) Some physiologists do not
appear to be at all clear even as regards the portion
of the body whence the effulgence proceeds. For
instance. Dr. Carpenter, in one of his Manuals
(" Animal Physiology," § 399), declares the light
issues from the zmder surface of the three last
abdominal plates ; whereas in his " Zoology "
(§ G21) he states that it springs from the upper
part of the same rings. Milne-Edwards is of the
last opinion, whilst the Rev. J. G. Wood mentions
both surfaces. In all specimens I have examined,
the light appeared to be evolved from both, but
that which is visible on the superior surface may
be looked upon as a reflection or absorption of the
light from below, where the organs are situated ;
this is clear from the fact that after death the
lower part only remains of a dirty white colour.

Most writers agree that in the female oil. nodihica

it proceeds from the inferior superficies of the caudal,
penultimate, and antepenultimate segments, although
it does not shine equally from these.

In Kirby and Spence's " Introduction to Ento-
mology" it is set forth that in the anal segment the
light remained the longest, and was the first to re-
shine. Two minute specks of light are seen on this
segment.^aud in the remaining two the organs have
been succinctly described as " two large yellowish-
white luminous plates."

Dr. Carpenter, again, declares that the male " is
not luminous; "the French anatomists, Louis Figuier,
W. S. Dallas, and others, have the same notion. The
first says the male, " qui est pourvu d'elytres
noiratres et d'ailes, n'est pas phosphorique."
("ElemensdeZoologie,"p. 469.) But this is not
a fact : in the male the illumination is given out from
the ultimate segment ; the specks, however, are
smaller, and the phosphorescence differs in being of
a " greyish transparent hue."

Rye says it is " sometimes " luminous, and the
Rev. S. Haughton informs us that it ceases " after
pairing, whereas the females are most luminous
while engaged in laying eggs." ("Three Kingdoms
of Nature," p. 321.) The larvae, pupae, and eggs are
also faintly lurid. With regard to the anatomical
structure of the organs. Professor Rymer Jones's
explanation is that these particular organs in most
insects agree inconsisting"of an investing membrane
enclosing a parenchyma composed of tracheae and
nerves, surrounding groups of cells so densely filled
with white, spherical, minute granules, having an
oily aspect when viewed by transmitted light, that
no other constituent canbe seen in them." (" Animal
Kingdom," third edition, p. 363.) Hence " KoUiter
concludes that the " luminous organs are a nervous
apparatus, whose nearest analogues are to be sought
for in the electrical organs of certain fishes." Others
describe the granular matter as being of a yellowish
colour. Professor Marshall further informs us that
the " sacs are closed by horny lids, having peculiar
flat surfaces suited to the diffusion of the light."
(" Outlines of Physiology," vol. ii. p. 525.)

Most savans agree in supposing it to have a
chemical origin, being in fact an organic secretion,
which probably enters into chemical combination
with the oxygen of the atmosphere ; the effects of
which are a slow combustion. Dr. Packard quotes
Siebold, who thinks that the remission of the phos-
phorescence in fire-flies can be explained by this
theory, "and which coincides, not with the move-
ments of the heart, but with those of inspiration
and expiration," (" Guide to the Study of Insects,"
second edition, p. 421.) The substance, whatever
it is, does not appear to contain phosphorus in any
appreciable quantity, and the product of its com-
bustion has been found to be carbonic anhydride.

A glow-worm has been found still to retain its
luminosity when in vacuo, and whilst under water.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

87

III damp situations tlie light is observed to be more
vivid.

The fact that the light increases with individuals
as we approach the equator, would lead us to expect
a rise of temperature would intensify the luminosity
of our species : indeed it does, but extremes of heat
and cold extinguish it.

It shines more in tepid than in cold water ; agita.
tion of the fluid, electricity, and oxygen likewise
increase the luminosity. Such non-supporters of
combustion as hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen,
nitrous, sulphurous, and muriatic acid gases, and
carbonic anhydride extinguishe it.

Insomecasesit has actually been heard to detonate
when placed under hydrogen.

Prom some of these facts Spallanzaui concluded
that it is a compound of hydrogen and carburetted
hydrogen gas. It is right to mention that many of
these results have been denied ; one author afiirm-
ing that when placed in vacuo the light disappears,
although restoration takes place on renewed ex-
posure to the air ; and that carbonic anhydride,
previous to total extinction, excites it; another,
that electricity produces no effect on it.

If tiie matter were always extracted from the
animal, the results would most likely agree ; it is
not just to experiment on the living beetle, for tota^
extinction of the light may be the result of instinct
rather than that of the chemicals employed.

Paraday took great interest in the glow-worm.
When a youth he made some experiments upon
some found at Geneva. The luminous matter cut
out of one preserved its quality for three days. I
should think decomposition liad set in before this,
although it has been stated that the light ceases as
soon as that change takes place. If produced by
respiration, why should one sex be almost devoid of
it? How could it be suddenly extinguished? Why
should not the light be of the same intensity at all
hours of the night, and at all seasons of the year ?
And, surely, if it were a case of chemical combination
more or less heat would be evolved, which does not
appear to be the case. Leaving these questions
unanswered, we will proceed to speculations on the
■icse of the light.

Poets have theorized on this subject as well as
naturalists. Vincent Bourne has written some verses
on the glow-worm, in which he says :

" Perliaps indulgent Nature meant,
By such a lamp bestow'd,
To bid the trav'Ier, as he went.
Be careful where he trod."

This beetle is several times mentioned by Shakes-
peare. Hamlet's ghost declares

" The glow-worm shows the matin to be near.
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."

It would be interesting to know at what hour of
the night it really does cease to shine.
Shakespeare allows it to shine for a longer period

than does Gilbert White, who remarks that they
appear "to put out their lamps between eleven
and twelve." In the comedy of "A Midsummer
Night's Dream," Titania, addressing the fairies, in
allusion to the humble-bee, says : —

" And for night-tapers, crop their waxen thighs,
And Ught them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes."

The light, as we have shown, does not proceed
from the eyes, which are comparatively small in the
female, nor does the luminous portion possess more
caloric than the rest of the body, but, as Words-
worth says, it is quite a " harmless ray."

Some have imagined that as the glow-worm does
possess the power of extinguishing its flame, it is
to protect itself from nocturnal animals. But
Swainson has very properly objected that "the
owls and the goat-suckers are the only nocturnal
birds which feed after sunset ; but the former live
upon much larger insects .... while the latter
always seek their game at a much higher elevation
in the air than phosphorescent insects ever ascend
to," (" Habits and Instincts of Animals," p. 3GG.)

In Dr. Paley's " Natural Theology " (c. xix.) we
find the following : "Two points seem to be agreed
upon by naturalists concerning it ; first, that it is
phosphoric ; secondly, that its use is to attract the
male insect."

These two very points naturalists are now most
M«settled about. Its composition and its use
are not known. Gilbert White, in " Hero and
Leander," was evidently of Dr. Paley's contem-
poraries' opinion. Louis Piguier and Professor
Blanchard do not doubt in the least that this is the
use of the light. There are certainly objections to
it. It does not apply to many marine hermaphro-
dite animals. Why should they necessarily per-
petuate the species by night ? The insect has been
seen abroad during the day. The male would not
require a light, nor the pupae, larvae, and eggs.
Other insects find each other perfectly well in the
dark, and why should this species be bereft of the
instinct ?

On the other hand, the male beetles have been
observed to fly to a lantern, and an entomological
friend of mine has seen them flying around the
modern lamp-post. That moths and other beetles
frequently do the same thing is certainly a serious
objection.

In the male, again, the eyes are constructed for
forward and downward vision; the organs are
large, as if to adapt them for the absorption of
rays of light.

It cannot be meant to steer the animal through
the dark, as the light is behind. If we wished to
make use of a lantern by night, we should not hang
it beneath our coat-tails ! If it were a means of
defence, it would possess electrical or poisonous
properties : it does not appear to be gifted with
either.

88

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

It cannot be given to our British species as a
means of obtaining food by indirect means, as in
the imago state the insect sustains itself by tender
plants. Rye says the perfect insect devours
mollusca.

It may have been given by Nature merely as an
ornament, not influencing the economy of the
insect, but "for the same reason," says the Rev.
J. G. Wood, "that the butterfly's wing glows with
many-coloured plumage, and the rose is dowered
with softly-tinted petals and sweet perfume."
("Insects at Home," p. 135.)

I think this is the most philosophical way of
looking at it. Why must everything that Nature
grants have a use ?

Knapp, in his "Journal of a Naturalist," states
that glow-worms shine faintly after the 14th July.
This is not always the case, as I have observed
them shining quite brightly late in August ; nor
was it after a shower of rain, the previous days
having been remarkably hot and dry. A lady tells
me that at Hastings, the gardens of poor people,
during the mouths of July and August, sometimes
have many of these insects scattered about them.
At night, the moving dots of light must have a
very pretty effect. Some of our readers will pro-
bably think of the lines occurring in the " Merry
Wives of Windsor :"

" And twenty glow- worms shall our lanterns be.
To guide our measure round about the tree."

I^ottuig-hill.

E. Halse.

MICROSCOPY.

Mounting in Glycerine Jelly. — Permit me to
supplement the remarks of your correspondents on
the method of mounting in this medium, which I
have employed for some time for mosses. The great
difiiculty is in cementing the glass cover, as most
of the cements used have a great tendency to "run
in." The method I employ, and which I find to
answer perfectly, is that given at page 45 of that
excellent little work on " Microscopical Manipula-
tion," by Mr. W. T. Suffolk. This consists in using
what is known as electrical cement, and as there
may be many of your readers who do not possess
this useful work, I make free to append the method
of making and using it as there given. "Melt
together five parts of rosin, one part of bees-wax,
one part red ochre, and two parts of Canada
balsam; mix well, and pour-into pill-boxes of con-
venient size. This cement is most conveniently
used with a miniature solderiug-bit." I use a piece
of thick brass wire beaten out at one end to a flat
surface, and then filed off to the requisite or most
convenient width,— say, not more tiian one-eighth of
an inch. Tliis should be moderately heated in the
flame of a spirit-lamp, a portion of the cement

taken up by it, and laid along the edges of the
covering glass till it is cemented all round. It may
then be smoothed off by heating the " bit " to a
greater temperature, and running it round the edges
until a neat, smooth surface is obtained. As this
cement, however, is very brittle after it has set,
which it does [as soon as cold, a rim of gold-size
should be run round it, which will make it perfectly
adhesive, and render it quite safe from cracking.
Mr. Suffolk adds, at page 55, " This system of
compound cementing answers perfectly ; the elec-
trical cement having in the first instance no tendency
to run in, and the gold-size effectually keeping it
from separating from the glass." As, however, it
is rather unsightly on the glass slides, I always use
the paper covers afterwards. — Charles P. Hobkirk,
Huddersfield.

Sand-blast. — In the remarks on the cells formed
by this process, it is stated that they were adapted
for opaque objects or fluid mounting. The inventor
has called my attention to the fact that they answer
well for mounting with balsam, when a dry cell
is necessary. — F. K.

Extracting Lingual Ribbons.— -In reply to
" C. P. A.," I wish to mention that I have obtained
the palates of very small land mollusca, such as
Pupa marginata, by crushing shell and all between
two glass slides and examining the mass, extended
by pressure, with the microscope. The palate will
soon be detected by its reticulated appearance, and
the portion containing it parted from the rest.
Two or three trials will enable the lingual ribbon
to be cleared from the surrounding tissues. A
bristle is the safest tool to use. — George Guyon.

Remounting Injections. — Allow me to inform
your correspondent, W. Statham, that the best way
of remounting the injections he refers lo in your
number of last month, is to allow them to get
thoroughly dry and mount in balsam, after satu-
rating them in benzole. I have many beautiful
injections which I remounted in this way about
twenty years ago. — Thomas Brittain.

Cells for Microscopic Objects. — Many
objects, when mounted in balsam, require some kind
of cell to prevent undue pressure and the conse-
quent result ; viz. fracture. Paper and thin glass
have been used for such purposes, but there has
always been the difficulty of maintaining these in
position when the slide is heated sufliciently to
harden the balsam. In order to avoid this difiiculty,
I make the cells with a mixture of common whit-
ing, mixed with gum- water to about the consistence
of good cream : this will work freely with a camel-
hair pencil ; and cells from the thickness of writing-
paper to stout card can be as readily and expe-
ditiously made as with the ordinary asphalt varnish.
This mixture is also very useful for " ringing " the

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-GOS SIP.

8d

edges of the covers, particularly when soft balsam
has been used : it not only prevents the slipping of
the cover, but also the penetration of the asphalt,
or coloured varnish generally used for " ringing."
The space between the edge of the cover and slide
should be filled up with the mixture, and when dry,
the asphalt or varnish can be put on without risk of
running in. — F. K.

Remounting Objects. — Most of the old injected
preparations were mounted in Goodby's fluid. My
own injections have most of them been remounted,
either in glycerine and water, or distilled water with
a drop or two of carbolic acid added (about four
drops of the strongest solution of the acid to 1 oz.
of water).— i^'.r.

A Pkoblem in Mounting.— In preparing objects
for the microscope, I have occasionally met with
the following difficulty. A specimen, such as a
small insect or diatom, after haviug been duly per-
meated with turpentine or benzole, and all traces of
air thus expelled, is mounted in the usual manner
in Canada balsam, and apparently successfully ;
but when again examined, perhaps in an hour,
perhaps in a day afterwards, one is astonished to
find that an aggravating so-called air-bubble has
made its appearance in the interior of the specimen.
The mount, therefore, is worthless, for if heat is
applied in the vain hope of expelling the bubble
the blemish is only augmented. I purposely use
the expression astonished, for, after the air has once
been driven out, and the object satisfactorily
mounted in balsam, it is evidently impossible that
air can re-enter it. Whence, then, comes the
bubble ? This is the problem, and here is my
explanation. The turpentine, or benzole, has
entered and filled the specimen through a very
minute orifice or fissure, but when it is immersed in
the balsam, a much denser medium, that cannot do
so, whilst the thinner medium within the object,
having a natural affinity with the balsam, flows out
from the object to mix with it,— a process of exos-
mose without the corresponding endosmose. But
if the whole of the turpentine leaves the object, a
vacuum would be the result, which cannot for a
moment be supposed ; and so I fancy that a portion
of it, in the form of vapour, is left behind, and that
the obnoxious bubble is composed of vapour, and
not of air. I may be wrong, but I fancy I am
right in my solution of the difficulty ; for, occa-
sionally, having mounted an object, and placed it
immediately under the microscope, I have suddenly
seen a little black speck appear, which, as I have
watched it, gradually assumed the form of a con-
stantly-increasing bubble. In such a case as this,
it is generally useless to dismount the object, and,
after having again soaked it in turpentine, repeat
the process, as the same disappointment will pro-
bably recur. But the remedy is easy, and this is

the useful and practical part of my communication.
Having dismounted the specimen, if a diatom, it is
only necessary to place a fresh drop of turpentine
or benzole on it, and, having thus again expelled
the bubble, to add to this with the point of a pin
the minutest portion of fluid balsam, which thus
greatly diluted will enter the object, and remain in
it when immersed in the denser mass. For larger
objects, such as insects, which must be resoaked in
a watch-glass of turpentine, or other kind of bath,
a larger portion of balsam is requisite ; the prin-
ciple, however, is the same, that the soaking
medium should be only just sufficiently densified
to insure the result. — Fred. H. Laing, Lower Red-
lands.

ZOOLOGY.

The American Potato-bug. — Agriculturists
will be relieved by the letter from the Privy Council
respecting the potato-bug. The accounts which
have reached us from the United States of the
ravages of Doryphora decemlineata were alarming
in the extreme. It seems to have been generated
in Iowa in 1S61. Where it once gets a footing it
soon makes its mark; it speedily destroys the potato
crop. It is believed to effect all its transformations
in fifty days, so that a single pair would, if unmo-
lested, produce sixty millions of progeny in a single
season. Nobody, therefore, will be at all surprised
to learn that the insect is travelling east very fast,
and has already taken up its abode in Ohio and
Canada. But the accounts of its marvellous
fecundity do not make the little creature by any
means a more welcome visitor to our shores, and a
memorial has been sent to the Government praying
for a prohibition of the importation of American
potatoes. A reply to that memorial has just been
received, which is very reassuring. If the informa-
tion it contains may be depended upon, the farmers
may sow their seed and rest in peace. The Privy
Council for Trade states that American official
reports establish the fact that the larvae of this
destructive parasite are not deposited 171 the tubers
or conveyed by them, and that with the exercise of
an ordinary amount of care, the importation of the
American potato can be rendered as safe as the
transmission of our own. It is to be hoped that
this fact has been shown by observation to be un-
doubted. Otherwise, nothing but regret will be
caused by the statement that " My lords consider
there is no reason for interfering with the trade
between the two countries."

Exceptional Reproduction of certain Tine-
id^.— Dr. Duncan, in his "Transformations of
Insects," remarks that "many naturalists have ob-
served that the species of Solenobia, one of theTine-
idse, have a most exceptional power of reproduction.

90

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The maiden females of the genus lay eggs which can
be hatched so as to produce larvse, and a naturalist
may breed a species for years without seeing a
male Solenobia. This extraordinary fact is not
without parallel amongst the Lepidoptera. . . .
and it is common among the bees and the aphides."
Concerning this, Mr.W. V. Andrews, of New York,
makes the following remarks in the Canadian Ento-
mologist for January, 1S74 : — "To many persons there
will be, I hope, nothing new in the above statement,
but there are more to whom it will not only be new but
also incredible. In this connection I wish to state
an occurrence, which, although not quite conclusive
in its character, may, if known, recall to others
similar occurrences with the same species, and
they may have met with more definite results.
Two years ago, wishing to rear several broods of
Eacles imperialis, I placed a female of that species
in a favourable situation for attracting the male.
I had forgotten whether the male usually remained
in the company of the female for a long or a short
time, and watched pretty closely till 1 o'clock a. m.,
for the purpose of ascertaining that fact. I was
much chagrined to find that at none of my visits
was there any male visible. I was up betwixt 3 and
4 o'clock, a.m. — still no male ; and at broad day-
light the result was the same. The female had,
however, laid on the branches of the tree on which
she was confined about thirty eggs ; and although I
considered them worthless, 1 put them into a small
box without quite knowing why. I removed the female
the next night to a still more promising spot, hoping
that the eggs remaining in her might still be impreg-
nated. No trace, however, of a male was visible,
but, by the next morning, she had laid a quantity
of eggs, which I secured as before. Every one of
these eggs was fertile ; but now comes the curious
part of the matter. Every one of the larvse was
of the dark brown variety — not a green one amongst
them. Now what I would like to learn is this:
Does any one know of any case in which imperialis
has produced fertile eggs without male assistance,
and, if so, what colour were the larvse ? "

DoRYPHORA DECEMLiNEATA (uot decempunctatu,
as in the January number, 1874, of Science-Gossip),
or " Ten-lined Spearman," alias " Colorado Potato-
beetle," has reached the county of Lancaster,
within sixty-five miles of the eastern limit of the
state of Pennsylvania, and has become domiciliated,
on both sides, along the Pennsylvania Central Rail-
road. It has been brought here in advance of its
normal progress, which is about forty miles a
year, doubtless by transportation on the railroad.
In the autumn of 1871, the railways in the vicinity
of Denison, Ohio, were so numerously infested, that
their crushed bodies on the iron rails were a partial
hindrance to the progress of the cars. The last,
brood of the imago, like Chrisomelaus in general,

pass their hybernation, sometimes, in places con-
venient for that purpose above ground. There-
fore, after they left the fields in proximity to the
railroad, when their natural food was exhausted,
and cold weather was approaching, some of them
may have crept into the corners and crevices of the
" rolling stock" standing on the road ; and thus, in
the spring, were doubtless transported to remote
localities along the road, in advance of their natural
mode of travel. In the summer of 1872 they
occurred in only a single locality in this county, but
in 1873 they had spread to more than half a dozen,
at least ten miles apart. Handpicking and Paris
green are the only effective remedies so far known.
— S. S. R., Lancaster, Pa.

Menopoma Alleghaniensis. — The presence of
this animal in a tributary of the Delaware, according
to an illustrated paper in the December No., 1873>
of Science-Gossip, is news to me, and the manner
of its getting there does not seem clear to my mind,
although I have nothing to suggest more satisfactory.
It is becoming "unpleasantly" numerous in the
waters of the Susquehanna, where it is most com-
monly known by the name of " Hell-bender ;" but
it has several aliases, as "Mountain Alligator,"
"Mud Pappy," in addition to those mentioned in
the paper of Dr. Abbott. Pifty years ago, this
Batrachian was almost entirely unknown to the
waters of the Susquehanna or its tributaries, but was
common in the Ohio, Kentucky, Alleghany, Kanawa,
and other streams west of the Alleghany Mountains.
About forty years ago it was taken in the Sinnema-
honing, east of the AUeghanies, and from that period
to the present it has become more numerous, and
has been taken, in various ways, at points lower
down the streams, until, in the summer of 1873,
several specimens were captured near "York Furnace
Bridge," Lancaster county, Pa., which is only about
twenty-five miles from Chesapeake Bay. Several
specimens are in the museum of the Liunsean Society
in this city, the largest of which is two feet in
length. Its reputation for voracity makes it an
unwelcome guest at this time, in the midst of stock-
ing the Susquehanna and its tributaries with Black-
bass and trout. — S. S. B., Lancaster City, Pa.

Microscopic Examination of Air. — We have
received a copy of this extraordinary work, recently
published in Calcutta by Dr. Douglas Cunningham.
It is illustrated by numerous plates, detailing the
organic forms he has detected in his microscopical
examinations of air, by means of an instrument he
calls the aeroscope. Among other conclusions the
author arrives at, is, that distinct infusorial animal-
cules, their germs or ova, are almost entirely absent
from atmospheric dust. Bacteria are likewise rare,
whilst spores and vegetable cells are shown to be
constantly present in the atmosphere. The majority
of them are living, and capable of growth and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

91

development. No couuectiou can be traced between
the number of spores present in the air and the
occurrence of diarrhoea, dysentery, cholera, ague, &c.
It will be seen, from the scope of the book, that
its contents are of a most important character, as
bearing on the vexed question of spontaneous
generation.

BOTANY.

Seaside Shrubs. — As considerable interest is
now being taken on this subject, it may be as well
to draw attention to two shrubs coming under the
above denomination ; viz., the Atriplex halimus
and Atriplex portulacoides. The former is a tall
evergreen shrub, growing on sandy shores in the
south of France, five or more feet high. Loudon,
in the "Encyclopaedia of Plants," says: "In this
country [England] its silver-coloured foliage adds
to the variety of our shrubberies." At Marseilles,
in the public promenade above the town, an ele-
vated exposed spot, it forms very thick hedge-
fences, as also at one of the railway-stations, some
miles inland, on the Paris line. Some years back
I saw a plant of it in Mr. Spary's nursery at
Brighton, which I rather think came from a nursery
at Ventnor, in the Isle of Wight. There is every
reason to suppose it would bear the cutting winds
on the Brighton seashores. The Atriplex por-
tulacoides, or Sea Purslane, is a dwarf shrubby
British plant, growing on muddy, clayey, or poor
gravelly seashores in England and Ireland, two
or more feet high, with small yellowish flowers.
No doubt there are other shrubs peculiarly adapted
to our seacoasts, which it is hoped those who
have tested their fitness will bring to notice. Re-
ferring to the Hippophae rhanmoides, mentioned in
a former number of Science-Gossip, it may be
as well to state that an easy way to secure the two
sexes, in order to obtain the beautiful berries,
which are very abundant in bunches like the holly,
is by layers or cuttings of the roots of shrubs of
both sexes. They will grow in common soil. Mr.
Balchin has one in his nursery at Hove, but which
produces no berries, for the want of the two sexes.
—T. B. W., Brighton.

Sudden Appearances of Plants. — Macaulay,
speaking of the battle of Landen, says : " The
next summer the soil, fertilized by twenty thousand
corpses, broke forth into millions of poppies. The
traveller who, on the road from Saint Tron to
Tirlemont, saw that vast sheet of rich scarlet
spreading from Landen to Neerwinden, could
hardly help fancying that the figurative prediction
of the Hebrew prophet was literally accomplished,
that the earth was disclosing her blood, and re-
fusing to cover her slain." (Hist. Eag., vol. iv.
chap, i.) Is there any other instance of this on

record, and is anything known of the species?
These occurrences, like the appearing of Sisym-
briuni Iris on the ruins of burnt London, are very
curious.— <7b/«« E. Eobsoti.

The London Catalogue of Plants. — On look-
ing over the sixth edition of the " London Cata-
logue," and noting the census-figures which follow
the names of the species, I remarked some records
which seemed unaccountable. Hypericum humifusvm
is credited only with being at home in eight
counties. Is this a printer's error ? I have long
considered this as one of our commonest plants.
In Ireland it is so ; it occurs with us from north to
south, and most likely in all, or nearly all, our
thirty-two counties. Again, surely Littorella lacus-
tris is not so rare that it can be found in only nine
counties. In this island it is reported from most
of our districts, and I am sure it occurs in twice
nine Irish counties. And again, why is it that a
query follows the name of Cicuta virosa ? a well-
known and easily distinguished plant, and one of
the most unlikely to be introduced artificially.
Perhaps some correspondent may be able to throw
more light on these points. The prevalence of
plants such as the above should not, at the present
day, be at all obscure. — S. A. Stewart, Belfast.

Water in Plants.— At a recent meeting of the
Royal Irish Academy, Prof. M'Nab read a report
on some researches into the physiology of plants.
These experiments were, first, a series to determine
the amount of water transpired by leaves ; and,
secondly, the ascent of water in the stem. The
plants selected for both series of experiments were
the cherry-laurel, the common privet, and the
common elm. It would be impossible to condense
the large series of experiments made by the author.
One series, to deteraiine the amount of water
transpired by leaves, made on August 7, 1S73,
showed that, with very nearly the same exposure,
and under the same conditions, the cherry-laurel
lost, of water, 51"81 per cent, of the weight of the
branch employed ; the privet, 2678 ; theelm, 65"6i.
Very many experiments were made to determine
the actual rate at which fluid ascends in the stem.
In Sach's experiment on this subject he fixed the
rate to be 9 in. per hour. In Dr. M'Nab's first
experiments he obtained a rate of 24 in. per hour.
The present series of experiments were made on
the same species of plants mentioned above. In
the privet the rate was 6 in. per hour ; in the elm
the rate was 15'6 in. per hour. But in both plants
the leaves and stem soon became flaccid, and the
experiments were not completely satisfactory. In
the cherry-laurel the rate in one experiment was
24 in. [per hour; in a second, 13-2 in. per hour;
and in a third, 18'6in. per hour. The author also
recorded a large series of experiments : 1. As to
the rapidity of the ascent of fluid in stems when in

92

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

(a) sun, (b) diffused dajlight, and (c) darkness.
2. Rapidity of .ascent in branches cut off in the
dark. 3. Rapidity of ascent in branches with the
cortical tissue removed. 4. Rapidity of ascent in
stems deprived of their leaves. 5. Rapidity of
absorption of lithium when applied at apex of the
branch ; and 6. Rapidity of ascent when fluid was
taken up under pressure of mercury, intended to
represent the root-pressure of the plant. — This
report was also referred to Council for publication.

A Large Sundew.— Mrs. Mary Treat gives, in
the American Naturalist for December, ]873, a
remarkable contribution to our knowledge of the
sensitiveness of the leaves of the Sundew, her ex-
periments being chiefly made on the large American
species Dro&era filiformis, the leaves of which
capture and kill moths and butterflies two inches
across. Her observations are in accordance with
those already recorded on English species, that the
motion of the glands is excited only by organic
substances, or if for a very short time by mineral
substances, that the excitement passes off almost
immediately. The most astonishing of her obser-
vations is, however, that when living flies are
pinned at a distance of half an incli from the apex
of the leaf, the leaf actually bends towards the
insect until the glands reach it and suck its juices.

Snowdrop {Galanthus nivalis). — I have just
seen one of the most magnificent exhibitions of
this lovely plant it has ever been my lot to meet
with. The pretty village of Over Compton, on
the borders of Dorsetshire, has long been cele-
brated as the habitat of the Snowdrop, as it occurs
there in several localities. The first in which 1
observed it was in a bosky little dell overshadowed
by trees and not in its usual orchard station ; but
the grand show I would now describe is in an
orchard, and the greater part of its surface, but
more especially under the hedges, was carpeted
with the fresh green leaves, ornamented with the
pure white bells of the Snowdrop, and in greater
profusion than 1 liave ever before met with, even
were all its stations added together. If this plant
be really a native, I take it that Compton is just
the place it might have been established in, as its
sloping banks and well-wooded dingles would be
just such as might be supposed to favour the
growth of this early spring favourite, 1 have seen
it somewhere stated that the double garden snow-
drop on being left wild in the fields for a few years
becomes single-flowered, and, on the contrary, if
wild examples are transferred to the garden, they
in a little time become double ; but this is contrary
to our experience, as we have known double ex-
amples in the field and single ones in the garden
maintain their characters for as many as forty
years.— ^., Bradford Abbas, Feb. 24.

Veronica. Buxbaumii {Buxbaum's Speedwell). —
Our arable fields, thanks to the bright sunshine of
the last few days, are now quite gay with this
agrarian weed. Perhaps no interloper has spread
so rapidly in a short time as this ; it is now, indeed,
more constant in the field than was formerly the
V. agrestis, which it seems to be entirely supplant-
ing. Still, the latter holds its position in the
garden, where the former is seldom met with. — B.,
Bradford Abbas.

Buds on Roots.— If W. G. Piper will procure a
young specimen of Saxifraga granulata, and care-
fully examine the bulbs, he will, I think, notice that
they are collections of thick succulent pink scales,
or appressed leaves, more or less navicular in
shape, arranged around a common centre, and
bearing buds in the axils. I do not know how
Bentley defines a bulb, but, according to Balfour
(Class Book, pp. 68 — 70), it is " a short subterra-
nean axis, covered with fleshy scales containing
succulent cells ;" and further, " these scales are
equivalent to leaves, and produce buds at the part
where they join the axis." If we consider all the
requisites for a bulb to be here laid down, it would
appear that the'swellings of S. granulata are really
bulbs, of which the scales are not very closely
applied. Assuredly, we are quite as correct in
calling these bulbs as we are in terming the swelling
at the h&'&Qoi Ra)iuncul us bulbosus a conn (Lindley),
or " kind of bulb" (Bentham). Upon referring to
John's "Plowers of the Fields," I notice he gets
out of the difficulty by describing them as " downy
bulb-like tubers," though I cannot understand how
the term tuber is here applicable. I should very
much like to hear the opinions of other botanists
upon this subject, and especially to learn if bulbs
are really confined to Monocotyledons. — H. Mar-
shall Ward.

GEOLOGY.

The Origin of the Lake Basins of Cum-
berland.—J. Clifton Ward, F.G.S., has read a
paper on the above subject at the Geological Society.
After referring to the fact that the question of the
origin of lake-basins cannot be satisfactorily dis-
cussed unless the depth of the lakes and the heights
of the mountains are brought before the mind's eye in
their natural proportions, the author sketched out
the physical geography of Derwentwater, Basseu-
thwaite, Butterraere, Crummock, and Loweswater,
and pointed out what must have been their original
size and shape before they were filled up to the
extent they now are. These lakes were not moraine-
dammed, but true rock basins. The belief that the
present Lake district scenery was the result of the
sculpturing of atmospheric powers, such as we see

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

93

now in operation, varied by climatal chans^es and
changes in the height of the district above the sea,
was enforced, and the opinion given that the work
of elaboration of the Lake-country scenery has been
going on ever since Carboniferous or pre-Carboni-
ferous times. The lake-hollows represented almost
the last rock-shavings removed by Nature's tools.
What were the special tools producing these hol-
lows ? There being no evidence of their production
by marine action or by running water, since they do
not lie in synclmal troughs, nor along the lines of
iissuring and faulting, and cannot be supposed to
be special areas of depression, it remained to see
how far Professor Ramsay's theory accounted for
their origin. The course of the old Borrowdale
glacier was then fully traced out, and the power the
numerous tributary glaciers had of helping to urge
on the ice over the long extent of flat ground from
Seathwaite to the lower end of Bassenthwaite Lake,
commented upon. The same was done with regard
to the Buttermere and Ireton Glacier, and the
depths of the lakes, width and form of the valleys,
and thickness of the ice shown by numerous trans-
verse and longitudinal sections drawn to scale-
When all the evidence was considered— the fact of
the lake- hollows under examination being but long
shallow troughs, the thickness of the ice which
moved along the valleys in which the lakes now lie,
the agreement of the deepest parts of the lakes with
the points at which, from the confluence of several
ice-streams, and the narrowing of the valley, the
onward pressure of the ice must have been
greatest, — the conclusion was arrived at that Prof.
Ramsay's theory was fully supported by these cases,
and that the immediate cause of the present lake-
basins was the onward movement of the old glaciers,
ploughing up their beds to this slight depth. It was
pointed out that since thegeneral form of theButter-
mere and Crummock valley was that of a round-
bottomed basin, as seen in transverse section, the
effect of the ice was merely a slight deepening of
the basin or the formation of a smaller basin of
similar form at the bottom of the larger; whereas
in the case of the Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite
valley, which in transverse section was a wide flat-
bottomed pan, the action was to form long shallow
grooves at the bottom of the pan. This consider-
ation was thought to explain the fact of the greater
depth of Buttermere and Crummock than of
Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite, although the
size and thickness of the old glacier in the former
case was probably less than in the latter.

Geological Notes on a Journey from Algiers
TO THE Sahara.— George Maw, Esq., F.L.S.,
E.G.S., has just read a paper before the Geological
Society of London, on the above subject. The
author commences by describing the details ob-
served on his journey from Algiers to L'Aghouat, on

the borders of the Sahara. The distance traversed
was 285 miles, or about 210 miles in a straight line,
and in a direction nearly north and south. No erup-
tive rocks were observed. The oldest rock is a boss
of mica-schist and gneiss behind the city of Algiers ;
it forms a low anticlinal, with the N. and S. strike.
The pass througii the gorge of the Chiffa in the
Lesser Atlas shows hard slaty rocks dipping S. at a
high angle ; they are repeated as an anticlinal, on
the south side of the higher part of the Tell plateau,
and are probably ]\Iesozoic. In the plain separating
the Tell from the Hants Plateaux, and on the so uth
side of the latter, red and yellow sandstones form
anticlinals ; these rocks resemble the Bunter in
mineral characters, and are overlain by red marls
resembling the Keuper. In the northern escarpment
of the Hants Plateaux saliferous marls are exposed,
interstratifled between the sandstones and below the
red and grey marls. Crystals of salt and gypsum
are intimately mixed with the grey marls, and the
so-called " Rochers de Sel " are capped with great
blocks of rock tumbled about in confusion, the
position of which the author ascribes to the failure
of support due to the solution of the salt in the
underlying salt marls. A thin series of bright red
and green marls is seen to overlie the Red Sand-
stones in several places; and above this is an immense
series of dark grey marls, interstratifled with argil-
laceo-calcareous bands, forming a great synclinal of
the Hants Plateaux, and a contorted mass on the
Tell plateau. These are probably cretaceous. At
L'Aghouat they are overlain by fossiliferous beds,
probably of Miocene age. Other tertiary beds
observed are soft yellow calcareous freestones on
the flanks of the promontory of Algiers and of
the Lesser Atlas, and some red and grey marls and
ferruginous freestoue'capping the Tell plateau, the
former at a height of 100—900 feet, and the latter
of 2,500-4000 feet above the sea-level. The plain
of the Mitidja, between the Lesser Atlas and
Algiers, consists of grey loam with shingle-beds of
post-tertiary age. A similar loam covers the great
plain of the northern Sahara, and rises to a height
of 2,700 feet. Raised beaches occur on the coast
up to an elevation of GOO feet above the sea-level ;
and similar beaches are found inland, south of the
Tell plateau, at a height of 2,000 feet. The oldest
land in the line of section is the anticlinal of mica-
schist near Algiers, the strike of which is nearly
at right angles to that of the other rocks. The
upheaval of the Mesozoic rocks was contempo-
raneous with the first upheaval of the Lesser Atlas ;
it was followed by a long period of denudation, and
this by a subsidence of at least 3,000 feet in
Tertiary times, during which the Miocene deposits
were formed. The Tell plateau was thus elevated
at least 4,000 feet, and the district north of the
Lesser Atlas at least 1,000 feet, the north face of
those mountains probably marking a post-tertiary

M

HAflDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

line of fault of 3,000 feet. This operation was
followed by a long period of denudation, and this
by a post-tertiary depression, which the author
terms the " Sahara submergence," after which the
land was re-elevated at least 3,000 feet, but perhaps
considerably more. A gradual subsidence appears
to be still taking place.

NOTES AND aUERIES.

How TO Prevent Mould. — Will any reader of
Science-Gossip inform "P. J. S." how to prevent
mould in fern-cases ?

To Polish Shells.— Having noticed in your
magazine for February the question asked " Howto
polish shells," page 39, I send the following receipt
which I have seen used, and know answers well. —
When you have collected your shells, wash them in
clean water, and then prepare two-thirds water and
one-third muriatic acid. Having first placed your
shells in a glass or basin, then pour the water upon
the shells, afterwards the muriatic acid ; let them
remain in this a few minutes, then take them out
and wash them again in clean water, rub each shell
dry with a piece of flannel (fine, of course), finish
them over with gum-water, using a camel-hair pencil
for the purpose. — Elizabeth Edioards.

Ladybird. — The etymology of " lady-bird," a
name given to various species of Coccinella, although
pre-eminently to C. septemptmciata, can he easily
traced. That it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
Our Lady, is evident from a glance at the word
Marien-kafer, the German name for the insect. The
same beetles are popularly known as lady-cows, -flies,
or -bugs. Some view the affix bird as a corruption
of bng, but they seem to overlook the fact that our
glow-worm was once known as the gloic-bird, and
surely that beetle was never known as the glow-bug.
Mr. E. Adams, quoted by Wedgwood, starts a
dilferent conjecture: the name "was probably given
as seeming more appropriate to a flying creature
(than tliat of lady-cow) ; but bird may here be a
corruption of bode or bud, a name given to insects
of different kinds, as sham-bode, dung-beetle, wool-
lode, hairy caterpillar." He further says, " The
beetle, whose spotted back might scarlet-red surpass,"
was not termed a bug on account of its colour, but
obviously from its disagreeable odour. But what
could be more offensive to eye and ear than thus
placing the Virgin Mary side by side with the horror
of many a honest household. The name cow is not
readily traced ; we are forced to reason from analogy.
If Ocypiis oleiis is called a coach-horse in England,
and an ox in Iceland, and if Geotrupes stercorarius
is known in Poland as a "little cow," why should
not a lady-bird be a cow too ? I suppose to an
entomological ear the affix " fly " is positively ex-
cruciating, but here we must deal tenderly with our
forefathers, and remember that when they named
the creature biology was in its infancy, and every
insect that possessed organs of flight and was not
identical with the beetle or the butterfly, was as a
variety of fly. The lady-bird is the " Lady of
Planders," and has other aliases too " numerous to
mention." — E. liaise.

How TO Cut Slices or Coal. — Can any reader
inform me how to cut thin sections of coal ? In most
works on the preparation of microscopic objects, the

authors say the coal is macerated for about a week
in a solution of carbonate of potash, at the end of
which it is possible to cut tolerably thin slices with
a razor. I have numerous pieces in solutions as
above, and I find after being in even for months
they are as hard as when first put in. Is it requisite
to have any special kind of coal?— if so, what kind?
I shall be glad of any information upon the subject.
— /. Q., Croydon.

The Origin of Window Gardening.— 1 shall
be extremely obliged if any of your readers can
inform me anything as to the origin and early history
of this now popular, and I might add fashionable,
branch of floriculture, together with the names of
the earliest plants and flowers used for this pur-
pose.— B.

The Mysterious Mousetrap. — I see in last
month's Science-Gossip that Joseph J. Warry
wonders what removed the mousetrap and ate the
mouse. Very likely it would be its brethren. A
few weeks ago I bought a penny mousetrap and set
it at nigbt. In the morning I was surprised to find
a mouse partly pulled through the wires, with its
head eaten off. The trap had been removed a short
distance from the place I set it, through the other
mice trying to pull it through the wires, I suppose.
Most probably Joseph J. Warry's mouse ate all the
bait in the trap before it fell a victim to its brethren.
— Jno. Staincliffe.

Marine Aquarium. — I think " J. G." can obtain
sea-water from any dealer in aquarium requisites
for about sixpence a gallon. Mr. King, of Great
Portland-street, used to supply it, and 1 suppose
does so still, as well as seaweed, &c. I kept a small
aquarium for a long time near London some years
ago, but I obtained the sea-water during trips to the
seaside, using well-washed wine-bottles for its con-
veyance.— George Guyon, Ventnor, Isle of Wight.

Query about Microscopes. — Would any one
kindly oblige an inquirer with some information as
to the relative merits or advantages of the various
stages pertaining to Microscopes ; viz., the plain
sliding stage, the circular and rotating stage, the
mechanical stage ? Also as to " draw-tube," &c. I
have a small Prench instrument (triplet), reputed
to be 200 diameters, and am desirous of replacing it
by something more serviceable and satisfactory
(witb coarse and fiue adjustment, &c.) ; and as the
instruments of different opticians are so various in
manufacture and price, all the information I can
gather seems to tend to confusion, and I meet with
no friends and acquaintances who have any knowledge
of microscopes whatever. Is it absolutely necessary
to obtain the basis of a good instrument only by the
expense of the mechanical stage, and other compli-
cated apparatus? As to objectives, the author
of "Half Hours " recommends in a general way the
1-inch and U-inch. Would that apply to the second
or third rate quality, or to the higher and more
expensive glasses ? — Enquirer.

Reptiles and their Young.— I was very much
interested with Mr.Porskey's account of the alligator
taking her young ones in her mouth and conveying
tliem to a place of safety. Had we more of these
observers of nature,Ithinkwe might get the question
solved about our own reptile, the viper, as to whether
it does the same thing. I can easily understand a
five-feet alligator opening her capacious jaws and
the young taking refuge there; pvX there is no
comparison between a reptile of this size and a small

HARDW.ICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

95

tiling like the En;D:lish viper, of 20 inches in length ;
for a reptile of this length to receive say six or nine
young ones into its body, seems a stretch of the
imagination when we consider that the young ones
are generally about six inches long when born —
nearly one-third the length'of the parent. I hope
that the ensuing summer will settle this question.
If any observer should have the good fortune to see
the swallowing operation, secure the reptile, and
put it in a place of safety, and if the young should
ever emerge into the light of day, we should then
be satisfied as to the swallowing theory ; till then I
should say, well, it is not proven. — James Kirby.

Zoological Study.— Will you kindly insert the
following ? — A society is at present being formed for
the promotion of general Zoolosy, by means of
collection of types, a library, and general investi-
gations. The hearty co-operation of zoologists in
the furtherance of the object is earnestly desired.
A committee of management has been already
formed. Further particulars may be obtained upon
application to t he Secretary, A. J . R. Tunbridge, 2,
Ashurst-street, Battersea.

Marine Aquarium.— In reply to " J. G." I
think the best tiling he can do to obtain his supply
of "salt-water" is to manufacture it himself, unless
he can purchase any of Mr. Lloyd, of 20, Portland-
street, Regent's Park, who used to sell it. If "J.
G." is unable to obtain any, he had better make use
of the following receipt. — Table-salt 3.^ ounces,
Epsom-salt i ounce, chloride of potassium 40 grains
troy, chloride of magnesium 200 grains troy, to every
gallon of water. With regard to the maintenance
of the aquarium, if "J. G." will communicate with
me, I shall be glad to give him every information. —
/. T. T. Heed, Ryhope, S^mderland.

An Ornithological Opera.— The Manchester
Evening News, of February 17th, had the following
paragraph copied from the Swiss Times .•— " An
extraordinary public entertainment has been pro-
duced in Lima, Peru, by an Italian named Contarini,
who proposes to bring his exhibition to Europe.
He has taught and trained, by dint of great patience
and perseverance, an opera company, made up of
thirty parrots and paroquets, who perform two of
Bellini's operas, " Norma " and " Sonnambula," on
a miniature stage, with full chorus and recitative.
The director and manager accompanies the artists
on a piano harmonium, and the perfection with
which each bird sings his part, and the excellence
of the chorus, are prodigious. The debut of his
lyrico-ornithological company in "Norma" was
attended by the wealth and fashion of Lima. When
the paroquet that sang the contralto had finished
the allegro to the " Salutation to the Moon," such
was the enthusiasm, the shouting, and the applause
at hearing a bird sing the " Casta Diva," that the
bird company, affrighted, took flight, and sought
refuge among the side scenes. This interrupted
the performance for fully a quarter of an hour, and
Signor Contarini had to tranquillize the " artists "
by giving them bread soaked in wine, and henceforth
the expressions of approbation were moderated, in
order not to spoil the play. It appears that the
bird artists have now become accustomed to the
applause. The correctness and propriety with
which they give certain parts of the opera are
wonderful. The primo tenore possesses all the airs
and graces of the school of Mario, and the ladies of
Lima have named the prima donna, Patti." One
does occasionally see some remarkable performances

of animals, from fleas_ to elephants, but they pale
into insignificance beside the above account, which
must surely be either a hoax or a skit upon some
human operatic company. — Robert Holland.

Electricity. — A friend of mine has a pony
whose skin, when rubbed, emits electric light.
When the finger-ends are rubbed smartly along the
animal's back till they become hot, a stream of
light accompanies them. I should mention that
the pony is closely clipped. Darkness is of course
necessary for the experiment. Has such a circum-
stance been commonly noticed ?— George Roberts.

The Oldest Trees in Britain (p. 265, last vol.).
— The Yew-tree mentioned by Evelyn as growing in
the churchyard at Brabourne, Kent, has long since
ceased to exist. The Cowthorpe Oak near Wetherby,
Yorkshire, appears to have undergone very little
change during the last hundred years. I' "have a
beautiful water-colour drawing done by a lady from
her own sketch of the oak in the summer of 1872, and
on comparing it with the engraving in the " Silva."
edition A.D. 1776, there is very little perceptible
difference. At present the lower boughs are propped
up and the trunk is hollow -. this may have been the
case in 1776, although not shown in the engraving.
Dr. Hunter, in describing this veteran, says :
" When compared to this, all other trees are but
children of the forest." Humboldt, Mrs. Somer-
ville, and Professor Balfour (probably upon the
computation of Decandolle), estimate the age of the
Brabourne Yew-tree at 3,000 years, whilst the age
of a yew-tree at Heddon, Bucks, has been com-
puted at 3,200 years ; and that of the Cowthorpe
Oak at 1,600 years. It is a singular fact that many
of the largest yew-trees were formerly, or are at
present, growing in churchyards, as at' Brabourne,
Gresford, Crowhurst, Fountains Abbey, &c. &c.
Did the early Christians select the proximity of
such trees for their churches and burial-grounds ?
If the computation as to their great age can be
depended upon, such would appear to have been
the case ; and 1 shall be glad if any of your cor-
respondents will express an opinion upon this
subject. — Francis Brent.

The Liver (p. 238, last vol.).- Thereseems tobe
no inherent improbability in the proposed identifica-
tion of the Liver with the emblem of St. John. It is,
however, an error to suppose, with your correspondent,
that the eagle was ever imagined to have been tiae
actual companion of the apostle, either during his
"mission [exile] in ths isle of Patmos," or at any
other period of his career. Indeed, the evangelistic
symbols {vid. Ezekiel i. 5, seq.) were not always
at first assigned in precisely the same manner by
early writers ; and the eagle was finally attributed
to St. John, because, as St. Jerome tells us,
"Joannes quasi aquila ad superna volat, etad ipsum
Patrem pervenit, dicens : In priucipio erat Verbum,
et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum."
But the subject is, perhaps, rather out of place in
the pages of Science-Gossip.— 72. A. Pryor.

Disappearance or Colias Edusa.— " J. R. S. C."
observes in the March number of Science-Gossip,
that he did not observe a specimen of C. Edusa
during the autumn of 1873 near Gravesend. I was
staying then in the Isle of Wight, where it is usually
plentiful, but only saw two specimens, one of which
I captured, though I spent several days in searching
the clover-fields. This shows that the scarcity of
C. Edusa last autumn was not confined to North
Kent.— C. G. Thomas.

96

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GO S SIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

W. Ranson.— Matlock is the best place in Derbyshire for
obtaining minerals, but not half of those sold there as commg:
from the neighbourhood, are of local origin.

T. c. We received your post card inquiring as to the cost

of the advertisement of the Butterfly raffle, but we must
decline its insertion, as rafdes are illegal !

W. S. O. — The season for the study of micro-fungi is just
coming on, the first plants producing them being the Lesser
Celandine {Ranunculus ficarin). You cannot do better than
at once to procure Cooke's " Microscopical Fungi," published
by Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly.

L. We only admit " Exchanges " gratis in the column

devoted to them. A collection for nale would be charged as
an advertisement.

J. B. S.— Your specimen is Hepatica triloba, a European,
though not a British plant.

H. C. R. — The " Geological Magazine," edited by H.
Woodward, F.R.S., is the only serial of the kind, published
monthly at Is. 6d., by Triibner & Co.

J. P. G.— Can you send us another specimen of the beetle ?
The last was lost in transit.

M. J. G. — The empty eggs on the specimen of Sertularia
are those of a species of Natica. The Ectocarpus is encrusted
with diatoms, and the specimen from a cave at Tenby, and
near Beaumaris, is Cellularia avicularia.

E. M.— Waterhouse's Cabinet List of British Coleoptera
may be obtained from the author, British Museum. There
are also lists (not for labelling) by Crotch, Rye, & Sharp.—
G. C. B.

T. J. WooDROW.— You had best apply to the Hon. Secre-
tary of the Geologists' Association, University College,
Gower-street, for information respecting their meetings and
excursions. That will be the society best calculated to meet
your wishes.

R. O. S. — Your specimens are: — I. Dipkasia pinaster; 2.
Sertularia cuprefsina ; 3. Curallina officinalis. The latter is
a sea-weed, not a zoophyte.

Preserving Animals, &c.— D. H. (Antrim) wishes to
know the best way of obtaining the skeletons of animals
otherwise than by placing the bodies near ants' nests. J. W.
also asks for the title of some work giving instructions for
collecting Crustacea. Perhaps some of our readers will
kindly answer their queries. The latter had best refer to
SciENCE-Gossip for June, 1872, article on " Collecting and
Preserving " Lepidoptera, for entomological information.
The vol. for I872 further contains a lengthy article on " Collect-
ing and Preserving " Coleoptera.

Mi-;s H.— Some of 'your plants we can make out; others
are too obscure and badly preserved. There are no numbers
affixed to the specimens. The following are those named :—
Vinca minnr, Diplotaxis murialin, Valerianella olitoria,
Festucauni glumis , Lagurusovertus, Ornithiygalum umhellatum,
Sherardia arvensis, in addition to common species of Galium,
Lychnif, &c. Get Mrs. Lankester's " Wild Flowers worth
Notice," London : Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly.

W. D. E. — The insects which committed such ravages on
your currant bushes are Nematus ventricosus (Gooseberry
Saw-flv) common on both gooseberry and currant trees. —
G. C. B.

Errata.— In Mr. J. O. Harper's article on the Hemiptera
last month, several important errors require correction. On
page 53, for Trissiem read TrimercB, for "trestle," read
" bristle," and " stout " for " stone."

E. Evans. — We are always happy to act as a mode of com-
munication between subscribers. No charge is made for
" Exchanges " if they do not exceed three lines in length.

EXCHANGES.

Wkll-mounted Slides of Stellate Scales from rare ferns ;
viz., Nothnrhlitna Itevis and Goniiiphlebiuin sepultum ; also
same in situ, for really good Slides. — J. Carpenter, Turners
Hill, Cheshunt.

Sections of Spinal Chord of Cat, Brain of Mouse mounted
in balsam, for (mounted, named, and selected) Diatomacese. —
G. G., 11, North-terrace, Alexander-square, London, S.W.

Eggs of Kestrel, Sparrow-hawk, Curlew, Golden Plover,
Dipper, common Tern, and others, for equally good Eggs.
Unaccepted offers not answered. — Jas. Ingleby, Eavestone,
Ripon.

Good specimens of Glyphomitrium Daviesii and Seligeria
pusilla, for other scarce British Mosses.— Saml. A. Stewart,
North-street, Belfast.

British Land, Fresh-water, and Marine Shells, for Foreign
Land or Fresh-water. — G. bherriff Tje, 68, Villa-road, Hands ■
worth, Stafifordshire.

SLiDESof Arborescent Silver for Microscopic Slides. — F. G.
Mellish, 32, Knowle-road, Brixton, London, S.W.

Imacos of Cynthia and Cecropia for Pupse of Machaon and
Carpini.—S. H. Gaskell, Edgeley, Stockport.

Spiracle from larva of Geofrupes stercoraria and a dozen
named species of Spiculse, including Gorgnnin, Alcyoniam,
Muncea, &c., well-mounted.— Send list to J. Wilson, Owen's
College, Manchester.

Skin of Thornback Skate (showing spines, &c.), with many
other duplicates. — Send list to C. C. Underwood, 25, Glouces-
ter place, Portman-square, London, W.

For Slide of Cholestrine, send stamped box and well-
mounted Slide of Urinary Deposits to Wm. Sargant, jun.,
Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent.

Good dried and pressed Specimens of Sea-weeds wanted
for ornamental purposes. — J. Song, Regent-road, Salford.

LON. Cat., .3a, 31, 68, 122, 201, 259, 261, 287, 1325,1338,
1371, Ac, for 3b, II vars., 12, 13, 36, 47.50vars., 56, 59,60,61,
62, 228*, 237b, 147, 148, 161, 676, &c.— John E. Robson, Sea-
view, Hartlepool.

British Mosses wanted for Flowering Plants. — W. H.
Pearson, Blue-Boar-court, Manchester.

Wanted, the Monthly Microscopical Journal (excepting
vols. 1 and 2), for which 24 slides of choicely mounted Micro-
scopic Objects will be given for each well-bound volume, or
18 slides for each 6 clean numbers. — Captain John Perry, 42,
Spellow-lane, Liverpool.

Wanted, Scibnce-Gossip (previous to 1870); 15 Micro-
scopic Slides for good bound volumes, or 12 slides for each
12 numbers. Foreign gatherings of DiatomaceEe and Korami-
nifera will be given instead of slides if preferred. — Captain J.
Perry, 42, Spellow-lane, Liverpool.

Sections of Kidney injected two colours ; ditto from
human foetus, and other anatomical preparations, for other
really good slides, not diatoms or fungi. Lists exchanged. —
W. W. Jones, 14, Lancaster- street, Lancaster-gate, Hyde-
park.

Transverse section of .4cer campestris, and skeleton leaf
of Populus tremula, well mounted, for other good slides.
Entomological subjects preferred. — E. Lovett, Holly Mount,
Croydon.

Shells wanted: Helix revelata, H. fusca, Achatina acicula,
£. glutinosics, L. innolutus. Offered : Clausilia dubia, H. sericea,
Planorhis imliricatus, Planorbis lisnis, and others. Exchange
of Desiderata invited. — W. F. Sutton, Gosforth-grove, near
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

L. dispar, ulmata, brumata, hyperanthus, &c., for other
species of Lepidoptera. Please send list of Duplicates. —
C. G. Thomas, The Grove, Highgate, N.

Wanted : H. obnoluta, 3. lamellatn, H. concinna, H. fusca-
Offered: II. pulchella, H. rupestris. Pupa secitle, C. lubricut
&.C. — Mis.s F. M. Hele, Ellensleer, Redland- grove, Bristol.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

"A Sketch of the Geology of Suffolk." By J. E. Taylor.
F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. Reprinted from White's Gazetteer of the
County.

"On the Modified Turkish Vapour Bath." By J. L.
Milton. London : Hardwicke.

" Smithsonian Report" for 1871.

"Mental Physiology." By Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. London;
H. King& Co.

" Journal of Applied Science." March.

" The Lens." December.

" On Instinct and Reason." By John Colquhoun.

" Grevillea." March.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." March.

" Supplement to the Fauna and Flora of Eastbourne." By
F. C. S. Roper.

" Silver & Co. 's Handbook for Australia and New Zealand."

" Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Terri-
tories." No. 1.

Communications Received up to the 12th ult. — T. B. W.
—A. T.— F. H. L — W. F. S -J. L — E. E.— J. E. R.— E. L.—
C. M.— J. L. H.— H. C. C— A. M.— F. W. B.— F. K.— G H. K.
— T. B. W.-Dr. C. C.A.— S.J. McI.— C. M.— T.W.— F. M. H.

— F. W. H.-II. M. W.— C. G. T.— C. L.— W. H. W.— R. H. M.

— T. S — M. L.— R. B.— W. F. S.— J. H.— G. W. B.— W. C-
E. E. E.— C. C. U.— S. H. G.— W. S. jun.— E. L.— J. L. H.—
W. F. D.— W. W. J.— W. H. P.-G. G.- J. W.— E. H.— S. A. S.
—J. B.— .1. G.-F. W. B.— Geo. G.— J. I.— J. C— C. W.-
H. E. W.— T. W.— R. T.— E. E.— J. F. R — R. H.-S. S. R.—
T. B.— G. S. T.— E. G. S.— C. C. U.— D. R.— H. A. M.—
J. H. G.-M. A.— A. G. R. T.— J. K.— J. F. F. R.-S. H. G.—
C. P. H.— W. H.— H. G.— O. A.— S. A. N.— W. E. T.— T. T —
R. G. S.— A. T.— M. O.-T, B.— L. D. C— J. P.— S. C. S.—
R. H.— &c.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

97

ON THE MODE OF LOOKING AT PICTUEES.

By Sir FREDERICK MONTAGU-POLLOCK, Bam.

E the old saying be
true that "there
is nothing new
under the sun,"
I am probably
mistaken in sup-
posing that the
fact, to which I
am about to draw
attention, has not been pub-
lished before. I need only
say that I have not met with
any mention of it, and I think
it worth noticing.

Most people understand
the principle of the stereo-
scope. They know that when
Nature is looked at with both
eyes, each eye sees a some-
what different view,— though
from the way in which these
views are combined, the difference is not generally
recognized,— and that, in order to give the true
appearance of objects, receding and standing apart
from each other (as viewed with both eyes), two
different pictures must be taken, which must like-
wise be combined by means of lenses, as is done
in the stereoscope ; and when this is properly man-
aged, the pictures no longer look like flat surfaces,
but like the things themselves they are intended to
represent, the objects all appearing to be in actual,
bond fide relief.

That a great deal more is seen with two eyes
than with one (when looking at things around) can
easily be shown by simply holding up a finger at
a span's length from the face, and at the same time
looking at a small object behind it (such as a
thimble) at a distance of a yard or two off. It will
be found impossible to make the finger hide the
thimble with both eyes open; but if one eye be
No. 113.

shut, the finger can at once be made to conceal
the thimble from the sight.

Again, although a single painting— such as that
of a statue in a niche in the wall— may be so well
executed that, at a considerable distance, it is
almost impossible to decide whether it is a statue
or only the representation of one ; and people have
been deceived by such mural paintings when look-
ing, for instance, from the boxes of a theatre to the
walls opposite, under the influence of artificial light ;
still, there are no means at present known, or likelj
to be known, by which a single drawing (of land-
scape-scenery, shipping, buildings, and so forth,
whatever its truthfulness or excellence) can be
made to represent at a distance, say of from two
to five feet, what would be seen with both eyes
when looking upon the shipping, buildings, &c.,
or what would be seen when two stereoscopic
pictures are combined : though a single drawing
can, and often does, represent very exactly the
scene presented to one eye by Nature. And the
conclusion to be drawn from this is that the proper
mode of looking at a drawing or picture, is to do so
with one eye only ; for, if looked at with both eyes,
you can immediately detect that it is a mere picture
on a flat surface (because, as before stated, there
must then be two pictures to make a perfect de-
ception), whereas if only one eye is used, and the
head is held perfectly still, then (as the mind is
precisely under the same circumstances as it would
be if the real objects themselves were being looked
at with one eye, and having no means of detecting
any difference between the representation and the
real things represented) at a short distance a draw-
ing, after a few seconds, does almost seem to be
stereoscopic, or, no longer appears as a mere
flat surface : and this is the point to which I wish
to draw attention. The same reasoning will of
course apply to photographs and good engravings,
especially to those of buildings (such as the Forum

F

93

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

at Rome), cloisters, and interiors, and views of bare
trees.

Whether the foregoing explanation accounts for
the phenomenon or not, I think there can be no
doubt that the pleasure of quietly and thoughtfully-
studying good drawings will be very greatly en-
hanced by the method I am advocating, viz., that of
looking at them with one eye only.

I may mention to those who wish to try the
experiment for themselves with the best effect, that
Mr. Newman, of Soho-square, has a simple, useful,
"handy " little instrument for the purpose, which
greatly facilitates the process.

Thurlozc, Clapham, S.W.

ON PRESERVING AND MOUNTING
FRESH-WATER ALG^.

TTAVING had considerable experience in this
-^-^ matter, and having mounted many hundreds
of slides which have retained much of their original
beauty for many years, I may perhaps be able to
give a useful hint or two to your correspondent
interested in the subject. I have specimens
mounted as early as 1851 which, though they have
lost their green colour, still show the natural dis-
position of the endochrome, retain their external
form unimpaired, and show no signs of intrusion of
the varnish. The bulk of my slides are five or six
years old, and the percentage of those which show
any signs of "running in," or of evaporation of the
liquid, is very trifling.

Such as are defective are nearly all my earlier
attempts, and I firmly believe that slides mounted
according to the plan I now adopt are practically
permanent. Let us divide the subject into four
heads ; viz., forming the cells, fluid to be used,
introduction of the plant, and sealing the cells.
My plan is as follows : —

1st. The Cell.— 'For most Algse, including the
Desmidiaceae, a ring of thin gold size, spun by means
of a " tm-ntable."

This should not be narrow— J inch is not too
much ; it should be either left to harden for several
months or baked for a few hours in a slow oven.

Tor thicker Algee, as Batrachosperms, Brapar-
naUiai, &c., I prefer block-tin rings, which should
be cemented to the glass by marine glue.

2ud. The Fluid. — I have tried nostrums innumer-
able without finding any which preserves the colour
of these plants, and have come to the conclusion
that we must be content if we can keep the endo-
chrome in its natural form, sacrificing its colour.

Now if the medium be denser than the water
with which the plant is filled, the endochrome is
forced into the middle of the cell in a shapeless
mass. It is essential to avoid this condition ; and

after many 'experiments, I have adopted distilled
water, slightly camphorated to prevent growth of
fungi in the cell. If this medium be used, the
endochrome usually retains its natural form and
position.

3rd. Introduction oftlie Object. — Dr. Wood's mode
of scouring the plants is inapplicable to any species
with which I am acquainted. My own experience
is that the specimen should be raised from the
water in which it grows with as little disturbance
as possible, placed at once in a drop of the medium
in the cell, and, if necessary, slightly arranged by
means of two needles. (The Desmidiacese require
special treatment to obtain them quite clean, which
I shall be happy to describe in another paper if
desired, but which I pass for the present.)

4th. Sealing the Cell. — The most important part
of the business.

The great secret of securing permanency is this :
— Immediately before placing the object in the cell,
put the latter on the turntable, and moisten the
ring with the least possible dressing of fresh gold-
size ; touch the edge of the glass cover for about
one-sixteenth of an inch inwards with the same
substance.

Then lower the cover on to the cell. If there be
a superfluity of the liquid, the fresh gold-size resists
its escape, and the cover floats, as it were, on the
medium. A gentle pressure then forces out the
surplus liquid, and the last portions may be drawn
out by a fragment of blotting-paper. No air enters,
yet the medium is sucked out by the paper until
the pressure of the air holds the cover on so tightly
that it can scarcely be pushed on one side. The
two surfaces of gold-size amalgamate without a
particle of water remaining between or, in other
words, neither cover nor cell is ever wetted.

Finally, two or three successive coats of gold-
size are run round the edge of the cover at intervals
of a few days, and the whole is secure. For a finish,
I use a coating of copal-varnish, in which vermil-
ion has been rubbed up with a palette knife ; others
prefer a similar preparation of white lead. It is
most important to keep the slides flat in the cabinet ;
I believe the most carefully prepared specimen will
give way in time if kept vertically.'

While writing on this subject, may I remark that
it is a great pity that this most interesting but
complicated tribe of plants does not find some
bibliographer who has time and ability to collate
and reconcile the almost innumerable descriptions of
genera and species now scattered through the works
and papers of Kiitzing, Braun, Thurct, Hassal, and
a score of other observers at home and abroad, at
present forming a heterogeneous mass of data,
accessible to few, intelligible to fewer still, and
requiring the patient labour of a master -hand
during many years to reduce them to a harmonious
scientific whole. A. W. Wills.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

99

THE POTATO DISEASE.

WHAT with the difficulty still remaining as to
the curability of the inicro-fungi attack
commonly called the Potato Disease, and the
threatened invasion of the Colorado Beetle, our

botanist, Mr. Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S., once
more ventilating the question in the last number of
the Popular Science Review, in an article headed
" Side Lights on the Potato Disease," from which
we have borrowed the illustrative woodcut. Mr.
Smith thinks that an undue importance has been

Fig. 68. Potato-disease fungus {Peronnspora infestans) in situ, x 225 diam. {Camera lucida). A, B, thickness of
lamina of leaf ; C, C, Stomata, or breathing-pores ; D, D, Hairs on leaf; E, E, Threads of Peronospora infestans ;
F, F, Spores; G, G, Privileged spores, containing ciliated zoospores ; which are seen free at H, H.

much-prized tuber seems to be in no small danger
of extinction. Any information respecting the
former is of value to the scientific agriculturist,
and we are therefore pleased to see a well-known

given to the non-discovery of oospores in the potato
fungus (Peronospora infestans). Little is known, at
present, of the winter life of this pest, and the
writer thinks that the earth from which diseased

F 2

100

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

potatoes Lave beeu taken should be carefully ex-
amined. It is not improbable that the winter life
of the fungus may reside in extremely fine com-
pacted threads under ground, and near the decaying
tubers. Mr. Smith thinks De Bary's statement
that there is nothing in one potato plant more than
in another to predispose it to the attack of the
disease, is " not proven." The forthcoming great
trial of potatoes by the Royal Agricultural Society
will probably set this important question at rest.

Mr. Worthington Smith has himself recently
made some experiments on samples of different
potatoes, in all stages of disease. These he re-
counts in the above article, and we would strongly
recommend its perusal to all interested in the ques-
tion. One of the varieties that appears to have best
stood the experiments exposing it to the attacks of
the disease, is that recently brought out under the
name of the "Red-skin Flour-ball." "Paterson's
Victoria" seems to have been another good sort,
whilst "Flukes" suffered badly, as also did the
kinds known as "Peach," "King of Earlies,"
"Early Rose," " Kentish Early," and others. The
potato-skins resist decomposition to the last. The
author (like Prof. Dyer, in an article in Science
Gossip for 1872) is of opinion that the most reason-
able suggestion for exterminating the potato disease
is to cultivate those early varieties which mature
their fruit before the fungus makes its attack, and
so to evade the disease. And yet it was a positively
late potato, and not an early one, which, according
to Mr. Smith's experiments, best warded off the
murrain. So surrounded with difficulty is this most
important inquiry.

OLD YEW-TREES AND THEIR PRE-
SUMED AGE.

TN remarking upon "Ancient Trees" in Science-
-■- Gossip (No. Ill, page 50), E. Edwards has
given some particulars as to remarkable yew-trees,
which are very interesting, but the alleged age of
some of the trees mentioned seems mere supposition,
founded on no accurate or proximate principle.
What data is there for saying positively that the
Gresford Yew was planted in the year 426 ? If we
compare its dimensions with the Fortingal Yew
(56^ feet in girth, and in a ruined state), which is
the only British yew that can be certainly referred
to Roman times, it is scarcely conceivable that the
Gresford Yew can be dated so far back. The yew
represented in the wood-cut that illustrates the
article referred to, is assuredly not the " Eortingal
Yew," as stated, for it differs materially from the
representation in Strutt's " Sylva," and copied on
a smaller scale in Loudon's "Arboretum Britanui-
cum." There are many yews in existence as large
in dimensions as the Gresford (Denbighsliire) Yew,

and some of greater magnitude. If the Tisbury
Yew, in Dorsetshire (the notice of which E.
Edwards has taken from Lauder's edition of " Gil-
pin's Forest Scenery "), is " now standing," it must
be the largest in England ; and the Crowhurst Yew,
on the borders of Kent and Surrey, is almost the
only one still floui-ishing, which, though hollow, can
compete with it for'magnitude. Of this latter tree,
it is stated in the Illustrated News, which a few
years ago gave a view of it, that "the interior
is hollow, and has been fitted up with a table in
the centre, and benches around for as many as
sixteen persons." One of the most massive and
yet hollow yews that I know exists in Marden
Churchyard, Herefordshire, having a seat around
its interior where I have reclined, and ten or twelve
persons might have joined me, sitting rather close.
This yew measures 30 feet in girth. In Mamhilad
Churchyard, Monmouthshire, there are thirteen
fine yews, the largest of which measures 29 feet
4 inches in girth, and has within its hollow a sepa-
rate bole, which has originated by a process of
natural inarching, and, as Loudon intimates, may
exist a thousand or more years hence, when the
original tree of which it was a scion has yielded to
decay or the tempest's rage.

Professor de CandoUe, from an examination of
various yews, young and old, arrived at the con-
clusion that in very old trees the average of their
increase in size would be a line annually, so that
the lines of their diameter would correspond with
their age. On this principle, the Tisbury Yew would
be more than 1,780 years old, and the Fortingal
Yew, reckoning its girth at 57 feet, would have
existed 2,736 years, and as Dr. Neill, who visited
the tree in 1833, suggests, " was a flourishing tree
at the commencement of the Christian era." Pro-
fessor Henslow and other botanists have, however,
thought that the measure of De Candolle made yews
too old, and they would certainly increase in size
more rapidly for the first three hundred years, as I
have observed in some felled yews that came under
my own notice ; and probably an average increase
of an eighth of an inch in old yews would be a nearer
approximation to the truth. On this latter com-
putation, the Gresford Yew would be about 900
years old, which is far more probable than its " sup-
, posed " planting in a.d. 426, founded on no reliable
record. It is stated of the yew-trees now existing
near the ruins of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, that
the Cistercian monks, who came there in a.d. 1132,
sheltered under these trees, which is 742 years ago ;
so that, as these yews must have been of consider-
able size for the monks to have found shelter under
them, on the lowest computation, allowing the
trees to have been only of the growth of 250 years
in 1132, they would now be without any doubt
nearly 1,000 years old.

But there are many instances in which scarcely

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

101

an approximate idea can be arrived at in the case
of very aged yews that have become resuscitated,
and thus have a claim to be considered as the
emblem of immortality, -which seems a probable
cause of their being planted in churchyards ; for
strange to say, terrible as were English archers
with the " bended yew," they mostly used foreign
wood for their bow-staves, as being better seasone'd,
and more fitted for military purposes, though Eng-
lish-grown yew did for the chase and home practice,
every boy being taught to bend the bow, as Bishop
Latimer tells us in his quaint sermons preached
before King Edward VI. By the process of re-
suscitation that I am about to describe, a yew-tree
may exist an indefinite time,"and there is no limit to
its existence if not blown down.

Fig-. eg. Resuscitated Yew at Little Malvern.

When an aged yew gets into a state of decay,
and is unable to keep up life by an exogenous
growth of regular annual rings, layers of alburnum
descend from above to the ground; new wood is
formed, and the old bole is thus actually enveloped
and preserved, while from this new wood branches
and foliage arise, and the old tree assumes a juve-
nescent aspect, except where the old decaying bole
is visible before it is quite entombed by its living
offspring. I send a sketch of an old yew standing
in the Priory churchyard at Little Malvern, in
which this resuscitating process is well shown, the
new wood (which is dark) having almost covered
the original bole, while the old, dead, and broken
branches stand out in a curious and remarkable

manner. I have noticed a similar appearance in
many other ancient churchyard yews, and some
attempt at this renovation may be observed in
almost every very old yew, although of no extra-
ordinary size.

Although in the majority of cases where yews
appear in churchyards, they were doubtless planted
at or after the consecration of the sacred edifices,
yet it may well be thought that occasionally the
site for a church was chosen on account of the
proximity of a fine yew at the spot. Especially
might this ibe the case where several yews were
located, as is actually recorded with regard to the
Fountains Abbey yews in Yorkshire. Leland also
mentions no less than thirty-nine yews as standing
in his time (in the reign of Henry VIII.) in the
cemetery of Strata Florida Abbey, in Cardiganshire,
and probably there before the abbey was founded.
Of these, however, only three now remain, and one of
these when I saw it formed a vegetable ruin divided
into two parts, denoting extreme old age. The
Welsh seem to have been particularly devoted to
the yew, for many of their churchyards are gloomy
with numbers of them, for they were not merely
contented^ with the single "sable yew" that charac-
terizes an English country churchyard. The pre-
sence of the yew with its perpetual verdure and
enduring vitality symbolized the everlasting life
that was to succeed the mortality of the grave,
and yew-branches were also used in processions of
the Church and at funerals. This sufficiently ac.
counts for the partiality of the Welsh to the yew
{yw, ever-living), for they were never celebrated
for the use of the bow in their intestine and pre-
datory warfare. Edwin Lees, F.L.S.

THE HISTORY OF OUR COMMON
CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

iBy H. G. Glasspoole.
No. T. The Potato {continued).

NO plant of any description has exercised so
great an influence on the moral, physical, and
political conditions of our country as the potato.

In 1811 and 1812, the high price of corn and all
breadstuffs caused the cultivation of this root to be
greatly extended ; and indeed some of the political
economists of thoso days went so far as to advise
the Legislature to recommend that every farmer
should grow one acre of potatoes for every hundred
acres occupied ; but although this was not carried
out, the cultivation continued rapidly to increase
in all parts of the United Kingdom. That extra-
ordinary man Mr. Cobbett stigmatized the potato
as "the accursed root," and foretold the dis
appointment that would in course of time arise
from its too extensive cultivation ; and his pre-

102

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

dictions liave been verified at least with, respect to
Ireland ; for it is not too mucli to assert that much
of the dreadful misery that has taken place in that
country may be traced to a too implicit reliance on
this root as an article of daily sustenance, without
any admixture of other food.

In Morton's " Cyclopsedia of Agriculture," from
which I have already quoted, it is stated that the
large crops raised for a long time without neces-
sitating continuous exertion, induced a low con-
dition of the physical powers, which ultimately
produced lazy and indolent habits, exceedingly
prejudicial to the development of the intellectual
powers of the mind. While the English and
Scotch labourers were benefited by the introduction
of potatoes into their dietary, and slowly improving
in worldly comforts by this new addition to their
daily food, the Irish peasant was making no pro-
gress,'in consequence of his entire dependence on
one particular kind of food.

In 1815 a very large extent of land in Ireland
was under the potato crop, and in the summer of
that year appeared that destructive disease the
potato murrain, which destroyed the food of the
lower classes, and threw them for support upon
the charity of the Government and the liberality of
the benevolent.

The ffightfal misery that ensued cannot be de-
scribed ; numbers died of starvation, and thousands
who had the means and Energy left the plague-
stricken country, and emigrated to other lands.

The great distress and the high price of provisions
caused the Government of the day to relax, and
ultimately abolish, the duty on the importation of
corn and other commodities, introducing Sir Robert
Peel's principles of free trade, which no doubt has
been a great blessing to the country at large, and in
all probability was the means of preserving this
kingdom from those revolutionary convulsions and
political changes whicli swept over the continent of
Europe in 1848 : the people of this country having
" a cheap loaf," remained contented and loyally
attached to their Queen and constitution.

Humboldt, in his essay on the kingdom of New
Spain, gives the history of the potato. He believes
that the 'plant, under the name of Maglia, is the
original stock of this useful vegetable, and that it
grows in Chili, in its native soil. He supposes
that it was transported by the Indians to Peru,
Quito, New Granada, and the whole of the Cordil-
leras. Mr. Darwin states, in his " Natural History of
the South Sea," 1810, that he saw the wild potato
growing abundantly on the beach of the Chonas
Islands. In the middle of January they were in
flower, but the tubers were small and few in number,
especially in plants which grew in the shade and had
the most luxuriant foliage. "Nevertheless, I found
one," says he, " which was of an oval form, with a
diameter of two inches in length. The raw tubers

had precisely the smell of the common potato of
England, but when cooked they shrank, and became
watery and insipid. They had not a bitter taste, as,
according to Molina, is the case with the Chilian
kind, and could be eaten with safety. Some plants
measured from the ground to the tips of the upper
leaf not less than four feet. There can be no doubt,
from the state in which they grow, and being known
to various Indian tribes scattered over the country,
that they are indigenous and not imported plants."
Mr. Lambert, in the tenth volume of Braude's
Journal, and in the appendix to his splendid work
on the genus Piuus, has collected many valuable
facts which prove that the potato is found wild in
several parts of America, and among others in Chili
and Peru.

There are a great many varieties of the potato.
Lawson, in the " Synopsis of the Vegetable Products
of Scotland," describes 175 kinds, and they are still
on the increase: it is stated at the present time there
are between two or three hundred sorts. There are
but few plants which exhibit such an endless diver-
sity of character : locality and soil make aU the
difference. Some kinds that are esteemed to be of
the best quality in one place, are almost unfit to eat
in another.

The potato is, like all other plants, subject to
disease. The two principal are the curl and the
potato murrain, already alluded to. The curl first
made its appearance in 1761, in Lancashire, where
potatoes had been fij-st introduced into British field-
culture, and had been propagated without any
change of seed. The name is very expressive of
the appearance of the plant when under its influence;
the leaves curl and crumple up, the stem becomes
puny and stinted, and the tubers produced are
small, and when planted propagate the disease to
the future crop. The experimeuts of T. Dickson
show that the disease arises from the vegetable
powers of the sets planted having been exhausted
by over-ripening, so that sets from the waxy end of
the potato produce healthy plants, whereas those
from the best-ripened ends did not vegetate at all,
or produced curled plants. It is the opinion of
Mr. Crichton that the curl may often be occasioned
by the way potatoes intended for seed are treated.
"1 have observed," says he, " wheneverthe seedstock
is carefully pitted and not exposed to the air in the
spring, the crop has seldom any curl; but where the
seed stock is put into barns and outhouses for
months together, such a crop seldom escapes turning
out in a great measure curled. If but a few curl
the first year, and they are planted again, it is more
than probable half of them will curl the next
season." The years 1815 and 1810 will be rendered
perpetually memorable as the time at which the
potato murrain first appeared in a serious form in
this country. This fungus {Peronospora infedans) ,
according to MM. Gay and Acosta, has been known

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

103

for ages in Chili and Bogota as attacking the potato,
and in 1S44 it proved most disastrous on the
American continent, which has given rise to the
idea that it was introduced here from the New
World.

The cause and nature of the disease have baffled
the ingenuity of the philosopher and the farmer.
Many remedies have been tried, not only in this
country, but on the Continent and in America. It
appears that we are not much more acquainted with
its nature than we were when it first showed itself.
In Germany some of the scientific men have given
much time and study to the subject ; one of these.
Dr. J. Speir Schneider, has published his experiments
and conclusions in the BotaiiiscJie Zeitung, 20th
February, 1857. He considered that the Perono-
spora attacked the leaves in the first instance,
the ripe spores of which are cast off or carried by
the rain into the soil when it is loose, and thus
brought into contact with the tubers, where they
germinate, under favourable circumstances, and
finally induce decay. In dry seasons the disease is
not so prevalent.

Other scientific men hold different views on the
subject ; they say that the disease is not caused by
this fungus, but that it attends and accelerates it.
Further researches into the nature of fungi may in
time throw additional light upon this important
matter.

The cultivation of the potato in Europe appears
not to have attained to any extent till during the
last century. It was introduced into Sweden in
1720; but, notwithstandingthe exertions of Linnaeus,
it did not come into general cultivation till aided by
royal edict in 1764;. It reached Switzerland in 1730,
and met with more favour ; the inhabitants in a few
years growing not only sufiicient potatoes for their
common consumption, but drying and grinding them
into flour for bread. Its cultivation in Prussia
began about 1738, and in Tuscany in 1767. In
France its progress was very slow, and it was not
until the middle of the last century that Parmentier
urged its cultivation with so much success, that it
was contemplated to give his name to the plant, and
in 1793 the great scarcity of food did still more to
extend its cultivation. The potato has been intro-
duced into India. Bishop Heber, in his interesting
journal, mentions several places, even in his time,
where this root was successfully grown. At first
this vegetable was very unpopular among the natives,
but now they speak of it as being one of the best
gifts they have ever received from their European
masters. The Mussulmans in particular hold it in
much esteem : they find it very useful as an absorbent
in their greasy messes.

Humboldt states that the cultivation of the potato
in the Andes extends to an elevation of 9,800 to
13,000 feet, higher than wheat. In the North of
Europe it reaches beyond the limits of barley, and

consequently all cereals : an early kind has been in-
troduced into Ireland, where barley will not grow.
In tropical regions, according to Johnstone's Physi-
cal Atlas, an elevation of 4,000 feet appears to be
necessary for the growth of this root. It is suc-
cessfully cultivated in Australia and New Zealand,
which produces no excellent farinaceous root at all,
not even the yam.

The 1 itato contains large quantities of water,— 75
per cent., and less flesh-forming properties than any
other plant cultivated for human nourishment, and
therefore ought never to form the staple article of
diet ; still there is no doubt that the use of this root
is highly beneficial when taken with animal food.
It is certain that scurvy, which was formerly com-
mon, has almost disappeared since the potato
entered largely into the food of the population. Dr.
Baly, the physician to the Millbank Penitentiary
showed some time ago that scurvy was very pre!
valent in prisons from the dietaries of which
potatoes were excluded, and did not exist where
they were used. (See Journal of the Statistical
Society, vol. x.)

Besides its value as a culinary vegetable, the potato
is important in other respects. It contains a large
proportion of starch, which is easily extracted, and
there are extensive manufactories in this country
and on the Continent for preparing this article. This
starch has a beautiful white crystalline appearance.
It is insoluble in cold, but soluble in boiling water.
It is often sold for arrowroot, but can readily be
detected ; for arrowroot is not so white, and its grains
are smaller; it is also free from that peculiar odour
due to potato-starch. But it is said to be quite as
wholesome and well adapted for invalids and persons
of delicate constitutions as arrowroot. From this
starch a substance is obtained, called dextrine, re-
sembling gum in its appearance and properties. It is
largely used in the arts for various purposes : the
adhesive portion of our postage-stamps is composed
of this substance. A size made from potatoes has
a great advantage over common size for the purpose
of whitewashing, as it does not smell, and it has a
more durable whiteness. Yeast may also be made
from these roots fit for the use of either the baker
or brewer. In Russia a syrup or treacle, called
potato-sugar, is extracted from the tubers, which is
extensively used : it is very sweet, and resembles the
sugar of grapes, but cannot be crystallized.

In France a spirit not unlike brandy is manufac-
tured by distillation from the tubers, and a kind of
oil is also obtained, which burns without smoke, but
requires to be heated in order to continue burning.
It has also been stated that the potato will clean
linen as well as soap. A notice of thirty-one dif-
ferent uses to which this root can be applied will be
found in the first volume of the Gardener's Maga -
zine, page 436. The flour, or farina, of this plant
is much used by the baker in bread-making, and

104

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-G O S SIP.

when mixed with that of wheat it renders the bread
more light, palatable, and digestible ; for this pur-
pose it is largely manufactured in the neighbour-
hood of Paris, where the excellence of the bread is
very remarkable.

This valuable plant belongs to the family SolaneiB
of Jussien ; almost all the species of which are of a
poisonous and narcotic nature; as, Belladonna
(Deadly Nightshade), Solanum (Common Night-
shade), Henbane, &c.

The potato is a perennial herbaceous plant, rising
with a slender branching stem to the height of two
or three feet. The leaves are of a roundish form,
of unequal size, and of a dark green colour, the petals
white or of a purplish tinge ; the fruit a large berry
with a greenish pulp, which eventually changes
to black, containing numerous small seeds in the
centre. In its native state the plant is small, and the
tubers seldom exceed the size of a walnut or common
chestnut. They are also of a moist, waxy consist-
ence and have a slightly bitterish taste. The tubers
are not the real root of the plant, but true under-
ground stems, and contain germinating points or
eyes, from which young shoots spring forth. The
number of acres in the United Kingdom under
potato-cultivation, according to the Agricultural
returns for 1871, was 027,691, and in 1872, 56i,088 ;
thus showing a large decrease in the cultivation.
This is accounted for by the bad weather in some
parts of the country at the'planting season, and in
others by a scarcity of labour at the time. A
statement in the Times, 17th Feb., 1873, shows that
the importation of this root is on the increase, for
in January of that year the value of imported pota-
toes amounted to £282,303, and January, 1S7J, to
£15,987 ; and the same month the previous year the
declared value was only £222 !

KEMARKS ON THE HABITS OF THE
SMOOTH NEWT.

BEING desirous of witnessing something of the
habits of the smooth newt, on April 14tli,
1873, 1 procured three of them, one male and two
females. These I placed in a glass containing two
gallons of water, in the middle of which I stood a
small flower-pot, with water-plants, as Anacharis
alsinastrum, water ranunculus, with frogbit and
duckweed, which floated on the surface. This glass
stood in my window, so that I had them continually
before me while attending to my usual occupation.
The study of these newts afforded me much plea-
sure. I now pen a few things among many that I
have witnessed of their habits. To prevent their
escaping by climbing up the side of the glass (which
they are apt to do) I had a wire frame about four
inches in height, covered with a muslin net, on the

top of the glass. I kept the newts well supplied
with water-fleas {Daphiia pulex), on which they
feed readily. I think the want of food is the cause
of their attempting to escape, in consequence of
which many persons who wish to keep them often
lose them. During the breeding time they are
very active, and sometimes manifest a sort of in-
quisitiveness which has much amused me, for if I
placed my pocket lens to the side of the glass with
the view of making some observation, they would
all three of them come and place their heads within
the circle of my glass, as much as to say, " What

Fig. 70.

Natural
Size of
egg of

Newt.

Fig. "1. Leaves of Callitriche vernu
enfolding eggs of Newt.

are you looking for ?" This they have repeatedly
done during the time of laying their eggs. The
laying of the egg is a curious operation to witness,
as each egg is laid singly, and is folded in a leaf.
They are laid at intervals during a month or five
weeks, so that I have had them of all ages and
sizes, from those just escaping from the egg to a
month old. When about to lay an egg, the newt
would examine several leaves before she found one
to suit her purpose. In some cases the leaf has
been too stout to bend with ease, such as the leaf
of the frogbit, and after vainly trying to fold it, she
would leave off. Sometimes she would fold two of the
narrow leaves of A. alsinastrum or Callitriche verna
round the egg, but the leaf of the water-ranunculus,
being large and easy to fold, was most used. The
manner of operation was this : after examining

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

103

several leaves, and making choice of a suitable one,
the vroulcl place that part of her body from whence
the egg is about to protrude onto the leaf, and with
her hind legs fold the leaf over and around that
part iu such a manner as to enable her to receive
the egg into the leaf between the two legs,'the body
being bent forward for that purpose. As soon as
the egg is laid, the body is slightly raised from it, to
give room for the further and complete folding of

egg was enclosed in a single leaf of ^. alsinastrum,
and was close to the side of the glass when laid
which gave me a good opportunity for observation
The eggs are oval in shape and transparent, so that
the nucleus of the egg is plainly seen. At first
this is quite round, and of a brown colour. In
three days it becomes somewhat lengthened. The
egg was laid April 17tl), 1873, and the nucleus con-
tinued to grow up to April 25th, when the tadpole

Fig. 74. Earliest stape of free Tadpole, a, claspers; J, fore-leg partly
developed; c, circulation of blood ; J, transparent fin ; e, branchiate
tufts.

Fig. 72. Without the dotted lines, shows the growth of
Tadpole eight days after the laying of the egg. The arrows
indicate the current motion caused by cilia. The dotted
lines show the increased growth at the eleventh day.

it in the leaf, and is then held in that position for
about three minutes to insure its firm adhesion to
the leaf. The female newt then swims away. 1
have sometimes seen her return to the recently-laid
egg ; and, as if not satisfied thai all was as it should
be, she would take the folded leaf, together with
the enclosed egg into her mouth, pressing it gently
to make sure it was in a proper and safe position.
This I have seen the newt do to several eggs, the

Fig. "3. Further development of Tadpole, seventeen days
after the laying of the eg^.

laying of which I witnessed. When first I saw her
take the egg and leaf into lier mouth, I appre-
hended she was going to destroy it ; but not so.
One of the eggs that I saw laid and then adjusted
with her mouth, I took out from the glass, together
with a portion of the plant on which it was fixed,
and placed it in a glass cell 1| inch in diameter and
i inch in depth, so that at any time it could be
placed under the microscope. In this way I was
enabled to make the following observations. TTiis

within presented the appearance as shown in
fig. 72. There was no appearance of the branchiaj
at that time, but a constant circulation of the fl.uid
contained in the egg was perceptible passing in the
direction indicated by the arrows (fig. 72) over that
part of the tadpole where the branchiae were forming.
This circular current is caused by vibratile cilia,
and though too fine to be perceived, the action is
very plainly seen, and as the branchiae were deve-
loped, so the circular motion became more rapid.
On April 25th the tadpole in the egg presented the
appearance as shown in fig. 72 without the dotted
lines. The dotted lines are intended to show the
gradual and progressive growth of both the branchiae
and the tail, day by day, up to April 28th. It thus
gradually increased in size and changed its form
until May 4th, when it presented the form as in
fig. 73, having at this period a far greater likeness
to a fish than a reptile. » ,.

Fig. 75. Tadpole ot Newt three months old.

The circulation of the blood through the branchial
tufts while still in the egg was plainly seen, forming
a pleasing sight ; the tadpole, at intervals, changed
its position in the egg by sudden jerks. On
May 10th it burst the egg, and escaped into the
water (fig. 74). At this early stage the circulation
of the blood in the branchial tufts and other parts
of the body is plainly seen, forming a beautiful
spectacle, and can be witnessed by placing one of
the tadpoles in a small shallow cell with just suffi-
cient water to allow it to float. The action of the
cilia is then very visible, causing a rapid current of
water to pass over the branchial tufts in a direction

106

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

from the head downwards, by which the blood, as
it is seen coursing its way from the heart iu one
direction and returning by another, is purified and
aerated. The blood is seen to move by a sort of
regular pulsation which can be counted. The
sooner after leaving the egg for observing this the
better, as the tadpole is very transparent during the
first two days. Before the fore-legs become visible,
there are two appendages in form of minute claspers,
one on each side of the mouth (6g. 7i, a), by which.
in absence of legs, they are enabled to hold on to
any substance, and even in those minute claspers
may be seen single corpuscles of blood passing and
repassing. These appendages disappear in four or
five days, when the rudiments of the fore-legs are
seen, at first as two small lumps, which soon
lengthen out, and three of the toes only appear at
first (fig. 74, b), but gradually the foot is developed
into its proper form. In this also the circulation
of the blood is seen, as also in every part of the
body, but especially in the branchiae, aud along the
whole length of the under part of the body, from
the tail up to the head (fig. 74, c). In about three
weeks the hind-legs make their appearance, and
vrhen three months old the young are about an
inch in length, forming a beautiful creature iu the
aquarium (fig. 75), the brauchiaj at this time having
the appearance of beautiful feathered plumes. As
the young newts swim through the water they wave
gracefully to and fro with the motion. The blood
being red imparts colour to the branchiae, and to all
the more transparent parts of the body. In course
of time the branchial tufts, and the large trans-
parent fin (fig. 74!,(/) gradually diminish, and entirely
disappear, the skin becomes thicker and darker in
colour, and finally the reptile is perfected. During
the breeding season the smooth newts are very
prettily marked ; the male, in particular, is beau-
tifully spotted and coloured ; but as soon as this is
over they cast their skins, and assume a dirty brown
colour. They cast their skins several times during
a month. Sometimes it is thrown ofi^ in patches,
at other times it comes off whole. 1 have one ciuite
perfect which I saw cast off, and have preserved it
between two pieces of glass. The skin begins to
come off at the head, and is gradually pushed down
towards the tail, and several times I have seen the
newt take hold of the tail end of the skin with her
mouth, draw it off, and by a few gulps swallow the
whole. The young newt casts its skin before it is
half grown. At the end of the breeding season,
that sort of curiosity, or apparent inquisitiveuess
manifested by them, as before stated, leaves them ;
they no longer take notice of any one prying with a
glass into their domain. The bright colours and
spots disappear, together with the wavy crest from
the back of the male. Both sexes change in their
appearance, so that during the winter months I
have been unable to distinguish the one from the

other ; but now, in March, 1874, they have again
assumed the bright colours, and the male has again
his beautiful crest tinged with orange-colour. They
also again manifest their usual inquisitiveuess by
coming to the side of the aquarium whenever a
pocket lens is applied to examine anything in the
water. James Fullagae.

Canterbury.

ON MANIPULATION WITH CANADA
BALSAM.

THE object of the present paper is not to revive
the recent controversy respecting the best
method of preparing and mounting microscopic
objects in Canada balsam, but to aid students who,
like myself, have been debarred from mounting as
much as they would otherwise do, from the difficulty
of avoiding air-bubbles in slides prepared with hard
balsam. I shall first detail the method of mounting
I have found by practice to be the best, aud then I
intend to state my objections to other methods of
preparation.

The object must first be dried : this is necessary,
and the neglect of it frequently causes the " cloudi-
ness " often found iu slides that have been mounted
quickly. Objects may be dried in two ways : viz.,
by immersion in alcohol, or by exposure to a current
of dry air : the first is by far the best. (See Davies
on Mounting, second edition, p. 9.) After the object
has been dried, it must be placed in benzole ; this
liquid is better for this purpose than spirits of tur-
pentine, for reasons hereafter mentioned. The
object of this soaking is to remove the air-bubbles
which are almost always to be found in objects.
This process will take from one or two days to
several weeks, according to the size, &c., of the
object. After the air-bubbles are thoroughly ex-
pelled, the object must either be touched with
blotting-paper or drained for a short time upon a
slide. Drop as much balsam diluted with benzole
as may be required upon the centre of a clean slide,
and then take the object with a damped camel-hair
pencil, or a pair of forceps, and place it (the object)
in the centre of the balsam. Then place the cover
on, taking care to have it in the centre, aud place
the slide on a thick plate of iron or brass, aud apply
heat, by means of a spirit lamp, to the under surface
of the plate. Care must be taken not to agitate
balsam, as this would injure the object. Put the
slide in a warm place to harden. Many advocate
baking in a slow oven, but this is often injurious
to objects, especially delicate ones. After the
balsam is hardened, the slide must be cleaned (if
care is taken iu the mounting, very little superfluous
balsam will be deposited on the slide), and a ring of
varnish put round the edge of the cover by means
of a turntable. The best mixture of this is the
balsam in which the object has been mounted, as of

HARDWICKE'S S CIENCE-GOSS|P.

107

course this does not ruu in : if desired, a rim of black
varnish, composed of lamp-black and gold-size, can
be added. Dr. Carpenter recommends the above
as a good fiuishiug varnish, as it is not brittle and
dries very quickly. (See Davies.) Very thin objects,
which are best floated on the slide, can be mounted
by adding a drop or two of benzole to the object on
the slide, and after a minute or two the benzole may
be drained off, and the slide finished by adding
balsam as above. I may add that balsam prepared
with benzole maybe obtained from Mr. Charles
Baker, of 214, High Holbora, London.

I will now state my objections to other modes of
preparation.

1. Fluids to remove air-hubbles.

Turpentine.— This is not so penetrating or cleanly
as benzole, nor does it combine so readily with
balsam.

Oil of Cloves.— This is so slow in 'evaporating
that the balsam surrounding objects is soft for a
long time after mounting.

2. Various sorts of balsam.

Pure Canada balsam. — The heat required to harden
pure balsam is injurious to preparations of insects,
cnticles, &c. This mode is also very troublesome,
and does not permit of objects being arranged when
on the slide, or of others being floated thereon.

Balsam diluted with chloroform is very often
cloudy ; the benzole used for expelling air-bubbles
does not mingle with this preparation of balsam as
readily as with balsam dissolved in benzole.

Advantages of balsam dissolved in benzole. — "If a
few air-bubbles are left iu the specimens when this
balsam is used, they will disappear by next morning."
(Davies on Mounting, p. 90.) " It may be safely
aSirmed that benzole will be found iit all cases a
more valuable solvent of Canada balsam than chloro.
form." {lbid.%.)

I dare say that mounting with hard balsam may
be easy in the hands of a skilled microscopist like
F. Kitton, Esq. ; but in the hands of amateurs it is
rarely successful.

There are some objects that are too bulky to be
mounted in the ordinary way : these require a cell.
In mounting such, proceed as follows : — Eill a glass
cell with benzole, and place the object, freed from
air-bubbles, in the cell ; then pour balsam diluted
with benzole into the cell, at the same time inclining
it. The benzole will give way to the balsam ;
when full of balsam, place the cover on the cell.
It can easily be done so neatly as to require no
cleaning.

I should advise all students who are bothered
with hard balsam to give my plan a trial, and I
believe it will not disappoint them.

Caverswall. Wm. Sargant, Jun.

ON THE STRUCTURE OP THE MOUTHS
OP INSECTS.

(^Continued from p. 232, No. 108.)

By B. T. Lowne.

•

THE mouths of butterflies and moths exhibit
a still more considerable deviation from the
typical form, already described, and the nature of this
modification is far more difiicult to trace, owing to
the very remarkable developmental history which
these creatures exhibit.

In the earlier embryonic stages of the grub or
caterpillar, the development of the mouth-organs
is precisely similar to that of the limbs and mouth-
organs of Crustacea and other insects. Little buds
or protuberances appear on each side of the ventral
furrow (see fig. 116, p. 230, No. 106), but these
remain rudimentary in the grub, and only show
traces of segmentation, although they are generally
terminated by a well-developed claw— such are the
maxilla) (fig. 76 and 77, m-i' mx") of the cossus cater-
pillar, and of all lepidopterous larvae, as well as the
antennae and feet. A single pair, the mandibles
(figs. 76 and 76), md, become functionally perfect for
the purposes of nutrition, and take the same form
as the mandibles of the beetles and other gnawing
insects.

The other parts of the mouth of the lepido-
pterous larvai are equally simple, and consist of a
narrow shield-like labrum or upper lip, and a lower
lip, the labium, prolonged into a long, narrow tube,
divided into two behind, but single at its orifice,
which serves the purpose of a spinneret. Through
this the liquid silk is forced, to become hardened
at its apex, into the thread with which they weave
their cocoons. The hooks on the maxillae and on
the thoracic legs serve to guide the silk after it is
formed.

It will be remembered that there is a material
difference between the silken threads of spiders
and of lepidopterous larvae ; for, although both are
formed by the exposure of a viscid fluid to the action
of the air, under which it immediately solidifies,
the silk fluid in the spider is forced through four
abdominal papillae, pierced by several thousand
extremely minute openings, so that a compound
thread, consisting of as many strands, is formed.
That of the caterpillar, however, is extruded
through a single tubular opening, and thus forms
a simple thread. We see here the same end at-
tained by very different anatomical structures ; one
exceedingly complex, the other comparatively simple,
yet the thread of the silk-moth is even more perfect
than that of the spider, although it is formed by
the less complex apparatus. In the former case,
the silk fluid has become wonderfully adapted to
fulfil its purpose, so that a comparatively great
strand hardens instantaneously, whilst in the

108

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

latter its solidification is brought about with great
rapidity, by a most elaborate spiuoing apparatus.
Although the mouth of the larva of the Goat-
moth (Cossus liguiperda) serves well enough as au
example of the gnawing and silk-spinning mouths
of the lepidopterous larvae, which are all very
similar, that of the adult Goat-moth will by no
means serve as an example of the mouth of the
adult lepidoptera, for, from the entrance of the
larva into its !pupa state, the moutli retrogrades
in its development, and undergoes atrophy or wast-
ing in this insect, so that the adult moth is without
the means of feeding.

Fie:. '6. The mouth of a Lepidopterous larva seen frnm below,
o, antennse ; oc, ocelli; lb, labmm ; m^', wix", md, niaxillfe
and mandiblts.

In most lepidoptera, however, a very perfect
suctorial mouth is developed, so different from that
of the larva, or indeed from that of any other class of
insects, that its parts are only recognized with dif-
ficulty and uncertainty, except when their develop-
ment is most carefully watched ; and all their rela-
tions with each other are exa.ntiined with great
patience.

Fig. 77. Longitudinal section of the mouth of a lepidopterous
larva, seen from the middle line, m, cavity of the mouth ;
Ir, labrum.

The most conspicuous and remarkable organs in
the lepidopterous mouth are two spirally curved multi-
segmented half-tubes (fig. 7S, s). These are called
the antlia or pumps ; they lie side by side, and form
together a complete tube ; they are exceedingly mov-
able, all their joints being endowed with muscles like
those of ihe tongue of a bee. Tlie antlia are not
covered by hairs like thebce's tongue, but have scales
atintervals, especially towards the terminal extremity,

where these frequently form a kind of brush. The
sides of the mouth are furnished with a pair of
great jointed organs called palpi (fig. 78, jo), covered
with a profusion of beautiful scales. At the base
of these organs a pair of small curved plates lie, one
on either side of the antlia. The labrum is rudi-
mentary, and the labium is apparently wanting,
or represented only by the anterior edge of the floor
of the mouth.

The interpretation of the nature of these organs
is a matter of no little difficult}', and the reason of
this is, as has been already stated, that the changes
in the pupa stage of the life of a lepidopterous
insect are exceedingly remarkable. Certain pouches
built of very delicate cells, exist in the head of the
larva : these were first fully described by Landois,
in Germany, and are now well known in this country
as Imaginal discs. The origin of these structures is
most difficult to trace ; but they are derived, I think
there can be little doubt, from the inner layer of
the cellular integument of the nipple-like projec-
tions, which, as we have already seen, are the first
rudiments of the mouth-organs of insests.

Fig. 78. Side view of the head of a moth, showing the com-
pound eyes, o ; the antennae, a ,• the palpi, p ; the antlia, ».

The little pouches or discs, originating in this
manner, remain, however, soft cellular structures,
and grow but little during the earlier stages of
larval life. As the larva grows, they become detached
from the organ from which they were originally
derived, but retain their connection with certain
nerves and tracheal vessels. When the larva ceases
to feed, they undergo rapid development, and
gradually unfolding, spread out, and form a new
integument within the larva. This becomes the
pupa-case, with its several pouches moulded into
the forms of the wings, legs, and the mouth-organs
of the perfect insect. There is no more delicate or
difficult task than to trace all the changes of the
imaginal discs from their earliest appearance in the

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOS SIP.

109

embryo of the larva within the egg, to the ultimate
formation of the pupa-skiu by their agency.

We may summarize these wonderful changes in
this way. A number of parts become doubled in
the embryo, as far as their integument or skin is
concerned, so that they have an inner skin and an
outer one. The inner skin becomes detached and
remains as an organ of reserve for the formation
of the pupa. The outer one undergoes immediate
development, and forms the exterior of the larval
the inner one awaiting its proper time to take up
the developmental history from the early embryonic
period after the outer one has played out its part.
The larval period is, as it were, a period grafted in

Tig. 79. The mouth of the Gadfly ( TulmnKn) , seen from above,
rn, inentum; /, Jignia; ;;, maxillary palpi; ?/(</, the principal
lancets.

between the embryo and the imago, without affect-
ing the development of the latter to any material
degree. Strange as such a phenomenon may appear,
it is by no means confined to insects; something of
the same kind occurs frequently amongst star-fishes
and other echinoderms, in many worms, as well as in
some few crustaceans.

Without attempting to trace the complex phe-
nomena attending this mode of development, enough
has been done to show the extreme difficulty which
occurs in determining the exact nature of the
various organs in the butterfly's mouth.

Most authors have hitherto agreed in describing the
antlia,or spiral sucking organ, as a modification of the
great maxillae of other insects, and the large-jointed
palpi, p, as labial palpi. A more careful examina-

tion of the developmental history, and of the rela-
tions of these organs with the other parts of the
mouth, shows clearly, however, that this is not the
case. The antlia are undoubtedly a modification of
the second pair of maxillaj — indeed they are iden-
tical with the paraglossa) of the bee, — whilst a com-
parison with the mouth-organs of the fly shows
clearly that the so-called labial palpi are really
maxillary palpi, a view which is borne out by their
anatomical relations. The critical examination of
this question is one of extreme difficulty, and would,
therefore, be out of place in Science-Gossip.

Fig. so. The extremity of the principal lancets of the Gadfly.

The adaptation of the nectaries of flowers, and of
their reproductive organs, to the antlia of lepido-
ptera, is one of the most remarkable and beautiful
of Nature's works. Every tyro knows how de-

Fi^-. SI. The proboscis of the common House-fly, with the
labrum dislocated from its groove.

structive the ravages of lepidopterous larvae are,
and yet we must probably thank the perfect insects
for the great glories of the floral world; for, as
Charles Darwin has pointed out, it is only amongst
plants which require, or are greatly benefited by
insect agency, in the process of fertilization, that

110

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

we fiud beautiful and couspicuous flowers. The
nectar-seeking lepidoptera carry the pollen from
flower to flower, and thus insure cross fertilization ;
hence conspicuous and beautiful flowers are bene-
ficial to the plants, and would assuredly arise iu the
course of time. Moths are the chief, if not the
only agents by which tlie fertilization of most
orchids is attained.

Passing from the lepidoptera to the diptera, or
two-winged flies, we find another very remarkable
modification of the mouth-organs, and it is amongst
these insects that microscopists seek and find
some of the most interesting and beautiful objects,
which are favourites with those who only use the
microscope as an amusing toy, owing to their
curious forms and delicate structure.

In the mouth of the adult dipterous insect the
labium is again enormously developed, but it is
prolonged, together with the anterior parts of the
head, into a kind of trunk or proboscis, and this
folds on itself with a knee-like joint.

The terminal portion of this proboscis consists
almost entirely of a large fleshy labium, grooved
above, and closed as far as the extremity of the
groove by a long narrow labrum, or upper lip. The
extremity of tlie labium beyond the groove forms a
pair of more or less developed lobes, united
behind, and capable of being used as a sucker (figs.
79 and 81). Thete suctorial lobes difi'er exceedingly
iu structure and magnitude in different diptera.
In the house-fly and its allies they are simple, and
folded together like a closed book when at rest;
but in the bloodthirsty gadflies they are so large
that they are rolled up when not in use (fig. 79).

The mouth of the gadfly will serve as au excellent
starting-point in the study of the dipterous mouth.
The numerous lancets seen iu the fig. 79, when at
rest, lie in the groove of the labium, and are pro-
tected by the great scale-like maxillary palpi, |;.
The lancets are, first, the outer lobes of the great
maxiUse msd , closely similar to the same parts in
the mouth of the bee; secondly, a pair of sharp-
pointed curved organs, md, rough on the surface
like a minute rasp, and finely-toothed at their edges
(fig. 80); these probably represent the labial palpi, but,
according to some, are modified mandibles ; lastly,
the sharp labium and the fine and equally sharp
ligula,— in all, six in number, a formidable and
much-dreaded arsenal of small arms. The eflicacy
of the labial palpi as organs of offence may be
easily judged by examining their rasp-like extre-
mities with a quarter-inch objective (fig. 80).

( To be continued?^

" We must entirely dismiss the conception that
mere anatomy by itself can have any decisive bear-
ing on the question as to man's nature and being as
a whole."— Mivart's 31an and Apes.

MICROSCOPY.

MouNTiXG Mosses, &c.— I cannot veuiure to
say what may be the " best" way to mount leaves
of mosses, &c., but I have found mounting them in
fluid quite satisfactory, and have specimens mounted
about eighteen or twenty years ago in perfect
order. The cell consists of a ring of Brunswick
black formed on a Shadbolt's turntable. It must
be made sufficiently deep. The fluid is then dropped
iu, the object and cover adjusted, superfluous
moisture drawn off with blotting-paper till the cover
sticks by suction. The slide is then carefully
adjusted on tlie turntable, and sealed in with as little
Brunswick black as will cover the junction of cover
and cell. This sealing must be closely examined
all round and made perfect. "When this is dry, it
should be repeated till a firm smooth ring covers
more than the edge of the cover, and at least half
of the projecting wall of the cell. A skilful operator
will seal in objects in one process, or two at the
most ; but this requires experience as to the con-
sistency of the Brunswick black, &c. The cell
must be perfectly level (as it will be if the black is
fluid enough and clean), and the cover should reach
to about half the width of the cell-ring. If I re-
member rightly, I used indifferently for fluid, proof
spirit TO) distilled water f^ (even vpeaker) ; naphtha
and water ; acetic acid and water — both very weak
and mixed by guess. 1 strongly suspect that the
proportion signifies little if the mixture is but weak
enough. TetrapJus pellucida thus mounted, the
whole plant, root, gemma;, and all, is a most beauti-
ful object ; but it mounts well iu balsam if carefully
dried, and in this retains its lovely colour, which is
lost iu fluid. Sphagnum-leaves mount well in fluid.
Many mosses mount well in balsam, if carefully
dried first. Coaguline was not used in my day, and
I do not know it.— ii. F. S.

Query about Microscopes. — The mechanical
stage is much superior to any other form of stage,
but it makes a somewliat heavy addition to the cost
of the microscope. It is almost indispensable when
the higher objectives are used, viz., from an k up-
wards. The next best would be either the sliding
and rotating or the lever-stage; with careful manipu-
lation an I can be used with either form. A good
working instrument can be had without a mechan-
ical stage, whicii can be added at any future tiuie.
The cost of a really useful stand, to which additions
could be made froai time to time, would be (if
monocular) about £6. 15s. without mechanical stage,
which would entail an additional cost of £2. A
bmocular, with circular rotating stage and rack-
adjustment to eye-pieces, would cost about £7. 10s.
With respect to objectives, it is always desirable to
have the best, if the cost is no object ; but where it
is, Guudlach's objectives are generally very good.

HARDVVICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Ill

Baker's student's quarter is a most excellent lens
for ihe price. Swift has also lately introduced some
capital glasses at a moderate cost, particularly his
^ and -J. None of these objectives possess the high
angular aperture of the costly glasses of Ross,
Beck, Powell and Leland, and others, but where
only a moderate angle is required, they are all
that can be desired. The apparatus that may be
considered almost a necessity are as follows : — Spot
lens ; Luberkiihn's, to powers below i inch ; dark-
wells and holders, extra eyepiece ; bull's-eye con-
denser; disc of diaphragms ; the entire cost would
range from about £12 to £16; a cheaper stand and
dividing objectives would cost about £5 to £10;'
anything of less cost would be of little practical use.
— Z, Kitton.

Microscopic Analysis. — I should be obliged
by some of your numerous correspondents giving
me a few practical details for the preparation of
powders, &c., previous to their examination micro-
scopically for analytical purposes. I can find no
directions in any of the manuals. This subject is
becoming an imx)ortant one for public analysts.—
B. G. Lomdx.

The Eozoon Controveesy. — The debate as
to the organic origin of this object has been again
revived, through an article whicli appeared in a
recent number of the Annals and Magazine of
Natural History, by Mr. H. J. Carter, in which
that gentleman expressed his disbelief in the
animal origin of Eozoon, founded on a specimen he
had examined. In the last number of the same
magazine. Dr. Carpenter returns to the charge, and
writes what we consider the best and clearest
article he has yet given on the subject. After
perusing Dr. Carpenter's paper, it is difficult to
turn away the conclusion that Uozoon was a true
foraminil'er, abnormal in many respects, but not
more so than the Farkeria of the Greeusand. In
the same number is an abstract of a paper by
Prof. Max Schultze, on the Eozoon Canadense, in
whicli that celebrated microscopist gives the result
of his own examination of original specimens, and
the conclusion he has arrived at is that there can
be no serious doubt as to the foraminferous nature
of Eozoon.

ZOOLOGY.

The Relationship between the Echino-

THUKID^ (WyVILLE ThOMSOn) AND IHE PeEI-

schoechinid^ (McCoy).— At a recent meeting of
the Geological Society, a paper on the above sub-
ject was read by R. Etheridge, jun., P.G.S. The
author referred in the first place to the peculiar
characters of the genera Culver iu and Pkormoscma,
Wyville Thomson, and especially to those in v.hich

they' approach the cretaceous genus HcJiinothuria,
S. P. Woodward, and which led Prof. Wyville
Thomson to include these three forms in his group
Echinothuridaj. He remarked that an overlapping
of the interambulacral plates, more or less like that
occurring iu these three genera, is met with also in
Archceocidaris, McCoy, and Lepidechinus, Hall,
belonging to the group of palaeozoic Echini, which
McCoy proposed to call Perischoechinidse, and
which is characterized by the presence of more
than three rows of plates in the interambulacral
areas. As there is no overlapping of these plates
in the other geuera referred to this group, it includes
two types of structure. The author then discussed
the characters presented by the test in the genera
of the Perischoechinidse (namely Archceocidaris,
Palaxhinus, Perischodomus, Lepidechinus, Eocidaris,
Melotiites, and Oligoporus), and pointed out that
although we have no conclusive evidence of the
presence of membranous interspaces along with the
overlapping plates in Archceocidaris, the fragment-
ary condition in which the remains of that form
are usually found would lead us to infer their exist-
ence. No known palaeozoic genus exhibits the
want of distinction between the ambulacra and
interambulacra on the ventral half of the test seen
in the recent genus Phormosoma. In Melonites and
Oligoporus the author described an increase in the
number of rows of plates in the ambulacra, and
he indicated that all the Perischoechinidse differ
from the later Echini by the increased number of
perforations in the ocular and genital plates. In
the discussion which followed the paper, Mr. Ethe-
ridge, sen., described Calveria as resembling an
elastic ball rather than an ordinary Sea-urchin, its
calcareous plates being held in place by a flexible
membrane, and as connecting the ordinary forms
with Ecliinothuria, in which the plates slide over one
another like armour. He remarked that the apical
disks vary in each genus ; in the palaeozoic genera
the ovarian plates have three or more and the ocular
plates two perforations. The interambulacral areas
in the palaeozoic genera have invariably more than
two rows of plates. In Archceocidaris the plates
have bevelled edges. The chief point of the paper
was its indicating that a type supposed to have
been long extinct is still represented in our seas.
Mr. Seeley observed that the buccal membrane in
the recent Echinida has overlapping plates, so that
if the development of the plates usually forming the
remainder of the test were arrested, forms would be
obtained approaching those described in the paper.
He stated that in his opinion both the Echinoderm
type and the Brachiopod tj'pe have analogies with
the Annelids. Mr, H. Woodward remarked thai;
of the Holothuridse some forms, such as Psoliis, are
protected by calcareous plates having perfect free-
dom of motion. Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys added that
Calveria hijsirix was dredged off the Faroe Island?,

112

HAilDWlCKE'S SCIENCE. G;0SS1P.

and subsequently in the Bay of Biscay. He re-
marked that many missing liulcs will probably be
found hereafter, and that uoiuenclature will be
benefited thereby; thus ii Echinothuria and Calveria
really belong to the same genus, one of these names
may be discarded. In support of this view he
stated that the paleozoic Euomphaliis is identical,
as regards the characters of the shell, with the
recent Homalogyra.

Bees and Wasps.— Sir John Lubbock who, it
will be remembered, gave some practical proofs of his
acquaintance with waspsat theBrighton BritishAsso-
ciation Meeting, has just read a paper on the above
subject at the Linneau Society. The paper com-
menced by pointing out, with reference to the power
of communication with one another said to be pos-
sessed by Hymenoptera, that the observations on
record scarcely justify the conclusions which have
been drawn from them. In support of the opinion
that ants, bees, and wasps possess a true language,
it is usually stated that if one bee discovers a store
of honey, the others are soon aware of the fact.
This, however, does not necessarily imply the pos-
session of any power of describing localities, or any-
thing which could correctly be called a language.
If the bees or wasps merely follow their fortunate
companions, the matter is simple enough. If, on
the contrary, the others are sent, the case will be
very different. In order to test this, Sir John kept
honey in a given place for some time, in order to
satisfy himself that it would not readily be found by
the bees, and then brought a bee to the honey, mark-
ing it so that he could ascertain whether it brought
others or sent them, the latter, of course, implying
a much higher order of intelligence and power of
communication. After trying the experiment several
times with single bees and obtaining only negative
results. Sir John Lubbock procured one of Mar-
riott's observatory-hives, which he placed in his
sitting-room. The bees had free access to the open
air ; but there was also a small side or postern door
which could be opened at pleasure, and which led
into the room. This enabled him to feed and mark
any particular bees ; and he recounted a number of
experiments, from which it appeared that compara-
tively few bees found their own way through the
postern, while of those which did so the great ma-
jority flew to the window, and scarcely any found the
honey for themselves. Those, on the contrary, which
were taken to the honey, passed backwards and
forwards between it and the hive, making on an
average, five journeys in the hour. Sir John had
also, in a similar manner, watched a number of
marked wasps, with very similar results. These and
other observations of the same tendency appear to
show that, even if bees and wasps have the power
of informing one another when they discover a
store of good food, at anv rate they do not habitually

do so ; and this seemed to him a strong reason for
concluding that they are not in the habit of com-
municating facts. "When once wasps had made
themselves thoroughly acquainted with their way,
their movements were most regular. They spent three
minutes supplying themselves with honey, and then
flew straight to the nest, returning after an interval
of about ten minutes, and thus making, like the
bees, about five journeys an hour. During Septem-
ber they began in the morning at about six o'clock,
and later when the mornings began to get cold, and
continued to work without intermission till dusk.
They made, therefore, rather more than fifty journeys
in the day. Sir John had also made some experi-
ments on the behaviour of bees introduced into
strange hives, which seemed to contradict the ordi-
nary statement that strange bees are always recog-
nized and attacked. Another point as to which
very different opinions have been propounded is the
use of the antenna. Some entomologists have
regarded them as olfactory organs, some as ears, the
weight of authority being perhaps in favour of the
latter opinion. In experimenting on his wasps
and bees, Sir John, to his surprise, could obtain no
evidence that they heard at all. He tried thenj
with a shrill pipe, with a whistle, with a violin, with
all the sounds of which his voice was capable, doing
so, moreover, within a few inches of their head ; but
they continued to feed without the slightest appear-
ance of consciousness. Lastly, he recounted some
observations showing that bees have the power
of distinguishing colours. The relations of insects
to flowers imply that the former can distinguish
colour ; but there had been as yet but few direct
observations on the point.

British Spideks.— At a recent meeting of the
Linuean Society, the Rev. 0. P. Cambridge gave a
systematic list of these insects. He said that duriuS
the last five years a constant communication and
interchange of typical examples of spiders has been
going onbetween|Dr.T.Thorell, of Upsala, Dr. Koch>
of Niirnberg, M. Eugene Simon, of Paris, and him-
self, and others, with a view to the determination
of the synonymic identity of the species recorded
as indigenous to Europe, but principally to Sweden,
France, Germany, and England. The result of this
investigation have been published by Dr. ThorcU in
a most exhaustive work lately completed, "On the
Synonyms of European Spiders." The effect of this
work is to give priority to names of many British
spiders described by Mr. Blackwall and the w\-iter
other than the names they bear in the works of
those authors. The time therefore appears to have
arrived when a list, complete to the present time, of
the known spiders of Great Britain and Ireland
under the names to which, according to the laws of
priority, they appear to be entitled, seems to be a
desideratum. Dr. Thorell gives a list of British

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

113

spiders ; but it is complete only to the date of Mr,
Blackwall's work, " Spiders of Great Britain and
Ireland," since the publication of which the number
of known indigenous species has increased by nearly
one half. The systematic arrangement of Mr.
Blackwall has not been adopted in this list, appear-
ing, as it did, to be too artificial and based on in-
sufficient (though in :some respects convenient) cha-
racters, and, moreover, never to have found favour
with other araneologists. The present arrangement
(though it has no pretensions to finality) is the result
of a long and tolerably careful study of spiders from
many and widely distant regions of the world. It
begins at the opposite end to that where Dr. Thorell
and Dr. Koch begin their systematic arrangements ;
but it is, in the main, not very discordant with that
of the former of these authors, as put forth in his
valuable work "On the Genera of European Spiders,"
a work to which Mr. Cambridge is indebted for
many most valuable hints on the classification of the
Araneidea.

Anatomy of the Menobranchus.— At a recent
meeting of the Zoological Society, Professor Hux-
ley read a memoir upon the structure of the skull
and of the heart of Menohranchiis lateralis, describ-
ing the structure of the bony skull in the osteo-
cranium, and giving a full account of the primordial
skull or chondro-cranium, which has not hitherto
been noticed. The chondro-cranium was compared
with that of Proteus, and that of larval frogs and
tritons, and its essentially embryonic character was
indicated. The chondro-cranium was further sliown
to be formed by the coalescence of three distinct
classes of elements which were termed parachodral,
pleural, and paraneural. The heart was described,
and the septum of the auricles was shown to be an
open net-work allowing of free communication
between the right and left auricular chambers. The
structure of the fruncus arteriosus was compared
with that observed in other Amphibians.

Economic Value of Alligators.— Mr. J. G.
Mitchell states in the last number of the Zoologist,
that those large animals the Alligators, which are
so abundant in the rivers of tropical America, are
now being utilized. Large bales of their skins are
being imported into France and Hamburg for the
manufacture of large over-all boots.

A Male Nurse. — The Philadelphia Medical
Times says that the Lepus Bairdii is a peculiar
species of rabbit which is found in the mountains
near the three Tetons of Wyoming and the heads of
the Snake River and the Missouri. One of its
peculiarities is the habit which the males have of
suckling the young. Numerous specimens of this
sex were obtained by the naturalists of Hayden's
geological survey of 1872, with well-developed teats
and mammary glands filled with milk.

BOTANY.

How to Skeletonize.— The v/ay to prepare
skeleton leaves is to lay them in rain-water for
two or three months, and let the leaves be a good
size. After they have been in the water the proper
time, take them out gently, for fear you split them,
and put them into some clean water. Then put
the leaves one by one on to a card or the palm of
your hand, and with a very soft and clean camel-
hair brush or the tip of your finger, dab the leaf
gently until all the green part comes off. After-
wards put a small teaspoonful of chloride of lime
into about half a pint of cold water, and then leave
the skeletons in the lime and water until they become
very nearly white ; then take them out very care-
fully with a card, and lay them on a clean piece of
blotting-paper in the sun to dry. In preparing the
poppy-heads you require to be still more careful
than with the leaves. They must have separate
water from the leaves, and must be covered up
and not have a bruise in them. When they
have been soaked long enough, you must take them
out by the stalk, and with a small pair of pincers
you must take all off the outside until you come to
the skeleton, and then make a little hole up by the
crown and take the inside out little by little, so that
you cannot break the skeleton in doing so. The
bleaching process is exactly the same as bleaching
the skeleton leaves. — M. L. W.

Eryngium maritimum (Sea Holly) a Seaside
Plant. — In considering what will best bear the
cutting winds and saline vapour of the seaside, it
should be borne in mind that there are certain her-
baceous and ornamental plants as well as shrubs
which come under the above description; for in-
stance the Thrift {Armeria maritima) is common as
a small border plant ; it grows abundantly near
Brighton on the shore shingle by the road to Shore-
ham which it partly covers. The Eryngium mari-
timum, an umbelliferous plant, though seldom culti-
vated, is an herbaceous evergreen with pretty
hemispherical blue flowers ; it is indigenous on seji
sands on the coasts of England and elsewhere ; it
grows in great abundance on the sands at Ostend^
where I was much struck with its beauty ; it is a
foot and a half high, with leaves of a glaucous hue,
very stiff and prickly, like the holly-leaf, and pro-
bably for that reason not a favourite in gardens. Its
extensively creeping roots were formerly converted
into sweetmeats, and candied " Eringo root " is
still to be obtained in some places : it formed in
Shakespear's time the "kissing comfits" of Falstafl' :
Linnaeus says the tops are eaten like asparagus in
Sweden. Its medicinal powers, which were at one
time highly extolled, are now in no repute. The
leaves and flowers, being remarkably strong and
durable, are frequently employed as fit subjects for

114

HARDWiCKE'S SCI EN C E-GO S S IP.

skeleton bouquets. I do not know if the Eryngium
alpinum, a smaller plant, would succeed near the
sea; it is very hardy in the Swiss Alps, with a fine
blue tint not only in the flowers but on the upper
part of the stem also, as in the Eryngium Bourgati
of the Pyrenees and the Eryngium cmethysfemim of
Eastern Europe, so named on account of its brilliant
blue colour, for which it is not unfrequently culti-
vated in gardens. I have no doubt there are other
evergreen herbaceous seaside plants if the readers
of Science-Gossip would draw attention to them. —
T. B. W., Brighton.

NosTOC COMMUNE. — Every autumn and winter
for many years past I had looked in vain for the
curious plant I am about to describe, when suddenly,
one afternoon in November last, on my returning
home after a storm of rain, I was surprised and
delighted to see a number of specimens of various
sizes and forms on the gravel paths of my garden.
I had seen nothing of them previously, and I am
quite sure they were not there when I walked down
the garden path only an hour or two before. Perhaps
I should say apparently they were not there, for of
course their germs or dried skins must have been
on the gravel unobserved by me, awaiting only the
revivifying power of rain to cause them to swell
into visible life, and so suddenly, as to justify the
name of " fallen-stars," by which they are known
in some country places, where certain of the species
occur rather plentifully. The name of " fallen-
star" has reference rather to their sudden appear-
ance than to their lustre, although with dew or rain-
drops upon them, especially in the sunshine imme-
diately after a shower, they have a pretty glittering
appearance, being semi-transparent and of a jelly-
like consistency. The only way to preserve these
soft gelatinous plants, is to wash them until they
are free from dirt or grit, and to mount them on
paper-like the softer species of marine aigse. In this
manner their colour and appearance are preserved,
although they must necessarily be pressed flat. The
name of the order to which these curious plants be-
long is NostocJiaceie. I can find no explanation of
the word, but it was first used by Paracelsus, and
afterwards by Vaucher and other botanists. The
plants in this Order are described as green, chiefly
fresh-water, rarely marine, alg??,, composed of moni-
liform filaments, lying in a gelatinous matrix. The
filaments are formed of globose cells, here and there
interrupted by a single cell of a different character,
hence called " heterocyst." The propagation is by
zoospores or active granules. There are no less
than eight genera in this Order. These plants are
sometimes furnished with firmly gelatinous, but
never truly membranaceous, fronds of definite out-
line, variously lobed, or sometimes extending into
irregular branches. , Some of the species are mere
masses of jelly or slime, through which filiform

strings of closely-packed cells are dispersed. The
endochrome, or colouring matter of the cells, is
either a bright green or a dark olive-green; the
fructification takes place in some privileged cells of
the internal filaments (the heterocysts already re-
ferred to), which are sometimes in the centre of
some, and occasionally at the ends of others. One
division is terrestrial, all the species being found on
gravelly soils, in garden walks, on rocks, and in
pastures, in autumn and winter. In dry weather
they shrivel up and appear like crimped bits of
goldbeater skin, but expand after showers into the
jelly-like masses already described. The type of
this division is Nostoc commu7ie. The frond is ex-
panded and softly membranaceous ; it is sometimes
plaited, and waved or curled ; it is irregular in size
and form, and of a deep olive-green. Since I first
met with this plant last autumn, I have watched
its curious alternating appearance and disappearance
with great interest, and I have been surprised at
the length of time it has been present in my garden ;
numbers of the "little bits of green jelly" as the
gardener called them, being dotted about in all
directions, but always on t!ie gravel. However,
they have vanished for this season I believe, for th'e
summer "tidying-up" has taken place, the paths
have all been scraped, and my cherished " bits of
jelly " have been ruthlessly swept from my sight. —
W. H. Grattann.

NiTOPHTLLUM VEBsicoLOR.— Among the curious
facts connected with algology that have come under
my notice during my residence in Torquay, nothing
has interested me more than the discovery of the
very rare species Nilophyllum versicolor, which 1
took on the beach in Torbay, about the end of
March, and again on the 2nd of April. In each
instance the plants were fully grown, of the normal
form, very prettily lobed, and with the characteristic
stem and root. They were not in fruit ; but as the
specimens I found were fully grown, I am in hopes
of finding others ere long, which may prove to be
fertile. The winter here has been unusually mild,
warm weather being favourable for the growth of
the finer kinds of algae ; and as this rare species of
Nitophyllum has thus suddenly made its appearance
here, it has doubtless arisen from a spore, and thus I
am in expectation of finding spore-producing speci-
mens, similar to one which was found in fruit some
years ago at Ilfracombe. Hitherto I believe this
rare Rhodosperm has been taken only on the north
coast of Devon and at Minehead in Somerset ; its
occurrence, therefore, on the south coast of Devon
is extremely interesting, audi take this opportunity
of recording the fact for the benefit of those readers
of SciENCE-GossiP who may be interested in the
study of Marine Botany.— /T. H. Grattaiin.

The " London Catalogue."— In answer to Mr.
J. A. Stewart, the numbers in the " London Cata-

HARDWiCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

115

logue of Plauts" are taken from Watson's Compeu-
dium of the " Cybele Britaunica," in whicli work
seven lines are devoted to the distribution of each
species. If Mr. Stewart will consult this, he will no
doubt find what he cannot at present understand,
cleared up, as, for instance, that an 0 has slipped
out in printing- after the 8, under Uypericim Immi-
fasum. — /. G. Baker.

Seaside Shrubs. — AtriplexHalimus often attracts
the attention of visitors to St. Brelade's Bay, in the
island of Jersey, by its singular grey foliage. It
forms fliere dense hedges, growing luxuriantly in
the sandy soil wherever it is planted. It reaches a
height of from four to six feet. I am not aware
whether it is used in England, but I should think it
would grow well on the southern coasts. Certainly
there is no difficulty found with the plant in Jersey.
Hows of Lavatera are sometimes planted as a garden
hedge by the cottagers, though I presume neither
that planl nor the still more remarkable Jersey cab-
bage, has any claim to be reckoned a "seaside
shrub." In Scotland a belt of elder is often used
1.0 shelter the seaward aspect of a young plantation.
Under the influence of the sea-wind the elder grows
dense and bushy. — /. /. M.

On the Bracts oe Crucifeks.— M. T. Masters,
Esq,, M.D., F.R.S., has recently read a paper on
this subject before the Linuean Society. The sub-
ject was divided by the writer into two branches :
-7-1. The absence of bracts in Crucifers. In the
majority of cases this is so complete that even in
the earliest stages of development observed by Payer
no trace of bracts is seen. Different explanations
of the phenomenon have been given by different
morphologists. A. P. de Candolle attributes it to
congenital suppression of the parts ; Godron to
pressure acting from within outwards, resulting from
the dense manner in which the young flowers are
packed together ; Norman and Eichler consider that
the bracts are abortive, but potentially presents
the latter writer combating Godron's view by the
consideration that on the one hand the bracts are
absent where the inflorescence is so loose that no
pressure can be exerted, and, on the other hand, in
some cases where the flowers are densely crowded
the bracts nevertheless exist. 3. The occasional
presence of bracts in Crucifers. About fifty illus-
trations of this were named. A few species, as
Sisymhrivm suphmni and Jdrsutum, have normal
bracts to every flower ; in others their occurrence is
only occasional. Where the raceme shows a tendency
to branch into a panicle, they may often be found at
the base of the secondary divisions of the inflores-
cence ; in Arabis turrita the lowermost peduncles
have bracts at their base; the intermediate ones
have bracts springing from their outer surface above
their base, while the uppermost have none at all.

The writer then discussed the various theories which.
have been proposed to account for the variation in
the position of the bracts when present ; viz. at the
base or on the side of the flower-stalk above the
base. The causes assigned for the latter apparently
anomalous position were stated by different botanists
to be the following : — 1. Partition or subdivision of
the axis ; 2. congenital union, or lackjof separation
between the bract and the pedicle ; 3. upraising of
the bud and its bract. Anatomy gives no evidence
of partition ; but it does afford in some cases the
evidence of fusion, or rather of inseparation, as
in some of the Crucifer/iE examined by Dr. Masters ;
while in the case of Sedum, Solaiiiim, and Spiraea
the peculiar arrangement of the bract seems to be
owing to the third cause above mentioned.

Fauna and Flora of Eastbourne.— We have
received a copy of the supplement to the Fauna and
Flora of Eastbourne, by F. C. S. Roper, F.L.S.,
printed for private circulation. Both the supple--
ment and the original work were undertaken by the
chief members of the Natural History Society. The
lists are numerous, and the work altogether well
done. It is impossible to award too much praise
to those who have been engaged upon it, and to
whom it has evidently been a labour of love.

British Marine AlgyE.— Mr. W. H. Grattann's
work on the above subject has now reached the sixth
part, including 133 illustrations. We regard this as
the cheapest and moat trustworthy yet offered to
the pubUc, and it is especially suited to the wants
of young students of our British sea-weeds. The
price of each part is only sixpence.

Eucalyptus globulus (Blue Gum-tree).—
Some of the various notices which have appeared
regarding this tree would lead to the supposition
that its extraordinary sanitary properties are pro-
duced by exhalations from the flowers or leaves,
which contain an astringent gum, and yield on dis-
tillation an essential oil. It is called a " disease-
destroying plant," from its supposed emission of
" antiseptic camphorous effluvia," and because it is
found that, when planted in swamps, marshes, and
other dainp spots, it removes the malaria common
in such pestiferous regions. It appears to me, how-
ever, that its effects may be attributed simply to
drainage, by absorbing the moisture of the soil by
its roots, and evaporation by the leaves, as stated
by T. J. E. in Science-Gossip for March, who says
he has had many years' experience in its cultivation,
and refers to the "pumping power exerted by the
far-spreading roots of this gigantic tree." The
latter hypothesis would lead to the conclusion that
the process is entirely mechanical, and that any
other large trees, having roots as extensive, with
similar powers of absorption and evaporation, and
of a nature to thrive in swampy regions, would have

116

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the same efifect. Certain plants are known to
have a peculiar power of absorption and evapora-
tion : florists find such to be the case, for instance,
in the Spircea Japotiica, which on that account re-
quires watering several times a day, or to be kept
standing in water. Whatever may ^e the cause of
its sanitary effects, the subject is interesting, and
calls for further elucidation as to the characteristics
of the tree and its medicinal properties. — T. B. W.

Flower-buds on Roots.— W. G. Piper asks if
flowers are found on the root in other plants, as in
the Theohrcma cacao? The Catananche Intea, in
all the numerous specimens I have met with
in Algeria, has several flowers on the crown of the
root, the others being at a distance at the top of
the stem. The Ficia ampkicarpa has the upper
flowers and legumes above ground, the lower sub-
terranean. I met with it at Montpellier, but do
not remember whether the subterranean flowers
had underground stems or grew direct from the
root.— r. B. W.

Genista pilosa (Hairy Greenweed) as a Sea-
side Shrub. — The latter end of February I saw a
branch of this small shrub, which was sent from
Poole, in Dorsetshire, where it grows spontaneously
in great abundance close to the harbour: it was
then commencing flowering, the flowers bright
yellow and very abundant : it is a rare British
evergreen, much branched and prostrate, and
flowers from very early spring till the autumn. Sir
William Hooker, in his " British Flora," gives only
four localities, one of them being "near the Lizard
and St. Agnes Head, Cornwall," where, as well as
at Poole, it thrives close to the sea. Mr. Balchin,
of the Cliftonville Nursery, is about to introduce
it in Brighton, with any other seaside shrubs which
the readers of Science-Gossip may bring to his
notice. The Genista pilosa cannot fail to be at-
tractive as a pretty evergreen border shrub, suited
to the climate of Brighton, as well as for inland
cultivation. — T. B. W., Brighton.

Bulbiferous Stem of Saxifraga granulata.
— In reply to Mr. Piper's query in last month's
Gossip, 1 beg to say that the bulbs occurring in the
stem of the Saxifraga granulata are not of the
nature of the bulbs mentioned by Bentley in his
" Manual of Botany," as exclusively, belonging to
the class Endogence ; those being bulbs proper,
without reference to any other than such to which
the following description will apply. "A thickened
underground stem, covered with scales, emitting
roots from its under surface, and producing a stem
from its centre." Such, then, and only such as
bear this definition, are true bulbs, of which the
Onion and Squill are familiar examples. Every true
bulb is, therefore, necessarily formed of imbricated
scales, and a solid bulb has no existence. For

instance, the bulbi solidi, as they have been called,
though erroneously, of the Crocus and Colchicum,
are a kind of subterranean stem, and which, though
perhaps the nearest approach we have to the bulb,
still are considered to be sufiiciently distinct and
marked from it, in consisting not of imbricated
scales, but '■ of a solid fleshy mass. . Therefore I
should say of the descriptions applied by Hooker
and Bentham to the characteristic stemi of the
Saxifraga granulata, and which I find myself alike
applied by other writers on botany to stems simi-
larly characterized, that they are not intended by
them to be applied in the above strictly botanical
sense, but only in suchwise where the descriptions
are based — and this is exactly how I take them to
be— upon an external resemblance to, rather than
to a partaking of the nature of, the true bulb ; or,
in other words, I regard them, in all such cases, as
being adopted more upon the principle of sug-
gestiveness than of strict botanical applicability.
Again, and lastly, were they true bulbs, then there
must, in such a case, be as many stems as bulbs,
since, as[we have seen, each is possessed of a stem-
producing centre, which, in the so-called bulbi-
ferous stem of the Saxifraga granulata, we know
is not the case. — John Harrison, 41, Wicker, Shef-
field.

GEOLOGY.

The Physical History of thr Bhine
Valley. — At a meeting of the Geological Society
of London, Professor Ramsay stated that his opinion
was that during portions of the Miocene epoch the
drainage through the great valley between the
Schwarzwald and the Vosges ran from the Devo-
nian hills north of Mainz into the area now occupied
by the Miocene rocks of Switzerland. Then, after
the physical disturbances which closed the Miocene
epoch in these regions, the direction of the drainage
was reversed, so that, after passing through the hiU
country between the Lake of Constance and Basle,
the river flowed along an elevated plain formed of
Miocene deposits, the remains of which still exist at
the sides of the valley between Basle and Mainz.
At the same time the Rhine flowed in a minor
valley through the upland country formed of
Devonian rocks, which now constitute the Taunus,
the Hundsruck, and the highland lying towards
Bonn, and by the ordinary erosive action of the
great river the gorge was gradually formed and
deepened to its present level. In proportion as
the gorge deepened, the marly flat Miocene strata
of the area between Mainz aud Basle were also in
great part worn away, leaving the existing plain,
which presents a deceptive appearance of having
once been occupied by a great lake.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

117

Geology oe Clevedon. — I am writing to you
in hopes that some of the readers of Science-
Gossip may be induced to turn a little attention
to the geology of Clevedon, Somerset, which is
certainly interesting, and the town and neighbour-
hood are very lovely, and would well repay a visit,
though the place is comparatively little known. I
feel interested in the question as to whether the
Dolomitic conglomerate which flanks this coast and
that of Portshead, resting on or abutting against
the Carboniferous limestone, belongs to the lower
Permian or upper Triassic system. It is a question
which, I venture to thiuk, might be more easily
solved here than near Bristol, and I should like to
have the opinion of some geologists who have ex-
amined the strata here, as it seems to me im-
possible to come to any other conclusion than that
it belongs to the Permian system, and the Clevedon
" Guide-book" calls it "Magnesian Conglomerate,"
on the authority of a geologist. The Magnesian
limestone, which is quarried near the sea, for build-
ing, lies above the Conglomerate, the two gradually
passing into each other ; and in a new section I
was examining the other day, lower down in the
cliffs, a dull purplish marl is exposed, interstratified
with thin layers of Conglomerate : surely this must
be Permian marl ? The Keuper marl of Redland,
Bristol, is about equally hard, but of a brighter
colour, and has not the blood-red tinge I sometimes
see in the other. I have found imperfect fossils
occasionally, principally of Magnesian lime-
stone and Conglomerate, but they probably, from
the situation of their strata, mostly belong to the
Carboniferous limestone. The Conglomerate rock
is sparkling, and often coloured green, as if from the
presence of copper, and both it and the Magnesian
limestone above it have drusy cavities containing
transparent crystals. I do not think that the strata
of which I am writing are marked at all in Saunders'
"Maps of the Bristol Coal-field," which may be
seen at the Bristol Museum. The Old Red sand-
stone is known to form the basement along the
coast-line in this neighbourhood, the Conglomerate
cliffs resting on it. Should any of your readers be
able to throw light on the difficulty, I should feel
very much obliged by their replying in Science-
Gossip.— ff. L. G. a,

Discovery of Fokaminifera, &c., in the
Boulder-Clays of Cheshire. — A paper on this
subject has just been read before the London
Geological Society, by W. Shone, jun. The author
described the occurrence of Foraminifera entomo-
straca, and some other small organic bodies, in the
boulder-clay at Newton by Chester, and at Dawpool.
They were found partly in the interior of specimens
of Turritella terebra, and partly free in the boulder-
clay ; but those obtained from the Turritel^cB were
in better condition than the others. The Forami-

nifera generally agree precisely with those found in
the tidal parts of the river Dee. Mr. Shone stated
further that the Turritellw containing Foramini-
fera are filled with a fine greyish-white sand, in
which the minute fossils abound, and he discussed
the probable conditions under which the deposit
containing them had been formed. Mr. Gwyn
Jeffreys said that the Foraminifera sent by Mr.
Shone are exactly the same as those found on the
shores of England, Wales, and Scotland. The
Foraminifera inhabit the edge of high water, and
would naturally fill any shells that might be lying
on the shore about that line. They might have
been transported by ground-ice. Mr. Jeffreys
remarked that we know comparatively little of the
Arctic fauna at present, and that it was highly de-
sirable that an expedition should be sent to investi-
gate the marine fauna of high northern latitudes.
Prof. T. Rupert Jones stated that the Rotaliae are
identical all round the coasts, those from different
localities presenting different characters, as may be
plainly seen in the Rotalia Beccarii of the Adriatic
and of the English coasts. Various circumstances
seem to act in changing the forms, especially
whether the animals have inhabited deep or shallow
water, or water more or less fresh. The Globigerince
have thicker shells in deep than in shallow water.
When ill-nourished, Foraminifera alter in the style
of their outline.

NOTES AND aUERIES.

MoLLTJSCAN Threads. — The recent interesting
article in Science - Gossip upon " Molluscan
Threads," induces me to add some little information
that is new to the author of that paper, as well as
unknown to most observers, I find. The author of
"Molluscan Threads" states, at page'i50, second
column, "Slugs often suspend themselves by a
thread, but do not use it as a means of ascents
That they can and do sometimes so use it the fol-
lowing will show, but that they are in the habit of
doing so I cannot assert, though I believe it to be
the fact that they do. I have frequently made the
common Limax arborum suspend itself by putting
a branch of ash with a small cross branch tjent very
slightly downwards into a flower-pot. I placed the
slug upon this cross branch with its head towards
the point. It immediately crawled to the point,
over which it gradually slid, holding on by its tail,
which at last became detached, and then the thread,
which is merely a slimy secretion, is formed, and
continues to be formed by the weight of the mollusc
drawing it off the body. 1 believe the act to be
entirely involuntary, for, from the time the slug
reaches the end of the branch until its descent is
finished, it is looking, as it were, for fresh footing,
and it can keep its body not quite horizontal but
oblique to the thread. If, when it has descended
some distance, say eight or ten inches, the finger,
moistened with a slightly saline solution— say
saliva— is applied to it beneath, it deliberately turns
itself up in a spiral form, and enclosing the thread
in its mantle, reascends by a steady motion, the

118

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOSSIP.

" slack " of the thread accumulating below the tail.
If there is no projection of the edge of the branch
to throw it ofP, it scarcely ever fails to land upon
the branch and return the way it came. Erom the
perfect ease and regularity with which all these
slugs do this, I am inclined to think they are well
accustomed to it, as I noticed they almost always
did it if they did not find footing after descending
a few inclies ; and from the manner also that they
slipped off the end of the branch I am strongly of
opuiion that the whole process is involuntary.
When they get to the end of the branch, 1 never
saw one attempt to turn back, but it was while
protruding over the end, and feeling about for fresh
footing, that they slid off. The slug requires to be
in a particular condition. Gorged with food, tlie
slime is too thin, and the thread will not sustain
them ; but if kept over a night without food, they
are sure to perform well next morning if the con-
dition of the atmosphere is favourable— ?. e., warm
and moist. I do not believe the thread is used as
a means of voluntary descent, but that being fre-
quently subjected to the mishap of slipping off,
they have acquired the power of recovering them-
selves in this wav, which they do so systematically
as to leave no doubt about its being a voluntary
action, enabling them to avoid descending into
water, or anything injurious. I speak from nume-
rous experiments, but probably the autlior of
"Molluscan Threads" will be able to bring his
experience to bear upon the subject. I brought
this under the notice of the Dublin Natural History
Society'in 1S63-4 (vol. iv. part ii.).— William Harte,
F.R.G.S.I.

Makine AQUARixm.— In reply to " J. G.," allow
me to give a few hints for the construction and
maintenance of a marine aquarium, gained from my
own experience. My first attempt was with an
ordinary propagating glass, 14-inch diameter, wiiich
I fixed in a stand. I first proceeded to put a layer
of clean sand, which I covered with shmgle, and pro-
cured some pebbles to which some seaweed was
growing, taking care to reject the thick olive-green
sorts, not only on account of their large size, but
because I knew that they make the water slimy.
Some of our common red seaweeds, finely branched,
I chose in preference, and some of the larger grass-
green seaweeds {Enteroworpha intestinal is), tufts of
scarlet hair-wort {Basya coccinea), and some few
other common red weeds. Care should be taken to
cleanse the weeds as much as possible without in-
juring them, before placing them in the vase, to
remove all decayed or impure matter that may be
attached to them, and so prevent, as far as possible,
the water from being poisoned. It is well to allow
the weed to remain a few days after planting before
the introduction of any animals. A little rockwork
is beneficial, for the enjoyment of the inhabitants of
the aquarium. It may be made of pumice-stone
cemented together with Portland cement. It should
be built to come above the surface of the water, in
order that such animals as the periwinkle, which
need air, should be able to enjoy it ; a few arch-
ways, nooks, and crannies should be made, among
which fishes might glide, and afford shelter for such
little creatures as do not court daylight or approve
of prying eyes. I now come to stocking, which is
perhaps the most difficult thing to do in London,
1 get my salt-water supplied me regularly from one
of the fishing-boats that come up the Thames
weekly to discharge their cargoes at Billingsgate,
and have it conveyed home by Parcels' Delivery.

The men on tlie^e boats will gladly bring up with
them a stone jar or small cask of salt-water for a
mere trifle— in fact, I got my entire stock from
them, consisting of zoophytes, small fish, shrimps,

I &c. Care must be taken not to introduce inmates
that are too large or too voracious, and thus over-
power the others. The most lively and amusing

, inhabitants of the aquarium are the shrimps. They
are continually on the move, using their feet and
tails like paddles ; they soon become tame, and will
seize pieces of meat between their fore-legs, and
eagerly devour it. The prawn is still niore lively
than the shrimp ; but they must be small ones, or
they will make sad havoc by attacking and killing
other creatures. Among sea-anemones, none are
better fitted for the vase than the daisy-anemone
{Actinia bellis). Another beautiful kind is the
gemmed anemone {Actinia gemmacea), and one
which needs most care. Among the fishes suitable
for the vase >sthe common plaice {Plateasa vulgaris),
which, of course, must be very small. The stickle-
backs are rather too fond of fis^hting. A small sea-
urchin or two yEchinvs sphareu) will prove very
interesting, especially when its movements are ob-
served by the aid of a magnifying-glass.— JoA^ H.
Webb.

Entomological Query.— The New Zealand
correspondent of the Times, writing under date of
January 10th, thus describes an insect which he
states is " new to science." " It is a black wasp-
like fly, but rather smaller than the English wasp.
Its habitat, or perhaps I should more correctly say,
its nursery, is a nest of clay built in some con-
venient crevice, and to the great annoyance of lady-
housekeepers, the upper folds of heavy window
curtains have apparently a peculiar charm for it.
Having selected a suitable spot for its operations,
it industriously carries tiny pellets of clay, which it
moistens and plasters over the curtain or crevice,
and on that foundation proceeds to erect a series of
separate clay cells, from five to eight in number,
the whole nest being from four inches to six inches
in length, and about the size and shape of a man's
little finger. The cells are not quite closed in, and
the little builder sallies forth on a spider-catching
expedition. Apparently the issue of the conflict is
never doubtful, for about half a dozen of various
size and kind are very speedily deposited captive
and comatose in each cell. In each cell, too, is
there laid a single t%^, the young grub from which
spends the days of his early infancy in consuming
the spiders which parental or maternal care has
provided for his sustenance, and which are un-
diminished in bulk and fulness a month or more
from the time of their capture." I should be glad
to know what insect is here described, or its pro-
bable genus. — C. Lovekin.

Bats in Spring. —I find, on p. 93, in vol. for 1873,
a" note from a correspondent, H. B. E. Eox, under
the title of "Hybernation of Bats," wishing to know
whether it is a common occurrence for bats to fly at
midday in the spring of the year. I should like to
know also, as I saw one on the 14th April, near Ma-
ryhill (12 a.m.), flying about in the sunshine. I
watched it for about ten minutes, thinking it would
take to a hiding-place ; but it still continued to fly
over the same ground. — Alex. Macindoe.

Old Trees and Squirrels. — In connection with
old trees, it may not be uninteresting to your read-
ers to know that on Saturday, Eeb. 7th, some men

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G 0 S SIP.

IB

felling timber in a wood near Cudham, Kent, cut
down ail old liollow oak-tree, when upwards of thirty
squirrels rolled out, most of which were dormant
or in a state of semi-sleep ; but upon being roused,
they dispersed to various parts of the copse. A
large stock of nuts was stored away in the hollow
of the tree, which had been coUeccted by these
industrious little animals as a provision for the
winter. It is common to find squirrels laid up in
shelter during the winter, but. it is seldom such a
swarm is found together.— Elizabeth Ethoards.

Saxifraga grantjlata (p. 94).— In answer to
" W. G. P.'s " inquiry about the above plant, I beg
to quote the following from Dresser's " Botany,"
page 28. " True bulbs appear to be found exclu-
sively amongEndogens; nevertheless, minute bodies
analogous to bulbs occur in Exogens, which are
called granules. Ex. : S. gmnulata."—R. B., jvn.

Insects' Eggs.— In answer to the query of H.
Glazbrook in the March number of Science-Gossip,
whether it is usual for Thecla quercus to lay its
eggs on Fraximis excelsior, when Quercus pedun-
m/ate is more plentiful in the same locality, I beg
to state that I have observed the same myself, and
also that in the second volume of the Entomologist,^
a gentleman writes that he saw several specimens of
T. quercus ' gsca^hoWmg and settling on an ash-tree
near Beckenham, and also on the same day shook
several out of a sapling ash at West Wickham.
Some thirty or forty have also been seen gambolling
about one limettree.

The Warji Season.— As a notable example of
the extreme mildness of the season, I may record
that I captured a specimen of the Brimstone but-
tprfiy {Gonepteryx rliamni) in flight on January 27th.
This was a very warm day, the thermometer attain-
ing a lieisht of 5.38 degrees in the shade.— /T. E.
Benning, F.B.3I.S.

Origin of "Laby-bied." — In reply to T.
Palmer, the name "lady-bird" is said to be a cor-
ruption of "lady-bug" (lady, i.^. the Virgin Mary).
In France it is still called " Bete de la Vierge,"
and in Germany, " Marienhafer."— 72. H. 31.

Euplectella.— I do not think that the small
crustaceans, &c., found inside the above-named
sponge were placed there by the finder or preparer.
Some uncleaned specimens sent over in spirit contain
one or two specimens of small crabs, and in one of
them is a shell of some species of pteropod. In
one of the specimens a reticulated diaphragm has
been formed about two inches from the bases :
within this sponge a small crab is caged. This
could not have been introduced by human agency.
The occurrence of organisms in the Euplectella
may, [think, be accounted for in another way; viz.,
by their swimming through the meshes of the
sponge, and then being unable to find their way
out, and in the course of a few days they would
either have grown too large to do so, or probably
have died from lack of nutriment.— .f. K.

The HoLLT(Z/eA- Jquifolium).—! observe that this
evergreen flowering shrub is not mentioned in the
recent edition of Sowerby's "British Flora." I
am surprised that a tree which seems to be the
most interesting in the whole Flora should have
been left out of such an exhaustive Botany as
Sowerby's great work certainly is. What a crowd
of associations surround this tree, which produces
its fruit at the great feast of Christmas ! Certainly,

nobody needs a botanist to show the glossy leaves
of the boughs and the bright red berries we are so
familiar with at Christmas, decorating our churches
and chapels, mansions, and the smallest cottages.
No tree yields so much fruit as this. The skilful
botanist, too, enjoys, with regard to this tree, the
advantage of examining the blossom in February
or March, and can examine the fruit without wait-
ing for autumn. The Mistletoe, which accom-
panies the Holly, enjoys the same prestige as that
tree. It resembles the holly in blossoming early
in the year, when some berries may remain. — S. A.
I^otcutt,ju)i.

The Name of the Lady-bikd.— Mr. T. Palmer
inquires, on page 70, as to the origin of this title.
I venture to suggest that the word "Lady-bird"
is a relic of Catholic times, and that these beetles,
like many of our native plants, derive their popular
name from having been connected, by legend or
otherwise, with the Virgin. It should be observed,
that the term is by no means confined to any indi-
vidual insect, but is applied indiscriminately to all
the British representatives of the genus CoccineUa.
— C. Lovekin.

Gentiana verna. — The readers of Science-
Gossip may be interested to hear that Gentiana
verna blossomed, February 2, in my weedery, for the
first time since it was brought three years ago from
Teesdale Forest.

Slugs. — I should be thankful if any one could
tell me of something to keep slugs away from
Leucojum eestivum, Gagea lutea, and Maianthemum
bifolimn. I have grown them three years in my
weedery, and each spring leaves and flower-buds
have been completely devoured. I have tried soot,
ashes, lime, salt, &c., but in vain ; also I have
planted crocus, snowdrops, and wild hyacinths to
protect my pets ; but no, the slugs will not touch
them, and I am in despair. I catch them morning
and evening literally by dozens, but their numbers
do not seem to diminish. — Mary Longhear.

Lizards. — Having often kept the green Jersey
lizard, and having one now in my possession, I can
corroborate " H. F. M." as to its habit of licking
its lips after taking a fly, as a cat does after her
saucer of milk, and can add that it also uses its
tongue in cat-like fashion when drinking, which it
always does by lapping. It also reminds one
strongly of a cat in its stealthy approach to its
prey, and the wriggling movement of the body and
tail which often precedes the final spring. These
beautiful green lizards are quite an ornament to
a fern-case, and are superior to most reptiles in
intelligence and capability of being tamed. Mine,
which I have had about three years, looks up for
food, and wiU take a fly from the hand. — G. Guyon.

Welsh Seaside Shrubs. — Will any of your
readers do me the favour to let me know what are
the best shrubs and trees to plant on an exposed
and windy part of Anglesey, near Holyhead ? The
young plants will be at first .protected by stone
walls. — Edmund H. Verney.

MoLLUscAN Threads (Sc.-Gos., p. 49).— Often
when a mollusk (pulmonobranch) is ascending by a
thread, it returns before reaching the surface of the
water: its method of reversing the attachment of its
thread is by curling its body until the extremities
meet, when the thread is transferred from the tail
to the head.— (?. S. T.

120

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

H. J. McG. — Your plants are, — No. 1, Erodium cicufnrium ;
No. 2, Spergula nrvensis.

O. Bates. — The shrub from near Abergele is Garrya ellip-
tica.—J. F. R.

A. C. — Yourplant, called the " Snowdrop-tree," is doubtless
Symphdria racemnsa, or " St. Peter's wort," a native of North
America. A good elementary book on Botany i-> that of
Professor Oliver, or Masters's " Botany for Beginners." —
J. F. ft.

J. Platt. — Your fossils obtained from the gravel pit were
not vegetable, but animal. Both are fossil corals, of carbon-
iferous age, both of them Lithostrntion.

J. L. — Get Wood's "Insects at Home." It not only contains
figures of the various insects you name, but gives popular
and trustworthy accounts of them.

G.W. B. — The diatoraaceous deposit described by Ehrenberg
as Bermuda tripoli was long supposed to have come from the
Bermuda Islands. Mr. G. Norman, of Hull, found that it
came from New Nottingham, U. S., near which is a township
or hundred called Bermuda. Professor Bailey seems to have
sent Ehrenberg a sample, labelled Bermuda tripoli. It was
probably sold as a polishing powder under that name, just as
one of the Irish subpeat deposits was locally known as "Lord
Roden's Plate-powder." I fear the New Nottingham deposit
cannot be purchased here, but I have no doubt that some
American microscopist would be able to supply a small quan-
tity of it.— F. K.

Fossil Tbeth. — Fig. 57, in last number of Pcievce-Gossip,
was printed upside down. We simply mention this that the
mistake may not mislead any student.

W. K. G. — You will find a good deal of information respect-
ing the Old Red Sandstone fossils of Scotland in Ray Lankes-
ter's monograph on Devonian Fishes, published by the
Paleeontographical Society ; in Hugh Miller's " Old Red
Sandstone," " Footprints of the Creator," &c. ; and figures of
fossils in Devonian strata elsewhere, in Murchison's" Siluria,"
Geikie and Jukes's" Geology," Taylor's" Geological Stories,"
&c.

T. E. Mason. — Your letter has been forwarded. You would
find no difficulty in procuring diatomaceous material through
our Exchange column, if you have anything to offer for it.

H. W. Krusk, of 2, Portland-place, Southtown, Great
Yarmouth, kindly offers to assist any of the Science-Gossip
marine aquarium-keepers in obtaining salt water, if the latter
are willing tn pay the cost of transmission.
H. T. G. — Yourplant is Veronica Buxbaumii.
H. O. — Whitaker's " Geology of the London Basin," which
forms one of the volumes published by Government, under
the direction of the Geological Survey, will give you all the
information you seek relative to the depths of the deeper
weUs in and about London, and the strata through which they
are sunk.

P. S. E. — You will find the differences (which are very g:reat)
between the Hydrozoa and the Polyzoa in any good manual
of zoology.

J. LuMSDEN.— Your mosses are, — 3, Dicranella cerviculaia ;

4, Sypnum purum ; 5, Sphaf^num cuspidatum. No. 2, the

supposed "Coralline," is a seaweed, called Corallina officinalis.

E. W. — Yo\irino''se%dLTe,— l,Funariahygrometrica; 2,Dicra-

nella varia. — R. B.

E. V. Pike. — Kirby & Spence's " Entomology "is published
by Longmans & Co , at about 5s. For a beginner, Newman's
•' British Moths" and "British Butterflies," would be much
better. The price is not very great.

J. DuTTON.— Stark's "History of British Mosses," published
by Lovell Reeve it Co., would be the best book you could
obtain. The price is, we believe, ]0s. 6d.

E. Thomas. — It is not at all a rare matter for the Peacock
butterfly to be .seen on fine days in February, inasmuch as it
hybernates during the winter, and is warmed into life by the
returning heat of the sun.

S. A. Brbnan. — Fhnllus esnulentug is identical with Mor-
chella etcuienta. See Cooke's " Handbook of British Fungi,"
fig. 656.

J. C. MuiB.— We are sorry to say your specimens of Isoetes
hystrix never reached us.

R. Taylor, referring to Tate's "Manual of British Molluscs,"
which gives the habitat of P/rt«or6is lineatus as "near Lon-
don," wants to know the exact locality. Will some one help
him to it ?

Henry Gould.— Yonr specimen is not a clustercup, but so
nearly resembles Mcidium that it was formerly called Vredo
rtridiiformis. It is now known as Trichobasis petroselini.
The plant on which you have found it is the Stnyrnium olus-
ntrum.—M. C. C.

J. G. — You will find a good direction of how to cut sections
of coal in page 87 of Science-Gossip, volume for 1872, and a
further account, by Mr. E. T. Newton, on psge 19, volume
lor 1873.

C. C. Underwood. — Your micro fungus on leaf of Date-
palm is Graphirila phoenicis, figured in Cooke's " Handbook
of British Fungi," fig. 221.

E. L.— The snail shell is that of the " Apple snail " (Helix
pomatia), our largest species. The mineral is carbonste of
lime (calcite), deposited as stalactite.

EXCHANGES.

Pterocera Bentleyi, &c., for othsr fossils. — H. Gould, 6,
Ironmonger-street, Stamford.

Reindeer Moss from Labrador, and Liber of W^ite Birch.
Dagger-plant, and Lace-bark tree, for Shells, for a little girl's
collection. — Mrs. Beid, Bridport, Dorset.

Ciillema bintnrinum, Sticta ai/rata, Faunnria nebulosa, &c.,
offered for other Lichens. — Send list to R. V. T., Tregawn,
Withiel, Bodmin.

Wanted, a Geologist's Pickhammer. State what required.
— W. G.,3, Gordon-street, Nairn, N.B.

Wanted, a few Larvae of Crane fly (Tipula), and ditto
Cockchafer (3/e/o/orarta vulgaris). A good return will be made
in Microscopic Objects, mounted or unmounted.— Address
to Jas. Lumsden, 197, Doming- street, Wigan.

America.v Sea-weeds for British or Australian ditto. —
Address, F. W. Hall, 14, Pcirk-street, New Haven, Ct., United
States.

Puccinia hvxi. — Send stamped envelopes and objects of
interest to C. P., Innox Cottage, Corscombe, Dorchester.

Melitasa Cinxia, Arge Galathea, lycoena Adonis, and others,
for Lepidoptera, British Plants, or Birds' Eggs. — Send list to
W. Jordan, Cockfield, Sudbury, Suffolk.

Twenty NINE Monthly parts of " Cassell's Book of Birds,"
for the " Illustrated Natural History of British Butterflies,"
by Newman, or anything useful to an entomologist. — H. Sims,
Howard-street, Wakefield.

I SHOULD be glad to exchange Flowering Plants, Ferns,
Mosses, Lichens, &c., during the coming summer, with anj
of the readers of Science-Gossip. — F. W. Hall, 14, Park-
street, New Haven, Ct., United States.

Send stamped envelope and object for Sections of Horn,
Hoof, and Cuttlebone, to Thomas Lisle, Moorfields, Wolver-
hampton.

Well-mounted Foraminifera from Pacific, 1,400 fathoms,
for good Diatom or other Slides and material.— H. B.Thomas,
Boston, Lincolnshire.

Eggs of Blackheaded Bunting, Barn Owl, Sand Martin,
Sedge Warbler, Whinchat, and others, in exchange for other
British Eggs. — Address, John Piatt, Shavington, Nantwich,
Cheshire.

Shells Wanted : Valvata cristata, PlanorOis carinatus, P.
lacustris, Zunites nitidus, and Anndon cygneim, varieties.
Offered: Unio margaritifera (English), Clausilia duhia, C.
nigricans. Helix sericea, Pupa pygmita, and Succinea putris,
var. intermedia. — W. F. Sutton, Gosforth Grove, near New-
castle- upon-Tyne.

Microscopic Slides in exchange for others.— Send lists to
John C. Hutcheson, 8, Lansdowne- crescent, Glasgow.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

"The Ice Age." By James Geikie, F.G.S. London: Ibister
&Co.

"British Hepaticre." By Dr. Carrington. Parti. London:
Hardwicke.

Timbs's " Year Book of Facts for 18/4."

" Smithsonian Report" for 1872.

" Grevillea." April.

" Land and Water." April.

" Journal of Applied Science." April.

" Canadian Entomologist. " March.

" Popular Science Review." April.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." April.

" Boston Journal of Chemistry." April.

" Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society."

Communications Received up to the 12th ult. from : —
Dr. C. C.B.-C. B.— J. E. W.— W. H.W.-E. V. P.-J.T.S.—
A. S. J. A. D.-M. L. W.— F. S.-E. A. B.— H. E. W.— J. L.—
E. F. S.- L. S.— G. W. B.— J. B— W. W. S.— G. A. D.— S. A. B.

— G. G.-H.M.M.— W. E. H — O.A.— E. T.— C. W.— E. H. V.
—A. C- J. B.— T. McG.— W. G.— S. I.— W. H. G.— T. B. W.—
H. T. G.— B. T. L — L. R.— J. G. B.— C. L.— F. M. P. — T. E. M.—
H. J. McG.— W. J. C— E. H.— R. V. T.— H. W. K.— W. K. G.

- W. R. H.-J. L.— H. G.— C. F. W. T. W.— E. L,— E. P. P.
—J. S. R.— B. G. L.— E. L. R.— M. J. U.— F. J. A.— H. B. T.
—J. C. H.— H. M. W— J. P.— L. G.— W. F. S.— J. F. R. -W. B. F.
-T. L.-W. J. S. S.-C. M. M.— S. J. Mc. I.— E. T. N.-W. P.
— E. D. M.— A. T., &c.

HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

121

A CANTERBtJEY AEACHNID, NEW TO THE BEITISH FAUNA.

JS the continental engrav-
ings of Argus rejlexus
are not very satisfac-
tory, and I believe that
no figures from British
[specimens have ever
been published, I hope
those which I have now made
will be interesting to the readers
of SciEXCE-GossiP, and indeed
to English arachnologists gene-
rally. Eor details of the histo-
logical anatomy, the observations
of the Messrs. Gulliver should
be consulted in the Reports of
the East Kent Natural History
Society, of which abstracts
appear in tlic Quartcrlij Jojirnal
of Microscopical Science, April,
July, and October, 1872. Therein, among other
points, are described the curious oblong red cor-
puscles in the intestinal ca^ca ; the beautiful globules
of guanine in the urinary tubules, with a comparison
of these bodies in Argus and Ixodes ; the sperma-
tozoa of the last genus ; comparative measurement
of the eggs of both these genera ; and the composi-
tion of the dermal dots in Argus. This curious and
uncommon Arachnid was first introduced to the
notice of the East Kent Natural History Society on
March 27th, 1S71, specimens of which were given
to me by one of the vergers in Canterbury Cathe-
dral, and was reported as peculiar to that building
and as not having been seen elsewhere. The
Honorary Secretary, G. Gulliver, F.R.S., made a
cursory examination of them at the time, and at
once saw that as they had each eight legs, and the
head joiued to or consolidated with the thorax, they
were not insects, but belonged to the Spider class
{AracJudda). On his taking tlicm home for further
investigation, he failed to identify them with any
specillc description iu the systematic books then at
his command, and could make out nothing more
No. 114.

about them, but they seemed to belong to the divi-
sion Acarina. He therefore sent specimens to an
entomological authority in London, who failed to
make them out, but pronounced them, in his opinion,
to be a sort of sheep-tick. But this was far from

Fig. S2. Dorsal view of Argus rejitxus.

being satisfactory; whereupon Mr. G. Gulliver, jun.,
B.A., took some specimens with him to Oxford, and
submitted them to Professor Westwood for his in-
vestigation ; and this eminent entomologist was the
first to declare them to be the Argus reflexiis of
Latreille, who states that it occurs free in houses iu
Prance.

Two specimens tliat I found on the wall of the
passage that leads from the Cathedral to the Library,
April 20th, 1872, I placed in a glass-topped box, in
which they lived for one year and ten months. On
June 27th, 1872, I found they had laid a large
number of eggs, which were quite round and of a
reddish-brown colour, smooth and very bright^
having the appearance of small glass beads : the
mean diameter of the egg is i-31th of an inch.

August 5tli, 1872.— 1 observed that a number of
the eggs were hatched, and in a short time the
whole of them were hatched out and briskly running

G

122

HAHDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

about the box ; all of them having only six legs each,
the old ones having eight. The young lived for
more than six mouths, but on what they, with the

specimens of the Argus have been seen, aud it was
supposed that the creatures inhabited the old timber
of the roof, where for ages both pigeons and jack-
daws have nested, and that the few that have at
times been found in the lower parts of the Cathedral
were casual wanderers from their usual haunts. But
Mr. H. Austin, the present architect of the
Cathedral, thinks they have nothing to do with
pigeons as parasites, nor with the old timber as
food. He relates that some twenty-five years ago,
his father (who was then architect), in having some

•■">:/^iif«i*'"' ^-;

Fig. 83. Young of Argus reflexus.

Fig. 84. Nat. size of ditto.

old ones, subsisted, is more than I can tell, as there
was nothing in the box with them but a few small
pieces of decayed wood. I watched them con-
tinually, expecting to see the addition of the deflcient
pair of legs, which I thought probably would take
place at a moulting; but, not being in a natural con-
dition for their further development, this did not
take place. They are stated by Latreille to be
parasitic in their early state on young pigeons, but
this we have not yet been able to verify. Some of
them are about a third of an inch long, a fifth broad,
and a twentieth thick, but many are smaller. The

Fig. 85. Nat. size oi Argus reflexus.

back is irregularly wrinkled or pitted, and in the
larger specimens, regularly studded with minute
points, each about l-120tli of an inch in diameter,
and composed, according to Mr. Gulliver, of carbo-
nate of lime. The outline of the creature is egg-
shaped, with the small end forward. They have no
eyes, nor have they a suctorial proboscis, like the
common tick. They are quite opaque, and through-
out of a dull and uniform dark brown hue, except at
the circumference, which is rather paler : they are
slow in their movements, and when disturbed will
readily sham death by drawing up the legs close
under the body, so as to be completely hid from sight
on a dorsal view (fig. 82). Since the fire that took
place September 3rd, 1872, by which a portion of the
old roof of the Cathedral was destroyed, very few

Fig. 86. Ventral view oi Argus reflexus,

old wall removed in connection with the repaii-ing
going on in the Cathedral, came upon a quantity of
these insects in the mortar in which the stones
were laid. He had them placed in a box with the
intention of sending them to London for investiga-
tion. They were put by at the time and ultimately
forgotten. Some four or five years had passed,
when the box containing them was found and
opened, and to his astonishment numbers of them
were still living. There was nothing in the box in
shape of food, nor was there any indication that
they had consumed any portion of the box. Annexed
is a sketch (fig. 85) I have made from the specimens
I have by me. Perhaps some of your many readers
may recognize them as inhabiting some other places
as well as Canterbury Cathedral, aud be able to
throw some light on their life-history.

May 1st, 1874. — I have just obtained two speci-
mens of the Argus, near to where I found those
before mentioned ; they were almost covered with
that salty semitranspareut efflorescence that is
frequently found on the mortar of old buildings.

James Eullagak.

" The present is only the last of a great series of
pre-existing creations, of which we cannot esti-
mate the number or limit in times past." — LyeWs
" Geology r

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

123

THE HISTORY OE CULTIVATED VEGE-
TABLES.
By H. G. Glasspoole.
No. II.— The Onion.

*' Wel loved he garlic, onions and letics.''

Chatjcbb.

THE various kinds of onions, garlic, and leeks,
are called alliaceous plants, and were formerly
placed by the older botanists under the natural order
of the Asphodeliese, but are now included in the
LiliacejE, or Lily tribe. The native country of the
jiarden onion {Allium Cepci) is not known. Dr.
Kitto, in his " Cyclopsedia of Biblical Literature,"
thinks that some region of Persia may have first
produced it in its wild state, as many species of the
Allium arc to be found in the moutainous chain which
extends from the Caspian to Cashmere, and likewise
in the Himalayan mountains. There is a tradition
in the East that when Satan stepped out of the
Garden of Eden after the Eall of Man, onions sprang
up from the spot where he placed his right foot,
and garlic from that which his left foot touched. Be
this as it may, there is no doubt of its great antiquity,
since there is evidence to show that this bulb was
known and esteemed in Egypt 2,000 years before
the birth of Christ, for Herodotus informs us that
in his time there was an inscription on the Great
Pyramid stating that a sum amounting to 1,600
talents for this vegetable whichhad been consumed by
the workmen during the progress of its erection. One
of the complaints that the Israelites made to Moses
in the wilderness was that of being deprived of
the onions, leeks, and garlic of Egypt.

It has been said by some authors that the onion
was worshipped as a god by the Egyptians, and
Pliny, in his " Natural History," writes thus on the
subject :— " Where, by the way, I cannot overpass
the foolish superstition of the Egyptians, who used
to swear by garlic and onions, calling them to wit-
ness in taking their oaths, as if they were no less
than some god." Juvenal in like manner ridicules
the Egyptians for their superstitious veneration of
the onion (Sat. xv. 9).

" 'Tis mortal sin an onion to devour ;
Each clove of garlic is a sacred power :
Religious nations sure, and blest abodes.
Where ev'ry orchard is o'errun with gods."

Dr. Kitto remarks that this must be an exaggerated
statement, as it is unlikely that the Israelites should
have been allowed to regale themselves upon what
was considered too sacred for, or forbidden to, their
task -masters. It is probable, as suggested by Dr.
Harris, that the priests ^oiily refrained from what
was freely partaken of by the people. This may be
observed in the present day among the Brahmins
of India. It has also been supposed that some

particular kind of onion may have been held sacred
from its utility as a medicine, as the sea onion or
squill {Scilla maritmd), which grows in great
abundance on the seacoast in the neighbourhood of
Pelusium, whose inhabitants are said by Lucian to
have especially worshipped the onion. But it is
evident that the Israelites in the desert did not long
for this acid bulb.

The onion was well known to the Greeks and
Romans. It is said that Pythagoras, the great
philosopher and traveller, who lived in the sixth
centary B.C., wrote a treatise on the onion. Theo-
phrastus, who died in his 107th year, complaining of
the shortness of life, wrote on the same subject
about 200 years before the Christian era. Pliny
mentions all the countries from whence the Greeks
and Romans procured the different varieties of
onion, but states that he could not discover that
they ever grew wild. The different kinds were
named from the places which produced them, and
among these the Cnidian onion was considered
the mildest, and those from Cyprus drew the most
tears.

Perhaps from Italy it may have been distributed
throughout Europe, in almost every country of
which it has been cultivated from time immemorial.
We have no record when the onion was introduced
into this country ; it may have been brought by the
Romans, or introduced at a later period from the
Continent by the monks. The earliest mention of
them that T can find are in the lines at the head of
this paper from Chaucer's Prologue (v. 636), who
lived about 1340, in the reign of Edward III.
Gerard, 1597, writes thus on the subject :—" The
onion being eaten, yea though it be boiled, causeth
headach, hurteth the eies and maketh a man dim-
sighted, dulleth the senses and provoketh over-
much sleep, especially being eaten rawe." He adds,
"Being rawe they nourish not at all, and but a little
though they be boiled." In Donne's " Hort. Can-
tabrigiensis" it is stated that the Spanish onion
was brought into this country about 1596.

In a curious old poem, entitled " The Hog hath
Lost his Peari," published in 1614, occur the fol-
lowing lines : —

" And you that delight in trulls and muiions.
Come buy my four ropes of hard St. Thomas's onions."

"Buy my rope of onions, white St. Thomas's
onions," was one of the cries of London in the
seventeenth century. (See 1^016$ and Queries,
vol. iii. series i.)

Shakespeare notices their property of drawing
tears in " Taming of the Shrew," which play is sup-
posed to have been published about 1625, where he
says : —

" If the boy have not a woman's gift
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion will do well."

G 2

124

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-GO S S I P.

We leani from Bradley, -wbo' wrote ia 1718, how
mucli this pungent vegetable was then esteemed.
After liaving stated that the potato was thought a
root of little note, he says : " I now come to treat
of the onion, a root more generally used in the
iitchen than any other. Of this there are two
kinds worth the gardener's care. The first is the
Spanish onion, which affords a large, sweet-tasted
(root, and the other the Strasburg onion, which is
more biting, and lasts good much longer than the
former."

Sir Francis Bacon, in the fifth century of his
*' Natural History," declares that "onions wax.
greater if they be taken out of tlie earth, and laid
a-drying twenty days, and then set again ; and yet
more if the outermost peel be taken off all over."
He was of opinion that their growth was influenced
by the state of the moon. "Take," he says,
" some seeds or roots of onions, and set some of
them immediately after the change, and others of
the same kind immediately after the full: let them
<be as like as can be, the earth also the same as
near as may be, and then see bow they differ."
He adds : " For the increase of moisture the
•opinion received is, that seeds will grow soonest,
and hedges and herbs cut will grow soonest if they
be set or cut in the increase of the moon."

The medicinal qualities of the onion have been
«the subject of disputes with physicians, both in
■ancient and modern times.

Asclepiades, a physician of Bitliynia, who wrote
ii.bout ninety years before the Christian era, and
all his followers, affirmed that onions were whole-
some, caused strength, and cleared the complexion.
Pliny states that, in his day, the medical fraternity
held a different opinion, and considered that they
were hurtful to the parts about the heart and other
vital members, that they hindered digestion, &c. ;
still he admits that they have some good qualities,
for he says : " Those onions which are sown in
gardens I am sure will, with their smell only, cause
the eyes to shed tears, and by that means clarify
the sight ; but if they be anointed with the juice
they will mundify the better."

In warm climates the onion grows to a large
size, and is milder and more succulent than those
of our country. In the south of France, Spain,
and Portugal, it is often eaten like an apple, with
a piece of bread, by the labouring classes for their
dinner.

In Egypt, as of old, it is still greatly esteemed.
The traveller Hasselquist remarks on the exquisite
flavour of the Egyptian onion, and says " that it
is no wonder the Israelites should have regretted
the loss of this delicacy, for whoever lias tasted of
the onions of Egypt must acknowledge that none
can be better in any part of tlie universe. There,"
says he, " they are mild and pleasant to the palate ;
in other countries they are strong and nauseous.

There they are soft and yielding, but in the
countries to the north they are hard, and their
coats so compact as to render them less easy of
digestion." The Egyptians divide them into four
parts, and eat them roasted together with pieces of
meat, which preparation they consider so delicious
that they devoutly wish it may form one of the
viands of Paradise. A soup made of these onions
was pronounced by the learned traveller to be cer-
tainly one of the best dishes of which he ever
partook. This savoury bulb is known and esteemed
iu the countries beyond the Nile. Major Denham
states that on his route south from Bornou, he saw
numerous gardens, but the only vegetables produced
iu them appeared to be onions and beans.

The many culinary purposes to which this vege-
table is applied are known to every one, and it has
been stated that the onion and mushroom make
the foundation of every sauce both in ancient and
modern times. It constitutes one of the luxuries
of the poor, and finds its way in various forms to
the tables of the wealthy; indeed, as Dean Swift
says : —

" This is every cook's opinion,
Ko savoury dish without an onion."

And, according to the witty Sydney Smith, no salad
would be perfect without them, for in his poetic
recipe for making one, which he wrote some years
ago at Castle Howard, the following lines occur : —

" Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,
And scarce suspected animate the whole."

Next to the potato, perhaps the consumption of
onions among the poor and labouring classes of this
kingdom is greater than any other vegetable.

In that amusing and interesting work " London
Labour and London Poor," it is stated that £99,900
are being annually devoted to the purchase of this
article by the poor, and that from eight hundred
to one thousand persons are engaged in this trade
iu the great metropolis.

The onion is still sold about the streets of London
as of old, in ropes made of straw, into which the
roots are firmly plaited, principally by the Irish
poor. There are several varieties of the onion in
cultivation; the Strasburg, Spanish, and Portu-
guese are most esteemed. Some are "of a milder
flavour than others, but it has been observed, the
further north this vegetable is grown the stronger
the flavour becomes.

The imports of onions are very considerable ; iu
1867 they amounted to 815,214 bushels.

How TO AERATE Aquauia.— I shall be glad if
any of your readers who are skilled in the manage-
ment of aquaria can tell me the best means of
effectually aerating a marine aquarium containing
1,500 gallons of water.— £". A. Butler.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

125

A RARE ZOOPHYTE.

rpHREE or foiu years ago I made an excursion
-^ to one of our bays, and brought lionie from a
rock-pool a handful of PhyUophora ruhens, for the
purpose of examining the small zoopliytes with
■which it was encrusted. I had much delight in
seeing the pretty little animals of Lepralia ciliata
aud L. GattijcB (the Jatter was new to me) expand
their delicate tentacula in a watch-glass full of sea-
water, aud on one small frond of tlie Phyllpphora,
the quaint and curious little Beania mlrabilis ! It
was described as growing on stems and shells, and
I would never have thought of looking for it on a
seaweed. It expanded itself finely at first, but the
weather was dull, and it died before I could see
much of it. As I saw by Johnson's and Londs-

Fig. 87. Rare Zoophyte {Beania mirabilis).

borough's books that the animal was unknown, I
was anxious to procure another specimen, so I
visited the same tide-pool some time ago, but
neither P. rnbens nor Beania were there. I examined
PhjjllopJiora from other localities without success,
but at last, when I did not think of anything but
specimens of seaweed, I saw, on the perpendicular
side of a rock, at low-water mark, some small cir-

cular fronds, probably Kallymenia reniformis. Oo
one of these fronds I found, but too late to take it
alive, the latter variety which I sought. On Friday,
the I7th of April, the tide being propitious, I went
to the same spot and brought away a quantity of
encrusted weeds from the rocks, at the lowest tide,,
and after carefully examining every portion with ax
lens, I had the satisfaction to find 0)ie frond of the-
Kallymenia (it is less than an inch hi size), which,
was inhabited by a colony of Beania in company
with other scarcely less interesting atoms.

1 had some dilliculty in examining it, as it would'
not expand itself in the glass trough of the micro-
scope, but in a watch-glass it came out of its cell,
freely, though it kept itself obstinately shut up i£
the sun shone too brightly upon it. I send the-
accompanying sketch, as it will be better than any
descriptioQ which I could give in words. It is a
lovely little creature, as transparent as glass. The
polype-cell opens like the mouth of a travelling-baj
or a porte-monnaie, and then the animal protrudes
its whole length, then expands itself like a beau-
tiful crystal cup on a long stem, turning itself iii
every direction with the most charming grace.

There are cells in every stage of growth, froiii
mere tubes to full-grown ; some of these, such as.
the one marked thus *, I did not see expand, and
1 take them to be cells in which the animal is not
yet quite developed. L. R.

A FIREMAN'S DOG.

"V/TY friend Mr. Tozer, iu his interesting article-
■^^ on the origin of fires, did well to qualify the
discredit he endeavoured to throw upon the dog ia
relation to such catastrophes, by admitting that
many anecdotes might be related of the interest
dogs have taken in, and assistance they have given,
at, fires. The following, though perhaps not known-
to Mr. Tozer himself, will be familiar to many
members of his brigade, and speaks volumes for
the sagacity of the one animal which, above all
others, makes itself so companionable to man.

At one of the principal Manchester theatres,
adopting the recommendation of Mr. Tozer, the
proprietors, upon the theory that prevention is-
better than cure, engaged a person as night watch-
man, whose duties were to make the tour of the-
building during the performances, again imme-
diately upon the close of the entertainments, and
finally in the early morning. To guard against the
common and great evil, arising from the system of
night-watching — sleep — periodical visits were made-
from the fire office. Left alone in a spacious build-
ing, and that one associated with anything but ex-
citement, the long hours of solitariness and en-
forced wakefulness must have passed wearily
indeed. No wonder, then, that the man should

126

HARDWICKE'S SCIEKCE-GOSSIP.

have accepted t'ne companionsiiip of a wretched-
looking stray cur, who was ouly too glad to avail
himself of the shelter afforded him, and of the
morsel of food he thus obtained. By-and-by this
dog (" Jack," I think, it was called) became attached
to the place, and regularly went the rounds with
the watchman, sniffing at every corner and diving
into all manner of crevices where dangerous mate-
rial was at all likely to accumulate, and, its work
finished, lying at the feet of its self-chosen master.
This nightly routine continued for some time,
" Jack " being as regularly at his post as the watch-
man—perhaps even more punctual. At length a
new arrangement of night-watching was made. The
services of the watchman were dispensed with'
Mr. Tozer undertaking to provide one of his
brigade for the purpose. Everybody thought the
last had been seen of " Jack ;" but not so. " Jack "
persisted in continuing his self-imposed duties. He
did not, however, become so attached to the fireman
as he had been to his friend the watchman, but he
never missed going the rounds, generally alone. The
one during the performance he did not miss for
years, as he could obtain admission so easily at the
time the building was, as it were, open to the
public. And it was no uncommon thing to meet
" Jack " either crossing the back of the stage on
the way to the dressing-rooms, in the "flies," or in
the carpenter's shop, tail between legs and nose
close to the floor, regardless of all efforts to distract
his attention. As soon as his business was done
away he would go. But one luckless night " Jack,''
in endeavouring to cross the stage, took the wrong
"opening," and, to the astonishment of possibly
none more that himself, made " his first appearance
before the public." Nothing could well have been
more mal apropos to " Jack," for, as ill-luck would
have it, the manager himself was playing that night,
and, still worse, was on the scene at the time. A
crowded audience were listening with '"bated
breath " to the play, when ugly " Jack " suddenly
became the "observed of all observers," and
changed entirely the humour of the house, which
broke out into an outburst of laughter, in which
the heroine, who was supposed to be overawed by
the declamation of the hero, joined most heartily.
The manager-actor having his back turned, did not
see the cause of the absurd turn the simulated
tragedy had taken, and waxed wroth. His vengeance
had to be wreaked, and upou " Jack " was visited
the summary punishment of total and final expul-
sion from within the walls of the theatie. But
notwithstanding the edict, and the faithfulness
with which the hall-keeper endeavoured to carry it
out, " Jack " now and again managed to elude the
guard and made his round. Gradually, however,
finding himself so unwelcome, he ceased his visits
entirely, B. Peacock.

SUBTERRANEAN ENTOMOLOGY.

T HAVE lately made an excursion in the depart-
■^ ment of the Ariege ; my principal object being
the collection of the eyeless beetles which inhabit
the numerous grottos in this part of the Pyrenees,
already well known for its underground fauna, and
I have thought a short notice of the excursion may
be of interest. I must premise that my visit was
made in autumn, a season but little favourable to
the purpose.

In the latter days of August and the first fort-
night of September I was staying at Aulus-les-
Bains, near which is a solitary grotto, close to a
spring known as the Neuf-Fonts. There I dis-
covered, after a two hours' search, some specimens
of a new Adelops, which I named in reference to the
locality. Ad. novem-fordhtm. It lives near the end
of the cave, under small rolled pebbles, which form
here a thick bed.

In the same spot I deposited morsels of raw
meat by way of bait, and very soon succeeded in
capturing numerous individuals of this species,
which I should probably have failed in securing
had I contented myself with tlie ordinary method of
collecting. The meat also attracted several Pris-
tonyclius Fijreiucus ; and on one of my last visits I
found at the extreme end of the cave an eyed
Macharites (sub-genus Linderia) buried in the half-
liquid mud.

From the 15tli to the 19th September I remained
at Saint Girous, from whence I made several visits
to the grottos of Aubert and De Moulis, which
afforded me Anophthalmus Tlido and cerbenis (the
former common enough in the De Moulis grotto)
and Orpheus, which lives on the summit of the
slope by which the descent is made into the grotto
of Aubert, by a path not only light, but exposed to
the direct rays of the sun. All the specimens I
found of this species were buried deep in the soil,
which at tliat season was scarcely damp. 1 searched
in vain for An. Bucephalus, of which a single ex-
ample had been captured in the Aubert cave by
M. Dieck.

Of Adelops I took clacatus in abundance in both
caves, and also, in lesser numbers, the large and
handsome Dleckii, which appears to be confined to
the Aubert cave, where it lives by preference in the
Great Hall, at the opening of one of the two gal-
leries by which the visitor enters.

In the cave of Olot, about a quarter of an hour's
walk from St. Girons, I found eight examples of an
Adelops crawling over the walls, which, strange to
say, were not Aheillei, so common in that locality
but the Stijglus of Dieck. Near the entrance, on
the heaps of bats' dung, were numbers of the
cyanescens variety of Tristonychus terricola. This
beetle was my sole capture in the cave of Miguet.

From the 20th to the 26th September, I trans-

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G 0 S SIP.

127

ferred my centre of operations to Prat ; where
Pierre Manaiid, of Cazavet, the regular entomolo-
gists' guide, conducted me to all the grottos of the
neighbourhood. I strongly commend Manaud to
future explorers, as 1 am confident they will be
satisfied with his services.

The cavern of Peyort, which has hitherto afforded
only Anophthalmus cerbenis, and that but sparingly,
was the one in which I made the most interesting
captures. At the extreme end I met with a form
of All. Orpheus intermediate in aspect and size
between the true Orpheus (such as it appears at the
entrance of the Aubert Cave) and comorramcs, as
found in the grotto of Aspet. My discovery con-
firms the suggestion of M. Dieck, that the latter is
simply a variety cf Orpheus, in opposition to M.
Abeille's opinion, who would raise it to the rank of
a species.

It is worthy of remark that the Orpheus of Peyort
buried in semi-fiuid clay at the extremity of an
absolutely dark cave, is nevertheless as brightly
coloured as individuals of the same species which
revel in the direct rays of the sun at the entrance
of the grotto of Aubert !

A)iop]ithahnHS cerberus abounded in the same
locality, running over the mud, and with it 1 took
four specimens of a new Anophthalmus {An. tere-
das, mihi), belonging to the Aph/eiiops group ; but
sufficiently distinguished by the size of tiie head
and the more robust form.

The grotto of Estellas, the special locality of
An. cerberus, gave me tliat species in abundance.
I found besides thirty examples of Adelops infemus,
and a solitary female of a species which I took to
be Ad. Ehlersi, originally discovered in the grotto
of Saleich. This last-named cave afforded me four
All. cerberus, a few Ad. infemus and ovatus, but not
a single Ehlersi.

In the grotto of Aspet, seventeen or eighteen
miles from Prat, I found three individuals of An.
Orpheus, var. consorranus, buried in the slope near
the entrance ; but the finding cost me several hours'
work with the pickaxe.

I also picked up four specimens of Ad. lapidicola
under the stones scattered over the floor, and a
large supply of Ad. ovatus, a species which abounds
in this cavern, especially beneath the stones, resting
upon heaps of what appears to be old decomposed
guano of bats.

Keturning to Saint Girons on the 26th September,
I remained there four days for the purpose of
making excursions to Mas d'Azil and Sainte Croix,
in the former I found Adelops Abeillei in consider-
able quantities, but no Anophthalmus trophonius, as
I had expected. I employed the rest of the day
in visiting the huge cavern of the Mas on the left
bank of that stream. The cavity is not very deep,
but has a wide opening ; nor is it absolutley dark
in any part. At the time of my visit it had become

a little dry : in spite of tliis I captured in a short
time several specimens of Pholenon Querilhaci, a
few Adelops Abeillei, a single Anophthalmus cerberus,
var. iiunqualis, and two individuals of a new
Adelops, to which I gave the name of Ad. cras-
sicoriiis.

On the 1st of October I went from Saint Girons
to Massat. Near Massat, on the side of a hill
named Le Gueire or Le Ker, two spacious caverns
open out one above the other. In the upper one I
took a few examples of Adelops Discontignyi, and
another species which answers to the description of
Ad. zophosinus, but which I dare not affirm to be
that insect before comparing it with the type, as it
has not hitherto been found in the caverns of Massat.

The lower cave is the dwelling-place of bats;
never have I seen so large a number of these dis-
gusting creatures collected in one place. The floor,
the walls,--in fact, the whole cavern — is covered with
their excreta, the heaps of which are infested by
myriads of dipterous larvse, and in some cases
swarming with acari to such an extent, that the
ground is completely hidden from view. Hundreds
of Pristoiiychus pyrenceus crawl over the piles of
guano, and fatten on the easily-captured prey,
which this countless population offers them. They
are in turn tormented by the mites {acari), which
attach themselves to their bodies in great numbers .
and it is, perhaps, to escape from these pests that
they are so constantly seen creeping along the
walls of the cavern. Here they appear to live ou
good terms with the numerous spiders which spread
their webs on every side.

The next day I went from Massat to Ussat,
passing by Bedeillac, where there are several caves
worth visiting. In one of them, remarkable for its
dimensions and the richness of its stalactites and
stalagmites, I found several specimens of Ad. pyre.
nmus. Leaving Ussat on the 3rd, I visited the
famous grotto of Lombrive. or Echelles, the largest
and perhaps most beautiful in the Pyrenees, and
well known to entomologists as the home of the
rare Aiioph. Ilinos. It lias, however, been sought
for in vain for some time now. I was not more
fortunate than my predecessors, and was obliged
to be contented with some specimens of Fholenoii
Querilhaci and Ad. pyrenceus.

Two days after this I reached Lavelanef, where
I was told there was a cave. My informant, how-
ever, forgot to tell me that the floor of the cave
was entirely occupied by a deep stream, which sup-
plies the public fountain in the neighbouring town.
I persevered, nevertheless, waded through the ice-
cold water up to my middle, and was rewarded for
my boldness by the capture of a dozen specimens
of an entirely new ^^(?/o/?.y {Ad. Pmm, mihi), which
were crawling over the sides of the grotto.

De la Bbulerie, in Fetites Nouvelles Ento-
mologiques de 1872-73.

128

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

'PLANTS OP THE GRExiT ORME'S HEAD.

MR. T. M. WEBB, who has written about the
rare plants of Anglesca (in S.-G., No. 100,
p. 40), inquires as to whether the local Limsyns
vulgaris or Chnjsocoma Linosyris still exists on the
Great Orme's Head, and intimates that his
t)otanical friends cannot noio find it. Perhaps they
did not know where to look, for the Orme's Head
occupies a considerable area, and yet one particular
ledge of rocks is more productive of rare plants
than any other. I was at Llandudno in September
last year, and found some fine specimens of the
Linosyris in flower, on the same range of limestone
cliffs on which the Cotoneaster used formerly to
grow in considerable plenty, I was at the time
groping among the recesses of the broken ledge
alluded to, wanting to see if any of the Cotoneaster
was left there ; but after three close searches at
■the locality where, twenty years ago, a considerable
quantity of the plant was apparent, and in fruit too,
specimens of which I then gathered, I could now
find only one little stunted shrub, scarcely visible
in the crevice where it grew, which I scrupulously
' left in its position ; and unless this remains safe
•from the rapacious hands of the unsparing collectors
that, unfortunately for the Cotoneaster, have visited
Llandudno since its rise into celebrity as a watering-
place, I fear that it will have to be "judiciously
bracketed," as Mr. Webb says, with other lost
habitats of rare British plants. The inquiries
and demands of lady botanists have, I am afraid,
led to the extermination of the Cotoneaster ; for, as
attached particularly to the Orme's Head, it has
-got placed as a rarity into the Guide Book of
Llandudno, and rocks and woods are stript of
•their ferns to be sold to visitors in a living state.
In Dr. Hooker's " Student's Plora of the British
Islands," it is questioned whether the Linosyris is
a native of Britain ; but, growing on such a locality
.as the Orme's Head, I can see no reason myself
to doubt it. A report from particular localities as
to the " now " existence of plants at the spot is
.always satisfactory, as preventing dissapointment
to searchers.

On the same ledge of rocks I allude to, I observed
Orobanche hedera, Thttlictrum minus, Geranium
■sanguineum, and abundance of Veronica spicata,
var. hybrida,\v\\\c\\ the Welsh have appropriated to
their prince Llewelyn, under the name of Lllys
Xlewelyn, which may be worth notice, as I think
Slothing has been yet done as to recording the
•common names of plants given by the Welsh. This
particular ledge of rocks, the special seat of the
Cotoneaster, does not face the sea, but its aspect
and position are shown in a woodcut in my
" Botanical Looker-out."

The same side of the Orme's Head is productive
of other local plants, as Potentilla verna, Scabiosa

columbaria, Reliantliemim canum, and Juniperns
communis. The latter clings to the rocks in a
prostrate state ; but when I firstvisited this remark-
able headland, there was evidence that the Juniper
had in past times grown erect and of considerable
size, for old decaying stems lay on the ground iu
several places.

Spircca fiiipendula is particularly plentiful on the
turf of the hill, but in a dwarf state, as indeed are
most of the other plants scattered about this
calcareous ground. As grand masses of building
now front the beach, with a crowd of bathing-
machines, all the littoral plants that I knew there
in years past are swept away, and among the rest
Senecio riscosus, which in my former visits was
plentiful ; but I found that it had taken refuge in a
waste rubbishy spot above one of the paths now
leading among houses to the southern side of the
Head. I may also mention that the grey or small-
flowered Thistle {Carduus tenuifiorus), that when I
first knew Llandudno, was in euormous abundance
about the place, has now entirely disappeared, for
I did not meet with a single specimen. The Yellow
Horned Poppy (Glaucium luteum) had also been
banished, though I detected a colony of it in a
curious spot some distance from the shore, amidst
the debris of a quarry towards Conway. The
increase of population and building speculations in
places where Nature previously reigned in solitude,
causes great alteration in the stations of plants,
and is perplexing and annoying to the botanist.

Between Llandudno and Conway there is a little
cluster of igneous hills, which may be compared to
large round puddings suddenly taken from the pot,
and one of these, more conspicuous than the rest,
and near to the river Conway, bears the name of
Craig Diganwy. At the top it has a range of pre-
cipitous rocks towards the river, and it was fortified
by the early Welsh princes ; fragmentary relics of
whose walls and towers yet remain hard as the rock
itself. W'hen I first clambered up the Craig, many
years ago, I was struck with the appearance of its
vegetation, which, being on a trappoid soil, was
quite a contrast to the plants on the Orme's Head.
The Poxglove {Digitalis purpurea) here revelled
in profusion, while there was not a single specimen
on the Orme's Head, and the rocks here were
sprinkled over with the Nottingham Catchfly
{Silene nutans) ; and one very pretty adornment to
the ground was the Maiden Pink {Lianthus
deltoides). I need not mention other plants that
grew here, but it was quite a botanic garden,
delightful to contemplate. But since my last visit
what an horrific change has occurred to desecrate the
spot. Some miserable cheese-paring Welshman has
inclosed and taken possession of the space on the
top of the Craig, formerly occupied by the keep or
donjon of the old castle, and which is sunk a yard
deeper than the rest of the area, and planted it with

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

129

potatoes. How long it has been thus appropriated
I cannot say, but the footsteps of the Taflies have
brought with them a mass of ahnost every kind of
noxious or ugly weed, that is sure to encumber
cultivated laud and its borders. Nettles (both
Uftica dioica and 'urens) of course abounded;
thistles in masses difficult to get through ; trailing
brambles, forming a thorny labyrinth vexatious to
pierce ; enormous quantities of the Black Horehound,
and other weeds of detestable aspect it is not worth
while to enumerate. One thing was perhaps worthy
of notice, that the sides of the obstructed path up
the hill were bordered at intervals with numerous
seedling plants of the Milk - thistle {Silybum
Mariamim), which 1 never before saw in such
abundance. There was little else worth notice on
Craig Diganwy at this time, except an extraordinary
growth of Sea Barley {Uordeum maritlmum), on the
very top of the hill, and on a rock by the side of
the potato-garden, a tuft of the Orpine {Sedum
telephiiim), which I only mention to remark that
the Welsh in their common name for it have com-
memorated the famous magician and bard Taliesin,
calling it Lhjsiau Taliesin. I was glad to recover
the pretty Biantlms deltoides on the hill adjacent to
Craig Diganwy, and then, as the sun descended over
the sea, I passed on to Conway.

Edwin Lees, F.L.S.
Green Hill Summit, Worcester.

NOTES FROM NEW ZEALAND.

ON looking over some back numbers of
Science-Gossip, 1872, my attention was
attracted by a drawing of Plumatella, and I deter-
mined to search our lakes for some of the family.
I was the more induced to do so, by a statement
in the Popular Science Review for 1863, to the effect
that not till 1860 had any representative of the
family been discovered in the southern hemisphere.
Not having been in the habit of looking for such
things, it was perhaps a month before my search
was rewarded with success, I had turned up
stones, dragged up roots, but could find only a
small specimen, with a circular disc of tentacles,
which I will notice presently. At last, sitting on
the edge of the lake, I saw in the shallow water at
my feet a small black mass, apparently covered with
vphite pearly-looking dots. My curiosity being
excited, the unknown was soon transferred to a
bottle, supplied with water, and allowed to rest
quietly for a few minutes, to get ready for my
pocket-lens. It was not long before some hundreds
of little Polypides pushed forth their horseshoe-
shaped lophophores and commenced to feed away
as if they had never been disturbed. I brought
them home and kept them for some weeks, in order

to be able to examine their statoblasts, which are
very like those of fruticosa.

These were plentiful, but no ova could I find,
and, strange to relate, the reverse was the case
with the circular-crowned specimens. The latter
were kept for more thau three months, but no
statoblasts ever appeared. Ova were often ejected,
which after spinning about merrily for twenty-four
hours would settle down quietly on tLe side of the
glass and begin to found a new colony. Their
settling on the side of the glass gave me a fine
opportunity for observing them closely. Placing
it on a stand before the lamp, I was able to direct
the microscope horizontally at them, and as the
young ones were almost transparent, the whole
internal economy was distinctly visible. The
minute cilia wilh their alternate vibration, the
diagonal retractor muscle, and the continuous
movement of the food in the alimentary canal were
to me, who saw them for the first time, objects of
great interest.

An amusing circumstance occurred with
these circular-crowned Polypides. Sometimes
a little water-flea would thoughtlessly venture
within range of the tentacles, which instantly
closed in on it, forming a kind of spherical cage,
out of wliich the poor little flea frantically endea-^
voured to escape, but in vain. At length tlie little
prisoner rested from his futile attempts to gain his
freedom, and, all being still, the tentacles once more
spread out as usual.

No sooner did the little prisoner see this than he
darted for the opening, only to find himself stopped
again by the suddenly closed tentacles of his more
active captor. Seven or eight times did this take
place ere he regained his liberty. It was a good
picture on a small scale of a cat playing with a
mouse ; with this difference, pussy when tired
generally feasts on her plaything, while the little
Daphnia is in no danger of being injured by the
polyped.

From its being so admirably adapted to supply
the wants of amateurs, Science-Gossip no doubt
finds its way into many an English household,
some members of which may perhaps be thinking
of coming to these far-off lands. I would earnestly
advise such, if already lovers of nature, to bring
with them a microscope and one of the numerous
excellent works that are published about it.
Not only is there no other instrument from which
so much amusement and instruction can be derived,
but there is nothing like the study of nature for
imparting to both young and old the habit of
correct observation and clear thinking. My advice
to them is : do not give up any hobby you may
have in the old country, but look forward to pro-
secuting it more vigorously in the new ; for our
woods and lakes are teeming with life, much of
which probably differs from that at home. Still,

130

HARDWICKE'S SC IE NC E- G O S SI P.

many old friends will be met witl), such as tlie
curious Volvox, the industrious Builder x\uiinal-
cule, the lovely green Desmids, some of which
might furnish a design for a "Eeuian Star of
Merit," and hosts of others that are figured in
home publications.

IFaiiganui, New Zealand. C. Htjlke.

TURNTABLES AND CEMENTS.

IN the diagram of turntable, fig. 61, p. 81, there
is an inaccuracy which, as there represented,
would render it perfectly useless. The " cam " E
should form a portion of a spiral with a gradually
increasing diameter, so as to act, in fact, like a
circular wedge, the piece of mainspring, which has
been softened at one end and turned into a loop,
fitting loosely on to the screw A, serving to keep
the slide from being moved eudwise by the fric-
tion in turning, as it would do were the slide and
the cam in direct coutact. The accompanying
figure is from a tracing of the original, and there-
fore gives the exact size and form. If the cell
be a little more on one side of the centre of the
glass slip than the other, the narrower side of the
glass should be placed uppermost, as this requires
less space than the other to be moved through in
adjusting.

Erom observations recently made, there is reason
to believe it is not an uncommon plan to mark the
centre of the glass slip and then to turn it over and
mount the object on the under side opposite to it.
Such a proceeding will, of course, invert the rela-
tive position of the central spot with the edges of
the glass, and throw it out of ceutre when placed
object upwards on the turntable ; and from an
examiuation of many slides in my own collection,
there is full evidence of this having been the course
adopted. In centring, the upper surface must
contain the object as well as the first stage in the
marking. If, for instance, intending to use a half-
inch cover, make a circle five-eighths or three-
quarters of an inch in diameter, and when dry
place the object in the centre of this circle, and the
latter will be a correct guide for the cover, which
may very readily be adjusted with its edge equi-
distant within the ring, the latter disappearing on
clearing off the balsam. Before using, the glass
slip is best cleaned with spirits of wine and a piece
of fine cambric, after which it only requires par-
ticles of dust to be brushed oif immediately before
placing the object upon it.

Cements may be divided, practically, into two
classes, — one for the making of, or fixing down, cells,
the other for attaching covers and fur the subse-
quent filling up the edges, either for security or
for ornamentation. Eor the present we will con-
fine ourselves to such cements as are to be used

with the turntable. Eor shallow cells, either for
fluid or for dry objects, there is scarcely anything to
equal the original " black japan" ; objects mounted
in which nearly twenty years ago are as perfect
as at first. The circle should be made as full
and plump with the japan as possible, with a full
brush, and then it should be placed in a slow oven (or
in a Dutch oven before the fire), until baked too hard
to be indented with the thumb-nail. It will now
be found shelving off to each side of the ring, forming
a wedge-like edge to the inside of the cell, which
is very objectionable, as objects are apt to get be-
tween it and the cover ; therefore It must be
turned off to an abrupt ring, which can be done as
easily on the turntable as in a turning-lathe. The
three holes in the turntable under the left-hand end
of the glass slide, represented in fig. 88, admit of
a small conical pin being dropped in, so as to set
the slide fast in the only remaining direction it
could move. A piece of wood projects over the
surface of the wheel and up to within an inch of
the centre, to act as a rest for the finger, and then
with a small sharp chisel the hardened japan may
be scraped off' the glass and turned into shape in
a few moments. A quantity of these cells of all
diameters should be kept ready for use, as they
require some time in hardening.

I

I

o

Fig. 88. Portion of a Turntable.

The material next in usefulness is termed
asphalte, or asphaltum, a kind of mineral pitch
brought from Trinidad. It is soluble in various
fluids, but some of these solutions have the objec-
tionable quality of "running in," and whenever
any oil, varnish, or japan gold-size, &c., is mixed
with it to reduce its brittleness, this tendency is
greatly increased. In its pure form it has none of
this tendency whatever, and the solvent which
enables it to retain the most of its original
character is " benzole " ; but there is this disad-
vantage, that if made thin enough to work freely
it spreads on the glass, and if thick enough to pre-
vent this, the benzole evaporates so fast that it
becomes unworkable and rubs up into lumps. The
desideratum has been to find some means of
making it workable and yet devoid of tbe running-
in propensity, and a suggestion made by Mr.
Ackland bids fair to accomplish this to its fullest
extent. The addition of a somewhat gelatinous

HARDWICKE'S S CIENCE-GO SSIP.

131

matter causes it to flow evenly from the brush, and
to stand up well and form a ring of considerable
substance, which is ready for use in a few minutes,
without any risk of its spreading or running in.
When perfected, it is probable it may be had of
Mr. Ackland at so trifling a cost as to render it not
•worth any one's while to trouble himself with the
" messing " and uncertainty attending the making
of it in small quantities.

When a cell of greater depth is required than
can be built up of cement, other substances then
come into requisition. One of my earliest and best
form of cells was made of metal rings fixed to the
glass by the baked japan. A ring of japan was
formed and, while wet, the ring was dropped into
it,'properly centred, and then put aside for baking.
In this way cells of any dimensions may be securely
fastened to the glass, provided the latter be perfectly
free from greasiness.

The black japan for baking is an article specially
prepared for the purpose, and must not be con-
founded with Brunswick black or any other of the
black varnishes that dry quickly by mere exposure
to the air, as these contain too little body to with-
stand the baking, becoming charred and spoiled by
the heat, and there is little doubt that much disap-
pointment has often arisen from the want of this
knowledge, and not having the proper article. A
very superior black japan is obtainable at Sher-
born's, 321, Oxford-street (a few doors south-west
of the Circus) : a half-pint tin can be had for about a
shilling, which has been found to answer thoroughly.
In the same way the new asphalte, minus the
baking, may be used for putting down almost every
description of cell, as it is very adhesive, and, if
rightly proportioned, is only just one remove from
beingbrittle. Itshouldbeallowedto become "tacky,"
and the cell then dropped upon it and slightly
pressed down into its place. I use pieces of plate-
glass about one inch square and a quarter of an
inch thick to serve as weights, and to keep the cells
flat and down upon the glass slide until the cement
has become sufiiciently set to retain them without
assistance.

Of whatever material, however, the cells may be
<;omposed, it is an essential point not to use any
fixing-down cement that will remain indentable by
the nail, or can afterwards soften and run in by
being varnished exteriorly, nor must it be capable
of setting too hard, so as to become brittle and
flake off from the glass ; but under any circum-
stances, all compositions containing gold-size ought
to be scrupulously rejected as being untrustworthy
and insecure for this purpose, or, where such may
have been used, they ought invariably and at once
to be coated exteriorly with some harder varnish,
such as shellac in spirit of wine, gum arable, or
the isinglass cement. The majority of the bought
slides which prove defective may become so through

two sources, that is, either from insecurely fastening
down the cell, so that it does not retain its adhesion
to the glass slide, which may arise from shrinkage
of the cement, or its becoming too brittle to with-
stand the jarring of use or transit; or it may arise
from the same evil attending the fixing on of the
cover, a point which will be the next to receive
consideration. W. Kencely Bkidgman.

LADYBIRDS.

AT p. 70 a correspondent asks the meaning o
-^ the word " ladybird." It is an abbreviation of
"Our Lady's bird" or bug, as it is sometimes
written ; bug in this instance being synonymous
with beetle, as it is to this day in the United States,
where the term bug almost invariably takes the
place of beetle. Many a time, when in the States,
I have heard that word, so distasteful to us, used
in common conversation by refined ladies or gentle-
men, who would not for the world have uttered a
syllable likely to " ofi'end ears polite." " Oh, what
a lovely bug you have there," has been said to me
when exhibiting some fresh-caught, prettily-marked
beetle. So that, in our country term "lady-bug" and
the more slangy " humbug," we have the last faint
echo of a word which still holds its own on the
other side of the Atlantic.

Curiously enough the poetical sentiment which
placed the Ladybird under the protection of the
Blessed Virgin may be traced in other tongues
besides our own. Thus in France these little in-
sects are known as Betes de la Vierge, Betes a
Dieu, Vaches h Dieu. In Germany they are Marien
Kafer, Marien Wiirmchen, Gottes SchafHein, Her-
gott's Kiihlein ; or Mary's beetles, Mary's worm-
lings, God's lambs, the Lord God's little cows," &c.

Ladybirds, as is well known, are great enemies
to the destructive plant-lice; but whether tlieir
dedication indicates a corresponding degree of
gratitude on the part of the original namers, I
know not. Probably this is so. Country folk,
with all their crass ignorance, are often shrewd
watchers of nature's works ; and though they find
it difficult, or more generally impossible, to com-
municate the results of their observations, they can
"put two and two together" with marked effect in
their own minds.

I have little doubt then, that " ladybird," " God's
cow," "Mary's beetle," are but the expression of a
fact observed time out of mind by the peasantry of
Europe, that these beetles are indefatigable de-
stroyers of the mischievous little aphids or plant-
lice, which, minute though they are, would, if un-

* They are also Lady "cows" in some of our counties.
Why is this? I suppose from the fact of their often herding
together, and from their colour approximating- that of a red
cow: hence also the French Vaclies. The " Schaiflein " is
probably due to the first of these two reasons.

132

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

checked, mar the fruits of man's labour to an in-
credible extent. That this is no exaggeration we
know from the anxiety displayed by owners of hop-
grounds, lest all their care should be thrown away
and their hopes disappointed by the soft little
atoms, which sometimes crowd upon the tender
" bine," extracting its juices and wasting its vigour.
Then it is that "Our Lady's bird" shows itself to
be a friend in need. Urged by a sense, of the
nature of which we have not the smallest concep-
tion, but which we call instinct for want of a better
title— myriads of red-coated beetles assemble on
the infected ground. Here they wage unceasing
war against the soft-bodied aphids, killing and de-
vouring like wolves in a sheepfold, and then dis-
appearing as mysteriously as they came.

No doubt in days when every event which eluded
the immediate researches of mankind, was ascribed
to the direct agency either of the Deity or of Satan,
according to its apparent tendency to good or evil,
the frequent recurrence of such natural phenomena
led the peasantry to give their peculiar titles to the
Ladybird, as though it acted on an impulse derived
immediately from Heaven. And this is the more
probable, as the influence of the aphides would be
acutely felt by the thirsty natives, involving, as it
did, the possible loss of their beer, in the case of
the hops ; though in all probability the names were
given long before the hop-flower was used in the
manufacture of beer.

lichen Ahhas. W. W. SpiCER.

GASTRIC TEETH VERSUS ELTTRA-
CLASPERS OE EARWIG

(Forfwula \auricnlaria) .

HAVING recently exchanged several slides
with the readers of Science-Gossip of what
myself and others at that time considered to be

section of this insect (at the suggestion of a
microscopical friend) — made out these miscalled
teeth to be the wing and elytra-claspers for re-
taining these organs when in repose. Tliese pre-
hensile organs are situated in two parallel rows

Fig. 89. Wing and Elytra-clasps of Earwig (Forficula
aurirulaiia).

the gastric teeth of the common earwig, I have
since— after a more careful examination and dis-

Fig. 90. Six of the Claspers highly magnified.

under the elytra, as shown in the diagram, studded
with numerous minute sharp spines, resembling in
form those of the upper jaw of the pike {Esox
luetics) tei'med "denies setiformes." There is also
a similar row of claspers situated on the under sur-
face of each elytron, near the inner margin.

I am anxious that this error of misnomer should
be rectified in the pages of your journal, considering
a mistake of this nature passed unnoticed might
have a tendency to mislead others interested in
insect anatomy, trusting those to whom the slides
were sent will pardon the blunder, remembering
that " Humanum est errare."

J. 0. Habpek.

Dere/ia m -roa d, Noncich.

THE AMERICAN OTTER.
(Lutra canadensis, Sab.)

By Charles C, Abbott, M.D.

SLOPING, muddy banks ; dark, deep water, thai>
looks the gloomier for the dense shade cast by
the giant elms and maples overhanging it ; tangled
stems of snow-white water-lilies, and broad patches
of feathery river-weed, scarcely relieving the sombre
tints of their surroundings ; weird, ghost-like slimy
trunks of fallen trees, slippery with the green scum
of a score of summers, or glassed by the clear jelly
of the Pectinatella, floating in the tideless stream
like spirits of unrest ; solemn-visaged, quiet-loving
owls, that seem to live only that they may dream,
haunting the dense foliage of the lofty cedars ; and
now and then " the chatter of a jay, that echo mur-
murs after" — what a cliarm has such a place
for him who loves not mankind less, but nature
more ! Happy to escape the din and dust, the clash
and clamour of the smoky town, and to seek out just
such nooks asthis, that, thanks to whomsoever thanks
are due, has not succumbed to the ingenuity of the
engineer, or been stripped to prosy nakedness by
the greedy agriculturist. On such a spot 1 chanced
during the past summer, and while marking the
faint ripples on the quiet waters, was startled by a
loud splash near by, that started glassy circles out

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

133

and out, until they broke upon the tangled roots
and weedy margin of the other shore. It was an
otter that I had heard. Tortunately, I had escaped
notice, and remaining very quiet, soon saw him, as
he slowly emerged from the water, with a large fish
held grimly in his mouth. With seemingly awkward
steps he crawled up the sloping bank, and in a
marvellously short time devoured the fish that hehad
captured ; then walking to a point near by, where
the bank was free of projecting tree-roots, he
squatted down on his haunches, but held his head
aloft, and with a ludicrous expression of extreme
satisfaction slowly slid down the smooth bank and
disappeared beneath the surface of the water. I
waited a long time, but saw nothing more of
him.

It need scarcely be remarked that in New Jersey
the Otter is nearly extinct; but not so in many
sections of our enormous territory. Professor

either by the wary fur-huuter or less careful in-
truders. That the Otter is as strictly nocturnal as
asserted by some, does not accord with the few
opportunities I have had of observing his habits.

An experienced hunter* gives an excellent re-
sume of the Otter's habits, as follows : " They live
on fish and musk-rat. They dive down, and then
rise into the passage-way of the musk-rat house, so
as to push their jaws into the house and catch the
musk-rat, unless, as is sometimes the case, the
musk-rat has a second passage to escape through.
The Otter has no house, but lives in holes in the
banks of streams, and in hollow logs, and under
roots. He dives and chases fish under water; I
saw one do this, and then shot him. He seems to
like to slide instead of walking down a slope. He
seems to have certain places for voiding his excre-
ment."

Audubon t describes the nest as formed of

jpi/^r-A e.

Fig. 91 Tlie American Otter (Lutra canadensis, Sab.j.

Baird gives as its range the " northern parts of the
United States to Florida, and west to the Rocky
Mountains." An extensive range this, but of
course, as localities, however suited to its tastes
become encroached upon by the steady "settling
up " of the country, it is forced to seek out " fresh
scenes and pastures new," where it will be found
frequenting running streams, large ponds, and occa-
sionally away from water, as though in search of
better things tlian the last creek or brook-side
offered. It prefers clear waters, that it may see the
fish therein more readily, and has a burrow in the
bank, which opens below the surface of the water ;
but if not swimming about the stream, it seems to
like to be above rather than in the ground, and to
quietly sleep and sun itself on a mat of grass ; but
never so soundly that it can be caught napping^

" sticks, grasses, and leaves ; large, and in all cases
protected from the rains, and above and beyond the
influence of high water and freshets."

"With our annual "January thaw," and its ac-
companying freshet (this year delayed until Feb-
ruary), came to us a recollection of the lone otter
we had seen in the summer; and so through the
soft snow and over thin ice we wended our way to
the quiet nook on Watson's Creek, to see if he yet
lingered about the spot. We found recent traces
of him, but not the animal himself ; and wondering
if he had left of his own accord, or been captured
by musk-rat hunters, we wandered down the creek

* " American Naturalist," vol. 1. p. 656.
t "Quadrupeds of North America," Audubon and Bach-
man, vol. ii. p. 7-

13i

HAilDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

to its mouth, to -watch the broad Delaware as it
bore its enormous mass of snow and ice slowly
along. At the mouth of the creek the ice was
almost gone, and in the open space sported great
rosy-sided chub, that seemed to rejoice at the near
approach of spring. Wliile I watched them, up
from the blue depths of the icy water came the
otter, with a still struggling chub across his jaws.
I endeavoured to conceal myself, but not quickly
enough, for the otter disappeared, but not for ever,
as soon, at some distance farther off, he came aga*n
to the surface, and clambered on a cake of ice as it
drifted slowly outward, " to join the brimming
river."

I sought to drive him from his perch by shouts
and snowballs, but in vain ; and with an air of
indifference at my presence, he merely watched me,
so I thought, as he slowly floated seaward on his
trembling raft of ice.

Trenton, New Jersey, U.S.A.

MICROSCOPY.

To Prevent "Euxning-in."— When mounting
in fluid, especially glycerine, a friend of mine uses
chloroform and amber varnish for the first and
second coats after putting on the thin glass cover,
and finds it to answer admirably in preventing the
succeediug rings of asphalte, &c., from running in.
My experience of it also enables me thoroughly to
recommend it, as it contains no solid particles, and
dries as soon as laid on. It is sold by dealers in
photographic chemicals. Por the like purpose in
dry mounting I have used, at the suggestion of the
same friend, flake-white and gum-water, and 1
think " P. K." would find this mixture to work
smoother, and give a purer white than whiting and
gum-water.— ?r. R. H.

iNFUSOraA. — Mr. W. Saville Kent, P.L.S.,
P.R.M.S., &c., being engaged upon a new treatise
on the Infusoria, to be shortly published, invites
communications from the Pellows of the Royal,
Quekett, or other microscopical societies, and micro-
scopists generally, upon any new and doubtful forms
of infusorial life that may come under their notice.
A record of phenomena not generally known in
association with previously-described varieties will
be of value, as also local lists of species. Address,
Wentworth House, Stoke Newingtoo, London, N,
Postal expenses of specimens defrayed.

Siliceous Cuticles of Equisetace^e, &c.—
In the new edition of Davies's " Preparation and
Mounting of Microscopic Objects," he directs that
the stems of plants with siliceous cuticles should
be immersed iu strong nitric acid and boiled.
I have succeeded better with a slightly diluted

acid (three of acid to one of water) and a few
crystals of chlorate of potash. Boil in a porcelain
or platinum capsule ; as soon as the organic material
is separated, transfer the cuticle (by means of a
strip of thin glass two inches in length; about half
an inch of this should be bent at right angles) to a
watch-glass filled with distilled water; when free
from acid, the inner surface may be brushed with a
camel-hair pencil. This will remove any fibres
that may still adbere to the epiderm. When clean,
immerse in absolute alcohol, and transfer from
thence to oil of clover or turpentine, and finally
mount in Canada balsam. The leaves of the
Deutzias are also i-eadily detached by the same
process : when detached and washed, they must be
floated on to a cover (the outer surface next to the
glass) ; brush very gently, and when dry, immerse
the cover in turpentine until all the air is expelled,
which when effected, mount in Canada balsam
(which may be previously hardened on a slide).
The plan suggested (scraping off the scales) in the
woik alluded to does not make satisfactory
slides.— i^. K.

Addresses of Provincial Natural History
Societies. — On this subject no one is likely to be
more interested, or to have better means of infor-
mation, than the editor of Sciekce-Gossip. At
present, numberless clubs or other provincial
societies exist that are ignorant even of the names
or whereabouts of their kindred associations,
although such knowledge is often required by one
or other of them, if for no other purpose than the
transmission of little presents or the interchange of
Reports of Proceedings. Hence it has become
very desirable that a correct list, with the names of
the secretaries, honorary or otherwise, of such
local societies should be published ; and by doing
this, including the microscopic clubs, Science-
Gossip, or any of its numerous readers, might
confer a most acceptable service to the cause of
local and popular natural history. — George
Gulliver.

ZOOLOGY.

Extraordinary Luminosity of the Sea.—
Every one who has sailed over the placid waters on
a dark night has seen that bright shining appearance
known as phosphorescence, seen best, however, in
its golden splendour in the many quiet harbours of
eastern lands, where living diamonds appear to drip
from your plashing oars. In our own waters this
appearance is principally due to noctiluca, anne-
lids, crustaceans, or star-fish, and is generally occa-
sioned by some disturbing clement entering amongst
them as they skim over the surface. In the early
part of February, iu the Arabian Sea, and about
twelve hundred miles to the westward of Bombay,

HARDWICKE'S SC I£N GE- Q OS SIP.

13c

steaming quietly along in one of those huge floating
barracks which convey our troops to and from India,
^ye witnessed a luminosity of the sea to such a
degree as is, I believe, excessively rare. The whole
ocean around us had a milky or chylous appearance,
and was studded with innumerable brightly phos-
phorescent bodies, varying ia their apparent size
from one or two inches to as many feet in diameters
displaying, as Dallas describes, " balls of living fire
and waving bands of flame." Here and there were
single opaque masses, — black, shapeless, and con-
trasting strongly with the brilliant light in which
they floated,— which I attributed to dead animals
of the same species. It was a clear, starlight night,
the moon was late in rising, hardly a ripple was on
the w^ater, the atmosphere dry, and thermometer
78° Fahr. On looking over the ship's side, the
scene was one of surpassing interest and extra-
ordinary beauty, and had never been witnessed
before by hundreds on board, who were no strangers
to eastern seas, nor yet to the precise locality in
which we then were. Unlike the phosphorescence
of uoctiluca, the light was not emitted in sparks,
but was steady and continuous, nor was it occa-
sioned by the disturbance of the ship, as the i)heno-
menon was seen both far ahead of us and at a
distance on either side, which could not have been
influenced by the ship's track; indeed, there was a
well-defined and distant horizon to which the lumi-
nosity extended. In about two hours after the
luminous appearance was first observed, the moon
rose, and the sea again assumed its natural appear-
ance, but only to resume its brilliancy on four suc-
cessive nights as we neared Bombay, having in that
time crossed a belt of upwards of eight hundred
miles teeming with animal life. On repeated exa-
mination of the water, the temperature was found
not increased beyond the normal standard in relation
to the air, but after standing for a short time it
gave out a strong phosphoric odour, M'hich clung
to the hands for a considerable time. The lumi-
nosity was found to emanate,— 1st, from large pul-
mograde acalephs, probably of the genus pelagiu,
studded throughout their substance by dark brown
ova about the size of a millet-seed; 2ud, from
myriads of polypoid bodies in every stage of deve-
lopment, from minute ciliated discs resembling iu-
fusory animalcules to the large tentacled budding
polype. Doubtless, the whole had a common origin
and here, for hundreds of square miles, iu the great
Indian Ocean, had we " parthogenesis " on the most
gigantic scale. Whether such appearances as I
have detailed be due to " combustion," to " rupture
of sarcodic filaments," "permanent contraction of
sarcodic substance," or the numerous other sup-
posed causes of phosphorescence, I know not. I
had but few books to consult, and no naturalist
companion to explain, but of the many who must
have traversed this " white sea " (as we called it)

during the past few mouths, I trust there may be
found some scientific pen to add at least one more
theory towards the solution of that quastiovexata,
what is phosphorescence ? — Robert Nehon, R.N.

Vakiety or Lime Hawk-moth.— I found in my
breeding-cage on the 23rd of April, a perfect spe-
cimen of the lime hawk, but such an extraordinary
variety that I think a brief description may prove
interesting to some of your readers. The insect
measures two inches one line across the wings ; the
ground colour is very much lighter than in most
specimens, but the peculiar and most marked point
of difference is that the olive-green median band is
represented only by a small, dark olive-green, heart-
shaped spot, measuring only two lines iu length
and one in width, and pointing towards the hind
margin. So difl'erent, in fact, is the appearance of
the insect that a brother entomologist to whom I
showed it thought at first it was a distinct species.
— JF. Loio Serjeant.

Birds and PuniROSES.- Mr. Charles Darwin
having expressed his opinion that the development
of primroses was interfered with through birds
biting off the young flower, apparently for the
purpose of obtaining the nectar. Nature publishes
letters on the subject from various parts of Eng-
land. At Plymouth birds are in the habit of thus
cutting the flowers of the polyanthus and primrose,
atid in Hampshire the same flowers are attacked by
blackbirds. Dr. H. Gladstone says that both prim-
roses and crocuses are thus bitten off by sparrows
in London gardens, and Professor Thiseltou Dyer
noticed the habitual destruction of the crocus in
the neighbourhood of Hammersmith by sparrows.
On the other hand, persons writing from Hertford
and Torquay have examined large beds of primroses-
which have not been attacked in this manner. It
has been suggested, with some probability, that the
birds may be in search of small insects which infest
the flowers, and this should apply more forcibly in
the case of the crocus, the neciar-bearing portion
of whose flower is almost buried in the earth. The
subject is still occupying considerable attention,
and we draw attention to it iu the hope that some
of our readers may note down their experiences.

Neotropical Birds.- Dr. Sclater and Mr. 0.
Salvin have published a complete list of all the
genera and species of birds ascertained to occur in
Central and South America, or the region termed
the Neotropical. This list enumerates no less than
3,500 species, above 2,000 of which belong to the
Passerine group, and above 1,500 to the other
orders of birds, every one of which, except that
including the wingless birds of New Zealand, has
its representatives in this region.

Larv^ from Paris.— I have little doubt that
the larva) found by "E. D. M.," at Paris, were

336

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

those of the silk-moth, Bombyx cyntlna, and that
they were feeding on Ailanthus glandulosa, called
by the Chinese the "tree of heaven." It somewhat
resembles the ash, but more so the sumac. This
tree is said to have been freely planted in the parks
and gardens of Paris. I bred B. cynthia several
years ago ; the larvai would eat the large leaves
of young shoots of the laburnum, but only when a
supply of Ailanthus was not at hand. I believe
there are many examples of this tree in the London
parks and squares, and some particularly fine spe-
cimens in St. James's Park. — George Gascoyiie.

BOTANY.

The Colours of Ploavers.— The one thing
artists can never perfectly get is transparency, and
this difficulty is almost insurmountable in the illus-
trations for a journal like the Floral Magazine. It
is as impossible to represent the opal-like light seen
passing through the petals of some white lilies as it
would be to paint the rays of light playing about a
diamond, or the blaze of fire from the sun itself.
The best and purest scarlet colour used by artists,
if placed by the side of the petals of a field poppy or
geranium, immediately looks like a piece of clay.
The same with crimsons : our best crimson lakes,
when placed near the petals of some geraniacere, at
once put on a liver-like appearance. Scarlets, in
nature, are transparent, and such a thing as a trans-
parent scarlet pigment is unknown. Now, if we
glaze over one of our artificial scarlets with a wash
of pure purple, the painting immediately looks like
mud; but what is more common in some scarlet
Orchids (as in Masdevallla Veilchli) than to see a
vivid scarlet, shot with brilliant purple ? On an
examination of the epidermal cells with a micro-
scope, some of the mystery is explained, but any
attempt at imitation inevitably ends in failure. The
same remarks apply with equal truth to all other
tints— be they purple, blue, green, yellow, or orange.
It is in the experience of every artist that, on look-
ing at some flower possessing brilliant coloration,
the tint he at first took for scarlet soon appears to
him as scarlet-orange; when, on returning to the
plant, it is crimson-scarlet, or a crimson possibly
shot with some magenta hue. In every light
flowers display new tints, new effects of light and
shade, and new beauties, which the artist is indeed
fortunate if he can at all catch. Yellows, as found
in some Oncidiums, are very pure and lovely, and
our chromes come nearest; but chromes are per-
fectly opaque, whilst the yellows in the Orchids are
as perfectly transparent. It is common for artists
to fail in their tints of green, not because of their
non-appreciation of the colour, but because no
artificial greens can be found or compounded to
properly match nature. Some light-coloured roses

are especially difficult; the petals do not appear of
the same tint when detached from the flowers, and
in matching the hue for imitation, the petals first
appear rose, with a blush of transparent scarlet ;
then a suggestion of salmon-colour shows itself, or
a glimmering of rosy-purple, which in theory seems
impossible, but in nature is a reality. These tints,
without doubt, all exist in the fiower itself, but no
artist, except the Great Designer of all flowers, can
perfectly reproduce them, — //'. G. S., in Floral
Magazi7ie.

Seaside Shrubs. — In his contribution headed
" Seaside Shrubs," " T. B. W.," a correspondent of
yours for last month, mentioned the Atriplex Ilali-
mus. Allow me to state that this Orache is used for
hedges in St. Brelade's Bay, Jersey, to a consider-
able extent, and seems to answer very well. As
" T. B. W." said, it appears to thrive best in a
sandy soil ; and I believe it to have been imported
by a gentleman from Spain. St. Brelade's Bay is,
to be sure, a very sheltered spot, but the shrub
was recommended to me by a gentleman as suitable
to be planted on a very elevated embankment to
protect the lower portion of my garden from the
westerly winds, where I have succeeded in growing
scarcely anything else beside the alder, and it pro-
mises to do well. I have also noticed that it
is being introduced into other parts of the island
for forming thick low hedges between fields.—
A. Morley, Jersey.

Kemarkable Trees.— We are glad to notice
that the subject recently discussed in our columns
is being worked out elsewhere. Mr. George C.
Atkinson has commenced a catalogue of the re-
markable trees of Northumberland and Durham in
the last number of the Natural History Trans-
actions of Northumberland and Durham. This is
a work that ought to be done for every county, and
provincial Natural History Societies and Pield
Clubs might add it to their programme of work to
be done.

To PREVENT Mould in Fern-cases.— If
" P. J. S." slightly sprinkles the ferns several times
a week with lukewarm water, the mould will soon
disappear. — W. II.

Seaside Shrubs. — There is an Atriplex {A.
Ilalimus F) gwvf'mg in hedges at St. Leonards, a
pretty shrub, with whitish frosted-looking foliage,
which seems to flourish well on the " Hastings sand-
stone " of the Wealdcn formation ; and I may as
well mention a small wild shrub, the Sea Southern-
wood, or Bluish Mugwort (Artemisia ccerulesceiii),
which I do not see described in oi'dinary botanical
books : in one oidy, an old one, have I ever seen any
notice of it, and to that was added, " it is saia to be
extinct." Some years ago, I saw abundance of it,
growing close to the sea, between Newhaven and

HAllDWICK.E'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP.

137

Seaford, and 1 have no doubt but that it would '
grow more luxuriantly under cultivation. It also
grows in one locality, at Clevedon, Somerset, but
small, and sparingly ; and I once met with it at
Hythe. The foliage is greenish silvery-white,
scented like garden southernwood, and the small
reddish-yellow flowers are in nearly unilateral
racemes, and are more delicate than those of the
commoner species of artemisia.— A'. Lily Grey.

Gresford Yew.— I have read Mr. Lee's article
on the Yew, in the May number of Science-Gossip,
with considerable interest, but I cannot submit
either to his, or to any other man's theory, that the
Gresford Yew, about which we have heard so much
from time to time, is a single tree. I had examined
this tree, perfectly unprejudiced, before I had read
anything either about its supposed age, antiquity,
&c., and I then came to the conclusion, which I
have not yet seen cause to alter, that this tree is in
reality three trees ; i.e., three young shrubs have
many years since been planted, or sprang from
seeds, in close proximity ; these afterwards joined
in the (bole) stem, and now form what appears at
first sight only one stem ; but if it is carefully ex-
amined, it will be seen, where the joinings take
place, this union can be traced from the base upwards
to the branches. Again, there can be but little
doubt that all tbe trees, of which there are many in
Gresford churchyard (now very old), were all
planted at one and the same time : the reason why
the others seem to have but small stems, in com-
parison with the " old one," so called, is, that they
are single trees : in this only consists the difference.
If the Gresford yew is ever unfortunately cut
down, so as to divide the stem horizontally, it will
then be discovered, beyond the slightest doubt, that
there are three perfect trees, instead of one, as now
supposed. I have no doubt there are many yew-
trees in various parts of England of a much greater
age than the celebrated Gresford specimen.—/. F.
Robiiisoti.

SowERBi's English Botany is published with
an index to each volume, but without a general index.
It is the intention, I believe, to publish a twelfth
volume, containing the ferns and their allies, and a
copious index ; but these will be some time in pre-
paration. In the meantime I have printed for my
own use an index to the genera in two pages, and
should be happy to forward a copy to any one
desiring it on receipt of six stamps, or twelve copies
for thirty stamps. It will be found by far the most
convenient arrangement to insert a general index
at the end of each vol., so that on taking any volume
in hand, any genus can be referred to without having
recourse to the twelfth YoivimQ.— Latimer Clark,
Sydenham Hill, London.

British Hepatic^.— A long-felt want is at last
being supplied : Mr. Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly, is
bringing out, in monthly parts, at 2s. 6d. plain and
3s. Gd. coloured, a magnificent "History of the
British IIcpatica^" from the pen of Dr. Carrington,
of Eccles. The plates (especially of the coloured
edition) are really artistic. The student is thus put
into possession of a most attractive work, one that
has long been wanted, in the cheapest and most
readily obtainable manner. As a rule, scientific stu-
dents are not overburdened with banking accounts,
and, therefore, it is with real pleasure that we
announce the publication of a first-class work that
is to be obtained by the poorest. Author, artist, and
publisher are to be complimented on the success
of the first number, just issued.

Water Avens.— Smith speaks of Gcum ricale
as almost confined to the north, while Sowerby says,
" more sparingly distributed in the south," where it
appears to be absent from Cornwall, Kent, Surrey,
and a few other counties. He does not instance
Sussex. Yesterday (May 11) I saw this plant in
flower growing luxuriantly by the side of a stream
within five miles of Chichester, where its habitat
had been discovered by a friend. Through the
medium of your pages can you kindly aid our
recently established Chichester and West Sussex
Natural History Society by eliciting an answer to
the inquiry— Has it been observed by any one
elsewhere in Sussex ?—F. H. Arnold, LL.B., Fish-
bourne.

The Potato.— In the report of the United States
Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1870, it is
stated that this plant was growing in great abund-
ance in that portion of Northern New Mexico
lying between Port Wingate and Port Defiance.
The Navajo Indians inhabit this section, and the
native potato forms one of their chief articles of
diet in winter. The women dig the root with what-
ever implements they can get, often using a strong
smooth piece of wood with a wedge-shaped end.
The plant grows on low, rich spots, and by spring
the earth is torn up in every conceivable direction,
in the search for potatoes. The tubers are quite
small, one-half to three-quarters of an inch in
diameter, of good taste, and somewhat like boiled
chestnuts. The Navajo Indians consume so large
quantities at one time, as to cause griping pains,
and as a remedy take at the same meal a quantity
of earthy matter containing magnesia, which relieves
the stomach. In 1S69 a quantity of these roots
was received by the department of Agriculture
from New Mexico, and distributed to various parts
of the continent, where some of them Lave largely
increased in size. — //. G. G.

Extirpation of Pare Plants.— The " Protest,"
in Science-Gossip, No. Ill, page GS, is fortunately-

13S

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

timed, and unfortunately too needful. All remon-
strance on the subject seems to be vain. In former
numbers of Science-Gossip have been most
judicious appeals to botanists to stay the work of
destruction ; and in 'Nature of May 22, 1873, was a
very forcible protest by the Hon. Sec. of the East
Kent Natural History Society (Mr. Gulliver,
E.E.S.) ac^ainst the evil, which is mainly caused by
the cupidity of tratiickin,? collectors, and, strange as
it may seem, by the conduct of some provincial
societies and other parties, all witli the best inten-
tions. Certain Natural History Clubs are regularly
in the habit of offering rewards to llieir members
for the best and largest collections of the scarce
and other plants of the district, thus holding out a
premium for the destruction of the rarer species !
Indeed, I have knovi-n more than one instance in
which a candidate for this kind of distinction has
actually destroyed all the remaining plants of a pre-
cious tuft or group of a species in order to defeat his
competitors. Eut tliis is by no means so surprising
as the fact that certain societies, mostly composed
of educated persons, should be so woefully ignorant
as to suppose that thus the interests of Science can
be advanced ;" in order," as their preamble often
runs, "to promote the cause of botany among the
members and their families." As if botany con-
sisted in the grubbing up of plants, drying, and
calling them by hard names ; whereas premiums for
the best collections of such useful orders as Gra-
miuacea; and Amentifera>, with illustrative draw-
ings and dissections of the distinctive characters,
the taxonomic value of pollen-grains and other
cells, and of raphides and other plant-crystals,
would afford good tests of the diligence and acquire-
ments of the candidates, promote the knowledge of
botany, and lead to no injury or destruction of rare
species. Indeed, there are numberless subjects^
such as Dimorphism, equally available and excellent.
Uut, at all events, the present wanton and fatal
rage against our most precious favourites should be
sternly opposed ; and it is to be hoped that
Science-Gossip will continue to lend its powerful
help to this end. — Fhilophytoii.

GEOLOGY.

Polar Glaciation.— At a meeting of the Geo-
logical Society, a paper on this subject was read by
J. P. Campbell, Esq., P.G.S. The author referred
to a statement of Prof. Agassiz, to the eU'ect that he
supposed the northern hemisphere to have been
covered in glacial times from the pole to the equator
l)y a solid cap of ice. He described his observations
made during thirty-three years, and especially those of
lastsummer, when he travelled from England past the
North Cape to Archangel, and thence by land to
the Caucasus, Crimea, Greece, and the South of

Europe. His principal results were as follows : —
In advancing southwards through Russia a range cf
low drift hills occurs about 60° N. lat., which may
perhaps form part of a circular terminal moraine left
by a retreating polar ice-cap ; large grooved and
polished stones of northern origin reach 55° N. lat. at
Nijni Novgorod, but further east and south no such
stones could be seen. The highest drift-beds along
the whole course of the Volga seem to have been
arranged by water moving southwards. In America
northern boulders are lost about 39', in Germany
about 55°, and in Eastern Russia about 56° N. lat.,
where the trains end and fine gravel and sand cover
the solid rocks. Ice-action, in the form either of
glaciers or of icebergs, is necessary to account for
the transport of large stones over the plains, and
the action of moving water to account for drift
carried further south. There are no indications of
a continuous solid ice-cap flowing southward over
Ijlaius in Europe and America to, or nearly to, the
equator ; but a great deal was to be found on shore
to prove ancient ocean circulation of equatorial and
polar currents, like those which now move in the
Atlantic, and much to prove the former existence of
very large local ice-systems in places where no
glaciers now exist. In the discussion which fol-
lowed, Prof. Ramsay said the question was whether
there were ice-caps moving towards the equator, or
whether the configuration of the mountain regions
might have produced the observed efFects. He
expressed himself satisfied that the present con.
figuration would account, at least to a great extent,
for the changes which have taken place. The
boulders found on the great plain of Russia might
have been conveyed either directly by glaciers, or
by icebergs broken off the ice-cap itself. Boulders
have been seen 40 miles north of the Caucasus,
proving the existence there of great ancient glaciers.
The absence of boulders on the plains of Siberia was
to be accounted for by the absence to the aorth o
Siberia of high land from which such boulders could
be carried. Prof. Hughes thought that the theory
of ice-caps spreading in both hemispheres from the
poles to near the equator hardly deserved discussion,
seeing that no facts which could not be otherwise
explained had been adduced in support of it, whilst
it involved great physical ditiiculties, and was quite
inconsistent with the continuity of the forms of life
Irom pre- to post-glacial times. He always under-
stood that the boulders of N. Germany and W.
Russia could be traced to that mountain-district,
and that there was proof that the ice travelled to the
north as well as to the south. Unless, therefore,
the author showed that some of the boulders could
have been derived only from ciicumpolar regions^
he could not see the necessity of calling in anything
more than changes of level of various parts of the
northern hemisphere along well-known lines of ele-
vation and depression to explain all the phenomena

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE- GO S SI P.

139

observed. He questioned tlie accuracy of the view-
that glacial couditious prevailed at the same time
over the whole of even one hemisphere. Mr.
Whitaker said the rounded configuration of rocks
in Norway he regarded as clearly of glacial origin,
but as the effect rather of a great extension of
glaciers than of a true polar ice-cap. In Britain the
glacial drift towards its southern limit is almost
wholly marine, and certainly not due to the action
of land-ice, so that it is distinctly opposed to the
notion of the southern extension of the ice-cap. He
could not believe in the existence of such a cap ex-
tending as far as the equator. Mr. Topley remarked
that there is no drift in the south of Europe, and
that a line running nearly in the latitude of Dover
would mark the southern Limit of the drift.

What is Basa.it ? — Our geological authorities
say that basalt is a volcanic production. By a late
•analysis (see Geological Magazine for March last),
it is found that the Massberg Basalt contains
olivine and apatite. The latter is a phosphate
of lime, or an earthy material of bones (Kane's
"Chemistry") ; the former is a product of salicincj
which is formed of the bark and leaves of trees. As
a product of decomposition, this basalt yields osteo-
lite ; this is a product of phosphorus, which exists
in aU animals and a few vegetables. On looking at
several analyses of glass, lava, and slag, I find
neither of the substances present. As all these may
be derived ^from basalt, I should be glad to know if
the absence of those materials, osteolite, apatite
and olivine, is due to their absence from the material
giving the slag, lava, and glass, or whether, as they
are animal and vegetable matter, they are lost to
the product of basalt by the action of fire ? If these
items are convertible into other things by fire, how
is it they were not so converted, if basalt originated
from igneous action ?—H. P. Malet.

The Sub-Wealden Boring. — Mr. Henry Wil-
lett, F.G.S., has published another letter in refer-
ence to the above exploration. He says: — "We
have now run through about 400 ft. of Kimmeridge
clay. Nearly every inch contains numerous fossil
shells in various stages of growth, each of which
has been born, has grown, and died. Our little
2-inch column has contained several thousands.
There is no reason to doubt that this bed of clay ex-
tends uninterruptedly beneath Brighton, Chichester,
Southampton, Sussex, Hampshire, and Dorset-
shire, to Kimmeridge on the west, and beneath
Hastings and the English Channel to tbe Boulon-
nais district in France, and that throughout the
whole of this vast area, the same conditions of birth,
life, and death have existed."

Post-Glacial Animals in Derbyshiee.— At
the last monthly meeting of the Manchester Geo-
logical Society, Mr. John Plant, F.G.S., exhibited a

large collection of remains of Bospriams and reindeer
recently obtained from Castleton, Derbyshire. The
largest bones were portions of the skull, with the
horn-cones attached, femora, and vertebrae, all in-
crusted with stalagmite.

NOTES AND aUERIES.

Cloud of Buttekflies. — On March 13th I
heai-d from a fisherman of Worthing a curious fact,
which, though it happened some few years ago,
seems sufficiently interesting to record. Being
about four miles off the coast, opposite Lancing,
the W'ind (N.), which had been blowing fresli otf
shore all the day, suddenly dropped, and he and his
"mate" found themselves in a dead calm. Sud-
denly, however, it came on to blow moderately
from the S. or S.W., and brought with it a perfect
cloud of butterffies, chiefly, 1 should imagine trom
his description, "Brassica" and its allies, though
he speaks of other coloured butterflies as well, and
also of moths and many other insects. So dense
was the cloud that the mainsail was literally
"smothered" with the insects resting after their
flight. The main body, it appears, passed on to the
shore, where they astonished the natives of Lancing
and also of Brighton by their numbers. My in-
formant's own theory is that the north wind of the
morning had blown them from our shores out to
sea, aud that the south wdnd returned them to
shore. But this does not satisfy me. If the north
wind had been (which it appears it was not) a very
violent one, I could understand a few individuals
being carried out, but not a cloud of insects.
Whence then came they ? Were they emigrating?
And does the fact assist the " blown-over " theory ?
— Windsor E. Hamhrough.

P.S. — A specimen of P. napi appeared on our
Parade here soon aficr Christmas-day.

MiRCO-FUNGi. — In reply to a desire expressed in
SciENCE-Gossip for last month, I send the following
extract i'rom the " Handbook of British Fungi," by
M. C. Cooke: — " Puccinia truncata, 'Iris Brand'
Uredo-spores. — Spots yellow, sori small, pale red-
brown, oblong and linear, scattered or aggregate,
bullate ; spores globose, or broadly elliptic, pale
brown. TJromyces iridis, Lev., Cooke M. F., p. 37G.
Cooke L. jT., no. 23. Cooke exs. no. 77. Uredo
iridis, Eng. FL, v. p. 376. Berk exs., no. 59.
Brand- spores. — Spots obliterated; sori oblong,
brown surrounded by the scarious epidermis ;
spores obovate - oblong, even, attenuated below,
upper cell abruptly truncate. — B. aud Br. Ann. N.
H., no. 754. Cooke M. F., p. 196. On Iris fceti-
dissima, autumn." I have found the brand-spores
mixed witli the uredo-spores in the same pustule. —
S. A. Baretti.

Ancient Trees.— In the August and September
numbers of Science-Gossip, allusion is made to
the Bull Oak in Wedguock Park. If your corre-
spondents are not already aware of it, they will be
grieved to hear that that very grand old tree came
to a sad, I may say an untimely end, a winter or
two ago. I have been told by a gentleman who was
resident in that neighbourhood, that it was set on
fire by some boys, and completely destroyed; but
whether this was done by accident, or for mere
mischief's sake, I could not learn. 1 saw tlie tree
about seven years ago, aud was much surprised to

140

HARDWICKE'S SC lENC E-G OS SIP.

sec what remained of it lookin,? so vigorous. I
have not observed in your pages any mention of the
yews in Norbury Park, near Leatherhead. They
may not be in existence now, but more than thirty
years ago I saw them, and was toid that they were
mentioned as a grove of old yew-trees in "Domes-
day Book," One of them was lying prostrate,
having been blown down. It was sawn through at
the butt, and, as far as my recollection serves me,
was sound throughout — a most beautiful piece of
timber, and destined, I believe, for a dining-room
table. The oaks in Bagot's Park, Staffordshire,
and the Snilcar Lawn Oak close by, will amply re-
pay a visit ; while, less grand, but far more pictu-
resque, are some old oaks in a small remnant of
Needwood Forest at Berkely Lodi^e, near Barton-
under-Needwood. This is one of the most exquisite
bits of sylvan scenery that I have ever seen. — II.
M. Mapleton.

Yeast. — Can any of the readers of Science-Gos-
sip furnish me with a few particulars concerning
yeast? What is the cause of yeast fermenting a
sugar solution ? Does the yeast plant in its growth
take some of the elements of the sugar to itself to
enable it to propagate, and thus leave the other
parts of the sugar to form carbonic acid and alco-
hol (please give formula of reaction) ? Wliat is the
cause of yeast making bread light ? Does bread
undergo any fermentation by the action of yeast ? —
IS. J.

Indiscri:m:ixate Collecting.— The article writ-
ten upon the, now, universal destruction of species,
more particularly of insects and plants, by " C,"
I entirely agree w;ith. I have been a naturalist from
a very early period, and I am now seventy, and I
can conOdently eay, from observation, that in the
last few years many species of insects, chiefly of
the favourite butterfly, are so far decreased, that,
now science is being taught in our schools, there
will not be species enough to supply the great de-
mand of an army of boys with their great sweeping
nets, and whose general practice is to take every
specimen on the wing, partly to have a good store
of duplicates, not allowing time to make a single
ohsertaiio)i or enjoy the delightful sight of seeing
these charming creatures flit from flower to flower
sucking their honeyed food, so kindly and beauti-
fully provided for them in the innumerable golden
cups of the earlier flowers, and throughout the year.
Natural history is a science of observation, not of
destruction. 1 am afraid it is of no use to write
to these young beginners, or even to some older
ones, whose pleasure seems to be in capturing a
great number of individuals. Even when a new
or rare butterfly makes its appearance, it is gone
immediately, such as the Queen of Spain Pritillary ;
for if two or three do but make their appearance,
some indiscriminate sportsman is down upoii them,
and they are not allowed a chance to spread over
the country. Wliat a beautiful land this would be
if the pastures, hill-sides, and woods swarmed with
the lovely butterfly. They are taken now in every
state of their existence — the ^%%, the caterpillar, and
the perfect insect ; what chance is there for them ?
They must go, and that quickly, — all the most local
and attractive species. Wiiy do not the Linnaan
or Zoological Societies, and other societies of natu-
ralists, take the matter up ? 1 am afraid they rather
encourage it, in the hopes of getting a mio species.
—J. B.

Skeletonizing.— Can any of your correspond-
ents inform me as to the best way in which to pre-

pare the skeletons of birds, and also what is the
easiest and most elegant form to mount them in
when obtained ?— /. E. IF.

Sudden Appearance of Plants. — The fol-
lowing, which came under the notice of the writer
some years ago, is offered in further illustration of
the " Sudden Appearance of Plants " noticed in
a recent number. In 1855-6, during the deepening
and extension of tlie wells and adits at the Dover
AVaterworks, on the west side of the Castle-hill,
a quantity of chalk was brought up, from a depth
of about 200 feet, and temporarily deposited near
the top of the well. This heap, containing several
hundreds of cubic yards of newly excavated chalk,
without any covering or mixture of soil or mould,
was in the following year thickly covered with
red poppies, to account for which no satisfactory
or self-evident reason could be assigned. The
most common plant immediately around the heap
was the common wild mustard, or charlock, which
grew in abundance; poppies were comparatively
rare ; they were common enough in the fields below,
but not particularly so, and certainly_ nowhere
seemed to take such exclusive possession, or to
flower so freely, as on this heap of chalk. Again,
three or four ye:»rs afterwards, on the construction
of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, a
tunnel was driven under the Citadel Heights on
the opposite side of the valley ; a large quantity of
chalk was similarly brought up and deposited near
the mouth of the shaft. This, in the following
season, was also covered with red poppies, pre-
senting at the distance of more than a mile, a very
conspicuous and somewhat remarkable appearance.
~H. Gooch, Cardiff.

Field Clubs. — The members of St. Mary,
Lambeth, Sunday School Teachers' Field Club,
held their first outing of the season on Easter
Monday, going to Box-hill, Dorking, Leath-hill, and
surrounding neighbourhood. The fielding was very
successful ; several interesting specimens, geological
and botanical, having been obtained during the
ramble, including, among the latter, some fine
specimens of mosses.

Lady-birds. — In a lafe number you invite ex-
planations of the word " Lady-bird." In Kent, and
perhaps other counties, that insect in called " Lady-
bug." Now bug is the old English equivalent to the
Latin word insedum ; and in Kent all insects are
popularly called bugs. " The air is full of bugs,"
is a common expression on a summer's evening:
and more, various kinds of insects are specified by
the suflix " bug" to their own names, as beetle-bug,
cockchafer-bug, &c., while those sleep-staying pests,
which we call only bugs, are with them " bed-bugs."
But what about "lady"? It is said by some to
have been " our lady's bug," these creatures being
so useful to hop-grounds, by eating the "dolphin" ;
but I should ratiier think it is owing to the crea-
ture's gaudy colour ; lady-bug thus meaning only
painted or swellish bug, the fine madam of the family.
— Cyril A. Greaves, B.C.L.

Plica Polonica. — I have been obliged to de-
stroy a fine white Persian cat in consequence of its
being aifected with this peculiar disease. As a
kitten its coat was perfectly healtiiy, but being occa-
sionally washed, it lost all interest in clcai!ing
itself, and the hair then bcf^ame dirty and matted,
as in the above disease. — W. T. Iliff\ Epsom.

Snowdrop (p. 1>2).— I fancy that if your corre-
spondent from Bradford Aboas would pay us a

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

141

visit next wiuter, should we live so long, 1 could
show hiui in a little copse, just over the stream at
the bottom of my grarden, an exhibition of this
beautiful flower, which may be equalled, but can
liardly be surpassed, at Over Compton. We have,
however, often remarked here, that, contrary to his
experience, the single-flo^vered snowdrop and the
double-flowered garden variety appear to observe
a very strict line of demarcation. I think I may
say that we never find the double one on the oppo-
site side of the little stream, o'hich a man may jump
across, and very rarely the single one on this side
■of it ; and yet there is very little appreciable
difTerence between them, in their character or cul-
ture.— C. IF. B., Bingham's Melcombe, Dorchester.

How TO GET Skeletons of Animals. — " D. H."
nsks how to obtain skeletons without seeking aid
from ants. 1 proceed thus : skin the animal, remove
all internal organs, and as much of the muscular
tissue as is possible by careful dissection, then
macerate in water until all remaining muscle is
sufficiently rotten to be scraped off with an ivory
scraper or blunt penknife. Care must be taken at
this stage not to remove the tendons surrounding
the joiuts, or they will be disarticulated and the
preparation spoiled. When every objectionable
portion has been removed, the skeleton may be set
up with cork and pins in a natural position, and
allowed to dry, when a very_ perfect specimeu will
result. This description applies to mice and frogs, or
any small vertebrate animal. Should a joint become
disarticulated by accident, China cement will be
found useful to unite it.

]\IicRoscoPES. — "Enquirer" asks about micro-
scopes. To my mind the simplest contrivances are the
best, and a stage consisting simply of a plate of metal
without any additions, save the spring to hold the
slide when the instrument is_ inclined, answers all
purposes. I find the mechanical stage unnecessary
for the highest powers (gV)- '-l-'he most serviceable
instrument I believe to be Hartnack's : an excellent
model is made by Baker, of Holborn. With regard
to lenses, the maker decides the quality, and if
"Enquirer" is wise, he willnotbuy a lens until some
one has tested it for him, unless he obtains it from
a maker who is above suspicion : the greatest dis-
coveries were originally made with very inferior
instruments. Might I ask why H. G. Glasspoole,
in the excellent paper on the history of the potato,
persists in calling that vegetable a root "i—S. W.
Moore.

Anciext Trees. — E. Edwards, in Science-
"GossiP No. Ill, p. 56, truly remarks that our
old trees are very interesting; and it is to be
hoped that they will all soon be recorded. Two
that I have seen he has not mentioned, both
yews ; one at Crowhurst, Surrey, three or four
miles from Edenbridge ; the other at a village of
the same name, about six miles from Hastings,
Sussex. These, perhaps, E. Edwards will visit
and measure. All that I now remember of thenr
is that they are of immense size, one of them
'(the Surrey tree) is much decayed in the centre,
and that the tree at Crowhurst, Sussex, is a
female with a treble trunk. Both of them are
in the churchyards. The celebrated French
botanist Decandolle is said to have travelled
an immense distance to visit the venerable
Sussex yew. And the same botanist examined
a yew (since reported defunct), and made it out
•to be 3,000 years of age, in the churchyard of

Bradbourne, Kent. Admitting the truth of this
estimate, this tree may have been contemporary
with Solomon's Temnle. The "Conqueror's Oak,"
near the palings of Windsor Forest, is a huge
hollow trunk of immense age, yet with flourish-
ing branches.— Q. F.

The Mode of Looking at Pictures. — I was
very much interested in reading Sir Frederick
Montagu Pollock's article on "The Best Mode of
Looking at Pictures." He advises us to look at
objects with one eye. It has been my practice in
looking at pictures to use the limp catalogue as a
telescope, and the effect is wonderful ; the vision
excludes all the surrounding objects and puts the
picture in a very becoming frame, and the definition
is perfect. We feel as if we ourselves were stand-
ing in the picture. And also, in sketching, I am
in the habit of looking at the landscape through a
roll of drawing-]3aper, and in the bright sunshine the
deep shade of the tube is wonderfully cooling to
the eye. If these things are absent, we can easily
produce the same effect with our natural band.
Let the thumb and forefinger be the eye-piece, and
palm the tube. — *S'. A. Notcutt, jitn.

Green Tree-frog. — A relation of mine had a
green tree-frog which he brought from Paris, but
from my observations I don't think that the barome-
trical powers of the animal are to be depended on.
It seems simply a matter of convenience or digestion
whether he goes up the ladder, which was in the
bottle with him when he was bought, or not. He
may do very well iu France, but the weather in Eng-
land being so very changeable no doubt puzzles him.
He uses tlie ladder chiefly when going after files, of
which he is very fond. As flies are not to be had
all the winter, we found a substitute for them iu the
shape of young cockroaches ; but he does not like
them nearly so well as flies, — not being so delicate
perhaps. It is amusing to see him try to swallow a
blue-bottle that is almost too large for him : if it will
not go into his mouth easily, he forces it in with his
fingers, or else lets it loose again and has another
shot at it. The underside of his body seems to be
covered with a number of suckers, as he has the
power of clinging to the sides of the glass jar in
which he lives without any difficulty. His colour
changes slightly, being'sometimes of a light yellow-
green, and at other times a dark dirty sort of green.
It is a very interesting little animal, and causes little
trouble to keep. — E. G.

Eaphides and Cuticles. — Will any of your
correspondents kindly give a learner some informa-
tion as to the best way of extracting raphides, and
preparing them for mounting ? Also as to how the
cuticles of leaves — especially the tougher ones, such
as ivy, evergreen oak, &c. — may be best detaclied ?
1 have tried long maceration iu water, with very un-
satisfactory results. One book recommends boiling
in strong nitric acid ; but will not that destroy the
texture entirely ? What is said in_ books on these
two subjects is too general to be of much use to a
beginner. — G. H. J., IFestoii.

SciRPUS lacustris and S. triqueter. — Can
any of your readers tell me how to distinguish
between Scirpus lacustris and Scirpus triqiteter ?
The latter {Scirpus triqueter) and S. carinatus are
said, in the " Flora of Surrey," to be plentiful on the
Surrey side of the Thames from Mortlake to Kew.
1 have frequently searched in that locality, and find
abundance of a large Scirpus which has not a sharply

142

HAP.DWICKE'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP.

triangular stem, and which seems to me scarcely dis-
tinguishable from .V. lacustris. This latter is not
down in Brewer's " Flora of Surrey" as growing in
that part at all, but S. triqueter is. I find, too, so
many different descriptions in different books, that
I am quite puzzled to know which is right. Thus
Eentham gives the stem of S. triqueter as sharply
triangular, while Withering, quoting Eotli, says it
has blunt edges. Again, Bentliam says the name of
S. carinatus is given sometimes to a variety of S.
triqueter and sometimes to a variety of S. lacus-
tris. Can the three be really distinct ? I find a plant
wonderfully like S. maritimus plentiful about Ham-
mersmith and Putney. — T. W.

Cat and Eat. — The gentleman whose house I
am staying at told me a singular story yesterday of
a large brown rat and a black torn cat that had
seemingly struck up a friendship in his house a
couple of years ago. The rat would come and feed
in the same dish with puss, and they were often seen
playing about in the hall of an evening together, but,
alas ! the servants became timid, and broke so many
articles because, "the nasty rat frightened them,"
that his doom was pronounced, and my host, gun in
hand, sat on one of the chairs to watch. The rat
appeared at last, followed by puss, who, called by
his master, came towards him, and then the gun was
pointed and fired, but, strange (for my friend is a
crack shot), it missed, when puss sprang forward on
his old playmate, and soon killed him. It seemed
as if the cat, on seeing W. B. fire, had suddenly
become aware that the rat was an enemy ; or at any
rate considered objectionable. — Heleit E. Watney.

Local Names. — Perliaps the following local !
names with which I have met in the given counties,
may interest some of your readers. In North Devon j
tlie Wren is known as the Crackle ; the Yellow- i
hammer, as the Gladdie ; the Blue Tit, as the BHis- |
picker ; the Chafiinch, as the Daffinch; the Bullfinch,
as tlie Hoops, pronounced like Hiipps. In South
Pembrokeshire the Wheatear is called the Cooper ;
the Missel- thrush, the Greybird ; the Wren, the
Cutty Wren ; the Corncrake, the Bean-cracker ;
the Heron, the Longie-crane ; the Guillemot, the
Eligny.— Z.

A Pkotest. — I quite concur with your corre-
spondent " C " in his protest against the gradual
extermination of the rarer species of our birds,
insects, and plants by persons calling themselves
naturalists. Several cases have come under my
personal notice, where large quantities of one
species of lepidoptera have been taken in a single
day by one individual. One fine April day 1
inquired of an entomologist what sport he was
having, when he told me he had taken over a gross
of Myrtilli ; on another occasion I was shown
four dozen P. conjdon impaled in one large
collecting-box. If this sort of thing goes on much
longer, I am afraid many of our comparatively rare
and local species of lepidoptera will share the same
fate as the large copper butterfly, C. dispar,
and many others, which have been actually extermi-
nated by the continual raids of persons who style
themselves naturalists and entomologists, but who
are nothing more than dealers. — E. Lovell.

LAUViE TKOM Paris. — I feel confident, from the
description, that reference is made to Bomhyx
eipithia, the Ailanthus Silkworm. This was
originally introduced from Japan, and has become
acclimatized in Prance, and is often found at large.
It is now one of the species of silkworm to which

attention is given by amateurs in this country. The
natural food are the leaves of the Ailanthus glan-
duloHi; called by the Japanese " the Tree of
Heaven." This has been largely introduced here of
late years, not only as furnishing food for worms of
B. cyntliia, but also for its beautiful foliage. I have
at times given moths their liberty, but have never
found worms in a wild state on my own trees, or on
others in the locality. 1 do not think tiiey ai'e so
freely planted here as in Prance. — S. H. Gas/cell,
Stockport.

Bleaching Skeleton Leaves. — In reply to
your correspondent '"' J. L. B.," page 6S, in March
No. of Science-Gossip, I find it very useful when
I experience any difficulty in bleaching the leaves
prepared by the caustic process, to expose them, of
course beneath a glass shade, or other screen, to
prevent them becoming dusty, to the sun, for several
days. I find, even after preparing the leaves very
neatly, so as to exhibit all the smaller veins, I have
ruined the specimen by bleaching them in chloride
of lime : it is apt to render them exceedingly brittle,
so that the slightest touch breaks them. Would it
not be better to bleach all the specimens by the
agency of the sun? It mayioerhaps tax the patience
of most naturalists, but the reward will be gained in
the end.—/. F. B.

Mouse eaten in the Teap. — tThe house of
your correspondent Mr. Warry (see page 71), March
No. of Science-Gossip, is evidently infested with
either blackbeetles or cockroaches, — perhaps the
latter : these will in a few hours eat a mouse,
excepting only the skin and bones. I have seen it
done repeatedly, and for a time I was puzzled equally
as much as your correspondent to account for this
strange thing, until I caught them in the very act. —
J.F.B.

Squirrels.— I extract the following from a
weekly paper, dated February 15th. — " On Satur-
day, some men felling timber in a wood near Cudham,
Kent, cut down an old hollow oak-tree, when
upwards of 30 squirrels rolled out, most of which
were dormant, or in a state of semi-sleep; but upon
being roused they dispersed to various parts of the
copse. A large stock of nuts and acorns was found
stowed away in the hollow of the tree, which had
been collected by these industrious little animals a&
a provision for the winter. It is common to find
squirrels laid up for shelter during winter, but it is-
seldom such a swarm is found together." The
above, if true, was a very remarkable occurrence.
Unfortunately, however, the newspaper paragraphs
on natural history are seldom to berelied upon, as
every naturalist knows. Putting aside the correct-
ness or incorrectness of the above, I should like to
ask the readers of Science-Gossip whether they
have ever met with a similar instance of the hyber-
nation of the Squirrel, and whether it is a recognized
fact among naturalists that the Squirrel lays by a
store of food for winter use ? A few years back, I
was sadly taken to task by a celebrated naturalist
for presuming to affirm that tlie Squirrel is both a
partial hybernator, and also a storer of winter
provisions. If the above account is correct, the
dignified " shutting-up " I received on that occasion
was, to say the least, undeserved. The Squirrel
bears a very indifferent character in this neighbour-
hood. I am told that it robs rooks'fand pheasants'
nests, nibbles off larch shoots, and stores away large
quantities of nuts in holes and chinks of trees.
Early in the year it pays occasional visits to a row

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

U3

of spnice-firs close by, foi- the sake of the cones.
'I'hese it adroitly strips of the scales by biting- them
neatly olf at the roots. The object in view is to
secure tlie seed nestling under each scale. The
cones of the pine are also similarly treated by the
Squirrel. //-''. //. Warner, Kingston, Abingdon.

Wood-mouse {Mus sylvaticns). — This beautiful
long-tailed, black-eyed mouse often strays into houses
in the fall of the year, sometimes in broad daylight.
In January and February of the present year five of
these mice were taken in traps in the upper part of
my house, a colony having establislied themselves
under the flooring of the garret. — W. II. Warner,
Kingston.

Pakuots.— The anecdote related by G. O. Howell
(p. 230, last vol.), of a parrot extinguishing a burning
cigar-end with cold tea, is so marvellous that I
cannot refrain from inquiring if the action was so
carefully observed as to leave no loophole for doubt
that it was designed. It is certainly beyond the
scope of what is termed a natural instinct, and it is
difficult to conceive a bird observing and taking
note of the fact that the application of a fluid de-
stroys combustion. — G. Guyon, Ventnor.

The Seven Asii-tkees in Tewin Churchyard.
— Though these be out of the ordinary route of
excursionists from London, they are well worth a
visit, both to the botanist and the antiquarian, since
an old tradition attaches to them. These trees,
seven in number (I believe), have attained con-
siderable size, and their position is indeed singular,
and being so closely crowded together, they at once
rivet the visitor's attention as he enters the church-
yard. They have all sprung from the grave of

Lady Ann G , which is covered by an oblong

monument, and surrounded with railings. The
trees have broken through and broken up the
stone in all directions, and have also strangely con-
torted the iron railings, some portions of whicli are
imbedded in the wood. For its protection from the
knives of visitors, an outer inclosure of wood has
now been placed around the grave. But the story
currently reported to explain this phenomenon is
as follows. The lady, one of several persons here
interred, and shortly after whose decease the trees
began to grow, was an nubeliever of the Christian
doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and is
asserted to have remarked on her death-bed, "that
it was just as likely her body would ever rise again
as that seven ash-trees would grow from her grave,"
or something equivalent to that. According to the
tradition, the upspringiug of the trees duly fol-
lowed ; and it is added, as a confirmatory circum-
stance, that the ash is rare in tlie locality. Of such
belief one would not speak lightly, even if one re-
garded the phenomenon as quite explicableon natural
causes. It is at least singular that the trees were
not interfered with at the time they first began to
upheave and split the stone. Perhaps some of the
readers of Science- Gossip can give us analogous
cases, or some other version of the story. No
doubt exists that trees do occasionally force their
way to the light by displacing stone or rock ; but
the appearance of these ash-trees is suggestive of
something out of the common way.—/. iCS. C.

Slugs. — I met some years ago with a gardener
who used sawdust for the protection of his young
plants against the ravages of slugs ; he told me it
formed an effectual barrier to their inroads, but,
happily, I have not had occasion myself to put
his plan to a severe test. In order to'destrog these

enemies, the Eev. J. G. Wood, in his work on " Our
Garden Friends and Foes," strongly recommends
sprinkling the ground, especially the sheltered spots
in which they hide themselves, with a weak solution
of ammonia. Mr. Wood stirs the solid ammonia
into boiling water, and then adds cold water until it
is sufficiently diluted, taking care to perform the
operation in the open air, and standing on the wind-
ward side of the vessel. To avoid a needless pro-
longation of pain, he advises that, after the ground
has been thus watered, some one should go round to
pick up the slugs, earthworms, &c., provided
with a jar of the same liquid, in which to droD them.
— W. li. E.

On the Mode of Looking at Pictures. — The
article by Sir F. Montagu Pollock, on p. 97, on
monocular vision as requisite for the proper obser-
vation of a painting, suggests another condition
essential to be observed if we wish to obtain a
natural view of a picture ; I mean that of viewing
it from, as nearly as may be, the same position and
distance, as those in and at which the artist stood
at the time of its execution. Without entering into
a mass of detail which may be found set forth in any
book on perspective (and in none more perspicu-
ously than in the little work "Perspective," by
Major Collins, II. E.), it will suffice to say here that
the eye of the observer must be in, or near, the
direction of the original line of sight, or he will see
everything more or less distorted. If, for example,
a perspective view of a long room be hung high
above the observer's head, he will see all tlie furni-
ture apparently sliding down-hill, and about to
tumble down upon him out of the frame. This
single example will suffice to show the folly of the
method of arrangement of paintings in certain Exhi-
bitions and Galleries. — W. N.

Looking at Pictures, &c. — I believe the late
R. Beck contrived an instrument for looking at
pictures and drawings, particulars of which, I have
no doubt, will be given by Messrs. R. & J. Beck,
and which most likely will be found similar to that
made by Mr. Newman. — A. de Soiiza Guimaraent.

Moths' Wings. — Do moths fold their wings over
their backs as butterflies ? 1 caught, as I thought,
a moth the other night, but it had this peculiarity.
-S.A.B.

Ladybird. — " R. H. M." in your last issue, gives
us the German for this little insect. During a
residence of two years in Germany, I never heard
it called " Marien/^iifer " (meant doubtless for
MarienHfer) ; " Sonnenkiifer " or "Sommerkafer"
being its usual name. I see, however, that the
dictionary gives Lady-day as "das Fest Maria," &c.:
and so, perhaps, " li. H. M." has some ground for
his explanation. — G. E. L.

Communications Rkceivkd up to the 14th ult. from : —
F. K.-W. K. B.— E. E.— R. N.— W. H.— H. J.— W. S. jun.—
H. E— W. R. H — L. R.— F. M. p.— p. H. G.— E. T. G.—
W. S. K.— J. G.-G.S.— H.A. S.— W. F. H.— C. U. A.-G. H.
— S. W. M.— W. R. H.— W. H.-E. W.— C. W. B.— H. H.—
L. H. W.— W. H. H.— B. P.— C. A. G.— F. D.-G. G.—
T. R. P.— G. W.— W. V. A.— W. T. I — H G.— J. H. W.—
W. H. J.-F. W. — S. S.-T. M. G.— W. R. H.— W.N.— H. B.
— W. L. S— A. F. D.-J. G. M,— Dr. M.— H. B.T.-J. E. V.—
H. P. M.-J.T. T. R— A.M.— R. H. P. — L. W. S.— A.deS.G.
— F. A. B.— R. H. M.— F. n. S.-H. II. C— K. B.— H. W.—
J. F. R.— J. V..—S. F.— H. G. G.- J. H. C.-G. F. H -H. G.
— W. F. S.-G. E. L.-G. C.C— B. C. S.— C. C. U.— Ci. S. T.
— R. B. \.. J.— E. E.— W. P.— T. G. M.— J. P. S— J. H.—
W. W. N.— F. W. I.— H. E. F.— C. J. AV. R— W. M.— G. G .
— R. S.— W. L.— C. P.-F. H. A.-H. R. W.-J. S. H.—
D. H.T.

Ill

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOS SIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A Subscriber.— The object sent is a bundle of the empty
egg-cases of the Natica, a univalve marine shell.

A. Dk S. G. — We are much obliged to you for havhig: written
as you have to the gentleman named in your letter ; but it is
not our practice to publish letters which have already been
sent.

G. F. H. — We prefer seeing Doubleday's list with all the
synonyms, to seeing the latter cut out e.xcept the name by
which the insect is now known. In all good museums you
see the former practice adopted.

H. G.— The Cluster-cup is JEcidium violre.

K. L. G. desires us to say, with reference to his paragraph
in last month's Science-Gossip, on the " Geology of Cleve-
don,"thathe has found encrinital fragments in themagnesian
limestone and conglomerate.

The Potato. — A misprint occurred in Mr. Glasspoole's
article on this subject. It was stated that an early kind had
been introduced into Ireland, " where barley will not grow."
It should have been Iceland

F. B. S.— Your specimen is the Early Spring Orchis {Orchis
mascula).

Dr. M. — The plant is Biillotn nigra.

J. p. S. — The American Naturalist, published monthly, does
for the United States what we attempt in scievck-Gossip —
the publication of popular scientific articles and notes.

D. H. T. — See an article on " Collecting and Preserving
Birds' Eggs," in the April number of Science-Gossip, for
1872.

R. B. L. J. — The box was forwarded as directed.

p. s. — The mineral is iron sulphite, not copper at all.

T. Prvke. — The insects are the black PorfMra, or Spring-
tails, which belong to the order T/tyxanundce.

E.MJi.\ B.— The plants are (1) the Granulous Saxifrage
(Sdxifraga granuluta], (2) Tuberous Buttercup CiJoraMncu/KS
tuherosus), and (3) Moschatel (Aduxa moschatfltin-i).

W. Bknson. — You had better obtain Mrs. Lankcster's
" Wild Flowers worth Notice " (coloured illustrationsj.
London : Hardwicke.

EXCHANGES.

Primrose Sports. &c. — Will any one send me small living
plants of Primula elatmr (Jacq.), or of any of the sports or
varieties of Primrose or Cowslip (such as Hose-in-Hose, &c.) ?
I wish to make some experiments with them, and will, of
course, pay postage, or send dried iilants in exchange. —
W. R. Hayward, Devonshire-road, Forest-hiU.

Clausilia biplicata for L. glutinns i, L. glabra, L. invnlnta<
M. riipextris, H.lamellata, Any XertX^oi, or others.— J. Groves,
13, Richmond-terrace, Clapham-road, London.

Wanteo, Fusus prapinquus ; will give other good species in
exchange.— F. Walker, Belvidere, Tenby.

First-ci.ass Slides, for Aquatic Larva of Di/tiscua, Nofo-
nerta. Ephemera, Nepa, See, and for Vnlvux, pure and clean.
Lepidoptera wanted in the season.— Edmund Wheeler, 48,
ToUingtonroad, HoUovvay, London, N.

Laev.b of Cullimnrphia dominula for Birds' Eggs or British
Marine or Land and Tresh-water Shells.— Sidney Smith,
Castle-street, Walmer.

Martxb Algje from Galway Bay, in great variety, living
or dried Mosses. Irish and Scotch Ferns, 50 species and
varieties (list free), in exchange for the fnllowing books: —
Moore's or Newman's "British Ferns;" W. H. Grattann's
monthlv parts of " Marine Algre ;" " Half-hours at the Sea-
side ; " •' Where there's a Will there's a Way," &c.—
T. MacGann, Burrin, Oranmore, Ireland.

Wanted, Trienfulis Europ/ta for Chrysosplenium alter-
nifoliiim.—AddTefis, George Wright, 15, Channing-street,
Rupert-street, Bolton-le-Moors.

A Collection of about 1,100 Stamps in Lallier's Album
0873). lam open to offers of anything useful. — Reply, by
post, L. H. Whitmore, 24, Mark-lane.

Leaves of Variegated Tropical plants, fine Ferns for rase,
Flower Seeds, Sec, for objects in Natural History, suitable
for Village Museum.— H. ElUott, Braywick, Maidenhead,
Berks.

Shells to Spare. — Helix Fisanin (Tenby), Conovulus and
Axsiniinea (R. Thames). Wanted, Paludina cuntecla, Lymnea
glabra.— Address, W. H. Hatcher, Belmont Works, Battersea,
London.

Very Fink Leaves of Eleagnus (scales polarize) in exchange
for any good unmounted Microscopic Objects.— W. H., 40,
Marine Parade, Worthing. P. S.— Also leaves of Plilomis.

For Mounted Section of Cuttle-lione send unmounted
good transparent injection, preserved in glycerine, to W.
Sargant, Jun., Caverswall, Stoke-on Trent.

Will exchange named specimens of Wild flowers, fresh
specimens, for mutual improvement. — Dr. Morton, Nevr
BromptoQ, Kent.

For specimens of TrirJiobasis petrnselini on Leaves of
Smyrtiium iilusatrum (Alexanders), send stamped .directed
envelope to Herbert Jenner, Lewes. Any other Micro-fungi
acceptable.

Wanted, Scientific Books; good Microscopic Slides offered
in exchange. — R. H. Philip, 23, Prospect-street, Hull.

First-class Slides of pure gatherings of lihnbdonemir
arcuattim and Gomph'jneyna geminatum, &c., for other really
good Slides or material. — H. B. Thomas, Boston, Lincolnshire.

I should be glad to exchange Coleoptera and Lepidoptera
with any of the readers of the Science-Gossip.— R. H. Mac-
Adam, 4, Bedford-terrace, Bedford.

British Marine Alg.b to exchange for anything. Eggs-
of the Merlin, Scoter, Harlequin Duck, Golden Eye, and Little
Auk, to exchange for other rare Eggs.— J. T. T. Reed,
Ryhope, Sunderland.

Pucriniachrysnsplenii for TRcidiumnoldanellcE, Endnphylliim
semperviri, Puccinia rhodiolte, or Pucci?iia scrophularia. —
Rev. J. E. Vize, Forden Vicarage, Welshpool.

Shells Wa.nted. — Succinea oblonga, Pisidium obtusale.
Helix fusnn, Limneus periger ; varieties, acuta, mnrginuta, and
lineata. Offered: Helix obvoluta, Unio margaritifera (Eng-
lish), Achatina acicula, Clausilia duhia, Succinea gracilis, and
intermedia. — W. F. Sutton, Gosforth Grove, near Newcastle-
upon-Tyne.

Irish Marine Alo.b, mounted and duly assorted, for South
Devon and Cornish Seaweed, in the same form. — Henry
Goode, 15, Mulgrave-street, Plymouth.

Duplicate: — Actseon. Desiderata: — Daplidice, Iris, T.
pruni, T. betulae, I.athonia, P. Acis.— B. C. Stilwell, Welling-
ton College, Wokingham.

Fr)R portion cf anterior wing of Fapilio Epiiis (China),
mounted, showing scales in situ, send other good Slide to-
J. P. Smith, Legh-street, Wokington.

Wanted, well-preserved specimens, with fruit, of Myos-
urus 7nini7nus and Actea spicata, for class teaching. Offered r
rare British Wild Plants.— W. Piper, Bank Plain, Norwich.

Graphiola phcenicis on Date Palm, well mounted.— Send
list to C. C. Underwood, Eaton Lodge, Castlebar-road, Ealing.

Well-mounted Diatoms for other equally well-mounted'
Slides— entomological preferred. Lists exchanged.— M. D.,
The Esplanade, Deal.

Preserved Larv.b of Dominula and Caja, for Lepidoptera,
Minerals, or Birds' Eggs.- Address, W. W. Nettleton, Eyne-
street, Batley.

Wanted, the first twelve numbers of the Quekett Journals
Two dozen good Slides offered.— H. E. Freeman, Rose Villa,.
Wood Green, N.

For Brittle Star-fish, send stamped envelope and object
to C. P., Innox Cottage, Corscombe.

Eggs of Kingfisher, Dipper, Kestrel, Common Snipe, Ray's
Wagtail, and others, for good Eggs. Unaccepted oilers not
answered.— B. SCanden, Goosnaigh, near Preston, Lanca-
shire.

Monthlij micrnscnpical Journal, vols. 9 and 10, bound, and
other Entomological and Microscopic Books, for first-class
Entomological Slides.- J. S. Harrison, 48, Lowgate, Hull.

Star-fish Tubercles, Seed-case for Pnlariscope, or
Puccinia umbilici, offered for other good Objects— Send
stamped envelope and objects to Rev. W. Locock, Corscombe
Rectory, Dorchester.

Fresh-.-ollected Cluster-cups on Ficnria, JEcidium rubel.
lum. and Uriirce. Also a few on Arum nuiculatutn. Mounted
or unmounted. In exchange for good microscopic slides.
Send list. — G. Garrett, Harlaud House, Whestead-ruad,
Ipswich.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

" Grevillea." May.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." May.

" Les Mondes."

" Land and Water."

" American Naturalist." January, February, and March,

" Boston Journal of Chemistry."

" Journal of Applied Science." May.

" Elementary Physiology." By F. Le Gros-Clarke. Lon-
don: 8. P. C. K. Society.

" Elementary Geology." By Rev. T. Boniicy. London
S. P. C. K. Society.

"Domestic Floriculture." By F. W. Burbldge. Londoi*
and Edinburgh : W. Blackwood.

HAIIDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

145

THE HISTOEY OF OUE CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

No. III.— GARLIC {Alliim sativum).

HE Garlic is a hardy,
perennial, bulbous-
rooted plant, grow-
ing: naturally in
Sicily and the
South of France.
It was well known
to the ancients, and
is mentioned in
connection with
onions and leeks in the Bible.
Ilomcr makes it part of the
entertainment which Nestor
served up to his guest
Machaon : —

Honey new press'd, the sacred

flour of wheat,
And wholesome garlic crown'd

the savoury treat."

Some authors state, however,
that the Greeks held this root
in such abhorrence, that those
who partook of it were re-
garded as profane.
The Romans gave it to their

soldiers, with au idea that it excited their courage ;

and to their labourers to strengthen them. Virgil

alludes 'to their restorative powers in one of his

Eclogues : —

" And for the mowers, faint with summer airs.
Wild thyrae and garlic, Thestyles prepares."

Pliny writes, touching garlic, that it is sin-
gularly good and of great force for those that
change air, and come to strange waters. He states
it is a sovereign medicine for many maladies ; espe-
cially such as are incident to country peasants and
labourers. He recommends those who wish to
keep garlic and.onions from sprouting, to dip the
heads of them in warm salt-and-water. He describes
one variety, growing iu Africa, which, on being
No. 115.

bruised in a mortar with oil and vinegar, it is won-
derful to see what a froth will arise, and to what a
height it will swell : he tells us that this kind of
garlic was never plauted on level ground, but on
little hillocks like molehills, and that as soon as
they showed their leaves, the mould was taken
away from them, for the oftener they were laid bare
the larger the heads would grow.

This plant was first cultivated in England in
151S. Tusser alludes to it iu his twelfth verse for
the month of November, thus, " Set garlick and
beans at St. Edmund the king." It was held in
greater repute by our ancestors than is in accord-
ance with modern English tastes. The root of
this plant is composed of several lesser bulbs in-
closed in one common membranous tunic, and easily
separated from one another ; these are called cloves,
and are the only parts used, being generally intro-
duced only for a short period into the dish while
cooking, and withdrawn when a sufficient degree of
flavour has been communicated. The whole plant,-
especially the cloves, has a most acrimonious taste
and offensive odour, so powerful and penetrating,,
that if a piece of the plant is applied to the feet
its scent is soon discovered in the breath, and when
taken internally its smell is communicated through
the pores of the skin even to the fingers. It is said
that if a clove of garlic be kept in the mouth it
is an effectual preservative against infection ; and
a receipt printed in 1665, a drink of garlic and
warm milk, to be taken fasting, was recommended
as a cheap medicine to prevent the infection of the
plague.

In Afghanistan the inhabitants rub their lips
and noses with garlic when they go out iu the
summer, and affirm that it secures them from the
evil effects of the hot winds.

In some countries this plant has a superstitious
charm attached to it ; tbat of driving away evil
spirits, and the practice of sprinkling with garlic-
water those whom they wish to be preserved from

H

146

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP,

barm, used to be a custom with some of the inhabi-
tants of the Chinese seas. Old Fuller referring to
this plant says, " Some avow it soveraigue for men
and beasts in most maladies, though the scent
thereof be somewhat valiant and offensive"; and
Sir William Temple in his " Treatis on Health and
Long Life," says, " Garlic has, of all plants, the
greatest strength, affords most nourishment, and
supplies most spirits to those who eat little flesh " ;
he also' states that it is a specific remedy in gout.
It was greatly commended by old writers as a cure
for ague ; and is still in Kent, and probably in other
counties, placed in the stocking of the child
afflicted with the whooping-cough, in order to allay
this malady, (See Pratt's " Plowering Plants," &c.)
There are several varieties of garlic natives of
our country. The Crow Garlic {A. vineale), not uu-
frequently found throughout England and the
south of Scotland, also near Dublin ; its leaves are
sometimes used as a salad. The Broad-leaf Garlic
or Ramson {A. msinuni). Moist shady groves and
thickets are its favourite habitation, and the copious
snow-white flowers, enlivening many a shady dell,
might be seen with pleasure, if the odour of the
herb, whenever it is bruised or trodden upon, did
not so frequently infect the air around. In oldeu
times this plant was considered by our ancestors
highly beneflcial to health, as we learn from one of
our oldest proverbs which reads thus in modern
^English : —

"Eat Leeks in March and Eamsons in May,
All the year after physicians may play."

Ray considers the island of Ramsay to have taken
its name from the quantity of the broad-leaf garlic
or Ramson which grows there. In Kanitschatka this
plant is much prized by the inhabitants, both as a
medicine and as an auxiliary article for food. The
Russians, as well as the natives, gather it in large
quantities for winter use. After being steeped in
water, it is raised with cabbage, onions, and other
ingredients, the whole forming a ragout, which is
eaten cold. This plant is there considered as almost
a specific against the scurvy, no sooner lifting its
head above the snow than the dreadful disease
loses all its horrors; at even the worst stages a cure
is produced by the plentiful use of the wild garlic.
According to Skinner, the word garlic is derived
from the A.-S. Gar, as applied to a lance, and as Lear,
a leek, — from the leaves rising like lances or
javelins.

Shalot or Eschalot {A. ascalonicum) is a relative of
the Onion, and was formerly called Scalion, from
Ascalon, a town in Syria, near the Mediterranean,
from whence the Greeks first procured them, Pliny
says the Ascalonian onions are proper for sauce.
The time of its introduction into this country is not
known ; some writers think we owe it to the cru-
saders. Turner mentions it as a well-known plant in

his "Signes of Herbs," published in 154:8. This plant
resembles the true garlic in having its roots divided
into cloves or smaller bulbs, inclosed in a thin mem-
brane. Each of these small bulbs sends forth two or
three fistular awl-shaped leaves, issuing from a
sheath ; they are nearly similar but not so large as
those of the Onion. The Shalot does not in all situa-
tions produce perfect seeds or even flowers, there-
fore some old authors denominated it the baiTen
onion from this circumstance. The want of seed is,
however, fully compensated by the multiplication of
the bulbs. The flavour is much more pungent than
that of the Garlic, but not so rank.

The Chive (Allh/m Sc/iceiwjiras/im) is the smallest
though one of the finest-flavoured of the genus. It
is a hardy perennial plant, an inhabitant of Northern
Europe and Russian Asia, said to be a native of
Britain, though rarely found growing in a wild state.
The leaves, which resemble small rushes, are used for
salads, &c,, and in some cottage gardens it is planted
as an edging to the flower-beds.

The Leek (A. Forrum) is a branch of the Onion
family, and is said to be indigenous to Switzerland ;
but it has been for so many years under cultivation
that its native place cannot, perhaps, be very ac.
curately traced. Pliny states that the best leeks
were brought from Egypt and the next to them
from Orthe, now called Guzelhizar, a town about
15 miles from Ephesus. This great naturalist
relates that this vegetable was brought into notice
and esteem through the Emperor Nero, who used
to "eat them for several days in every month to clear
his voice. He took them with oil only, debarring
himself even from bread on these days.

The exact period whentheLeek was introduced into
this country is not known, " Hortus Britannicus "
states that it was about 1562 ; but they must have
beeniucultivationmucheai-lier,asthey appearto have
been used by the Welsh as far back as we can trace
their history, Tusser sings their praises in verse, and
says they were in common use in farm-houses long
before his time, Gerard, who wrote soon after,
mentions leeks in such a manner as to induce us to
think them indigenous to our soil ; he says, " Leeks
are very common everywhere in other countries, as
well as in England." The hardiness and pungency
of the Leek both tend to recommend it in those
countries where few potherbs are grown, and it
seems to have great facility in adapting itself to
climate. The Leek which is cultivated in the colder
parts of Scotland, and thence is called the Scotch
leek, is more hardy and also more pungent than the
broad-leaved variety, chiefly cultivated in Engknd.
It was formerly a very favourite ingredient in the
" cock-a-lcekie " of the Scotch, which is so graphi-
cally described in " The Fortunes of Nigel" and of
which James the First is reported to have been so
fond that he retained his preference for it notwith-
standing all the dainties of Loudon cookery.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOS SI P.

147

Coles, in his "Adam in Edeu ; or, Paradise of
Plants," a, curious old work published in 1657, saysj
concerning leeks : — "The gentlemen in Wales have
them in great regard both for their feeding and to
wear in their hats on St, David's day."

Worledge, writing in 1068, gives a good idea of
the love of the Welsh for these kinds of odoriferous
vegetables. "1 have seen," says he, "the greater
part of a garden there stored with leeks, and part of
the remainder with onions and garlic."

The origin of the Leek as an emblem of Wales,
and being worn on St. David's day, has given rise
to much controversy at various periods. A writer in
the Goitleman^s Magazine for Eebruary, 1735, states
that on the 1st March, 610, the Welsh, under the
command of King Cadwallo, gained a great victory
over the Saxons, and had at the same time put leeks
in their hats to distinguish themselves, fighting near
a field which was replenished with this vegetable,
which has ever since been esteemed as a badge of
honour among them,

Townsend gives the same account in his " Manual
of Dates," but places the event a hundred years
earlier. Shakespeare alludes to the custom of
wearing the Leek by the Welsh in the fourth act of
his " Henry V," A contributor to a periodical work
(the Gazette of Fashion, 1832) thinks it more pro-
bable that leeks were a Druidic symbol employed
in honour of the British Ceudven or Ceres. In
which hypothesis he thinks there is nothing
strained or far-fetched, presuming that the Druids
were a branch of the Phoeuician priesthood. Both
were addicted to oak-worship, and during the
funeral rites of Adonis at Bjblos, leeks and onions
were exhibited in " pots with other vegetables,"
and called the gardens of that deity. In Egypt
leeks and onions were also deposited in the sacred
chests of the mysteries both of Isis and Ceres.
This vegetable is represented among the Egyptian
hieroglyphics ; sometimes a leek is on the head of
Osiris, and at other times grasped in an extended
hand.

Porrus, a leek, is derived by Bryant from the
Egyptian god Pi-orus, who is the same as the Baal
Peor of the Phceuicians, and the Bel or Bellinis of
the Druids, Theis gives another derivation to the
word, and says it is from pari, to eat, in Celtic ;
whence comes our word porridge, in which leeks
formerly constituted an ingredient.

It is stated in Hooker and Arnott's "British
Flora," seventh edition, that A. Porriim, the garden
leek, is nowhere found truly wild, Bentham says,
in his Handbook, it is believed to be a cultivated
variety of A. Ampeloprasuin, which is found in two
or three spots in Western England, but supposed
to have been introduced, or the remains of anciient
cultivation. Most of the Onion tribe have sul-
phur in their composition, as well as free phosphoric
acid.

The bulb of the Onion is in reality not a root any
more than the Potato, but an underground bud,
containing all the parts hereafter to be developed.
The Potato is an underground stem, or rhizome,
covered with buds or eyes, from which new plants
are produced. I will now conclude my paper on
these odoriferous and pungent vegetables with some
lines from a Harl. MS. in the British Museum,
written no doubt by a Welsluiian : —

" I like the leek above all herbs and flowers,
When first we wore the same the field was ours.
The leek is white and green, whereby is meant
That Britons are both stout and eminent.
Next to the lion and the unicorn,
The leek 'a the fairest emblem that is worn."

Hampden G. Glasspoole.

ON APHIDES,

IT is difiicult for the rose-cultivator to look with
any degree of interest at the swarm of green
plant-lice which sometimes infest his choicest spe-
cimens, or for the farmer to contemplate placidly
the black pests which are destroying his bean crop ;
but the life-history of these creatures is so curious,
and so replete with interest, that the mere natu-
ralist may be excused if he sees in them something
to admire. I have no doubt more than one species
of aphis is more than sufiiciently well known in
appearance to all my readers, but I doubt if we
have all taken our revenge so fully as we might
have done, by making them reveal the secrets of
their wonderful economy to us in return for the
damage they have done to our floral pets.

The Aphis, or plant-louse, belongs to the order
Homoptera, and the genus is a very large one,
numbering, I believe, some three hundred and
twenty species, almost every one of which requires
its own peculiar plant to supply it with nourish-
ment. The species with which we are most familiar
are those found in the rose, beau, hop, and fruit-
trees. The damage done by the hop-flj^, as it is
called, is sometimes very great, affecting the duty
to the extent of many thousands of pounds. Other
species cover the stems of 'plants, or infest the
under surface of the leaves, causing them to form
hollow cavities of a red colour, in which they find
a perfect shelter. Their mode of feeding is to
draw up the sap through the rostrum, and thus, by
diminishing the vigour of the plant, they produce
deformity and injury to the fruit or flowers. It is
said that they do not attack plants in perfect
health, and this I believe to be the case generally,
but whether it always holds good I cannot say ;
certain it is that any circumstance (drought, easterly
winds, &c.) which checks the vigour of the plant
is favourable to the attacks of the aphis. I have
also noticed that an improvement in the health of
the plant is attended by a corresponding decrease

H 2

148

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

in the aphides, aud that they will again multiply
should the plant exhibit fresh signs of sickliness.
The suddenness with which they make their appear-
ance, and the vast numbers acquired in a very brief
period, are wonderful : the plants in a whole field
of beans will appear to be covered in a few days ;
but this will be less astonishing when we consider
the mode of reproduction and the rapidity with
which it takes place. Sexual intercourse takes
place only in the autumn, after the insects have
become fully developed ; the female then deposits
her eggs in some secure spot, where they remain

Fig:. 93. Wingless Aphis (tnagiiifled),

dormant through the winter, the first genial days
in spring bringing forth not the perfect-winged
form which produced the egg, but the well-known
wingless form which is so familiar to us all. This
wonderful fertile larval form is possessed of great
fecundity, but it is its mode of reproducing which
is so remarkable : this is carried on by internal
gemmation, the young one being produced alive,
aud differing from its parent only in size. This
process of development goes on for several gene-
rations without any change in the form of the
insect ; at the close of the summer, however, the
fertile forms which have not reproduced themselves
pass, by metamorphosis, into the perfect insect,
males and females, for the most part winged. These,
after pairing, produce the eggs which are to be
hatched in the ensuing spring, after which they die.
During the summer numbers complete their meta-
morphosis, and appear as winged insects. The
larval form which will undergo the final meta-
morphosis may easily be recognized, the bulbs in
which the wings are inclosed being visible on either
side the thorax. I have separated many of these,
and placed them under a glass shade, but in no
instance have they reproduced, the development
continuing until, after the final shedding of the skin,
they have appeared as fully-developed winged
insects. These have never produced eggs, and I
ihink were all males; it seems probable that

although winged insects are produced during the
summer, it is not till the autumn that the perfect
females are produced ; all the fertile larval females
which I have kept, either alone or under the same
shade with the winged form just mentioned, having
increased rapidly in the usual way, and in no
instance produced eggs. The perfect insect is very
different from the larval form, and under the mag-
nifying-glass a very handsome object, with six long
legs, graceful antenna, shining wings and spotted
sides, also a pair of curious projecting tubes, stand-

Fig. 93, Winged Aphis (magnified).

ing out like horns, near the extremity of the abdo-
men, of which more hereafter. This intermediate
but fertile form of the aphis is an example of the
nursing system of Steenstrup, observed also in the
vegetable kingdom in the case of the ferns and
horse-tails, which increase by spores, which, falling
into the ground, produce the prothallium. The
prothallium never becomes a fern, but on it are
formed the true generative organs which produce
the embryo afterwards developed into the perfect
plant. This case differs from the aphis in the
nurse-form (the prothallium) producing the gene-
rative organs.

The echinoderms, &c., exemplify other varia-
tions of the same phenomena. Mungo Ponton
thus describes the fertile nurse-form and the way
in which it is illustrated by the aphis: — "By fertile
nurse-form is to be understood an organism which
becomes fertile without ever attaining, or at least
before having attained, the perfect form due to its
species. ... In simple metamorphosis, it is one
and the same individual organism that passes
through all the stages, from the form which it
wears on leaving the egg, to that which it assumes
on attaining the perfection belonging to its species ;
but in the case of a fertile nurse-form, it is in general
onlythose forms which are produced bythe nurse that
ever attain the specific type. So likewise, in simple

HARDWICKE'S 8C1ENC E-GOSS IP.

149

concurrent reproduction, it is one and the sanae
organism that exerts both the power of individual
multiplication and the faculty of sexual generation ;
whereas iu the case of fertile nurse-forms, it is
seldom they possess both ; but if the nurse be
endowed with the one, its offspring will be endowed
with the other." (" The Beginning : its When and
its How," pp. 24:2-3.) It sometimes occurs that the
nurse acquires the power of sexual generation, also
that the species passes through more than one
nurse-form, either similar or diverse, before attain-
ing the perfect form of the species. In the aphis is
found one of the most decided examples of the
fertile nurse-form (and one which it is very easy to
study), the immature females standing iu that rela-
tion to the perfect insect.

These fertile females, as has been said before, re-
produce by internal gemmation, the bud falling into
a proper receptacle in the parent's body, and being
produced alive, exactly like its parent, except in size ;
each female producing horn 50 to 100 young ones.
So rapidly do they increase, that it has been calcu-
lated that from one individual there might be
descended, under favourable circumstances, the
enormous number of 4,000 billions in a single
summer.

Were it not for its many enemies, the increase of
the aphides would be beyond all bounds ; but for-
tunately for us its enemies are very numerous.
Birds consume great numbers, but the larvae of the
Ladybird, feeding exclusively on the aphides, de-
stroys them wholesale, extracting all the soft parts
and leaving the empty skins to testify to their
enormous appetites. The larva of the beautiful
lace- winged fly destroys great numbers, as does also
that of the various species of Syrphidse, In July,
1S69, we were visited by a great plague of aphides,
and all the three species I have named speedily
made their appearance also in great numbers. The
ladybirds swarmed in countless numbers, and im-
mense numbers of their unsightly larvse soon
appeared. The rapidity with which these larvae
cleared the aphides from a hop-plant in my garden
was truly astonishing. The clusters of curious
pedunculated eggs produced by the Lace-wing fly
were numerous, as were the perfect insects, than
which nothing can be imagined more delicate and
beautiful or a greater contrast to its larva, which
from its voracity has been named the aphis- lion.

Another foe is a small species of Ichneumon
which deposits its eggs in the body of the aphis,
the larvae feeding upon its soft parts. The brown
and swollen skins of the insects thus infested may
frequently be seen, and if placed by themselves in a
glass-topped box, the active little ichneumons will
soon burst through their prison and reveal the secret
of the death of the unfortunate aphides.

There is another curious chapter hi the history of
the aphis which'-is worthy of notice. It is the un-

fair treatment which it receives at the hands (or
antennae) of the ants. Linnaeus calls the aphis the
ant's " cow," and the use to which this sagacious
little insect subjects it fully justifies the term. The
aphides eject from the two tubes before mentioned
as situated one on either side of the abdomen, a
quantity of saccharine fluid, which is very attractive
to the ants, and forms in some cases almost their
only food. This fluid may be noticed overspreading
the leaves of plants infested by these insects till
they have a glazed appearance, and seem to have
been washed with honey and water. It is com-
monly called "honey-dew," and was long a puzzle
as to its origin. Not only do the ants consume the
fluid voluntarily ejected by the aphides, but by a
peculiar movement of their antennae upon the
bodies of their " cows," excite them to an increased
supply. This has not inaptly been called " milking,"
But even this is not all. Kirby and Speuce give a
most wonderful account of the way in which some
species of ants, particularly the yellow ant {F.flava),
convey the aphides to their nests, and keep them
there for the supply of their necessities. The yellow
ant makes prisoners of a root-feeding species of
aphis {A. rddicum), and even carries off its eggs,
which are tended with care and placed in situations
favourable for their early development,

I think it will be allowed that whether we con-
sider the aphis as a marked example of the wonderful
"nurse-form," as described by Steenstrup in his
"Alternation of Generations," and one accessible
for study to us all ; or whether we confine our
attention to its life-history and the singular con-
nection between it and the ant, to which it is so
serviceable, there is ample scope for observation,
and that too of a character, from the delicacy and
exactness required in its pursuit, which must of
necessity be good training, should it even only
extend to verifying the observations of others on
this interesting but generally unwelcome littla
creature.

HISTORY OF THE DIATOMACE^.

{Concluded^

-pROFESSOR H.L. SMITH has published his se-
-'- cond instalment of his translation of the " His-
torical Preface of Kiif zing." This is for the most part
a record of Kiitzing's own labours. In his " Synopsis
Diatomearum " he separates the true Diatomaceae,
with hard and glassy shells (valves), from the softer-
shelled forms, which he called Desmidieae. This
seems to have caused some complaints, of a desire
on the part of the author to unduly multiply
species; but he remarks that "not only all the species
established by myself stood proof, but even many
a form mentioned by me as a variety, was established
by others as distinct species."

150

HARDWICKE'S SCIE N C E-;G0 S SIP.

Ehrenberg took tlie trouble, in liis thiid " Aid to
the Knowledge of Larger Organisms in the direction
of the smallest space," * to reduce most of the
forms established by me in the Synopsis to such
forms as were known to him ; but later he has
established the same forms as distinct species, in
his larger work on the "Infusoria." (Ehrenberg
did not publish his great work on^ the diatoms,
" The Microgeologie," until some few years after
Kiitzing had given his " Bacillarien " to the
world. This work is a monument of patient but
misdirected labour. The figures occupy 39 folio
plates, and are far better than any previously pub-
lished. The plan he adopted was to give a repre-
sentation of all the forms that appeared in the field
of the microscope, under a power of about 100
diameters. Grouped around the circle containing
these forms were separate drawings of them,
enlarged to about 300 diameters. This arrange-
ment, although useful in some respects, was open
to many objections, not the least of which was the
necessarily heavy cost and large bulk of the book,
for, not content with giving a large and small
representation of an object, it was repeated again
and again if it occurred in different deposits. —
F. K.)

Kiitzing explains that the inferiority of his
figures was owing to the indifferent microscope he
used, and goes on to say that, however insufficient
his instrument, he made by it his most excellent
discovery, viz., the siliceous nature of the Diato-
macese, which soon led, through his friend Henri
Fischer, of Pirkenhammer, near Carlsbad, to the
other important discovery of the fossil deposit of
these organisms. "I had already, in my Synopsis,
called the substance of which these shells were
composed ' glassy,' because I had even then sus-
pected siliceous earth in these frustules. I com"
municated these to my friend Bilz, an expert
equally renowned as botanist and chemist, at the
same time asking him whether he would investigate
chemically specimens which I would send to him.
Bilz, however, declined the commission, stating
that he had no practice in the chemical investiga-
tion of microscopic objects." The matter rested
for a short time, until recalled to the author's mind
while investigating some Cliaraceaj. " I placed
gOme charse in dilute muriatic acid, in order to
remove the lime crust that was in the way of micro-
scopic investigation. In the course of examina-
tion I found that the soft chara stems were on the
outside garnished all over with diatoms, which were
not at all affected by acids. Notwithstanding the
twilight that had already commenced, I treated these

* This title is somewhat obscure. The original is " Zur
Erkenntniss grosser Organisation in dor Richtung lies klein-
sten Raums." I understand it to mean an aid to the know-
edge of that large number of orgauisms occupying the
smallest space.— F. K.

diatoms in separate watch-glasses with concentrated
acids, applying muriatic, nitro-phosphoric, and
^uming sulphuric acids. The colour of the internal
parts became, under the first influence of the acids,
beautifully green ; but further investigations with
the microscope had to be postponed until the
following day. After a sleepless night, the exami-
nations were continued at the break of day, and at
eight o'clock on the morning of May Sth, 1S34, 1
had not only the full certainty of the siliceous
character, but also of the iron contents of the
diatoms. The diatoms which- had been brought
into contact with the concentrated acid had not
changed otherwise than that their internal matter
had disappeared."

The author afterwards tried the action of soda
and a blow-pipe flame on a small mass of diatoms.
The solution of these in the soda followed completely,
and be obtained a perfectly transparent glass, which,
on cooling, appeared of a vitriol-green colour, indi-
cating the presence of oxide of iron. The interest
of the preface may be said to conclude here ; the
remainder of it is taken up with acknowledgments
of the kindness of various gentlemen who for-
wai'ded to him material from their own herbaria,
and a complaint that Ehrenberg did not acknow-
ledge, excepting very briefly and unsatisfactorily,
his discoveries of the siliceous nature of the
diatomaceous frustule, and the presence of iron in
them. Kiitzing says — "I was somewhat asto-
nished to see in Ehrenberg's large work on Infusoria
the iron of the Gallionellse mentioned as his dis-
covery, while he does not even allude to the fact
that I, in my essay sent to the Berlin Academy,
mentioned iron as a general constituent of diatoms.
It is easy to believe here in a ' turpinate.' "

(Perhaps some of the readers of Science-Gossip
may be able to explain this expression ; I am unable
to do so myself.) F. K.

A HALF-DAY'S PLANT-HUi\TING.

1\yrY friend, Dr. M., having snatched half a day
'^-'- from his arduous professional duties, we
drove off from home at 1"30 p.m., with the intention
of visiting the great chalk ridge at Boxley, and
afterwards the village of Boxley at its foot, through
which meanders a small clear stream of water,
which issues from beneath the chalk escarpment.

In our journey through the woods we made
numerous halts in order better to examine the
nature of the flora. The woods in this district are
grown for the sake of hop-poles, &c., and are cut
down periodically at intervals of from seven to ten
years. In the clearings thus produced the botanist
finds at all times a rich reward for the trouble
expended in hunting through them. The summer
after they are felled a great and varied selection of

HARDWICKE'S S CIENCE -GOSSIP.

151

plants makes its api^earance, including many rare
and curious orchids, the Herb Paris, &c. &c.

The trees themselves, of which these low woods
are composed, are well worthy of note. Among a
great many others we noted Pijrus Aria, P. tor-
minalis, P. Malus, Primus communis, P. Cerasus,
Viburnum Lantana, V. Opulus, Carpinus Betulus,
Castanea vulgaris, Euonymus Europceus, Phamnus
catharticus, &c. Beneath these trees we found
immense beds of woodruff, and pretty little masses
of the beautiful Oxcdis acetosella. Poterium san-
guisorha is everywhere very abundant on the chalk.
By the way, self-fertilization is somewhat carefully
provided against in these plants. The flowers are
in dense heads, the upper flowers being pistil-
liferous and the lower staminiferous. Tlie stigmas
of the upper florets are in a receptive condition a
considerable time before the staminiferous florets
open — indeed, when these latter open, the stigmas
are withered and dried away. Thus it is rendered
impossible for the florets on any given head to fer-
tilize each other. The pollen must be brought
from some other plant, or at all events from some
other flower-head.

Arrived at Boxley Hill we wandered about in
search of specimens, and were soon richly rewarded
for our trouble. Some years ago 1 found Afropa
Belladonna growing on the wooded hill-side, and in
the hunt to find it again, which proved unsuccessful,
we met with the beautiful Fly orchis {Ophrijs musci-
fera), the unique beauty of which cannot be under-
stood from any description ; it must be seen to be
appreciated. Many non-botanical friends to whom
it was shown were highly delighted, and bore tes-
timony to the correctness of its name by suddenly
exclaiming, " How like a fly !" "It might be used
as a bait for fly-fishing," &c. &c. Near the same
place we found the lovely CepJialanthera grandi-
flora, the curious Aceras anthropophora, some fine
specimens of Orchis maculata and 0. pyra-
midalis. My friend at this point began turning
over large stones in an old chalk-pit, and we were
greatly astonished to find beneath almost every
stone a fine specimen of Blind-worm or Slow-worm
{Anguis fragilis). The names of this lacertiau
appeared to us to be sad misnomers, for the crea-
tures are very active when aroused, and far from
being blind, they possess a pair of very sharp and
extremely pretty eyes. We caught three, which were
liberated after a careful examination.

In this pit we found the pretty Hellehorus fcetidus,
a great number of orchids, and a splendid plant of
Rosa rubiginosa, which occurs in great abundance
in this neighbourhood, &c. &c.

Among the plants here adorning the greensward
were Hippocrepis coniosa, Anthjllus vulneraria,
Lotus corniculatus, Helianthemum vulgare, and Poly,
gale vulgare; and Columbine {Aquilegia vulgare) was
very abundant in the thickets. We met with

several specimens of a white variety of Herb Robert
(not common, I think).

Tea was consumed in a lovely quiet lane near the
wood. We preferred roughing it thus to driving
into Maidstone. Here all our senses were gratified
at one and the same time. The scenery is delight-
ful, and, owing to the rugged^ature of the ground,
much land is incapable of cultivation, and many
miles of hills are covered with plants and trees of
great variety, growing in rich luxuriance. Hundreds
of yew-trees stud the hill-sides, their dark sombre
foliage contrasting finely with the intermingled
richer greens of other trees. The barer spots are
everywhere thickly dotted with juniper-bushes,
which grow here in great abundance. About a
hundred feet above us towered a white cliff of
chalk, in which numerous jackdaws and starlings
had built their nests, and with clamorous cries
were busily performing their parental duties. In
one part of the cliif a windhover had taken up its
abode, and we were highly amused by w^atching
the occasional concerted attacks made upon him by
jackdaws, which did not seem to relish such a for-
midable neighbour. On an old wall we found
Linum c dharticum, Saxifraga tridactylites, Linaria
cymbalaria, Arenaria serpyllifolia, Sagina, Lactuca
muralis, Asplenium ruta muraria, several specimens
of epilo'jium, and last, and most noteworthy of all,
Meconopsis Cambrica. The finding of this last fairly
astonished us, as its station is much to the west
and north of us. Has it previously been recorded
from this part of Kent ? The small stream along
the roadside was profusely ornamented with brook-
lime {Veronica beccabunga), Poteiitilla anserina, the
Slums, &c. A wall, alongside which flows the
stream, was covered about its base with the lovely
golden saxifrage {Chrysosplenium oppositifoliam).

From here we followed the course of the stream,
and were rewarded by once more finding many an
old floral friend, the sight of which recalled to us
other days. A pleasant ride home in the cool
evening air, enlivened by the richly-modulated song
of the nightingale, the peculiar thrilling notes of the
nightjar, and the mellow call of the cuckoo, brought
our much-enjoyed afternoon to a close.

Kew Brompton. J. M. Hepwokth,

Cockatoos.— It may interest>ome of your readers
to know that a rose-breasted cockatoo which I
have had in my possession for eighteen years, and
kept quite alone, laid an egg in its cage on March
13th. It is white^ and of an oval form.— (?. A. B.

" Ix studying a flower, the first thing to do is to
look at it well, so as to get a good notion of its
general form and appearance ; and in proceeding to
dissect it, the beginner must start with the idea
that he has a machine made of several parts, more
or less complicated, to pull to pieces." — Masters' s
" Botany for Beginners."

152

HAflDWlCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

HYDROZOAK ZOOPHYTES.

A S I wished to examine a few small zoophytes,
■^-^ I established a tiny aquarium iu a small glass
vessel, fitted up with appropriate seaweeds ; iu a
few days I discovered a group of four hydrozoan
polypes, on a frond of small weed. They were stiff
and rigid, having each four tentaculse. I took them
for a young growth of Coryne pusilh, or something,

Fig. 94. Hydrozoan Zoophytes {Coryne pusilla) on sea- weed.
a, nat. size of young Medusee. b, ditto magnilied as seen
when attaclied to glass.

of the kind. Soon after a little knob appeared on
one of them, and then on the others the same thing
took place, and the number of polypes increased. I
did not notice them much, until one morning I was
surprised to see a beautiful little medusa swimming
in the glass. I immediately thought of the "buds"
on the polypes, and on looking for them I found
that one was still " on the stocks," so far matured

Fig. 95. Hydrozoan Zoophytes {Coryne punilla ?); a, nat. size
of cluster ; b, magnified.

as to be quite recognizable. It took, however, five
days before it got free, and it was almost comical to
see its efforts to pull itself away from the stem.
They are now still very lively, swimming about, and
often visiting the spot where others are growing.
The stem gradually dried up after the medusa was
free. I should much like to know if any one had made
these observations before. L. R.

NOTES ON THE STARLING.

A LTHOUGH we have many of our small birds
■^^ protected, there are yet some for those who
love to raise young birds from the nest, and perhaps
one of the most beautiful is so left, for few birds
are more handsome than the Starling {Shimus vul-
garis), and certainly none more deserving attention,
for, added to his spotted, richly-shaded, purple and
gold feathers, he has a talent which should recom-
mend him to all lovers of the feathered tribe, — he is
a good mocking-bird, and may be taught to talk and
whistle several tunes by simply repeating them at
feeding-time, or a few times during the day. The
starlings are not migratory birds, but congregate in
large flocks, when they are sometimes seen darting
and floating after the manner of the swallow, feeding
on the wing, rising and falling in a most pleasing
way ; yet with all their gambols they display much
caution, — ever wary, — indeed, in some instances they
are like the magpie ; but when tame the whole of
their ability may be turned to good account. See
one at home in a hole in a tree or under the eaves
of a cottage. Cunningly he selects his abode for the
rearing of his young, sometimes but a few feet from
your door, whence he may be seen to dart into a hole
or cleft in a tree with food for its young, and we
soon see the sleek, well-fledged young, peeping after
the parent, and in the month of June the brood is
led forth to learn to provide for themselves. Busily
they may be seen in the sheep-walks, seeking
food close to the feet of cattle, giving us an illustra"
tion of their instinctive cunning. But at this time
we have not the elegant bird before mentioned — he is
yet wearing his dusky feathers. In the month of
July or August he begins to moult, and we shortly
see those "beautifully spotted feathers which trans-
form this bird of exquisite symmetry into one of
our handsome English mocking-birds. The Starling
is insectivorous, very hardy, easily raised from
the nest, and becomes remarkably tame. The cruel
practice concerning the cutting of this bird's tongue
is all nonsense ; the bird will talk much sooner and
better if his tongue be not cut. The nestling
starlings should be fed with scalded bread, fig dust,
hard-boiled eg^, and a little bruised hemp-seed,
well mixed ; or you may give them fig-dust and raw
meat, taking care to prepare them fresh food daily. As
soon as yournestlings can feedthemselves, they should
have a cage as large as the blackbird's cage, taking
care to keep them very clean, allowing them to be
plentifully supplied with water, and the cage well
gravelled. Chas. J. W. Rudd.

" Smoking flowers with brimstone is a very good,
simple, and cheap way of drying flowers, especially
asters, roses, fuchsias, spireas (red flower kinds),
ranunculuses, cytisuses, «S;c." — Burbidge's "Domestic
Floriculture"

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

153

TERATOLOGICAL NOTES.

AUGUST 1st.— Noticed to-day a fuchsia, of
whicli the leaves were arranged in tliree
different ways : not only on the same plant, but
also on the same branch, there were leaves opposite,
alternate, and in whorls of three, and on one branch
two whorls of three leaves each, bearing a flower-
bud from the axil of each leaf. Are we to suppose
that this is caused by a non-development of inter-
nodes, or is there a better theory to account for it ?
(N.B.— I believe Mr. Lindley is in favour of the
suppression of internodes.)

Fig. p6. Garden variety of Ranunculus Asiatictis — a, the 3
foUoles of the Calyx, or Involucre; 6, the coloured inner
foliole, or abortive petal j c, the foot-stalk of the Flower.

May 16th. — On rich, light, sandy loam, in Church
Cemetery, Nottingham, an abnormal specimen of
Trifolmm pratense or of T. medium (Bentham) ; the
whole plant apparently full and healthy. Examined
three heads of flowers, two of which exhibited the
monstrosities.

The following is a description of one of the
flowers, and may be accepted as a tj-pe of the
rest : —

Calyx.— Ixi two whorls; the inner of four, the
outer of nine sepals. Sepals. — Divided halfway to
the base, with subulate teeth.

Corolla. — Nine oblique petals, arranged in an
apparently rosaceous manner (these situated between
the outer and inner whorls of the cahjx), then five
small, unequal, crumpled organs inside the inner

whorl, and seemingly stuffing up the centre of the
flower, and not all on the same plane, but crowded
upon the central column. Petals. — The outer cues
red-purple, the inner quite green ; unguiculate, and
the nine outer ones incurved one over the other,
like the blossom of an apple, but more crowded.

Stamens. — Eleven perfect ones cohering into a
central solid column, and about six very imperfect
green filaments at the top ; these were all of various
lengths, and scattered amongst the imperfect petals
upon and around the column.

Pistil. — No trace, though the column, solid from
the centre to the top, appeared looser in texture at
the base.

The spikes of flowers were very fine ones. On
them were counted 41, 45, and 66 flowers, the latter
one having no abortive ones ; — at least, none were
noticed. The monstrosities were all at the base of
the spikes, those flowers at the top being pretty
regular, though every flower on the two heads
appeared to possess more than its normal number of
sepals, the average being 6-fid.

June 9th.— A lady found to-day a specimen of the
red garden daisy, with one large centre flower, the
involucre very loose and spreading, and having
fifteen other daisies, half the size of the central one,
springing from between the scales of the involucre.
This is, I believe, a very good specimen of the Hen-
and-chicken daisy.

June 23rd. — While plucking some flowers from a
plant of the common blue lupine, noticed a pecu-
liarity about the leaves. The leaves of this well-
known, plant are commonly on long stalks, with a
number of lanceolate leaflets arranged in a stellate
manner upon the top of the stalk, and all upon the
same plane. In this case, however, the leaflets
appear to be arranged in two or three rows, and in
a spiral almost imperceptible, excepting that they
are alternate with the ones above. One of the
leaves consisted of 29 such leaflets.

July 21st, 1873. — Perhaps the following is as good
an illustration of the transitions between sepals and
petals, &c., as could be found in the Ranunculus
family. A garden variety of Ranunculus asiaticus
produced, instead of a flower, one long stalk, on the
top of which were three green expansions of a leaf-
like form, and one within, and alternate, of a bright
red colour, and of remarkable shape. The best idea
of their appearance may be formed by supposing the
involucre of the Wood Anemone {A. nemorosa) to
be formed of three sessile leaflets, one-third of an
inch broad at base, and divided from halfway
up into numerous divisions, like the ordinary leaves
of the species. Within these, and springing from
the same centre, one tripartite flattened expansion,
coloured red, the two lobes entire, the other one
approaching the divisions of the leaves, and coloured
with green streaks up one side. The illustration
may make this plainer.

154

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

DECENT PAL^O-BOTANICAL RE-
SEARCHES IN VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA).*

WITHIN the last four or &ve years a consider-
able amount of light has been thrown upon
the Tertiary flora which flourished in the south-
eastern portions of the continent of Australia,
previous to and during the deposition of the
matrix of a large portion of the alluvial gold which
has been obtained from that auriferous region.
Through the researches of Baron von Mueller,
M.D., E.R.S., with material collected and supplied
by Dr. R. B. Smyth, F.G.S., the energetic Secre-
tary of the Victorian Mining Department, and Mr.
Mining-Surveyor Lynch, a fine series of fruits and
seed-vessels have been described, and their affinities
determined, so far as the remains would permit,
from one of the " deep-leads " of the colony. The
results of these investigations have appeared from
time to time in the "Reports of the Mining Sur-
veyors and Registrars of the Colony of Victoria,"
accompanied by lithographic illustrations of the
fossils, executed by the lithographer to the Depart-
ment, Mr. R. Shepherd. An interesting paper on
the same subject was read before the Geological
Society, but was published only in abstract.

The fossils in question were obtained from the
auriferous "wash-dirt" of the Haddon "lead,"
Smythe's Creek, Smythesdale, county of Grenville,
and were found at the bottom of the " wash-dirt,"
near the up-turned edges of the bed-rock (Silurian).
This stratum, at both spots at which the fruits were
found, and separated from one another only by a
short distance, was succeeded by a gravelly drift
containing trunks of trees. This, in one instance,
was overlaid by alternations of clay and sandy drift,
in the other by similar beds, and a thick bed (100 ft.)
of basalt ("blue-stone"), giving respectively sec-
tions of 76 ft. and 156 ft.

Coniferfe are represented by a usually five-celled
woody strobilus, to which the name of Spomhjlodro-
bus {S. Simjthii), E. v. M., has been given. The
generic affinities of thispentamerous conifer place it
near Solemstrobus, Bowerbank, from the London
clay, but, unlike the latter, the five fruit-valves are
unkeeled, and there is a considerable columellar
development not seen in the Loudon clay genus
The last-named character is considered by Baron
von Mueller as sufficient to separate it from all
cupressineous genera, fossil or recent.

The Saphiducece are perhaps represented by
spherical or oval two- or three-celled fruits, the
valves of which separate completely to the base, and
are externally rough and deeply wrinkled from ver-
rucular protuberances. Von Mueller has named

* Reports of the Mining: Surveyors and Registrars of the
Colony of Victoria, for the Quarters ending March 31st 1871 •
June 30th, 1871 ; September 30th, l8;i ; September 30th', 18/3 ■
December 31st, 1873. Melbourne: By Authority.

these Phymatocaryon {P. MacJcayi), and consider
that they also approach London clay forms, viz.,
Cupanoides, Tricarpellites, and TFethereUia.

A series of globular one-celled bony fruits, deeply
perforated at the base by an oval aperture, and not
clearly related to any known genus of recent or
fossil plants, are described under the name of
Trematocaryon [T. McLellani), E. v. M., and are
demonstrated as possessing characters in common
with both Verhenacefs and Sapindacea, but that the
balance appears to weigh in favour of a reference to
the former family.

The next genus of this interesting genus is that
announced by Baron von Mueller as Rhjtidotheca
(P. LyncJiii), for the reception of elongate and
attenuate, five solid- valved fruits, wrinkled or rough
at the dorsal portion, and without a columella or
free central axis. These are supposed to have
belonged to a meliaceous tree, possessing an out-
ward resemblance to the fruit of Flindersia Strze-
leckiana, P.M., but probably more closely allied to
the satin-wood tree {Chloroxylon) .

Under the name of Plesiocapparis (P. prised), F-
V. M., is described a large, one-celled, depressed
and globular fruit, having a diameter of two inches,
and a hard, almost bony, pericarp. The form of
this fruit and shape of the seeds indicate, perhaps
deceptively, the Baron remarks, a plant allied to
the caper-bush {Capparis), approaching perhaps the
C. Mitchelli, Lindley, an Australian desert tree>
found existing from the Murray River to the Gulf
of Carpenteria, a range of 20° of latitude.

So far as a small amount of material would admit,
the presence of proteaceau plants in the gold drifts
has been established. Large round or ovate one-
celled fruits, with a thick and hard nutshell, to
which Baron von Mueller has given the name of
Celyphina [G. McCoyi), appear to indicate a tree
closely allied to Helicia. This supposition is borne
out by the occurrence of other bony compressed
rounded fruits, smooth and bivalved, measuring
about two-thirds of an inch, and distinguished
under the name of Conchotheca (C. rotundata), with
a general resemblance to the fruits of some tropical
Gervillece, but still differing from them.

Einally, the term Odontocaryon (0. Macregorii),
P. V. M., is applied to certain fruits of undetermined
affinity, ovato-globular, uni-locular, and terminated
by four large unequal teeth, and derived "probably
from a large evergreen tree," whilst that 'oi
Pe)iteime (comprising three species, is given to
certain five-valved, ovate or globose fruits, with
exceedingly thick and woody valves, and without a
central axis. The general conclusion to be arrived
at by Baron Mueller's very interesting investiga-
tions amongst these vegetable fossils of the gold
drifts appears to be that, at the time of the deposi-
tion of the sediments in question there existed in
that part of Australia now comprised within the

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOSS IP.

155

limits of Victoria, and perhaps further, a flora
representing a wanner climate than at present
existing. Of such a nature are'.those fruits described
under the names of Rhytidotheca, allied to the satin-
wood tree ; CehjpJdna, probably allied to Helicia, a
genus of east and north Australia, and tropical
Asiatic trees, but not now living in Victoria, whilst
Conchotlma, perhaps one of the tropical Gervillece,
bears no resemblance to any member of the family at
present comprised in the flora of Victoria. Lastly,
we must not lose sight of the affinities borne by
some of these fossil fruits to those of the London
clay. li- il., JuK.

THE MOUTH OF THE CRANE-ELY.

THE following description of the mouth of the
Crane-fly must be taken by the readers of
Science-Gossip quantum valeat, as addressed by a
" Student and Lover of Nature " to " Students and
Lovers of Nature." It consists in great measure
of a comparison of the mouth of this insect with
that of the Blow-fly, as described iu Mr. Lowne's
" Anatomy of the Blow-fly,"* and in offering it for
publication I venture to hope that while it may
contain a sufficieut substratum of truth to render
it acceptable to the public, any inaccuracy of
statement into which I may have fallen will be
kindly corrected by those who may be qualified
for the task. I pass over any general description
of the mouths of insects, as this has been lately in
much better hands than mine, and for the sake of
those to whom the subject is new, will commence
with'a few remarks, chiefly explanatory of terms
which I shall have occasion to use, and without
which I cannot make my meaning i^clear, and shall
conclude with a short account of the modus operandi
employed in my dissections, with a view to encourage
those who might wish to follow them out, but who
may possibly be deterred by over-estimatmg the
difficulty of so doing.

When two different creatures are compared, and
certam parts in the one are found to correspond
with, and to take the place of, similar parts in the
other, thcD, however different may be the office they
fulfil, the parts are said to be homologous, and the
one part is said to be the homologue of the other^
Thus, the arm of a man and the wing of a bird are
said to be homologous parts, and also iu the insect
before us, the balancers which take the place of the
second pair of wings iu such as have two pairs, are
said to be the homologues of that second pair.

The use of the term "plate," as applied to
designate a portion of the integument of insects,

* Such references to this work as require an acquaintance
therewith I shall insert in the form of notes, which may be
disregarded by the general reader.

should be well understood. It is not intended to
indicate any separation of parts. It is important to
bear in mind that the iutegument of insects forms
a continuous covering in which no break can be
found, over every part of the creature. Certain
parts are, however, strengthened by the deposit of
a horny substance, called cMtine, and these are
more or less distinguishable as plates, from the
intermediate soft and transparent portions which
connect them with one another. An examination
of the abdominal plates of a fly or a beetle will
best illustrate this.

Each of the parts of the mouth of an insect
being a hollovf organ has an external surface or
plate, and an internal ditto. Those belonging to
the labium have been recognized respectively as the
mentum and the posterior labial plate, or floor of
the mouth, mentioned by Mr. Lowne.* I have not
seen any similar distinction in the case of the labrum,
but shall introduce it for the purpose of my descrip-
tion, calling a the external plate of the labrum, and
b the internal plate of the same, the latter being
also the part referred to as the roof of the mouth,
as opposed to U, its floor.

With reference to the salivary duct, of which
mention will hereafter be found, I should say that
the saliva of insects is an acrid juice, secreted by
special glands situated in the thorax, and emptying
their contents by appropriate ducts either into the
cavity of the mouth, or into the commencement of
the stomach. Its penetration into the wound is the
cause of the irritation produced by the bite of
various insect-pests, with which we are all familiar.
It only remains for me to add that if the head of
the insect be cut off and. placed with the antenna
uppermost, that surface of the head which bears
the antennse will be the superior surface ; the use
of the terms inferior, anterior, posterior, and lateral
will not need further remark.

The head of the Crane-fly consists of a somewhat
globular chamber bearing the great compound eyes
and the antennse, from the fore part of which arises
a cylmdrical prolongation which I recognize as the
rostrum described by Burmeister,t and stated by him
not to form a distinct organ, but to be merely a con-
tinuation of the corneous covering of the head-^The
parts of the mouth or trophi, as they are sometimes
called, which form the subject for our present con-
sideration, are situated at the extremity of this ros-
trum ; some of them are, however, prolonged inter-
nally some distance into the head. They are as
follows, viz : —

I. — The labrum, consisting of —

1. An external plate.

2. An internal do., forming the roof of the

mouth.

* Lowne's " Anatomy of the Blow-fly," p. 47.
t Page 51, Shuckard's Translation, 1836.

156

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GO S S IP.

II. — The labium, consisting of —

1. An external plate or mentura.

2. An internal do., forming the floor of the

mouth.

3. A plate attached to the anterior border of

the last named.

4. A pair of lobes.

ni. — The maxillae and their palpi.
In addition to these I must notice a fourth organ,
viz , the pharynx, concerning which 1 am somewhat

the proboscis of the Blow-fly, and shall therefore in-
clude it in my account of the mouth organs here.

Fig. 97. General view of mouth organs of Crane-fly, x 24 — r,
rostrum ; If, labrum ; lb, labium ; mx, maxill2e ; rr>p, max-
illary palpi.

doubtful whether it can properly be regarded as a
portion of the mouth and not rather as the distended
commencement of the oesophagus. I find it, however,
difScult to persuade myself that it is not the horao-
logue of that which Mr. Lowne has described under
the same name as forming part of the basal joint of

Fig. 98. The labium from beneath, x 48— W, the lobes ; ir.r,
maxillse ; mt, mentum.

Fig. 99. One of the main false Fig. 100. Terminal portion
tracheae, with branches, X 210. of salivary duct, x 210. ,

Fig. 101. Fig. 102.

Fig. 101. Anterior section of pharyn.x (the lettering in thl^
and following figs, indicates the position of the muscles)
X 90.

Fig. 102. Posterior section of ditto, x 90.

It will be noticed that the above enumeration does
not include, 1st, the mandibles; 2nd, the para-
glossse ; 3rd, the labial palpi ; and 4th, the tongue.

HARDWICKE'S SC IE N CE-GOS S 1 P.

157

The mandibles arc either not present or are very
obscurel J" represented, as will be noticed further on.
The paraglossae are, T believe, to be recognized under

Fig. 103. Labrum from beneath, Fig. lOJ. Side view of ditto,
X 48— //n, lobes of ma.xillns. x 48.

above parts in detail and in the order indicated,
taking first —

I. The labrum, which consists externally of a
triangular horny plate terminated in front by two
fleshy pointed lobes ; it is situated immediately
beneath a snout-like process in which the rostrum .

Fig. 10". Fig. 108.

Fig. 107. Group of minute spines from terminaljoint of palpi,
X 210.

Fig. 108. Section of Rostrum inline shown by fig. 106, x 24 —
rm, roof of mouth ; fm, floor of ditto; pp, processes
attached to lobes and mentum respectively.

Fig. 106. Longitudinal section of head and mouth, x 2i—pJi, Pharynx; .erf, salivary, duct;— rest of lettering as before.

the altered designation of the lobes, though I have
not seen this formally so stated, and shall be glad to
be confirmed in my opinion if correct. The labial

?ig. 105. Articulation at base of lobes, x 120, p process; pi,
plates to which muscles are attached.

palpi and the tongue are absent, unless a minute
projection in the floor of the mouth, where the sali-
vary duct enters, may represent the latter organ.
I will now endeavour to describe each of the

Fig. lOp. Process of lobes with Fig. 110. Process of men-
muscles attached — mm, those turn with muscles attached
connecting it with back of to maxillse, x 24.
head, x 24.

158

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SIP.

terminates above, with the anterior edge of which it
is connected by a membranous baud, which allows it
some freedom of motion. The internal plate of the
labrum which forms the roof of the mouth is con-
nected in front with the part just described, but is
prolonged behind almost the whole length of the
rostrum; it is grooved longitudinally along the centre
of the groove forming a cavity which can be greatly
enlarged by the action of two muscles which arise
one on each side of it for a considerable distance aud
are inserted above in the integument of the rostrum.
The lateral portions of this plate which are connected
with the floor of the mouth are very thin aud yield
ing, thus allowing easy play to the action of the
muscles in question. A pair of slightly curved aud
horny rods are developed in the membranous integu-
ment, one on each side of the external triangular
plate, which I suspect to be portions of the maxilla.*
A few sets arranged in pairs may be noticed between
them.

Fig. |] 11. The opening of the mouth, x 120— alp, anterior
labial plate; < t< <, main false tracheas; 7iid, rudimentary
mandibles.

II. The labium is the most complicated of the
organs of the mouth, and consists, as before stated,
first of the mentum. This is a somewhat quad-
rangular plate attached to the lower anterior border

* Those who have read Mr. Lovvne's book on the Blow-fly,
will remember that he describes a portion of the maxillse as
united with the labrum, and he further says that the por-
tions so united are clearly the homologues of the terminal
lobes of the maxillse'in bees, the lobes referred.to being those
marked ?nx in his drawing of the maxillfe and labrum of a
Carpenter Bee, at p. 229 of Science-Gossip, in the number
for October last. If this is the] case,' I apprehend that in
the insect before us also the terminal lobes of the maxilla;
may be represented by the curved rods referred to in the
text, the remainder of these organs being recognizable in the
stout basal pieces from which the four-jointed maxillary palpi
spring.

of the rostrum, its anterior edge being connected
with the base of the lobes. Its posterior border is
thickened and produced into a long slender rod,
which passes far back into the base of the head and
gives origin to a pair of muscles w^hich proceed to
the maxilla. A slight inversion of the integument
occurs between the rostrum and the mentum aud
again between this last and the base of the lobes.

Fig. 113. Anterior labial
plate, X 210.

Fig. 112. Pharynx and mouth cavity from above— lettering as
before, x 24.

The floor of the mouth.* which is opposed to the
roof of the same before described, is almost wholly in-
cluded within the rostrum, along the whole length of
which it extends. A transverse section of it is some-
what crescent-shaped, the concavity being upper-
most. It is deeply channelled at the anterior portion,

* I believe this to be the homologue of the posterior labial
plate described by Mr. Lowne at p. 46, though its connection
with the mentum is not so clear as in the Blow-fly, inasmuch
as the greater portion is internal, being entirely inclosed
within the rostrum.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

159

where it abuts on the part to be next described, and
at the posterior extremity it is broadened and
turned upwards, the two posterior corners forming
knobs for the attachment of muscles. The anterior
portion is united to the upper side of the raentum,
and it is connected behind by a short membranous
tube to the pharynx. At its anterior extremity, a
minute eminence marks the surface of the salivary
duct, and is the only representative of the tongue I
can detect. This duct extends as a single tube
through the head at the base of the braiu, after
which it divides, and leads to two small salivary
glands situated in the thorax ; it may easily be mis-
taken for a tracheal tube, but the rings are not so
regular and perfect as in the latter, and near its
extremity they assume a longitudinal instead of a
circular direction.

Immediately in front of the floor of the mouth is
a narrow thin plate,* which marks the line of
division between the lobes ; it is the third portion
of the labium as above enumerated, the fourth and
last being the lobes themselves. These are attached
above the plate just mentioned, and are connected
below with the anterior edge of the mentum. Their
external surfaces are of a thickened miscellaneous
texture, strengthened by a thick clothing of fine
hairs, between which are interspersed others of a
much larger size, and furnished with bulbous roots.
A pair of narrow horny plates extend across them
about the centre of their length, from the superior
to the inferior surface ; immediately behind which
is another larger pair of a somewhat triangular
shape, the posterior angles of which are connected
by a complicated articulation with a handle-like
internal process, which arises from the junction of
the mentum with the base of the lobes. These
parts together form a protective covering for the
more delicate structure which ordinarily lies folded
up between them. When expanded, however,
this is seen to be a membranous sac, ornately marked
with a fine tracery of false tracheal tubes ; it is the
essential feature in this part of the organism, not
perhaps so elaborate in its details as that of the
Blow -fly, but nevertheless forming a very beautifal
and instructive object for microscopic display. The
false tracheae, as they are called, are deep-channelled
folds in the transparent membranes, kept open by
incomplete rings, which dilfer from those of the
Blow-fly in being perfectly plain, instead of, as in
the latter insect, forked at either end alternately.
Four main channels arise immediately in front of
the floor of the mouth, two on either side, and,
gradually decreasing in size, take a sinuous course
over the bladder-like membrane ; from these a
great number of smaller similar channels diverge
at right angles, covering the whole surface of the

* I think this is the anterior labial plate of Mr. Lowne.
(Seep, 47.)

organ, and forming a fine strainer, through which
the fluid element of the insect passes on its way to
the mouth. A pair of small chitinous hook-like
thickenings of the integment, may be seen in front
of the floor of the mouth, one on each side the
origin of the false trachete, which are, I believe, the
homologues of similar booklets, which in the Blow-
fly Mr, Lowne thinks may represent the mandibles,*
The articulation of the base of the lobes with the
anterior edge of the mentum presents several
complicated parts which I have not been as yet
able fully to understand ; but the following may I
think be made out, A stout handle-like internal
process is borne by the base of the lobes between
the posterior lateral plates, immediately over the
slender rod-like process of the mentum before
mentioned, and between it and the floor of the
mouth ; it »is not so long as the process of the
mentum, but like it, serves for the insertion of
muscles, a pair of which are attached to its posterior
extremity, and connect it with the back of the head :
these seem to be retractors of the mentum and
lobes, but how the converse movement of their
protrusion is effected, I am unable to suggest.
Another pair of muscles directed forwards are also
attached to the posterior extremity of this process,
and connect it with two small plates on either side
of its anterior extremity, which form part of the
complicated articulation above alluded to.

III. The masillffi, and the maxUlary palpi, wil
next claim our attention. The former are, I believe,
represented by two stout joint-like pieces on each
side of the mentum from which the four jointed
palpi spring. I confess it was some time before I
could understand these organs at all, and I feel I must
even now speak dilfidently on the subject. If the
reader will turn again to Mr. Lowne's description of
the mouth of the Carpenter Bee in the number for
Oct. last, he will find the maxillae of that insect
described as follows: — "Each consists of a large
outer knife-shaped lobe mx, strengthened by a
prominent rib along its inner margin ; of a small
inner lobe densely covered with sensory hairs mxr ;
of a basal sheath mxb, and a rudimentary palpus
inxj}." Now I think that the minute horny rods
before alluded to as existing in the integument on
each side of the labrum in the fly, are homologous
to the more highly developed and "knife-shaped
lobes " of the maxillae of the bee ; that the joint-
like basal pieces of the fly are the homologues of
the " small inner lobes," and the " basal sheaths "
of the bee, the palpi, which are so enormously deve-
loped in the former insect, being reduced to mere
rudiments in the latter. My reasons for this
opinion have been already alluded to when speaking
of the labrum, and I will only now ask the reader
to accept this explanation in default of a better.

* Lowne's "Anatomy of the Blow-fly," p. 47,

160

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

The maxillary palpi originate from the maxillis
just described. They are very prominent objects,
being relatively much larger than the same organs
in most other insects. They are directed forwards
and slightly upwards, and consist of four joints
each, the last being nearly as long as the three tii-st
together, and of a more membranous character ; it
is covered with minute chitinous spines, arranged
in groups of four or five. I suspect that in these
terminal joints of the palpi, the chitinous substance
is imperfectly deposited, only occupying the centre
of each cell, where it assumes the form just stated,
and leaves the edges transparent, thus giving a
somewhat membranous appearance to the joint.

The pharynx is the last of the organs with which
I have to deal. It is connected by a short membra-
nous tube with the cavity of the mouth, and extends
through the brain to the back of the hetd, where it
is continuous with the oesophagus.* A section
near the fore part shows a double wall, or, as I
prefer to regard it, one continuous integument bent
in upon itself on the upper surface, thus forming a
deep groove, from the bottom of which a pair of
muscles arise which are inserted above in the in-
tegument of the head between the eyes. The pos-
terior portion, however, exhibits a section mate-
rially modified, which somewhat resembles the letter
Y, the extremities of which are curiously folded
over. The horny substance being thin and yielding
along the line of the folds, allotvs of the central
cavity being very much enlarged by the action of
four muscles, two of which corresponding to the
two already alluded to on the anterior portion,
arise from the superior groove or fork of the Y, and
are counterbalanced by two others arising from the
lateral portions of the same, all four being inserted
in the integument of the head. The main design
of this arrangement is, I think, obvious, though I
cannot state it in detail. The (perhaps alternate)
action of the muscles attached to the pharynx and
the roof of the mouth, evidently effects the ascent
of the fluid aliment upon which the insect feeds,
the propulsion of which into the (Esophagus is
brought about by the elasticity of the walls of these
two cavities.

With regard to the modus operandi,! \^ould
observe, in the first place, that a sufficient number
of specimens should be obtained,— thirty or forty

• This connection of the pharynx with the cavity of the
mouth on the one hand, and with the oesophagus on
the other, together with its evident similarity of function,
induce me to regard it as tbe organ described by Mr. Lowne
under the same name in the Blow-fly ; but I And it difficult
to understand how it is, that while in the insect just named
it is closely connected with, and indeed described by that
gentleman as formingpart of the basal joint of the proboscis, —
viz., the third or niRxillary segment; in the insect before us it
seems totally dissevered from any such union, occupying as
it does the globular cavity of the head, and far removed from
the maxillae altogether.

will not be found too many, as some will probably
be spoiled in first efforts, before much is learnt
from them.- When the object is large, it may be
pinned to a loaded cork at the bottom of an empty
sardine box, improvised; as a dissecting-trough, as
advised by Mr. Gedge (see S.-G. for August,
1866), and filled with water just suSicient to
cover the object. It this be too small, however,
as in the present case, to admit of the use of pins, it
will be better to place it in a shallow cell or even
in a drop of water on the surface of a slide.

The magnifying power employed need not be
very great ; for most purposes I have used a lens
removed from an old telescope, but where greater
amplification is needed, I have used the inch objec-
tive of my microscope, which answers the purpose
very well. A few specimens should always be ex-
amined in a fresh condition just killed, which is
easily done by placing them for a few seconds in
spirits of wine. When this cannot be done, they
should be allowed to remain in the spirit for the
purpose of preservation; the appearance of the
tissues however is much altered, and by no means
improved by the process. Eor examining the in-
tegument it will be frequently desirable to soak the
insect for a few days in liquor potassse to remove aU
the soft parts. Sections should be made in difTer-
ent directions, and the parts teased out with needles ;
any skill which the operator may possess in drawing
should be freely made use of to delineate each por-
tion as soon as it is satisfactorily made out ; indeed,
some effort to do this is indispensable in order to
retain information once acquired, or to communicate
it to others. If any further requisite be necessary,
I can only sum it up in two words—" patience "
and " perseverance." A. Hamsiond.

4, Neptune Terrace, Sheerness.

MICROSCOPY.

Mounting in Glycekine Jelly (p. 88). —
Though I have sometimes found this medium useful
for small objects without a cell, with larger ones
and cells I cannot speak so well of it. The jelly,
after a year or so, shrinks, bending the covering
glass, and if the mount is of any size, the jelly is
apt to crack, unless air can get in at the side.
I lately had to turn upwards of a hundred slides
out of my cabinets through this fault ; fortunately
I had been cautious enough to mount only a few,
and only common specimens. — E. P. P.

A Problem in Mounting (p. 89). — I have
not unfrequeutly seen the phenomena Mr. Laing
speaks of, and, like him, I have watched the apparent
air-bubble develop. I once spoke to one of our
leading mounters, who told me he had to contend

HARDVVICKE'S SUIEN CE-GO SSIP.

161

with the same tiling, and that sometimes a quantity
of seemingly good slides would two days afterwards
be faulty. Mr. Laing deserves the thanks of all
who occasionally meet with the difficulty, for telling
us of the remedy.—^. P. P.

PoLARiscopic Objects. — Having my attention
drawn to some crystalline substance attached to the
stamen of the white Azalea flower, which I found to
be hard and very transparent, I placed it under
the microscope, and, from its appearance, I thought
it very likely to be a good subject for the polari-
scope, and so it has proved. On crushing the mass,
every particle showed beautiful colours, except at
the fracture, which appeared black ; I suppose in
consequence of the ray of light being refracted by
the broken crystals. I then applied a drop of clear
water, in which it slowly dissolved, at the same
time retaining the brilliant colours until quite dis-
solved, when it became as colourless as the water.
I then placed it under a glass to prevent dust settling
on it, and it very slowly again crystallized in beauti-
ful stellated forms iu about forty-eight hours.
Under the polariscope it produced the most gorgeous
colours imaginable. On opening the flower of the
Azalea, a drop of very clear saccharine liquor may
be obtained ; put this on a glass slip without adding
water, and it will show the very beautiful crystals
in a few hours. On having this substance analyzed,
it proved to be perfectly pure sugar. — James
Fullagar.

A "Life Slide."— Mr. D. S. Holman, of Phila.
delphia, has recently brought out a " life slide," in
which living objects of a certain size can be retained
under observation for weeks together. A current
of water is made to flow continuously through the
chamber containing the object, so that the processes
of respiration, circulation, nutrition, &c., as well as
the eifects of certain poisons, can be studied under
perfectly natural conditions. The transparent
chamber in which the animal is contained has a fine
perforation at each end, too small to allow of the
escape of the animal, but sufficient to maintain a
flow of water. The latter is effected by means of
tubes and glass jars, or reservoirs, on the siphon
principle. An illustration of this "life slide"
appears in the American Naturalist for April.

Stetjctuee of the Potato. — Mr. T. Taylor has
recently shown that the vascular bundles in a potato
may be easily seen by cutting a potato in two
through its axis (the section also passing through
some of its " eyes " ), and coating the cut surface,
first with a solution of bichromate of potash, and
afterwards several times with a strong tincture of
iodine, which will stain the starch blue, but leaves
the vascular bundles yellow. The air-ducts will
then be seen to extend invariably to the eyes. For
microscopical study these sections are to be made

and treated with a strong acid or caustic alkaline
solution, which will dissolve the starch, but leave
the bundles unaltered. The sections may thea be
mounted as usual. To isolate the vascular bundles,
place a potato, skinned wilhout wounding the
"eyes," in a solution of sugar and water (two
ounces to the pint) and keep it at a temperature of
72° P. for nearly a fortnight. The fungus of ferment-
ation will reduce the potato to a pulp, except the
vascular bundles, which may be mounted in gum or
balsam, and studied with a power of one hundred
diameters.

ZOOLOGY.

Akgas keflexus.— This arachnid is the Ixodes
marcjinatus of Pabricius, Rhynchoprion coUmhce
of Hermann, and Arg^s rejlexus of Latreille, — not
kxgus, which is a genus of Phasianidse, as inadver-
tently printed in your last number. How truly the
specific name of "marginatus" applies, is well
shown in Mr. Pullagar's drawings. And it is note-
worthy that these are the first engravings ever pub-
lished of Argas in England, and that they are far
better than any to be found elsewhere ; facts surely
creditable to the author as well as to Science-
Gossip. It seems curious that, after this Canter-
bury Argas had been submitted, year after year, to
all the most eminent experts in London, it should
be left to the perseverance of Mr. Gulliver, jun.,
with the aid of Professor Westwood, to establish
this species as new to Britain, though well known
on the Continent. Prom all that appears, Argas
rejlexus is harmless; yet Argas persicus, which
lives in houses in Persia, is said to be a dreadful
creature, occasioning, by its puncture in the human
subject, convulsions, delirium, and even death. Now
the Canterbury Argas has been so well engraved
and described in Science-Gossip, probably the
same species will be found and recognized iu other
British localities.—^. B.

" Utilizing " Poisonous Snakes.— Probably no
more ingenious method of committing murder -was
ever devised than one which is not unfrequently
resorted to by the natives of Bengal. As it is, I
am sure, new to most of the readers of Science-
Gossip, and will have a ghastly interest to all, I
will briefly describe it. There is in that part of
India a class of gipsies, who are well known to be
skilful snake-charmers. To one of these men the
would-be murderer applies, and in return for a
trifling fee is speedily furnished with a living cobra.
In order that he may be enabled to handle the veno-
mous creature with safety to himself, it is secured
in the following manner : — "A bamboo is cut from
the jungle of the length required, of course as long
as the cobra. Then the creature is shoved in, with

162

HARDWICKE'5 SCIEN CE -GO SSIP.

its head just appearing at oue end and its tail at '
the other. The tip of the tail is then turned up
and tied to the bamboo." Tiie murderous weapon
is now complete and ready for use. Armed with
his cobra-stick, the murderer creeps softly to his
enemy's tent in the dead of night, cuts a hole in the
■wall and pokes in the deadly weapon. The tortured
reptile, careless upon whom it wreaks its animosity,
strikes its fangs into the sleeper, then is withdrawn,
and the murderer steals away as softly and
silently as he came. My authority for the foregoing
account is unimpeachable.— Jo/wi Lamlels, Kirkcaldy,
Scotland. c^-.

The Manchester AQUAUiuii. — L new aqua-
rium, well stocked with marine and fresh-water fish,
has recently been opened at Manchester. The sea-
water is brought by train in barrels from Blackpool,
a distance of about forty miles, and a constant
supply is maintained.

Cuckoos and theik, Young. — A letter in
SciENCE-Gossir either last year or the preceding
one, mentioned the writer's surprise, on searching
for a newly-laid cuckoo's &%'x, in a nest she
had just left, to find one on the point of hatching.
He expressed his belief that further observations
might prove the cuckoo not such a careless parent as
she seemed. I was in a market-gai-den lately and
remarked to. the owner that cuckoos seemed very
plentiful this year. He told me that he frequently
saw the old cuckoos perching on his espaliers with
their young broods ; that they would sit so still as
to be more like stuffed birds than live ones, and
then they would drop down suddenly, pick up a
dew-worm and feed a young oue, and again repeat
the process. This he spoke of as a common event.
I told him that it was not a generally well-known
one, and asked if he would object to its being named
on his authority, as it might bring questions upon
him. He does not object ; therefore I mention his
name and address, — Mr. Jerome Delicate, Redworth,
Heigh ington, Darlington .

Arkivals of Migratory Birds.— Nightingale,
Apvil 9th; Cuckoo, April 19th; Swallow, April 25th;
Corncrake, April 30th. — T. P. B., Wrotham,
Kent.

BOTANY.

Geu3I rivale (p. 137) is given by Mr. Watson
("Topographical Botany," p. 139) as a plant of
West Sussex, on the authority of Mr. Borrer. —
James Britten.

English Plant-names. — May I draw the atten-
tion of the readers of Science-Gossip to the fact
that lilr. Holland and myself hope to publish

Part I. of our " Dictionary of English Plant-names "
during the present year? Any names will be thank-
fully received by James Britten, British 'Musemn,
JF.C.

Saxifraga GJiA-^VLkTA..— Apropos to the discus-
sion raised in your columns upon the root of Sa.vi-
fraga granulata, I may mention that I found the
other day, near Vi inchester College, a specimen
with a string of the so-called bulbs attached to the
stem by a small rootlet, reminding me somewhat of
the root of Lathyrus monorhizus (Orohis tuberosus).

Singular Growth of Willow-trees. — I am
not aware that any one has noticed in print a curious
way in which young willow-trees aie sometimes
produced. In marshes near Northfleet, where
there are a number of these trees that have been
scooped out by the labours of the Goat caterpillar,,
and the diligent jaw-work of smaller insects that
have followed, the empty space in the interior by
degrees in several of these has been partly filled by
a stratum of mould, formed of dead leaves, &c. ;
and into this some of the ripe seed-pods falling,
have produced sapling willows, which have sprung
up to a good height within the parent tree, the
outer shell of which still retains its vitality, and
puts forth leaves, if not blossoms, as when in its
healthy condition.

FtAPniDEs AND Cuticles. — Use of Potass in
Phytotojiy. — No wonder your correspondent
"G. H. J.," in Science-Gossip (No. Ill, p. Ill),
has to ask questions on such simple and useful
matters as the separation and display of plant-
crystals and cuticles, for, as regards the subject of
histological phytotomy, especially on these very
points, our late treatises are by no means up to the
present state of knowledge. The old works of
Raspail, Lindley, and Hutton Balfour have more
accurate information on such subjects than is to be
found in our most recent and loudly-praised
botanical works. As to the severance of the cuticles
from their connections, and exposure of raphides,
short crystal prisms, and sphseraphides, the best
plan is to boil the leaf or other part for a few
minutes in a solution of caustic potass ; then
transfer the vegetable texture to a pan of pure
water, and separate or teaze out the cells, mem-
branes, fibres, and other parts by means of needles.
Delicate manipulation, which a phytotomist so
earnest as " G. H. J." will soon learn, may then be
very effectually employed, and with surprisinglysatis-
factory results. The liquor potassse of the Pharma-
copoeia will answer well, either pure or diluted.
Professor Gulliver showed experimentally, at a
scientific meeting of the East Kent Natural History
Society, Oct. 2, 1S73, how admirably this procedure
answers with the short prismatic crystals in Legumi-
nosse, and with the sphaeraphides and cuticle of the

HAllDWICKFS SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

1G3

leaf of the fresh tea-plant {Tliea viridis), as noticed
iu his memoirs in the Montlihj Microscopical
Journal, December, 1873, and elsewhere. Tor any
account of plant-crystals, like that given by him,
with wood-cuts, in SciENCE-Gossir, May 1, 1873,
the botanist might look vainly into any of the most
recent and popular books which are put into the
hands of our pupils. But with the aid of potass,
which may be safely boiled in a German glass test-
tube over a spirit-lamp, and the subject ventilated
and popularized in Science-Gossip, we may expect
to promote a better knowledge than is at present
current in this country of minute phytotomy. —

Artemisia c^rulescens (p. 136).— No wonder
that your correspondent (K. L. Grey) has not been
successful in finding any description of Artemisia
ccerulescens in "ordinary botanical books." Its
last public appearance as a "wild shrub" was, I
believe, iu the "English Botany" of Sowerby and
Smith, where we are informed (No. 2,426) that
Tofield had "assured Hudson that it grew wild
near Boston, in Lincolnshire." Gerarde had long
before also told us that in his days it occurred as a
native in the Isle of Wight and some other places ;
but there can be bttle doubt that this was an error
in both cases, and I am not aware that any other
botanist has ever even professed to have met with
it in the wild state ; neither does its Continental
distribution favour the possibility of its being indi-
genous in Britain. The Artemisia seen by your
correspondent growing in such abundance close to
the sea, was in all probability A. maritirna, which is
common enough in appropriate localities throughout
the English coasts, and is also found, although more
rarely, iu Scotland. Babington, iu his " Manual,"
gives a variety, the salina of Willdenow, with the
flowers in unilateral racemes, which is perhaps the
especial form intended by the writer of the notice.
Between A. ccerulescens and maritirna there is no
resemblance whatever. — R. A. Pryor.

Linnea'bok.ealis. — It may interest some of your
readers to know that the above interesting little
plant is growing vigorously and now flowering in
our woods at Stanmore. — E. Brightwen.

Seaside Shrubs (Atriplex ualimus, &c.). —
The notice in the April number of Science-Gossip
on this shrub was written in ignorance of its having
already been introduced on our coast and iu Jersey as
a seaside shrub. It appears, however, from A. Morley's
statement in the June number of Science-Gossip,
and in the May number by " 1. 1. M.," to be used for
hedges not only in St. Brelade's Bay, Jersey, which
is a sheltered spot, but is " found on a very elevated
embankment (in the island) to protect the lower
portion of a garden, where nothing but the alder
will grow." A. Morley adds : " 1 have also noticed

that it is being introduced into other parts of the
island for forming thick low hedges between
cornfields." K. Lilley Grey also informs us, in the
June number, that it is "growing in hedges at St.
Leonards, and seems to flourish well on the Hast-
ings sandstone." In the newly-planted ornamental
ground fronting the sea, on the West Brighton
Estate, may be seen an embankment of earth raised
to protect the shrubs and plants from the strong
winds, with a dwarf dead furze fence on the top
of the embankment, giving it an unsightly appear-
ance. If, instead of the dead furze, the Atriplex
halimus were planted thickly on the embankment,
it would speedily grow to a dense hedge, and
form a screen, which would be a durable and pleas-
ing object. The shrub is not only adapted for the
seaside, but in the south of France it thrives inland,
and would be found in England a good protection in
all exposed spots by sea or elsewhere. Neither of
the notices above referred to gives any information
as to its growth — whether it is slow or rapid, and
whether the leaves are at all affected by the strong
sea-breeze. As it is almost a stranger with us, any
information on the subject by those who have
observed its characteristics would be very accept-
able to persons who may be desirous of cultivating
it. I may here observe tliat the plan of an embank-
ment (say about three feet high), with the Atriplex
planted upon it, might be adopted with advantage
on the Undercliff road at Brighton. "When the
shrub becomes better known, no doubt it will be
extensively cultivated, not only as being ornamental,
but as a protection or screen. Many of your readers
must be able to add to the list of shrubs enumerated
or referred to in recent numbers of Science-Gossip
as suitable for seaside planting. Any information
on the subject would greatly forward the object
many have in view regarding their cultivation. It
is probable that the Juniperus communis and the
dwarf variety, /. nana, might succeed well as orna-
mental evergreens. Can any of your readers say if
they have been tried by the sea, and where ? They
grow in the mountains in Wales, Scotland, and Ire-
land. Withering says the /. nana grows on the
higher mountains of Scotland, and is abundant in
the outer Hebrides nearly as low as the level of the
sea. The Juniperus prostrata was growing many
years ago in Brighton ; it is a handsome evergreen,
and likely to succeed by the sea, being prostrate,
with horizontal branches spreading -on the ground
like the Cotoneaster. The Erench cultivate the
JvjiiperHS Sahina under the names of /. compressi-
folia and /. iamariscifolia, male and female. (See
Bon Jardinier.) They resemble the /. prostrata in
character and appearance, and would most probably
succeed by the sea. They are abundant in Switzer-
land, on the road between Loesche la Ville and the
Baths of Loesche at the foot of Gemmi Pass.— /T.,
Brighton.

16i

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

GEOLOGY.

On the last Stage of the Glacial Period in
IMoRTH Britain.— This was the subject of a paper
recently read before the Geological Society of
London, by T. E. Jaraieson, E.G.S. In this paper
the author arranged the Glacial phenomena of
Scotland under the following three heads : — 1. The
great early glaciation by land-ice (maximum effects
of glaciation). 2. The period of glacial marine beds
containing remains of Arctic moUusca, when most
of the country was covered by the sea. 3. The
tiuie of the late glaciers, the special subject of the
paper. After expressing himself in opposition to
the hypothesis of a great polar ice-cap, the author
described this last period as one not of mere local
glaciers, but as characterized by a return of a great
ice-sheet over nearly the whole of Scotland and
Ireland; but he stated that this ice-sheet was
probably neither so thick, so extensive, nor so
enduring as that of the first period of glaciation,
which cleared away everything iu the shape of
superficial deposits down to the hard rock. He
believed, however, that in the last period the
mountains of Scotland and Wales, as well as the
Pennine range and the rest of the north of England
as far as Derby, were covered with thick ice, which
in most parts reached down to the sea, and that
extensive snow-beds prevailed over the rest of
England. In the summer months the melting of
these would give rise to streams of muddy water,
and produce the superficial deposits of Brick-earth,
Warp, and Loess ; whilst, when the currents were
stronger, perhaps from the thaw being unusually
rapid, deposits of gravel would be formed. This
second ice-sheet would gradually become less and
break up into valley-glaciers, which iu their retreat
would leave kaims and eskers at low levels, and
moraines in the mountain glens. During this tim e
no new great submergence of the country took
place ; and the last great modifications of the surface
were subaerial, and not submarine, the work having
been done by frost, rain, and glaciers. In the
discussion which followed, Mr. Jeffreys coiisidered
that the author's remarks relating to the beds
containing Arctic species of mollusca were not quite
correct, Fecte7i islandicns has been found in the
drift of Scotland, but not in the seas at present
surrounding that country. At depths of 30 or 40
fathoms many arctic shells in a semifossil state have
been dredged, althougli they do not now live in
those waters. Mya truncata, a species which lives
in very shallow water, has been found in much
deeper water in a semi-fossil state. At Port
William there is a bed containing arctic species of
shells 7 or S feet above the level of the sea. Arctic
shells of deep-water species have occurred 200 feet
above the sea. Diiferent conditions have existed
at different parts of the same seas, altering the

character of the mollusca. The raising of the
sea-beds above the level proper to enable certain
mollusca to flourish, would cause them to become
extinct. Dr. Carpenter mentioned that cold water
may be thrown up into very small depths under
certain circumstances. Near Halifax, N.S., the
surface-water is tolerably warm, but at no great
depth the temperature falls to 35° P. In this case
the rotation of the earth causes the cold water from
the north to surge up on its western coast. The
North Sea is a shallow sea, with a shoal in the
middle, and having off the coast of Norway a deep
channel which conveys the cold arctic undercurrent ;
hence the east side is 10° P. colder than the west
side. Local peculiarities of disturbance of tem-
perature may thus occur within short distances.
Prof, Ramsay remarked that the author was not
dealing with wide ocean deposits, but with ice
coming down to the sea from the land. He had
described certain changes, — a great glacial period,
a period of submergence, and a second minor glacial
period. Mr. Prestwich maintained that temperature
was a most important question in connection with
the subject of Mr. Jamieson's paper. The glacial
deposits were not formed in deep sea, but in shallow
water with shore temperatures. He thought that
the paper was very speculative, and remarked that
the evidence upon which the opinions expressed
were founded was not always given.

Geology of Clevedon. — In answer to your
correspondent " K. L. G." in the May number of
Science-Gossip, I beg to state that all the " Bed
rocks" of Clevedon, and of theMendip Hills and the
Bristol district, belong to the Keuper, or Upper
Triassic series. These rocks include the Dolomitic
or Magnesian Conglomerate, Red Marl, Sandstone,
and occasionally Magnesian Limestone. There are no
rocks of Permian age in Somersetshire, and the intro-
duction of this name into the county, which has been
given in several local pamphlets and guide-books, is
due to a misunderstanding of the term Magnesian, as
applied to the Dolomitic Conglomerate : it is merely
indicative of the matrix or cementing material, and
is not used as a mark of age, as with the Magnesian
Limestone (Permian) of the northern and midland
counties of England. The relation between the
various divisions of the Bed rocks themselves is
not altogether one of lithological succession, such
as is often given in text-books ; namely (in descending
order), ]. Marl, 2. Sandstone, 3. Conglomerate,
Each of these divisions, as well as the Magnesian
Limestones which are seen at Clevedon, also near
Bristol and in Glamorganshire, may and do occur
anywhere in the Keuper series. The whole history
of the Triassic rocks from the oldest beds in South
Devon (and some of them are very likely older than
the Keuper) shows that Marl, Sandstone, and
Conglomerate, or Breccia, were deposited at all

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

165

horizons, one replacing another in horizontal ex-
tension, although at the same time it must be
observed that there is a certain tolerably regular
and similar succession in the order in which the
beds have been locally deposited. This, however,
is only what might be expected, the different depths
of water and shore conditions being indicated by
the sediment deposited. The relations between the
Red rocks in East Somerset with the beds above is
clearly shown in many sections, the red marls being
overlain conformably by the Rhsetic beds. In places
too, the Dolomitic Conglomerate, which is only the
beach deposit of the marls, occurring at all horizons
at its margin, is overlain directly by the Rhaetic
beds. The Red rocks in this district may therefore
be satisfactorily assigned to the Keuper division of
the Trias. Further south, in West Somerset and
Devon, the area may have received deposits during
the earlier portion of the Triassic period. Some of
the beds have indeed been coloured as Bunter, in
the geological maps of Greenough and Ramsay, but
as Pengelly and Whitaker have pointed out (and
last summer, in company with my colleague W. A. E.
Usher, I came to the same conclusion),' there is no
real break or unconformity between the Rhaetic
beds of Axmouth and the Sandstones and Breccias
of Dawlish and Teignmouth. The whole of these
beds might be termed Keuper, but, owing to their
great thickness, there is some justification in thinking
that the ]\Iuschelkalk might be represented, as well
as the Buuler, and by sediments of a different litho-
logical character. It is best, therefore, to term
the whole development the Triassic series, without
making any subdivisions (which would have no
value) to correlate them with the divisions made on
the Continent. Those who inquire into the literature
of the subject will see what little reason there is to
see any unconformity whatever in the Triassic series
throughout England ; but this is a subject too large
to be dealt with here. — Horace B. TFoodicard,
Geological Stirvey of England and Wales.

NOTES AND aUERIES.

Snakes a>d Toads. — Apropos of a query in a
last year's paper — Do snakes eat toads as wellas
frogs? — I can relate a case in point. I was stooping
over a bed of strawberries intent_ on fruit, when
there emerged above the thick foliage, right under
my nose, an enormous head and neck of such strange
form that I could not make out what manner of
creature it might be. Of course I changed my
position rather suddenly; but noticing that the
head seemed to belong to^one of the snake tribe, I
seized a stick and struck it a sharp blow, as it still
stood with neck reared above the leaves. To my
utter astonishment out flew a medium-sized toad,
knocked out of the snake's jaws by the force of the
blow ! "When I came upon the scene, nothing was
visible of the poor little victim except his hind feet ;
all the rest was lodged in the snake's gullet. When

I came to examine the toad I had so unexpectedly
rescued, I found him alive, but at his last gasp';
whether from the effect of my blow, or treatment
received of the snake, I can't say. The snake was
of the species known here as the " Garter," and was
scarcely as large as my thumb. Moral : Snakes do
eat toads as well as frogs.— ^. F. Bod. Memphis,
U.S.A. . ^ .

Geolo&t of Bahnet. — I propose spending my
three weeks' holiday this summer at Barnet, and
shall be much obliged for any information concern-
ing the geological characteristics of the neighbour-
hood, and hints which may be of use in my excur-
sions in search of fossils, rock specimens, &c. Is
there any book published relating specially to this
part of England ?— Z; Brierly.

MoLLTJscAN Threads (p. 49). — I am much
obliged to Mr. William Harte, E.R.G.S.I., for his
courteous communication (p. 117). My experience
of the thread-spinning of the slugs is less than of
the spinning of fluviatile mollusks, and I spoke too
decisively when I said that slugs "do not use it [the
thread] as a means of ascent." I ought rather to
have said, I have never seen them so use it. Mr.
Harte will give me credit for having modified my
assertion a little by saying (p. 52) "my observation
teaches me," &c. I have not seen Mr. Harte's
paper upon the use of the thread, by Limax arborum,
or I should certainly have availed myself of his very
interesting observations ; but I am glad he has
corrected my error and added to my little store of
knowledge upon a subject, the study of which has
afforded me much pleasure.- 6^. Sherriff Tye, Hands-
tcorth.

Pkeserving Fungi. — Being desirous of making
a collection of " British Fungi," would any reader
of the SciENCE-GossiP inform me how to preserve
the fungi from shrivelling, ^rotting, and losing
colour ? — Z. B,

Rake Insects and Bad Seasons.— A contribu-
tor to Science-Gossip has, in the January 'number,
alluded to the circumstance, that, especially in the
order Lepidoptera, in such a year as 1S73, when
both butterflies and moths were scarce, examples
generally turn up of species of particular rarity.
Several conjectural explanations have been given of
this ; and it may, of course, be the fact, that the
atmospheric phenomena whicli are unfavourable to
many common species, may be suitable and favour-
able to others we less often see. But perhaps tlie
explanation lies simply in this, that in a year when
there are fewer insects about than usual, we notice
more carefully what is;abroad, and specimens, which
in an average season may be often missed in the
multitude of others, come out more prominently
when the entomologist is putting very little into his
boxes.-/. B. S. C.

Unknown Plants. — Will any reader of Science-
Gossip kindly inform me of the names of the under-
mentioned plants; viz. — 1. An Orchis, bearing a
spike of flowers about ten or twelve inches long, the
whole flower green, the lips slightly paler, and
divided like a clergyman's band ; root cylindrical
and fibrous ? 2. An Orchis, apparently leafless, the
spike of flowers about four inches long, flowers
bi"Own and uninteresting, appearing as if scorched by
hot sun ; found in this neighbourhood, on dry sumiy
banks ? 3. A plant resembling an Orchis in growth,
and found in same localities, but bearing a head of
flowers upon a stalk about three or four inches high,

166

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the flowers about twelve in number, each composed
of six white petals, every three lobed, the lower part
of the stem bulbous, like a spring onion, but solid
instead of being composed of layers ; root cylin-
drical and fibrous, like an orchis. The whole plant
smells and tastes very strongly of garlic?— /f. F. L.

"White Beech - leaves. — A friend of mine,
whilst taking a walk the other day, was struck with
the appearance of a beech-tree, a branch of which
had its leaves perfectly white. Thinking that the
leaves had withered, he examined them, and found
them quite fresh. Never having heard or seen the
leaves of a beech of this colour, I thought it worth
making a note of, I inclose you a small bit,
although I am sorry to say it is not so fresh as when
I first saw it. The remainder of the tree w-as of the
normal colour.— James Bate.

Jelly on Sea-weeds.— I should be obliged to
any of your readers who would tell me the name
and nature of the masses of green jelly found
attached to various sea-weeds. They are about the
size of a pea, and are seen by a lens to be studded
throughout with a multitude of minute green
globules. The gelatinous substance is nearly
structureless under the microscope, merely showing
faint signs of striation, and the globules seem to be
granulated more densely towards the centre. Their
diameter is about the two-hundredth of an inch. —
George Guyon.

Slugs v. Alpine Plants.— 1 am happy to be
able to recommend to " Mary Longhear " a certain
way of protecting her alpine plants from slugs. I
had been annoyed by these for a long time, and
could find no certain remedy. At length I deter-
mined to " fortify " the bed, and admit none but
such as could " leap the ditch." This fortification
I effected to my entire satisfaction by procuring a
coil of zinc, which I cut into strips about 20 inches
wide, and bent into U form, and buried as an
edging round the bed, and kept it constantly nearly
filled with water ; and I found that neither slug nor
snail ever crossed it, and it was very easy to banish
all that happened to be inclosed. 1 connected this
with a fishpond, and it no doubt afforded the
inhabitants a source of great pleasure, as they
regularly made " excursions round the world," and
seemed to benefit much by the liberty given them.
In small pots standing in the water I planted
several pretty plants, such as Drosera, Pinguictda,
mosses, &c. &c., taking care that no bridges were
formed : the effect was very pleasing. I give my
address, and shall be glad to exchange further ideas
with "Mary Longhear." — T. MacGam, Burrin,
Ireland.

P.S. — At several potteries they are now manu-
facturing pots and pans with double sides to hold
water between them for the same purpose and to
keep up a constant supply of moisture.

Birds and PunmosEs. — Being very fond of
primroses, I have quantities of them growing on
the sides of the drive leading to my house, the trees
overshadowing which are sacred to blackbirds,
thrushes, and birds of all kinds. Each spring I
observe that my floral pets arc destroyed by hun-
dreds, the flowers being bitten oft' at their junction
with the scape, and usually the germ appears to
have been abstracted. Without doubt the black-
birds are the depredators ; but why they should do
it, and what for, it seems difficult to determine. My
own notion is that the Blackbird really eats the

gernij^as it has a somewhat sub-acid flavour, and in
early spring it seems to be the only kind of fruit he
can get at. Later in the year he pays too much
attention to our strawberry-bed ; still "we put up
with these depredations on account of his fine,
vigorous music. — Jas. Biickman, Bradford Abbas.

Paruots. — With regard to Mr. Guyon's inquiry
about my anecdote of the parrot, I beg to state
that the "action was so carefully observed as to
leave no loophole for doubt that it was designed."
Numerous instances of the sagacity of the Parrot
tribe might be given, some of which undoubtedly
manifest, at least to my mind, the existence of
mental faculties, quite apart from those natural
instincts with which they are endowed for supplying
the more ordinary demands of their being. — G.O.
Howell.

Moths' Wings. — In answer to the query of your
correspondent " S. A. B.," viz., "Do moths fold
their wings over their backs as butterflies?" I
would remark that all lepidoptera act thus when
drying their wings immediately after emergence
from the pupa. But when the wings once become
thoroughly hardened, this peculiarity is possessed
by the butterfly alone, the moth then placing its
wings on or around its body. Doubtless your
correspondent observed in his captive its excellent
condition, another but not so certain an indication
that it had just assumed the imago state. It is not
unfrequently given as a rule of distinction betwixt
butterfly and moth, that the one when at rest places
its wings erect over the back, whereas the other
wraps them round the body ; however, this does not
hold good till our friend has made at least one
journey through the air. — Henry A. Auld.

Destruction of Insects. — I thoroughly agree
with your correspondents that something ought to
be done to stop the wholesale destruction of insects,
&c., that takes place year after year. But what?
Some time ago a collector showed me some boxes
in whicli were literally dozens of butterflies, all
jumbled together so that they were of no use what-
ever. His usual plnn of collecting was, as soon as
he saw an insect to net it, and before looking to
see if it was anything he wanted, kill ii first and .
examineit afterwards; so that I should think by the
end of a season he must have killed hundreds, and
after selecting what he wanted, have thrown the
rest away. It is true they were mostly the common
sorts, but Ave know that many butterflies, which are
now rare with us, were originally amongst the com-
mon ones ; as, C. dispar, P. Acts, and P. Arion.
Again, in the season of lS72,a swarm of y:/. Lathonia
occurred here, and of course there was a rush of
collectors after them (I confess I was one). I re-
collect one day counting fourteen or sixteen nets
in one nieadow; the consequence was, tliat last
year I did not hear of a single specimen being- taken,
and the year before I myself knew of over thirty ;
but most likely there were other captures which
did not come under my observation. It was the
same with P. Daplidice and V. Antiopa, several of
which were taken here the same year. Now if
these insects had been left alone, they would, in all
proi)abilit-y, have bred here (for there were both
sexes), and so have become regular inhabitants,
instead of occasional visitors. The most thorough
means of preserving the insects of this land (but
not the most probable) would be for all true ento-
mologists to cease from collecting for a h\v years,
say the next six, in order to give tiiose insects which

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

167

only visit our shores now and then, the chance of
settlings here, and those which are inhabitants here,
but at the same time rare, the opportunity of be-
coming more abundant; but I am afraid it would be
too great an appeal to tiie self-denial of collectors.
Although I catch numbers of insects every year, I
don't kill one half of them, for I can generally deter-
mine what they are while in the net, and unless they
are the sort required, I let them loose. I try to get
six of each species in my collection, three of each
sex, where there is any difference in the markings,
and generally have two or three surplus ones in case
of accidents, or for exchange. Perhaps some other
of your readers can devise some means for preserv-
ing the favourite little insect "the Brisish butterfly."
— /. A. Allchin, Docer.

CuKiOTJs Places pou Robins' Nests. — Several
instances have been recorded this spring of robins
building their nests in remarkable places. The
following notes from the West of England may
prove interesting. At a cottage near Charlton
Park, occupied by a shepherd to the Earl of Suffolk,
a pair of robins took possession of a hat which was
suspended on a ram's horn, fixed in the cottage for
such purposes. Here the eggs were laid, and young
ones hatched and cared for. Near Dauutsey station,
at the house of Mr. Potter, an unused tea-kettle
was taken posession of by another pair of robins.
These birds also brought up their young ones, and
are so tame as to allow Miss Potter to handle and
show them. A third pair chose part of the harness
left in the stable of Mr. Thomas Hussey, the Manor,
Ilchester. The carter found Mrs. Robin deter-
mined not to be frightened away, and would allow
him to carry her and her home about the stable.
The master subsequently gave orders not to have
the birds disturbed, and the latest bulletin reported
mother and family doing well. — W. Macmillcai,
Castle Carjj.

Scinptis LACusTKis &c. (p. 141). — It is not
improbable that Scirpus maritmus was the plant
observed by " T. W." about Hammersmith and
Putney. It still lingers in very small quantities on
the Middlesex shore, where it was seen last year
near Eulham {Journal of i?o«'«;;?/, xi. 342),_ and is
found in greater abundance on the Surrey side. \
gathered it myself at Putney a few years back, in
company with S. caiiiiatus, and have also noticed
it by a small pond in the grounds at Putney Hill,
at a considerable distance from the river. "T. W.'s"
other plant would appear to be S. carinatus, which
occurs in that neighbourhood in considerable plenty
on both banks of the Thames. It is generally
reckoned to be rather an unsatisfactory species, and
is arranged by Hooker, in the "Student's Plora,"
as a subspecies under S. lactistris. S. iriqueter
(" stems acutely triquetrous throughout,"— Babing-
ton's Manual) seems distinct enough, and was a
Liuuean species. — B. A. Pryor.

The Tortoise. — Having expressed a wish for
some time to possess a tortoise, a relation at the
time residing at Loudon procured me one at Covent
Garden, May 1st, 1S72, and on Thursday, May 2nd,
1872, it arrived, packed in a tin case, something
resembling a painter's pot, only with a corner per-
forated with holes. One reason why I wished for a
tortoise was to rid the kitchen of blackbeetles, and
the garden of slugs, &c., which it most effectually
did. Some time after the tortoise had been with
me, I discovered one morning a small egg, perfectly
white and rather rough. I was at a loss for a short

time to make out from what source the ^g^ came,
but I at last had it suggested that it was the tor-
toise's egg. Many ridiculed the idea. I scarcely
thought it could be the tortoise tliat had been
exposed for sale at Covent Garden, and also for
some time with me, that had laid it. A short time
after the first, a second egg was laid, which I broke,
and had a great deal of trouble to do so, it [i. e. the
shell) was so hard. The inside, as far as I can
remember, looked much the same as a very small
hen's &^g. I gave the first to a friend, who I believe
still has it. I now became almost conyinced that
the tortoise must have laid it. Some time after it
was found dead. Of what it died I was, and am
now, to a certain extent at a loss to comprehend. I
buried it in the garden about the lith April, 1873,
and to-day (the 2nd of April, 187-1) I dug iUip, in
order to see if I could not keep the scales, which are
very easily removed from the carapace when the
tortoise has been dead for some time. Having dug
it up and removed the said_ scales, I found it had
been greatly damaged by rain, &c., so that I deter-
mined once more to consign it to mother earth ; but
putting a brick, or rather letting it fall on the
remaining carapace, I broke it up, i. e. the carapace.
I at once removed it from the earth, and examined
the decayed matter in the inside, when to my great
surprise I found an egg which, after it had been
removed and washed, I found to be exactly like the
other two before-mentioned. Now the question
arises. Is it usual or a common occurrence for tor-
toises, away from their natural habitat, to deposit
their eggs ? I am not certain whether my tortoise
was Testudo Grceca or Cliersina marginata, though
from what E. Halse says in his paper on " The Tor-
toise and its Skeleton" (Science-Gossip, 1873,
p. 129), I should think it was the latter. Perhaps
he would throw some light on the egg subject. Of
course, there is now no doubt that it was the tor-
toise that laid the eggs, as I have now found the
last in the decaying body of the animal. I shall
forward it to the Editor with these notes. — Charles
F. JF. T. Williams, C.E., Redlancl, Bristol.

Half-aqtjatic Aphides. — I have observed with
much interest the proceedings of some of these
insects in the aqua-vivarium, resident on the floating
leaves of the VVater Crowfoot, where they enjoy a
happy immunity from those insatiable enemies which
delight to gorge themselves with aphis flesh, nor
are they the petted slaves of their self-interested
visitants, the ants. A couple of females founded
the colony, and two or three generations soon fol-
lowed. In one or two instances they must have
passed from one leaf of the plant to another across
the surface of the water, but I could not ascertain
how this was managed. A "wet jacket" the little
creatures do not appear to mind in the least, being
often on the edges of the leaves close to the water ;
still, when totally submerged, they soon perish.
The act of parturition is, seemingly, usually preceded
or followed by a casting of the skin.

Mould in Eerx-cases.— I think if " E. J. S."
would daily wipe the inside of his fern-glasses " dry
and bright," he would not be much troubled with
mould. I have found this suggestion, for which I
am indebted to Shirley Hibberd's " Eern Garden,"
very beneficial. Should mould still appear-, "E, J. S."
must arrange for greater ventilation.— /T. B. H.

Ebonite Cells. — Would any reader who is in
the habit of using these tell me the best way of
affixing them to the glass slips ?— 7^. B. H.

168

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-G OSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

GEMivt.— It is not at all an uncommon thing: for water-
heetles to destroy newts and minnows in an aquarium.
Indeed, you could hardly introduce a greater pest.

W. H— The " Geological Magrazine " is edited by H. Wood-
ward, F.R.S., &c., and published by Triibner & Co., 57,
Ludgate-hill, London.

M. Maxwei.i,. — There was no inclosure, either of sedges
or anything else, in your letter of tlie 10th of May.

W. A. Cl.\rk.— Your specimen reached us in a bad state.
It appears to be Myosotis collina.

Wymav.— A good remedy against house. crickets are the
leaves of the eommon rhubarb strewn on the floors of the
rooms where they are abundant.

P. Barkkr.— "Half-Hours in the Green Lanes" did not
appear in form of separate articles in Scie.vce-Gossip. It is
an independent publication, by the same publisher.

F. M. I — Your mosses are. No. 1, Xerkera cris/m ; 3, A^.
cnmplannta : 4, CUmacium dendroiden ; 5, ThuyiiUum tiimaris-
ciniim ; 6, Polptrichum commune. No. 2 is a lichen, belonging
to the genus Cladonia. — R. B.

W. B. L.— Your specimens of micro-fungi were both
correctly named. The Puccinea malvacearum is very common
this year on mallow leaves. — M. C. C.

Gali,s,&c.— The "hop like " galls on oak, sent us from
Corscombe, Dorchester, are produced by an insect called Cvni'ps
fecundatrix. Hart. The gall is commonly called the "Arti-
choke gall."— C.G.B

H. R. M.— We believe that Dr. Gunther and other of our
best ichthyologists now consider the Whitebait to be the fry
of the Herring. We have not heard of the Whitebait having
been found in the Mersey. Doubtless the fry of other fishes
are sometimes sold as whitebait.

G. O. HovvELi.. — In your query about the shell called the
" Bleeding tooth," you say " you believe " it is found on the
west coast of Africa. It is important to know the locality
in judging without the specimen. It may be a species of
Monodonta. But the shell to which it most nearly answers
is Nerita peloronta;— the latter, however, is American.

W. H.— The fragment of leaf sent probably belongs to a
Myosotis, whose surfaces are usually covered with whitish
hairs, around the bases of each of which are clusters of pearl-
like beads similar to those so benutifuUy shown in your
specimen. These pearly clusters are always seen best in the
dried leaf.

A. K. Hastei.l.— The plant sent is the Lamb's Lettuce
{Valerianella olitaria).

William Jenn'ivcs. — You had better consult Juke's
" Manual of Geology," edited by Prof. Geikie. You will there
find the best account of the mineral changes through which
the granites and metamorphic rocks have passed.

L. S. — The '' excrescences " on the leaves of the hazel are
evidently the webs of the Processionary Moth.

F. W. — 1. Lepidium ciimpesfre, a. very common plant. 2.
S'igina apetahi, a perfect weed in garden walks, &c. Ben-
tham unites this species with others, under the name of S.
procumbent, L. 3. Geum urbanum ? too small and im-
perfect for recognition. — J. F. R.

G. L. H. — You are quite correct about the genus, it is Zotvs
siliqitoms, the Winged Pea, a South European species.—
J. F. R.

G. C. D.— Your specimens are— 1. A young seedling fern,,
probably Lastren spinulosa 2. Quite correct. Orchis Morio,
but there are several other orchids (British) with what you
call whole tubers. 3. Tri/oHiim minus, a starved specimen,
which makes it resemble T. filiforme. 4. A Carex. Could
you kindly send a better and more perfect example ? it is
probably a new variety. 5. Only part of a frond, difficult to
name, but closely resembles Polystichum angulare.—J.F. R.
E.L.— You will find the best account of the Silbury Hill
tumulus, as well as of the so-called " Druldical Stones " at
Avebury, in Fergusson's " Rude Stone Monuments of Great
Britain." The stalactitic-looking specimen \% carbonate of
lime, which has been deposited as tufa, round some twig.
The fragment of rock is siliceous sandstone, probably Oolitic.
W. H. W.— Your box, containing the bat, came duly to
hand, but it was in a high state of decomposition, and had to
be " treated " before we could do anything with it. It is a
specimen of the Great Bat, a."'iioct\i\c" {Ve>:pertilionortuln).
Its first notice as a British species appeared in White's
"Natural History of Selborne," and it was named allimlans
oy that author.

EXCHANGES.

Puccineamalvacenrum (Mont.), and Triphrngmimn Vhiiariiv
'Sk), offered for any other Micro fungi.— Send stamped ad-
dressed envelope to H. Munro, Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Plants of Valisneria spiralis, for good Slides or Material.—
J. Carpenter, Turner's-hill, Cheshunt.

Eggs of Bearded Tit, Crested Grebe, Redshank, Snipe,
Waterrail, Coot, &c., taken on the Norfolk Broads, for other
rare local Eggs (name localities where taken). Offers not
answered are declined. — Philip H. Mason, pro F. Sutton,
F.C.S., Eastern Counties Laboratory, Norwich.

Larva of X Cithago, for other Lepidoptera.— G. Jackson,
Windy-bank, Netherton, near Wakefield.

Lower Tertiary Fossils for Mounted Microscopic Objects.
— C. C, 6 Landport-terrace, Southsea.

Wanteh a specimen of wood bored by Toredn or Pholas,
recent or fossil ; state what wanted.— E. Lovell, Holly Mount,
Croydon.

Pyrola media, Carum verticillatum. Geum rivile, for good
Ferns or Microscopical Objects. Unaccepted offers not
answered.- James Anderson, 46, Warwick-road, Maida Vale.

WouLn any of your correspondents kindly send me some
Eggs or Larvae of Ladybirds, Lacewing Flies, Ichneumon Flies,
or any other eaters of aphides ? Living in London, I have not
much to offer in exchange : would House Ants be of value to
any one?— E. F. B., 8, Ladbroke-square, London, W.

Living specimens of Adiantum nigrum, Lastrea cristata,
Athyrium Filix-foemina, Scolopendrium vulgare, for living
specimens of Ophioglossum vulg ifum. — Address, Mrs. Bid well,
I, Handford Villas, London-road, Ipswich.

First-class Slides offered for Mole Crickets, Locusts,
large green Grasshoppers, or Field Crickets. — C. L. Jackson,
Hesketh-street, Southport.

A Collection' of Postage-stamps (700, besides duplicates)
in Oppen's Album, for Apparatus or Books useful to Lepi-
dopterist, or Botanical works. — Particulars from Thomas W.
Gladstones, Alresford, Hants.

A Collectjov of Dried Fronds of Exotic and other Ferns,
named, for a small Case of Stuffed Birds ; Humming-birds
preferred. — F. Stanley, 4, Carroway's-place, Margate.

Microscopic Objects, mounted and unmounted, for good
unmounted Material. — Send list to W. Frederick Haydon,
North View, Smethwick.

With any one who is collecting Diptera, and may have
Duplicates to exchange, I should be glad to correspond. —
Address, Wm. A. Vice, 15, Union-terrace, Aberdeen.

Rare Plants for Irish, Scotch, or Channel Islands species.
— J. Harbord Lewis, 180, Mill-street, Liverpool, S.

Microscopic Slioes for others. — Send list to G. E. Quick,
Long-lane, Southwark.

Eggs of Quail, Nightjar, Dabchick, Nightingale, Barn-owl,
and others, for good Eggs. — F. Wigleswonh, Ham-street,
near Ashford, Kent.

W.^NTED, North British Marine Algae, neatly mounted and
reported, for South Devon and Cornish Sea-weeds, in the
same form. — Henry Goode, 15, Mulgrave, Grca' Plymouth.

BOOKS &c. RECEIVED.

"In the Mosquito Country." By W. D. K. London :
Wyman & Sons.

" Domestic Floriculture." ByF. W. Burbridge. London:
W. Blackwood & Sons.

" The Human Eye." By W. Whalley, M.R.C.S. London :
J. & A. Churchill.

" Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of
Liverpool," 62nd session. London : Longmans.

" Annual Record of Science and Industry, 1873." Edited
by Spencer F. Baird. London : Trubner.

" Eclipses, Past and Future." By Rev. S. J. Johnson.
London : J. Parker & Co.

"Botanical Labels." By Edward B. Aveling. London:
Hamilton & Adams.

'• American Naturalist." April and May.

" Canadian Naturalist."

" Grevillea." Edited by Dr. M. C. Cooke. June.

" Journal of Applied Science." June.

" Microscopic Dictionary."

COMMU.MICATIONS RECEIVED UP TO THE 12TH ULT. FROM : —

T. S.— F. K.— J. S.— G. J.— W. L. W. E.— J. D -G. C. D.—
J. F. B — C. J. W. R — W. D. R. D— W. E. L — G. B.— L. L.
— C. C. W. A. C— P. H. M.— H. J. McG.-E L.— R. E. jun.
_j H — W. C— T. S.— W. H— R. A. P.— J. H. A.— E. L.—
H. E. W.— J. L.— E F. B.— H. G.— J. B.-T. C — T. W.—
W H.-E. E.— M. M.— W. M.— W. A. C— C. L. J.— J. M. H.

— j H.-T. W. G.-P. B.-W. B. L.— L. N.— R. H. M.—
C. W. B.— W. H. W.— T R. P.-B. B.-G. T. H — J. A.— H. M.

— L. F. K.— F. H. A.— W. C— H. B.— J. B.— C. J. W. R.—
C. T.— G O. H.— T. McG.— F. W.— H. L.— G. B.-E. B.—
A. A — H. A. A.— J. B.— B. D. L— H. M.— J. U.— F. S.— W. S.

— W. F. H.— J. H. L.— W. A. v.— W. D.— G. F. D.— H. G.—
J. S. T.— G. E. Q.,&c.

HARDWICKE'S SCI EN CE- GOSSIP.

169

SKETCH OF THE
GEOLOGY OF BELFAST AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.

By W. H. BAILY, F.L.S., E.G.S., &c.

Palaeontologist to the Irish Geological Survey.

ELFAST ;is situated on the Upper
New Hed Sandstone, "Bunter,"
and is covered by alluvium on the
eastern side, being bounded by the
river Legan ; a higher division of
the Triassic, or New Bed Sand-
stone formation, consisting of red
marls and sandstone, " Keuper,"
also extends across the country,
i having the cretaceous rocks as its
boundary in a south-westerly direction.
One of the nearest geological places
of interest in the neighbourhood of
Belfast is that of Cave Hill, in the
county Antrim, about two miles from
the extreme northern end of the town.
This hill, with other basaltic eminences
west and south-west of Belfast, such
as the Black Mountain, 1,272 feet in
height, Black Hill, 1,884, and White Mountain, 820
feet high, present very prominent features in the
landscape ; their eastern slopes are rugged and pre-
cipitous towards the north, but more gradual and
easier of ascent to the southward.

The basaltic plateau of the north-east of Ireland,
of which this district forms a part, has been de-
scribed by the late General Portlock in his Geo-
logical Report on Londonderry, Tyrone, &c. ; its
thickness on these hills ranges from 424 to 817 feet.
Alternations of mineral character have been observed
in these volcanic rocks, which indicate successive
flows, with intervening periods of repose.

These hills form the escarpment of the Chalk and
Greensand; sections of these sedimentary strata
(which are sometimes penetrated by the basalt in
the form of dykes), as well as of the Lower Lias, or
Bhffitic beds, are well exposed at Cave Hill. The
quarries in the Upper Chalk " White Limestone "
No. IIG.

are extensive; the stone being largely used for
lime, is conveyed by special tramway to Belfast.

At Collin Glen, in the same county, five miles
south-west of Belfast, a deep ravine cut by the
Collin river exposes similar strata, the upper
cretaceous rocks resting immediately upon the dark
grey or bluish shales of the Lower Lias, or Ilh?etic
beds, under which are the marls of the Keuper
division of the New Red Sandstone. The section
at this place has been described by Mr. Ralph Tate,
F.G.S. {Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xx. p. 103),
and also by the Geological Surveyors in the Expla-
nation to Map 36, " Geological Survey of Ireland."

The strata being displaced by several faults, the
section exhibited is a very instructive one, with an
abundance of fossils in some of the beds.

The oldest rocks are the Keuper marls, the upper-
most division of the New Red Sandstone, upon
which the Rhgetic beds have been deposited, con-
sisting of shales and thin bands of limestone, some
of them full of characteristic fossil shells, such as
Avicula contorta, Cardium Rhaticiim, &c.

On these rest what Mr. Tate designates as the
" Hibernian Sandstone," which he groups into three
zones, the lowest, or "Glauconitic Sands," con-
taining Exogyra conica in profusion, a shell belong-
ing to the Ostreoid group ; the middle division
consists of "yellow sands and marls," with
shells, &c., amongst which Peden quinquecostcttus
is the most prevalent ; and the upper, upon which
the Chalk rests, is " Chloritic Sandstone," locally
termed "MuUatto;" in the beds of this division
another species of Ostreoid shell, Exogyra columba,
is plentiful, with numerous remains of sponges,
resembling Siphonia of the Warminster Greensand.

At Woodburn Glen, two miles north-west of
Carrickfergus, similar strata are to be seen, cut
through by the Woodburn river.

I

170

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

At Kilroot, ou the north shore of Belfast Lough,
about two miles north-east of Carrickfergus, there
is a raised beach, with worked flints overlying
marls and clays, containing marine shells of exist-
ing species, with drift-wood, hazel nuts, leaves, &c.
The post-tertiary deposits of Belfast are remark-
ably rich in marine shells ; lists of these have been
published by Messrs. James Bryce and George C.
Hyndman, from observations made during the con-
struction of reservoirs for supplying the town with
water, three-quarters of a mile from the town and
close to the Antrim road ; also by Dr. McGee, from
others obtained from the excavation made in 1830
for the basin, now called the Prince's Dock. The
Eev. Dr. Grainger has since given more extended
and complete lists of these shells in subsequent
papers read at the Geological Society of Dublin ;
British Association (Belfast Meeting) ; University
Zoological and Botanical Association ; and the
Natural History Society of Belfast.

On the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway
at Ballypalady (Bally clare and Dough station),
about seven miles from Carrickfergus Junction, and
a little more than half an hour's ride by rail from
Belfast, there is a cutting between Ballyclare and
Templepatrick stations, where a lignite bed may be
observed associated with pisolitic iron ore, and
lithomarge interstratified with the basalt which
overlies the chalk. This iron ore has been worked
in the immediate neighbourhood, and at various
places still farther north, becoming a considerable
source of emolument to proprietors.

Some of the beds connected with this iron ore,
especially at the locality above-mentioned, contain a
great abundance of vegetable remains, consisting of
the fruit, leaves, and stems of plants. Some of
these have been described by Mr. W. Hellier Bailey,
of the^Geological Survey of Ireland, in the Journal
Geol. Soc. of London, vol. xxv. (1869). They
were stated to be for the most part leaves of dico-
tyledonous trees, amongst which some were referred
to the beech, oak, and buckthorn, with several
conifers, such as pinns, cypress, and a sequoia, the
whole assemblage indicating a Miocene age as that
at which the basalt was poured out over so large an
extent of country as it is in the north of Ireland,
being estimated at about 1,200 square miles.

On the shore, a little north of the village of Holy-
wood, a station on the Belfast, Holywood, and
Bangor Railway, soutli side of Belfast Lough, at
Cultra, are rocks belonging to the Upper Sandstone
of the New Red Eormation, or " Bunter : " these
rocks are traversed by three trap dykes of a grey
or dark green crystalline basalt. A fault at tliis
place brings in the Lower Carboniferous Limestone
shales, full of characteristic shells, especially
Modiola Macadami, and small entomostracan Crus-
tacea, Cythere, Leper ditia, &c. Several dykes of a
similar character occur in these shales, which ex-

tend for about a mile along the shore. A little
farther north a series of beds may be seen below
higli-water mark, believed to be of Permian age ;
they consist of yellow and buff-coloured magnesian
limestone, below which are red marls and thin-
bedded. fossiliferous limestones. The beds appear
to lie unconformably upon the limestone shales,
terminating eastward by a basaltic dyke, which
coincides with a line of fault.

Scrabo Hill, near Newtown Ards, county Down,
about eight miles east of Belfast, is the highest
point (540 feet) of the irregularly-shaped basaltic
plateau, which, as well as that of Duudonald,
General Portlock considered to be outliers of the
large basaltic sheets of the county Antrim.

This prominent hill is of special geological
interest. The quarries of Upper New Red Sand-
stone, " Bunter," supply a good building stone,
and exhibit ;finc sections, showing not only the
trap rocks, which mostly consist of a crjrstalline
Dolerite, weathering into large spheroidal masses,
overlying the Triassic Sandstones, and forming the
summit of the hill, but spreading in horizontal
sheets through the mass of the sandstone, which
is again traversed by vertical dykes of later date,
a phenomenon which is well exhibited in the south
quarry. (See Explanation to Sheet 37, &c., " Geol.
Survey of Ireland," p. 14, fig. 1.)

At Castle Espie, on the south shore of Strangford
Lough, near Comber, about ten miles south-east of
Belfast, the Lower Carboniferous Limestone and
underlying shales are well shown in a quarry
belonging to J. Murland, Esq. The limestone is
red or salmon-colour, and is very fossiliferous ; the
fossils, principally Brachiopod and Cephalopod
shells, are well preserved, and some of them of very
large size, especially Produdus giganteus and
Actinoceras giganteum, the latter being called by
the quarrymen "Pillars."

The underlying shales, which are also red, contain
an abundance of characteristic Lower Limestone
fossils.

Lower Silurian strata may be observed all round
the coast north of the Lower Limestone shale of
Holywood and Cultra to Bangor, at the entrance
of Belfast Lough, with occasional beds of black
slates containing graptolites ; continuing still
further round the coast to Donaghadee, south of
the Lough (Belfast and County Down Railway),
and especially at a place called Coal-pit Bay (from
a mistaken notion that these beds were coal shales),
where they are full of graptolites, of several
species, in beautiful preservation, including Ras-
tritcs peregrinus, GrajitoUihus SedgwicJci, G. tenuis,
and G. Becki, Diplograpms pristis, &c.

" Tlie effect of subaerial action is to render the
surface of the earth more rugged, by forming valleys
and hWh "SkertcMey's Geology.

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NC E-GOSSIP.

171

THE CANTERBURY TICK
{Argas reflexus).

ryiHE genus Argas is nearly allied to the true
-■- Ticks (Ixodes), but may be known at once by
the flat, shield-like body, slightly narrowed! in front,
and by the short beak being closely applied to the
abdomen. The species are few ; among them is the
MaUeh or Poison-bug of Miana, to which travellers'
talcs give such a melancholy reputation. After
allowing for exaggerations usual in such cases, the
fact remains tliat this animal {Argas Persicus) is more
or less abundant in Persia and Egypt, from which
latter place specimens lie before me at this moment;
that they are found on the walls of houses ; and that
(like the common bed-bug) they attack sleepers at
night, leaving behind a painful wound and disappear-
ing at daylight. We are assured by the younger
Kotzebue, in his "Journey through Persia," that
sometimes the inhabitants of a village are entirely
driven away by these vermin. On the other hand,
we are also told that in Miana, which seems to be
its head-quarters, the poison-bug attacks strangers
only, to whom the bite is fatal within twenty-four
hours. But may it not be that fevers, which are
very prevalent in Miana, are the real cause of death,
and that it is to them, and not to the bite of this
animal, that strangers succumb ?

The much-dreaded Malleh has an uncanny aspect,
which, to me at least, recalls the disgusting Surinam
toad ; perhaps on account of the indented surface of
the flat pear-shaped body. The whole of the upper
side, which is of a brownish-red hue, is thickly punc-
tured with round white cavities, extending in rows,
though by no means regularly, along the edge and
lower half. The eyes are wanting. In this respect,
as well as in the structure of the legs and beak, the
poison-bug is exceedingly like a second species found
in Germany.

There is the mussel-shaped Tick {Argas reflexus).*
Its habits of life appear to be much the same as
those of its Persian relative, living in human habi-
tations, where it conceals itself in fissures in the
wall during the day, and at night issuing forth to
suck the blood of pigeons, especially the young ones,
which it not unfrequently kills.

Such is the statement given by Latreille of this
tick. Independently of him, another Prench writer,
Hermann of Strasburg, has given an account of it in
his "Memoire Apterologique " (ISOS), where he
names it RhyncIioprion-\ columbre, expressing his
surprise that it had not been described hitherto.

*The "Canterbury Arachnid" of p. 121, ante.

tThis generic name was given by Karsten to the Jigger or
Chigoe, a species of flea, and therefore belonging to a totally
different order. The Chigoe is better known by Westwood's
prior title oi Sarco/jsi/lla penetrans,— W, W, S,

since it had been known to his father for the past
thirty years as a troublesome parasite on pigeons.

Up to this time Prance and Italy had been speci-
fied as the native lands of this tick, but Herr
Schalfer had suggested that it would probably occur
in Germany; and this suggestion was confirmed
about ten years ago, when the animal was found,
curiously enough, in two places situated widely apart
and under very interesting circumstances.

In the beginning of the year 1859 specimens were
discovered by Dr. Boschulte at Camen in West-
phalia, in the upper chambers of a massive stone
house, in the centre of which was an equally mas-
sive tower, communicating through the window of a
bedroom (at least up to the year 1857) with a dove-
cot. According to the latest report, the ticks were
still to be found on the walls of this room in con-
siderable quantities, so that at any time of the year
numbers could be taken with but little trouble.
Prom the circumstance that individuals were cap-
tured of various sizes, it was justly surmised that
they prospered and regularly bred, although the
inhabitants of the house were few, and no longer had
any communication with the pigeons.

In 1863 the clergyman at Preideburg on the Saal,
Herr Neide, sent two living examples of Argas
reflexus to the Zoological Museum there, with the
remark that they had caused much pain to his
children at night by biting them. As soon as this
news reached me, I begged him to give me some
more detailed information, and the substance of his
reply I repeat here. The ticks were found almost
exclusively in a room in the upper story of his house,
iu which (up to the year 1859) was a doorway and
along the wall a number of pigeon-holes. In the
following year, after some alterations had been made,
the ticks appeared in the rooms both above and
below this, and to this day cannot be entirely got rid
of. During the day they are never seen, either on
the person, the clothes, or the beds ; but each even-
ing they appear on the walls or the ceiling — always,
however, at rest, and never crawling; for the moment
any one comes near they lie perfectly still, and if
touched feign death. Gerstacker also noticed their
extraordinary dislike to the light in the specimens
sent him by Dr. Boschulte ; for no sooner did he
shake them from the collecting-bottle on to a sheet
of paper, than they hurried away to the darkest
retreat they could find, between the back of the
paper and the table.

Most of the wounds inflicted on sleeping persons
occur on the hands and the feet, from which I infer
that they do not seek the warmth of the bed itself
so eagerly as does the common bug. The injury
consists of an indistinct red point, which is accom-
panied by a violent itching, less however on the
point itself, than on the surrounding veins. Por
instance, a wound made between the fingers causes
an itching in the whole arm up to the shoulder, and

I 2

172

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. '

one on the foot up to the hip. To scratch the wound
causes the inflammation to extend widelj', especially
in children : in a little child of five years old bladdery
pustules appeared on the hand, wrist, and lower arm,
exactly as though she were suffering from a severe
burn. The irritation remains about a week. In
fact the annoyance and pain caused by this animal
in our temperate zone appear to be scarcely less
than what the so-called poison-bug produces in the
hotter regions of Persia and Egypt.

The body of this interesting tick has a flat ap-
pearance from above. It is entirely without seg-
ments, but is provided with slight impressions, the
largest of which, of an oval form, are situated on the
fore part; most of the remainder, which arc smaller
and whitish, inclose in tlie lower half a festoon-like
space, which is cut in half by a groove or elongate
depression. The upper surface is a rusty yellow ;
the outer rim, the legs, and the under surface of a
dirty white — at least, this is the case in the animals
after death. The legs lie close together at their
attachment to the body, and terminate each in two
strongly bent claws without cushions. These claws»
however, do not coalesce with the last joint of the
foot, but are connected with it by two very thin
rings, which must give them much more play. Just
in front of the first pair of feet is situated the short
horizontal beak in a cavity provided for the purpose.
It appears to be in every respect similar to that of
the true Ticks.

Besides this species {reflexns) and the poison-bug
(Persicus), there are two others — A. Fischer/., from
Egypt, and A. Mauritianus from the island whose
name it bears. But our knowledge of these (as is
the case with most of the members of this order)
extends only to their outward appearance. As re"
gards A. Mmiritianus it has been ascertained that it
lives on poultrj-, and often causes their death.

A fifth species {Savignyi), from*Egypt, is referred
by Koch to a distinct genus, Ornithodoros, on ac-
count of the presence of eyes, which are situated on
the lower surface of the body.

E. L. Taschenbekg.

BIRDS AND FLOWERS.

IT has been with peculiar interest that I have
read the remarks in Science Gossip (p. 135),
entitled " Birds and Primroses." For several years
I have noticed with wonder the havoc made in our
garden upon the primroses and crocuses just as
they first appear in the early spring. Having a
-considerable number of primrose-roots growing in
our plantation and orchard, we have been greatly
surprised to find as the flowers first appear they are
bitten ofi', or rather pulled out from the calyx, and
lie round the roots as if some little children or
dogs had amused themselves with this apparently
thoughtless work of destruction ; indeed some few

years ago, we flogged our little dog, who used with
great pleasure to watch our gathering the flowers,
and we suspected him to be guilty of afterwards
pulling the primrose flowers off to eat them (as
the petalsVere partially eaten) ; but when, after his
death, the flowers were still pulled off in the same
manner, we discovered they were cut off by the birds,
which seem to select the more solitary roots in
preference to those growing thickly together.

My attention was much called to this being the
case while visiting, in April this year, some friends
living in a lovely part of Staffordshire.

In their garden there was one large primrose-root,
which I noticed each day while there until all its
flowers were pulled off, or nearly so, and lying,
many of the petals half eaten away, round this one
solitary root ; while in the lanes round the hall, the
banks of which for one or two miles in every direc-
tion were thickly studded with primroses, looking
more beautiful than I can describe, I only on one
occasion observed any roots whose flowers were
pulled off in the same way, and tlien it was the case
with a few roots growing by the side of the public
road. TVe have never noticed any of our poly-
anthus flowers thus destroyed, but the crocuses
very much ; for some time we believed they were
cut oft" by the mice in order the better to get to the
roots, of which they are very fond, but for the last
year or two we have felt sure that it has been the
birds which have thus bitten off both the primrose
and crocus flowers.

We are inclined to think the chaffinches and
the sparrows are the birds that commit the largest
devastation upon these sweet, early spring flowers,
especially the latter, which are known to pull off the
cherry blossoms in the same way. But why they
thus pull off the flowers of the primrose and crocus
I know not, I should like much to know, and also
why they choose the more solitary roots in prefer-
ence to those growing together. I have long pon-
dered over the subject, though I did not know it
was now occupying the attention of others, until I
saw the article in your valuable magazine last week.

If I may be allowed to venture an opinion, I
think it is more than probable that the birds are in
search of the small insects as well as the nectar
found in these flowers, which come out before the
birds perhaps are able to find other food they like
so well.

Often, too, the little white slug, so destructive to
our plants, shelters under the primrose-leaves,
especially in damp situations, which may be another
source of attraction to the birds. Perhaps others
may not liave remarked that in May and the end of
April, the primroses are for the most part left to
develop themselves in their sweet modest beauty.
It will be with very great pleasure I shall look for-
M-ard to further information upon a subject of so
much interest. E. Edwaeds.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

173

THE HOLMAN SIPHON-SLIDE.

"TTTE have much pleasure in placing before our
» » readers an illustration (borrowed from the
Monthly Microscopical Journal) of the above re-
markable slide. It was first exhibited at the
" Microscopical section of the Academy of Natural
Sciences" of Philadelphia, by Dr. Joseph G.
Richardson, who stated that the apparatus was
composed essentially of a strip of plate-glass, of
the ordinary length and width (namely, three inches
long by one inch wide), but double the usual thick-
ness, in the upper surface of which had been ground
a shallow groove, elliptical in both its transverse
and longitudinal section, and deeper towards one

use of calcium or electric light to illuminate living
specimens is entirely counteracted. When in use
it is only necessftry to place the animal (in the case
before us a little triton) with some water in the
groove of the slide, cover it with a sheet of thin
glass, immerse the end of one of the caoutchouc
tubes in a jar of water, and then applying the mouth
to the extremity of the other rubber-pipe, make
sufficient suction to set up a flow of the liquid
through the apparatus. The stream of fluid (of
course bathing the animal in the cell during its
passage) can readily be kept up as in any other
siphon for hours or days, and its rapidity exactly
regulated by'graduated pressure upon the entrance-
pipe, so that in this way a triton may be examined

Fig. 114. Holman's Siphon, or " Life " slides, showing the means by which circulation of water is carried on.

extremity. The excavation was so arranged as to
receive a small fish, tadpole, or triton, and retain it
without, on the one hand, injury from undue
pressure, but without, on the other, permitting any
troublesome gymnastics beneath the thin glass cover,
which, when applied, formed the ceiling of the cell.
The great improvement of this slide consisted, how-
ever, in the embedding of a small metallic tube
(communicating with each extremity of the groove)
in either end of the slide, and the adaptation to
these two tubes of pieces of slender 'caoutchouc
pipe, about eighteen inches in length, one of these
being intended for the entrance and the other for
the exit of any fluid, cold or hot, which it might be
desirable to employ. For examination of larger
reptiles, and for demonstrations with the gas
microscope, a slide four inches long, with two oval
concavities, and a narrow groove more deeply cut
for the body of the creature, as shown in the figure,
has been devised. With such an apparatus, through
which a current of ice-water can be passed, the
injurious heating efi"ect which ordinarily attends the

continuously (as stated by Dr. J. Gibbons Hunt),
for a whole week without material injury.

Among the great advantages of this very in-
genious contrivance may be enumerated : first, its
security, the animal being prevented from escaping,
and the joints of the apparatus being kept tightly
closed by the pressure of the atmosphere; second,
its portability, the whole preparation, for example,
one for showing the circulation of the blood, being
made at home, as was done in this instance, carried
to a lecture-room in the pocket, and exhibited to an
audience hours afterwards ; and third, its con-
venience, this arrangement permitting the removal
of the slide at any time from the microscope stage,
to make way for other experiments, and its instant
readjustment when desired.

Dr. Richardson invited the attention of members
to the remarkably clear and distinct view of the
circulation displayed by the aid of this apparatus
in the caudal extremity of a triton beneath one of
the microscopes upon the table, and pointed out as
especially worthy of note the marked prominence

17i

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

of nuclei in epithelial cells covering apportion of
the tail where blood-stasis had occurred, in conse-
quence of a minute puncture purposely made before
incarcerating the reptile. He suggested that this
change was doubtless the visible exponent of that
pathological alteration of the circumjacent cellular
elements which constitutes such an important
although as yet imperfectly understood factor in
the inflammatory process.

THE OLDEST INSECT-TRAPS ON
RECORD.

THOUGH generally a kindly mother to the
insect population, offering them an abun-
dance of food and shelter, the goddess Flora has a
dark side to her character ; and apt though we are
to associate with her all that is smiling and cheer-
ful, she helps largely to thin the ranks of the little
creatures which come to rifle her treasures.
There are the moulds, par exemple, such as
Empusin-i,* which appears in the autumn as a tiny
cloud of white dust surrounding some unhappy
fly, which with outstretched legs looks as if it were
glued to the window-pane ; or as Botnjtis hassiana,
commonly called Muscadine, which works such
havoc among the silk-worms of Italy and Erance.
Another insect-slaying fungus is the singular Cor-
diceps or Torrubia, which attacks its victim at the
back of the head and grows up into a club-shaped
stem, the lower part ramifying through the insect's
body, until "the whole insect seems entirely
metamorphosed into vegetable, with the exception
of the skin and intestines." (Dr. Hooker,
Journal of Botany, lSn).t Among the higher
forms of vegetaljle destroyers we find the well-
. known Venus's fly-trap (Dionaea), which crushes
its prey in an embrace of death ; its relatives, the
Sundews, which suck the life out of a fly or ant by
means of the glutinous threads on their leaves ; and
all plants with viscid stems or with hairs pointing
downwards in corolla or pouch, allowing entrance
but forbidding exit to the deluded insect, of which
the American Darlingtonia is a notable example.
Then there are the curious Pitcher-plants and the
Saddle-Howers (Sarraceuia) and the Cephalotuses
and others, whose leaves are so fashioned as to
form at the apex deep jars, into which flies and
moths innumerable are seduced by the pleasant
fluid at the bottom, only to meet a watery grave.
These " gay deceivers," however, are all of recent

* Cohn named this (supposed) genus Empusn, meaning- a
spectre ; but that title liad been already appropriated by
lUiger to a family of Orthopters, allied to the Praying Insect
[Mantix] ; whereupon the fungus was rechristened Einpu-
sina; and also Sporendoneiiiu hy Desmarest.

t For an interesting account of this fungus and its mode
of action, see Science-Gossip, 1866, p. 127.

types. To find the oldest fly-trap we must go back
to the old prehistoric times, when insects had
nothing to fear from man's acquisitiveness, for the
simple reason that man did not then exist ; or, if
he did perhaps walk the earth, his intellect was of
the lowest, and collections and museums were un-
dreamt of. I allude to the days when amber was
forming, and vagrant insects were being daily en-
tangled in its viscid toils, and there preserved for
the wonder and admiration of modern savants.

Amber is a semi-transparent substance of a light
yellow or brown colour, capable of taking a high
polish, and therefore much employed in the manu-
facture of mouth-pieces to pipes, heads of canes,
necklace-beads, and such small matters. The prin-
cipal source of supply is (and has been from time
immemorial) the coast of the Baltic Sea between
Memel and Dantzic, where it is [disseminated with
layers of lignite in the sand or clay. It is searched
for in the sea or on the shore, or is picked from the
cliffs with iron hooks at the end of long poles, or it
is regularly mined, the shafts being sometimes
sunk to the depth of one hundred and fifty feet.
Saxony supplies a small quantity ; it also occurs
in Sicily, in Siberia, Sweden, Italy, and other parts
of Europe. Amber occurs in varying quantities, in
nodules or nuggets of different sizes, sometimes as
small as grains of coarse sand, at others of much
larger proportions. One of the largest pieces on
record is deposited in the Museum of Minerals at
Berlin. This great mass, which measures upwards
of thirteen inches in length, eight inches broad, and
four to six inches thick, with a weight of over
thirteen pounds, was found near Gumbinen, in
Eastern Prussia, in the year 1803. The fortunate
possessor received for his prize one thousand
thalers, or £150 ; it real value however far exceeds
that sum.

There is no doubt of amber having a vegetable
origin. It is, in fact, a resinous exudation from an
old-world pine-tree, which has long since died out
from the earth, nmnedihY Go^'gtYi Pinites succinlfer.
Pinites was closely allied to our modern spruce ;
consequently amber is in its nature exactly ana-
logous to the lumps of resin which occur in every
fir plantation in the present day. Indeed, if any-
thing were wanting to prove its originally fluid
condition, it would be the fact that debris of various
kinds are frequently found embedded in it. Erag-
ments of the flowers, leaves, and twigs of more
than one hundred and sixty species of plants have
been detected by the indefatigable Goppert
[Lennis Botanik). But it .is as an insect-trap that
I introduce it here. In examining a piece of amber,
one is often struck with the fact that these little
creatures, or portions of them, are scattered through
the mass in every possible position. I have before
me at this moment a piece about two inches
square and of moderate thickness, which is crowded

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

175

with insects. Witliia its transparent substance I
observe a tiny beetle, apparently allied to our
clythra, several small gnats, the remains of a moth
. (rather a rare find, by the way), and a number of
white ants {termites) ; there must be a dozen or
more present, all winged, besides several detached
wings, quite perfect in their outline, and with the
neuration beautifully clear.

It is evident that the little creatures settled upon
the treacherous resin at a time when it was in a
semi-fluid condition, and were of course retained
there by the viscid nature of the substance. The
gum, as it flowed from the body of the tree, gradu-
ally surrounded its victims, and at last entirely
inclosed them in a premature but very beautiful
tomb, so that Pope's question can be answered
more satisfactorily now than in his day : —

*' Pretty, in amber to observe the forms
Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms.
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare;
But all the wonder is— how they got there ! "

Amber-caught insects are found in different
degrees of preservation. Some, which wei-e evi-
dently engulfed at cnce in the sticky matter, are as
perfect as the day they were killed. Others have
been consigned to a more lingering death; the resin
has exuded very slowly, and the victims have not
only died before they were surrounded by it, but
having been trapped in bright dry weather, their
bodies have become desiccated and withered ; in
some instances, indeed, a white mould has begun
to form round them, plainly discernible in the
pellucid amber. At least two minute fungi—
BrachyclacUum thomasinmn and Penicillium curtipes
— have been detected ; traces of other genera also
occur, (Berkeley's "Cryptogamic Botany.")

As a rule, the inclosed insects are not widely
different from — many species are actually identical
with— those now in existence. At the same time
" the insects found in amber are not those which
belong to our latitudes, yet there are many forms
which perfectly agree with ours. This may espe-
cially be said of the smaller flies and gnats ; but
particularly in the cockroaches, many beetles, and
the majority of the Hymenoptera, the resemblance
to exotic forms is still greater." (Burmeister's
" Manual of Entomology," by Shuckard.) Without
going into minute details, it may be sufficient to
mention that at least one-half of the insect orders
have had their representatives embalmed in the
golden fluid ; and that most of them, as may be
imagined, are of species which frequent woods
and thickets. Amongst Coleopters are numerous
tomicids and weevils : the Orthopters supply
locusts and grasshoppers, the Dictyopters a few
cockroaches. In liymenopters we have ants,
ichneumon flies, and a bee allied to the South
American Trigoua ; in Lepidopters a large hawk-

moth and several caterpillars. Of Neuropters there
have been captured dragon-flies and white ants
{Termites), a lace-fly {Ilemerobius), and an ant-lion
{21yrmecoleoii). Various kinds of Ilemipters (land
and water bugs) have been detected ; also divers
Homopters, a flata, and several cicadas ; while of
Dipters the list is well-nigh interminable.

Other transparent resins which cmbracy) insects
in their deadly fold, are known in commerce as
copal and gum animc. Though largely employed
in the arts, little is knows of their history. That
they are of vegetable origin, as in the case of
amber, is certain ; though the exact species of tree
which produces them is scarcely yet known. In
all probability they are the product of two legu-
minous plants, Hymensea and Trachylobiura, species
of which are indigenous in South America, Southern
India, and Africa West and East. With regard
to the latter region. Dr. Kii-k, British Consul at
Zanzibar, informs us, through the Linnaean Society,
that "Specimens removed from the living tree show
that large masses, equalling the fossil in size, are
still produced, and are as full of insects as were
those of the ancient forests." Indeed, so large a
quantity of organic remains do these resins contain,
that the name of "auime" (animated) is fully jus-
tified. But while the Trachylobium of Eastern
Africa still gives forth an amber-like fluid from its
stem, and the same fluid exudes from the roots of
the American and Indian Hymenaea, the late Dr.
Welwitsch stated his decided opinion — also in a
paper read before the Linnaean Society— that the
copal of Western Africa is, like amber, of a fossil
nature, " produced by trees which in periods long
since past adorned the forests of that continent, but
which at present are either totally extinct, or exist
only in a dwarfed posterity. The copal is eithe
dug out of the loose strata of sand, marl, or clay
or else it is found in isolated pieces washed out and
brought to the surface of the soil by heavy rain-
falls, earthfalls, or gales." Burton also, in his work
on Zanzibar, speaks of gum copal as though it were ■
mainly if not altogether fossil.

Erom these statements it would appear that the
copal of commerce is of both recent and fossil
origin ; that its masses are crowded with imprisoned
victims; and that consequently copal and amber
form the most ancient insect-traps of which we have
record. W. W. Spicer.

Itchen Abbas.

Carduus tenuiflorus at Llandudno.— It is
very difficult to ascertain that a plant has entirely
disappeared from a given locality. As an illustra-
tion of this, I may mention that Carduus temiiflorns ,
which Mr. Edwin Lees (p. 128) says has " entirely
disappeared" from Llandudno, was growing there
last July in some abundance. — James Britten.

176

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GO S S IP.

HOLLER'S 'NEW DIATOMACEEN TYPEN
PLATTE.

THE veteran microsoopist must unavoidably be
struck with the great improvements that have
taken place within the last ten years. The attempts
at microscopical manipulation of the latter part of
the last century, of which specimens may still be
found, forcibly remind one of the artistic efforts
of our prehistoric ancestors. The old-fashioned
plan of mounting between two little discs of talc
placed in a slip of ivory about half inch wide and
some three inches in length, with six apertures
made in it (of these many are still in existence) j
was superseded when Canada balsam was intro-
duced as a medium for mounting microscopic

Fig. 115. Specimen of MoUer's Typen Platte, x 100 diameters.

■I

objects. The introduction of balsam necessitated
the better preparation of the objects themselves,
and microscopists adopted various methods for that
purpose. The maceration of insects and calcareous
material in caustic alkalis, the preparation of
sponge spiculse and diatoms by means of hydrochloric
and nitric acids, were found to be the most effectual
methods for getting quit of extraneous matter.
The cleaning and mounting of the Diatomacese, par-
ticularly those forms wliich afforded the best tests
for the higher powers of the microscope, occupied
the attention of those microscopists who were
anxious to obtain clean material for mounting.
Although by various improved methods the presence
■of vegetable matter was eliminated, micaceous and
siliceous sands still remained ; and as a last re-
source, diatomists adopted the plan of selecting
individual forms from the surrounding debris, and
transferring them to clean slides. Not satisfied with
this, some mounters arranged the selected forms in
symmetrical patterns, and eventually Herr Moller
introduced his Tjqoen Platte, in which we had some
four hundred species systematically arranged in a
space of a quarter of an inch. These exquisite
specimens of manipulative skill have now been
outdone by his view Typen Platte ; this, although not
containing so many forms, is still more remarkable
not alone for the beauty of the forms, but also for
the method of their arrangement. The following

short description will perhaps interest those
who have not been fortunate enough to have in-
spected the "Platte." The objects are mounted
between two pieces of thin glass ; these are after-
wards set in a brass plate (three and a quarter inches
by one and a quarter) ; on the covering glass is a
photograph about four mm. square, of eighty
circles (ten in a longitudinal and eight in a vertical
direction) ; beneath every circle is the name of the
object and its author; in the centre of these circles
a diatom, and in many cases two are mounted (in
order to show front and side views). The accompany-
ing diagram will enable the reader to understand the
method adopted by this most skilful manipulator.
—F. Kitton.

[I believe these marvellous specimens of the
mounter's art may be obtained of Mr. Baker, 244
High Holboru.]

A PLEA FOR OUR GRASSES.

T SHOULD think that there is scarcely any one of
-*- mature years who is not in one sense or another
familiar with that particular part of our vegetable
kingdom — tlie grasses ; and especially those of them
which, on account of the nourishment they afford to
man and beast, liave either been acclimatized to, or
else have always been common to, the soil and
climate of this country from time immemorial.
Who, for example, is unacquainted with a field of
wheat, of barley, or of rye, when he sees it ! Or
who of us can recall a country stroll unassociated
with green fields and grassy meadows, or of a
country road of unfringed green ? Indeed, you
have but to strip the earth of its grassy mantle>
and you i-ob it of that hue which, in the landscape,
the eye can most untiringly rest upon. In short'
these are all scenes to which the eye of the wanderer
lias been so naturalized to and familiarized with
from earliest years, that without them now the
country walk would be shorn of its charms.

Though the grasses taken comprehensively are a
large family, and would take much of our time and
investigation before making their acquaintance,
botanically speaking, still those really useful grasses
to which I am here alluding as constituting much
of our meadow and pasture land, form comparatively
but a very small percentage of the whole. Eor
instance, I dare say most, if not all, are compre-
hended under the following genera : Feslaca, Poa,
IIolcus, Phleiim, Ilordeum, and Alopecunis — embrac-
ing in all not more than about sixteen or eighteen
different species. And yet, seeing this, the woniier
to me is that more special prominence has not been
given to them by our leading botanists ; nay, tli?.*,
they have not, in common with our other and more
conspicuous flowering plants, been honoured and
popularized like them, by being made the subject ot

HARDWICKE'S 8CIEN CE-GOS SIP.

177

a separate treatise. Some, though not all, I am
pleased to find, have not altogether been passed
by in "Half-hours in the Green Lanes." Still I
would not, as there, have noticed them thus pro-
miscuously. They are deserving of more special
notice; and not only so, but by being taken in
some more distinct way, I think it would have a
tendency to revive what I fear will otherwise soon
become a hopelessly forsaken study. Eor I should
think that there is no class of plants — save i^erhaps
the Umbelliferce — whose study is moie neglected,
and of which many are so " familiarly ignorant," as
the grasses, to which might also be added that of
their glumacean friends and near allies, the sedges.
Therefore, if for nothing else than to show the
characters whereby to discriminate between such
two natural and nearly allied orders as these —
Cyperacece and Gramiuecp. — it would effect some
good and dissipate much existing ignorance. How
often, sadly often it is, that we see people — and
many professed students of botany too — confound-
ing grasses for sedges, and vice versa.

Certainly the grasses have much to contend
against in gaining equal attention with tlieir more
attractive and conspicuous flowering brethren I
know. They have not, for instance, that same
beauty and diversity of colour, of leaf, and of form.
Then, again, they are more complex, demanding
greater and more careful research, and these are
points which, I am sorry to say, are allowed to
weigh too seriously with many. In point of fact^
these " botanically despised " plants seem to ask
them, as it were, too many questions, often requir-
ing them to discriminate between panicles, racemes,
spikes and spikelets, between glume and glumellas,
between barren and fertile florets, and the like.
Others, again, will despairingly say, as an objection,
that they are a large family of one natural order, of
many (forty-four or so) genera ; and, what is worse,
of still more species. Whilst others, taking
another view, will say they are such a " strikingly "
alike family, that they do not care to graduate and
wade through all the points, in which one species
diflers from another, much more to retain them in
mind, intervening between Anthoxanthum and
Digitaria. They think to carry in eye and mind the
minute differences which exist between one species
of poa and another, is quite puzzling enough ; or
even, it may be, what is less, between the two
quaking grasses {Briza media et Briza minor). But
another objector still will say that their difl'erences,
in many cases, are so apparently hidden that one
needs to "microscope" the eye to detect them.
Alas! alas! that all such parties should forget the
habits of discrimination and observation they are
thereby omitting to form; the opportunities
neglected of improving and strengthening theij.
memories — all of them, I am sure, qualities of too
invaluable worth not to be contended for, parti-

cularly by such as desire to prosecute the study of
any science successfully, be it that of botany or any
other.

VVith regard to botanists, whose knowledge of
most other plants seems somewhat advanced, and
with whom no "plant" specimen, save it be com-
prehended in the class they most admire, seems to
be admitted by them as a fit object for the designate
of " find" must, I should think, be well nigh ignor-
ing, or denying altogether the existence of the
botanical claim and interest of the grasses. Still, of
those to whom the science forms a branch of study
at all, 1 think, for my own part, it argues but very
little for the enthusiasm with which they approach
the subject, and especially in such cases where they
are content with a " popularly known " knowledge
of such grasses, a sweet-scented vernal grass, An-
thoxanthum odoratum, and quaking grass, — grasses
which from the attractive character each possesses,
have seemed to have monopolized to themselves
the attention of almost everybody — botanical and
unbotanical alike — and this, based no doubt upon
their severally forming two such fitting representa-
tives of the odoriferous and graceful of our British
grasses.

Another grass, even commoner than either of the
preceding, but not nearly so commonly known
among us, we have in the annual meadow grass, Poa
annua. This little perennial seems to assert itself
almost everywhere ; and, though it cannot be
said to possess in any degree the odour of the
sweet-scented vernal grass, or the grace of the
quaking grass, nevertheless it has that wherein
it doth glory. For if I were asked to name that
grass which of all others most truthfully emblema-
tized and claimed the comparison expressed in the
saying as " green as grass," I sliould at once, and
most unhesitatingly, point you to this.

Erom these it would now be very easy to descant
on such characteristically-named grasses as Fox-tail,
Cat's-tail,Dog's-tail,Hare's-tail,down to the Finger-
grass, all of them names which, to most, I dare say,
are as yet better known in connection with, and as
pertaining to such objects as animals rather than
plants. To such, then, in conclusion let me say,
seek to extend your knowledge of created things —
of plants and animals alike — and learn not to
respect one part of the Creator's works as being
more worthy of your study and admiration than
another, and in so doing I doubt not that you
will be continually discovering fresh reasons for
magnifying the Creator of all things more and more,
and these as abundantly afforded in the study of our
British grasses as in any other one of God's works.

Wicker, Sheffield. John Hakrison.

" All animals are normally attired in that dress
which is m.ost suitable to their respective conditions
and habitations."— /F'/^«//6'^o« the Human Eye.

178

HARDWICKE'S SCI E N C E -G O S SIP.

HISTORY OP OUR CULTIVATED
VEGETABLES.

No. IV.— The Cabbage {Brassica).

rriHE Cabbage tribe is, of all classes of cultivated
-'- culinary vegetables, the most ancient as well
as the most extensive. It belongs to the numerous
family Cruciferce, which comprehends Turnips,
Radishes, Mustard, Cress, and other esculents. Not
only does this class afford a great amount of whole-
some food to mankind, but the seeds of many
species are valued on account of the oil they yield,
and the showy garden flowers, such as the Wallflower,
Stocks, &c., they produce. No person unacquainted
with the history of the Cabbage, walking along the
chalky heights of Dover, or other sea-cliffs of the
South- West of England, during the summer months,
would suppose that a plant seen growing there,
with large, wavy, and variously-formed glaucous
leaves, the stem bearing a spike of pale yellow
flowers, and scarcely distinguished from the wild
mustard, or charlock, should be the uncultivated
state of our garden Cabbage {B. oleracea), and the
parent of the Cauliflower, Brocoli, Kale or Cole-
wort, and their endless sub-varieties. This has
been proved by the fact that the Red Cabbage of
neglected gardens at the seaside passes back again
in a few generations to the condition of the Wild
Cabbage. lu localities where it grows pretty freely,
the poor inhabitants collect the leaves, and after
boiling them in two waters to remove the saltness,
eat them at their meals.

All the varieties may be reduced to three classes
— Cabbage, Kale or Colewort, and Cauliflowers.
The first class comprises those kinds in which the
leaves gather into what is called a head, and are
blanched by their own compression. The second.
Kale or Colewort ; the leaves are expanded and
coloured, with the exception of a small portion of
the centre, which incloses the rudiments of the
flowering-stem, and is commonly cultivated under
the name of green or Scotch Kale, and purple or
brown Borecole. The third division consists of
Cauliflowers and Brocoli, which have the flowering,
stem short and succulent ; the flower-buds, before
developing, form a close, firm, curd-like head, not
higher than the leaves. Some varieties of this vege-
table have been cultivated from the earliest times of
which we have any record ; but, after a lapse of so
many ages, it is impossible to determine what kind
of Cabbage the Greeks and Romans allude to in
their works, as no genus of plants are more liable to
sport or run into varieties and monstrosities. The
most ancieut Greek authors mention three kinds of
Cole: the crisp or ruffed, which they called Selinas
or Selinoides, from its resemblance to parsley ; the
second was called Lea, and the third Corambe.

Two of their physicians, Chrysippus and Dren-

ches, who lived in the third and fourth century
before the Christian era, as well as Pythagoras, are
said to have written books on the properties of this
plant. It was observed by Pliny that coleworts
may be cut at all times of the year for our use, so
they may be sown and set all the year through ; but
the most appropriate season is after the autumnal
equinox. He adds : "After the first cutting they
yield abundance of delicate tops, so there is no herb
in that regard so productive, until in the end its
own fertility produces its death." It was the
custom with the Romans, when they transplanted
their Coleworts, to put seaweed, or a small portion
of powdered nitre, under their roots, imagining that
they would the sooner come to maturity: others
threw trefoil and nitre upon the leaves for the same
purpose: it was also thought to make them boil
green. "If you would have very fine Coleworts, both
sweet in taste and great for cabbage," observes Pliny,
" first let the seed be sown in ground thoroughly
digged more than once or twice, and well manured ;
secondly, you must cut off the tender spring and
young stalks that seem to put out far from the
ground, and such as run too high ; thirdly, you
must raise mould or manure up to them, so that
they may not be more above ground than the very
top." These kinds of Cole, he says, are justly called
Tritiana, for the threefold care about them.

There are various kinds of Coles mentioned by
this author, distinguished by the names of the places
where they grew: among these, the Coles of Brazzi
or Calabria were hardy, having large leaves, small
stalks, and an acrid flavour.

The Sabellian Coles, with curled and ruffed leaves,
are mentioned as having a small stem, supporting
heads of an extraordinary size ; these were reputed
the sweetest. The same author mentions a kind of
Cabbage-Cole from the vale of Arieia, with an ex-
ceedingly great head and an infinite number of
leaves, which gather round and close together;
probably this was the first type of our hearting
Cabbage. The Romans planted the sprouts as well
as the young plants. Columella, one of their writers
on agricultui-e, tells us that they should be removed
from the old plants when they have attained six
leaves. This method was described in one of our
horticultural works, a few years since, as a grand
discovery; so we may truly say, there is nothing new
under the sun !

Columella informs us that this vegetable was so
common in Rome as not only to be an article of
food for the freemen, but also for the slaves. The
ancients often used to steep their greens in oil and
salt before they cooked them, and observed that if
any brass pot or kettle was ever so much furred, and
however hard to get off, if a cabbage was boiled in
it, the fur would peel from the sides.

Ancient authors have mentioned various medicinal
uses to which this plant was applied; and it is

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GO SSIP.

179

related that the Romans, having expelled physicians
out of their territories, preserved their health for
six hundred years, and soothed their infirmities, by
using and applying this vegetable as their only
medicine in every disease.

The Greeks as well as the Romans ate the leaves
raw, to prevent the effects of excessive indulgence
in wine ; it was also thought to clear the brains of
the intoxicated, and make them sober.

Pliny, in speaking of the spring sprouts of Cole,
says : " Pleasant and sweet as these crops were
thought by other men, yet Apicius (that notable
glutton) loathed them. Drusus Caesar held them in
no esteem, while his father, the Emperor Tiberius,
thought highly of them. I dwell long on this vege-
table," says this author, " because it is in so great
request in the kitchen, and among our riotous
gluttons." It is related that a physician, having a
mess of coleworts upon his table before him, and
being suddenly sent for to visit a patient, he covered,
at his departure, his dish with anothei", and found
it, at his return, bedewed with moisture : observing
this circumstance, he reasoned on the cause, and
ultimately discovered the art of distillation.

The variety of Brassica which was first cultivated
in England cannot be ascertained, but it is probable
that one species was introduced by the Romans,
since Kale is mentioned among the oldest English
records. The Saxon name for February is Sprout-
Kale, and that is the season when the sprouts from
the old stalks begin to be fit for use ; the Saxons
must, therefore, of course, have been familiar with
the culture of Cabbage or Kale, as it is not at all
probable that they invented the name after their
settlement in this country. As the Germans like-
wise cultivated the plant from remote times, they,
as well as ourselves, might be indebted to their
Roman conquerors for this vegetable.

Little can be said with certainty respecting the
varieties of culinary vegetables cultivated in England
previous to the fifteenth century. No doubt many
kinds had been introduced by the Crusaders and
others, but became degenerated or lost during the
commotion caused by the wars of the White and
Red Rose, which, ravaged the country and reduced
the inhabitants to extreme destitution.

Gerard is the oldest English author who has
written fully on this useful vegetable ; he notices
several kinds.! {Among them, he says, " swollen
Colewort, of all others, is the strangest, and which
I received from a worshipful merchant of London,
Master Nicholas Lete, who brought the seed out of
France, who is greatly in love with rare and fair
flowers and plants, having a servant at Aleppo, and
in many other countries, for the which myself and
likewise the whole land are much bound unto." The
same author says : " Rapecole is another variety ;
they were called in Latin Caido-rapum and Rapo'
eaulis^ participating of two plants, the Coleworts

and Turnips, from whence they derive their name.
They grow in Italy, Spain, and some places in Ger-
many, from whence I have received the seed for my
garden." " They must," says he, " be carefully set
and sown, as must melons and cucumbers." The
close-hearted variety, which is more peculiarly called
Cabbage, was for many years imported into England
from Holland. It is said that Sir Anthony Ashley
introduced the cultivation of this vegetable into the
country, and that there is a cabbage at the foot of
his monument, at Winborue St. Giles, Dorsetshire.
This tradition and the Cabbage has been the subject
of controversy as to whether the sculptor intended
the latter to represent that vegetable or a cannon-
shot "with its surface ornamented with hexangular
reticulations," as referring to the warlike deeds of
the worthy knight inscribed upon the monument_
I think, however, there is some truth in the story
of the introduction of some kind of cabbage, sup-
posed to be the Summer or Roundhead variety, by
Sir A. Ashley; for, on referring to "Christie's
Memoirs, Letters, &c., of the First Lord Shaftes-
bury " (vol. i. p. 3, note), it is stated that Sir A.
Ashley held for many years the ofiice of one of the
Clerks of the Council during the reigns of Elizabeth
and James I. Now, what could be more likely, as
a writer in Notes and Queries remarks, than that, in
the same age when Sir Walter Raleigh, who was
member for Dorsetshire, introduced the potato
from America, there should be a sort of rivalry
among the distinguished members of Elizabeth's
court in introducing foreign roots and plants, and
that Sir A. Ashley should have obtained a variety of
cabbage not before grown in England frome some
of the ambassadors of the Low Countries ? Late in
life he inherited the estate of Winborne St. Giles,
and became a liberal benefactor of the parish, re-
built the church, endowed almshouses, and no
doubt encouraged the cultivation of this universal
vegetable. It is also stated in Gough's "British
Topography" (vol. i. p. 133) that Sir A. Ashley
had the command of Cales (Cadiz), where he
enriched himself by peculations, for which he suf-
fered imprisonment and disgrace for a time. This
circumstance gave rise to the jest that he got more
by Cales than he did by Kale and Cabbage. I think
these notes go far to prove an historical fact.
Hartlib (writing 1650) states that old men then
living remembered the first gardener who came into
Surrey to plant cabbage and cauliflowers, and to
sow turnips, carrots, parsnips, and early peas, all
of which at that time were great wonders, as
having few or none in England but what came from
Holland or Flanders. This gardener came from
Sandwich, with cabbages raised from seed, brought
from Artois by the Flemish emigrants in 1561.

Some writers hence thought that this vegetable
did not become so generally cultivated for years
after Gerard's time ; but Johnson, who published

180

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN C E-GOSS I P.

the second edition of "Gerard's Herbal" in 1633,
speaks thus of the garden Cabbage:— "This is the
great ordinary Cabbage, known everywhere, and is
commonly eaten all over the kingdom."

No doubt vegetables continued to be imported
from Holland and other countries as they are in
our own day, although in a less degree, and the
quotation from Ben Jonson's " Volpoue " (Qrst
acted in 1605), saying he had received intelli-
gence from the Low Countries in cabbages, does
not prove that they were a scarce vegetable in his
day. One of the characters in the play just men-
tioned is Sir Politick Wouldbe, who, describing a
newsmonger, says —

" He has received weekly intelligence,

Upon my knowledge, out of the Low Countries,
For all parts of the world, in Cabbages."

No doubt the closely-packed leaves of this vege-
table might be used as a convenient place for
smuggling a secret letter over to this country in
those days, and most likely it was to this circum-
stance that Jonson refers.

{To be continued.)

THE ICHNEUMON OF THE APHIS.

rpHE general habits and structure of the Ichneu*

-^ monidse are familiar to most naturalists. They

are the weasels of the insect tribe, their bloodthirsty

instincts being, however, of great economical value

Fig. Il6. Ichneumon of Aphis (Op/iion) magnified.

in the balance of nature. Allusion was made by
Mr. Southwell, in the last number of Science-
Gossip, to the Ichneumon of the aphis. As less is
known concerning this useful little insect than many
of its fellows, we give an illustration of one. The
aphides in which the characteristic Ichneumon is
being hatched may be distinguished from their
globular form. Indeed, the skin of the victim
partially hardens over the parasite, and thus forms
a tolerably protective cocoon. The specimen now

figured was captured on some aphides that were
preying on a Pelargonium. We would particularly
draw attention to the near resemblance between
this Ichneumon and the Winged Aphis.

The total length of the Aphis Ichneumon
{Ophion luteum) is about a line. This genus of
Ichneumons is distinguished from the rest by
their sickle- shaped abdomens. Of all the friends
to the rose-grower, not even excepting the Lady-

Fig. 1 17. Globular Apliis, showing where the Ichneumon has
escaped.

birds and larvae of the Lace-wing Ely, the Ophion
luteum is most useful. The extraordinary repro-
ductive powers of the aphides are well known,
and were it not for the many enemies which find
in them their staple food, very soon our planet
would become their legitimate abode, to the ex-
clusion of all other forms of life.

SPIDERS' WEBS AND SPINNERETS.
Bt H. M. J. Undekhill,

SOME years ago there appeared in Science-
Gossip several articles on Spiders, their habits,
anatomy, and webs. Interested in the latter subject
from having prepared several slides of spinnerets, I
wished to learn how the silk was produced, and
therefore carefully re-read the articles in question,
and also examined as many books as I could obtain
at the Bodleian Library, in which information was
likely to be found. Not learning all that I wanted,
I resolved to investigate for myself, and therefore
made various observations and dissections, the re*
suits of which I now detail.

To render intelligible the description of the several
points which seem hitherto to have escaped notice,
it is necessary here and there briefly to note a few
things which are well known to arachnologists.

The exterior parts of the silk-producing organs
are called spinnerets. They are four, six, or eight
papillae, or sometimes instead of papillae, flat plates,
situate on the under side of the end of the abdomen,
in a little depression adapted to their size and shape.
As far as I am aware, no British spider has a less
number than six. On the ends of each spinneret

HARDWICKES SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

181

are little funnel-shaped tubes (a and b, fig. 120) from
which the silk is emitted, and which I call " silk-
tubes," being ignorant of their proper name. The
spinnerets lie in pairs, and are naturally divisible
into two "sets," an upper and a lower. There are

Fig, 118. Web of Tegenaria domeiUea, x 150. aa, first threads;
bb, second ditto ; ec, third ditto.

Fip. 119- Under Spinneret, with glands attached, of Tegenaria
domestica, x 38. a, common silk-tubes; bb, ducts; cc,
glands; d, silk-tube of unusual size.

two pairs in the upper set, one above the other,
which I therefore name the first and second pairs ;
the one pair in the lower set being distinguished

as the third pair. The first spinnerets, i.e. the
spinnerets of the first pair, have two joints, and their
silk-tubes are situated sometimes on the end of the
second joint, and sometimes irregularly down its
inner side. The second spinnerets have but one
joint. They are smaller than the first, and have the

Fig. 120. a and b, silk-tubes of first
and third spinnerets of T, domestica.

Fig. 121. Silk-tube, duct, and
(iland of the first spinnerets
of T. domestica, x 38.

Fig. \'i2. Gland of third spin-
ners, a, gland ; b, bag or
case; rr, coating of epithe-
lial cells.

silk-tubes on and around the ends. The construc-
tion of the third pair differs a little from that of
the other two. Like the first they have two joints,
but the basal joint is always much larger than the
terminal, which is very short. Their silk-tubes are on
a retractile plate at the end of the second or terminal
joint, which, when not in use, is drawn inwards until
the tips of the silk-tubes are nearly level with the end
of the spinneret. This plate has a thickened] rim,
and on the interior margin, where the rim is
broadened for the purpose, are a'few holes and two ,
silk-tubes of unusual size. The exact use of these
1 have been unable as yet to determine. The spin-
nerets of a spider are mobile, and their movements
are effected by longitudinal muscles.

182

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

The first and second spinnerets always produce
plain or non-adhesive threads : if the spider be of a
species that spins viscid threads, these are always
emitted by the third pair. There is one family of
British spiders which has an extra and very remark-
able pair of spinnerets in the lower set, which pro-
duce threads of a peculiar character: they are de-
scribed furtlier on.

As may be supposed, I selected the commonest
spiders for observation, and house-spiders happened
to come handiest. The web of a Tegenaria, and I
believe of every spider, contains three sorts of
threads, not two only, as usually stated. Two of
these are plain, and stretched taut from point to
point (a and b, fig. 118), and they differ in nothing but
size, being spun by the first and second spinnerets,
of which in all spiders the first is larger than the
second, although in some instances it has a fewer
number of silk-tubes. The third thread ((?,fig.llS)is
exceedingly elastic, and studded with viscid globules,
or, if these be absent (as in the web selected for illus-
tration), it is slack, irregular, and sometimes much
curled. The existence of viscid threads in a
Tegenaria's web seems to me doubtful, for with a
Smith & Beck's best quarter-inch objective (the
highest power within my reach) no globules are
visible, though several contributors to this journal
have stated that they may be found. The thick
threads which form the beams or foundation of the
■web, are spun by the first pair of spinnerets and are
often doubled or trebled. This is especially the
case at the edges of the web, where greater strength
is necessary.

The appariitus by means of which a spider forms
its silk is a series of glands within the abdomen,
near and attached to the spinnerets, and immediately
beneath the liver and intestinal canal. The glands
of the upper and lower sets of spinnerets differ
somewhat in character and shape, as is noted below.
Fig. 119 is a drawing of one of the third spinnerets of
Tegenaria domestica, with its glands, of which only
a few are shown. These communicate with the silk-
tubes by ducts {b). They vary in size in different
individuals, but in a large Tegenaria Tsoth of an inch
is an average length. Each gland has its own duct
and silk-tube. On the first pair of spinnerets there
are about CO silk-tubes ; on the second pair, although
the spinnerets are smaller, about 80. The silk-tubes
on these two pairs are alike ; but they differ in shape
from those of the third pair and are much larger
(see fig. 120, a and i^). There are nearly 220 tubes on
the third pair, thus making altogctlicr about 3G0 on
the six spinnerets.

The glands likewise, ■which are proper to the first
and second pairs of spinnerets, differ from those
belonging to the third. Fig. 121 represents one of
them with its duct and silk-tube, drawn to the same
scale as figure 119, for the sake of comparison. It is
a simple sac, slosed at one end, and terminating at

the other in the duct, which carries the secretion to
the silk-tube. On the surface of the gland is a coat-
ing of cells, probably epithelial, which are surrounded
by a very delicate membrane. The points of differ-
ence in the silk-glands of the third spinnerets are
these : they are smaller (about one quarter the
length), of a different shape, and chiefly, they are
enveloped by a bag or case interposing between the
actual gland and the epithelium (see A, fig. 122, b
and c) (which bag is wanting in the other glands),
while the epithelium is apparently without the mem.
branous covering by which in them it is always sur-
rounded. This case continued as a tube surrounds
the duct for some distance, in all probability as far
as the silk-tubes, but I have not been able to trace
it so far.

These distinctions in form and construction of the
upper and under sets of spinnerets with their glands,
prove, I think, the common idea that each of the
threads of a spider's web is the joint production of
the six spinnerets (from which it necessarily follows
that their being viscid or plain depends merely on
the will of the animal) to be quite eiToneous ; and
on the contrary, they prove that each of the three
sorts of threads which go to compose a web is the
separate formation of one pair of spinnerets specially
adapted for producing that one thread.

It has been argued that the drops of liquid silk
coalesce as they emerge from the spinnerets, and so
for.m a simple homogeneous thread, but various ob-
servations which have before been related in Science-
Gossip, have convinced me that such is not the case.
The following also tends to contradict this theory,
namely — when a garden spider has caught a fly, as
every one knows, she very expeditiously binds it in
a covering of silk. Until I saw the exact process,
I often wondered how she could manage to accom-
plish this so quickly. She places the tips of her six
spinnerets almost in a line, at the same time seem-
ing to erect each separate silk-tube, and thus puts
forth, not a single thread, but a broad band of many
detached threads, which is rapidly wound round the
unfortunate fly. The examination of the web of a
house-spider under a high magnifying power, will
show that many of its main threads are frayed, like
a rope worn by use ; this could not occur if they
were homogeneous.

MICROSCOPY.

How TO Cut Leaf-sections. — Mr. C. Stewart
describes his mode of obtaining sections of fresh
leaves as follows : — He inserts a piece of the leaf
in a notch cut in a carrot, and then cuts slices
through both carrot and leaf. The sections are
afterwards soaked in water in a watch-glass under
an exhausted receiver, stained with bajmatoxylon
and transferred through water, absolute alchobol.

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP.

183

and oil of cloves to the mounting medium. In
the oil of cloves he found they would coil up if they
were not prevented by a heavy cover-glass being
laid upon them.

Origin of Blood-corpuscles.— Dr. II. D.
Schmidt, of New Orleans, has recently published
his observations on this subject. His investigations
were directed chiefly to human embryos six weeks
old and upwards. lie states that the nucleus only
of the colourless blood-corpuscles is developed into
the red corpuscle, imd confirms the prevalent
opinion that the spleen and lymphatic glands are
the permanent blood-formative organs. Dr. Schmidt
regards the blood-corpuscle as a gland-cell destined
to promote within itself the transformation, into
other elements, of certain materials derived from
the liquor sanguinis, and, when matured, as giving
back directly to the "liquor sanguinis," by its
final dissolution, its secretion, consisting of its own
body.

Raphides. — I like to see these best in their
natural position in the plant. Some will show by
merely putting the skiu between two glasses with
balsam or watei", or by peeling a piece of the cuticle
off. The thin-coloured skin of the bulb of tlie
hyacinth shows them very nicely, and so does the
skin of the garlic. — S. T. Scott.

PoLARiscoPE Objects.— I don't know whether
the objects are known, but I find that the hairs of
Lithospernmm officinale make beautiful polariscope
settings. Those from the stem are best, and are
easily detached by scraping. They are insoluble in
pure nitric acid. In appearance they rather re-
semble the hairs of the stinging-nettle, appear
lioUow, and there is a bulb at the base, but the
pldut can be freely handled ; so probably possesses
no urticating properties. — W. H.

Straw Paper as a Polarizing Object.— A
surgeon of some repute attending me during a short
illness, seeing the microscope upon my table in one
of his visits, made the remark of " How little prac-
tical use the instrument was in connection with the
household." Coming from such a man, the observa-
tion set me thinking, and, feeling a little chagrined
that any slight should be offered to my pet stud}', I
afterwards made it a point of examining all objects
of a common and suitable nature that happened to
fall in my way, and i have found tlie microscope of
much use in detecting many adulterations both in
food and materials for clothing, though I fear I
have not aliogelher made a " clear case " against
my medical friend's remark. At the risk, however,
of placing myself in the somewhat unenviable posi-
tion of the grocer and his lump of sugar, 1 am
induced to send you a slide of straw-paper that
accidentally fell in my way, and which, from its
appearance, seemed principally composed of straw

' fibre. On looking at it through a small lens, the
thought occurred to me whether the structure and
cuticle of the straw had been entirely obliterated in
reducing it to the pulp for paper. On more minute
examination with a half-inch objective, I found the
straw had not been entirely broken up, while the
cuticle was not difficult to be traced in many places.
I need scarcely add that unless the straw can be
thoroughly reduced to pulp, the material can only
be used in the commonest or coarsest of paper. I
afterwards tried the paper as a polarizing object,
using blue and yello^v selenite, and was so pleased
with it that I am inclined to believe that had it
fgrmed one of the objects shown at the Quekett
soiree it would have been found not the least in-
teresting and attractive among some of the (perhaps
■very common) Q\)]Qcis.— Hugh Gilbert.

Dammar Yarnish. — In the January part of
Science-Gossip (p. IS), your correspondent "P.K."
says : — "My experience of soft cements is that in a
shorter or longer period they almost invariably
run in, and I much fear gum dammar will not
prove an exception." Seeing this the other even-
ing, on looking over the back numbers, I was
induced to send, for the information of " F. K." and
such of your readers whom it may interest, au
account of the preparation of the gum-dammar
varnish as used very extensively by Dr. Klein and
other well-known histologists at the Brown Institu-
tion. The description of it is condensed from
Sanderson's " Physiological Laboratory," the histo-
logical part of which is written by Dr. Klein :—
Gum dammar^ 1 oz. ; turpentine, 2 oz. ; dissolve.
Gum mastic, i oz. ; chloroform, 2 oz. ; dissolve.
The two solutions are to be separately filtered, and
then mixed. As for its utility, the fact that it is the
varnish in use at the Brown Institution, says more
in its favour than I could if I wrote a foolscap sheet
on the subject. But, speaking from expeiience, I
must say it is far better than any I have ever used.
—F. a S.

Mounting Objects in Cells containing
Fluid. — Prof. Busk describes, in the last number
of the Quarterli/ Journal of 3Iicroscopical Science,
his method of using cement for the above purpose.
The advantage it possesses arises chiefly from the
circumstance that it can be used under water or
weak spirit, so that the cover can be affixed beneath
the surface of the fluid, and thus the admission of
air-bubbles can be effectually prevented. It has
also the advantage of retaining its adhesive pro-
perty for several days if requisite. The preparation
(which may be termed " caoutchouc size ") is pre-
pared by melting pieces of caoutchouc in an iron or
porcelain cup until it is reduced to the condition of
a very viscid tar. As this tar, however, in its primi-
tive state, is too viscid for use, it should be
dissolved in benzine, so as to form a fluid of

184

'HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-GOSSIP.

the consistence of thick gold size. When spread
over the edges of the glass cell or vessel intended to
contain the object, it should be allowed to dry for a
quarter of an hour, by which time the benzine will
have evaporated, leaving the surface exceedingly
sticky; and this stickiness is not impaired by its
immeision in water. Consequently, if the cell or
vessel, with its contents, is wholly immersed, the
cover may be applied and pressed firmly in its place
while still under the surface of the fluid. No other
fastening is absolutely required, but it is better
when the surfaces are dry to apply a solution of
shellac or other varnish round the edge of the
cover.

ZOOLOGY.

British Association. — The meeting at Belfast,
on the 19th of August, promises to be a very suc-
cessful one. The President, Professor Tyndall
(himself an Irishman), delivers the inauguraladdress,
and Professor Huxley and Sir John Lubbock deliver
the other two customary discourses. Excursions to
all places of interest, such as the Giant's Causeway,
Lough Neagh, Carrickfergus, &c., in the neighbour,
hood, are arranged for on the Saturday afternoon
and the following Thursday, and, as is well known,
these have a world-wide celebrity for their geologi-
cal importance. In another part of our columns
will be found an exhaustive sketch of this depart-
ment of science, written by a competent authority,
which we hope will be found useful to such of our
readers as may be members of the Association. A
new feature of interest this year is the room to be
set apart for the exhibition of specimens and appara-
tus used in illustration of papers. ■

Natural History of Norfolk.— The Norfolk
and Norwich Naturalists' Society stands foremost
among the provincial associations of its kind for the
earnest and excellent work its members have done
within the few years of its existence. Starting with
the idea that their duty was first of all to investigate
the natural history of the county, they were enabled
all the better to do this through having among their
ranks gentlemen of well-known authority on several
subjects. Among others, Mr. C. G. Barrett, the
assiduous entomologist, had already done good
work, not only in always being ready to help younger
students, and as a reference to any difiiculty arising
in respect to entomology, but more particularly he
bad been noted for the exhaustive manner with
which he investigated the Lepidoptera of Norfolk
whilst he resided at Norwich. Many of his notes
were published in the Entomologists^ Monthly 'Maga-
zine, and now we have the pleasure of drawing
attention to the " Supplement " (of SO pp.) to the
" Transactions " of the Society, in which the lepi-
dopterous fauna of Norfolk are minutely described.

and many of their varieties noted. The lists an
habitats are further enriched by Mr. Barrett's great
knowledge of the literature of the Lepidoptera. No
fewer than 1,24Q species are thus enumerated, and
entomologists generally will appreciate as they
ought this important contribution to natural
science.

'■ Birds and Primroses." — For several seasons
we have been annoyed by finding the ground around
our primroses, &c., strewn with their blossoms.
Careful watching at last discovered the cause of the
mischief. Chaffinches and other small birds were
detected in the act of nipping off the flowers, and
no doubt rested on our minds that their object was
■ — as suggested by Mr. Darwin — to obtain the
nectar. I may add that the flowers attacked were
perfectly healthy : we saw no insects. — H. M. C.
Alten, Barcombe.

Popular Science. — The Popular Science Review
for July contains several valuable articles, all by
eminent writers, to which we are anxious to draw
the attention of our readers. Among others are to
be noticed a fully illustrated paper on "Plumu-
larians," by the Bev. Thomas Hiucks, F.B.S. ; one
by Dr. Leith Adams, F.R.S., on the "Natural
History and Geographical Distribution of Living
and Extinct Bears ; " and a third on "The Lichen-
Gonidia Question," by the Rev. J. M. Crombie.

Noxious and Beneficial Insects.— The sixth
Annual Report on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other
Insects of the State of JMissouri, by C. V. Riley,
State Entomologist, has just appeared. Like the
rest of these valuable reports which have been given
to the world, the present is marked by careful
observation, and details of the life-history of the
insects, which cannot fail to be of great economical
value. The illustrations are often of every stage, so
that the recognition of the different species is ren-
dered an easy matter for those to whom the report
will be most useful. A word of commendation
ought to be given to the artist for the excellent
style of the illustrations.

Insects and Flowers. — I have observed this
spring that the bees extract honey from the flowers of
the Wisteria by drilling a hole through the calyx. I
have seen the big bumble-bees drilling the holes, and
the honey-bees making use of these holes. Whether
the latter have strength to bore the holes I am not
sure ; but it is curious that they should not treat
the honeysuckle in the same way. It would be
easier to pierce the corolla of that flower than the
tough calyx of JFisteria, and it would yield a more
abundant supply of nectar. No doubt there is some
reason why they do not, and perhaps you can inform
me what it is. — C. T.

Skeletons of Small Animals. — I can recom-
mend the following as a ready mode of obtaining

HARDWICKE'S SCIBNCE-GOSSIP.

185

the skeletons of small animals :— Remove the skin
and as much of the viscera as possible, together with
such portions of the flesh as are easily cut away.
Then place the animal at a little distance from a
wasps' nest ; and, in the course of a day or two, the
wasps will have cleared away all the remaining por-
tions of flesh, so that with a very little further care
and trouble the skeleton will be ready to set up. —
/. S. Tate.

" Skeletonizing."— In answer to "J. E. W.'s "
inquiry, I would advise him to try the following
plan, which 1 have proved to be most efl'ective and
simple :— Place two or three dozen mealworms,
which may be obtained in a bakehouse or other'
place where meal of any description is stored, in a
tin biscuit-box partly filled with bran ; then let him
adjust the specimen of which he is desirous of
securing the skeleton upon a suitable stand, and
introduce it,without skinning orany further prepara-
tion, into the midst of the bran, and I will answer
for it that in a few weeks' time he will find as per-
fect a skeleton as he could wish, only requiring a
shght finishing touch with a camel's-hair pencil.
—H.L.

Eggs of Lampern or of La:mpkey. — I have
failed to obtain the eggs of the Fetromyzon
fluviutilis from our fishermen at Oxford, and have
thought it not unlikely that tlie readers of Science-
Gossip might help me to make sure of a supply
next year. I am prepared to go to an expense of
several pounds in order to secure an adequate
series, and shall be very sincerely grateful for infor-
mation which will enable me to carry out my
object. My purpose is to study minutely the de-
velopment of the eggs, and what I desire chiefly is
to know with certainty where, and at xchat season,
and precisely how, they may be obtained next year.
"Whilst asking for help, I may as well make another
similar request, viz., for information as to the eggs
of Limax and Arion. I have obtained them in
quantity in Germany, but have never met with them
in England. — TS. Ray Lankester, Fellow and Lecturer
of Exeter College, Oxford.

The Canxerbury Tick (p. 121). — The generic
term Argas is derived from the Greek apyi'ic, white,
glistening. Certainly, being entirely eyeless, it can
have nothing to do with him " of the hundred eyes."
It is a most interesting creature, and 1 have long sus-
pected it would turn up in England in some ancient
dovecot, though little prepared to hear that it has
lurked at Canterbury for a quarter of a century. Is
the representation of the connection of the claws
with the foot, at fig. 86, quite correct ? — ]F. JF.
Spicer.

Unsuspected Property of the Stag-beetle.
— "When we incautiously handle nettles, red ants,
and certain hairy caterpillars, an irritating sensa-

tion is experienced, followed by more or less inflam-
mation. This effect is said to be due to an organic
acid, which, in the free state, produces that result
on tender skin. Formic acid, so called from its
being first discovered in the body of the red ant
{Formica rufa), may be detected by siniily holding
the hand over an ant-hill; a peculiar tingling sensa-
tion is the consequence, accompanied by the
pleasant aromatic odour of the acid. To examine
the acid qualitatively a few of the ants may be
digested with water ; on filtering, and adding
chloride of gold to one portion of the filtrate, the
compound is reduced to the metallic state, car-
bonic anhydride being evolved. Another portion
of the solution may be heated with concentrated
sulphuric acid, when carbonic oxide is given off.
These are the ordinary tests for formic acid. I am
not certain if it is known to entomologists that the
stag-beetle possesses properties analogous to the
above. The beetle should be allowed to walk over
the back of the hand, at the same time being gently
pressed; the skin should then be rubbed with a
piece of dry cloth. The hand soon throws out a
rash, strongly reminding one of the measles. The
question arose, which of the twenty-two movable
claws were urticaceous? At the lower extremity
of each tibia of the first pair of legs there is a
movable claw ; the tibise of the remaining two
pairs possess two each. These are the only claws
so disagreeably endowed. The attempt to discover
an organic acid proved a signal failure, for when
blue litmus-paper was pierced with these claws no
acid reaction took place, indeed no fluid appeared
to issue from the extremities at all. I experimented
with a female stag-beetle from Kew Gardens.
Nearly all beetles possess these movable claws;
they are seen to perfection in such beetles as
Bynastes Hercules, and certain members of the
genus LucANUS. The question is, are all clawed
beetles gifted with similar properties, and is the
eifect due to formic acid? — G. liaise.

BOTANY.

Seaside Planting.— The following observations
on this subject have been received from Mr. C. B.
Saunders, nurseryman, planter, and florist, of the
Csesaren Nurseries, St. Saviour's, Jersey: — "Atriplex
halimus is a plant of very vigorous growth, and is
well adapted for planting in exposed situations near
the sea ; it grows in great abundance in the hedge-
rows in the Bay of St. Brelades, island of Jersey ;
its pretty silver-grey foliage recommends it very
strongly to the admirers of variety in foliage; it
thrives in most descriptions of soil, growing luxu-
riantly in sand, and with equal vigour in the strong
loam of my nurseries. The propagation is most
easy from cuttings of ripened growth under bell-

1S6

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

glasses in the shade; associated with Elder, Tama-
risk, the different varieties of Euonymus, Japonicas>
the evergreen Oak, Cupressus macrocarpa, Finns
Austriaca, and the Silver Poplar, it forms a very
pleasing effect, and well deserves the attention of
all planters on the southern, western, and eastern
coasts of England ; the peculiar cylindrical and
pyramidal form of the branches renders it less
liable to be broken by the winds than most other
plants, and, from the pliancy of the branches, it
yields to the pressure of the gales off the sea, and
resumes its erect form as soon as they have passed
over. Being indigenous to a warm climate, it is
liable to lose its foliage during the winter months,
but its growth is so rapid in the spring that reac-
tion commences almost as soon as it is denuded of
its leaves, and it soon recovers its wonted beauty.
It is desirable that in the selection of plants for sea-
side planting, attention should be paid to their
peculiar form of growth ; the peculiar power of
resistance which the Tamarisk ( Tamarix Gallica)
possesses is attributable to this ; the Cupressus
macrocarpa (broad-leaved Cypress) also presents
the same form, and I know of no other conifers
which resist the sea breezes so well as these two
particular plants. It would appear that the battling
of the wind tends to accelerate rather than diminish
their growth, after they are fairly established in the
soil; but as it is impossible to form a plantation of
rows of trees with these shrubby-growing plants,
we are obliged to have recourse to other descrip-
tions of trees, and here of necessity attention should
be paid to form, the pyi'amidal being the most
acceptable, as being least affected, and of which the
Guernsey Elm {Ulmus sarniensis) is a fair type, and
recommends itself very strongly on account of its
hardness and its very persistent foliage. The ever-
green Oak {Quercus ilex) may also be sti'ougly
recommended, as, in addition to its pyramidal
growth, or rather susceptibility of being kept in
that form, and rapidity of growth, with the hard-
ness of its foliage, it suffers less than most ever-
green trees. The Black Austrian Pine {Pinus
austriaca) is also a very hardy tree, and grows, in
spite of wind and weather, in the most exposed
situations, its long pliable leaves being a great pro-
tection to its branches, and its marked peculiarity
of retaining its lower branches, so as to form a
robust pyramid of growth, which is in reality the
most acceptable of all forms." With the above
observations Mr. Saunders writes : — " I have thou-
sands of evergreen Oaks in pots, from one to six
feet high, of pretty pyramidal growth. I also find
I have six or seven dozen strong plants of Atriplex
Imlimus in pots, and would engage to furnish any
number of young-rooted plants at Id. each by next
Easter, if they were required, and early notice be
given me. The seeds I have never been successful
in saving." — T. B. IF., Brighton.

Mekcueialis AMBiGtTA.— I lately found this
plant on a spot in cultivated chalky ground, on the
Brighton Downs, near the race-stand. It appears
to be rare, as in Hooker's "British Flora" two
localities only are given, viz., Jersey and the Isle of
Wight. Sir William Hooker calls it a variety of
the Mercurialis annua, adding : — " It certainly has
a very different appearance, but DecandoUe and most
authors do not consider it distinct." It differs,
however, from 21. annua in being monoecious,
having male and female flowers on the same plant,
and is, as Hooker says, so different in appearance
that it might well be called a distinct species.
Withering does not notice it, and Wildenow refers
to it as M. amhigua. (See Loudon's "Encyclo-
ptEdia of Plants.")— :Z'. B. JF., BrigJdon.

Sea-side Shrubs. — The variability of trees and
shrubs, when planted on exposed sea-coasts, has been
the subject of discussion in Science-Gossip for
several of the last numbers. Premising the opinion
that it is not the saline state of the air or soil that
is p)^'' *^ the difficulty which the planter has to
encounter, but that, whether on the sea-board or in
the inland, a sutficiency of suitable soil and a degree
of shelter are the two greatest requisites, we may
mention, from our notes, the plants which we have
ourselves remarked to flourish in more or less
exposed situations on the sea-shore ; and more or
less luxuriautly. On the coast of Normandy, about
Havre, may be well studied what trees and shrubs
are likely to succeed on our own chalky southern
coast. The Halimus grows well there, as also
species of Ilex, Euonymus, Cornus, Arbutus, &c.,
likewise the red-flowered Horse-chestnut. On the
English side of the Channel Tamariscus is seen at
Margate and Hastings, and I dare say at many other
places not noted by the writer. It is very large
near the Lizard, growing on poor sand. We think
Hippophae does not grow, at least wild, west of
Kent. We noticed a luxuriant hedge of Halimus
at Ventnor on the exposed beach, and another of
Euonymus [latifolius ?). Etiscus aculeatus grows in
sand about Portsmouth, as does the Gorse, covered
with the Dodder, there and at Land's End. Escal--
Ionia flourishes, as a garden plant, in the Isle of
Wight, but not more luxuriantly than in the Isle of
Man, where also occurs, of large size and almost
naturalized, the Fuchsia. In this latter island, too,
are seen growing in luxuriance the Tree-mallow,
Buddlea, Hydrangea, often with blue flowers, large
myrtles, and several genistese. Penzance, as well as
Havre, is a good locality to ascertain what plants
will thrive in sea-air. We noticed large aloes, tree-
veronicas, mesembryanthemums, verbenas, daphnes,
arbutus, escallonia, bays, fuchsias, giant-geraniums,
myrtles, cistus, cape-jasmine, buddlea, laurestinus,
pomegranate, and palms growing luxuriantly in the
open air. The Fig seems all but wild north of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

187

Hayle. But, what is more to the purpose, several
of the willows and sallows grow well on the shore,
the former becoming large trees. The Austrian
Pine and Pinaster will form a fine grove. The Larch
lives, bnt, instead of rising nobly aloft, becomes
twisted in a very remarkable manner ; and so with
the Ash, for we noticed one at a farm-house near the
Worm's-head, so horizontally bent that it covered
over the farm-yard with its umbrageous branches,
just above the heads of the hinds and cattle. — R. G.

Teeatological Notes. — As an addendum to the
very interesting paper on Teratology in your last
number, I may mention that I found the other day
a remarkable bead of clover {Ti-ifoJiu))i prateme).
The calyx was normal; the standard petal of the
corolla was much enlarged, and green and leaf-like.
The other petals were reduced to scales, and within
them, on a slight prolongation of the axis, was a
whorl of tiny though perfect flowers about nine in
number, apparently replacing the stamens. There
was but a simple abnormal head on the plant. —
G.P.

HiERACiUM MACULATTTjr. — In company with that
detestable weed Laduca virosa, this fine hieracium
is still to be found in Chichester, where it was
observed by 'Bonev—floraii, floreat. I believe that
this is its only station in Sussex; but should like
to know to the contrary. There are points of
interest about this hawkweed, as will be seen by
reference to Smith and Sowerby ; and I shall be
glad if any one, through the medium of Sciexce-
GossiP, will state other localities in which it 7iow
abounds.— F. H. Arnold, LL.B., Fishbotirne.

A WiND-EEKTiLizED CuuciFErx.— At a recent
meetiiig of the Linnean Society, Mr. A. W. Bennett
exhibited drawings of the style, stigma, and pollen-
grain of Pringlea antiscorhutica , Hook, f., describ-
ing the remarkable manner in which tlie pollen of
Pringlea differs from that of other nearly allied
Crucifers, being much smaller and perfectly spheri-
cal, instead of elliptical with three furrows. This
he considered a striking confirmation of Dr.
Hooker's suggestion that we have here a wind-
fertilized species of a family ordinarily fertilized by
insects, an hypothesis which is again confirmed by
the total absence of hairs on the style of Pringlea.

GEOLOGY.

The Diamond-beaking Rocks of South
Africa.— Prof. Maskelyne and Dr. Flight have
recently read a paper on this subject at the Geo-
logical Society of London. The authors confirmed
certain statements made by one of them from a
superficial examination of specimens brought to
this country by Mr. Dunn. The specimens ex-

amined and analyzed by Dr. Plight were obtained
from various diggings and from different depths,
down to 180 feet in the case of one mass from
Colesberg Kopje. Their characters throughout are
essentially the same. The rock consists of a soft
and somewhat pulverulent ground-mass, composed
of a mineral (soapy to the touch) of a light yellowish
colour in the upper, and of an olive-green to bluish-
grey colour in tlie lower parts of the excavations.
Interspersed in the mass are fragments of more or
less altered shale, and a micaceous-looking mineral
of the vermiculitc group, which sometimes becomes
an important constituent of the rock, which also
contains bright green crystals of a ferruginous ensta-
tite (bronzite), and sometimes a hornblendic mineral
closely resembling smaragdite. A pale buff bron-
zite occurs in larger fragments than the green form
of the mineral ; and in the rock of Du Toit's pan an
altered diallage is present. Opaline silica, in the
form of hyalite or of hornstoue, is disseminated
through the greater part of the rock-masses, and
they are everywhere penetrated by calcite. The
analyses of the component minerals (given in detail
in the paper) show that this once igneous rock is a
bronzite rock converted into a hydrated magnesium
silicate, having the chemical characters of a hydrated
bronzite, except where the remains of crystals have
resisted metamorphism. Except in the absence of
olivine and the small amount of augitic mineral, it
might be compared with the well-known Lherzolite
rock. The diamonds are said to occur most plenti-
fully, or almost exclusively, in the neighbourhood
of dykes of diorite which intersect the hydrated
rock, or occur between it and the horizontal strata
through which the igneous rocks have been pro-
jected. The authors compare the characters of the
diamonds found in different positions, and come to
the conclusion that their source is not very remote
from that in which they are now found. The
mineral above mentioned as resembling vermiculite
is described by the authors as a new species uudef
the name of Vaalite.

Geology of Baknet. — The geology of Barnet is
on the whole ratlier uninteresting to the collector,
but the deposits in its neighbourhood possess much
interest to the student of physical geology. In
reply to your correspondent K. Brierlj', I may
mention that he will meet with the following
deposits in the neighbourhood of Barnet: — 1.
London clay ; 2. Gravel and sand ; 3. Boulder-clay.

1. The London clay forms the substratum of the
entire country in the vicinity of Barnet, and al-
though it is exposed here and there in brick and
tile-yards and in the railway- cuttings (Great
Northern main-line), it rarely yields many fossils.
It is a stiff bluish-grey and brown clay, containing
here and there bands of septaria or cement-stones.

2. The gravel and sand cap most of the hills at

188

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

Bariiet and round about, but the gravel varies
in different localities in its structure and compo-
sition, so much so as to lead some geologists to
make two divisions ; namely, pebble gravel and
middle glacial : the whole of it is, however, older
than the bouldcr-clay. The middle glacial gravel
and sand underlie the boulder-clay of Piuchley and
Whetstone, and contain fragments of many rocks, of
■which flint, quartz, and quartzite are predominant,
the flint being sub-angular and rounded; the gravel
also contains numerous rolled fossils from many
different geological formations. The pebble gravel
is characterized by the very rounded nature of its
materials, and is made up almost entirely of pebbles
of quartz and flint. It caps the high grounds at
Barnet and other places north of Finchley. I am
not aware that any derived fossils have been found
in it, and it would therefore be interesting if your
correspondent found some. 3. The boulder-clay
may be recognized by the occurrence in it of
numerous pellets and boulders of chalk, which often
give it a whitish appearance. It also contains
unworn flints, and rocks and fossils from a number
of geological formations. Mr. Wetherell, of High-
gate, has made an extensive collection of British
fossils from the boulder-clay and gravel of Finchley
and Muswell Hill. It may be studied in the railway-
cuttings near Church End, Einchley, and it is also
scattered here and there over the country to the
north. In regard to publications referring to the
district, I may mention Mr. Henry Walker's pam-
phlet on the " Glacial Drift of Muswell Hill and
Einchley," 1874^ (price 6d.) ; also the Geological Sur-
vey Map, sheet 7, showing drifts, which in the neigh-
bourhood of Barnet were surveyed by Mr. P. J.
Bennett and myself, and Mr. Whitaker's "Memoir
on the Geology of the Loudon Basin." The two latter
publications, albeit rather expensive, would be
useful in long excursions, when the chalk and
Beading beds displayed at South Mims and Northaw
might be ex&mmed.— Horace B. Woodtcard, Geo-
logical Survey of England and IFales.

Fossil Oyster-bed.— A fossil oyster-bed has
recently been discovered near Croydon ; it extends
over a considerable ares, and lies about ten feet
below the surface, in a stratum of clay, sandy loam,
and pebbly gravel, locally known as pea gravel ; the
bed is a friable mass of shells and is only about
seven to fourteen inches in thickness : some casts
of oysters are very perfect, and several other species
of shells occur, but not in such good condition.
I have heard that a lobster has also been found in
the same bed. — E. Lovett.

Geology of Barnet. — K. Brierly should get, or
see sheet 7, of the Geological Survey Map, the last
edition (with the drifts shown). The Memoir on
that sheet is out of print, but the greater part of it

is absorbed in a larger Survey Memoir " on the
London Basin" (1872). A popular account of the
Glacial Drift south of Barnet has been given by
Mr. H. Walker, in a sixpenny pamphlet entitled
"The Glacial Drift of Muswell Hill and Finchley"
(1874), which K. B. would do well to get.— /T.
Wliitaker, Geol. Survey.

Organisms in Carboniferous Flint ok
Chert. — In a piece of flint or " chert " derived from
the Yoredale series of the Carboniferous system, I
have met with some interesting microscopic organ-

Fig. 123. Fraement of supposed
foraminifera in chert.

Fig. 124. Longitudinal sec-
tion of ditto.

Fig. 125. Transverse section of ditto, all x 40.

isms, the nature of which I should lie very glad
to know. The two fragments seem to be portions of
foraminifera, and possibly the others also. Perhaps
some of the readers of Science-Gossip may be able
to throw light upon this difficulty.—/. S. Tute.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Variety of LniE Ha"wks. — " W. L. S.," on page
135, says he found in his breeding-cage a strange
variety of the Lime Hawk, and then gives a descrip-
tion of the insect. From this description, I should
most certainly conclude that the insect is not a
Lime Hawk. Would Mr. Sergeant kindly inform
me, through the Science-Gossip, whether the cater-
pillar and the chrysalid were the same as "limes"
usually are. I think it is either entirely a new

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-QOSSIP.'

189

species, or else he must make a mistake in calling
it "a perfect specimen of the Lime Hawk." — C. B.

Moths' Wings.— Under this heading, a corre-
spondent in the June number asks whether moths
fold their wings over their backs as butterflies, and
goes on to say he caught what he thought was a
moth, but it had this peculiarity. I would ask
wliether or not he examined the antenna; of this
insect, and if he did so, where they pointed or
clubbed ? I consider you cannot tell a moth from
a butterfly by any other means, and the only rule to
take is "that the antennaj in a moth are always
pointed, and in a butterfly are always clubbed." I
saw a journal the other day, called the Young
Fancier's Guide, in which several means were given
for ascertaining whether an insect is a butterfly^or
a moth ; amongst the list 1 noticed, they said, " a
butterfly always folds its wings over its back, a
moth never," or at any rate, something tantamount
to it. Now I have caught moths with their wings
folded in this manner, and therefore I must presume
the author of the passage must have made a mis-
take.—<?. B.

Cuckoos and their Young. — Last year a
cuckoo laid its egg in an espalier apple-tree about
four or five yards from our greenhouse-door. _ I do
not know the name of the foster mother, but it was
a small brown bird, a tree-creeper of some kind, not
much bigger than a wren ; the male had a long tail.
We were looking over the tree when we saw the
large red open mouth of the cuckoo. I gave it at
the time a ripe raspberry which it ate, but I soon
found that it did not quite like it, and I fed it with
worms to help the poor foster mother, who had
enough to do to get the cuckoo food. She would
bring its food to it while we were standing quite
near, and in a few days the cuckoo got quite to
know us and looked out to be fed, and in the course
of some two or three weeks it would climb about
the tree, and allow itself to be handled without fear.
When it got able to fly a little, it would always
come with me when digging in the garden, and wait
for worms to be given it ; sometimes perched on the
ground or on a stalk. In this latter position, it was
curious to see its nurse feed it, being such a small
bird. It used to come and perch on the cuckoo's
back, and so feed it. When the cuckoo was welljable
to fly, it used at night to come after us to be fed,
and then flew away to roost in some large ash-trees
a little way off. In the morning it would come back
to the garden, and would come when called. It
would let us know when it was near by a peculiar
noise, something like the scraping of a wheel, but
very low. The birds did not seem to care much for
it, but were all remarkably tame, and came to be
fed quite as a matter of course. Robins and sparrows
would all come at my call, and I have seen the
robins take a worm away from the cuckoo. We
never saw any appearance of the mother cuckoo
feeding its young, though I fancy about the time
when the cuckoos leave the country the mother
used to come to see, I suppose, how the young one
was going on. Long after it could fly it would
allow itself to be taken off a tree into the hand, and
to be carried about the garden perched on the
finger. I am sorry to say that one day it dis-
appeared, and we saw it no more. — E. T. Scott.

Green Caterpillaes. — I should feel grateful to
any of your numerous readers who can suggest some
method' of exterminating the green caterpillar which
is now, and was last year, infesting the gooseberry

trees in the gardens of myself and neighbours in
the district of Clapham ; they appear suddenly upon
the trees and devour the whole of the leaves, and
thereby cause the fruit to wither and fall off. Any
suggestion that would prevent a recurrence of the
plague, would confer a great favour on myself and
friends. — F. R., Clapham.

The unknown Plants referred to in your last
impression, page 165, and somewhat ambiguously
described by your correspondent "K. F. L.," are pro-
bably : 1. Listera ovata (R. 13r.), Tway-blade. 2.
Orobanche minor (Sust.), a parasite upon the roots
of clover principally. 3. Allium ursinum (L.), Ram-
son's garlic. Gerard in his work (1597), page 142,
says he found the latter plant " in the next field unto
Boobies' barn, under that hedge that bordereth upon
the lane, and also upon the left hand under a hedge
adjoining to a lane that leadeth to Hampsteede,
both places neere London." Who can now point
out those localities ? — B. M. W.

Adder and Mole. — In the February number of
SciENCE-GossiP there is an account of the "Snake
and the Toad," by M. A. Livett. I myself was once
witness, some years ago, to an ahnost parallel inci-
dent. Being out one J une afternoon in search of
marl fossils at the base of the Downs, above Vent-
nor, in an angle of the Down, inclosed by two
fences, and where the sun's rays poured down with
unusual warmth, I encountered a large adder lying
on the top of a stone that had fallen out of the fence
above. At first sight I took it for a toad, but when
it uncoiled itself, which it did when it saw me and
tried to escape, I saw my error, and that it was the
above-mentioned reptile, which had gorged itself
with something that had caused it to resemble a
huge tadpole in appearance. On the spur of the
moment I threw my fossil-hammer at it, which
completely disabled it ; and on examining it I found
that the creature had swallowed a full-grown mole,
and when I disturbed it was in the act of taking its
siesta after its repast. — Mark W. Norman.

Unknown Plants. — In answer to " K. F. L."
in your last, re unknown plants. The first would
appear to be Listera ovata or L. cordata, but
" K. F. L." does not describe the leaves. If the
writer is certain as to the second being an orchid, it
may be Listera nidus-avis ; but if not, I would
suggest it being an Orobanche or Lathraa squamaria.
He says, "growing in this neighbourhood," but the
locality is not named. It is next to impossible to
name plants upon such scanty data without seeing
them, but if " K. F. L." will correspond with me, I
shall be happy to do all that lies in my power towards
helping him to recognize his specimens. — H. Mar-
shall Ward.

Tachina Flies.— On three several occasions
Tachina flies have been hatclied from eggs of the
squash-bug [Coreus tristis, De Geer). Is this fact
commonly known ? — H. N., Knoxville, Tenn., U. S.

Entomological Query. — There can be no doubt
but that the wasp which Mr. C. Lovekin wishes
named (page 118) is a species of Feloptsus, or mud-
dauber, as it is commonly called. A detailed
description of it can be found in Wood's " Homes
without Hands," page 374. Pockard notices them
also; the Tarantula-killer •(-Po/;;ji5«7«s/emos«5, Say)
is also noticed in his work. — S. M. B.

Mouth op the Crane-fly.— May I beg the
favour of your inserting the following errata with re-
ference to my paper on the mouth of the crane-fly ;

190

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

my manuscript was not perhaps so clear as I could
Lave wished :—PaG;e 156, col. 2, line 7, for "letter-
ing" read "letter M"; page 158, col. l.line 8, omit
the word "of," inserting a comma after "centre" ;
page 158, col. 1, line 19, for "sets" read "setse" ;
page 159, col. 1, line 23, insert the word "to" after
"above"; page 159, col. 1, line 25, for "miscella-
neous" read "membranous"; 'page 159, col. 2,
line 2, for "element" read " aliment."— A. Ham-
mond.

Lobsters.— A few days ago my wife having a
couple of live lobsters, consulted a cookery book as
to their management, and was somewhat perplexed
at reading of the "frightful screams" these animals
arc said to give when plunged into boiling water,
and the details of the manner of putting them into
the pot in order to avoid such a very painful death.
Can you or any of your readers tell me if these
animals are capable of "screaming " ? I was deputed
to plunge them in boiling water, which I did, /lead
foremost, and they certainly did not scream, although,
much to my surprise, they scampered about in the
pot for one or two seconds after complete immer-
sion.— R. Nelson, R.N., Botley.

Worm-bait Anglers.— In some parts of Merio-
nethshire anglers are catching trout in abundance
with worm- baits, on clear and dry days, in shallow
and clear waters, when other competent anglers are
unable to do so with the same baits. It is the
general belief about here that such persons use a
kind of liquid to dip their baits in. I should be very
much obliged to any of Science- Gossip's readers
who would be so good as to inform me whether such
liquid is used, and if so, what it is called and com-
posed of. — /. R.

The late Rev. C. A. Johns. — Every reader of
Science-Gossip will regret to hear that the Eev.
C. A. Johns, author of "Botanical Jlambles,"
" British Birds in their Haunts," "A Week at the
Lizard," &c., died on June 28th at his residence,
Winton House, Winchester. Not only his friends
and relations, but every reader of his charmingly
written books, will regret his loss.

Atriplex halimus. — The other day I met with
the shrub {A. halimus?) growing profusely at
AVeston-super-Mare, on an embankment on the rise
of the hill, near the pier. Worlebury Hill is com-
posed of carboniferous limestone, and the Atriplex
grows a fair height, besides being thick and bushy,
and the foliage is quite unaffected by the strong sea
breezes generally prevailing at AVeston. I do not
think it has been planted there many years. The
leaves ai'e somewhat sinuate and triangular, and
have a frosted appearance. The shrub may perhaps
be A. hortensis, if the latter is] not a synonym ? — ■
Lily Orey.

The Starling. — In an article on the Starling in
this month's issue of your journal it is stated that
this is not a migratory bird. Beference to three
hooks containing descriptions of the Starling, viz..
Parley's "Tales about Animals," Stanuard's "Com-
mon Birds," and Waterton's "Essays on Natural
History," has shown me that this statement maybe
generally believed, for the migratory habit is not
mentioned in any of them ; hence my desire to esta-
blish it. In West Cornwall, my birth-place and
residence for nearly twenty-live years, this bird is
never seen in the summer, but it and the Picldfare
and Bedwing come there in vast flocks in the winter.

During about'a year's residence at Bath, when in my
thirteenth year, I was surprised to see the Starling
building its ;nest under the school-house roof, my
youthful imagination having conceived its breeding-
place to be in some more remote region, along with
the Snipe, Woodcock, Fieldfare, and Redwing. At
Bath the migratory habit of the Starling was well
known to the school-boys ; when these birds
assembled iu large flocks previously to their departure
the boys from Cornwall would loudly express their
wish that they too could fly home iu company with
them. A marked decrease iu the number of these
birds in the neighbourhood of the school invariably
followed these vast assemblages. The Starling
also breeds here in Lincolnshire, but I do not notice
any decrease in their numbers in the winter, similar
to that observed in Somersetshire. Difference in
size and beauty of starlings in full winter plumage
was accounted for by school-boys by difference in
age and sex, but Mr. H. H. Kew, an intelligent
naturalist of this town, has shown me two stuffed ^^
specimens, which he names the " tree " and "house "
starling respectively. The former is larger and has
more beautiful plumage than the latter. Some star-
lings which built in some trees near the Hampstead-
road, London, in tthe year 1858, appeared larger
than those which build in my house here, and per-
haps some of your readers may afiirm the reality of
the varieties named by Mr. Kew. I have often ob-
served the trouble parent starlings take in carrying
their young ones' excrement in their beaks to a con-
siderable distance from the nest, e. g., thirty or
forty yards, instead of dropping it immediately
below. Query : — Is their object to prevent passers
by from having their attention directed to the situa-
tion of their progeny? — Palemon Best, M.B. {Lond.).

The_ Colours of Flowers— As an artist, and
being in the habit of making life-sized studies of
flowers, I must beg leave to differ with " W. C. S."
in the Floral Magazine, as quoted in Science-
Gossip for June. In the tirst place I think the
colours at the disposal of an artist are not in any
way inferior iu brilliancy to those of flowers ; they
are the same as used in dyeing, and the hue of a
new scarlet soldier's coat is more brilliant than that
of a geranium or poppy, although not transparent.
The real difiiculty that arises is loss of brilliancy
from want of gradation and quality ; colours also,
as every artist knows, gain much from contrast, and
the fact of many coloured illustrations being on
white background, and not over carefully coloured,
combine to make them look poor. With respect to
greens, it is an instructive thing to place a vivid bit
of green in a bright green landscape, the stand of a
toy-horse, for instance, on a green lawn, and the
result will be to show how very little true green
there is in the landscape, most of the shades looking
grayish and indescribable by contrast. Of course
really metallic lustre combined with vivid colour", as
iu the Adonis blue butterfly, foreign Buprestidfe, or
Kingfisher, is not able to be fully represented by the
limited light at the disposal of an artist, as their
colour is enhanced by the refracted \\g\\i.— Harry
Leslie.

The Water Avens {Geum rivale). — This plant
grows plentifully on the Itchen, at Wood Mill ; and
on the Basingstoke Canal, iu Hampshire.— i/«;';*^
Leslie.

Indiscriminate Collecting. — The London
dealers have, I fear, something to do with the
destruction of our fauna. When I lived at Deal I

HARDWICKE'S SC LEN CE-GOS S IP.

191

was told of two collectors who came down to q;et
Callimorpha domimda, the scarlet tiger-raothj'iWbich
lhey tried to destroy, collcctius" as many as six
irross in a day or two ; this fact speaks for itself. —
Harry Leslie.

Laby-birds and Lady-bugs.— The Yankees call
everything in the insect line " a bug," and say of an
entomologist "I guess he collects bugs." The word
was perhaps in frequent use among our ancestors
who went. there. In South Devon they called
beetles " Ocops ; " thev were further divided into
"Olly-ocops" and "Golden Ocops," the latter
comprehending the more brilliant species. As is
the case with local names, their application was very
indiscriminate. I do not know what could have
been the derivation of the worA..— Harry Leslie.

HerpvING Gull. — The readers of Science-Gossip
may be interested by the following observations
respecting this bird, a tame specimen of which 1
possess. It is now two years old, having been taken
from the nest and pinioned and kept, in a garden
until this spring, when I brought it into the fowl-
yard, where it took up with the poultry. It was at
iirst rather shy, and screamed whenever they ap-
proached him, but now he has got quite bold, and is
able to beat the turkey-cock, seizing him by the
tail, in fact he has quite cowed the fowl. His food
is rather peculiar ; being naturally a lover'of fish and
worms, he seems to have lost his taste for the for-
mer. I may here observe, as it has been often
stated that gulls keep gardens free from slugs, that
this bird would not look at one, having offered them
to him continually ; he threw them about with his
beak, which he washed immediately, showing his
utter disgust. His favourite food is the inside of
rats and mice, which he nicely dissects, leaving only
the skin ; he also eats whatever is given to the fowl,
meal, &c., picking up the grains of corn, which are
scattered for them. His latest performance is to
catch sparrows, which he kills and swallows whole ;
his way of catching them is like a cat, crouching
down he silently pounces on his victim, which he
immediately kills, holding it by the neck and
shaking it violently. He is partial to eggs, devouring
them whenever he can get an opportunity. — Rev. S.
A. Brenan, Pomeroy, co. Tyrone.

Spideus and Chestnut-Trees. — Will some one
kindly tell me if it is a fact that spiders will not
spin a web on the .wood of the chestnut-tree ? The
beams of the roof of Beaulieu Abbey are certainly
free from a web of any sort, and the old keeper of
the place assured me that this was owing to their
being chestnut-wood.— r. W. G., Alresford.

Aee Elvers young Eels ? — This question was
asked a few days ago in the columns of the Western
Daily Press, and the following case shows that the
lawyers cannot answer it:— "At the Gloucester
County Petty Session, three fishermen were sum-
moned, at the instance of the Severn Pishery
Board, for catching the fry of eels, commonly called
' elvers,' between January 1st and June 24ith. Mr.
Henry George, the secretary, prosecuted, and Mr.
ChesshjTe, of Cheltenham, was for the defence.
The case resolved itself into a question whether
elvers are the fry of eels. Mr. George quoted from
Acts of Parliament in the reigns of Charles II,
and George III., wherein the fry of eels are com-
monly called elvers, and the brood of young eels
as elvers. Mr. Chesshyre contended that it must
be scientifically proved that the elvers were the

spawn of eels, and the onus of proof rested on the
prosecution, M-ho had failed to do so. The magis-
trates held that the case was not proved to their
satisfaction, and dismissed it. Notice of appeal
was given." — IF. Macmillan.

White Worms, &c.— Will any reader tell me
the name of the small white worms that appear in
the water in saucers under flowerpots, what causes
them, and if they do any harm to the plant ? —
W.B.

The Holly. — In the May number of Science-
Gossip, Mr. S. A. Notcutt, jun., makes ."some state-
ments which are not strictly accurate. He will
find Ilex aquifolium figured in the " national work,"
Symes's "English Botany," ii. 316. Even with us
in the south it does not flower " in February," but
at least two months later; this year it was fairly
in flower about the first week in May. The " skil-
ful botanist " can of course examine the flowers of
the Holly at the time mentioned — in his herbarium.

A Eeline Oddity.— At a town on the South
Devon coast, 1 have recently seen a white cat with
eyes of different colours, her right eye being ayellowish
grey, and her left a bright blue ; the owner informed
me that the grandmother and the mother of the cat
had the same peculiarity, the mother, however, was
quite black; the cat is suckling a white kitten
whose eyes are bright blue, like its mother's left.
Can you or any of your readers state whether the
peculiarity referred to often occurs ? I do not see
it alluded to in any of the seven vols, of " Science-
Gossip " I have.— r. ^. Z.

Aquaria. — I have a small glass aquarium, and
wish to stock it with small sea-fish, anemones, &c.,
but I find a difficulty in getting the former, even
with a net, at low water on or between rocks. I
have got anemones ofi" the rocks, but they did not
live in my aquarium more than a few hours. 1
think they stick so hard to the rock, that pulling
them off injures or kills them ; mine, when I put
them into the aquarium, distinctly refusing to adhere
to anything in it, and ceased to expand as they
usually do. Perhaps you could let me have a few
valuable hints as to how to rear things in an aqua-
rium with success. — Querist.

BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED.

" Flora of Dorsetshire." By J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, B.A.
Blandford : W. Shipp.

" Manual of Botany." By Robert Brown. London and
Edinburgh : W. Blackwood & Sons.

" Grevillea." July.

" Journal of Applied Science." July.

" Popular Science Review." July.

" Blonthly Microscopical Journal." July.

"Dr. Carrington's British Ilepaticae,'' part 2. London:
Hardwicke.

" American Naturalist." June.

Communications Received up to the 12th ult. from
F. K.— T.B. W.— H.E. W.— J. S. T.— H.L.— H.G.— W. W.
— H. M. J. U._W. H. B.— F. W. E.-H. B. V^^.— W. W. R

F. H. A — E. R. L.— H. M. C. a —J. B.— W. H. W.— W. F.

G. F. B.— CF.B— H. L.— A. S.— F. S.— E. H.— J.S . H.— H. M
— W. S. jun.— H. N.— S. M. B.— J. C— A. H.— R. N.— E. L
J. R.— E. W. jun.— T. B.-R. N. W.— M. W. N.— S. T.P.
L. C— F. R.— C. L. J.— B. M. W.— E. T. S.— C. T.— C. W^.
G. B. W.— H. E. W.— a. S.— T. McG.— T. P. B.— T. B. B,
E. M. p.— J. H.— A. L.— W. H.— F. H. A.— M. S. J. -J. S.
—A. C. S — E. E.— G. C. D.— H. p. M.— Dr. B.— B. M, B
J. R.— T. W.- J. R. J.— E. L.— K. L. G.— S. A. B.— W. H.
— R. G.— J. E. W.— G. P.— W. M.— W. W. S,— J. B.— A. C.
— V^. L — G. H— H. S.— C. T.— E. L.— T. B.— W. B, F
E. D. M.— W. J. S. S.

S.
.W

H.

G.
H.

192

HAllDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Specimens.— We have to request the patience of various
of our correspondents wlio have sent us specimens to name.
This department of the Editor's duties has been greatly en-
larged, and it is novif impossible for us to insert all the
answers in each month's number. We have many by us,
ready for insertion, and others which are in the hands of such
scientific gentlemen as gratuitously assist us in this depart-
ment.

X. w. O.—Grenllea is edited by Dr. M. C. Cooke, and is
published in sixpenny monthly numbers. You cannot do
better than procure it for the purposes you name ; viz, as
the authoritative journal on all matters relating to micro-
botany.

D. Travebs. — The specimen sent is a crystal of selenite
(sulphate of lime), not of carbonate of lime, as you sup-
posed.

T. SoMERS.— Newman's " British Moths " and " British
Butterflies" are now published by R. Hardwicke, 192, Pic-
cadilly, London, in parts or volumes.

R. T. W.— We cannot undertake to return rejected MSS.
unless stamps are lorwarded for the purpose.

Sigma.— Get Staveley's "British Spiders," published by
Lovell Reeve & Co. at 10s. 6d.

George M. — Your fossil is a coral, not a plant, and is
called Lithostrotion /jusaltiforme.

P. Q. R.— Your mosses are as follows: No. 1, Didymodon
purpnreum ; No. 2, Dicranum rvfescens ; No. 3, Dirranum
taaifolium ; No. 4, D. pellucidum; No. 5, Tortula convoluta;
and No. 6, Weissia nirrata.

J. P. Taylor.— Get the new edition, with additional chap-
ter on the Polariscope, by F. Kitton, or Lankester's " Half-
Hours with the Microscope," London: Hardwicke. It will
give you the best account you can obtain of the polarization
of light.

Emily T.— Your ferns are : No. 1, Cystopterii fragilis ; No.
2, Polystichum Lonchitis ; No. 3, Lastrea oreopteris; No. 4,
Athyrium filix-foemina ; and No. 5, Lastrea dilatata.

R. ScoRESBY.— Consult Dr. Masters's "Vegetable Terato-
logy" for anything relating to the monstrosities of plants.
The work was published by the Ray Society, and is certainly
not only the most exhaustive, but the most philosophical
treatise on this difficult subject in the English Language.

Could Mr. Barkas or any reader inform " W. M." where
he could obtain the Stanhopescope lens (or a similar one)
referred to in " Gossir " No. for October, 1866. p. 234 ?

L. S. and J. C— The caterpillars of the Lackey-moth spin
webs like those on the leaves of the Hazel. It was these,
and not the caterpillars of the Processionary Moth, that had,
doubtless, produced the " excrescences;"

E. LovKTT. — It is not unusual to find fossils embedded in
flint in the manner you describe ; indeed, that is the normal
condition in which they are found in flint. No geologist now
doubts that the flint whs originally soft and jelly-like. Your
oolitic specimen is from one of the many beds in the " Port-
land Series."

G. F. Barker.— Exchanges are not charged forunless they
exceed the length of three lines.

T. Buck. — The so-called " Unicorn's horn " is the single
tusk of the male Narwhal [Monodon monoceros).

S. T. P. — We are sorry not to be able toinsert your notices
earlier, but we cannot depart from our rule of priority , except
under unusual circumstances.

A. L.— Perhaps some of our bee-keepers will inform this
correspondent what is "the best food for bees in a barren
land, where no flowers are found for miles ! " We get a good
many natural history conundrums, but never had a more
puzzling one.

W. Lee. — Your specimen is the Mouse-ear Hawk-weed
{^Hierncium piloteltii).

T. Cooper. — The odoriferous orchis is the Sweet Conopsea
{Gymnadeniii ranop-'ea) ; the other species is the common
spotted orchis (Orchis maculata).

J. C. R. — No. 1 is a group of the "Oaten-pipe"
Coralline {Tubvlari)i iyidimsn) ; No. 2 the empty egg-cases
of the common whelk (liuccinum undalatum) ; No. 3 the Ele-
phant's-tusk shell (Dentaiium cntale).

G. GuYON. — The " masses of green jelly," &c., alluded to
by this correspondent as being "attached to various sea-
weeds," may he as follow.s :— The little sessile masses are the
oothecx or egg-masses of Littorina, and the pedunculated,
of Trochus. When the former are placed in sea-water, the fry
of mollusca appear : from the latter little oval bodies escape,
which swim vividly by means of a circle of cilia, and have,
apparently, two eye- specks. We think the ova of Turbn are
deposited singly in sea- weed, and are somewhat hat-shaped
in form.- J{. (?.

F. OsBORNK. — It is authoritatively stated (we have not
tried the experiment) that the Japanese Lily (Zilium auran-
tium) will effectually keep away house-flies ; at any rate, no
one will complain of the sweet odours of this plant.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, specimens of Conocardium for Silurian Fossils,
by the Rev. W. H. Panister, 2, Belgrave-street, Derby.

Duplicates. — T. W. album, Villeda, Sylvata, Remutata,
Pulveraria, Ulmata, Hastata, Templi, &c.— Jno. Harrison, 7,
Victoria Bridge, Barnsley.

SBELLi Offered. — Planorbis niiidus, Planorbis nautilans,
Limneea palustris, Limncea glabra, and Ancylus lacustria, for
other good shells. — Lister Peace, Hebble-terrace, Bradford-
road, Huddersfield.

Good Slides of Eunntia sibrile and Coscinodlscus radiatus
for other diatoms. — Address, J. Redmayne, Astley Bank,
Bolton.

Skins of the Hairy-armed Ba.t'(Scotnphilus Leisleri) from
Tanderagee, co. Armagh, for skins of other British Bats,
Shrews, or Voles. — Richard M. Barrington, Fassaroe, Bray,
CO. Wicklow.

Chinese Silkworm. — A few chrysalides for distribution
on receipt of box with stamps for postage. — W. H. Gomm,
Somerton, Taunton.

Slides from the Microscopic Fossil Shells of the East Coast
for other Slides, Books, or anything useful. — Q. F. Barker,
Abbey- walk. Great Grimsby.

W. M. has brought from[abroad specimens, such as Ticks of
Tiger, Black Bear, Deer, &c. ; Parasites from Flying Fox,
Snakes, and Vulture; Hairs of Indian Bat, Musk-rat, &c. ;
Diatoms of Sorts and Fresh-w ater Sponges. Would it be
worth the while of any skilled mounter to allow "W. M."
two mounted slides of each object, keeping remainder for
himself?

I HAVE a spare slide of Diatoms from Norfolk. — Send good
slide for 1-inch objective, not polar, to W. Sargcint, Jun.,
Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent.

For Spine of Cidaris (fosail), and Spine of Erinaceut
etiropceus, send stamped directed envelope to E.Lovett,HoLly
Mount, Croydon.

First-class Micro Slides offered for Mole Crickets, Great
Green Grasshoppers, Field Crickets, Locusts, or good.Foreign
Species'of Grasshoppers, Crickets, &c. Any quantity during
season. — C. L.Jackson, 11, Hesketh-street, Southport.

"Popular Scievce Review " for Microscopic Slides or
Apparatus. — C. W.. 8?t, Union-street, Torquay.

British Shells for others. List exchangeJ.— R. Haynes,
3, Snargate-street, Dover.

A NU.MBER of Microscopic Slides of Animal Preparations
(Hairs, Palates, Bones, &c.), for Vegetable (Tissues. Fungi,
and Lichens jireferred).— Rev. G. H., 140, Kensington-Park-
road, Notting-hill, W.

W.^ntkd, small Stuffed Birds under glass shades. Various
Curiosities of Scientific Books to oBer. — F. Stanley, 4, Car-
roway's-place, Margate.

Packets of Sand containing variety of Foraminifera ; also
many Marine Objects of interest. Algfe, Living Ferns, Wild
Plants.Mosses, Lichens, &c., for anything useful. Send stamps,
— Address for full particulars, T. McGann, Biii-rin, Oranmore,
Ireland.

Material and Slides prepared in the Mauritius, for Slides
(named) and other material. — Address, Rev. A. C. Smith,
Middlesbrough.

Egos of Jay, Landrail, Wood Wren, Willow Wren, Chiff-
chaff, Great Titmouse, Tree Sparrow, Garden Warbler, Stone-
chat, &c., for others. — Chas. Bankart, Narborough, near
Leicester.

Eggs of Raven, Cole Tit, Wood Wren, and others, for
British Eggs, Unaccepted offers not answered.— G, B. W.,
Lindow Grove, Alderley Edge, near Manchester.

Cnlchicuni autumnnle in fruit, Paris guadri/olia, and Car-
damine amara, for Gagea liitea, Orchis hUifolia, Zinaria repens,
Myosotis sylviitica.— G. C. Druce, Northampton.

Dried Specimens of 1051, 1054, 1059, 1U60, 1062, 1041,
1032, 1093 (white), and 864, Lon. Cat., for 241, :i44, 323, 33",
1069, 1070, and 1083.— Address, Mrs. A. Allen, BarcombeRec-
torv, Lewes, Sussex.

For Cluster-cups {Mem. epilobii) send stamped envelope
to T. Brittain, 52, Park-street, Green Heys, Manchester. No
exchange required.

Rake Shells Offered. — Helix obiwliitu, IleUx revelatn,
ClausiUa duhia. Pupa pygm(ea, Achnfinn acicvhi, and Succiyiea
gracilis, for Pupa anglira, P. edentula, P. nlpestris, P. sub-
striata, P. pvsilla, and P. Vcnetzii, or Teslari//tis or Succinea
o/ilum^a. — VV. F. Sutotn, Gosforth Grove, near Newcastle-on-
Tyne."

Duplicates.— Imagos of Cinria, Z. trifnlii and Stations.
Desiderata : other Imagos or British Plants named and dried.
— Tunley, 9, AUez-street, Guernsey.

British Plants.— One or two good specimens of Kobresiu
raricina wanted. Will give good specimens of either of the
following for them ; viz., Cyperusfuscus or Elatine Hydro-
piper (L).— Walter W. Reeves, King's College, London.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

193

HISTOEY OF OUE CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

No. IV.— THE CABBAGE {Bmssica).
( Continued?)

T is recorded that
cabbages were
first introduced
into the North
of Scotland by
the soldiers of
Cromwell, who
is stated, in
Loudon's "Encyc. Gard.,"
to have been a great pro-
moter of agriculture, and the
useful branches of gardening,
and encouraged his soldiers
to introduce all the best im-
provements wherever they
went; but in Johnson's
"Useful Plants of Great
Britain" the notion is con-
tradicted, and an observation
made that kale-yards were
to be found round the
Scottish houses centuries before the Boundheads
crossed the Border. The colonies of German
fishermen from Cuxhaven and the adjacent places,
which peopled the coast of the central parts of
East Scotland, are supposed' to have brought with
them their national love] of ^^brassica, and to have
introduced some species'of those plants, at a very
early period, into this part ^of Scotland, which is
more peculiarly "the land of kale." There the
cabbage and open colewort are in equal favour,
giving the name of kale to a soup of which they
form the principal ingredients, the outside leaves
and the stalks of the plants falling to the share of
the cattle.

Many allusions in the old Scotch songs point to
the fact of the country aboutJAberdeen abounding
with this vegetable. In recommending the good
fare of the country, the poet says,—

" There's cauld kail in Abe/deen,
An' castocks in Stra'bogie."

No. 117.

Cabbage-stems having the fibrous part peeled ofl',
and the remainder softened by water, were called
castock. Before the introduction of turnips into
Scotland, this medullary substance of the stalks of
brassica was very commonly eaten by the peasantry.
The " Kale-brose o' auld Scotland " is celebrated to
the same tune as the " Roast beef of old England,"
and though, with many other ancient peculiarities
of the people, it has fallen into disuse, it is still
considered a national dish.

A variety called cow-cabbage" {B. olemcea, var.
arborescens) was introduced some years ago from La
Vendee by Comte de Puysage. The proximity of
this department to the ancient province of Anjou,
and the description of the plant, leaves no doubt of
its identity with the Anjou cabbage, a very large
variety described in Mill's " Husbandry," vol. iii.
In 1827 thirty-six seeds were divided among six
agriculturists for the purpose of raising this useful
vegetable in England ; some of the seeds produced
plants of luxuriant growth. But it is in Jersey they
are cultivated most successfully, and where they
partake of a tree-like character, a peculiarity partly
owing to the custom of the peasantry removing the
lower leaves almost daily to feed their cows. Thus
the cabbage-gardens in Jersey have somewhat the
appearance of a little grove of palms. The average
height of these plants is about six feet ; but when
grown in the shade are much taller. They are used
for a variety of purposes : the stout ones are em-
ployed as cross-spars for the roofs and thatch of
small farm-buUdings, cottages, &c., and, if kept
dry, are said to last many years. The smaller stocks
are converted into' walking-sticks (Jersey canes),
look very nicely when varnished, and are largely
purchased by tourists to the island during the sum-
mer months. Some of these walking-sticks are to
be seen in the Museum of Economic Botany at
Kew.

The cauliflower {B. oleracea, var, botrytis) is the
most delicate variety of the Brassica genus. This

K

194

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

vegetable is stated to have come orginally from
Cyprus (where it is said to have obtained a high
perfection) to Italy, from whence it moved slowly
to the Netherlands, and reached England about the
beginning of the seventeenth century. It was only
seen at that time at the tables of the opulent. In
the bill of fare for the inauguration of Dulwich
College in 1G19, two "colleyflowers" cost three shil-
iugs. The price of wheat at that time was 35s. 4d.
per quarter. (See Eden, " History of the Poor.")
Towards the end of this century this vegetable was
brought to some degree of perfection, and appeared
in our markets about that period. The importation
of Dutch gardeners, and their style of gardening,
then gave an impulse to English horticulture, and
the reign of William III. produced not only the
blessings of civil liberty to his adopted subjects, but
taught them how to improve and appreciate the
arts brought hither by his followers. In this the
English succeeded so well that up to the period of
the French Revolution cauliflowers were regularly
exported from England into Holland, some parts of
Germany, and even France.

Gerard, writing on this vegetable, says, "The
white cabbage is best next to the coleflourey ; yet
Cato doth chiefly commend the russed cole ; but he
knew neither the wliites nor the coleflourey, for if
he had, his censure had been otherwise." But we
find it noticed by the Roman herbalist of later days,
who observes that "of all kinds of coleworts, the
sweetest and the pleasantest to the taste is the
coleflorie, although of no value in medicine, and
unwholesome, as being hard of digestion."

The brocoli is considered a sub-variety of the
cauliflower, and is scarcely distinguished botani-
cally from tliat plant. The stem of the brocoli is
rather longer, and the flower-heads smaller. They
also possess a greater variety of colours, being some-
times quite green, as well as purple and yellow. A
large number of forms are reared in our gardens.
Kohl-Rabi is another singular variety ; the stem is
tumid and somewhat globose at the origin of the
leaf, which gives it the appearance of a turnip.
In its young state it is sometimes noticed as a
vegetable, but is more generally grown for feeding
cattle.

Tiie well-known muerJcraut, of which the Ger-
mans are so immoderately fond, is merely fermented
cabbage, which is cut into shreds, and placed in
casks with a certain amount of salt, pepper, and a
small quantity of salad-oil. It is then subjected to
heavy pressure, and allowed to ferment : when the
fermentation has subsided the barrels are closed
up, and it is preserved for use. Before lemon or
lime juice was introduced into our navy, sanerkraut
was used for many years as a preservative from
scurvy during long voyages. According to an
article in the E.Hnhiirgh Review, vol. xc, a cabbage,
when dried so as to bring it into a state in which

it can be compared with other kinds of food, is
found to be richer in muscular matter than any
crop we grow, and no doubt the Irish kole-caunon
(cabbage and potatoes beaten together) derives part
of its reputation from the great muscle-sustaining
power of the cabbage, a property in which the
potato is deficient. A good deal of the nutritive
matter is lost by cooking, or over-cooking ; hence
the reasonableness of the advice given by Pliny to
drink the water they are boiled in, or to eat the
vegetable uncooked.

Bartholine writes thus on this vegetable :— " The
common cabbage of tlie country people is justly
preferable to other pot-herbs, since, both raw and
boiled, it is possessed of such salutary qualities as
to prevent occasion for medicines used in the shops.
For this reason, when a certain foreign physician
came into Denmark with a design to settle, and
saw the gardens of the country people so well
stocked with cabbages, he, with good reason,
prognosticated small encouragement for himself in
that part of the world, and left the country to try
his fortune elsewhere." Dr. R. James advises that
cabbage should be eaten slightly boiled, as then it
does not lose its grateful taste and salutary qua-
lities. Sometimes cabbages are occasionally pro-
duced of an astonishing size and weight. Pliny
relates that in Italy they were grown to such a size
that the table of a poor man could scarcely support
one. ' It is stated in the Gardener'' s Magazine,
vol. iii., a cabbage-seed, accidentally among onions,
came up in the bed, and without any care being
taken of it, grew to very large dimensions, and
weighed when taken up twenty-five pounds.

Last year (1873) a monster white cabbage was
grown in a garden at Fakeuham, Norfolk, which,
as it stood, covered a space of land exceeding four
feet in diameter, and the heart of which, stripped
of its outer leaves ready for cooking, weighed
122 lb., and measured SZi inches in circumference ;
the diameter of the stalk, close up to the heart,
measured fully 2i inches.

The genus of Brassica is distributed over the
temperate climate of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
The cabbage, cauliflower, &c., are cultivated in some
parts of India. On the Island of Desolation, a
cold, barren, volcanic rock, situated iu the centre
of the Southern Ocean, grows a variety of this
tribe, described by Sir W. J. Hooker in his " Notes
on the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage." It is
abundant near the sea. Its root-stocks are from
three to four feet long, lying close to the ground,
bearing at their extremities large heads of leaves,
sometimes eighteen inches across, forming a dense
white heart, resembling that of the common garden
cabbage ; it eats like coarse, tough, mustard and
cress. But what a grand provision of Providence
for the crews of ships touching at such a barren
locality! Phillips states that the Roman name

HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

195

Bnissim came, as it was svipposed, from praseco,
because it was cut off from the stalk.

The cauliflower was first called " colellorie," and
is said to be derived from cauUs, a stalk, and fero, to
bear. Cabbage is stated to be derived from an old
Erench word, cab, a head,— that is, formed by the
leaves turning close over each olhcr. Thus we say
" the lettuce has cabbage," &c.

Erom this arose the cant word applied to lailors,
who formerly worked at the private houses of
their customers, where they often were accused
of cabbaging, which means the rolling up pieces
of cloth instead of list and shreds, which they
claim as their due. The cabbage is a favourite
vegetable among the labouring and lower classes
in this country. It is calculated that more than
eighty-nine millions of plants are sold annually in
the metropolis, and over fourteen million heads of
brocoli and cauliflowers. (See London Labour and
London Poor.) H. G. Glasspoole.

HOLIDAY RAMBLES.

NO. I. — A VISIT TO CASTLETON.

WHAT reader of " Peverel of the Peak " has
not wished to visit the castle rendered
famous by the pen of the great novelist, and to see
for himself the home of honest Will Peverel ? But
great as the attraction of these ruins undoubtedly
is to the antiquary, equally great are the attractions
of Castleton and its neighbourhood to the geologist ;
for here are those wonderful caverns that have long
been a cause of admiration ; and here also, the
strata of the lower carboniferous rocks may be
studied with the greatest advantage.

In approachiug Castleton from Chapel-en-le-
Erith, the pedestrian notices, on reaching the brow
of the hill from which the Vale of Castleton is first
seen, Mam Tor, or the " Shivering Mountain." The
former name was given it by our Saxon forefathers,
which signifies "The Mother Hill." The latter
designation has been bestowed upon it because, on
its western side, large masses of its rocks have
fallen down, and small fragments are continually
sliding down ; thus giving it the appearance of con-
tinual motion.

At this hill the Yoredale* limestones and shales
may be well examined, as they have been thoroughly
exposed by the landslips that have taken place.
These beds will be found to consist of siliceous
sandstone and shale, the latter being impregnated
with oxide of iron. In some of the nodules of im-
pure ironstone I found, on breaking them, cavities
containing dried bitumen ; whilst in the shale I
discovered a few fossils, several specimens of a
species of Modiola and Goniatites reticulatton .

* So called from the valley of the Ure, or Tore, in York-
shire, where the typical beds occar.

On the opposite side of the road is Blue John
Mine, the grand depository of the amethistinc, or
topazine fluor spar of mineralogists, which is called
by the miners " Blue John," to distinguish it from
" Black Jack," or zinc ore. This substance is com-
posed of lime and fluoric acid, the most penetrating
and corrosive of any acid known ; the blue colouring
matter being oxide of manganese.

Descending by a flight of steps, a narrow con-
fined passage is reached that winds between
stupendous rocks. Erom the roof of this passage
stalactites are pendent, whilst the sides are coated
with crystals of carbonate of lime, and in them
various fossils are seen imbedded. After descend-
ing for some time, the Variegated Cavern is
reached, a large chamber said to be upwards of JOO
feet in height. But this is not the only large
chamber that has been made known through the
labours of the miners. Some distance from this
cavern is the one called " Lord Mulgrave's Dining-
room," a huge cavity about 150 feet in height and
60 feet in diameter. But the most beautiful of all
the chambers is that called the " Crystallized
Cavern," a large dome- shaped cavity, the height of
which is estimated at 100 feet, and whose sides are
adorned with numerous stalactites, that sparkle like
stars when it is lighted up.

Another of the Peak mines is the Speedwell
Mine, which was originally excavated by a company
of proprietors in search of lead ore. Access to the
interior of this mine is obtained by descending up-
wards of a hundred steps, and then by navigating a
canal six or seven feet in breadth, the terminus of
which is the Grand Cavern, a vast opening fashioned
by nature in the heart of the mountain, the height
and depth of which have never been ascertained.
Here is a huge abyss into which 40,000 tons of rub-
bish, produced in driving the level or canal 600 or
700 yards beyond the cavern, have been thrown
without making any difference.

The height of the huge dome has never been
determined, but the distance to the surface of the
mountain has been computed at 840 feet, and nearly
the whole of the intervening space is believed to be
a vast cavity. But some idea of the altitude of this
cavern may be formed from the fact that rockets
have been sent up within it having sufficient power
to ascend 450 feet, which have exploded and thrown
out their coruscations as freely as if they ascended
beneath the vault of heaven.*

But the grandest of all the Castleton caverns is
the " Peak Cavern," the approach to which is by a
narrow ravine, at the end of which is a magnificent
archway in the solid rock, 120 feet wide and about
42 feet high. The mode of progress in this cavern
was formerly by a boat for a short distance, but

* See J. E. Taylor's " Geological Essays, and Sketch of
the Geology of Manchester and the Neighbourhood," p. 95.

K 2

196

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

latterly a passage has beeu made by blasting for the
convenience of visitors. After proceeding for some
distance, a large charciber, called the Grand Saloon,
is reached, about 220 feet square, and in some places
120 feet in height. Leaving this apartment by
means of a steep and rugged pathway, the Chancel,
a naturally-formed gallery, is reached, and then de-
scending by another path, the visitor arrives at the
Devil's Cellar. The other large chambers in this
cavern are Gloucester Hall and Great Tom of Lin-
coln, the latter being so designated from its having
a regular concavity in the roof resembling the form
of a bell.

Fig. 126. Ithynchonella pugnus—Doisal aspect.

On the eastern side of the Castle Hill runs Cave
Dale, a rocky glen, in which the mountain limestone
is well exposed. The approach to this narrow
defile has rather a forbidding aspect, the entrance
being by a cleft in the mountain not more than five
or six feet in width, which is guarded by a mass of
toadstone. Passing this, the dell is found to be
hemmed in by great masses of mountain limestone,
in which specimens of Uhynchonella pugmis, Tere-
hratula hastata, Cardioffiorphci oblonga (?), and
several species of Producta abound ; and from the
shales which occur there a small Conocardimn or
Fleurorhynclius is obtained, whilst Orthis resupinata
is frequently met with at other localities in the
neighbourhood.

Y\%. 127. R.p«^«i(s— Front view,

Rhynchonella pugnus (fig. 126) differs from Rhjn-
chonella pleurodon, another local typical fossil, by
having from three to five ribs in the mesial fold
and sinus, and the remaining portion of the shell is
smooth, whilst the last-named fossil has from three
to seven ribs in the sinus which radiate from the
beak. Terebratula hastata {'iig;. 129) is frequently
found with its bands of colour preserved, showing
that the carboniferous seas in which it lived did not
exceed fifty fathoms in depth. Orthis resupinata

(fig. 130) may easily be distinguished by its fine
striffi and two or three transverse lines of growth^
Cardiomorpha olilonga (fig. 12S) belongs to the Con-
chifera, and is a large shell, smooth, wrinkled, and
with a few transverse lines.

Another place in the neighbourhood well worthy
of a visit is the Winuats, or Windgates, a narrow
defile between lofty limestone cliffs, through which
the turnpike road to Manchester formerly ran.
Wild grandeur and stern magnificence are the
characteristics of this gloomy pass : on each side
stupendous piles of mountain limestone rise to a
great height, their summits split and rent into a

Fig. 128. Cardiomorpha oblonga.

variety of fantastic forms : in some places huge
buttress-like masses protrude into the road, whilst
in others lie shattered fragments of rock, which
having become detached from the mountain above,
have been hurled down, and are seen scattered
about in wild profusion ; whilst, at the lowest part
of the defile, a gigantic pile of rock, round which
the road winds, appears to oppose a barrier to all
further progress. ;

Fig. 129. Terebratula hastida. Fig. 130. Orthis resitpinafa.

Opening out from the Vale of Castleton are
numerous little dales of great loveliness. The
origin of these may be traced to denudation; the
action of water having, in the course of ages, swept
away the Yoredale shale where it occurred, leaving
the harder rocks which form the hills in situ. To
this cause the origin of most of the undulating
scenery of Derbyshire must be attributed ; the
streams that descend from the heights having first
undermined the softer strata and then carried them
away. Good examples of this action of water may
be seen on the lower flanks of Kinder Scout, and
notably at Mam Tor; and where only the lower
limestone beds occur, it is not doubted that water

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

107

has been the chief agent in excavating the dales,,
first by cutting out subterranean channels for itself
along the joints of the limestone, and then, the roof
of the cavern having falling in, by gradually widen-
ing the caverns, and so converting them into dales.
Good examples of this kind of action are to be seen
at the base of lugleborough, in Yorkshire.

Sufficient has been thus said to show tliat in the
neighbourhood of Castleton there are spots replete
with interest both for the palaeontologist and for the
physical geologist, since both will find in this beau-
tiful portion of our country localities where oppor-
tunities are afforded for studying the fauna and the
l^hysical structure of the carboniferous system from
the millstone, or Kinder Scout grit, down to the
lowest beds of the mountain limestone.

[The student who desires thoroughly to investi-
gate the locality touched upon in this paper is
strongly recorameuded to consult the Memoir
upon the Lower Carboniferous Rocks of the Geo-
logical Survey, published by Longmans.]

Rev. W. H. Paintek.

THE FORM OF THE DIATOM ERUSTULE.

THE forms of the Diatom frustule frequently
offer difficulties to the young student of these
organisms. I am frequently asked to identify forms
with which the finder is already acquainted, the
reason being that the frustule lies in au unusual
position. If the form of the diatom-valve had been
rightly understood, this difficulty would not have
occurred.

A frustule consists of two valves and a connect-
ing zone or band ; a pill-box with lids affords per-
haps the most familiar idea of the diatom cell. The
lid or valve of the diatom, unlike the pill-box lid,
consists of one piece only, and is more or less
convex. The discoid forms offer little difficulty,
with the exception of the Campylodisci : in this
genus the valves are twice bent in opposite
directions, and in consequence of this double flexure
all the valves of the Campy lodisci^are necessarily cir-
cular. The Naviculaj are also easily understood.
The valves of the lanceolate and linear forms are
more or less canoe-shaped and more or less deep ;
the orbicular being much shallower than the linear
or lanceolate forms.

The most difficult forms to understand are those
belonging to the following genera: — Amphora,
Cymbella, Amphiprora, Nitzschia, and Surirella.

The first three forms belong to the Naviculoid
group: inNavicula we have the zone connecting the
two valves of equal width all round the frustule, a
central median line, a central and two terminal
nodules ; in Cymbella we find a departure from the
true Navicula, the margins of the valves are dis-
similar, one side being convex and the other straight

or concave, the median line and nodules are more
or less sub-central, the connecting zone is no longer
of an equal width all round, but is narrower on the
concave side; in the genus Amphora the median
line and nodules are in some cases almost marginal,
and the connecting zone so much widened out at
the convex margin that both valves of the frustules
are visible at the same time.

The genus Nitzschia is distinguished by the
longitudinal keehlike elevation of the surface of the
valve. This is, however', never central ; in some
forms it is marginal, and in others sub-central ;
the connecting zone is not perpendicular to the
margins of the valve, but is produced in an oblique
direction.

Fig. 131. Section Fig. 132. Section Fig. 133. Section
ot Navicula. of Cymbella. of Amphora.

In the genus Amphiprora we have a true Na-
viculoid type, the valves more or less deep, the
median line (or rather keel) central and sigmoid,
the connecting zone of equal width all round.

In Surirella we find a great diversity of outline. In
S. intermedia the valve is narrow and sigmoid ; in
some of the varieties of S.fasfuosa they are nearly

Fig. 134. Section
of Amphiprura.

Fig. 135. Section
of Nitxschia.

Fig. 136, Section
of HuaixsUa^

orbicular; the connecting zone is of nearly equal
width all round the valve (in some of the ovate
forms it slightly decreases in width as it approaches
the small end of the valve). The principal charac-
teristic of the Surirellee is the more or less produced
margin forming a frill round the edge of the valve.
The above diagrams will perhaps make the
foregoing remarks clearer. They represent ideal
sections of the frustules of the different genera;
the dotted lines represent the connecting zone ; the
faint transverse ones the lines of suture or the
place where self-division occurs ; and the thick black
lines the valves :— Fig. 131, section of Navicula ;
fig, 132, Cymbella; fig. 133, Amphora ; fig. 134,
Amphiprora; fig. 135, Nitzschia; fig. 136, Surirella.
— F, K.

198

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

"OUR JIM."

THE MA>'CnESTER FIRE-DOG.

WHERE he came from we never knew, except
that some of his relations evidently were
black-and-tau English terriers. All we ever ascer-
tained was he came hungrj' and apparently homeless.
Two pounds of tripe cuttings very quickly seemed
to satisfy, first his appetite, and secondly his opinion
that the location he had selected might have been
worse. In a few days he became a great favourite,
by his affectionate, funny ways amongst the firemen,
who christened him "Our Jim."

Soon after his appointment to the chief station as
"Eire Dog," a noisy fellow ran into the yard giving
notice of a fire at a chemical works : the man seemed
to think that by making a great noise it would
expedite matters. The dog seeing the man in a
state of great excitement began to bustle about with
the firemen, and add to the confusion by barking.
He attended this his first fire— it was an oil-store.
Wherever the firemen went the dog followed.
Where he could not run he swam in the oil, and
we often say this was his first baptism at a fire.
He was exceedingly anxious to do his best to make
a favourable impression upon those he had elected
to serve. He seldom left the station, and had at all
times an utter contempt for any strange dog that
took the liberty to wag his tail at a fireman.
Shortly after his first turn-out to a fire, a policeman
ran into the yard one night, springing his rick, and
shouting " Fire ! Eire ! " The dog was, at the time,
sleeping iu the superintendent's bedroom. He
immediately jumped through the window and
alighted on the window-sill outside, where he com-
menced barking at the pitch of his voice. At this
time the firemen were warned on the occasion of a
fire by the ringing of a two-hundredweight bell, and
many scores of times has " Our Jim " given the alarm
to the firemen living in the neighbourhood, by run-
ning round their houses barking, what the men used
to call his " Fire Bark," long before the man on duty
had received orders to ring the bell. Our Jim's
fire-barking is quite a distinct sound from his ordi-
nary barking. So satisfied are the men that the
dog is giving notice of a fire, that they now turn out
of their beds and attend the station, with as much
confidence of there being a fire as if their bell were
rung to give them notice of one. The horses, too,
soon began to understand the dog's barking, and
they, like tiie firemen, when lying down, will get
up, shake themselves, and look round ready for the
firemen to harness them.

After t«-o or three years attending fires and false
alarms. Our Jim gained considerable experience
in his duties, and became with the public generally
a great favourite, the latter acknowledging him as
the Manchester Fire- Dog. On the road to a fire he
is found most useful in warning gaping or sluggish

drivers from the path of the fire-engine. At fires he
is even more useful, for he frequently diverts the
bystanders' attention, and keeps those who are too
often meddling busybodies quiet by his antics, first
running anxiously after one fireman, then another,
stopping to assist the police to keep back the crowd
of admiring boys, or to snap at a leak in the hose,
or any one standing on the pipe, which always much
annoys him. ■ -

In the year 1856 the fire brigade of Manchester
removed to their new quarters in Jackson's-row.
At the entrance is the inquiry office, adjoining is the
firemen's waiting-room, iu which are kept the tele-
graph instruments and bell-pulls, which communi-
cate to the bells in the houses of the firemen living
within the yard. Between these two rooms, divided
by doors only, is the private office of the superin-
tendent. It is in this office Our Jim is generally
to be found reclining, by day, on his couch, resting
hi.mself after some hard fight at a night fire, or
gaining strength to combat one. His experience
has prepared him for any moment. Occasionally
he, like the firemen, gets wounded ; iu such cases
he remains bandaged, poulticed, or plastered, until
he considers himself fit for duty, or is declared so
by his medical man, the veterinary surgeon. When
he considers himself in working order, he takes
notice of his self-imposed duty by being always on
the alert for telegrams or verbal messages. When
the superintendent's office-door is shut, no human
ear is sharp enough to hear the tinkling of the
telegraph bell. But Oar Jim hears it, and, what
is more, decides whether or not it is to give notice
of a fire. Immediately he hears the bell ring, he
informs the superintendent by looking up iu his face.
Our Jim then listens for a moment or two, so does
the superintendent, but not a sound can he hear.
Not so with the dog; he quickly decides by either
lying down again, and thereby giving those in the
room to understand that he believes it to be only an
ordinary message, and invariably he is right. On
the other hand. Our Jim has made up his mind that
it is a fire ; he then commences to bark his fire-bark,
scratches at the door, and waits for the fireman on
duty to inform the superintendent of its where-
abouts.

The instant the door is opened by the fireman, out
springs Our Jim. The alarm is given by him to the
men ; the firemen and horses wait for no other inti-
mation ; the men begin to dress themselves and
harness their horses ready for the fight, and in less
than two minutes after Our Jim is leading the way,
followed by the horses, who are as well aware as
himself of their errand, drawing a clean bright
engine, on which are mounted a company of fire-
men, to the scene of some fire. Tiiere is just one
objection to Our Jim's actions: on notice of a fire
being received, the neighbours have learned to know
the fire-bark. The result is they leave their houses,

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOS S IP.

199

the workmen their work, whilst the public-house
close by gets emptied of its company through the
fire-bark, and all help to swell the crowd which
assembles, and very oft( u impedes the actions of the
firemen at a fire. On the men's return from a fire,
it is usual, if they are wet or have bad very arduous
duty to perform, to give them refreshments.

Our Jim asks for his refreshments by putting out
his tongue and licking his lips night or day. Jim is
always served out with his refreshment?, if the men
have theirs ; but sometimes he takes pains to let us
know that he is entitled to them whatever we may
think about the matter, and he is generally success-
ful in his application. His refreshments finished,
he next informs us that he wants his bath; that
completed, he retires to the office to rest himself and
watch for the next turn-out, whether it be to a
mill, warehouse, or cottage, it is all the same
to him.

Our Jim is now turned twelve years of age.
He is nearly blind ; his whiskers are grey, and
although he has met with many accidents, and
upon his body there are many honourable scars,
still he is very active. His friends, the firemen,
are proud of their old dog, and well they may be,
for many a time have they been some little dis-
tance from the station, and by his fire- bark they
have received timely notice that has enabled them
to be in time to attend with the engine, from
which, had it not been for him, they would have
been absent. A. Tozee.

Chief Fire Station, Manchester.

SUDDEN APPEARANCES OF PLANTS.

■]%/rR. J. E. ROBSON has called attention
i*i- (Science-Gossip, No. 112, p. 91) to the
curious statement of Macaulaythat the next sum-
mer after the battle of Landen, in the Netherlands,
millions of ijoppies, "fertilized by twenty thousand
corpses," covered the ground on which the battle
had been fought. I think the ciicumstauce may be
accounted for without taking up the poetical idea
that " the earth was disclosing her blood and re-
fusing to cover ber blain." Of course after the
battle these "twenty thousand corpses" were all
buried, and the soil must have been turned up to a
great extent. In all probability the fight took
place among corn-fields, where poppies had long
flourished among the corn, and their seeds left in
the ground were greatly dispersed in the turning up
of the soil to bury tlie slaughtered combatants. The
spilling of the blood of the suldiers would not have
been a sufficient cause for the appearance of the
poppies -unless the ground had been disturlied. No
doubt the poppy that thus presented itself was the
common corn-poppy, Papaver rhccas.
An appearance analogous to this, though without

the battle, came under my view a few years since
when the Severn Yallcy Railway was constructed.
Between Stourport and Bewdley, Worcestershire,
the line passed through arable fields upon a sandy
soil, and partly in cutting. The year after the
ground was thus excavated, the mass of scarlet
poppies (P. rh(cas) that lined the embankment for
miles was wonderful to behold, the seeds of poppies
that had probably rema'ned dormant for some years
having been widely thrown about by the operations
of the navigators, and urged into vitality. Yet
strange to say, though doubtless most of these
poppies produced seeds, yet this profusion, that
astonished the eye at the time, has not been main-
tained.

It appears to be a law of Nature, that wherever
the ground is freshly turned up and not planted by
man, vegetation of some kind shall take im-
mediate possession of the vacant space ; and if seeds
should be there lying dormant, they start up into
life with meteor-like rapidity. A few years since
the tenant of some meadows by the side of the river
Teme at Powick, three miles from Worcester, threw
up an embankment to keep out the water of the
river when freshes occurred. The next year I was
surprised to see the new enibaukment covered by a
most profuse growth of Cardamine impatiens all
along it. But what peihaps is most remarkable is,
that these armies of plants thus suddenly appearing
are unable to maintain themselves and keep their
position, but gradually disappear. Not a single
plant of the Cardamine impatiens enn now be seen
on the embankment or on the river-side near it.

I noticed not long since the clearing away of a
hedge by the road-side near Worcester, where only
a few of the common "jack-by-the-hedge" {Alliaria
officinalis) usually presented themselves, that the
next season the vhole line of the hedge where the
soil had been upturned, bristled with hundreds of
the plant from end to end, forming a brilliant white
line when in flower. But this profusion was only
of one year's duration.

In like manner it has been a matter of observa-
tion dating at least as far back as White of Sel-
borne's time, that when underwood is cut down in
coppices, the next season the ground open to the
influence of the sun produces a crowd of plants that
in the dense shade of the woodland were unable to
appear, 'i'he local orchid Epipactis endfolia (sword-
leaved helleboriiie), grows in Wyre Forest, scattered
about, though rather rarely in most years. But I
have noticed, when the underwood, after seven
years' growth, has been cut down, that the following
year the helleborine springs up in great quantities,
adorning the forest glades and rides that have been
thus exposed to light and air ; but as the underwood
grows up again the orchis disappears, not to be
found again in any quantity until the next fall of
underwood comes round.

200

HARDWICKE'5 SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

I have observed a similar appearance with a
commoner plant, the Red Campion {Lychnis diuma),
which has completely reddened the ground by its
numbers in a coppice exposed to the light by the
cutting down of its underwood. In this latter case,
the seeds, of which a great number are produced by
a single plant, have got scattered about the open
spac«, and sprung up accordingly to make the best
use of the opportunity. In fact, it is obvious to
every-day notice, that any spot of ground where the
soil has been turned up and unattended to, is soon
covered by an enormous crop of common plants,
often of one species only. A corn-field left fallow
for a season will soon display a crowded mass of
interloping weeds, and here of late years in such
places the large blue-flowered Veronica Bm'bavmii
has shown itself in profusion.

It used to be said that Nature abhors a vacuum,
and certainly, as regards vegetation. Nature will not
allow a vacant spot to remain long without giving
it clothing of some sort, though careless whether
increased beauty be the result. This is shown in
the wildest and bleakest spots. Bromsgrove Lickey,
in the north of Worcestershire, consists of hilly
grouad exposed to northern blasts, and covered
with a dense growth of ling [Calluna vulgaris), and
thick bushes of the Bilberry {Faccinium myrtillus).
Wandering here on one occasion, I came upon a spot
where, for some purpose or other, a large patch of
the ling had been recently cleared away, leaving the
soil exposed, and which had got filled up with a tall
and crowded growth of Senecio syhaticus, making a
strange appearance, surrounded on all sides by old
plants of the wiry ling.

Old neglected garden ground thathas remained un-
touched for some years, when re-dug or turned over,
will cause flowers to spring up that had remained
dormant for an indeterminate time, and it still re-
mains undecided how long seeds may remain in the
soil without vegetating. Mr. Tlavell Edmonds has
recorded a case in the "Transactions of the Wood-
hope Club," where various plants suddenly appeared
0)1 a railway embankment at Hereford, which he
contended must have arisen from seeds long im-
mured in the soil. The Rev. J. E. Crouch also
mentions in the Transactions of the same club, that
in his churchyard at Pembridge, Herefordshire, the
Hyoscyamiis nrger had sprung up on soil recently
taken from a grave, though the plant had not been
before noticed in the neighbourhood. But it must
be remembered that seeds get continually blown
about, or are deposited by birds, and thus ruined
castles and abbeys are in the course of years covered
by vegetation ; and where plants really appear to
arise from buried seeds, it must be open to question
as to what probable time the vegetating seeds have
remained dormant in the earth.

Edwin Lees, E.L.S.
Grsen Hill Summit, Worcester.

SPIDERS' WEBS AND SPINNERETS.
By H. M. J. Undebhill.

{Concluded.)

SOME of the most remarkable British spiders are
the Ciniflonidse, characterized by possessing a
calamistrum and a fourth pair of spinnerets. The
calamistrum {Anglice "curling-iron") is a double
row of short straight hairs, situated on the last joint
but one of the hind legs.

Ciniflo, meaning "hair-curler," is a particularly
apt name for this family, as a glance at fig. 137 will
show. The "curling- iron" aforesaid is supposed to
aid in arranging the curly threads, but I have never
been fortunate enough to see the spider use it, nor
can I comprehend in what manner its use could
effect their curious twistiogs.

Fig. 137. Single "thread" of web of Ciniflo atn.x : n, first
thread; bb, second ditto; cc, third ditto; dd, fourth ditto,
X 38.

As spiders, having three pairs of spinnerets, form
three kinds of threads, so the Ciniflonidse, having four
pairs, spin four kinds of threads, the extra thread
being spun by the extra spinnerets. It is not strictly
"a thread," but apparently a collection of threads,
doubtless corresponding in number to the holes on
the spinneret, and forming a film or mem.brane of
extreme delicacy, enveloping the third or twisted
threads {d, fig. 137). It is of a blue colour when first
spun, but it turns whitish after a time. Ciniflos live
in holes in walls, under the bark of trees, &c,, and
by the blueness of their threads you may know if
they are "at home." If so, they are easily caught
by using a fly as a bait. Examination of a Ciuiflo's
web with the unassisted eye shows that its con-
stituent threads are thicker than usual, having a
loose or woolly appearance. The microscope reveals
that this is due to the threads of the second, third, and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

201

fourth kinds, accompanying the first or main thread
along its whole course. The second, third, and
fourth threads have this further peculiarity — they
are doubled ; that is, the three pairs of spinnerets
which produce them, spin— not one thread per pair,
as is usually the case — but one thread each ; thus
making in all six threads. Fig. 137 is thus a repre-
sentation of what, apart from the microscope, would
be thought a single and somewhat woolly thread.

Fig. 138. Upper set of spinnerets of C atrox: a, first spinners ;
b, second ditto 5 c, vent; dd, silk-tubes, x 38.

The seven constituent threads of each compound
" thread" of the web are spun all at once, not by
going over the same grouud several times; the
spider having, however, the power of emitting the
first and second threads each one by itself, but the
third and fourth threads seem never to be spun
separately. Tor convenience, I have called the

g. 139. Under set of spinnerets of C. ati-ox: «, third spinners;
b, fourth ditto ; c, silk-tubes ; d, two of the third glands ;
fie, the fourth glands ; /, single fourth gland, x 120 dia-
meters.

"film," or collections of threads emitted by the
fourth spinnerets, simply "the fourth threads."
The web of a Ciniflo is no respect viscid, but, owing
to the peculiar character of the third, and the great
number and exceeding fineness of the fourth threads.

it is even more effectual than the viscid threads of
an Epiiira in retaining the insects it may entrap.

The fourth spinnerets of a Ciniflo (see b, fig. 139)
are very peculiar. They are not papillaj covered with
projecting silk-tubes, but flat oblong plates pierced
with many holes, of which, as nearly as I can calcu-
late, there are 1,250 on each spinneret. In fig. 139, i,
a general view of the pair is given, and fig. 140 shows
a small portion of one, more highly magnified. The
glands proper to these are nearly round. In their
interior may be distinguished some traces of cellular
structure (fig. 139,/). The walls of the surrounding
epithelium-cells are very slight, and consequently
these cells are very easily detached from the glands,

Fig. UO. Small portion of a fourth spinneret of C. atro,r,
showing holes, x 300.

which are much smaller than usual. But what they
Avant in size they make up in number, for as there
is one to each hole in the spinnerets, there must be
about 2,500. To avoid confusion, but a few of them
are figured, and two of the third glands are intro-
duced for comparison. The glands of the second
spinnerets are many times longer than those of the
first, though the structure is otherwise identical.

There are about 112 silk-tubes on the six ordinary
spinnerets of Ciniflo atrox, which with, say 2,500 on
the fourth or extraordinary pair, make a total o^
2,612, a very large number in comparison with the
360 of a house-spider.

In another contribution I hope to give the results
of further observations, and to add a few hints
which may aid other inquirers in the preparation
and mounting of illustrative specimens.

Oxford. H. M. J. Underhill.

" When we talk of the lower animals possessing
instinct and not reason, we mean, that although
they are sensitive and conscious, yet tliey act
mechanically, and their different states of con-
sciousness are the consequences of their mechanical
arrangements." — Huxley on Automata.

202

HAflDWlCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

TPIE UTILITY OE THE STUDY OE
NATURAL HISTORY.

WHAT is the useoi studying Natural History ? "
How often, sadly often, wlieu the votaries
of nature are endeavouring to unfold her beauties
to the outside world, is this question pressed upon
them, and how often does it act, to use a familiar
expression, as a "home-thrust." Sceptical school-
boys and quizzical young persons in muslin seem to
take an especial pleasure in thus upsetting tlie equa-
nimity of the naturalist, who is endeavouring to
win them over to his side. Now it behoves every
rational being to be able to give a reason for his
profession and pursuits, least of all ought the
students of nature ever to be found at a loss ; and
in point of fact they very rarely are so. All will
readily prove their pursuit to be at once a beautiful
and an interesting one, but as for the " use " of it —
■why, that is a very different matter, and they stand
speechless. Of course in this utilitarian age outsiders
immediately leap to the very legitimate conclusion
that something is rotten in the study of nature. I
trust then that I shall be doing service to this
branch of science, in attempting to put down as
concisely as possible, at least a few of the points in
■which our favourite pursuits are undoubtedly useful ;
perhaps I may thereby make it a little easier for my
brotlier naturalists to give a clear answer to any
future questions on the score of utility. In the first
place, by investigating natural phenomena, we
increase the general stock of knowledge, and by
increasing this -we elevate the. human race. It may
be that discoveries respecting some bird, beast, or
insect do not immediately benefit the world at large,
but they certainly aid in determining the laws which
prevail in the natural kingdom, — laws which, when
rightly understood, will make clear as the noonday
those dark enigmas that at present cause such
anxiety alike to the theologian aud the scientist.
No doubt many naturalists are too apt to make a
heterogeneous collection of facts, without at all
seeking to establish their connection with the
system of nature ; but in these days of theories we
are fast learning to look more closely into the
mysteries of cause aud effect, while we consider each
established principle as an isolated link in a chain
that has yet to be constructed. So then, in trying
to "get at the truth of God's universe," we are un-
doubtedly helping on a -work beneficial to the rest
of mankind. But it maybe asked— what good does
this do us individually ? Much, every way ; for
natural history educates body and mind. Eirst, as
to corporeal benefits, which of course vary according
as birds, plants, insects, Crustacea, fossils, &c., are
made the subject of special investigation. Orni-
thologists and oologists are in a short time first-rate
climbers, and climbing is an exercise that brings

every muscle of the body into full play, aud accus-
toms the brain to preserve its usual steadiness at
great elevations. Then, with regard to botany,
plant-collectors almost always become excellent
pedestrians, and in fact, good walking powers are a
sine quel non to a botanist who desires to work up
the flora of a neighbourhood. It is also necessary
that he should be able to get through rough work,
as the exigences of the moment may require ; now
climbing a v/all to procure a lichen, now dangling
over a precipice to get at a fern ; at one time toiling
up a hill-side in the search for gentians, at another
wading through a quagmire looking for reeds. As
for the insect-hunter, whether he be lepidopterist,
coleopterist, or any other specialist, his powers of
walking, running, aud general endui'ance are con-
tinually put to the test. He has often to walk many
miles to his district, and when arrived there, to run
many more in pursuit of his insects if they be
winged ; if apterous, to search most laboriously over
every square yard of ground. If moths are his
desiderata, he must often rise at daybreak, or remain
in the woods till the small hours of the morning.
This Spartan discipline is not, and cannot be, without
its good effects on \h.Q. physique of the collector. The
naturalist who devotes himself to the Crustacea or
moUusca has, like his brethren, no easy task. His
search must be conducted in sea-water, in fresh
water, and on dry land. The objects of his attention
are more than usually varied in form, size, habit,
and habitat, and in consequence, his excursions are
more than usually erratic. Lastly, what is to be
said of the geologist ? His practical ■work consists,
for the most part, in digging out fossils from the
clay, chalk, and limestone formations,andfossiliferous
rocks. To do this well, he needs a sharp eye and
a steady hand, not to mention a great deal of
patience — a virtue which he shares in common with
all other naturalists. Thus much for bodily benefits.
The education of the mind is a still broader subject,
on which I cannot even attempt to particularize.
There can be no doubt that the study of Natural
History induces a scientific habit of mind— that is
to say, a habit of carefully reasoning out, and
correctly deducing conclusions from giveu data ; a
habit of looking at debated matters from all points
of view ; a habit of throwing aside all prejudice and
littleness of mind ; of considering everything
honestly, fairly, and temperately. It is needless to
point out how increasingly important science is
becoming as a matter of education; how many
scholarships are yearly awarded at the universities
for proficiency in its difterent branches ; or, how
difficult it is to keep pace with the spirit of the age
without some knowledge of the conditions under
which the universe exists. Enough has been said
to show that the pursuit of Natural History is full of
usefulness, if only we take care to keep the end
constantly in view, never placing an undue estimate

HARDWICKE'S SCIENGE-GOSS IP.

203

on the means, but continually searching out and
examiniiig " whatsoever things are true."

Edward* C. Lefroy.

f HOW TO EIX DEVICES OE DIATOMS.

OOME of your correspondents have made in-
'^ quiries how to/.r devices of diatoms. There
is some secret, about doing it which the best diato-
mists hold very fast. After many hundreds of
failures, I have " wriggled " my way to the outskirts
(only the outskirts) of the secret ; and what I know
I shall be glad to tell. We must presume that the
diatoms are perfectly clean, that a "dip" of the
material containing them has been evaporated on a
slip, and that the hair from a cow's neck (which is
the best tool) has been duly mounted in a wooden
handle. When a diatom is picked up by the hair
from the dip, under a I^-inch power (and after
practice they may be 'picked up at eight or ten
per minute), the question is where to put it. Some
say, "into a minute drop of water." This is
easiest, but no one can arrange diatoms in such a
drop. I put them on a prepared (glazed) cover.
I take distilled water and filtered gum (either
arable or tragacanth, but I prefer the latter), both
being chemically and microscopically clean (if I
can get them clean : I never have as yet), and info
a 2-ounce phial put, say one ounce of the water
and five or six''drops of the gum. I then clean
covers (I glaze 50 or 100 at a sitting), and place
them on a rack of wood, i.e. six pieces, 6 inches
long, I inch broad, and \ iuch thick, formed into a
" rack" by having pieces of copper wire run through
the lot near to each end, so that the bars of the rack,
slid on the wires, may be altered to suit different
sizes of covers. I then take a dip of the gum-water
in a very-fine mouthed pipette (never putting the
pipette more than halfway into the water, and
throwing away the first four dips for fear of dirt),
and, having the rack full of covers, allow a minute
drop to escape on the centre of each cover, holding
the cover with a clean needle to prevent its being
lifted when I withdraw the pipette. I tlien transfer
the loaded rack to the hot plate. Here the useful-
ness of the rack will be felt, as it reduces to a
minimum the exposure of the covers to the vile
inappreciable dust. And, by the way, to glaze
covers or mount diatoms on any but the calmest of
days is absolutely impossible. The glazed covers,
when dry, I store under a well closed glass shade.
One of these covers I place on a wooden slide
(they slip on glass) perforated with a |-ineh hole
(or three such slides may be used at once, or one
slide with three holes, so as to select three species
from the same dip), and have it at a handy distance
(three or four inches) from the stage. On this
cover I put the diatoms, picked out with the cow's

hair aforesaid. If the diatoms be plentiful, I simply
"dab" the hair gently three or four times on the
cover to disengage the frustule : by this mode half
the diatoms are lost and half the time is saved.
But if the valve be a gem {A. Kitfonil to wit), I
hold it within the field of the microscope with my
right hand (hand-rests are supposed) whilst, with
my left, I remove the dip and replace it with the
wooden slide, disengaging the valve very carefully
in the centre of the glazed dot. When sufficient
frustules have been placed on a cover to form a
device (cross, star, initials, &c.), I place, push,
coax, or drive them, with the hair, under a li-inch
objective, into the required form. In this ope-
ration, delicacy of touch, coolness, and patience are
somewhat helpful; moreover, to steady the ope-
rating hand with the other is an advantage. This
done, the cover with its device must be brought
close to (just within) the mouth, and breathed on —
one long slow breath. Diatoms will not bear
coughing at. But if all this has been done success-
fully, diffi':?ulty is at an end. The cover must be
dried on the hot plate and then turned over on to a
drop of balsam and benzole, or damar, in the centre
of a slide ; and, if the glaze be the proper thickness
the balsam may be boiled to one's heart's con-
tent without moving a single valve, and the slide
finished there and then. As I said at the outset,
there is a secret beyond all this (I wish some one
would piiblish it), but I have proved that by this
process the fixing of any number of diatoms in any
device is only a question of time, patience, and
manipulatory skill. In closing, let me say three
things to those who aspire to be " diatomaniacs ": — •

1. Never hope for one drop of clean water, unless
you distil it yourself, and don't be sanguine then ;

2. Place your diatoms "on their backs" in the gum,
else they will retain air, which nothing can expel j

3. " Mind your eye," or rather your eyes, for mine
have been so strained with arranging diatoms that
I have not dared to work with the instrument for
several months. J. K. Jackson.

NOTES ON THE LEPIDOPTERA OF
GUERNSEY.

IN vol. viii. p. 65, of Science- Gossip, Mr,
W, H. Booth has given us the result of his
observations on the butterflies of the Channel Is-
lands ; but his experience appears to have been
mostly conSued to Jersey ; and as any reliable in-
formation which can be collected respecting the
entomology of different parts of the kingdom must
greatly assist us in forming an accurate idea of the
distribution of species, I will, with your permission,
add a few notes on the lepidoptera of Guernsey
from observations which I have made during a resi-
dence of several years in that island.

20^

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Of butterflies the number of species barely exceeds
thirty, and even among these we might reckon a
few, such as the tailed Blue (P. Bceticus), which have
been taken so sparingly, and at such wide intervals,
that they are fairly entitled to rank among the "reputed
species." C. Edusa is frequently seen flitting along
the bold, rugged cliff-sides of the south coast, and
C. Hyde is not rare. G. Rhamni is found, as here,
from early spring to late autumn, and white speci-
mens are occasionally met with. //. Semele is very
common on the cliffs, especially where grey moss-
covered stones occur, and on these it loves to settle
in the warm sun. Its peculiar habit of concealing

Fig. 141. Clouded Yellow (Colias Edusa), Male.

the anterior wings, combined with the striking
resemblance of the under side of the hind wings to
the grey stone, renders it exceedingly difficult to
detect, even at a short distance, and 1 have often
been puzzled to know where half a dozen of these
butterflies had got to, though I well knew they
were within twenty feet of ray very eyes. C. Cardui
is generally distributed throughout the island, in
some years abundant, while at other times only a

Fig. 14a. Pale Clouded Yellow {Cotiaa St/ale).

few straggling specimens are to be seen. 7^. Ata-
lanta is the most common of the family, and is
known as the " King's Butterfly." V. Vrticie is less
frequent, and V. lo I have rarely seen on the wing,
though I have reared the caterpillars. F. Poly.
chloros is, 1 believe, scarce; at least, I only saw
one living specimen, a hybernated one, which I
captured. The Glanville Tritillary {M. Cinxia) is
extremely abundant in the south. I have seen
scores of them in a day's ramble in June ; a sight
which I fancy would delight many an inland collect-
or's heart. I have frequently reared them from the
caterpillars, which are gregarious, and feed on the

narrow-leaved plantain, under cover of a whitish
web. The Eev. J. P. Dawson, iu the Zoologist,
lSi6, p. 1271 (quoted by Stainton), gives an admir-
able description of the favourite haunts of this
species. F. Rubi frequents the banks of streams,
where it is common iu May ; it appears to be single-
brooded.

Fig. 143. Green Hairstreak
(upper side).

Fig. 144. Green Hairstreak
(under jide).

The little island of Sark— the gem of the Channel
Islands— possesses but a meagre list of lepidoptera,
though some species occur in more or less abund-
ance which iu the larger island are exceedingly rare ;
for, as it has been remarked, " each of the Channel

Fig. 145. Glanville Fritillary {Melitaeu Cinxia), (upper side cf
variety) .

Fig. 140. Glanville Fritillary (under side).

Fig. 147. Cinnabar (Euchelia Jacob<B(e},

Islands possesses a fauna and flora of its own."
Two species of butterflies, C. Jglaia and C. Pamphi-
lus, 1 have never met with in Guernsey, while in
Sark they are common ; and many a sharp spin
have I had through furze and fern after the former.
I may mention, parenthetically, that the Rose-chafer
{Cetonia aurata) occurs in such profusion that I

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NC E-GOSSIP.

205

once counted, in rather less than five minutes,
thirteen specimens on bramble-blossoms and other
flowers ; yet a true Guernsey specimen is, I believe,
a great rarity.

Fig. US.— The Drinker {Odnnestis potatoria).

"British Moths." E. Jacohcec} is abundant, at times
almost a pest ; the gregarious larva3 strip the rag-
wort plants till only the bare stalks are left. Lasio-
campa Quercils and L. Rubi are very common, more
especially tlie former. The larvse of the latter,
which are very pretty, seem more confined to the
coast. I have handled many scores of larvae and
cocoons of both these species without ever ex-
periencing the urticating effects of the hairs men-
tioned by some of your correspondents ; the only
peculiarity which I noticed was a kind of velvety
([ can't find a better word) feeliug about the finger-
tips, produced by a quantity of minute hairs stick-
ing into the skin; and this velvetiness was only
removed after repeated washing and rubbing. There
was no irritation or pain. This also applies to 0.

]'ig. up. The Convolvulus Hawk-moth {Sphinx Convolvuli),

Among moths perhaps the most wortliy of the
notice of an English collector is the Guernsey Tiger
{Callimorpha Hera), a rather common and generally
distributed species of surpassing beauty, especially

Fig. lio. The Spurge Hawk-moth [DeiU-phila Etiphnrhia).

when fresh from the chrysalis. The Rev. J)\ O.
Morris, who many years ago obtained a large num-
ber of larvae from a gentleman in Guernsey, has
given an admirable figure of this insect in his

pofaforia, and other hairy laivje. The Sphingidtc
are not numerous in species. A. Atropos, in its
earlier stages, is well known to the farm-labourers
and cottagers, who cultivate large quantities of
potatoes for the English market.
One larva which 1 reared produced
a moth of uncommon size and
beauty. I have a specimen of S.
Concohidl which was taken in a
greenhouse. D. Euphorbia; may at
one time have been taken in the
island, for a gentleman, some 30
years ago, found a brood of larva-,
from which he succeeded in rearing
several splendid moths, which are
now in his collection.

More might be said about the

moths of Guernsey ; but I have

neither my collections nor the diaries which I kept

during my stay there (now some years ago) by

me, and I dare not trust to memory.

Finchleij. E. D. M.

'20G

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

THE SPIDER AND THE LIZIRD.

I "WAS, one day lately, walking in the fields wlien,
being weary, I laid myself on the grass in sucb
a position that, my head jnst sur mounting the crest
of a hillock, I could watch with ease all that passed
on the other side without exposing myself to view.
I was thus enabled to look across the grass, and my
eyes wandered over the tortuous labyrinth and the
tufts of herbage. I saw the ants pass and repass
in the forest of flowery turf. I saw numerous Pen-
tatomes, variegated like so many harleauins, pur-
suing the Cliyrsomeles, more brilliant than jewels.
I followed with my eyes the Brachinus and Har-
palus seeking the protection of the flints that
strewed the ground ; and I heard the crickets as
they sat, each at his threshold, singing their songs
to the sun.

When I compared myself with all this tiny world, I
was positively frightened at my colossal proportions
and the vastness of my limbs. It seemed to me as
though my head had the dimensions of a house ;
my eyes were two great windows ; and my
body, as it lay extended OA'er the turf, seemed to
cover a country, which could be measured only by
leagues !

I was occupied with these fautatic thoughts, when
my eyes were suddenly arrested by the appearance
of a large spider, which issued like a spectre from
the bosom of ihe earth. At first I saw a kind of lid,
about the size of a small halfpenny, slowly raise it-
self abovethesurfaceof thesoil; then somelong hairy
legs stretched themselves out from a tube which the
lid had previously covered with the utmost exact-
ness. It seemed as though a fearful phantom were
liftiug the rocky cover of its tomb in order to strike
with sudden horror the conscience of some great
criminal. However, I felt that I had notliing to
reproach myself with in reference to the world of
spiders ; so far, therefore, from recoiling from the
sight before me, f set myself to examine the matter
with eager attention.

The apparition was that of a Trap-door Spider
{Mygale ccenieniand), a species widely spread over
the South of Prance, which exhibits in its name the
wonderful instinct by which it is marked. In fact
the Mygale excavates for itself in the soil a deep
and spacious gallery, the entrance of which it closes
by means of a veritaljle door, which it is imjiossible
to open except by pushing it from the inside. This
door, composed of hardened particles of clay held
together by silken threads, which the animal itself
secretes, is very thick and solid. A silken hinge
liolds it in place and fixes it to one side of the gal-
lery ; on the other side there is neither lock nor
bolt, all the ingenuity of the spider not having yet
reached to these additional modes of defence, the
want of which in this particular instance very
licarly cost the inmate her life.

Squatting under the lid, which rested on her back
as she lay half out of the tube, the spider eag-
erly watched every movement of a delicate Lace-
wing fly, which stalked lazily over the gilded petals
of a trefoil. Tiie wings of this lovely insect, so thin
and transpareat that one might believe them to have
been worked by fairy fingers, reflected the glorious
hues of Iris herself in the sun's bright ray, and as they
glistened in the spider's eight dark eyes, evidently
did but rouse more strongly her ferocious desires.
Indeed the hairy spinner fairly trembled with excite-
ment and impatience as the graceful fly moved
slowly toward the den, dark and cold as the grave,
where the spider lay in ambush. In another mo-
ment it walked into the very jaws of death, when
I heard a slight crackling in the dry herbage,
and then with a suddenness which made me start, a
bright green lizard dashed from a tuft of grass and
bounded toward the spider. Though quite taken
by surprise, the latter had just time to avoid the
fatal stroke by drawing back with a rapidity at
least equil to that of her enemy, and violently
closing the lid of her gallery. So near, however
was the lizard to seizing his prey, that the toes
of the right fore foot were actually caught
between the door and the s-ide of the tube, and
vain were the reptile's efforts to disengage itself,
though it twisted its lithe body fiom side to side
like one possessed.

Had the spider been able to close the gate of the
castle with stout bolt and bar, never would our
lizard have boasted of another victory over spider
or insect : it must have perished miserably of hun-
ger and exhaustion ! Meanwhile it strove hard to
raise the lid with its muzzle, and failing in this after
several attempts, it managed in the course of its
struggle to insert the end of its tail into the slight
opening made by its foot. Then for the first time
I could see the wretched spider doubled up against
the wall of its den and holding on with all its might
by means of his claws, to the inner face of the silken
door, which, however, was gradually yielding to
the efforts of the enemy. I thought it right, there-
fore, to put a stop without delay to the unequal
combat. No sooner thought, than done. Prom the
summit of the hillock, on wdiich my chin was rest-
ing, I emitted a loud brrrrrr ! In a second, as once
with the great god, Jove —

" O'.ympus trembled at my nod ! "

The frightened lizard, in the energy of despair,
tore its foot fiom the trap, with the loss of two or
three toes, and bounding into the gra=s disappeared
from view. Mygale as instantly closed her gate
without ofi"ering me a single expression of gratitude
for the good turn I had done her ; while I, starting
to my feet, continued my walk, pondering on the
curious scene of which I iiad been a witness.

A. Roger.

i

HARD VVICKE'S «C I EK CE-G OS SIP.

207

MICROSCOPY.

A FiNBER FOR HaRTXACk's MICROSCOPES.—

Those of our readers who use Hartnack's, or micro-
scopes of similar construction, will find Mr. Hicks's
contrivance for the purpose of easily refinding an
object at any time very useful. A line is to be
ruled across the centre of the stage from side to
side. Crossing this line at right angles are ruled
two lines about two inches apart, one on either side
of the aperture of the stage. In order to use the
finder, a label about half an inch in diameter is fixed
to each end of the slide, the lines on the stage
left uncovered being used as guides for continuing
the lines across the label with a pencil-mark. If
the lines marked on the label be made to coincide
with those on the stage, the object on the slide will
be found in the centre of the field. Mr. Hicks says
that he finds roughing the ends of the slide with a
corundum file, and marking the point of intersection
with an ink dot, preferable to the labels, as being
more accurate. We think a label somewhat less
than an inch square (about nine-tenths of an inch),
so as the stage lines might be seen round the mar-
gins, would be more advantageous than those of a
circular form, as the position of the stage-lines
could be marked on the margin of the label, ai:d the
position of the object might be registered by mar -
ing down the number of dots from the top left-hand
corner ; supposing it to be the fourth in a vertical
and the seventh in a horizontal direction, it could
be registered either 4 | 7— or i.—K.

MiCROGRAPHic Dictionary.— The third edition
of this magnificent work has now reached the four-
teenth part, and is about halfway through its
course. The delay in its publication may be par-
tially attributed to the little leisure left to its
editors, as well as to the fact that the newest
information relating to microscopical research lias
been incorporated. The editors are Dr. J. W.
Griffiths, Professor Martin Duncan, Professor Hu-
pert Jones, and the Rev. M. J. Berkeley. To the
young microscopist this work will prove a vade-
mecum, and to the microscopical amateur it offers
itself as a repertory of microscopical knowledge,
easily attainable, and thoroughly trustworthy. The
publisher is Van Voorst, 1, Paternoster-row, Lou-
don,

Organisms IN Chert.— The remains offoramini-
fera, prisms from shells of Inoceremas or Pinna,
small moilusca, and fragments of bryozoa, are not
uncommon either in chert or flint nodules. All
these remains represent the internal rather than the
external form of the shell. As it is not very apparent
why this should be the case, the following theory
will perhaps explain it. All the specimens I have
had an opportunity of studying, when examined as

opaque objects, are either of a chalky whiteness or
coloured with peroxide of iron; in this condition
the siliciQed casts of foraminifera and other organ-
isms are found in recent dredgings. In a highly
interesting dredging made by Captain Perry, off Navy
Bay, Colon, Panama, silicified casts of foraminifera,
small moilusca, borings of some species of cliona,
fragments of bryozoa, and species of echinus, occur
in considerable quantities. It therefore seems pro-
bable that these remains occurring in the chert and
flint nodules were silicified before they became em-
bedded in the flint. The little spiral organism
figured in the August number is certainly not that
of foraminifera, but some small mollusk, the two
lower figures representing transverse sections of the
same or a similar form. — F. K.

Chloride of Barium as a Preservative. —
This salt, \i hich we recommend for use in glycerine
jelly, and which may prove a useful preservative for
oiher mounting media, &c., is seldom kept by
druggists, and has to be procured from the scientific
chemist. It is sold (price 2d. per oz., or by post
3id.) by Towuson & Mercer, 89, Bishopsgate-street
Within.— IT. M. J. U. and F. J. A.

Origin of the Red Blood-Corpuscles. — As to
the origin of these corpuscles invertebrates, the fact,
as stated in Science-Gossip, August, 1874, page 183,
has long been so well known in England that no
further corroboration of it was needed from abroad.
Yet we see it widely published, as if Dr. H. D.
Schmidt, from the result of his own investigations,
has very recently discovered that "the nucleus only
of the colourless blood-corpuscles is developed into
the red corpuscle," which his pages might otherwise
countenance. The truth is that neither Dr. H. D.
Schmidt, nor any German, has or ever had any just
claim whatever to this important discovery. It is
due wholly to the researches of our countryman,
Mr. Wharton Jones, w hose original memoir on the
subject, entitled "The Blood-corpuscle considered
in its different Phases of Development in the Animal
Series," was published in the " Abstracts of Papers
communicated to the Royal Society of London,"
June 19, 1843 ; and at length, with illustrations by
beautiful plates, in the next succeeding part of the
" Philosophical Transactions." Scarcely any physio-
logical contiibution is better known than this in
Britain ; for example, in Professor Gulliver's lec-
tures on the blood, delivered at the Royal College
of Surgeons, Mr. Jones's doctrine is discussed and
accepted, as may be seen by the reports of those
lectures in the Medical Times and Gazette for 18G2,
August 23, p. 188, and December 13, p. 623. That
" the spleen and lymphatic glands are the permanent
blood-formative organs," at least of the corpuscles
of that fluid, was the doctrine admirably supported
by William Hewson upwards of a century since, as

208

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G 0 S S I P.

may be conveniently seen in the collected edition of
his Works, printed for the Sydenham Society, 1845.
The present note is no matter of controversy, but
simply specific references, by which any person may
realize an historical truth affecting the just claim
of an eminent English physiologist.— Q. F.

ZOOLOGY.

New Okder of Hydrozoa. — Professor Allman
describes in Nature, July 30th, a new order of
hydrozoa discovered on the southern shores of
France. This animal is attached to a sponge, and
permeates the spongy tissue. Although a hydro-
zoan, it is not a hydroid, and cannot be referred to
any of the existing orders of the hydrozoa. The
chitonous tubes which permeate the sponge tissue
are united towards the base of the sponge, and
constitute a composite colony of zooids. The tubes
are increased in width towards their free extremity,
and the polypite inhabiting each puts forth a re-
tractile crown of tentacles. In many respects
this new hydrozoan resembles the Campanularian
zoophytes. The name of Stephanocyphus mira-
hilis has been given by the Professor to this beau-
tiful object. In no instance was this zoophyte
unaccompanied by the sponge. The new order to
which it belongs has been named Thecomedtisce.

Generic Names. — We have some excellent
scientific journals in this country, but none that
covers exactly the same ground that Science-
Gossip does. Let me, however, suggest one thing
to a number of your contributors in reference to
scientific nomenclature. It is presuming too much
to suppose that their readers in other countries
should know the genus of the animals or plants
they allude to by merely inserting the initials of
the generic names. Of course, it is not necessary
to repeat them when once given in an article,
except in cases where other generic names in the
context intervene. " Notes on the Entomological
Season of 1873," in the January number, 187-4, is
an illustration of this delinquency. Specialists,
well versed in scientific literature of their spe-
cialties, may be able to comprehend what name is
meant by an initial alone, but this is not the case
with amateurs, nor yet with those who take a
general view of the subject. — ii.S. Rathvon, Lan.
Pa., U.S.

The Processionarv Moth.— It will interest
many to know that this moth, concerning which
queries have been more than once propounded in
Science-Gossip, has unexpectedly turned up in
Britain. There are, however, two species nearly
allied, to which the name of the " Proeessiouary "
has been applied, the particular one recently taken
being that designated C. piti/ocampa, and considered

to be identical with the insect which the Romans
were acquainted with, and which received from
them the name of " the moth of the fir." On
account of the deleterious effects produced by the
hairs of the caterpillars, it was regarded as a
crime to Sidmmister jnti/ocampa. The first discovery
was made last autumn, when Mr. Batchelor de-
tected in a pine-tree wood near Southborough, a
mass of pupai in a deserted magpie's nest. These
he distributed, believing them to be something
rare, i^robably C processionea ; and about the
middle of Eebruary this year he found a number
of silken nests on the tops of pines, or Scotch
firs, which were being cut down, and the larvae, in
their mode of procedure, showed all those pecu-
liarities which have been so frequently described
by continental observers. Some were also taken
by the same entomologist in another spot on the
Penshurst-road. Two or three weeks later, an-
other gentleman, Mr. Peyton, discovered colonies
feeding on fir-trees at Seal, near Sevenoaks, and the
larva have been proved to be tiie same as those
taken near Southborough. Both accounts appear
to be bond fide, and specimens have been submitted
to, and named by, Mr. Doubleday, but there are
some difficulties that yet remain to be cleared up. It
is strange that pupae should be found in autumn and
larva; early in the following spring ; and, moreover,
it is not the habit of C. pitjjocampa to be gregarious
in pupation, each usually going alone to the surface
of the earth. I have no doubt these curious dis-
coveries will lead many naturalists to pay more
particular attention to the pines and firs, especially
in the county of Kent. — /. R. S. C.

Length of Spiders' Cords.— It has often been
a matter of speculation by M'hat means the inge-
nious arachnids carry a thread a long distance from
one point of suspension to another, and recently I
observed one cord, swung to by a spider of mode-
rate dimensions, which exceeded anything I had
before noticed in that way, as it extended about
eight feet from the top of a door to a shrub, and at
an altitude of about seven feet from the ground.
One can hardly suppose it possible that a thread
could be projected through the air for that distance
so as to attach itself; nor does the idea that the
spider first secured one end and then travelled to
the opposite point with his ball of cord to fasten
the other, and tighten it, like a man fixing a
telegraph-wire, appear much more feasible. —

/. R. s. a

Ichneumon of the Aphis.— Although I have no
special knowledge of llymenoptcra, I cannot help
observing an incorrect statement at page 180 of
SciENCE-Gossir for July, which you may like to
correct. The " Ichneumon of the Aphis " there
drawn is not in the least like OpJtion hdemn, to

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

209

wLicli species it is ascribed. Ophion hdeum is one
of our largest species, and parasitic upon the great
larva of the Puss-moth {Bicranura vinnla), so that,
apart from the certainty afforded by the figure, it is
obvious that no instinct could compel so "canny" a
creature as an Ichneumon (whose whole functions are
anticipatory for the good of its progeny, not itself)
to deposit an egg in so unsuitable a pabulum as an
Aphis. The Ichneiimofi figured is one of the very
minute species, probably an Aphiduis, a genus well
known to be parasitic on Aphides (hence its name,
indeed). Ophion hdeum, instead of being " about a
line " long, as stated, is nearer eight lines ; it is the
common testaceous-red species that often flies to
light. Its abdomen is sickle-shaped with terebra.
Your paper is now getting of so much higher a
standard than before, that such an error, unnoticed,
is really likely to hurt it. — E. C. Rye.

Provincial Societies.— We notice with pleasure
the " Journal of Proceedings " of the Winchester
and Hampshire Literary and Scientific Society. It
is a well printed, fairly illustrated, and thoroughly
creditable brochure, containing, besides several
literary papers of merit, scientific essays and ad-
dresses by the Rev. E. Eirmetore, E.R.A.S., on the
" Star Depths ;" " the Probable Origin of Eliuts,"
by Mr. A. Angell, in which this difficult question is
very ably handled; "Parasitic Eungi common in
the Neighbourhood," by the Honorary Secretary,
Mr. E. J. Warner, E.L.S., a short but valuable
contribution to this important .subject ; and
"Hampshire Insects," by the Rev, W. W. Spicer.
The new series of the "Proceedings of the Bristol
Naturalists' Society " has slso been published.
The paper on Dundry Gasteropods," by E. B.
Tawney, F.G.S., is excellently illustrated with
lithographs of the best fossil shells, so that it is a
capital contribution to local geology. Mr. W. W.
Stoddart's paper on " The Desmidiaj of the Bristol
Neighbourhood " will also be 'appreciated by algo-
logists. The present part is certainly the best this
Society has yet issued, and we sincerely compliment
them on its production, with a word of advice to
give preference to papers on local rather than on
foreign natural history.

The Canterbury Tick. — As this interesting-
animal is likely to be largely sought for throughout
England by entomologists, perhaps the following
extract respecting the species at present known
may be of interest. I take the account from Baron
Walchenaer's "Histoire Nat. des Insectes Aptcres,"
iii. 229, &c., forming part of the beautiful series
known as the " Suites a Buffon." Paris : 1814.
"Argas (Lafreille,' Precis des Caract. gen. des Ins.,'
ix. 178). — These animals, whose external characters
have been studied by M. Savigny with great care,
are truly parasitic. Two of them live on birds ;
another, which has become famous under the name

of Argas persictis, often inflicts terrible pains on
man. This species — respecting which M. Fischer
de Waldheim has published a monograph with the
title of ' The Persian Argas, the Malleh of Mianeh,'
described under the name of the Venomous Bug of
Mianeh (4° Acad, of Moscow, 1823), has given occa-
sion to much exaggeration on the part of travellers.
The body is oval, elongate, more contracted before
than in the bed-bug, to which it may be compared.
The upper surface is garnished with small whitish
grains, giving it the appearance of shagreened
leather. A border runs round the sides, which are
slightly divided at the apex. The colour is a
bright blood-red; the back being sprinkled with
elevated white points ; the feet are pale (fig.
Atlas, 33, 6). Other species are Argas reflexus,
Latr. ; Ixodes marginatus, E. ; Rhynchoprion columbce,
Hermann ; A. (roguloides,Gei-vais ; A. Savignpi, A.ud.
(fig. Atlas, 31) ; A. Fischeri, And. (Atlas, 33, 5) ;
A. Hermanni, Aud. ; A. mauritianus, Guerin ; A,
chinche, Goudot ; and A. erraticus, Lucas ; the last
an Algerian species. A. reflexus lives parasitically
on pigeons, whose blood it sucks. Extraordinary
numbers are sometimes seen on these birds, espe.
cially on the young. When swollen with blood, the
body is soft and the divisions of the abdomen are
no longer distinct. Hermann kept one alive for
eight months in a glass without any food ; during
which time nothing passed from it, nor did he per-
ceive the slightest diminution in its size or any
symptom of decay. Latreille states that he has
found this animal wandering about houses. The
body, which is large, is marked all over with
tortuous channels and pits ; the colour is yellow, or
violet when full fed. Argas troguloides is about the
size of the itch-insect {Sarcoptes) . It is of a
yellowish colour, and was found by us in a garden at
Paris, on the surface of the soil, in spots shaded by
the leaves of i)lants. Argas mauritianus supports
itself on fowls in the island from which it derives
its specific name, and often occasions great losses
in the poultry-yards. Argas chinche lives in the
temperate parts of Columbia. Its habits are similar
to those ^of A. persicus, and, like it, it persecutes
mankind. In size it resembles the common bed-
bug ; but is of a totally different colour when full
fed."— /T. W. S.

A Neav British Crustacean.— In the Atmals
and Magazine of Natural History for July, the Rev.
T, R. Stebbing describes a new species of amphi-
podous Crustacea, under the name of Liljeborgia
Normanni. The specimen was taken under a stone •
in Salcombe Harbour. Its colour was orange, mottled
with rose-red, and its length, exclusive of the
antennae, was three-tenths of an inch. Subsequently
a female specimen was obtained, whose adult state
was indicated by its having a pouch containing

210

HARDVVICKE'S S ClfiN CE-GO S S IP.

BOTANY.

British Hepatice.— We have received the
second part of this splendid work by Dr. Carring-
ton, and are glad to note it is worthy its first
promise. There are four coloured plates to each
number of one edition, beautifully got up, and so
delicately tinted that the usual complaint of over
colouring cannot possibly be made in this case.
The work is intended to give descriptions and
iigures of the native species of J linger mannia, J\Iar-
chantia, aud Anthoceros, together with all their
known habitats. As it comes out in monthly
parts, coloured and uncoloured, it gives English
students the opportunity of adding an artistic and
valuable book to their library.

SCIKPUS LACUSTRIS AND TRIQUETEK.— If "T.W."

could see these two plants together, he would have
no difficulty in distinguishing them. (See Science-
Gossip for last June.) I have constantly seen the
Scirpus lacHstris in Switzerland ; it is five or six feet,
or even more, in water ; but I have never seen the
Scirpus triqueter (which is very abundant in shallow
water in the marsh at Villeneuve, at the head of the
Lake of Geneva) more than eighteen or twenty
inches high. The ste^m of S. lacustris is certainly
round, that of S. triqueter as certainly acutely three-
edged, as stated in my edition (1848) of Withing,
and not with blunt edges. Scirpus carinatus is
obtusely three-edged above the middle, and may
perhaps be the one referred to as quoted from Roth.
Some of tbe species of Scirpus bear so strong a
resemblance to each other that they can only be
determined by the form of the minute seeds ; for
instance, the Scirpus triqueter and Scirpus mucro-
natus, both growing together in the marsh at Ville-
neuve, have so much the same appearance ex-
ternally as to be undistinguishable except by the
seeds. Dr. Muret, ex-judge of Lausanne, an ardent
and indefatigable botanist, although often frequent-
ing the marsh, had always taken them for one and the
same species, viz. S. triqueter, till I drew his atten-
tion to the seeds, those of S. triqueter being smooth,
and those of S. mucrohutus being transversely
wrinkled; and M. Rapin, author of the "Flora of
Canton Vaud," at first took both for the same
plant, till I referred him to his own "Flora," when
he afterwaids told me he was satisfied they were
distinct; and though the S. triqueter is stated to
h&yejibrous roots and S. mucronatus running ones,
the characters are sometimes so indistinct as to lead
one to suppose they may have hybridized, growing
as they do close together. There is a Scirpus, con-
sidered by some as a variety of ^S*. lacustris, viz.
S. tabernoe montani, Gmell. (S. r/hiucus, Smith, Eng.
Bot.), a smaller and weaker plant with two stigmas,
the S. lacustris having three. Rapin says it is found
in places inundated during the winter ; Hooker says

it has a glaucous colour, and that he "admits it as
a species with hesitation, the distinction only rest-
ing on artificial or microscopical characters." Rapin
says the seed is plan-convexe, while that of the S^
lacustris, he says, is trigone. As the name of carina-
tus is sometimes, according to Bentham, given to a
variety of S. triqueter and sometimes to a variety of
S. lacustris, may not the S. carinatus be a hybrid
between the two? Gaudin ("Flora Helvetica")
says it is "culmo obsolete trigono, hinc planius-
culo, species triquetro et lacustri, illi majus habitu,
huic potissimum fructificatione affinis."— T. B. IF.,
Brighton.

The Pitcher-plant and its Prey.— Dr. Melli-
champ, of Bluffton, South Carolina, has been prose-
cuting researches on the pitchers of Sarracenia
variolaris and the way in which insects are caught
in them. The species abounds in this district, and
even early in May many pitchers were developed.
He has confirmed the presence of the sugary secre-
tion within the rim. He finds that it bedews the
throat all the way round the rim, and extends down-
wards from 1 inch to i inch. Dr. MelUchamp also
finds-and this is his most curious discovery— that
this sweet secretion is continued externally in a
line along the edge of the wing of the pitchers down
to the petiole or to the ground, forming a honeyed
trail or pathway up which some insects, aud espe-
cially ants, travel to the more copious feeding-
ground above; whence they are precipitated into the
well beneath. Ants are largely accumulated in
these pitchers. As to the supposed intoxicaiing
qualities of this secretion. Dr. MelUchamp was
unable to find any evidence of it. On cuttiiig off
the summit of the pitchers and exposing them freely
to flies in his house, he found that the insects which
came to them, and fed upon ihe sweet matter with
avidity, flew away after sipping their fill, to all ap-
pearance unharmed. On the other hand, he thinks
that the watery liquid in which the insects are
drowned and macerated possesses ansesthetic pro-
perties ; that house-flies, after brief immersion in it,
and when permitted to walk about in a thin layer of
it, " were invariably killed— as at first supposed— or
at any rate stupefied or paralyzed, in from half a
minute to three or five minutes," but most of them

would revive very gradually in the course of an hour
or so.

The Potato Disease in Kent.— Watching in
North Kent the rise, progress, and consummation
of this foe to the farmer during the past autumn, I
am convinced that fields lying low, and badly
drained, are most apt to be affected, other things
being equal The infatuation with which many
men are possessed, leads them to neglect pre-
cautions they might take, which would rescue part
of the crop, especially a speedy digging and careful

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP.

211

separation of 'the diseased, with the immediate com-
bustion of the infected leaves, which have, as I have
noticed, a perceptible influence on other plants near,
by infecting the atmosphere. In not a few fields
where the potatoes were attacked, weeding had not
been properly attended to, through the men being
taken up with baivesting, and the rows were over-
run with straggling plants, the couch-grass being
prominent. All this was much against Paddy's
favourite vegetable. — /. H. S. C.

The Scented Violet {F. odorata).— it has been
reported for some years past by botanists in the^
South of England that this favourite flower has
been growing more scarce. I am glad to be able to
report that in some districts of Korth Kent, near
Gravesend and Cobhara, it grows plentifully, being
indeed sufficiently abundant to betray itself by the
perfume diffused through the air while it is in
flower. Brought on by the mild weather, the violet
was out early tliis spi'ing, and by April 1st scarcely
one was to be found. On chalk and limestone in
Kent, this plant seems to give the preference to
shady lanes, with high hedge-banks, being more
usual in such spots than in woods. — /. R. S. C.

Water Avens. — I have gathered Geian rivale
in woods in tliis parish ; generally, if not always,
near running water.— i:^. M. C. Allen, Bareombe
Bectonj, Sussex.

The Flora of Colorado.— Messrs. Thomas C.
Porter and Jolin M. Coulter have just issued their
"Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado." It is an
exhaustive catalogue of the phsenogamous and
cryptogamous plants of tliis interesting country, and
contains concise but deBnitc descriptions of the new
and rarer species. The work is exceedingly well
done, and we agree with the authors in their preface
in regretting that an introductory article on the
geographical distribution cf the plants embraced in
the "Synopsis" could not be included in it. The
geographical distribution cf the Colorado plants
cannot fail to be of interest to botanists and
geologists.

Verbascum Lychxitis. — I hasten to inform
your botanical readers that at the present time a
number of plants of the somewhat rare Verhascum
hjchnitis are in blossom on the down side of the
Loudon, Chatham, and Dover Railway just beyond
Bickley Station. — G. S. Boidger, July 24.

The London Catalogue or British Plants.—
The seventh edition of this indispensable work has
just been issued. It is published under the direction
of the London Botanical Exchange Club, and is ad-
mirably adapted for marking desiderata in exchange
of specimens ; for an Index Catalogue to British
herbaria, indicating the species of local districts,
as well as for a guide to collectors, by showing the

comparative frequency or rarity of the various
species. The price (sixpence) brings it within the
reach of the poorest botanical student. It is pub-
lished by Hardwicke, 193, Piccadilly.

British Marine Alg.e.— This cheap, well
written, and excellently illustrated work has
reached the seventh part. We cannot recommend
a better manual to young students ; and the fact
that its author is W. H. Grattann is a good gua-
rantee for its accuracy and fulness.

GEOLOGY.

The Quaternary Period in the Isle oe Port-
land AND AROUND Weymouth. — A paper on this
subject was read by Joseph Prestwich, Esq.,
F.R.S., F.G.S. The author remarked that although
the physical features connected with the later geo-
logical changes in the district were of much interest,
they had hitherto attracted little attention. Com-
mencing with the oldest drift-beds, he showed that
the remains of one, formerly more extensive, had
been found in the Isle of Porland at a height of 400
feet above the sea; that it contained the remains of
the Elephas antiqmcs, Eqiius fossills, &c. ; and that
he found in this bed a number of pebbles of sand-
stone and ironstone of Tertiary age, and of chert
from the Greensands ; whence he inferred that, as
such pebbles could not now pass over the plain of
Weymouth, they must have done so before that
area was denuded, and when bridged over by the
Portland and Purbeck beds; for the pebbles are
derived from beds which are only in situ to the
north of the Weymouth district, and at a distance
of eight or ten miles from Portland. Further, this
transpcrt must have taken place before the elevation
of the noith end of Portland, and when the slope
from the Bill to the Ridgeway was uniform and
gradual. The anticlinal line, which has elevated
the intermediate area, must be of later date than
the drift-bed. The author next proceeded to notice
the raised beach at the Bill of Portland, in which he
had, with the assistance of Mr. Jeffreys, determined
twenty-six species of shells, two of them not now
living in the British Channel, and one new. This
beach contains pebbles of the Devonshire and
Cornwall rocks. The raised beach Mr, Prestwich
found to abut against an old cliff that liad been
swamped at a later geological period by a land-
wash, which had levelled it and the old sea-land
with the adjacent land-surface. The mass which
had thus swamped the cliff and buried the beach
consisted of loam and angular debris, the latter
being in larger proportion at top. In the loam he
found several species of land and fresh-water shells
and fragments of bones. The angular debris con-
sisted of pieces of the local rocks, together with a
number of specimens, which by their organic re-

212

HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

mains were shown to belong to the Middle Pur-
becks, a part of the series not now existing in Port-
land. A similar bed, but much thicker, was then
described at Chesiltou, in j the north of the island.
It is there sixty feet thick, and contains large
blocks of Portland stone and Portland chert, the
greater number of which are in the upper part of
the deposit, v^hich is here on the sea-level, and 400
feet lower than the Portland escarpment which rises
above it. This loam and angular debris the author
was disposed to attribute to a temporary sub-
mergence of the land to a depth exceeding the
height of Portland, and by which the land as it
emerged was swept, and its debris carried down to
the lowest levels, with the remains of its land
animals and land and fresh-water shells, which
latter, where protected by large masses of loam and
suddenly entombed, have been preserved uninjured.
To this deposit, which is common over the raised
beaches on the south coast, the author proposed to
apply the term "Laud- wash." The paper con-
cluded with a short notice of the drift-beds formed
subsequently to the denudation of tlie Weymouth
district, and therefore never on the high-level
Portland drift. Amongst these was one near Wey-
mouth of singular character, consisting almost
entirely of subangular fragments of Greensand
chert, which could not have been derived from beds
nearer than Abbotsbury. The lower drift of the
district is the valley-gravel of Upway and Radipole,
in which the remains of the Elephas primigenim
have been found.

Basalt. — la reply to some of Mr. H. P. Malet's
queries on this subject, iu the June number of
Science-Gossip (p. 139), I may refer him to a
paper by the late Prof. Fowues "On the Existence
of Phosphoric Acid iu Rocks of Igneous Origin."
This paper was read before the Royal Society on
April 25th, 1844, and published both in the
Philosophical Transactions (1844, part i. p. 53) and
in the ~Edin. New Phil. Journal (xxxvii. 1844, p. 294).
Eownes's researches showed that phosphoric acid
exists in the lavas of Vesuvius and in some of the
old Rhenish lavas ; not to mention other rocks to
which an eruptive origin may fairly be attributed.
Moreover, Sullivan detected phosphoric acid in
obsidian from the Lipari Isles; C. Sainte-Claire
DeviUe found from 1'4 to 2'2 per cent, of phos-
phate of lime in the lava erupted from Vesuvius in
1855 ; and Kosmann has recorded 058 per cent, of
phosphoric acid in the basaltic lava from the Puy
de Cohere, in Auvergne. As to basalts, they
commonly yield phosphoric acid when carefully
examined. "It almost seems," says Zirkel, "as
though we should find phosphoric acid in most
basalts, if we only sought specially f?r it, or tested
a sufficiently large quantity of the rock. And it
cannot be doubted that the apatite existing in the

basalt is the source of this phosphoric acid."
("Basaltgesteine,"lS70,p. 72.) Microscopic crystals
of apatite are, indeed, extremely common in
basalts, and they also occur in many other rocks to
which an igneous origin is commonly attributed. A
list of these apatite-bearing rocks will be found in
Rosenbusch's "Mikroskopische Physiographic,"
1873, p. 221. On the disintegration of a rock its phos-
phates pass into the soil, whence they are abstracted
by growing plants, and thus pass ultimately to the
animal organism, where they are concentrated in
certain tissues, such as bone. On the decomposi-
tion of the animal matter, the phosphates are
returned to the soil, and the cycle of changes is
thus completed. It is clear, however, that all soils
do not derive their phosphates from organic
sources ; a sheet of recently-erupted lava, for
example, may be extremely fertile, and the plants
growing in such a situation must needs obtain
their phosphates solely from the mineral con-
stituents of the lava. Indeed phosphatic minerals,
so far from being absent from rocks of
igneous origin, are among their most common
constituents. "There can be little doubt," says
Fownes, speaking specially of mineral phosphates,
" that the matter erupted from time to time from
the interior of the earth, in a state of fusion, is thus
destined to renew the surface, from which the more
valuable and more soluble components have gra-
dually been removed by the action of water, and
other causes constantly iu operation." With
reference to the occurrence of olivine in basalt>
little need be said. As Mr. Malet speaks of olivine
as "a product of saliciue, whicii is formed of the
bark and leaves of trees," it is clear that he is not
referring to the olivine of the mineralogist. Un-
fortunately Mulder many years ago applied the
name of olivine to a resinous substance obtained by
the action of certain reagents on saliciue ; yet it
need liardly.be said that this rare chemical product,
now almost forgotten, does not occur in basalt.
The olivine which does occur there is a silicate of
magnesia, containing more or less iron. This
mineral is not only one of the most common
accessory constituents of basalt, but is also found
in certain lavas, the igneous origin of which is of
course indisputable. It appears, therefore, that
the occurrence of apatite and olivine iu basalt can
hardly be used as an argument in favour of Mr.
Malet's view of the origin of this rock. He has
told us, in " The Circle of Light, or Dhawalegeri,"
that " basalt is a hard, colourless, dark rock, such
as would be formed under the water, ere light gave
her colours to the world." Mr. Malet, however,
does not stand alone even in the present day, in
denying the igneous origin of basalt. The Nep-
tunian theory is advocated, for example, with
much abihty, in Dr. Mohr's " Geschichte der Erde "
(Bonn, 1S6G).— F. TF. Rucller.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE -GOS SIP.

213

The Steppes of Siberia.— A paper on this
subject was read at the last meeting of the Geo-
logical Society by Thomas Belt, Esq., F.G.S-
The author describes the portion of the Siberian
steppes traversed by him as consisting of sand
and loam. The best section seen by him was at
Pavlodar, where he found one foot of surface-soil,
twenty feet of stratified reddish-brown sand, with
lines of small gravel, eight feet of light- coloured
sandy silt, fifteen feet of coarse sand, with lines
of small pebbles and one line of large ones, and
six feet of clayey uulaminated silt, with fragments
of the bed rock in its lower half, the bed rock
being magnesian limestone much crushed at the
top. South of Pavlodar the surface was covered
with pebbles, which became larger in advancing
southward, until the soil was full of large angular
quartz boulders. Further south the bed-rock
comes to the surface in ridges and low hills, increas-
ing in height until some of them attain 2,000 feet.
All the rock-surfaces were much shattered, as if by
the action of frost, but they showed no signs of
glacier-action. The ridges and hills were separated
by plains composed of sandy clay, with numerous
angular fragments derived from the rocks in the
immediate neighbourhood. This is accounted for
by the author on the supposition ttiat they formed a
series of shallow lakes, frozen over in winter, and
that the ice on breaking up carried away fragments
of the rocks. The distribution of the boulders on
the plain north of the ridges was also attributed to
floating ice. The generally accepted marine origin
of the great plain was said to be negatived by the
absence of sea-shells in its deposits, whilst Cyrena
fluminalis occurs inthem. The author regards them
as deposits from a great expanse of fresh water kept
back by a barrier of polar ice descending far to-
wards the south. In its greatest extension this
ice-barrier would produce the crushing of the bed-
rock ; and as it retreated, the water coming down
from the higher ground in the south would cover a
continually increasing surface.

The Hematite Deposits of Whitehaven
AND EuKNESs.— J. D. Kendall, Esq., F.G.S., has
recently read a paper on this subject at the Geo-
logical Society. The writer states that the deposits
of hematite occur in the Silurian and Carboniferous
rocks, but chiefly in the latter, and nearly all those
worked in the two districts are found in the
Mountain limestone. They occur at all levels in the
limestone, and generally near faults ; their dip is
the same as that of the beds in which they lie.
Their longest axis almost always corresponds with
the magnetic meridian. Their internal nature
varies at the two localities. The Whitehaven
hematite is much more compact than that of Furness.
In the latter place it contains fossils from the Car-
boniferous limestone. The author considers the

hematites to have been deposited by water, coming
probably from the coal-measures, containing bicar-
bonate of iron. The author believes that they were
pi'obably deposited after the Millstone-grit but
before the Permian.

A Large Strutiiious Bird from the London
Clay.— Harry Govier Seeley, F.L.S., F.G.S., has
just described the tibia of a fossil bird from that
rich store-house the Isle of Sheppey. The author
describes the distal portion of a right tibia of a large
struthious bird from the London Clay of Eastchurcli
in Sheppey. The only living types approximating
to it are the Apteryx, which similarly has the shaft
at the back of the distal articulation, and the Emu,
which similarly has the shaft compressed from back
to front. The author considered that the skull
named by Prof. Owen, Dasornis, might, if it belonged
to a bird, be referred to Megalornis ; but he detailed
considerations which led him to suggest that
Dasornis may possibly be a fish.

NOTES AND aUERIES.

Preserving Animals, &c.— In reply to "D.H."
(Antrim), respecting obtaining skeletons of animals
otherwise than by placing the bodies near ants'
nests, the following is the plan usually adopted by
naturalists :— Carefully skin the animal and remove
the entrails, then place the body in soft (rain) water,
changing the water as soon as discoloured, till all
the blood is soaked out and decomposition takes
place, when the flesh may be removed with a hard
brush. In the foregoing proceedings, great care
must be taken not to strain or break any of the
ligaments which surround the bones. When all the
flesh has been removed, the skeleton may be set up,
supporting it with fine brass wire where necessary.
Then the ligaments may be cut off close to the
joints with a sharp pair of scissors, and the skeleton
must be put in an airy place to dry, but not in the
sun or near the fire, as that will turn the bones a
bad colour. By the above plan, with patience and
care, " D. H." will be able to obtain good skeletons.
— W. Z. Chivers.

Ancient Trees.— In SciENCE-possip for June,
one of the contributors on this subject, " hopes that
the ancient trees of this country will all soon be
recorded." _ I have read with extreme interest the
brief mention of Uiany an ancient denizen of the
forest, &c., but have failed to observe any reference
to some venerable oaks and a very old yew, which,
in former years, I saw very frequently. When I
was a boy at school in Gloucestershire, I used to
visit a friend at Bit ton, near Bath, and sometimes
we went to church together, at the picturesque
village of Oldham. In the churchyard was a grand
old yew, wliich at first sight had the appearance
of three very large trees, the trunk having been
divided down to the very base. One Sunday morn-
ing after church I was sitting under the shade of
its wide-spreading branches, when I remember
hearing the clergyman of the district describing the
old church and its surroundings to some visitors.
" And," said he, " this fine old yew is known to be
over a thousand years old, and we have a record of

2U

HAE.DWICKE'3 SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

its having been split by lightning about 150 years
ago, and thus it has the appearance, you see, of a
group of three distinct Irees." One portion of this
severed yew was tolerably erect, but the other two
leaned downwards, at an angle so acute, that visitors
could easily step between each portion ; and, but
that the character of the inner sides indicated frac-
ture, it was hard to believe that they were not three
distinct individuals. Of the oak-trees, which I have
not seen for nearly twenty years, one was at Ches-
hunt, in Herts, growing close to the main road. I
was told it was mentioned in " Doomsday-book."
It is not of very great size as reaards height, and,
so far as I remember, was quite hollow in the trunk,
and what few branches capable of bearing foliage
remained, formed a kind of crest at the top of one
side only, the sap being, as I presume, conveyed
upwards chiefly through the bark on that side of
the trunk. At the time I saw it, there was a talk
of removing it on account of its obstruction to
traffic; but the people of the neighbourhood would
not hear of such a thing, and so I suppose the
venerable ruin is still standing. The other oaks
were also in Herts ; one adorns the gardens at Pan-
shanger, where, by the way, in one of the rooms of
the mansion, there are two most beautiful pictures
by Salvator Rosa. The age of the tree must be
very great, but I did not hear it stated. The last
time I saw it was during summer, and being in
splendid foliage, the cool shade under its leafy
canopy was very delightful. The circumference of
its extended branches covered an area of 170 yards.
I did not measure the trunk, but its size was very
great. The other oak is at Northaw, about two
miles from the Potter's Bar station. It stands in-
side a plantation close to the road, and one of its
lateral branches extends entirely across the road and
droops over the hedge on the other side. Many of
the readers of Sciexce-Gossip have doubtless
visited Berry Pomeroy Castle, in Devon, and of
course all who havebeentherewillhave seen the great
beech-tree in the wood hard by. This is said to be
the finest beech in England. The country people
there tell visitors that if they .walk three times
round this tree without speaking, their wish, what-
ever it may be, will be gratified. This saying in
my case certainly was verified, for as the tree stands
on the side of a steep hill, and the base of the trunk
projects here and there most inconveniently, it was
so extremely difficult to walk round it, even once,
that the uppermost wish in my mind was never to
undertake the fatiguing task of walking round it
again, at least, not three times in succession. I
may also refer to those ancient and very extraordi-
nary oaks on Dartmoor, at that strange wild rocky
place called " Wistman's Wood" by some, and
" Wiseman's Wood " by_ others. The oak-trees
here are mere dwarfs in size, being barely six feet
high, but the branches at the top spread out hori-
zontally to an unusual size. These trees are said to
have been standing in the time of the Druids, and,
if so, formed part of the sacred groves. Strange
tales are told in connection with these weird-look-
ing trees and the desolate rocky place where they
stand.— 7/^. H. Graitan.

The Seven Ash-trees vs Tewin Citurch-
YARD.— I am sorry that the apparently unfounded
aspersion upon the character of Lady Anne Grims-
ton should have received additional currency through
the medium of Science-Gossip. Those interested
in the growth and details of a legend which seems
to have been invented to account for a curious
phenomenon, should consult Notes and Queries,

\ 4th sevies,vol. vii. pp. 76, 1^8,172,195,273, 309, from
which they will learn that " abundant evidence exists
of both the Christian life and Christian faith of Lady
Anne Grimston." — James Bi-itten.

Preserving Insects.— Wishing to preserve the
insects I capture during the summer, for dissection
during the winter months, I am at a loss to know
what is the best preservative to use, and should feel
obliged for any hints on the matter from some of
our gossipers. Spirits of wine, I know, is good,
but it%eems_to harden, toughen, or otherwise
destroy the original character of the integument. —
Ento., Hull.

The Tortoise.— It is certainly a rare occurrence
for tortoises to lay eggs in this country, but they
occasionally do so, and in some instances the eggs
have been artificially hatched. I would refer Mr.
Williams to Science-Gossip, vol. vii. pp. 208 and
263. With regard to the eg^ discovered inside the
skeleton, it is not an uncommon thing to find per-
fect eggs in the ovaries of dead hens. It would be
interesting to know how long a time elapsed be-
tween the laying of the second egg and the death of
the tortoise ; and whether, as is the ease with the
hen, the first eggs would not have commenced to
develop until the last one was deposited. The
egg of Testudo G rosea is white, spherical, and about

the size of a gall-nut

-E. Raise.

Golden Eagles.— On looking over Science-
Gossip for 1872 I find a note about a Golden Eagle
having been killed at Oare, Somerset, and the fol-
lowing month a correspondent, " G.," doubts it being
a Golden Eagle. I recollect the circumstance of the
eagle being killed perfectly well. It was wounded
by Mr. Snow, and killed by his keeper on the fol-
lowing day ; it was killed in Mr. Snow's deer park,
on the borders of Devon and Somerset. It is
without doubt a Golden Eagle, as Mr. Snow him-
self ■ informed me, and my brother has seen it.
Should, however, any one doubt it, Mr. Snow would,
1 am sure, allow him to gratify his curiosity. It
would well repay the trouble by the beautiful
scenery, and should he be fond of fly-fishing, he
could obtain plenty of sport. — Arthur Smyth, Parra-
combe, Barnstaple, Devon.

"Half-iiours in Green Lanes." — If "P.
Barker" wants to know anything respecting the
above book, I can tell him it is a charming little
work, and I have derived great amusement and
information from it, also aid in regard to micro-
scopic objects. — li. E. W., Berry Grove.

A Chicken hatched by a Pigeon.— A friend
of mine, Mr. H. Cross, 1, Pelh am -'street. Brick-
lane, has related to me the following remarkable
circumstance. Mr. Cross keeps a numler of
pigeons, and last month his man finding a pair
about sitting on one egg placed a full-sized hen's
egg under the pigeon : both eggs were hatched at
the expiration of nineteen days, on June 1st. AVhat
conclusion can be drawn from this ? is there more
warmth in the pigeon's body, than the hen's ? Both
pigeon and chicken (the latter is being reared by
hand) are alive, and Mr. Cross or his man will
show them to any one who may call. — Aaron Solomon.

To Poultry-keepers. — A few days since, a
fine black Spanish hen was found dead in our poultry-
yard, with her beak open, and some substame with-
in it. On drawing this forth, it proved to be a
mouse, which had become fixed head downwards in

HARDWICKES SC lEN CE-GOS SIP.

215

the poor bird's throat. The hen was still worm
wheu the discoverj; was made. It appeared as
tliough the mouse in its struggle to escape, had
forced its way down the fowl's throat, and so caused
the death of both.— ^. 31. F.

Moths' "Wings.— Entomological writers in their
instructions how to distinguish butterflies from
moths, give four characters;— the two principal ones
are: 1st. The antennae in butterflies have a knob
at the end ; moths are always without knob, and are
generally longer and fine at the end. 2iid. When a
butteiflyis at rest, its wings are always upright and
pressed together back to back, whilst a moth rests
with its underwings folded round its body, the
upper wings onlybeing visible. One evening I caught
what I supioose'd was a butterfly, and put it in the
killing-box' with some moths, but on returning
home, I could not find the butterfly at all. Some
little time after T again caught what I thouglit vras a
butterfly, but on examining it by the lamp, I found
it to be a moth with its wings upright like a butter-
fly, and to the best of my recollection, it was the
small Phoenix moth {Cidaria silaceata). Since then
I have frequently caught moths with tiiis pecu-
liarity, but they all belonged to the tribe of Geo-
meters.— Arthur Smyth.

Remarkable Trees ik Tewix Churchyard.
— A few observations on "J. E. S. C.'s" article may
not be out of place. Some days sincj I visited the
tomb out of, and around which the trees grow. I
counted seven trunks of ash. The bases of the trunks
had grown together, so that it was impossible to
say how many trees there are. "J. K. S. C." does not
mention that three trunks of sycamore occupy one
side of the tomb. So altogetlier there are ten
trunks. The original iron railing round the tomb
is in some places entirely hidden, the wood of the
trees having quite overgrown it. The stones at one
corner are burst quite open, so that the brickwork
in the interior of the tomb can be seen distinctly.
The old wood railings have been removed, and tall
iron railings substituted, which effectually prevent
visitors from carving their monograms in the bark
of the trees. Both sycamore and ash bear samaroid
or winged fruit, which might be blown by the wind
into the joints of the tomb and there germinate,
which would account for the trees growing there.
Still I think it a very remarkable occurrence. It
is still more strange that the trees were not removed
when young. With ditficulty I made out the date.
It is 1713. This was the year when Lady A. G.
was buried.— T//o«ffs B. Blow, Welwija.

CocKROAcriES OR Blackbeetles ?— " J. P. n.,"
in Science- Gossip for June, speaks of a correspon-
dent being infested with "either blackbeetles or
cockroaches." Does he mean to imply that black-
beetle's, as they are called, are not cockroaches ?—
R. R. iraniiigtoii.

The Nocttjle Bat {Noctulhua altiirolans). —
One evening in July, 1871, I was passing some
beech and elm-trees near my residence here, and
hearing a loud humming, as of insects, I looked up,
and saw a perfect swarm of the late cockchafers —
Summer Dorrs they are called, 1 believe— flying
high in the air round the trees, and among this buz-
zing host sailed and swooped five of the largest
bats I had ever seen. Whether the bats were feed-
ing oil the dorrs or not, I am unable to say, as the
height at which they were flying prevented my
seeing this. These bats I have since discovered

were without doubt members of the above species.
A specimen which came into my possession on the
2±th of March last, measured IS^ inches in extent
of " wing " ; it is therefore appropriately called the
Great Bat. It occurs most commonly in July, and
is seldom seen singly. Its flight is rapid and
powerful, and more commonly exercised in a
straight line than that of the smaller bats; it is
likewise accompanied with a rattling noise. My
specimen was a male, and this induces me to ask —
Has the female noctule ever been taken ? White
of Selborne, who first placed this bat on the British
list, had suspicions that it was merely the male of
the smaller species. I find the people hereabouts
are well acquainted with the noctule, and style it
the " Bat-rat." The small bat is kno^vn as the
"Bat-mouse." On p. 67 of this magazine for the
present year, in a short notice of the Barbastelle
Bat {Barbastellus Dauhentoiili), I said I did not
believe that the specimen in question was hybernat-
ing where it was found. This I find on further
inquiry was incorrect, as it was in reality in that
state, and had to be hustled and shaken before it
could be roused from its torpor. — W. H. Warner,
Kingston, Abingdon.

Poisonous Efeects of a Viper's Bite. — A
bricklayer living at Andover, named Charles
Chandler, was bitten by what he supposed to be a
harmless snake, and has suffered a great deal of
pain in consequence. I draw particular attention
to the matter, because some statements I made a
few yeai's ago in Science-Gossip, relative to the
dangerous effects of vipers' poison, were doubted.
Charles Chandler saw the reptile in the road near
a small public-house, into which he carried it for
the purpose of inspection, and when placed on the
table it darted at him and bit him on the forefinger
of his right hand : the pain became in a short time
most intense, and the finger very discoloured ; so
Chandler went off to Dr. Latham, who directly
cauterized the wound. The pain extended all the
way down the arm from the finger to the shoulder,
and the man was exceedingly ill. There was con-
siderable sickness, accompanied by great coldness of
the system. The adder is supposed to have been
brought into the town from " Hai-ewood Forest"
in a bundle of fagots, a dealer, living in East-street,
having discovered several of these reptiles on his
premises from time to time this spring, and de-
stroyed them immediately ; but the one in question
had pi'obably made its escape from the yard, and
was en route for the country when Chandler met it.
— //. E. Watuetj.

Insects and Flowers. — In the last number of
Science -Gossip, some observations of Sir John
Lubbock are referred to, indicating that bees can
distinguish colours. It would appear that some moths
can appreciate resemblances in form and colour, as 1
was assured some time ago that a humming-bird
hawk-moth entered a room here, and went from
flower to flower in the pattern of the wall-paper,
evidently mistaking them for the real thing and pro-
bably much disappointed at the want of flavour, —
George Guyon.

Hawks. — I have noticed in several hawks ("ap-
parently sparrow-hawks) that have been shot near
me, a peculiarity not mentioned in any book that I
know of. Over each eye is a hard, prominent, bony,
sharp-edged, arched eyebrow. What is the use of
this ? Is it a protection to the eye when the bird
suddenly pounces from a height ?— /S". T. P.

216

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We must remind our friends, who make use of this column,
that the following rules should be strictly adhered to : —
First. That perfect specimens be sent. Secondly. That all
the information as to habitat, &c., that the inquirer can give
should be forwarded with them. Thirdly. To bear in mind
that drawings, unless very perfectly executed, are useless,
and a tyro is very apt to omit some distinctive characteristic
which would enable the examiner to decide the genus and
species of the object sent. Lastly. Never to send an object
for identification until the inquirer has used his best endea-
vours to find out for himself all the information he requires.
Questions are very frequently sent, which the slightest effort
on the part of the querist, in looking through some elementary
treatise, would have given all the knowledge required.

Geo. Barnbs. — The " Hair-worm" (Gordius aquaticus) is
the name of your specimen. It usually lives in water, but
passes its earlier stages as a parasite in insects.

H. H. C. wants to know the English and scientific name of
the bird commonly known as the " Call Duck."

Mrs. G. Hoare. — See the articles in Science-Gossip for
.Tune 1S72, January 18"3, and March 18/2, for information
as to the food and general habits of the water newt when
kept in aquaria.

F. B. — Your specimen of Daunts carota showing retrogres-
sion of the carpels is very curious. We have not seen the
phenomenon before.

A. R. G. — The "growth " on the leaves of a larch tree are
the stalked eggs of the Lace-wing fly.

W. H. J.— You will find the description of how to make a
botanical vasculum in most elementary botanical works.
Why not procure one at some natural history dealer's in
London ?

Geo. Smith.— Your specimen is the male catkin of th^
Goat Willow (Salix caprcca). In the northern counties thes^
catkins, when in full bloom, are commonly called " palms,'
chiefly, perhaps, because they are in bloom about the time
when Palm Sunday falls.

J. T. Bea.v. — You will find several methods of destroying
ants in the " Notes and Queries" columns of Science-
Gossip for 1873, and the present year.

S. A . NoNC UTT.— The plant with spike of small yellow flowers
is G'llium verum, or " Yellow Bedstraw; " the Tormentil is
Potentilla tormentilla.

J. Green. — Accept our^thanks for the packet of foramini-
ferous silt.

E. C. R. — Accept our best thanks for your valuable cor-
rection.

W. M. — Will tills contributor (who offered material for
mounting in last month's " Exchange "column and forgot
to send us his address) now forward it, as we have several
letters for him ?

R. W. (Westward). — Yoiir Carex is not allied to either
vp.iicaria or ampuUacea, but is a small form of Carex pendula,
Huds.

C. T. (Brighton).— Your umbelliferous plant is the wild
state of Fastinnca safifa, L. It diflfers very much from the
cultivated variety : we do not wonder that you have been
puzzled.— J. F. R.

W. S.MART, M D. — The specimen inclosed is a Valerian, not>
however, a British plant : it is the true Valeriana Phu ; it is
strange, however, it should be called " Sidwell." Probably
this name is intended for the V. tifpciimlis, L. Would you
kindly send us your opinion upon this interesting point? —
J. F. R.

F. H. A." (Fishbourne). — The inclosed grass is a stunted
form of Phleum pratense, h. The barren field will explain
■why it is so small.— J. F. R,

H. J. McG. (Walford).— No. I is a very poor specimen, but
it is probably Carex dioica, L. No. 2, Carex curta, Good :
the one not labelled is also C. curta, perhaps your duplicate.
No. 3, Carex panicea, Linn. — J. F. R.

E. E. (New Brighton).— The plant marked No. 3 is Erythrea
linnrifolia. It is a most variable species ; we have met with
numerous forms on the N.B. sand-hills, sufficient almost to
puzzle a philosopher. No. 14 is not an /»«/«. The specimen
was broken and crushed, so as .to render identification
impossible. — J. F. R.

T. B. S.— The place where the green fluor spar is most
abundant in Great Britain is Alston Moor, Cumberland.

T. Jones. — No better elementary manual than Cooke's
"Microscopic Fungi " (.London : Hardwicke) is to be ob-
tained.

W. Knowles. — See article in Science-Gossip, vol. for 1872,
on " Collecting and Preserving Fungi,'' by Mr. Worthington
Smith. It will give you all the information you require as to
preserving fungi.

QfERisT. — Your specimen is not afossil plant, but a sponge.
They are not uncommon in flint nodules.

To CoRRESPON'DENTS.^ We liavc been obliged (through
absence from home) to postpone acknowledging communi-
cations this month.

EXCHANGES.

For packet of Foraminiferous Silt, partly prepared, send
mounted object of interest to J. Green, Causeway Villa, March,
Cambridgeshire.

Collections of Malta and Gazo land and fresh-water
shells, for others.— H. W. Feilden, 10 1, Strada Bretanica,
Valletta, Malta.

I have duplicates of a dozen rare plants and am in want of
Hyoscyamus niger and Conium maculatum. — H. Higginson,
New Ferry, Birkenhead.

Wanted, a quantity of smooth- skinned Larvje, large Grass-
hoppers or other insects suitable for dissection, alive or
fresh killed; Microscopic and Entomological Books and
other things. — J. S. Harrison, 48, Lowgate, Hull.

I-ARV.i! of Piniperda, Menyanthidis, Fuliginnsa, for other
larvse or pupce ; silkworms preferred.— A. Pickard, Wolsing-
ham, Darlington.

Desioerat.\ : Sinapis, Daplidice.'Syale, Lathonia, Pruni,
Betulas, Acis, Arion, a.nd Pangicus. Duplicates : Alsug, Cury-
don, jEgon, Qdercus, Rubi, Galatliea, Adippe, Paphia, and
Semele.—K. I. Stent, 70, Queen-street, Portsea.

Duplicates: Tersceta, Emarginuta, Adustata, Marginata,
Chrysorrhcen, Jacobeteu, and Fitipendulx. Desiderata: Cyfi.
aaria, Firidaia, Sinaragdaria, Ornata, Dealbata, Ulmata,
Hastata,a.nd. Tristata.-E. R. Roberts, 104, Fratton-street,
Portsmouth, Hants.

Epithemia Syndmanii, E. Zebra, E. Argus, Hydroseira
triquetra, Triceratium favus, for well-mounted Slides of
other Diatoms named. — Send list to M. D., The Esplanade,
Deal.

I SHOULD be glad to exchange specimens with any one
collecting British Coleoptera. — James Walkden, 150, Stock-
port-road, Manchester.

Rare Shells offered : Clausilia rvgosa, var. Schlechtii (new
variety recently determined by Mr. Jeffreys), Helix obvoltiia.
Helix recelata, Pisidium cinereum, Achatina acicula, Clau-
silia dubia, for Pupa anglica, P. pusilla, P. antivertigo, P.
substriata, P. Venetzii, P. alpestris, or Tstacellus or Surcinea
oblonga.—W . F. Sutton, Gosforth Grove, near Newcastle-on-
Tyne.

Dried specimens of "8, 174, 274, 276, 395, 694, in Lon. Cat.
for47,83,77, 110, ill, 131.— Address, Miss Howorths, Burnley|

For Erysephe montapnio on Burdock, send stamped
envelope to T. Brittain, 52, Park street, Green Heys, Man-
chester. No exchange required.

FiRT-CLASS Micro Slides offered for Mole Crickets, great
Green Grasshoppers, Field Crickets, Locusts, or good Foreign
Species of Grasshoppers, Crickets, &c., any quantity during
gCason.- C. L. Jackson, II, Hesketh-street, Southport.

For Palate of Trochus ziziphinus and Chiton (unmounted),
send stamped addressed envelope to Jas. Lumsden, 197,
Dorning-street, Wigan. Any good object acceptable.

Well-mounted and prepared Diatomacere from Richmond,
Virginia, or Yarra Yarra, for Diatomaceous Material and
pieces of Holothurise, cleaned or uncleaned. — H. B. Thomas,
Boston, Lincolnshire.

BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." August.

" Journal of Proceedings of the Winchester and Hampshire
Scientific Society."

"Sulphur in Iceland." By Dr. Carter Blake. London:
E. & F. Spon.

" Smithsonian Report." I872.

" Ben Brierley's Journal." July.

" Monthly Journal of Education." August.

" Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' Society." New
Series, vol. I. part I.

" Monthly Report of Department of Agriculture." For June.

" Boston Journal of Chemistry."' July.

" Bulletin of the U. S. Geological Survey of the Territories."
No. 2.

" Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado." By J. C. Porter and
J. M. Coulter. London : Triibner & Co.

" Canadian Entomologist." No. 6,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

217

THE HISTOEY OF OUE CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

No. V— THE TURNIP {Brassica Rapa).

'HE Turnip, as before
stated, belongs to
the same class as
the Cabbage; it is a
biennial plant, and
a frequent weed of
cultivation found in
the borders of fields
and waste places in
Europe, and in the
rate and subtropical
lates of Asia. In this
the root - leaves are
large, of a deep green co-
lour, very rough, jagged, and
gashed. In the second sea-
son it sends up a flower-
stalk with leaves embracing
the stem, smooth, glaucous,
oblong, and pointed ; the
flowers and pods resemble
those of the cabbage, but the
petals are of a much brighter
}-ellow. The varieties both
under garden and field cul-
ture are very numerous, while these again differ
with soil and climate and manner of cultivation.

The turnip was known to the Greeks, who called
this vegetable Gongyle, from the roundness of its
roots. It is said to have been introduced into
Greece and Italy from Gaul. The ancient Greeks
appear not to have used it much as an article of
diet, but more as a medicine, for cataplasm, and as
an external application to recover frozen or be-
numbed feet, being first boiled in water and then
applied as a fomentation. Democritus, the cele-
brated philosopher of Abdera, who lived in the 5lh
century B.C., banished turnips altogether from the
table, on account of their engendering flatulency ;
while Diodes, a physician of the next century, on
the other hand, extolled these roots as much as the
former philosopher had condemned them. By the
No. 118.

Romans they were much esteemed. Cato mentions
them as being cultivated at Rome in his time ;
Pliny, in his Nat. Hist., writes thus of the turnip,
which he says is pretty nearly the same in nature
as the Rape {B. Naptts) and thrives equally well in a
cold soil. The proper time for sowing both kinds
is the period that intervenes between the festivals
of the two divinities Neptune and Vulcan (23rd July
and 23rd August). It is said too — and it is the result
of very careful observation — that these plants will
thrive wonderfully well, if they are sown as many
days after the festival of Neptune as the moon was
old when the first snow fell the previous winter.
They are sown in spring as well, in warm and
humid localities. The more careful growers re-
commend that the ground should be turned up five
times before putting in the turnip, and four for
rape, care being taken iu both cases to manure it
well. Rape, they say, will thrive all the better if it
is sown together with some chaff. He also states
that the sower ought to be stripped, and that he
should offer a prayer while sowing, and say, " I sow
this for myself and my neighbours."

Erom all that can be gathered from the writings
of the ancients, it is probable that the turnip
occupied nearly the same place iu Roman culture
as it does in the British husbandry of the 'present
day. Columella recommended that the growth of
turnips should be abundant, because those which
were not required for human food could be given
with much advantage to cattle, and both Pliny and
he concur iu their testimony that this produce
was esteemed next to corn in utility and value.
Columella states that turnips were particularly
abundant in Gaul, and that the inhabitants fed their
cattle with them. The best turnips, according to
Pliny, grew in tlie country of the Sabines, and were
worth at Rome a sestertius, or twopence, each. It
is related that when the Samuite ambassadors
visited Maulius Curius they found him cooking
turnips by the embers of Lis watch-fire, and when
they displayed the treasures which were intended

218

HAKDWICKE'S SCI E N CE-G O S SIP.

to bribe bim, tbis great man, poiutiug to tbe pot in
wbicb bis vegetables were boiling, answered witb
contempt, " I prefer my eartbeu pots to all your
vessels of gold and silver ; and it is my wisb to com-
mand tbose wbo are in possession of money, wbile I
am deprived of it and live in poverty."

It is most probable tbat tbe garden culture of
tbis vegetable was introduced into this country witb
some others by tbe Ptomans, but I do not find any
mention of it until the IGtb century ; and it
has been disputed whether tl;e cultivation of it
was revived by nature, industry, or introduced at
tbat period by tbe Flemings.

In the time of Henry VIII. they were eaten
baked, or roasted in tbe ashes, and tbe young sboots
used as a spring salad ; during the reign of Elizabeth
boiled turnips were a favourite dish. Shakespeare
makes mention of them in the " Merry Wives of
Windsor" (Act 3rd, Scene 4th), wbere "Sweet Ann
Page," while resisting Master Slcndcr's suit, appeals
to her mother thus: " Good mother, do not marry me
to yond fool. Alas ! I liad rather be set quick i' the
earth and bowl'd to death with turnips."

Prom the remarks of Gerard, it would appear
that turnips were not much grown in his time,
except for domestic purposes. He says of this root,
" It groweth in fields and divers vineyards or bop-
gardens in most places of England. The small
turnip groweth by a village near London, called
Hackney, in a sandy ground, and are brought to tbe
Cross in Cheapside by the women of that village to
be sold, and are the best I ever tasted. The bulbus
or knobbed root, which is properly called rapum or
turnip, and hath given the name to tlie plant, is
many times eaten raw, especially by the poor people
in Wales, but most commonly boiled." Cogan, in
his " Haven of Health," published in 1597, says,
"tbat although many men love to eat turnips, yet
do swine abhor them." Parkinson, wbo wrote in
] C29, mentions them as vegetables cultivated in
gardens only. In IGGS Worledge published the
" Mystery of Husbandry," in which he says, " tbat
allhough turnips be usually nourished in gardens
and be properly a garden plant, yet are (hey to tbe
very great advantage of tbe husbandman, sown in
his fields in several places in England, not only for
culinary uses, as about London and other large cities,
but also for food for cattle." IMiller, in his " Gar-
dener's Dictionary," published 1737, describes two
kinds of round turnip, one with white and the
other with purple roots ; also a yellow and loug-
Tooted sort, which he says was formerly more
eultivated than at present, for it is now very rare
to see either of these brought to tbe markets,
though some years since they were sold in as great
a plenty as the commoner kind.

Gardening and agriculture are in some degree
allied in their progress and results. Vegetables that
tave been first introduced as luxuries into our

gardens have in time become staple productions of
our fields ; and the introduction of turnip-husbandry
js one of the most important events in the history
of British agriculture. It is said Sir Richard
Weston recommended them as an object of field-
tillage about the middle of the 17th century ; but
tbe cultivation did not make much progress
until 1730, when Lord Townshend introduced
the culture of them on his estates at Rainbam, in
Norfolk.

Until the commencement of the last century an
extensive tract of land of the north-east angle of
that county continued very nearly in tbe state of
nature, being a district of sheep-walks and rabbit-
warrens, and a large portion of tbe soil of a very
inferior quality. About the year before mentioned.
Lord Townshend, attending King George I. in one
of his excursions to Germany, in tbe quality of
Secretary of State, observed the turnip cultivated
in open and extensive fields, as fodder for cattle,
and spreading fertility over lands naturally barren.
On his return to England he brought over some of
the seed, and strongly recommended the practice he
had witnessed to the adoption of his own tenants,
wbo occupied a similar soil to tbat of Hanover.
Tbe experiment succeeded, and by tbe zealous ex-
ertions of Lord Townshend and a few of the neigh-
bouring landouTiers, great improvements have been
effected, and the country has become one of the
mostproductiveagrieultural districts in the kingdom.
Some of tbe finest corn crops in the world are now-
grown on lands which, before the introduction of the
turnip husbandry, produced a very scanty supply of
grass for a few lean and half-starved rabbits. If we
were, therefore, asked to point out tbe individual
who has proved one of the greatest benefactors to
the agricultural interest of the country, we should
not hesitate to fix upon the ingenious nobleman
whom the wits and courtiers of bis own day wDre
pleased to laugh at as "Turnip Townshend;" for the
turnip-culture which be introduced from Hanover
has spread itself throughout this kingdom, and now
yields an annual return which probably exceeds the
interest of our national debt. In some districts,
however, strange prejudices were long entertained
against this root as a field crop, and many amusing
stories are told of the way in which they were over-
come. In Johnson's "Useful Plants of Great
Britain," it is mentioned that a landlord in South
Wales whose tenants resolutely adhered to their
opinion that no sheep would touch the plant, though
assured tbat it already formed the principal winter
food of the fine breeds of tbe east of England, sowed
some turnips upon an unfenced field by the roadside;
they were greedily devoured by a flock straying from
the hills; and by impounding the trespassers he
at last convinced their owners that the roots
the latter despised were relished by their sheep,
and thus succeeded in inducing the stubborn

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE - GOSSIP.

219

farmers to attempt the cultivation of tliis valuable
crop.

Sir John Sinclair, in his "Husbandry of Scotland,"
says, " I am informed that the s\A-ede turnip was first
introduced into this country in 17S1-2, on the
recommendation of Mr. Knox, a native of East
Lothian, who settled at Gottenburgc, whence he
sent some seeds to Dr. Hamilton." Other authors
date its introduction from the same place, but at
a somewhat earlier period. Some kinds of turnips
are much more easily injured by the frost than
others, but the swede is the hardiest of all, and
therefore it is sometimes introduced into gardens in
cold localities for winter and spring use, on account
of the excellent green tops it produces when other
greens are scarce. They also, when blanched and
forced, make a good substitute for seakale.

The turnip, in some of its varieties, is of very
universal culture throughout Europe. In Sweden
it is a very favourite vegetable. We also learn from
the interesting Journal of Linnajus that even so far
north as Lapland, the colonists sow annually a
considerable quantity of turnip-seed, which fre-
quently succeeds very well, and produces a plentiful
crop. The native Laplanders are so fond of tiiis
root that they are often induced to part with a whole
cheese in exchange for one single turnip. Dr. Clarke,
in his " Travels in Russia," published in ISIO, says
turnips were used as fruit, and eaten with avidity by
all classes. In the houses of the nobility the raw
turnip cut in slices is handed about on a silver
salver with brandy, as a provocative to a more
substantial meal. The first nobleman of the empire,
when dismissed by his sovereign from attendance
upon his person, may be found throughout the day
with his neck bare, his beard lengthened, his body
wrapped in a sheep's skin, eating raw turnips and
drinking quass.

It is averred that the Roman method of culti-
vation of the turnip must have been superior to that
of the moderns, since Pliny relates that some single
roots weighed as much as 40 lb., a weight far
surpassing any which has been obtained by the most
skilful modern agriculturists. Turnips, if carefully
cultivated, sometimes attain a great size in this
country, though appearing insignificant when com-
pared with the gigantic roots of the Roman natu-
ralist, which must be an exaggerated statement,

TuU, in his "Horse-hoeing Husbandry," speaks of
some turnips weighing as much as nineteen pounds,
and of often meeting with otbei's of sixteen pounds.
In Surrey, a Swedish turnip, the seed of which had
been sown in July, was dug up in October, 182S,
which weighed twenty-one pounds, and was one
yard in circumference. (Vide Ganleneis Magazine?}
But these are far surpassed by one mentioned by
Campbell in his "Political Survey," which was pulled
up in 1758 at Tudenhara, in Norfolk, and weighed
twenty-nine pounds. In the present day we see

and hear of some very large turnips being grown
and exhibited at our agricultural shows, and that
some roots of Carter's Purple-top Mammoth weighed
over a stone each. (See Gardener's Chronicle, July 4,
1871.) In No. oOO of the Philosophical Transac-
tions, we find a curious calculation made by Dr*
Desagulier, on the rapid increase of a turnip root.
One ounce of turnip-seed was found by him to
contain between fourteen and fifteen thousand
single seeds ; therefore one seed would weigh one-
fourteen or one-fifteen thousandth part of an ounce;
and assuming its growth to be always uniform, a
turnip-seed may increase fifteen times its own
weight in a minute. By an actual experiment
made on moss or peat ground, turnips have been
found to increase by growth 15,990 times the
weight of their seeds each day they stood upon it-
It is not, however, the size and weight of the root
which render this crop so productive ; the number
contained in a given space, with reference to their
size, is very great, and it is generally thought a
good crop to obtain a turnip from each square foot
of ground ; but the produce varies greatly ; the rich
lands of the north of England have occasionally
reached sixty tons to the acre, but seldom readied
higher than thirty to forty tons on the best land in
the south. The turnip contains but little nutritive
matter in proportion to its weight. Dr. Lyou
Playfair made the following analysis of the ingre-
dients in one hundred parts : — water, eighty nine ;
uuazotised matter, sugar and starch, nine ; albumen,
one ; inorganic matter, one. According to Von
Thuer, one hundred tons of turnips equal only
twenty-four tons of meadow hay in point of nutritive
value.

The uses of the turnip as a culinary vegetable
are too familiarly known to require that they should
be here enumerated. Though in very extensive
favour among the moderns, the different modes of
preparing it appear poor and insipid compared
with those efforts of gastronomic skill by which
the ancients made it assume so many inviting forms.
In the " Curiosities of Literature," it is related that
the king of Bithynia, in some expedition against the
Scythians, in winter, and at a great distance from
the sea, had a violent longing for a small fish called
apliy, a pilchard or herring, or an anchovy. His
cook cut a turnip to the perfect imitation of its
shape, then fried it in oil, salted, and well powdered
with the grains of a dozen black poppies ; his
majesty's taste was so exquisitely deceived, that he
praised the root to his guests as an excellent fish.
This transmutation of vegetables into meat or fish
is a province of the culinary art which we sppear
to have lost; still, perhaps, it may be revived iu
these days, when we are likely to have professors
in cookery.

It is recorded in the Philosophical Transactions
that in the years 1G29 and 1G30, there being a scarcity

L 2

220

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

iu England, good white and wliolesome bread was
made of boiled turnips, deprived of their moisture
by pressure, and then kneaded with an equal
quantity of wheaten flour ; thus forming what was
called turnip-bread. The scarcity of corn in 1693
obliged the poor people of Essex again to have
recourse to this species of food. In the present
day swede turnips are sometimes employed to
manufacture a fictitious " orange marmalade," and
from the quantity of sugar the roots of this order
contain, a liquid is manufactured from them which
is said to be used in adulterating light wines. The
turnip crop not unfrequently suffers from a fungus
of the botrytis kind {B. parasitica), allied to that
which some suppose causes potato disease. It
infests plants of rank growth, attacking their roots,
which are weakened by the too great luxuriance of
the leaves. Plants during dry seasons are liable to
a form of white mould, a species of Oidiuni, which
attacks the leaves and renders the plant almost
worthless — Aubury, or fingers-and-toes, by which
large excrescences are produced on the bulbs, and
in a short time the whole root becomes in a state of
putrefaction : it used to be considered to proceed
from the formation of an insect in the tap-root ; but
Stevenson, in the "Book of the Farm," states that
all such diseases are occasioned by the poverty of
the soil, and that this disease is not so prevalent as
it was fifty years ago, because the culture of the
turnip is better understood, and the ground is
manured with greater liberality.

According to the agricultural returns of Great
Britain for 1S73, the number of acres under turnip-
cultivation amounted to 2,121,908, and there was
more land under turnips and swedes in 1S73 than in
1872 by 38,000 acres; but the average of these crops
was not equal to what it was in the years from 1868
to 1871. In "London Labour and London
Poor " it is calculated that about 32,000,000 of
turnips arc anually sold in the metropolis.

Pearhaui pictures the month of November with
a bunch of parsnips and turnips in his hand, and
Guilum says these vegetables were used in armorial
bearings, to represent a person of good disposition
who relieved the poor.

H. G. Glasspoole.

NOTES ON THE LEAP-ROLLERS.

rpHE caterpillars of Lepidoptcra, seeking pro-
-*- tection by means of habitations constructed
of the leaves of tbeir food-plant, are to be found
more especially in the tribe of Tortrices, or leaf-
twisters. The form of the cell is not always
similar, some insects rolling the leaf from the tip
toward the stem ; others making a division in the
edge, and thus only employing a part; whilst others
spin ths edges together, employing one or more
leaves for the purpose.

Although the greater number of the leaf-rollers
are to be found iu the smaller tribes of moths, or
Micro-lepidoptera, yet some of the larger species
are also endued with the same habit, -and among
them one or two of the butterflies. To any one
who has not tried it, the difficulty of rolling a stifi"
leaf, like that of the laurel or oak, is scarcely
appreciable. To such small creatures as eater-

Fig. 151. Red Admiral [Pyyameis A'.ulantti). Upper side.

pillars the difficulty would seem insurmountable,
and the manner in which it is got over by the
insect is very interesting. The caterpillar fust
spins a single thread, beginning from the tip, and
fastening off about the centre of the leaf another,

Fig. 152. Ditto (underside).

and then another, until it has a row. This done,
it goes over them again, tightening them, and
fixing them down. Thus, slowly but surely, the
leaf is bent to the required form, and the architect
takes possession of its home. It is not to be ex-
pected that a house on which so much time and
patience bas been expended is to be used for any
feeding purposes, and thus the leaf-rolling larva;
only lice between the spun leaves, making nocturnal
rambles in search of food, and never failing to find
their way back by means of a guide-line of silk
thread.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

221

The most common example of a butterfly roller
is the caterpillar of the well-known Red Admiral
{Pi/rameis Atalanta). It feeds on the nettle in
July and August, and constructs a kind of web, or
rather tent, of two or three of the leaves. Its rela-
tive, the Painted Lady ( Pyntmeis Carditi), is also a
leaf-roller, inhabiting the thistle as well as the
nettle, but being found more generally on the
former. Another butterfly roller is the Glanville

Fig. 153. Painted Lady (P^cameis Carrfui).

Pritillary {^Melitaa clnxia), but it is more of a
web-spinner than a Tortrix, and the cell, or rather
roof, is shared in common, the caterpillars being
gregarious. Coming to the true Tortrices, we find,
as at once the commonest and most interesting,
the Oak Tortrix (Toriri.v viridana), an insect that
would be more common than it is were it not a
special object of attention to a species of Empis,
which sucks the blood of the insect vampire-
fashion. The wings of the moth are of a bright
pea-green colour-, which harmonizes well with the
leaves, and is no doubt a very eflicient protection.

Fig. 151. Ditto (Variety).

The beauties of worm-eaten apples are well
known ; but few persons, however, arc aware of
the origin and economy of the little animal that
spoils our fruit. This is the larva of the Codliu
moth {CuTpocupsa pomonana), which, though not
strictly a leaf-roller, belongs to the tribe of
Tortrices. In early summer the parent moth de-
posits her eggs on the young apples, and these.

soon hatching, produce a small white grub, which
straightway setting to work, burrows deep into the
fruit, taking care, however, to steer clear of the
vital parts, to assail which would cause the pre-
mature fall of its home. As soon as the caterpillar
is full fed, the core is attacked, and the apple falling
in consequence, the creature eats its way out,
ascends the trunk of some tree, and ensconcing itself
in some snug crevice, prepares its cocoon, in which
to undergo its transformation. The moth, which
appears the following summer, is of a brick-brown
tint, and, plain as its colouring, it is not without
beauty if examined with the aid of a lens.

There can be no doubt that leaf-rolling is in-
tended as a defensive resource against the weather,
birds, and also against those more insidious yet
scarcely less dangerous foes to lepidopterous larvaj,
the Ichneumons. Against these latter, however,
it is not always successful, and the Ichneumon
shows such wonderful skill in the discovery of its
prey, that one is constrained to attribute it to some
power of discrimination of which we are not aware.
What this power is, or whence its origin, I must
leave the readers of Science-Gossip to determine.

C. LOVEKIN.

NEWS FROM THE "CHALLENGER."

THERE can be little doubt that the naturalists
on board this exploring ship are doing good
work, and that the results of their investigations
will throw much light on many natural history and
geological questions. Even within the short period
the vessel has been exploring, many new facts have
been laid before the Royal, Linnean, and other
learned societies. The last news was contained in a
letter from the chief of the expedition, Professor
W^yville-Thomson, of which the following is a
summary. The letter is dated from Melbourne.
Observations had then been made at nineteen
principal stations, suitably distributed over the
track, and including Marion Island, the neighbour-
hood of the Crozets, Kerguelen Island, and the
Heard group.

After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, several
dredgings were taken a little to the southward, at
depths from 100 to 150 fathoms. Animal life was
very abundant ; and the result was remarkable in
this respect, that the general character of the fauna
was very similar to that of the North Atlantic, many
of the species even being identical with those on the
coasts of Great Britain and Norway.

Marion Island was visited for a few hours, and a
considerable collection of plants, including nine
flowering species, was made by Mr. Moseley. A
shallow- water dredging near Marion Island gave a
larger number of species, again representing many
of the northern types, but with a mixture of southern

232

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

forms, such as many of the characteristic southern
Bryozoa, and the curious genus Serolis among Crus-
taceans. Off Prince Edward's Island the dredge
brought up many large and strikiug specimens of
one or two species of Alcyonarian zoophytes, allied
to Mopsea and Isis.

The trawl was put down in 1,375 fathoms on Dec
29, and in 1,600 fathoms on the 30th, between Prince
Edward's Island and the Crozets. The number of
species taken in these two hauls was very large, and
many of them belonged to especially interesting
genera, while many were new to science. There
occurred, with others, the well-known genera
Euplectella, Jlyalonema, JJmhelliilaria, Flahelhim,
two entirely new genera of stalked Criuoids belonging
to the Apiocrinidee, Pourtcdesia, several Spatangoids
new to science, allied to the extinct genus ^«««c/i///6s,
Salenia, several remarkable Crustaceans, and a few
fish.

The Challenger reached Kerguelen Island on
Jan. 7, and remained there until Feb. 1. During that
time Dr. von Willemoes-Siihm was chiefly occupied
in working out the land fauna, Mr. Moseley collected
the plants, Mr. Buchanan made observations on the
geology of those parts of the island which v ere
visited, and Mr. Murray and Professor Thoi.ison
carried on the shallow-water dredging in the steam
pinnace. Many observations were made, and large
collections were stored. Two days before the expe-
dition left Kerguelen Island they trawled off the
entrance of Christmas Harbour, and the trawl-net
came up on one occasion nearly filled with large
cup-sponges belonging to the genus Rossella, of
Carter, and probably the species dredged by Sir
James Clark Ross near the ice-barrier, Rossella
antarctica.

The Challenger reached Corinthian Bay in Yong
Island on the evening of the 6th, and all arrange-
ments had been made for examining it, as far as
possible, on the following day ; but a sudden change
of weather obliged Capt. Nares to put to sea. For-
tunately Mr. Moseley and Mr. Buchanan accompanied
Capt. Nares on shore for an hour or two on the
evening of their arrival, and took the opportunity
of collecting the plants and minerals within their
reach. The most southerly station was made on Feb.
14, lat. 65° 42' S., long. 79° 49' E. The trawl brought
up, from a depth of 1,675 fathoms, a considerable
number of animals, including Sponges, Alcyonarians,
Echinids, Bryozoa, and Crustacea, all much of the
usual deep-sea character, although some of the
species had not been previously observed.

Professor Thomson gave a list of the various
classes of animals, from Sponges to Telcostci, that
were met with in nine successful dredgings, at
depths beyond 1,000 fathoms, between the Cape and
Australia. Many of them. Professor Thomson
states, are ncM^ to science, and some arc of great
interest from their relation to groups supposed to

be extinct. This is particularly the case with the
Echinodermata, which are here, as in the deep water
in the north, a very prominent group.

During the cruise special attention has been paid
to the nature of the bottom, and to any facts which
might throw light upon the source of its materials.
This department has been chiefly in the hands of
Mr. Murray ; and Professor Thomson gives the
following extracts from Mr. Murray's notes : —

" In the soundings about the Augulhas Bank, in
100 to 150 fathoms, the bottom was of a greenish
colour, and contained many crystalline particles
(some dark-coloured and some clear) of Foraminifera,
species of Orbulina, Glohigerina, and Pulvimclina ;
a pretty species of Uvigeriiia, Planorhulina, MilioUua,
Bulmina, and Nummulina. There were very few
Diatoms. In the deep soundings and dredgings
before reaching the Crozets, in 1,900, 1,570, and
1,375 fathoms, the bottom was composed entirely of
OrhaUna, Glohigerina, and Pnlvinulina, the same
species which we get on the surface, but all of a
white colour and«dead. Of Foraminifera, which we
have not got on the surface, I noticed one Rotalia
and one Polystomella, both dead. Some Coccoliths
and Rhabdoliths were also found in the samples
from these soundings. On the whole, these bottoms
were, I think, the purest carbonate of lime we have
ever obtained. When the soundings were placed in
a bottle, and shaken up with water, the whole looked
like a quantity of sago. The P uhinulina: were
smaller than in the dredgings in tlie Atlantic. We
had no soundings between the Crozets and
Kerguelen.

" The specimens of the bottom about Kerguelen
were all from depths from 120 to 20 fathoms, and
consisted usually of dark mud, with an offensive
sulphurous smell. Those obtained farthest from
laud were made up almost entirely of matted sponge-
spicules. In these soundings one species of Rotalina
and one other Foraminifera occurred. At 150 fathoms,
between Kerguelen aud Heard Island, the bottom
was composed of basaltic pebbles. The bottom at
Heard Island was much the same as at Kerguelen.
The sample obtained from a depth of 1,260 fathoms,
south of Heard Island, was quite different from
anything we have previously obtained. It was one
mass of Diatoms, of many species, and mixed with
these a few small Globigerinaj and Radiolariaus, and
a very few crystalline particles. The soundings and
dredgings while we were among the ice in 1,675,
1,800, 1,300, and 1,975, gave another totally distinct
deposit of yellowish clay, with pebbles and small
stones, and a considerable admixture of Diatoms,
Radiolariaus, aud Globigeriniie. The clay and pebbles,
were evidently a sediment from the melting icebergs,
and the Diatoms, Radiolariaus, and Foraminifera
were from the surface-waters. The bottom, from
1,950 fathoms, on our way to Australia from the
Antarctic, was again exactly similar to that obtained

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-GOSSIP.

223

in the 1,260 fiithoms sounding south of Heard
Island. The bottom at 1,800 fathoms, a little farther
to the north (lat. 50° 1' S., long. 123° 4' E.), was
again pure 'Globigerina-oozc,' composed of OrbuliiKC,
Glohigerhm, and PuhhiuliiKe.

"The bottom at 2,150 fathoms (lat. 47° 25' S.,
long. 130° 32' E.) was similar to the last, with a
reddish tinge, and that at 2,G00 fathoms (lat. 42°
42' S., long. 134° 10' E.) was reddish clay, the same
which we got at like depths in the Atlantic, and
contained manganese nodules and much decomposed
Eoraminifera."

Mr. Murray, Prof. Thomson goes on to say, " has
been induced by the observations wliicli have been
made in the Atlantic, to combine the use of the
towing-uet at various depths from the surface to 150
fathoms, with the examination of the samples from
the soundings. And this double work has led him
to a conclusion (in which I am now forced entirely
to concur, although it is certainly contrary to my
former opinion) that the bulk of the material of the
bottom in deep water is in all cases derived from
the surface.

" Mr. Murray has demonstrated the presence of
Globigeringe^ Pulvinulinse, and Urbuliuoe throughout
ail the upper layers of the sea over the whole of the
area where the bottom consists of ' Globigeriua-
ooze ' or of the red clay produced by the decom-
position of the shells of Eoraminifera; and their
appearance when living on the surface is so totally
different from that of the shells at the bottom, that
it is impossible to doubt that the latter, even
although they frequently contain organic matter,
are all dead. I mean tiiis to refer only to the
genera mentioned above, which particularly form
the ooze. Many other Eoraminifera undoubtedly
live in comparatively small numbers, along with
animals of higher groups, on the bottom." It is
very curious to note that in the extreme south the
conditions were so severe as greatly to interfere
with all work. "We had," Prof. Thomson says,
" no arrangement for heating the workrooms, and
at a temperature which averaged for some days
25° Eahr., the instruments became so cold that it
was unpleasant to handle them, and the vapour of
the breath condensed and froze at once upon glass
and brass work. Dredging at the considerable
depths which we found near the Antarctic circle
became a severe and somewhat critical operation,
the gear being stiffened and otherwise affected by
the cold, and we could not repeat it often.

"The evening of Eeb. 23 was remarkably fine
and calm, and it was arranged to dredge on the
following morning. The weather changed some-
what during the night, and the wind rose. Captain
Nares was, however, most anxious to carry out our
object, and the dredge was put over at 5 a.m. We
were surrounded by icebergs, the wind continued
to rise, and a thick snow-storm came on .from the

south-east. After a time of some anxiety the
dredge was got in all right ; but, to our great dis-
appointment, it was empty — probably the drift of
the ship and the motion had prevented its reaching
the bottom. In the mean time the wind had risen
to a whole gale, force = 10 in the squalls, the ther-
mometer fell to 21°'5 Eahr., the snow drove in a
dry blinding cloud of exquisite star-like crystals,
which burnt the skin as if they had been red-hot,
and we were not sorry to be able to retire from the
dredging-bridge.

"The specific gravity of the water has been
taken daily by Mr. Buchanan ; and during the trip
Mr. Buchanan has determined the amount of car-
bonic acid in 25 different samples— 15 from the
surface, 7 from the bottom, and 2 from intermediate
depths. The smallest amount of carbonic acid was
found in surface-water on Jan. 27, near Kerguelen ;
it amounted to 0'0373 gramme per litre. The
largest amount, 0'0S29 gramme per litre, was found
in bottom-water on Eeb. 14, when close to the
Antarctic ice. About the same latitude the amount
of carbonic acid in surface-water rose to the un-
usual amount of 0"0656 gramme per litre ; in all
other latitudes it ranged between 0'044 and 0'054
gramme per litre. Erom the greater number of
these samples the oxygen and nitrogen were ex-
tracted, and sealed up in tubes.

" While we were among the ice all possible
observations were made on the structure and com-
position of icebergs. We only regretted greatly
that we had no opportunity of watching their birth,
or of observing the continuous ice-barrier from
which most of them have the appearance of having
been detached. The berg- and floe-ice was exa-
mined with the microscope, and found to contain
the usual Diatoms. Careful drawings of the dif-
ferent forms of icebergs, of the positions which
they assume in melting, and of their intimate
structure, were made by Mr. Wild, and instan-
taneous photographs of several were taken from
the ship."

A SIMPLE MAEINE AQUARIUM.

THE increasing popularity of marine aquaria,
and the difficulty of obtaining the best kind
of tank, except at a high price, has induced me to
write the following for the benefit of any amateur
aquarian who, like myself, is not encumbered with
a long purse.

I commenced my experiences as an aquarian
about two years ago, using as a home for my stock
of anemones a milkpail, a circular glass dish with
sloping sides, twelve inches in diameter and four
inches deep, to which, as my stock increased, I
added three earthen pans. All these answered very
well so far as the health of the live stock was'con-

224

HARDWICKES SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

cerned, but were open to two rather serious ob-
jectioris. 1st. The attention required by the four
pans was much more than would have been neces-
sary for one large tank ; and 2nd, the weed, when
it grew well, floated on the top of the water, and
effectually hid the anemones from view. As it was
only possible to see them from above— except
through the sides of the milkpan, which, being
thick aiid uneven, gave a very indistinct view— this
was a great drawback, and I therefore began to
consider what sort of a tank I could make to
answer all my requirements. Just at this time I
happened to see a handsome aquarium, purchased
by a friend, the bottom, sides, and back of which
were slate and the front plate-glass, and it occurred
to me that if stout wood were substituted for the
slate, and a good waterproofing material found to
protect it, a very cheap and serviceable tank might
be obtained.

Fig. 155. Simple form of Marine Aquarium.

Having consulted a carpenter, and put the matter
into his hands, he produced the tank represented
by the accompanying sketch. The back and sides
are of half-inch wood dovetailed together, to which
Ihe bottom, of rather thicker wood, is screwed. The
inside is coated with pitch about the eighth of an
inch thick, and the plate-glass front is put in with
what is technically called " a rabbit and bead," hot
pitch having been first run into the " rabbit," and
the glass pressed well into it. A wide bead round
the top protects the upper edge of the glass, and
adds to the general appearance, and two coats of
black paint and varnish made the whole present-
able. This tank, which measures 19 in. x 17 in.
X 9 in., can be made by any carpenter, and the
cost of his labour and materials, pitch, plate-glass,
&c., should not exceed 15s.

Before using the tank I seasoned it for a week
with fresh water, and have since had it in use for
three months with a family of thirty anemones of
various sizes (the common smooth anemones and
"daisies"), and half a dozen roots of ulva, entero-
morpha, &c. No leakage has taken place since the
first week, and the pitch has no injurious effect
upon the water, which is perfectly clear and good.

Of course slate tanks are preferable for those
who can afford them, as they keep the water at a

more uniform temperature, but I find a judicious
management of the window-blind sufiicient to keep
my tank in good working order.

J. E. Edwabds.

THE COMMON OR VIVIPAROUS LIZARD.

[Zootoca vivipara.)

"pERHAPS one of the chief attractions offered by
-*- nature to the observant individual, is that
which enables him to enter into the study of the
habits of animals, to identify himself, as it were,
with the joys or sufferings of some pet, and feel
that that pet depends upon him for existence. With
this understanding the following notes, carefully
made, may interest a few in the little world of
observers above hinted at.

During a mid-day ramble in May last, I was
startled by some animal rushing suddenly into the
grass at my feet. Peeling sure of some species of
mouse, I gave chase, and soon succeeded in captur-
ing a male specimen of the above lizard, which^
although lame with one foot, was evidently endowed
with no small amount of activity, for his tail and
body underwent such a hearty wriggling, that one
can hardly wonder that they sometimes part com-
pany. In the present instance, however, the
creature seemed to decline parting with his tail, and
has adhered to the resolution ever since, although
we genei'ally lift him up by it when exhibiting him
to friends. His appearance was decidedly pleasing
at first sight ; a slender body with a snake-like
head, eyes like black beads, set in orange-coloured
rings, a tapering tail longer than the body, claws
long and exquisitely delicate, and the brilliant tints
on the throat, went to makeup a form wiiich struck
me as being almost unique, and so I determined
upon keeping him. No evil consequences prevented
my lodging the prisoner in a deal box, 9 in. long by
G in. broad, and 5 deep, placing a piece of glass
loosely on the top, so as to allow freedom of air,
and letting him run into a bundle of dry grass.
These have been the arrangements for his lodging
ever since, and answer admirably. I am aware of
the advantage possessed by keepers of ferns and
vivaria, and to any one who purposes keeping
lizards, would recommend a good fern-case in
preference to my wooden box. Plenty of water is
generally a safe conclusion to come to where
reptiles are concerned, and although the one under
consideration does not often enter the wafer bodily,
it is necessary to keep plenty within reach, as he
can drink, a fact which some amateurs are liable to
overlook.

The question of food puzzled me at the outset.
The reptile would not eat flies, grubs, spiders, nor
indeed anything. The excitement of the past few
hours appeared to have affected him considerably,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

225

and very sulky he remaiued until the skin came off,
for this it was that teased him, or at any rate helped
to make him worse— he was casting his coat. This
process is a very remarkable one ; the old skin first
splits across the back of the neck and sides, the
whole of the back piece comes off intact, as also
does the piece on the belly, that from the legs and
tail is shed by degrees, bit by bit, and during the
operation, which takes about twenty hours or so, as
near as I have been able to judge, the reptile looks
very dull and miserable, or " seedy " as some folks
•would term it. In the present instance, the back
piece was so loose after a few hours that I pulled
it gently off ; by so doing, I believe, causing him no
pain, and certainly hastening a process which,
necessary though it be, appears to occasion cou-
siderable inconvenience for the time being. The
skin from the belly came off soon afterwards, and
the animal recovered its spirits and lively manners.

Fig. 156. Head of Common Lizard {Zootoca vivipara).

If the creature struck me with surprise at first, its
appearance now was startling, for the old skin is
comparatively dull for some days before casting;
he seemed, especially on the belly and throat, as if
bedecked with jewels. The back is an olive-green
•with dark bands down the middle and sides ; the
throat no colour at all, or rather, all colours at once,
for a kind of sheen appears to play upon it like that
of the dove ; the belly is a brilliant orange with
black spots, while the claws and tail generally are
olive. The new skin is completely formed before
the old one comes off. The latter, when shed, looks
like "tissue-paper, with a lace pattern stamped on
it," as some writer describes it. That from the
tail comes off gradually ring by ring,— for the scales
on the tail are arranged in an annular manner; but
I think the last inch or inch and a half remains as
before, and does not renew the skin. As regards
the tail-casting, I know that the tail does come off,
because I have seen specimens of this lizard with
the new tail just apparent ; but whether the action
is purely voluntary or not I cannot say. Perhaps
they change this appendage every year as a matter
of course : observations would be very useful in
clearing up this matter.

Before passing on to the question of food, it may
be interesting to note the dates of each skin-casting
above mentioned. The first took place on 17th May,
and the second on the 22nd July ; about nine weeks
intervening. A writer in Science-Gossip for April,
18G6, says of this lizard : — " The skin is changed
about once in three weeks." I cannot explain the
ditficulty, but am convinced as to the correctness of
my statement. My pet had now been two whole
days without food or drink either, so far as I knew.
On the third morning a bluebottle fly was held care-
lessly before his nose, and apparently without any
signs of success. Suddenly, however, he stopped
blinking his eyes, raised his head, arching the neck
at the same time, took a knowing look, as much as
to say " which is the most convenient method of
grabbing him," and sprang upon the fly like a tiger.
No doubt most of the readers of this paper have
seen a terrier shake a rat, and from that a fair idea
of the next part of the programme may be drawn.
After a few gulps— not particularly pleasing to the
eyes of " squeamish " people— the victim disap-
peared, and it was most ludicrous to see the manner
in which our hero licked his jaws, looking round
with an expression which said plainly enough,
" excellent ! any more ? " After such a success,
more was brought, and as eagerly and efficiently
disposed of, in each case the programme being
repeated. In spite of the romantic appearance
which may strike some people, the foregoing de-
scription is not exaggerated in the least, and if only
for the fun of feeding these creatures, they are really
well worth keeping as pets. The peculiar flash of
intelligence and eagerness, the arching of the neck,
head drawn back, eyes fixed on the prey, the spring
or strike with which he seizes it, and the rapid shake
as if to stun the victim, are all repeated whenever
the insect is larger than can be swallowed with a
gulp. And then the science displayed in seizing
the insect at the right instant and in the most con.
venient spot; the licking of the jaws, evidently
showing approval and a desire for more ; these
things are well worthy of attention. Glowing
accounts of the terrible python tell us how he makes
his fearful meal ; but it is a fair question whether
the scene is really more awe-inspiring or disgusting
(according to the opinion of the witness) where a
rabbit is swallowed by a python than where a spider
falls into the hands (or jaws) of our quiet-looking
little zootoca. It is only the grand scale upon which
the former does his work that makes us shudder at
the one and smile at the other. To return— in a
few minutes my pet had dem.olished three house-flies
and a large spider, and such are now his regular
diet. Of all the insects offered him, a spider appears
to be the most acceptable : next to that a " frog-
hopper," as the children term the little green insect
found imbedded in a frothy mass upon various
plants {Jphrophora spumaria).

226

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Perhaps a couple of extracts from ray note-book
may show what he can do in the way of eating.

" June 29th.— He ate this morning two spiders
(one very large), seven ordinary house-flies, and
three 'forty-legs' {Scolopendref).

July 8th. — Two house-flies, four Scohpendrm, and
a ' blue-bottle ' fly."

Judging from the above, we must allow that this
lizard believes in feeding well. When gorged, he
refuses the offered morsel, but often puts out his
tongue and licks it. In Science-Gossip for Oct.j
1873, a writer states, that after this licking the
victim (a caterpillar) appeared quite insensible.
I have never had cause to suspect that the tongue
of this creature affects the vitality of an insect in
the slightest.

Bees, earwigs, woodlice, beetles, and worms have
been offered in vain : he will not touch them.

Lastly, the food must be alive, at least I never
yet succeeded in persuading my pet to touch dead
insects of any kind. When a fly, spider, &c., is
held before him, he carefully eyes it, sometimes
licks it, but never offers to strike unless the victim
struggles. Many spiders feign death when caught,
and I have tried several times to catch him eating
one while quiet ; in no case succeeding. The instant
the spider moves, however, he attacks it, and so with
other insects. Dead flies remain in the box until
sun-dried, at times, when I know be is hungry. He
will not eat meat, — i.e. butcher's meat — raw or
cooked, nor vegetable food of any kind ; and it
appears clear that unless the game is of his own
limiting and killing he despises it.

It was not until I had kept the animal seveial
weeks that we caught him drinking. This he does
by lapping the water like a cat. The tongue is like
a ribbon, and bifurcate at the tip, and when drink-
ing he darts the tips into the liquid, and rapidly
withdraws it, curling it upwards at the same time.
We have known him to go on lapping for two
minutes without a pause, and in that time he can
drink a good deal. His fondness for basking may
be well seen by placing him upon a hot stone
window-sill during the middle of the day ; the body
flattens out to twice its ordinary breadth, and flts
close to the stone as if pressed thereon. Several
times when so basking, I have noticed a profuse
perspiration break out all over the body.

When disturbed, these reptiles move very rapidly
with a wriggling motion, running and darting here
and tbere until a stone or hole is found to shelter
them ; they make no noise, as far as I can ascertain,
but dart the tongue rapidly in and out, pufiing the
neck at the same time. To these latter perform-
ances are perhaps due the tales as to their venomous
or stinging propensities, which it is scarcely neces-
sary to say are tales. One remarkable thing is the
manner in which they can wriggle beneath a heavy
stone. If one of these creatures be held in the

hand, he naturally attempts to escape, and if
squeezed he uses the head as a lever, pushing the
sharp snout into a crevice and pushing forward and
upwards with astonishing force. The flexibility of
the body and back materially aid such movements,
and the tail is also very useful in many ways.
During sleep the tail is invariably coiled over the
neck, like a prepared whiting, only not put in his
mouth. In this position he looks remarkably like a
young snake, an illusion favoured by the peculiar
manner in which be raises his flat, snake-like head
when disturbed.

Besides being able to run very fast, these creatures
possess the power of jumping : twice have I seen
my specimen jump from the top of his box, placed
on the table, to the floor, a distance of four or five
feet.

My specimen generally " puts in his appearance ''
from bed at about 10 a.m., takes two hours or so to
get completely out of the grass, feeds and runs
about until three or four o'clock, and gradually I'C-
tires : in dull weather he stays in all day, and has
been known to stay in for two days. I am here re.
minded, however, that although "patience is a
virtue," we cannot expect too muck of it in this
degenerate age, so conclude by saying that if any
lover of nature is in want of a pet, let him or her
procure one of these graceful, bright-eyed little
creatures, and there will be a greater store of real,
honest pleasure in view than he can at once think of.

One thing, however, remains to be said about
keeping pets. It is not by studying the habits of
animals in captivity alone, however carefully it be
done, that a true knowledge of them can be ac-
quired ; much may be done in this way, but many
difficulties and sources of error exist ; for whether
we believe in "Natural Selection "or not, there
can be little doubt that the habits of a creature in
confinement become modified and altered by atten-
dant circumstances. H. Marshall Wakd.

ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING
OSTEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS.

IN Mr. Chivers's note on Preserving Animals,
page 213 of Science-Gossip, the following
passage occurs : — " The skeleton must be put iu an
airy place to dry, but not in the sun or near the
fire, as that will turn the bones a bad colour." I
cannot comprehend how this idea should have
arisen. Perhaps the most indispensable assistant
to the skeleton preparer is that very sun which Mr.
Chivcrs warns him against. The bleaching power
of the rays of a hot summer sun is astounding, and
bones of the most inferior colour can rapidly be
turned to a beautiful white by this means. It is
for want of time and care in following out this
method that the professional skeleton preparers iu

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

227

Loudou resort to the aid of lime, -wliich, although
it makes them white, is terribly detrimental to
the bones themselves. In a smoky city like London,
the principle of sun-bleaching would be hard to
follow ; but so great is its value that more than
once I have had valuable specimens sent down to
me in the country by a comparative anatomist in
London to undergo a course of sun-bleaching ; and
a specimen which I have received stained and
blotched, I have returned of a beautiful uniform
white, a change entirely due to that sun which we
arc told to beware of.

The question, how are skeletons to be prepared?
is one which is repeatedly asked in Science-
Gossip. People desire a method by which with
little trouble the flesh may be removed from a
specimen, and a beautiful skeleton of ivory white-
ness left standing in its natural position. I can
assure all such inquirers that this cannot be accom-
plished by any method at all. The art of preparing
bones is a long, elaborate, and difiicult one, and he
who wishes to become a proficient in it must be
alike regardless to the most unpleasant odours, and
to handling the most repulsive objects. Mr.
Chivers's receipt for the maceration of specimens is
about the best which one could have, only I should
not advise so frequent a change of the water.
What is needed is as rapid a decomposition of the
flesh as is possible, and then tlie cleaning of the
skeleton just before the harder ligaments iiave also
dissolved. But this requires very careful watching,
and with the utmost pains it is almost impossible
to get a skeleton entirely connected by its own
ligaments.

Another point which must be taken into con-
sideration is this. What use is to be made of the
specimens after they are prepared ? Are they for
purposes of real study, or simply as curious objects
to look at? If the latter is the inirposc, I must
confess I do not think they are worth the trouble
of preparing. If the former is the object for which
they are intended, then I think no care or pains is
thrown away. But for the real student of osteology
the separated bones, as a rule, are far more valuable
"than those w'hich are connected. He needs one or
two set up for purposes of reference, but the great
bulk of his specimens should be separate bones.
Osteology is one of the most delightful branches
of comparative anatomy, and one not very liard to
master. Let any one try the experiment by getting
together a few bones, — and those from tire rabbit
or the partridge we have had for dinner are by no
means to be despised,— and then, by purchasing
Plower's " Osteology of the Mammalia," which is
a cheap and first-rate book, he will learn what
the study of the skeleton really is. And then let
him be on the look-out for specimens of all kinds on
all occasions, bringing home all suitable objects he
meets with in his walks, however unsavoury they

may be, and he will be astonisliea to find how many
specimens he will get together in the course of a
year. I have now myself upwards of seventy
skulls of various kinds, with often the rest of the
skeleton as well, the greater part of which were
gradually collected by keeping constantly on the
watch for them, within a year and a half.

Osteology is so pleasant a pursuit that, if it was
better known, it would have many devotees amongst
those who wish to occupy their leisure time with
natural science. If at any time I can be of any
help to any one commencing the study, I shall
always be glad to answer any inquiries addressed
to me. Edwakd Pentone Elwin.

Caius College, Cambridge.

THE HISTORY OF THE LOBSTER.

WITHIN the last few weeks, Mr. S. L Smith,
of New Havcu, U.S., has carefully described
the various changes undergone by the native lobster.
His paper further gives valuable information on the
season of breeding, and other facts of practical
interest. An abstract of this paper has appeared in
the " Transactions of the Connecticut Academy,"
as well as an appendix to the report of the United
States Fish Commissioner, lately issued. Mr. Smith
shows that the lobster is dying out, from over-fish-
ing, and in this opinion he is supported by other
observers.

The season at which the female lobsters carry
eggs varies much on different parts of the North
American coast. Mr. Smitli says that lobsters from
New London and Stonington, Conn., carry eggs in
April and May, whilst at Halifax he found them
with eggs, in which the embryos were just begin-
ning to develop, early in September. Dr. A. S.
Packard, in the American Naturalist for July, states
that he has seen them in Salem with the embryos
ready to hatch in the middle of May, and he had
been informed that the lobster also breeds there in
November. He thinks it not impossible that they
breed at intervals throughout the year. This is an
important point, and the doctor further thinks that, at
any rate, a close time ought to be kept on the coast
of New England during April and May, and also
during October and November, and that then
persons should be fined for selling lobsters bearing

After figuring and describing the appearance of
the lobster embryo in the eggs, Mr. Smith divides
the larval condition of the lobster into three stages.
Ttie first (represented by figs. 158 and 160, one of
the cephalo-thoracic legs of the second pair, enlarged
twenty diameters ; a, exopodus ; b, epipodus ; c,
branchial appendages), is a little under the third of
an inch in length, and was found early in July. In
the second stage, the animal has increased in sizci

228

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

and rudimentarj' appendages have appeared upon
the second to the fifth segments of the abdomen.
In the third stage, the animal is about half an inch
long, and has begun to lose its Mysis-likc (sc/tizo-
podal) appearance, and to assume some of the
features of the adult.

Fijj. 15". Embryo of Lobster, x 20 tlia. some time before
hatching, removed from external envelope, and shown in
a side view : aa, dark green yolk mass still unabsorbed;
b, lateral margin ot the carapace marked with many den-
dritic spots of red pigment ; c, eye; d, antennula; e,
antenna; /, external maxilliped; g, great cheliped, which
forms the big claw ot the adult; h, outer swimming
branch or exopodus of ditto; i, the four ambulatory legs
with their exopodal branches; U, intestine; I, heart j
m, bilobed tail, seen edgewise.

There are probably two succeeding stages before
the adult form is attained. One is described by
Mr. Smith, while the first of the two he supposes to
have existed, but has not discovered. After this,
ihe animal ceases to swim on the surface, and later

vity, on its own kind. In the first stage of the
adult form, when the animal is about three-fifths of
an inch in length, it still differs from the adult so
much that it would be regarded as a different genus I
"In this stage, the young lobsters swim very

Fig. 158. First larval or mysis stage of the Lobster, enlarged
in length from i an inch.

in the summer it seeks the bottom of the sea. It
feeds on the young of various animals, the larva3 of
other Crustacea, and when much crowded in capti-

Fig. 159. Back view of ditto (enlarged as before).

rapidly by means of the abdominal legs, and dart
backwards when disturbed with the caudal append-
ages, frequently jumping out of the water in this

Fig. l6o. Cephalo-thoracic leg of the second pair, x iio dia.
a, exopodus; i, epipodus; c, branchial appendages.

way like shrimps, which their movements in the water
much resemble. They appear to live a large part of
the time at the surface, as in the earlier stages, and
were often seen swimming about among other sur-
face animals." Mr. Smith thinks the young pass
through all the stages he describes in the course
of a single season. Those in the last stage men-

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE -GOSSIP.

229

tioned he believes had not been hatched from the
eggs more than six weeks, and very likely a shorter
time. How long the young retain their free
swimming habits after arriving at the lobster-like
form was not ascertained. Specimens three inches
long have acquired nearly all the characters of the

of their development do they have all the decapodal
legs furnished with natatory exopodal branches.
They are undoubtedly larval forms closely allied to
those of Homarus in some of the groups of the
Macrourans, although they appear"', to be as yet
unknown.

Fig. I6l. Third larval stage of Lobster (nat. size i in. long}.

adult. " Of all the larval stages of other genera of
Crustacea, there are none which are closely allied
to the early stages of the lobster. According to
Eathke, Jstacus leaves the e^g in a form closely
resembling the adult, the cephalo-thoracic legs

Fig. 162. Terminal portion of abdomen of ditto, x 15 dia. : a,
one of the spines of the posterior margin of terminal seg-
ments, X 75.

having no exopodal branches, and the abdominal
legs being already developed. Of the earlier stages
of the numerous other genera of Astacidea and
Thalassiiiidea scarcely anything is known ; but as
far as is known, none of them appear to approach
the larvse of the lobster. Most of the species of
Crangonid(B and Palcemonidte (among the most
typical of Macrourans) of which the development
is known, are hatched from the Qgg in the zoi-a
stage, in which the five posterior pairs of cephalo-
thoracic appendages, or decapodal legs, are wholly
wanting, as are also the abdominal legs, while the
two anterior pairs of maxillipeds, or all of them,
are developed into locomotive organs. In no period

"Notwithstanding these larval forms of the
lobster seem to have no close afiinities with the
known larvae of other genera of Macrourans, they
do show in many characters a very remarkable and
interesting approach to the adult ScMzopoda, par-
ticularly to the Mysida. This seems to furnish
additional evidence that the Schizopods are only
degraded Macrourans, much more closely allied to
the Sergestidce than to the Squilloidea."

Fig. 163. Basal portion of one of the cephalo-thoracic legs of
second pair, showing epipodus and branchial appendages
X 20 dia.

Mr. TV. H. Silsbee thinks the lobster only moults
once a year, after having nearly attained its matu-
rity, at some period between May and November.
The length of the animal observed, before moulting,
was six and a half inches; immediately after it was
seven and a quarter, — a sudden increase of three-
quarters of an inch.

" He woidd be a bold man who would venture to
predict where science will be fifty years hence ! " —
Huxley.

230

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE-GOSSIP.

THE CAUNIVOROUS HABITS OF
CERTAIN PLANTS.

DR. HOOKER, President of tlie Royal Society,
at the meeting of the British Association at
Belfast, whilst acting as President of the Depart-
ment of Anatomy and Physiology, gave a most
interesting and important address on the above
subject, of which the following is a copious abstract.
He said that various observers have described with
more or less accuracy the habits of such vegetable
sportsmen as the Sun-dew, the Venus' Fly-trap, and
the Pitcher-plants, but few have inquired into their
motives; and the views of those who have most
accurately appreciated these have not met with
that general acceptance which they deserved. Quite
recently the subject has acciuired a new interest,
from the researches of Mr. Darwin into the pheno-
mena which, accompany the placing albuminous
substances on the leaves of Drosera and Pinguicula,
and which in the opinion of a very eminent physio-
logist, prove, in the case of Dionpea, this plant
digests exactly the same substance, and in exactly
the same way, that the human stomach does. With
these researches Mr. Darwin is still actively en-
gaged, and it has been with the view of rendering
him such aid as my position and opportunities at
Kew afforded me, that I have, under his instruc-
tions, examined some other carnivorous plants. In
the course of my inquiries I have been led to look
into the early history of the whole subject, which I
find to be so little known and so interesting that I
have thought that a sketch of if^, up to the date of
Mr. Darwin's investigation, might prove acceptable
to the members of this Association. About 176S,
Ellis, a well-known English naturalist, sent to Lin-
DfEus a drawing of a plant, to which he gave the
poetical name of Dionaia. I will read the account
which he gave of it to Linna?us, and which moved
the great naturalist to declare that, though he had
seen and examined no small number of plants, he
had never met with so wonderful a phenomenon : —
" The plant . . . shows that Nature may have some
views towards its nourishment in forming the upper
joint of its leaf like a machine to catch food ; upon
the middle of this lies the bait for the unhappy
insect that becomes its prey. Many minute red
glands that cover its surface, and which perhaps
discharge sweet liquor, tempt the poor animal to
taste them ; and the instant these tender parts are
irritated by its feet, the two lobes rise up, grasp it
fast, lock the rows of spines together, and squeeze
it to death. And further, lest the strong efforts for
life in the creature just taken should serve to dis-
engage it, three small erect spines arc fixed near the
middle of each lobe, among the glands, that effec-
tually put an end to all its struggles. Nor do the
lobes ever open again while the dead animal con-

tinues there. But it is, nevertheless, certain that
the plant cannot distinguish an animal from a
vegetable or mineral substance ; for if we introduce
a straw or pin between the lobes, it will grasp it
fall as fast as if it was an insect." Linnaeus, how-
ever, only saw in these wonderful actions extreme
sensitiveness in the leaves, and did not accept
Ellis's account of the coup de grace which the
insects received from the three stiff hairs in the
centre of each lobe of the leaf. For about a century
the history of the plant was very little advanced.
Sixty years after Linnaeus wrote, Dr. Curtis, of
Wilmington, North Carolina, published the follow-
ing accurate scientific observations: — "Each half
of the leaf is a little concave on the inner side,
where are placed three delicate hair-like organs, in
such an order that an insect can hardly traverse it
without interfering with one of them, when the two
sides suddenly collapse and inclose the prey with a
force surpassing an insect's efforts to escape. The
fringe of hairs of the opposite sides of a leaf inter-
lace, like the fingers of two hands clasped together.
The sensitiveness resides only in these hair-like
processes on the inside, as the leaf may be touched
or pressed in any other part without sensible
effects." To Ellis belongs the credit of divining
the purpose of the capture of insects by the Dionsea ;
but Curtis made out the details of the mechanism.
For another generation the history of this plant
stood still; but in ISGS an American botanist, Mr.
Canb.v, while staying in the Dion?ea district, studied
the habits of the plant pretty carefully, especially
the points which Dr.' Curtis had made out. His
first idea was that "the leaf had the power of dis-
solving animal matter, which was then allowed to
flow along the somewhat trough-like petiole to the
root, thus furnishing the plant with highly nitro-
genous food." By feeding the leaves with small
pieces of beef, he found, however, that these were
completely dissolved and absorbed ; the leaf open-
ing again with a dry surface, and ready for another
meal, though with an appetite somewhat jaded. He
found that cheese disagreed horribly with the
leaves, turning them black, and finally killing them.
Finally, he details the useless struggles of Curculio
to escape, as thoroughly establishing the fact that
the fluid already mentioned is actually secreted, and
is not the result of the decomposition of the sub-
stance which the leaf has seized. This Curculio,
being of a resolute nature, attempted to eat his way
out. When discovered, he was still alive, and had
made a small hole through the side of the leaf, but
was evidently becoming very weak. On opening
the leaf, the fluid was found inconsiderable quantity
around him, and was without doubt gradually over-
coming him. The leaf being again allowed to close
upon him, he soon died.

Dr. Hooker then described the character of the
communication on this plant made at the last meet-

HAKDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-Q OSSIP.

231

ing of the Association by Dr. Burdon Sanderson.
All students of tlie A'egetable side of organized
nature were astonished to hear that certain experi-
ments which Dr. Sanderson, at the instigation of
Mr. Darwin, had made, proved to demonstration
that when a leaf of Dionsea contracts, the effects
produced are precisely similar to those whicli occur
when muscle contracts. Not merely are the pheno-
mena of digestion in this wonderful plant like those
of animals, but the phenomena of contractility agree
with those of animals also. Not confined to a
single district in the New World, but distributed
over the temperate parts of both hemispheres, in
sandy and marshy places, are the curious plants
called Sun- dews— the species of the genus Drosera.
They are now known to be near congeners of
Dionffia ; a fact which was little more than guessed
at when their curious habits were first discovered.

The President proceeded to trace at much length
the interesting history of the Sun-dew. It is to
Mr. Darwin we are indebted for the latest and most
important additions to the facts established by the
earliest observers. Subsequeut botanists had boldly
asserted that the early accounts given of the Sun-
dew were not true. The repeated testimony of
various observers, with respect to Diontea and
Drosera spreads over a century, and though at no
time warmly received, must, I think, satisfy you
that in this small family of the Droseracea we have
plants which, in the first place, capture animals for
purposes of food ; and, in the second, digest and
dissolve them by means of a fluid which is poured
out for the purpose ; and, thirdly, absorb the solu-
tion of animal matter which is so produced. Before
the investigations of Mr. Darwin had led other
persons to work at the s\ibject, the meaning of the
phenomena was very little appreciated. Only a few
years ago, Duchartre, a French physiological bota-
nist, after mentioning the views of Ellis and Curtis
with respect to Dionsea, expressed his opinion that
the idea that its leaves absorbed dissolved animal
substances was too evidently in disagreement with
our knowledge of the function of leaves, and the
whole course of vegetable nutrition, to deserve
being seriously discussed. Perhaps if the Brosera-
cca were an isolated case of a group of plants
exhibiting propensities of this kind, there might be
some reason for such a criticism. But we have
now reason lo believe that there are many instances
of these carnivorous habits in different parts of the
vegetable kingdom, and among plants which have
nothing else in common but this. As another
illustration I shall take the very curious group of
Pitcher-plants, which is peculiar to the New World.
The genus Sarracenia consists of eight species, all
similar in habit, and all natives of the Eastern
States of North Ameiica, where they are found
more especially in bogs, and even in places covered
with shallow water. Their leaves, which give them

a character entirely their own, are pitcher-shaped
and trumpet-like, and are collected in tufts spring-
ing immediately from the ground ; and they send
up at the flowering season one or more slender
stems, bearing each a solitary flower. This has a
singular aspect, due, to a great extent, to the
umbrella-like expansion in which the style ter-
minates ; the shape of this, or perhaps of the whole
flower, caused the first English settlers to give to
the plant the name of Side-saddle Elower. The
first fact which was observed about the Pitchers
was that when they gi'ew they contained water.

The description of the various species, and their
history, was then given by Dr. Hooker, and was
very long and exhaustive. In 1S29, Burnett wrote
a paper containing a good many original ideas,
expressed in a somewhat quaint fashion, in whicli
he very strongly insisted on the existence of a true
digestive process in the case of Sarracenia, analo-
gous to that which takes place in the stomach of an
animal. Our knowledge of the power of Sarracenia
variolaris is now pretty complete, owing to the
observations of two South Carolina physicians.
One, Dr. M'Bride, made his observations half a
century ago, but they had, till quite recently, com-
pletely fallen into oblivion. He devoted himself to
the task of ascertaining why it was that Sarracenia
variolaris was visited by flies, and how it was that
it captured them. Dr. Mellichamp, who is now
resident in the district in which Dr. M'Bride made
his observations, has added a good many particulars
to our knowledge. It is evident that there ai-e two
very different types of pitcher in Sarracenia, and
an examination of the species shows that there
must probably be three. These may be primarily
classified into those with the mouth open and lid
erect, and Avhich consequently receive the rain-
water in more or less abundance ; and those with
the mouth closed by the lid, into which rain can
hardly, if at all, find ingress. I c:mnot take leave
of Sarracenia without a short notice of its near
ally, Darlhujtonia, a still more wonderful plant, au
outlier of Sarracenia in geographical distribution,
being found at an elevation of five thousand feet on
the Sierra Nevada of California, far west of any
locality inhabited by Sarracenia. It has pitchers
of two forms ; one, peculiar to the infant state of
the plant, consists of narrow, somewhat twisted,
trumpet-shaped tubes, with very oblique open
mouths, the dorsal lip of which is drawn out into
a long, slender arching, scarlet hood, that hardly
closes the mouth. The slight twist in the tube
causes these mouths to point in various directions,
and they entrap very small insects only. Before
arriving at a state of maturity the plant bears
much larger, subcrect pitchers, also twisted, with
the tip produced into a large inflated hood, that
completely arches over a very small entrance to
the cavity of the pitcher. A singular orange-red,

232

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP.

flabb}', two-lobed organ hangs from the end of the
hood, right in front of the entrance, which, as I
was informed lately by letter from Professor Asa
Gray, is smeared with honey on its inner surface.
These pitchers are crammed with large insects,
especially moths, which decompose in them, and
result in a putrid mass. I have no information of
water being found in its pitchers in its native
country, but have myself found a slight acid secre-
tion in the young states of both forms of pitcher.
I cannot dismiss Darliiigtonia witiiout pointing out
to you what appears to me a most curious point in
its history, which is, that the change from the
slender, tubular, open mouths, to the inflated
close-mouthed pitchers, is absolutely sudden in the
individual plant. I find no pitchers in an inter-
mediate stage of development. This, a matter of
no little signiGcauce in itself, derives additional
interest from the fact that the young pitchers to a
certain degree represent those of the Sarraceiiias,
with open mouths and erect lids, and the old
pitchers those of the Sarracenias with closed
mouths and globose lids. The combination of re-
presentative characters in an outlying species of a
small order, cannot but be regarded as a marvel-
lously significant fact in the view of those morpho-

logists who hold the doctrine of evolution

In what I have said, I have described the most
striking instances of ])lants, which seem to invert
the order of Nature, and draw their nutriment — in
part at least — from the animal kingdom, which is
often held to be the function of the vegetable king-
dom to sustain. I might have added some addi-
tional cases to those I have dwelt upon. Probably,
too, there are others still unknown to science, or
whose habits have not yet been delected. But the
problem that forces itself upon our attention is,
how does it come to pass that these singular aber-
rations from the otherwise uniform order of vege-
table nutrition, make their appearance in remote
parts of the vegetable kingdom :— why are they not
more frequent, and how were such extraordinary
habits brought about, or contracted ? At first sight
the perplexity is not diminished by considering the
nature of ordinary vegetable nutrition. The roots
take up certain matters from the soil. Nitrogen
forms nearly four-fifths of the air we breathe, yet
plants can possess themselves of none of it in the
free uncombined state. They withdraw, in minute
quantities from the ground, nitrates and salts of
ammonia, and from these they build up with starch,
or some analogous material, albuminoids or protein
compounds, necessary for the sustentatiou and
growth of protoplasm. At first sight, nothing can
be more unlike this than a Dioucea or a jS'epentJies
capturing insects, pouring out a digestive fluid
upon them, and absorbing the albuminoids of the
animal, in a form probably directly capable of appro-
priation for their own nutrition. Yet there is some-

thing not altogether wanting in analogy in the case
of the most regularly constituted plants. The seed
of the castor-oil plant contains, besides the embryo
seedling, a mass of cellular tissue or endosperm
filled with highly nutritive substances. The seed-
ling lies between masses of these, and is in contact
with it — and as the warmth and moisture of ger-
mination set up changes which bring about the
liquefaction of the contents of the endosperm, and
the embryo absorbs them, grows in so .doing, and
at last having taken up all it can from the exhausted
endosperm, develops chlorophyll in its cotyledons
under the influence of light and relies on its own
resources. A large number of plants, then in their
young condition, borrow their nutritive compounds
ready prepared, and this is in effect what carni-
vorous plants do later in life. The absolute dif-
ference between plants which absorb and nourish
themselves by the products of the decomposition
of plant structures, and those which make a similar
use of animal structures is not very great. "We
may imagine that plants accidentally permitted the
accumulation of insects in some parts of their
structure, and the practice became developed
because it was found to be useful. It was long ago
suggested that the receptacle formed by the connate
leaves of Bipsacus might be an incipient organ of
this kind ; and though no insectivorous habit has
ever been brought home to that plant, the theory
is not improbable. Linnaeus, and more lately
BaiUon, have shown how a pitcher of Sarraceiiia
may be regarded as a modification of a leaf of the
Nyhiphcca type. We may imagine such a leaf first
becoming hollow, and allowing debris of different
kinds to accumulate ; these would decompose, and
a solution would be produced, some of the con-
stituents of which would diffuse themselves into
the subjacent plant tissues. This is in point of fact
absorption, and we may suppose that in the first
instance — as perhaps still in Sarraceiiia purpurea —
the matter absorbed was merely the saline nutritive
products of decomposition, such as ammoniacal
salts. The act of digestion — that process by which
soluble food is reduced without decomposition to a
soluble form fitted for absorption — was doubtless
subsequently required. The secretion, however, of
fluids by plants, is not an unusual phenomenon.
In many Aroids a small gland at the apex of the
leaves secretes fluid, often in considerable quantities,
and the pitcher of Isepenthes is only a gland of this
kind, enormously developed. May not, therefore,
the wonderful pitchers and carnivorous habit of
Nepenthes have both originated by natural selection
out of one such honey-secreting gland as we still
find developed near that part of the pitcher which
represents the tip of the leaf ? We may suppose
insects to have been entangled in tlie viscid secre-
tion of such a gland, and to have perished there,
being acted upon by those acid secretions that

IIARDWICKE'S SGIENCE-GOSSIP.

233

abound in these and most other plants. The sub-
sequent differentiation of the secreting organs of
the pitcher into aqueous, saccharine, and acid,
would ioWow pari passu with the evolution of the
pitcher itself, according to those mysterious laws
which result in the correlation of organs and
functions througliout the kingdom of Nature ; and
which, in my appprehension, transcend in wonder
and interest those of evolution and the origin of
species. These remarks will, I iiope, lead you to
see that thougli the processes of plant nutrition
are, in general, extremely different from those of
animals, and involve very simple compounds, yet
that the protoplasm of plants is not absolutely
prohibited from availing itself of food, such as that
by which the protoplasm of animals is nourished,
under which point of view these phenomena of car-
nivorous plants will find their place, as one more
link in the continuity of nature.

MICROSCOPY.

Exuviae of Insects.— Some very interesting and
instructive objects for the microscope, and which,
moreover, are easily procured, and also easily
mounted, consist of the exuviai or cast skins of
many species of insects. These may be found in a
variety of places; generally on the under side of
leaves of plants, or some such protected spot, to
which they are attached by their feet, or rather
their old shoes, and from which they can be re-
moved with a little cave. I find that a good way to
mount these exuvite is dry, in a cell sufficiently
deep to allow of their retaining their natural posi-
tion. Do not use a black background, but view
with transmitted light. They show well with spot
lens and binocular arrangement. The above will
not apply to the larvae of lepidoptera, as they leave
their " old clothes " in a small dried heap, which
they often devour.—^. Lovett. ■

Moller's New Diatomaceen Typen Platte.
—I have inspected some of these " Platl;eD," and
found that the objects are mounted in a glass cell, set
on a glass slide of the usual dimensions, three inches
by one inch (the same as the other Typen Platten) ;
and for this reason I believe that Mr. P. Kitton's
description of the same (Science-Gossip, August,
1874, page 176) is somewhat incorrect when he
states: "The objects are mounted between two
pieces of thin glass ; these are afterwards set in a
brass plate . . ." Mr. Baker has supplied me with
a safety brass plate for my Moller's Typen Platte
No. 1, which has the same dimensions as those
given by Mr. Kitton. Perhaps the neic Typen
Platte described by Mr. Kitton was inclosed in a
similar safety brass plate, and this was taken as
forming part of the "Platte." Mr. Iv.'s descrip-

tion is quite accurate in every other respect, and I
only make the above observations in order to pre-
vent disappointment to intending purchasers of
these "marvellous specimens" when finding that
the objects are set on an ordinary glass plate, instead
of a brass one, as some of Mr. Norbert's Bands of
Test Lines. 1 may just add that my tiew Typen
Platte contains 100 diatoms (showing front and
side-views, &c.), and that thirteen species of these
are not included among those of my Typen Platte
No. 1. I am not aware that Herr Moller supplies
the new Typen Platte with 80 and 100 specimens,
as mentioned by Mr. Slack {llonthhj Microscopical
Journal, No. 62, July 1871, pages 41 and 45). I
believe the 100-specimens new Diatomaceen Typen
Platte is the only one of this kind produced at present
by Moller. While on this subject I would suggest
that Mdller's Typen Platten of Echinoidea and
Holothurid(e, also mentioned by Mr. Slack as above,
are well worth a description, and it is to be hoped
that Mr. Kitton, Mr. Slack, or any other eminent
microscopist, will undertake the task. Herr .Mol-
ler has sent to the market a great variety of prepa-
rations well deserving the attention of microscopists,
especially some new and beautiful sections of hard
substances — bones, teeth, shells, spines of Echi-
noidea, minerals, &c., and, though last not least, a
new Probe Platte, dry, a truly valuable test slide.
The other preparations of his, such as sections of
wood, selected and arranged diatomace«, &c., are
already well known. — A. de Souza Gidmaraens.

Fixing Arranged Diatoms.— At page 110 of
Science-Gossip for 1873, in answer to an inquiry
from C. L. Jackson, page 69 of the same year, I
explained the method of fixing arranged diatoms,
which has been adopted by Mr. J. K. Jackson in
his article at page 203 of the current year. My
object in writing now is to caution the readers of
Science-Gossip not to delay the fixing process
until all the diatoms arc arranged, but to secure
each one by the breathing process directly it is
placed in position (as I suggested to Mr. C. L.
Jackson in the article above mentioned), and thus
avoid the annoyance of having an hour's work
spoiled by the slamming of a door, or by an acci-
dental swerve of the arranging tool. It should also
be noted that when a diatom is taken from a drop
of water and placed on the gummed surface, being
moist, it immediately adheres thereto, and any
attempt to move it results in its utter destruction,
unless the gum has previously been thoroughly
softened by the breathing process. With regard to
the implement, a simple hair is not well adapted
for withdrawing a diatom from a drop of water.
The orthodox weapon is a very fine bristle split at
the end in such a manner that when pressed on a
slide the cleft portion opens like the nibs of a pen,
and may then be allowed to close upon the chosen

234

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

diatom by its own elasticity. By reversing the
process the diatom thus taken from the store slide
may be deposited in a minute drop of water, placed
on the gummed cover, near the spot where the
group is to be arranged. It may then be coaxed
into position by means of the single hair. The
usual hunting-ground for these split bristles is an
old shaving-brush, and the microscopist should not
rest saitsfied until he has found one with which _he
can work comfortably.— i'\ W. M.

ZOOLOGY.

The Canteebury Tick {Argas reflexiis). — To
the question put by W. W. Spicer, on page 185, as
to whether the representation of the claws with the
foot in fig. 86 is quite correct, I must answer, they
are not correct ; and how I could be guilty of such
an oversiglit, puzzles me. Until he drew my atten-
tion to it (for which I thank him) 1 had not noticed
it. On referring to the sketch of the young Argas
(fig. S3), it will be seen that five out of sis of the
claws are placed in their proper position. Those

Fig. 1 64. Foot and claws of Argas rejlxus (highly magiiiSed).

sketches were taken from dead specimens that I had
mounted. The annexed drawing of the foot and
claw is from a living specimen which will rectify the
mistake I had inadvertently fallen into in fig. 86.
I have only three specimens living, and on August
22nd I observed that one of them had laid about 40
eggs. As I expect in about six or eight weeks they
will be hatched, I should feel obliged if any of the
readers of Science-Gossip would furnish me with
some plan to preserve them alive, as their further
development would be interesting to witness. —
James FuUagar, Canterbury.

TETRANYcnus Lapidum {Slone Mite). — I have
found the ova of this insect plentifully this summer
on large flint pebbles. Never having met with the

object before, I doubted as to its nature, for on
examining it through a lens, it has very much the
appearance of a minute fungus, dispersed in groups
within the shelter of the shallow sulci of the flint.
Each organism measures about the y^ inch in
diameter. I submitted specimens to Dr. Cooke, who
very soon resolved my doubts, referring me to
Science-Gossip, vol. iii. p. 126, figs. 93, 94, where
I find the insect and its eggs very accurately
delineated, with references to other works which I
have not the opportunity of making use of. It is
an interesting microscopical object under a low
power, and when submitted to x 300, displays an
infinite number of molecules having a vibratory
motion. I do not know the nature of these minute
bodies, but if they are embryonic germs, the ovum
must be wonderfully prolific. — IF. Smart.

New Species of Euiiopean Lizaed.— Dr. A.
Giinther has recently described a new species of
Lizard from a collection of reptiles made by Lord
Lilford during a cruise in the Mediterranean. He
has named it after its discoverer, Zootoca LUforcU.
The upper parts of this lizard are of a deep shiny
black, and the lower of a beautiful sapphire-blue.
The largest specimen was five and three quarter
inches in length, of which the tail measured three
inches and a quarter. Lord Lilford found this
species inhabiting a very small island on the south-
east of Minorca, in considerable numbers ; and Dr.
Giinther now refers the lizard so common on the
Tilfola Rock, south of Malta, to the same species.

EiYMOLOGt of Aphis. — The recent references to
this family of insects suggests a question of some
interest, and which has been found to be attended
with no small amount of difficulty, to prove whence
is the word Aphis derived ? As it is not found in the
Greek lexicons or Latin dictionaries, it was pro-
bably unknown to the ancients, and the pi'csumption
is that it was coined by Linnreus. Assuming that
he formed the word correctly, I believe that he
derived Aphis {i.e. Aphid, as the plural shows) from
the Greek a privative and -pJieidomai {(peiSoj.iai'), "to
spare," and that he meant to describe these creatures
as unsparing in their destructiveness. The correct-
ness of this derivation I am prepared to substan-
tiate, if called upon to do so, on philological as well
as other grounds. On the other hand, it v/ould not
be difiieult; to show the untenablcness of all the
other proposed etymologies with which I am
acquainted : e.g., from ap/iienii (aipiiji-ti), to emit, with
reference to the honey-dews exuded by the insect ;
from haptoriiai (uTrTOfiai), to touch, with reference to
its crowding together in masses ; from aplmsso
(ci^iKTo-w), to draw out, with reference to its habit
of sucking the juices of plants ; from a and phus
{i>ve, 2ud aor. part, of ^uoi), with reference to its
parthenogenesis. It would, however, greatly help to a
solution of the question if we could know in what

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

23::

light principally LimicEus Limself viewed these
creatures. Can any of the readers of Science-
Gossip produce a passage or passages from the
writings or history of the great naturalist which
will throw light on this question ? — B. P. P., Hade-
mere, Surrey.

BOTANY.

SoLANU:M GRANDIFLOrxU:\I OR DENTATUM. —

Attention has been drawn to a shrub growing over
the ten- foot garden wall of tiie late Rev. — Hooper,
towards the road on the lower part of Eurze Hill,
Brighton, bearing a sort of umbels of large elegant
violet-coloured flowers, resembling the common blue-
flowered potato, on which account it has received
the general name of the potato-tree : the flower-
lieads are like those figured in Loudon's Eucj^elo-
pajdia of Plants as Solanian gigauteum and S.jasmi-
noides, the latter being in the second additional
supplement. At first I took it [q\- Solcunim gignnteum,
but on examination found no prickles on the stem ;
I then thought it might be Solcmtim jasminoides, but
its leaves are all simple. On applying to Mr-
Smythe, of Centurion-road Nursery, Brighton, who
lived ten years as gardener to Mr. Rooper, he in-
formed me that Mr. Rooper called it Solanum
grandiflorum, but that it was at one time called S-
dentatum, its lower leaves being slightly insinuato-
dentate ; I do not find any plant of either name in
Loudon's Encyclopedia, although upwards of
seventy species of Solanum are there enumerated.
Perhaps some of your readers can [give inform-
ation regarding its native country, and date of in-
troduction, aad if it is correctly named, or known by
any other name ; also if it has been described in any
and what publication, and whether it has been
figured. The leaves arc all simple, oblongo-lanceo-
late acute ; the flower-heads are large and very
abundant ; the shrub is upwards of ten feet high,
bearing numerous bunches of flowers, some of them
with more than twenty flowers, the branches being
twice forked ; the berry dark purple when ripe in
November ; the corolla is rather larger than the
common potato, and the yellow anthers very promi-
nent; leaves and stem all smooth. The plant was cut
down last autumn, but is now more than ten feet
high, with young branches, grown since the spring,
upwards of six feet in length ; it has been in flower
since May, and will continue to flower apparently till
September or October. Both Mr. Balchin, of
Clifton-ville Nursery, and Mr. Smythe are cultivat-
ing it from cuttings ; it is almost (indeed quite in
a mild winter) an evergreen. Mr. Balchin tells me
that when he first took the ground at Clifton-ville,
which now forms his nursery, a tree was growing
there which he believes was the same as that which
is growing in Mr. Rooper's garden, but which, un-

fortunately, he was obliged to destroy, and omitted
to take cuttings and propagate it, not knowing its
value. Mr, Rooper was a botanist, who prided
himself in cultivating rare plants, and although,
since his death, the garden has been neglected, while
the property was for sale, there are still to be found
some other interesting and rare plants, particularly
the Viburnum plicatum, an evergreen noticed in the
second supplemental list of Loudon's Encyclo-
pfedia. Mr. Smythe says there was, and he thinks
still is, in the garden an Azalea grandiflora, with
large beautiful flowers; it is not enumerated in
Loudon's last edition of 1855,—^.^. IF., Brighton-

Eloka of DoRSETSiiiRE.— a haudsome volume
of 300 pp., bearing the above title, has just been
issued by Whitaker & Co., Ave-Maria-lane. The
author is Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, E.L.S., &c.
We regard this as one of the most copious and best
compiled floras we have seen for a long time. Mr-
Pleydell has grouped the county of Dorset into
seven districts, and very wisely made his list of the
order of plants agree with those of the "London
Catalogue." The pre-Linnean names follow those
now attached to species, and the synonyms come
after. The geographical distribution of each species
is also given, as well as the conditions under which
it grows. One valuable feature iu this Flora is the
reference to the extension of any plant into the four
counties adjacent to Dorset, and to Normandy, across
the Channel. A map, coloured for the seven
districts, precedes the text, and there are several
trustworthy essays on the Geology, Physical Geo-
graphy, Meteorology, &c., of the district.

The Butterwort a Carnivorous Plant. —
Mr. Charles Darwin has recently communicated to
the Royal Horticultural Society some experiments
on Pinguicula vulgaris, which prove that its leaves
show a tendency to assimilate animal matter, like
those of the Sundews, Sarraceuias, &c. On the
application of meat, the edges of the leaves curled
inwards, and a slightly acid secretion was given
off" from them. One singular feature of the expe-
riments was that the margin of the leaf unfolded
itself about twenty-four hours after the application
of the substances, whether these were taken away
or permitled to remain.

Senebiera didyma.— This plant has occurred
so abundantly this summer, both here and at
Bosham in several places, that its appearance seems
worth notice, as not many stations for it on this
part of the coast have hitherto been given. I have
not "VVatson by me, but am informed that he records
it in West Sussex, on the authority of Salmon's
MSS., yet not further eastward than Brighton.
Probably it will be found to occur in more stations
on the south coast than have been noted. While
the pods of S, didyma differ so much from those of

236

HAPtDWlCKE' S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

S. coronopus as to distinguish the species at first
sight, the extremely powerful, pungent odour of
S. clidyma—di, point not mentioned by some of our
best botanists— at once gives information of it to the
olfactoiy organs. — F. H. Arnoldy LL.B., Fishbourne.

CiciioRiuii Intybus.— Chicory, or wild succory,
is very common on the Oolites, both in Gloucester-
shire and Dorsetshire, and its striking blue flowers
are always attractive. We know that most plants
with blue flowers have a tendency to produce white
ones, but we never saw any white-flowered chicory
before to-day, when our children brought in a
quantity from the village. — /. B., Bradford Abbas.

Valeria>'a Phu.— I am greatly obliged to
" J.P.Il." for identifying this plant. As regards its
popular or provincial name "Sid well" {qy.Seedwell),
I am quite sure that this name is applied to this plant,
and not to the Faleriaria off! ci/ia I is, •which is \ery
well known here, from the fact of its growing
plentifully in Cranborne Chase woods, from whence
the country druggists were formerly supplied by the
neighbouring peasantry with the root, and may be
still, for aught I /know. The " Sidwell," is not a
common garden plant ; I know of only two in the
cottage gardens here, the leaves of which are in
great repute with the doctoresscs as a healing
application to wounds and sores. — JF, Smart, Cran-
borne.

Polled"- Grains and the Pektilization of
Flowers.— This was the subject of a very inter-
esting paper read at the meeting of the British
Association in Eelfast, by Mr. A. W. Bennett. The
author dealt with the form of pollen-grains in re-
lation to the fertilization of flowers. He said that
although, not unfrequetnly, a common form of
pollen-grain runs through a whole group of plants,
yet more often the form is found to be adapted to
the requirements of the species, and varies even
within a small circle of affinity. In those plants
which are fertilized by the agency of insects there
are three general modes in which the form of the
grain is adapted for the purpose. "We have firstly
— and this is by far the most common form — an
elliptical grain, with three or more longitudinal
furrows, as in Fianidiculus ficaria, Aucuha japonica,
and Bryonia dioica ; secondly, spirical and ellip-
tical, and covered with spines, as in many com-
posite malvaj ; and thirdly, where they are attached
together by threads or viscid excretion, as in
Richardia icthiopica. In those plants, on the
contrary, which are fertilized by the agency of the
wind, as most grasses, the hazel, and Populus bal-
samifera, the pollen is uniformly perfectly spiral
and unfurnished with any furrows, and is generally
moreover very light and dry. The genus Fiola
supplies two very markedly different, in which the
quoins have the. ordinary elliptical .three-furrowed

form, and where every point of the structure of the
style and stigma is favourable to fertilization by
bees. In all Crucifers known tl>e pollen has the
most common form. In the cowslip and primrose
there is uniform difference in size between the
pollen belonging to the two forms, that of the
short-styled being considerably larger than that of
the long-styled form.

Parthenogenesis in Ferns.— Dr. Farlow, of
Harvard University, has recently read a paper on
" An Asexual Growth from the Prothallus of Pteris
serrulata " — an Indian fern. As is well known, a
fern comes to fructification and produces spores
without any fertilization. The spores, in ger-
minating, produce a liverwort-like frond, the pro-
thallus, on which the two kinds of sexual orgaus
are developed. The fertilization of a cell in the
one by a spermatozoid from the other results in the
development and growth of the former into a bud,
and so into a fern. Dr. Farlow discovered, in a
sowing of the spores of the Pteris serrulata, pro-
thalli which were developing young ferns from
their substance quite apart from any archegonium,
starting in a different way by a direct outgrowth
from the prothallus, beginning with a scalariform
duct, but producing plantlets thus far undis-
tinguishable from those which arise from an arche-
gonium through fertilization. Dr. Farlow, con-
fining himself strictly to the facts of the case and
their direct interpretation, does not use the word
" parthenogenesis." But Dr. Asa Gray thinks the
case substantially analogous to that of Partheno-
genesis in flowering plants. He says that if it be
demurred that the case is one of bud-growth, and
therefore not of the nature of parthenogenesis
proper, the reply is that it comes from a partheno-
genetic spore, which here develops plants without
the sexual fertilization of that class of plants. If
the facts hold good, the conclusion is that sexual
fertilization, however necessary, is not absolutely
necessary in every generation of plants ; somewhat
as cross-fertilization, however necessary in the long
run, is generally unnecessary in every generation ;
only the rule in the former is far more strict.

GEOLOGY

The Thermal Conductivity of Certain
Hocks. — Professor A. S. Herscliel, F. R. A. S., and
Mr. G. A. Lebour, F. G. S., in a report read at the
recent meeting of the British Association, showed
that during the past year the relative conductivity
of about thirty kinds of rock has been determined.
Among these granite has been found to offer the least
resistance to the passage of heat, and coal the
greatest. Shale comes next below coal ; but between
these two and basalt there is a gap of considerable

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP.

237

extent, which no rock-resistance has been found to
fill yet. Between basalt and granite come all the
other rocks examined, including a number of lime-
stones and sandstones of different varieties. By
means of a tabulated scale, it will be possible to
estimate the equivalent thickness of any stratum (so
far as its conductivity is concerned) by reducing it
to that of some standard rock, such as granite.

The Braixs of Tertiary Mammals.— Profes-
sor Marsh, who has been investigating the fossil
mammals of the tertiary strata in the Rocky Moun-
tain region, with reference to the relative sizes of
brain, has arrived at some interesting conclusions.
He states that the Eocene mammals all appear to
have had small brains, and in some of them the
brain-cavity was hardly more capacious than in the
higher reptiles. The largest Eocene mammals are
the Dinocerata, which were but little inferior to the
elephant in bulk. In Dinoceras, Marsh, the type
genus, the brain is not more than one-eighth the
average size of that in existing rhinoceroses. In
the other genera of this order, Tinoceras, Marsh, and
Vnitatlieriuvi, Leidy, the smallness of the brain was
quite as remarkable. The gigantic mammals of the
American Miocene are the Broiitotherium, Marsh,
the only genus of the family in which the skull is
known ; the brain-cavity is very much larger than
in the Eocene Dinoceras, being about the size of the
brain in the Indian rhinoceros. In the Pliocene
strata of the West, a species of mastodon is the
largest mammal, and although but little superior in
absolute size to Brontotherium, it had a very much
larger brain, but not equal to that of existing pro-
boscidians. The tapiroid ungulates of the Eocene
had small brain-cavities, much smaller than their
allies the Miocene Rhinocerotidaj. The Pliocene
representatives of the latter group had well-de-
veloped brains, but proportionately smaller than
living species. A similar progression in brain-
capacity seems to be well marked in the equine
mammals, especially from the Eocene OroJuppus,
through Mioliippus MAAnchitheritcm of the Miocene^
FUohippus and Hipparion of the Pliocene, to the
recent Equus. In other groups of mammals, like-
wise, so far as observed, the size of the brain shows
a corresponding increase in the successive sub-
divisions of the tertiary. These facts have a very
important bearing on the evolution of mammals,
and open an interesting field for further investi-
gation.

The Iguanadox, a Marsuhal Animal!— At
the recent meeting of the British Association,
Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, F.L.S., P.G.S., made
some observations, with graphic illustrations, on a
pair of symmetrical bones present with the fossil
remains of Iguauadon in the well-known slab from
Maidstone, now in the British Museum, and com-

pared those bones with their analogue, as found with
a portion of the fossilized skeleton of Hadrosaiirus
Foulkii, in the marl beds of the Cretaceous forma-
tion at Haddonfield, in New Jersey, North America.
The bones in question had been described by Pro-
fessor Owen and others as clavicles ; but Mr.
Hawkins, in making his restorations for the park of
the Crystal Palace, was unable, owing to the great
length of the bones, to make room for them in his
Iguanadon, and therefore he had to abandon them,
and make his model in such a manner as would be
consistent with the animal being able to walk. A
subsequent comparison of the bones with those of
the American analogue led to the conclusion that
they were abdominal, and the situation which Mr.
Hawkins thought they occupied suggested the pos-
sibility of the Iguanadon being a marsupial animal.

The Classifications of the Labyrintho-
dants.— One of the most important papers read in
the Geological section of the recent British Associa-
tion meeting, was by Mr. L. C. Miall, F.G.S. The
following points in the characteristics of the laby-
rinthodants were fully noted, as they differ from the
statements usually published in ordinary manuals.
The skull may be regarded as an amphibian skull,
overlaid by crocodilian plates. The teeth occur on
the palate and maxillary in double rpws, and are
very numerous. Three thoracic plates are present,
and the body is covered with bony scutes. They
were all, except two genera, provided with four
limbs, which may have been penta- or tetra-
dactyle. The vertebra; are numerous, and the tail
is long, and, in some genera, makes a most efiicient
swimming organ. Forty-two genera and 126 species
are now known, principally owing to the exertions
of recent explorers. Some of these animals, in their
mode of life, appear to have been fish -like. Some
resembled serpents, others crocodiles, whilst those
of Kilkenny appear to have been salamanders. Mr.
Miall furnished a tabular view of the classification
of the labyrinthodonta, which was divided into ten
sections.

Guide to Belfast. — The members of the
British Association this year had their visit ren-
dei'cd more interesting than usual by the publi-
cation of a " Guide to Belfast " and the adjacent
counties, which had been drawn up for the pur-
pose by members of the Belfast Field Naturalists'
Club. It was an excellent opportunity for the
latter to display their intimate acquaintance with
their district, and their efforts were thoroughly
successful. The " Guide " is a model of what may
be produced by a loving, competent; industry. The
geology, zoology, botany, archajology, &c., of this
wonderful country are fully and accurately drawn
up, the illustrations are numerous and graphic, and
the industry of the Club was only equalled by its

23S

HARDWICKE'S S C lEN CE- GOS SIP.

generosity in presenting every visitor from across
the sea with a copy gratis. The handsome little
volume contains 320 pages, and has a good map
showing the position of the tumuli, cromlechs, &c.,
and the outcrop of the most important geological
deposits. Tlie Belfast Field Naturalists won de-
served honours during the late meeting of the Asso-
ciation, and were well represented by their ubiqui-
tous and intelligent secretary, Mr. William Gray.

Peoceedings of the Liverpool Litebary
AND Philosophical Society. — The proceedings,
for 1872-73, of this well-known Society have just
been published, and form an attractive, well-printed
volume, of 333 pages. Several of the papers are
printed in full, and others abstractive. Among th e
former we have one on the " Strata below the Trias
in the country around Liverpool ; and tlie probabi-
lity of coal occuring at a moderate depth," by a well-
known Liverpool geologist, Mr. George Morton,
E.G.S. This we regard as the most valuable con-
tribution to the volume. It displays an intimate
and accurate acquaintance with the stratigraphy of
the district, and the conclusions of the author are
a valuable addition to economical geology. Mr.
Thomas Ward's paper on " The Cheshire Salt Dis-
trict," which gives both the geology and the mining
details of the area in question, is also a well-written
and important essay on practical geology. In addi-
tion to the above we have a very readable and ex-
ceedingly intelligent paper, by Mr. Alfred Morgan,
on " Gems and Precious Stones " ; and a very
elaborate essay, or note, by Dr. Milieu Coughtrey,
on "The Heart of the New Holland Cassoway."
The rest of the papers are chiefly of a literary or
art nature, except that of the Rev. Thomas P.
Kirkman, nearly 60 pp. in length, entitled "Phi-
losophy without Assumption," in which Herbert
Spencer, Huxley, and others, come in for what the
writer intends as castigation. The style seems to us
a bad imitation of Carlyle, and the tone too flippant
and jocular. We confess to little sympathy with
this style of argument. Either Spencer is right or
wrong, and we want to know — which ? Poking bad
fun, and assuming a style of literary mountebaukism,
will not give us the answer to this important ques-
tion. What a salvation of literary labour there
would be if writers would confiue themselves to
facts and their proper inferences, and not attempt
to obtain a momentary triumph by offensively ap-
pealing to the prejudices of the most ill-informed,
rather than to the conscientious knowledge of those
better able to judge !

NOTES AND aUERIES.

Elax. — The Rev. S. A. Brennan asks for an
explanation of the Tyrone farmers' belief that flax
must not be steeped " before or after the change of
the moon." The answer to this, and all other

notions of farmers about the influence of the moon,
is that they are all moonshine. No class of people
are more incapable of forming correct inferences
from facts as to natural phenomena. — S. T. P.

Moles not in Ireland. — An amusing instance
of ignorance was given by a famous Scotch seeds-
man, who, on opening a new shop in Dublin, issued
catalogues specifying, among implements in his
stock, " mole-traps '''\—S. T. P.

Ancient Ash - tree. — In the churchyard
of Tullaniskin Church, county Tyrone, is an ash,
the dimensions of whose trunk are — at the ground,
48 ft. in circumference ; at the height of 3 ft., 31 ft. ;
at 8 ft,, 33 ft. It soon divides into several limbs of
moderate height and size ; but the trunk, viewed
from the door of the church-porch, is really a
stupendous object, more like a huge rock than a
tree. It must be of immense antiquity. Such trees
were profoundly venerated by the ancient Irish, and
are so still by the natives in many parts of the
island.—^. T. P.

P.S.— One side of this tree was blown down in
the great storm of January 6th, 1839.

A Rustic Sttperstition. — An amusing instance

also believe in witchcraft and the bad effect of the
" evil eye " on cattle, churning of butter, &c. —
S. T. P.

MuREX PURPURA. — This is a well-known shell of
the family Miiriclda, though^ perhaps, the fact that
a purple dye was extracted from it by the Tyrians is
not so well known. The dye was obtained by com-
pressing the larger ones in holes of the rocks, their
shells having been previously taken off, and bruising
the smaller specimens with their inhabitants in
mortars. As each mollusk afforded a minute quantity
of colouring matter, the dye became of great value.
We learn on trustworthy authority that numbers of
broken shells, probably Murcx tninculus, are still
found on the coast of Tyre. M. Boblaye states that
traces exist of the employment of Murex hrandaris
for the same purpose on the coast of the Morea. In
Chambers's Encyclopedia we read that Tarentum,
the modern Otranto, was one of the great murex-
fisherics of the Romans, and that tliey had a number
of dyeing establishments there. From Homer we
find that the dye was of a dark red colour, and not
what is now commonly called purple ; and also that
it was only worn by princes, though Xenophon, in
his " Cyri Anabasis," states that it was the colour
of the dress worn by Persian nobles, whom he calls
purple-wearers. In Judges viii. 2G we read that the
Midianitish kings, who were defeated by Gideon,
were clad in purple. The Babylonians used to
clothe their gods with' it. At the Byzantine court
the epithet porphiirogennetos, meaning " born in the
purple," was used of a child born to the reigning
emperor. Lastly, Gosse says, in his "Mollusca,"
that in the reign of Augustus double-dyed purple
wool was sold for about £36 sterling per lb. But as
wealth would not hesitate at any price to obtain that
which was fashionable, laws were enacted render-
ing it penal for any one but the emperor to wear
cloth of this sort. — /T. /. S. Simpson.

Larva from Paris. — The larva which your cor-
respodent, in the March number of Science-Gossip,
mentions as having found in Paris, is certainly the
silkworm of the Ailauthus. Both the tree and the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

239

insect have become perfectly acclimatized iu France,
and the latter, indeed, is fast becoming a pest,
stripping the ailanthus-trees of their foliage to a vast
extent. The larvae spin their cocoons close to one
another, one in each leaf, which they wrap round
them, after having spun a thick carpeting of silk
along the leaf-stalk and the branch, to prevent the
leaf and cocoon from falling to the ground iu the
autumn. Sometimes groups of forty or more
cocoons may be seen dangling from the branches on
one tree. This insect, first introduced iu ISoG from
Japan, is now much more common than ever was a
native species — Salia-ida Tyri, the Great Emperor
moth — which feeds on elm and various fruit-trees,
and which is now fast disappearing from the neigh-
bourhood of Paris, the large elms on the roads having
been cut down during the siege. A friend of mine
■collected last year upwards of SOOlarvc'E and cocoons
of the Ailanthus moth {Attucus Cynthia), all at large,
and I gathered perhaps a hundred last autumn
without any trouble. The larvae are fine beasties,
remarkable for a kind of whitish powdery bloom,
■with which they are covered ; they feed very cou-
lentedly on branches of their food-plant placed in
pans of water, and do not wander much. They feed
•exclusively on the Ailanthus, I believe. The moths,
which appear here early in June, are frequently
attracted by the light in shop-vv'indows, and occasion
much wonder at their size and beauty; and no doubt
the bats must find them a toothsome.morsel. There
are several manufactures iu France which work up
specially the silk, which is very strong, and well
adapted for making cheap goods ; but the silk
■cannot be reeled, as that of the mulberry-worm, and
must be carded : the cocoons are in constant demand,
at about three francs the pound. The Ailanthus
{Ailanthus (jlandidosus) is now being planted on tlie
side-walks of many of our boulevards : it grows
■exceedingly well, and nothing besides the silkworm
appears to touch it. Like the Acacia {Robiiiia
j)seudo-acac.ia), it grows perfectly wild wherever it
has beeu introduced ; its foliage in the autumn is
very beautiful, being of a fine red colour, — E. L.
Ragonot, 27, Rue de Buffoii, Paris.

Seaside Shuubs. — The common juniper {Junipenis
■communis) grows in the greatest luxuriance on the
mountains of Dumfriesshire, Scotland. 1 have also
found it growing on the sea-banks of the county of
Durham ; but it does not seem to attain to the
same luxuriance as on the mountains. Never having
seen it cultivated iu such near conjuncticm to the
sea, 1 cannot say much as regards its ornamental
properties ; but I believe, by a little oarc and study,
that the Juniper might be successfully cultivated so
as to bear a high cliaracter of being a highly orna-
mental evergreen. Possibly some other readers of
Science-Gossip may have tried its culture by the
sea, and vi'ill give its history as far as observed.—/.
Broicn, Sunderland.

Tortoises and Eggs.— It may interest Mr. C.
F. W. T. Williams to know that a -year or two ago
I also procured a tortoise from London, I believe iu
May, and it had the run of a large garden all the
summer and autumn. At the latter end of
December, owing, I suppose, to the unusual mild-
ness of the weather, it began to take its walks
abroad, and one day was fuund dead. At the earliest
opportunity 1 opened it, but, owing to the hardness
of the carapace, 1 was obliged to use much force.
When the body was laid bare, I found three eggs,
about the size of a small pigeon's ^%z. The shells
were white, and, with the exception of the two euds

I being of nearly equal curvature, would easily have-

' passed as birds' eggs. Unfortunately, two were

I broken during the operation, and the' third imme-

; diately afterwards, accidentally. I do not remember

I seeing traces of any other eggs. The inside ap-

I peared similar to other eggs ; the yolk was rather
large.— -i^. C. Haddon.

F. VESCA AND p. FKAGARIA. — I should feel

obliged if you or any of your correspondents cau
furnish me with a good general distinction betw^eeu
Fragaria vesca and Potentilla fragaria (Lindley).
There appears to be no little difiiculty encountered
by young botanists in distinguishing them by the
characters usually given. The principal differences
are not exhibited until the fruit ripens ; but if a
characteristic feature exists and is permanent in one
or the other, I should be glad to hear of it.— i/.
Marshall Ward.

Electricity.— The phenomena described by
George Roberts, on page 95 may ibe observed
when one strokes a cat which has been lying before
a fire or in the sunshine : if the fur be Very warm,
the electricity is sometimes suiScient to make it
stick together as if it were wet ; and if a finger be
approached to the fur, it will rise on end and touch
the finger. Even the human hair, when pomade is
not used, w-ill crackle and emit sparks when a comb
is drawn through it.— i^. /. Allen.

Orthogouiscus.— I once found a specimen of
Orthogorispus jnola, and was much struck by some
peculiarities iu its anatomy. Dr. Spencer Cobbold
{Intellectual Observer, vol. ii. p. 86) states that the
Professor of Anatomy, University of Edinburgh,
anatomized a large specimen of the fish in 1856.
Cau any of your readers inform me of his name,
whether he published his observations, and if so,
where they may be found, or refer mc to a good
anatomical description of Orthogoriscus ?— Z. N.

BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED.

" Manual of Botany, Anatomical, and Physiological." By
Robert Brown. London: VS'. Blackwood.

" Les Koches." Par E. Jannettaz. Paris : Rothschild.

" Causeries Scientifiques." Treizieme Annee, 1873.

" La Pluie et le beau Temps." Par Paul Laurencin.
Paris : Rotlischild.

" Monthly MicroscopicalJournal." September.

" Grevillea." September.

" Journal of Applied Science." September.

"American Naturalist." August.

" Canadian Entomologist." August.

"Ben Brierley's Journal." August.

Co.MMU.VICATIONS RbCEIVi;!) UP TO THEllTH ULT. FROM : —

T. B. W.— C. G. B.- G. G.— A. de S. G.— E. A. H.— T. McG.
— C. F. VV. T. W.- R. L.- E. E. E.— R. N. V.— F. G.— M. S. J.
—A. H.-B P. P.-C. W.— J. L.— G. O. H.— G. C. D.—
J. H. W — T. H.-A. Y. C.-T. D. M.— G. H. P.-A. H.—
J. K. J.— A. W.— H. E. W.— W. B. M.— D. J. P.— J. H. A.—
W. T. S.— J. L. J.— T. W. G.— G. J. J.— M. J.-T. G.— W. T.
— T. i. B.— B. E. S.— H. B. T.-S. A. B.— W. F. R.— F. H. A.

— J. V^. F.— H. M. W.— W. C— W.H. H.— A. L.— Dr. C. H. B.
—J. M. M.— W. H. R.— Dr. T. W. W. S.— F. E. L.— C. K.—
A. B.— M. A. L.—J. B.— E. F. B.— G. A. L.- U. G.— J. R. S. C.
—J. K.-Dr. M.— J S. H.— W. E.-J. W. S.— W. H. G.—
P. Q. K.-L. S. S-C. W.-M. P.— L. R. R.— V^^ H. G.—
W. H.— W. yS. S.— D. D. B.— F. C. S.— T. W.— W. H.— R. W.

— R. G. A.— E. V^^— J. H. A. J.— C. S — Dr. C— A. B.—
E. D. C- Dr. M — H. C. M.— O. W.— W. T. B.— G. O. W^.—
A. B.— G. O. H— H. B. T.— F. W. M.-J. S.— C. F. W.—
G. A. L.— G. C. D.-Dr. C. C A.— E. F. E.— J. A.jun.— E. E.
S. P.— H. J. McG.— J. K. J.-W. M.-R. B.-J. F. R.—
M. C. C— A. N.— W. S.— J. W. R.-C. L. J.-F. H. A.—
H. P. M.— J. J. P.— C. P. G.— M. K. S.— W. T.— J. E. R.—
H. S.— W.M.— W. F. S.-T. H. P.— W. H. S.— H. W.—
W. R. H. — W. E.— B. M.— J. G. R. P.— &c.

2iO

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

W. H. GoMM. — Your flowers were too much decomposed
for identification. You should have sent them in a dried, not
in a wet state. Send some dried specimens.

L. R. Raymond. — Your plant is the yellow Iris (Iris pseudo-
acorus). The bivalve is the " Swan Mussel," {Anodon
nygneus).

J. K. Jackson.— Thespecimen was, as you said, very much
crushed and unidentifiable. It appears to be the young of
the Sea Mouse (AphrodUa iiculeata), a marine annelid.

E. A. Hall.— Your list of lepidoptera sent for exchange
would fill at least a dozen lines, and three are all we can
allow, unless as advertisements. Could you not cut up the
list into two or three " exchanges " ?

E. E. Evans.— 1. Your plants are the Soap-wort (SaporaaWa
officinjlis), belonging to the nat. order Cnryophyllacem. 2.
First get your aquarium into a balanced condition by means
of fresh-water snails [Lymnea, Pahidina, &c.), which will eat
away the green confervse, before you put in your fishes. 3.
You will find an account of how to proceed with the eggs of
the Goat-moth in Newman's " British Moths." 4. We do not
know why you have not succeeded in sugaring. Persevere !

J. L. WiGAN.— No exchange inclosed in your envelope.

G. H, P. — We do not remember having seen a bifurcated
leaf of the common Laurel before, and are glad to put it on
record.

W. B. Marshall.- See article on "Collecting and Pre-
serving Flowering Plants," by James Britten, F.L.S., in May
No. of Science-Gossip for 18/2. You will be able to get
botanical drying-paper, of the needful sizes, from any natural-
history dealer in London.

J. H. A. (Dover).— Thanks for your exquisite sketches of
antennae of butterflies and moths.

M. J.^ — No fern inclosed.

B. E. Smith.— Your specimen is the pretty Grass of Par-
nassus (Faniassiii palustris).

F. E. L.— The parasitic insects on the back of the leaf sent,
are the " Scale Insects " (female), a species of Coccus, allied
to the cochineal insect, probably srjuamifera.

M. R. Shaw.— Your terminal portion of the frond of
Osmunda regalis, although not quite the usual mode of growth,
can hardly be termed abnormal. It has probably.been arrested
in its further development by the dry season.

E.vTo (Hull), who inquired for some liquid in which to pre-
serve insects for subsequent dissection, cannot do better than
try glycerine. It is preferred to spirits by American natural-
ists, on account of its being free from the inconvenience
complained of by " Ento."— C. P. G.

S. Pea RCE.— Your two fungi are Polyporus varius. See
Cooke's " British Fungi," vol. i.

W. Hamborough. — The micro-fungus on leaves of coffee-
plant is Semeleia vastatri.r, B. & Br. See " Gardener's
Chronicle " for 1873.— M. C. C.

J. H. A. Jenner— Your Puccinea on leaf of " Sweet Wil-
liam" is the "Lychnis Brand" (Puccinea lychnidearum).
See Cooke's " Handbook of British Fungi," vol. ii. page 505.

Miss Saunders. — Your specimens supposed to be fungoid
germs on red currants, are not fungi at all, but probably some
insect secretions.

W. M.— All communications sent to the Editor for this
correspondent have been duly forwarded to him.

Flints. — Will the correspondent who sent us some frag-
ments of flint with supposed lichens or fungi attached to
them, kindly send us his name and address, as they have been
mislaid i"

W. PuT.MAN (Hebden Bridge).— H^;;n2/m rusciforme, Fis-
sidens pvsillus.

W. B. Hegg (Pennycuick).— 1,3, 4. Mnium hormim; 2, 5.
Bryum capiltare.

B. Belfiei.d (Rochdale).— 1. Hypmim sericeum ; 2. H.
plumosum ; 3. S. rutabulum ; 4. H. fluitam ; 5. H. filici-
num ; 6. H. serpens. — R. B.

W. E. (Oxford).— Plants, No. 1. Valerianu nfficin/ilis, L., not
at all uncommon in damp or shady places ; 2. Zysimuchia
vulgaris, h. , 3. C/j/oj-u /)ei/fy?(«i(/, a species frequent in chalky
places. — R.

J. K. (Newport, Mon.) — It is impossible to name specimens,
without leaves, in fact nothing but the flowers, or fruit.
They are probab'y, Linuria repens, and Centaurea nigra. L.
Send in future none but perfect specimens, and we shall feel
a pleasure in naming you as many as you wish — R.

Dr. MoKTON.— The specimen labelled No. 1, which you
think is Pimpinelta magna, is Sis(m amoninm. P. magna is
very rare : the one marked No, 2 is the more common Pimpi.
nella »n,rifraga. — R.

W. T. B.— No charge is made for "exchanges," unless
they exceed three lines in length.

For Seeds of Cuscuta trifolH, send stamped directed
envelope to W. H. Gomm, Somerton, Taunton.

Good sections of Cedar, Quillai Bark, and Yew, well
mounted, offered for other good Slides.— E. Lovett, Holly
Mount, Croydon.

Four varieties of Foreign Diatomaceous Earths, for good
Slides or Material.— T. Gardner, Queen's-road, Watford.

Duplicates : Pupse of P. machaon and imagos of T.
quercus, A. adippe, and Z. lonicertp. Desiderata: A. iris,
C. hyale, A. paphia, A. atropos, or otfers,--D. J. Preston,
Riversfield, Catton, Norwich.

For a small section of the Bread-fruit Tree, send stamped
directed envelope to W. H. Hey, Upminster, Romford.

Pollen of Catalpa seringafolia (rare), mounted in damar,
for an equally good Slide.— E. Lovett. Holly Mount, Croydon.

For Toome Bridge Diatomaceous Earth or mounted Scales
of Podura or Lepisma, send good Slides or Material to
G. J. Johnson, Hale, Altrincham.

MicRo-FUNCi (named) for Marine Polyzoa.— Mrs. C. F.
White, 42, Windsor-road, Ealing.

Wanted, a few fronds of Wolffia arrhiza (dried); Sussex
Flowering Plants in exchange.— Rev. F. H .Arnold, Fishbourne,
Chichester.

First-class Micro-slides for Mole Crickets, Great Green
Grasshopper, Giant Corkroach, Locusts, Field Crickets, or
good foreign specimens of the Grasshopper, L'lcust, Cricket,
or Cockroach families.— C. L. Jackson, 11, Hisketh-street,
Southport.

Duplicate British Birds' Eggs, Eagle, Osprey. Diver, Auk,
Bustard, Crane, &c.— Apply to T. H. Phuler, Vale Royal,
Northwich, Cheshire.

Rare Shells offered: Clausiliarttgosa, var. Srhlechtii
(new and rare variety, recently determined by Mr. Jeffreys),
I Helix ohnoluta, Helix revelata, Piiidiuin cinereum, Clausilia
I dubia, Pupa anglica, Pupa edentuln, for other named rare
I Pupas or Vertigos, or Testacellas, Succinea ohlonga, L. imn-
j lutus, L. glutinosus, or Acmelineata. — W. F Sutton, Gosforth-
: grove, near Newcastle- on-Tyne.

I Bulbs of Gloriosa superba just received from India; also
Wings and Feathers of Indian birds, for good Micro slides or
Books on Microscopy, especially Micro-Dictionary.— Apply to
W. M., Post OflSce, Epsom.

Section of Human Clavicle sent on receipt of stamped
envelope and other Objects; good Slides in exchange fur
others.— Tylar, l65, Well street, Birmingham.

Land-sdells, chiefly West Indian, for others. Lists ex-
changed ; British not required.— C. P. Gloyne, 3, Great
George's street West, Cork.

Spiracles, &c., of Foreign Moth {Bombyx Cecrriphi) offered
for Named Diatom Slides, or good Microscopical material. —
Edward Ward, Higher Broughton, Manchester.

FiRST-CL-ASs Slides of Naoiculu bomhus, Odontidium undu-
latum, Rhahdonemu arcuatuyn , Ii. ri inutum, Pragilaria assumis
and undosa, for other really good Slides.— H. B. Thomas,
Boston, Lincolnshire.

For Sertularia operculata and Hydrallinania falcata, send
stamped envelope and object of interest to A. Havvard, 1,
Shirley-villas, Addiscombe-road, Croydon.

For unmounted Palates of Cniton and Pearly Son (wanted
Animal Parasites, &c.), send stamped envelone to r ' Mnr-
farlane. Links, Kirkcaldy, N. B. ^ * '^^"

Diatoms, Spicules, Fungi, Plant Hairs, &c. (good Slides!
for material containing A. Ehreitbertii, A Oreganus A
Kittoni, E^argus,a.uy Isthmia or Auliscus.-J. K. Jackson'
Oldbury, Birm.ngham. '

Chemistry.- I have for exchange; Bunse i Burner with
rose and tube, Retoit Stand, Spirit Lamp, Pestle and Mortar
&.C., and a few pure Chemicals. Full list on aoDlication'—

F. G., Box B, SO, Po^t Oflice, Leeds. "
Spartina alterniflora for good specimens of any of the

following :— Nos 59, 72, utficitialis; Uy, US, 216, dubwm ■ o^,
395, 330, 386, 472, 518, 600, 655, 768, 805, 893, 93i' Qu*' Qld'
997, 1042, 1063, 1077, 1086, 1089, 11(18, 1131, lo(i6 V130 V'Wl'
1308, 1345, 1366, 1418, Lon. Cat., 6th ed.— Address A "b '
107, High-street, Croydon. "' " '

Cuticle of House-leek, P.dlen of Ox-eye Daisy, Sunflower
and Cup/iea tgneu, Gizzard of Cockroach, Gizzard of Gr„;li,l
vtridissima. Spines of Echinus, Sting and Poison-bag of \Vasi>
all mounted, offered in excnange f t ^ood Mounted Slides ■-

G. Garrett, Harland House, Wherstead-road, Ipswich
Helix lamellata and Zunitesexcacatug for Sphwrium c'orneuw

var. nuclevs ; Pisidium funtinnle, vars. Henslowana,
pulchella. and pallida, or P. nitidum. var. splendent or any
*•"=• J. \Mutinham, Cross-lane, Marsh, Huddei=-

EXCHANGE3.

For living specimens of Ilrlix cartbusiana, seni box and
pos'age to J. H. A. Jcnner, Lewes. Any local species accot-
able. .- r -r

good varieties
field.

Lycopus europtrus, Atropa Belladimna. Artemisia Ahsiulhiiim
Polygona hydrapiper, for Uagra lute,,, Banunculas phil.motiZ
Patentaia verna, Tioli paluXris.-G. C. Druce, Nortliamp'on

.SwALLow.TAiLEi> (P. Mar/,aon).—A few Pupa; mexchan-e
for any of the following : — «. cecropi,i, B
jihemus, Siiturnia In, Acti
— Robert
Norwich.

pertiyi, 13. pi, I,/.

« '"""--AnsAers within a week.
Ladd man, Cossey-terrace, Upper Helleado'i

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

241

THE HISTOEY OF OUE CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

No. VI.— THE CARROT {Baucus Carota).

'HE next vegetables
most in use, after
those already de-
scribed, are per-
haps carrots and
parsnips, both of
which appear to
be indigenous to
Britain. They be-
.-^Tj,^, ^/r- c/iNv^r' '°^? ^^ ^^^^ exten-

\!is4^ 'T-yflt,. O tfe sive order, tiie TJmhellifera,
which contains a large num-
ber of poisonous and delete-
rious plants, such as the
Hemlock {Conium niacula-
ti'.ni). Fools' Parsley {.Ellmsa
Vynapium), &c., as well as
many species of harmless and
wholesome vegetables.

The Carrot was known to
the ancient Greeks and
Romans. Theophrastus
states, in the ninth book
of his "History of Plants,"
that carrots grew in
Arcadia, but that the best are found in Sparta.
Petronius Diodotus, a Greek physician who lived in
or before the first century after Christ, and is said
to have written a work on botany, mentions four
kinds of this root, but there is some reason to
think he includes the parsnip with them. Pliny
states that the best kind of carrots in his time
came from Candia, and the next to them were
grown in Achaia. This author observes that the
root bears a similar degree of resemblance to the
parsnip, and that, in whatever country tliey grow,
the best are produced in sound dry ground, and
that wild carrots are to be found in most countries,
but never in poor soils. This vegetable is minutely
described by Dioscorides (a physician and botanist
who lived in the time of Nero) ; he states that it
was reared in gardens on account of its esculent
No. 119.

root. It is difficult to trace the progress of the
carrot since that period, but it appears to have been
always an object, of cultivation among various na-
tions. We are indebted for its introduction to the
Flemings, who, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
sought refuge in England from the insupportable
tyranny of their Spanish master, Philip II. Find-
ing the soil about Sandwich, in Kent, very favourable
for the cultivation of the carrot, the emigrants soon
engaged in its production on that spot. The Eng-
lish, whose knowledge of horticulture was at that
time extremely circumscribed, were in this case
well pleased to add another edible vegetable to the
scanty list which were then under general cultiva-
tion. The carrot, therefore, unlike the turnip,
grew quickly into esteem, and being made an object
of careful cultivation, was very shortly naturalized
throughout the island. Gerard calls these plants
Baucus Cretensis verus, or Candle carrots, and says
that " the true Daucus of Dioscorides does not grow
in Candia only, but is found upon the mountains of
Germany, upon the Jura, and about Geneva, from
whence it hath been sent and conveyed by one
friendly herbalist unto another into sundry regions."
He adds that in his time the carrot was most com-
monly boiled to be eaten with fat meat, but he did
not esteem it to be a very nourishing food.

In its wild state the carrot has a tough root of a
whitish colour, and is very common on calcareous
soils, where it is easily recognized in the early
summer by its concave umbels, resembling in shape
a bird's nest; hence the origin to one of its common
names. The Howers, which are white, are succeeded
by fruit covered with prickles. Many attempts in
former days have been made by Miller aud other
horticulturists to change by culture the wild carrot
into the esculent one, but they were unsuccessful.
Perhaps the cultivated one was first fostered into
its present value under a warmer temperature than
Britain. A writer in the Gardener's ChroHicle
(1865, p. 1154) states that he had procured in a few
generations from wild kinds large, fleshy, fibreless

M

342

HARDWICKE'S SCIENC E-G OS SIP.

roots of reel, white, or yellow colour, some short,
some of moderate length, others very long. These
varieties are fixed for the most part, and constitute
races that do not vary. In the same paper it is
mentioned that M. Carriere, from the seed of the
wild carrot, gathered by himself in the department

In Belgium and other continental countries the
carrot has been grown as a field-crop for a longer
time, and to a much greater extent, than in Britain^
The first notice we have of its being introduced
into our field-culture to any great extent is by
Arthur Young, who mentions its being grown in

Fig. 1G5. Wild Carrot {Daucus Carofa).

of Aube, far away from any residence and in com.
paratively inacccssib'e situations, obtained in the
first generation long, spindle-shaped, soft, fibreless
roots, some of which were white, others yellow, and
some n'ere even of a reddish violet colour. And as
with carrots so also with parsnips.

the sandy soil of the eastern division of Suffolk,
whence it had in all probability been introduced
from the opposite shores of Belgium and Holland,
In the year 1765 the attention of the Society for
the Encouragement of Arts, &c., was directed to
this branch of husbandry, and in consequence, au

HAIIDWICKE'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP.

243

account of the culture of carrots and the uses to
which they may be applied, was published by
Robert Billing, a farmer in Norfolk, who states
that he obtained from twenty acres and a half five
hundred and ten loads of this root, which he found
equal in use and effect to a thousand loads of tur-
nips, or three hundred loads of hay. Some of them
measured two feet in length, and from twelve to
fourteen inches round. Horses are remarkably
fond of carrots, and when mixed with oats they form
very gocd food for them. The efiicacy of these
roots in preserving and restoring the wind of horses
had, it is said, been partially known in Suffolk,
where carrots were administered as a secret specific
for the complaint long previously to their being
commonly applied as food for that animal. Carrots
are equally beneficial as nourishment for cows, sheep,
and swine. It was stated some years since that at
Purlington, in Yorkshire, the stock of a farm, con-
sisting of twenty working horses, four bullocks, and
six milch cows were fed from the end of September
to the beginniug of May on the carrots produced
from three acres of land. The animals, during the
whole of that period, lived on these roots, with the
addition of only a very small quantity of hay.

According to Campbell's "Political Survey,"
carrot-seed has been made a considerable source of
profit to the cultivator, for he states that in the
latter part of the last century a farmer in Essex
obtained from an acre of land sown with this vege-
table ten cwt. of seed, which he sold in London at
£10 per cwt. The kinds that are commonly grown
are the long and the horn carrot. The first of these
is subdivided into other varieties, differing in size
and colour. The large, red field-carrot, which is
cultivated as food for cattle, belongs to this class.
The horn-carrot, having a shorter and smaller root,
is a good crop for a shallow soil, but does not keep
so well through the winter.

In the Channel Islands and Brittany the carrot
and parsnip are more extensively cultivated than in
Britain, the soil being deeply trenched by the spade
or by a plough constructed for the purpose. The
number of acres under carrot cultivation in the
United Kingdom, according to the returns for
1873, was 19^891.

When a carrot is cut transversely, it is found to
consist of two parts of difi'erent colour and texture.
The outer, called the corticulous part, or rind, is
of the darker colour and of the more pulpy con-
sistency. The inner, or heart- wood, especially when
the root has attained its full size, is more fibrous
or stringy, and if it be separated, it is bristled over
with hard points or fibres, that extend to the root-
lets outside. Almost the whole crown of the root,
or that part which sends up the leaves, is connected
with the wood, and only the epidermis, or outer
skin of the leaves and stem, with the external
portion of the root.

Carrots contain a large amount of water, 86
parts in 100 lb. Their most distinguished dietetical
substance is sugar, of which they possess nearly
6i per cent. Starch is also found in small quan-
tities, with a small portion of albumen. The
ancients used the seed both of the wild and cul-
tivated carrot as an internal medicine against the
bite of serpents ; they also gave it to animals that
had been stung by them.

Dr. James says carrots strengthen and fatten the
body, and are very proper food for consumptive
persons. The root of the garden carrot is much
used as a poultice for cancers, on account of its
antiseptic qualities. In some parts of Europe a
spirit is distilled from this vegetable. The abun-
dance of sugar contained in the roots is readily
converted into alcohol. About 160 lb. of the
crushed roots are required to yield one gallon of
spirit. Sugar has been obtained from them, but
notwithstanding the large amount existing in them,
the manufacture has not been found profitable. In
Germany, a substitute for coffee has been made of
the roots chopped up into small pieces and partially
carbonized by roasting. A dye similar to woad has
been obtained from them. (See Johnson's " Useful
Plants of Great Britain.")

Parkinson, botanist to James I., tells us that
ladies of his time used to decorate their hats or
heads with the leaves of the wild carrot, which in
the autumn are exceedingly beautiful. This, says
Phillips, would rather show the simplicity of our
ancestors than their Vant of taste; as we have
seen ladies' dresses trimmed with the curled leaves
of the garden parsley, and which were not more
admired for their novelty than for the elegance they
displayed.

If in winter a section be cut from the end of
thick part of the root, and this be placed in a
shallow vessel containing water, young and delicate
leaves are developed, forming a radiated tuft, the
graceful and verdant appearance of which makes it
a pleasing ornament to a room in that season when
any semblance of vegetation is a welcome relief to
the eye. Plowers may be cut out of large carrots
that closely resemble ranunculuses, without the
least aid of colouring. The name of this genus of
plants is supposed to be derived iromdaio, "I warm."
The specific name seems to have reference to the
colour of the root, and to have its origin in the
Celtic word car, which means red. (See Syme's
" Ency. Bot.") Hampdek G. Glasspoole.

Field FAEEs.— On Thursdaj', August 13, I ob-
served a large flock of fieldfares in the parish of
Pomeroy, county Tyrone. Being migratory birds,
and not generally seen until October, is it not
strange that they should visit us so early ?—Iiev.

iS. A, Brenan.

M 2

2il

HARDWICKE'S S CIEN C E-GO S S IP.

LOCAL NATURAL HISTORY NOTES.

so. I. — BUSSAGE, NEAR STROUD, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

I SHALL commence with a few words about the'
geology of the district, as of course all the
other natural history characteristics depend upon it.

The country is very hilly, and these hills consist
of, I believe, tbe inferior oolite limestone and clays
that occur with it. Some of the hill slopes are
very steep, and in general configuration and herbage
strongly resemble chalk, but differ in having copious
springs breaking out on most of them. The alter-
nations of hard and soft strata, I am told, occasion
small landslips in the neighbourhood.

Some of the Oolitic fossils are very numerous
about Bussage, and it is possible to pick up lumps
quite full of two species of Terebralida; though,
I believe, the richest spot for fossils is at Dursley,
some twelve miles off. A piece I got there has a
cast of what I take to be Trigonia costata, a common
fossil in this formation, with a number of sea-
worms' tubes across it. The stone of the neigh-

Fig. 166. A common Oolitic fossil (Tng-oma cosfaio).

bourhood is much used for building, and for the
stone walls which here take the place of hedges.
These walls are built "dry," as they are stated to
last longer without mortar. The ordinary walls,
composed of rough fragments of stone and over-
grown with moss and weeds, give a very charac-
teristic sample of the geology, botany, and zoology
of the district. Nearly all the common fossils of
the local formation may be seen while walking by a
hundred yards of one of these walls, and a great
many plants and ferns find shelter and foothold on
them. Herb Robert (Geranium rohertianum) is
perhaps one of the most beautiful when the leaves
and whole plant turn a vivid carmine colour, afford-
ing a lovely contrast with the grey weathered stones
and patches of dark green moss. Then the loose
stones at the top give shelter to a fair share of the
moUusca of the district, including that minute
little snail Helix rupestris in great numbers, and
others of a less local character ; as Clmisilia
riigosa, &c.
Botany.— The district oC Toadsmoor Valley,

adjoining Bussage, to which these notes apply, is
well wooded with beech, although it has been partly
cleared to supply beech-wood to a walking-stick
and penholder-mill in Chaleford Valley, where it is
turned up into these articles. A striking pecu
liarity is the total absence of gorse or furze on the
hills and wastes. A common studded with bushes
1 took for furze in the distance, turned out to be
wild rose and brambles. Heather is also not to be
found.

Perhaps one of the most conspicuous plants is
the Rose-bay, or flowering willow {Epilobium
angustifolizim), which grows on the walls, quarries,
and slopes. At Dursley, before-mentioned, there
were some hill-slopes so covered with it as to seem
rose-coloured a mile off. Two other species of
Cranesbills are common to the district, besides the
Herb Robert, one of them being the very beautiful
meadow Cranesbill {Geranium pratense), which
grew even on the tops of the hills where the soil
was damp, and the other species Geranium Incichnti.

In the beech-woods of Toadsmoor Valley two
rather local plants occur, Epipadis latifolia, the
Broad-leaved Helleborine, and Campanula glome-
rata ; the green Hellebore [Uelleborus viridis) also
grew there; its deeply divided leaves reminded one
rather of a small hothouse palm.

Fig. 167, An abundant Oolitic fossil {Terehratula biplicata

The large-flowered St. John's Wort {HypericHm
calycinuni) was also a denizen of this valley, but the
place to see it in perfection was at Woodchester
Park, a few miles off. Some of the slopes thei'e
were perfectly covered with it, and looked quite
golden-coloured from the number of its almost
symmetrically-arranged flowers, which are remark-
able even in the distances between them. A lady
residing in Bussage tells me that before the
common was enclosed the Moonwort fern [Botry-
chium Lunaria) used to grow there, but I am afraid
it is extinct now. The little black Spleenwort
Asplenimn tricJiomanes, with the common Hart's-
tongue and Wall-rue {A. Ruta-muraria) still grows
on the vicarage walls.

Entomology. — The wood-ant {Formica rufa) is
very abundant on some of the wooded slopes : as a
general rule, they choose spots that are open to the
morning sun. One nest in a larch plantation was
larger than any I remember seeing before, and

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

245

would be fully three feet six iuches high through
the centre, and was just the shape of a well-formed
apple-pudding.

It is curious to note how well the colour of the
material used for the nest and the general rubbish
on the ground in a wood assimilate with the dusky
black and tawny red of the ants ; those hills made
of the leaf-sheaths of the beech are almost exactly
the colour of the ants. A large nest of the sort I
saw must be the work of more than one year,
though exactly how long they are constructing such
a nest I cannot say. The ants are very pertinacious
in the way they carry their runs right across a road
in spite of the trafiic,,which must destroy a good
many. One small nest, by the side of a pathway,
which I disturbed, I found had been quite deserted,
and the ants were going between it and another
small temporary nest to a new spot. I watched
them carrying eggs, pupse, and ants along during
the few hours of fine weather. The ants that were
being carried were held under the carrier upside
down in their jaws, and were folded together very
compactly. They shifted their quarters again from
this new nest, apparently not satisfied with the
situation. There appeared to me to be a vast lot of
useless labour in their proceedings. One ant would
carry back a pupa that another had just carefully
brought out of the nest, and two would get hold of
opposite ends of the same bit of stick, and pull in
opposite directions. They did not carry away any
of the materials of the deserted nest, but got fresh
ones each time.

Fig. I6s. ho-wer Oolite (Gryphea virgula).

These ants are rather uncertain in their distribu-
tion. I never met with any while in South Devon.
They do not seem confined to any particular soil, as
they are common on the sand at Weybridge, in
Surrey, on chalk and limestone, and on granite at
Linton, in North Devon.

Another conspicuous insect occurring at Bussage
was the Great Saw-fly (Urocerus gigas). I saw
several specimens ; one settled on my coat while
sketching — I suppose attracted by the smell of the
turpentine I was using. Their frequency was no
doubt owing to the larch woods in Toadmoor
Valley, on the timber of which the larviB feed.

The present year has, I think, been a very bad
one for lepidoptcra, from the coldness and rain, at
any rate in the west ; so I had not a fair oppor-
tunity of judging of the lepidoptera of the district ;
but certainly there was no great abundance of even
common species, except the Cinnabar Moth [Calli-
morpha Jacobcea:), which was quite a pest, and dur-

ing August every road, wall, and walk abounded
with its yellow and black ringed caterpillars, which
in many places had eaten up every scrap of ragwort
and groundsel, and were rapidly crawling about
for more food. They were so numerous that they
must have done good service in destroying these
two weeds they feed on. One of the " footman "
moths, called the "Muslin" {Niidaria miindana),
came to light very freely, and must have been very
plentiful there. The scarce Magpie ]\Ioth {Ahraxns
ulmata) also abounded in the district.

Fig. 169. Great Saw-fly (tArocecMsg'ig'us).

MoLLUSCA.— The land and fresh-water mollusca
of the district did not strike me as being very rich
in species, although the individuals were plentiful.
Planorhis alius and P. nitidus occurred in the
large pond at the bottom of the valley ; but I could
find no Limnea pereger there. There were traces of
Anodonta cygnea in the shape of dead and broken
shells. The most interesting species to me was
Pupa jimiperii, which I found amongst loose stones
on an old pasture slope, in company with Bulmus
oJjscurus.

Zoology. — Toadsmoor Valley gets its name from
the number of frogs and toads that swarm there.
Oa a warm damp night it is hardly possible to
avoid treading on them. It is easy to see how a
story of a toad in rock might occur here, as they
retire to all sorts of crevices in the oolite, whicli is
very damp, and would very likely turn up in
quarrying.

At the end of June, when I first went there, all
the young frogs, which were blackish and about
three-quarters of an inch long, were leaving the
pond at the bottom of the valley, and beginning
their ascent of the hills. There were swarms of
them, and on the damp days, of which we had so
many, they went steadily hopping over the path and
up into the woods. They continued doing this all
the mouth. One lot I noticed in the afternoon

246

HAE-DWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

were going up over the path for a long time, and
when I looked at them again, tliey had all, as if by
one consent, turned, and were progressing along at
right angles to their former course ; for what reason
I was not able to find out. The owner of the
furthest-up mill in the valley tells me that his mill-
pond used to be piled up with spawn, but since
some change of chemicals used in work, there had
been less than there used to be. I am told both
the ringed snake and the adder were rather plenti-
ful. I only saw one of the former snakes.

In conclusion, I may notice, with reference to
Mr. F. Stratton's interesting article on variation of
colours in flowers, a pinkish-red variety of the
common yarrow or millefoil {Achillea millefoliim) ,
which occurred plentifully in company with its
usual white-flowered form. I have also seen the
same variety at Erith, and think it is a pretty com-
mon variety. Is white the normal colour of the
flower ?

I forgot, while on the subject of geology, to
mention that a very fine specimen of a molar tooth
of an elephant, most probably the fossil U. primi-
genius, was dug out of a superficial deposit at
Stroud, and a gentleman residing at Bisley, who
had this tooth, showed me some boars' tusks he
had found in that neighbourhood.

Southampton. Hakry Leslie.

SPECULATIONS CONCERNING THE USES
OF COMETS IN THE UNIVERSE.

By John I. Plummek, M.A.

THOSE who have endeavoured to push scientific
research into the realms of the unknown,
cannot fail to have remarked how numerous are the
hypotheses which at one time or another have
engaged their attention, each in its turn to be re-
jected, when it fails to receive confirmation by
agreement with observed facts. Such is the method
of scientific progress, which advances only on the
wreck of misconceived theories. Yet it frequently
happens that these " guesses at truth " may contain
the germs of important discoveries ; for how often
will it occur that he who originates the theory is
without the means of testing it by experiment, or
is unable to pursue those observations upon Nature,
specially designed for the purpose, that may be
necessary before it is possible to pronounce upon
the truth or falsehood of a favourite proposition.
These remarks apply more particularly to the case
of astronomy, a science in which all the more ordi-
nary phenomena have received their appropriate
solutions, and in which the explanation of the more
infrequent will often require years of observation to
verify. May we not therefore conclude, that while
it would not be advisable to publish these unesta-

blished theories in the purely scientific journals,
they might well find a place in Science-Gossip, so
that what is incomplete, hazy, doubtful, in the
mind of one may be improved, confronted by obser-
vation, and developed by another? Moreover it
may be remarked that any theory, even though
erroneous, provided it explain some portion of
observed data, is useful. A bad theory is often
better than none at all. No better example of the
truth of this paradoxical assertion can be given than
the celebrated but now utterly discarded law of
Bode, which suggested to Olbers nearly a century
ago, the possibility of a planet situated between
Mars and Jupiter having been dashed to fragments
by some catastrophe. We now know that Olbers'
theory was as erroneous as Bode's, but we are
nevertheless indebted to the bold enunciation of
these false suppositions for the discovery of the
group of the asteroids, whose numbers now fast
approach one hundred and fifty members. Happily
it would seem very unlikely that astronomy is in
any danger of being overburdened with these
theories. No part of the celestial economy, save
perhaps the comets, admit of much speculation, and
perhaps an attempt to guess at the part they play
in the universe may assist in unveiling the mystery
that has always hung about these bodies.

In the first place, there seems some reason to
complain that their weight and importance have
been considerably under-estimated. The facts relied
upon by those who believe in the insignificance of
comets are, first, that Lexell's Comet in 1779
passed very near to Jupiter without producing any
marked disturbance among the satellites of that
planet, and, secondly that Encke's Comet has
passed near to Mercury, also without causing any
observable perturbations. Both these bodies are,
or were, members of that group of periodical comets
which revolve round the sun in periods not greater
than seven years, admittedly the smallest and
faintest of their class. The latter has no stellar
nucleus, and may well be a body of slight mass, and
the former has not been seen since 1770, having
been diverted from its orbit by the powerful attrac-
tion of Jupiter ; nor am I aware whether any record
remains of its appearance to enable us to judge
relatively of its dimensions or mass. Another fact
suggesting the impalpability of comets is the trans-
parency of their tails, coma;, envelopes, &c.,* which
would be a fact of little importance in itself, but
which strengthens an opinion already formed of
their imponderability. On the other hand, the

• It is often asserted that stars have been seen through the
nucleus of a comet, but this is doubtful, at least in the case
of comets with stellar nuclei ; in the case of comets which
have only a condensation at or near the centre ot the coma,
it is not unlikely that they may be transparent, but the
opportunity of seeing a star so centrally situated must occur
very rarely indeed.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

247

proved connection of comets with streams of me-
teors points to a greater mass for the former. The
number of components of a meteor-swarm is with-
out question very great, and each individual mem-
ber of the group has a sensible weight, so that the
total mass becomes much greater than that gene-
rally assumed for the comet itself. Now whether
we consider the comet to be an aggregation of
meteors, or a single meteor very much larger than
the rest, it would seem certain that it cannot be so
despicable a body as has generally been believed.

In order to collect all the available information
before I venture to suggest what may be the peculiar
function of comets, I must refer to their chemical
constitution as indicated by spectroscopic observa-
tion. Three, if not four, comets, including the
bright comet of the present year (Coggia's), have
been found to yield spectra identical with that of
the electric spark when taken in olefiant gas, and
the conclusion we must draw is, that carbon in some
form or other is the principal constituent of those
comets. Several others have yielded a character,
istic spectrum differing from this, and which has not
been identified with that of any terrestrial sub-
stance. We may not say that this will prove a new
elementary body, for greater knowledge of the
variety of spectra obtainable from terrestrial sub-
stances under different circumstances is needed
before making such an assertion, and it is more
likely that eventually it will be identified with some
known element. Erom the simplicity of the spec-
trum, and its general resemblance to that of the
carbon comets, we are perhaps entitled to assume
that they consist mainly of a single elementary
substance of somewhat analogous character.

Other comets may possibly be similar to the
meteors, their attendants, which have again and
again been analyzed. In them, iron in great quan-
tity, nickel, cobalt, silicon, and a variety of other
substances, chiefly metals, have been found. Now,
all these substances are in strong contrast to those
which have beeu identified in those voluminous
bodies, the nebulae. Two of the three bright lines
which ordinarily constitute their spectra, have been
shown to be due to the presence of nitrogen and
hydrogen, both gases incapable as yet of being
liquefied ; to which class of bodies the third also
doubtless belongs. If we imagine all space to be
occupied by roving comets, and the enormous if
not infinite distances to which they recede from the
sun favours such a supposition, it is certain that
more or less often they must come into contact
with some portion of the extended contour of the
nebula, and be retained for ever in the matter
thereof by chemical union with its substance. In
the course of ages a very large number of comets
of various composition would become part and
parcel of the nebulous matter, which v/ould more
and more tend to the liquid, and upon cooling to

the solid form, a number whose total mass with
accompanying meteor streams would be comparable
with that of the nebula itself. Thus the theory
to which we are conducted, and which must be •
boldly enunciated, is that nebulse are, as has so
often been asserted, worlds in course of formation,
and that comets are the active agents in producing
tbis result, a theory which it seems at present
hopeless to establish, but which the generally
received doctrines of evolution may induce us by
analogy to view with favour. It is worthy of con-
sideration that, with one important exception,
oxygen,* the substances which would exist in a
nebula after the impact of a number of comets, are
precisely those which are the principal constituents
of an organic world ; but it would be idle to specu-
late upon the actual result of the union of comet
with nebula until spectroscopic science shall have
informed us what are the two other substances that
we find so plentifully in the heavenly bodies,
namely, the third constituent of the nebulae, and
the so frequent component of comets. As the
nebulous matter became more and more dense, its
gravitational attraction would increase, and the
number of comets drawn into its toils would for
some time increase also, but as the system became
developed, and the central mass assumed the liquid
form, they would be enabled to escape after having
described their orbits around the newly formed sun,
leaving only the lesser and outlying meteorites to
swell its mass and maintain its heat, precisely as
happens, in all probability, in our own system.
Orwell Park Observatory.

{To he contiriv.ed.)

ONLY A SPARROW.

fTlHREE years since last June, an unfortunate
-^ sparrow fell at my feet from the roof of a
house as I was passing. The miserable little
creature was quite unfledged, and somewhat bruised.
by its rude contact with the "bare flint stones."
Taking compassion, therefore, on this "waif and
stray " of misfortune, I carried it to my house, and
there confided it to the care of one of my servants
With motherly forethought, she swathed the bant-
ling in cotton wool and flannel, and for safety, con-
signed it to a cage. Every now and then she took
the helpless orphan out, and administered to it a
"judicious quantity " of sopped bread from her own
mouth. The bantling took to its foster-mother and
to its diet kindly, and by slow degrees acquired the

* The unidentifled line in the nebula spectrum is very near
an important line in the spectrum of oxygen, but the coinci-
dence is not exact, as in the cases of the hydrogen and nitrogen
lines, nor have experiments been made upon the last lijie to
disappear in the oxygen spectrum when the source of light is
made gradually fainter, as in the case of the other two gases.

248

HARDWICKE'S SCI E N C E -G O S SIP.

full stature and dimeusions of a well-to-do house-
sparrow. The anxious inquiry then arose — what
to do with it ? To keep it in confinement would
have been both useless and cruel. It was then
determined to place its cage on the ground, leaving
the door open, that it might go in and out at its
I)leasure. Although there were very many sparrows
in the garden, none deigned to notice the forlorn
one, save another of about the same age. This for
several days was employed evidently iu teaching
the " adopted " how to make its entry into the busy
world, and singularly enough, having done so, it
suddenly died. After a while our nursling finally
deserted its cage, and took upon itself the duties
and responsibilities of sparrow life. But to this
day it remembers her who so carefully tended
it. If my servant is in the garden, the little
creature will at once fly to her, perch on her head
or shoulder, and eagerly eat from her mouth, retain,
taining its position when she is walking or gathering
flowers or the like. It is perfectly at home with all
the household ; and if I hold a small piece of bread
between my lips, it will fly a distance of many yards,
and without erring, take it from my mouth. For
the general amusement I have had a small pane in
the window of the kitchen hinged, for the admis-
sion of our now interesting pet. With the time of
the meals it is perfectly acquainted, and does not
fail at breakfast, dinner, and tea, to announce its

.presence, by knocking with its beak at the window
until it is opened for its entry. It then perches
upon the shoulder of its foster-mother, and is fed
as usual from her mouth. During the interval of
more than three years, it has reared several broods
of now well-to-do and respectable sparrows. On
one of these occasions the number of its visits to
the food left for it at its window in the kitchen,
was no less than 237 in one day. During the
recent season the little creature has reared tioo
broods, and it appeared to encourage omnivorous
appetites in its progeny. One day it eagerly seized

. a large prawn which was on a plate, and forthwith
bore it off in triumph to its nest. A full-sized moth
was treated in the like manner, and an unsuspecting
wood-louse was ruthlessly pounced upou. Only a
sparrow ! Two hundred and thirty-seven visits in
one da}-, and probably many more, to procure food
for its young. Beautiful obedience to a marvellous
■instinct. Only a sparrow ! In our gardens it is
looked on as a pest, and has to creep here and there
to escape persecution.

Sidmouth. N. S. Heineker.

Pike.— A pike was caught in the Isis a short
time since, weighing about 2 lb., and, singular to
say, was in the act of gorging a relation which
weighed 1^ lb.— TT. H. Warner.

THE ANATOMY OF A CATERPILLAR.

rpHE accompanying figure represents half the
-*- interior of a caterpillar when cut open. Only
half is given, so as to prevent confusion. The
interior will be first explained, and then the details
of the outside surface. The dark space in the
centre, marked a a, represents the digestive appa-
ratus, consisting of throat, stomach, the intestines,
&c. Along the centre of the digestive apparatus is
the nervous system, analogous to the human brain ;
it is marked by dark lines in the cut. At different
portions there are large protuberances called the
ganglia. These form centres to carry smaller

Fig. 1/0. Anatomy of a Caterpillar ; a a, digestive apparatus;
BB, trachea; c, silk gland; d, liver; e, salivary gland.

nerves to different parts of the body. If these
nerves are examined by the microscope, they will
be found to consist of two tubes lying side by side.
If the head of an insect is cut off, it lives a long
time, because of the brain extending through the
entire length of the system. On the right hand
there is a curious, twisted organ marked c. This
contains the silk with which the caterpillar con-
structs its cocoon. If this organ is opened, there
is seen a curious kind of gum, partly tough and
partly brittle. Tliis substance is worked through
the small tubes at the end of the organ, and passes
then to a smaller tube called the " spinneret," which
opens in the mouth, from whence it issues in a fine
thread. There being two of these organs leading
to one spinneret, the good silk has a double thread
instead of a single one, causing the silk to be
stronger and better. Just before the time for
spinning comes on, this organ is a great deal

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOS SIP.

21-9

larger, and when the cocoon is completed, it
diminishes altogether. At the left-hand side of the
cut is seen a curious ringed structure, marked b b.
These are the breathing-tubes or trachea. They
extend through the whole insect, surrounding
every organ contained in the system. They are
formed of minute spiral tubes, which are made up
of two threads overlapping each other. These
tubes are connected with openings on the outside,
called spiracles, b*' b*, which are of various forms,
and covered with hairs or quills, to keep dust, &c.,
out of the tubes, and thus prevent them from get-
ting choked. The curious bag- shaped organ e
contains the saliva which is required by insects
more or less. There is one more organ 1 must
mention — that is the liver (d). It is like a mass of
scribbled lines between the digestive organs and
the breathing-tubes, and well repays a microsco-
pical examination. If the vital parts are removed,
the muscles are then seen with which the cater-
pillar bends itself, &c. Having now studied the
inside, we will take a microscopical glance at the
outside. Some species are covered with hairs,
which form beautiful microscopical objects. Cater-
pillars have two kinds of legs— two at the back
called pro-legs. These are furnished with suckers,
which enable them to hold on to anything. The
others are simply a kind of claw. The eyes are
compound — that is, they possess many lenses. The
mouth is a very curious microscopical object. The
anatomy of a caterpillar will amply repay the
trouble of examining it, and a young student of
zoology cannot do better than persevere in his
attempts to thoroughly understand it.

W. Tylak.

HOLIDAY RAMBLES.

NO. II. — BOTANIZING IN THE HIGHLANDS.

IT was not with expression of unmingled admira-
tion at the generosity of the Duke of Athol
that we paid the accustomed "bawbee" to the toll-
keeper his grace places at Dunkeld Bridge. We
were out botanizing, and of course every eligible
place we came to seemed always to produce a
notice to "trespassers to beware." It is not flat-
tering to one's amour propre to be looked on with
suspicion by some athletic keeper, who only sees a
"plant" in your being so assiduously engaged in
looking after weeds. So, to prevent any such ren-
contre, we obtained a guide at the porter's lodge
to conduct us over the pretty grounds of the Duke
of Athol, and for a time listened with that amount
of pleasure always excited by hearing the recital of
the professional guide's oft-told tale, till at length
we noticed he was lame. We suggested rest ; he
acquiesced in the suggestion, and so we were left
alone to wander by the banks of the Tay and pick

such specimens as we could. The sides were purple
with the Geranium ayhaticum, and the Gemn rivale
was also abundant ; then the yellow flowers of the
Solidago virgaurea and Ilieracium murorum were
growing among the rocks, while the hill-side was
covered witli the Veronica officinalis, Potentilla ior-
mentilla, Galium saxatile, and Blechnum boreale.
By the water-edge the pretty Spirea salicifolia was
found, and under shady trees we came across
Symphytum tuberosum, and Asplcnium trichomanes.
Then came a walk (properly guided) through the
garden, by sweet magnolias, showy rhododendrons,
gigantic larches, and graceful pines; then out to
Birnam station, and on past Pitlochrie to Killie-
crankie station, whence it did not take long to get
to the Glen. Climbing up by the burn-side we
came to a bridge half covered with Cystopteris fra-
gilis, the almost dried-up stream-side being thickly
covered with Aspidium filix mas and Asplenium filix
femina ; higher up were Aspidium oreopteris, and ou
rocky walls the A. trichomanes, Adiantum nigrum,
and Ruta muraria. On climbing up the rocks to
the Soldier's Leap, we found the pretty Vicia
sylvatica and the Melampyrvni covered the ground
in the greatest profusion. Under the railway
bridge large plants of the Symphytum officinale
(purple flowers) were found ; then reappeared the
Geranium sylvatica and Geiim rivale ; now a fine
plant of Carduus heterophyllus, and then Lathyrus
macrorhizus, were gatliered. Shortly, as we came
on spongy ground, the little Drosera rotundifolia,
the pretty Polygonum viviparum. Orchis latifolia,
and the graceful Equisetum sylvaticum, were noticed.
The view, looking up the glen towai'ds Blair, is
extremely picturesque, the well-wooded sides of
the glen showing all tints of green, and the Garry,
clear as hill-streams [only are, tumbling over
the rocks below, .while the distant tops of the
boggy Ben y Vroes, could be seen beyond Blair.
The path kept winding along, revealing new
prospects at every turn, and the beauty of ,the
walk was still more intensified by the rich profusion
of floral treasures. Under shady trees we found
the wax-like flowers of Pyrola minor, and on rocks
the Antennaria dioica. On the walk to Pitlochrie,
by the less picturesque turnpike, we gathered the
Alchemilla vulgaris, the oak and beech ferns, the
odorous Allium and Rosa villosa. In corn-fields
the Galeopsis versicolor, Lycopsis arvensis. Chrysan-
themum segetum, and Spergula arvensis were very
common, growing in inverse proportion to the
wheat. At Pitlochrie we booked to Aberfeldy, and
having put ourselves and plants in proper order at
the Breadalbane,'set out for a stroll to the Falls of
Moness. We followed the tortuous path that leads
by the stream, in'wet soil finding the lovely Trollius
europeus — a long-expected beauty — while under the
dripping cliffs the Chrysosplenium oppositifolium,
Cardamine sylvatica, Hymenophyllum, and Melica

250

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

nutans were discovered. Hanging over precipitous
rocks the Stellarla nemorum was growing.

Very pleasant was the homeward ramble, and it
was no reluctant consent we gave- to the offer to
climb Weeni Rock, about a mile distant. A stiff
pull it was up the hill-side, and we were not a
little surprised to find a house nearly at the top,
with cultivated ground contiguous thereto ; but we
did not stay long to hazard hypotheses about the
occurrence of that habitation, or the means of
ascent to or descent from that abode. More in-
viting was the prospect over Aberfekly, and down
by Weem towards Kenraore. We watched the day
fade through twilight to night, in the dim indis-
tinctness of which a silvery sheen was noticed over
Kenmore, which we said was Loch Tay, and over
that Strath the evening's mists were solemnly

stealin;;

G. C. Dkxjce.

EXOTIC SEAWEED AT DEVONrORT.

IN former numbers of this journal, I have had the
pleasure of calling attention to certain pecu-
liarities in the appearance and disappearance of some
species of marine algse, of the occurrence of doubt-
ful native species, and, in one case at least, of the
disappearance of an alga from Torbay (its only
recorded British habitat), which for years I have
sought in vain, and, as I have already observed, has
either receded from shallow into deep water, or, for
the present at least, is lost to our marine flora — I
refer to the rare rhodosperm, Gigarfina Teedii. \

I am about to describe a very remarkable plant
ndeed, not by any means beautiful and attractive,
but curious and interesting. Curious, because it
bears, in outward appearance at least, some little
resemblance to one of our native species ; but
peculiarly interesting, since I feel tolerably sure
that it is not a British alga at all, although the
specimen, which has recently been sent to me for
examination, was found on a mud-bank at Tor
Point, near Devonport, not cast ashore nor solitary,
but growing, attached by its hard, clasping root,
with several British rhodosperms, to a substance
which was fixed on the bank.

My informant, who is a collector of seaweeds, but
is not an algologist, described the finding of it thus :
" I was in a boat looking for seaweeds, and as you
told me I should find a variety of species at Tor
Point and all about in that direction, I told the
boatman to row up to Tor Point and to land me if
he could. Well, I got out of the boat and walked
about as well as I could, considering the dirty place
I found it to be, and among other things, I found
quite a handful of a long, thick, greenish-olive plant,
which appeared to me like one of the branching
sponges or the green seaweed called CocJmm
iomentosttm or Mesogloia vermicularis. I had never

seen anything exactly like it, and I asked the boat-
man what he thought of it, and he replied, ' I don't
know what to make on it, but it's] a seaweed, I
s'pose.' When I found the plant, it was firmly
fixed, evidently growing upon something two or
three inches below the surface of the mud ; how-
ever, I pulled it up and took it home and mounted
two separate branches, wet and spongy as they were
and now 1 should be very much obliged to you to
name it for me,"

Upon inspecting this strange-looking plant or
portion of a plant, I saw at once that it was either
an abnormal form of Coclium or Mesogloia, or, which
I could scarcely think possible, a foreign species
floated hither. My informant has since assured me
that there was some difficulty in pulling the plant
away from its point of attachment. This being so,
the weed was evidently growing where it was found.
Well, I have compared it with a whole suite of
specimens of Codium and Mesogloia, and find that
it agrees in structure with neither of these genera j
though, I must observe, it comes rather near to the
latter. So far as I have been able to make outj
from an examination of this pressed and dried
specimen, I have come to the conclusion that it
belongs to the family of the Chordariacece, the
diagnosis of which is as follows : Olivaceous sea-
weeds, with a gelatinous or cartilaginous, rarely
membranous, frond, composed of vertical and hori-
zontal filaments or strings of cells interlaced
together. Spores are attached to the filaments,
and concealed within the substance of the frond.
Closely allied to plants whose diagnosis is precisely
in accordance with the above, is the foreign species,
Liehmannia Laveillei, of Professor J. Agardh. This
peculiar plant is a native of the Mediterranean, and
is found also in the Adriatic. It occurs also on the
coast of Mexico. There is also a species of the
same genus found at Vera Cruz, and another, which
Professor Harvey considered to be identical with it,
on the Australian coast. I have seen a specimen
of the Australian species, and I feel convinced that
the curious plant I have been describing is to be
referred to the same species. It has pretty nearly
the habit of our Mesogloia vermicularis (which be-
longs to i\\QChordariea),h\3L\, is firmer in substance,
thicker and larger in its main branches, and, on
being remoistencd, recovers in a great measure its
original form. The branches and upper divisions are
flatter near the terminal portions, but a transverse
section represents generally that of a compressed or
flattened ellipse. The length of the plant is from
one to two feet or more.

What, then, is to be said of the curious fact, that
an undoubtedly foreign species of seaweed has been
found actually growing on a muddy bank in a
British harbour ? There is no doubt whatever in
my mind, that this plant is ix^))ec\mc\ioi Liehmannia
Laveillei, and my friend Mrs. Merrificld, of Brighton

HARDWICKE'S SC lENCE -GOS SIP.

251

to whom I have submitted it, has come to the same
conclusion respecting it. I have written to one of
my collecting acquaintances at Plymouth concern-
ing this plant, directing attention to the spot on
which it was found a month ago ; and if I should be
so fortunate as to receive some fresh specimens of
it, I hope to be able to trace its history more com-
pletely than I have been capable of doing hitherto,
although, as in the case of the Mediterranean
species, Polysiphonia divergens (which was taken
some years ago in Falmouth Harbour, and identified
by Mrs. Merrifleld),the curious Melanosperm I have
described, has certainly been developed from spores
which have been borne in currents from some foreign
habitat, and vegetated in a similar situation here to
that in which the parent plant has been growing.

W. H. Grattann.

THE GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

AWAY amid the desolate solitude of the cliifb
and headlands that shield the Western He-
brides from the inroads of the tempestuous Atlantic,
there may occasionally be discerned, during the
declining and colder portions ox the year, a tall,
gaunt, snowy-breasted sea-bird sitting erect upon
the ledge of some wave-lashed rock. He sits there
solitary, yet still not destitute of company ; and
the conspicuous whiteness of his breast contrasts
strangely with the sombre aspect of the cliff's
behind. He sits motionless, too, and apparently
immersed in a "brown study"; but his keen
bright eyes are all the while intently occupied in
ministering to the comfort of number one. Perhaps
he is not in his proper place. That may be, and
indeed our conjecture is not altogether unsupported
by fact ; lor after a little while, when appearances
manifestly assume a favourable aspect, he darts
with great grace and facility into the sea. He has
traversed the watery regions with truly marvellous
swiftness ; for in the course of about two minutes
he reappears about two hundred yards away from
the point of ingress. The elongated jacht-like con-
formation of his body, conjoined with the power-
ful action of his short wings and suitably-placed
feet, have proved valuable auxiliaries to him in
the course of his aquatic excursion. Moreover,
he is a very beautiful and exceedingly knowing-
looking bird. Yet it may be asked, if our bird is
capable of expending such a vast amount of physical
energy as that now indicated, may not this valuable
endowment be also utilized in some other mode or
direction ? Yes it may ; for it is well known that
our diver, except during the breeding season, is a
constant frequenter of the open sea, where he is
frequently to be seen hovering about in the vicinity
of herring and sprat shoals, diving amongst them,

and abstracting therefrom as much nutriment as
sufBces to renovate and sustain the immense physical
force involved in his method of living.

It is chiefly, however, amid the vast solitudes of
the Arctic regions that the Great Northern Diver
is most frequently to be discerned. The coasts of
Labrador, Iceland, and Spitzbergen are the parti-
cular localities where he loves to settle, especially
during the breeding season, which occurs once in
the year — generally in the summer. There they
may readily be discovered, in company with a few
co-mates, ranged in vast numbers along the shore,
busily occupied in the pursuit wherewith their
name is most intimately associated. As soon, how-
ever, as the southward career of the sun has per-
mitted autumn to descend upon the temperate
regions of the earth, the breeding duties having
terminated, our bird emerges from his ice-bound
home, and travels downwards till about the fifty-
second degree of north latitude. During the autumn
and winter months, he is frequently to be seen in
the neighbourhood of the Faroe Islands, the Shet-
land, the Orkney, and the Western Islands, the
coast of Sutherland, the Frith of Forth, &c. He is
also commonly noted on the Irish, and even on the
Welsh, coasts. According to the testimouj^, how-
ever, of some observers, he breeds on the Faroe
Islands, and is to be seen there all the year round.
The bird now under review belongs to the highly
interesting order entitled Natatores. Furthermore,
it is enrolled in the genus Colymhus, belonging to
the sub-family Cohjmbince of that order. The specific
name is glacialis, which has probably been allotted
to this bird on account of its association with the
ice and snow of the polar regions. The genus
Colymbus is broadly distinguished by the possession
of short wings ; broad, flat, compressed tarsi, which
are placed so very far backwards that the animal
always assumes a very erect position when standing
thereon ; and a strong, straight, rather compressed
bill, pointed at the tip.

We shall now briefly indicate some of the prin-
cipal external peculiarities whereon the specific
characteristics of our bird depend. These are as
follows : — Beak, head, and neck of black colour,
with the exception of two crescent-shaped rings of
white, streaked with longitudinal black bands (one-
situated immediately beneath the head ; the other
at the lower end of the neck) ; the general colour
of the breast is a pure white, but there are a num-
ber of vertical black lines on the upper portion
thereof. The colour of the back, tail, legs, and
feet, on the other hand, is black or nearly so, with
the exception of white spots on the following parts;
viz. — On the broad back itself, where, however,
the spots are very small (as also on the wing-
coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts) ; the scapu-
lars and tertials have large white square spots— the
latter feathers also ending in white. The total

252

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

length of the bird is from thirty to thirty-three
inches.

Having terminated our minute specification of
the most remarkable features appertaining to the
Great Northern Diver, we now proceed to enume-
rate and discuss tliree most important particulars
that present themselves to view upon the contem-
plation of the habits, mode of living, &c., of this
bird.

(1.) It is an able and dexterous diver. With
respect to this circumstance, it may be observed,
that the sharp, conical bill, succeeded by the com-

powerful muscles, which minister to the movements
of the wings. Great power is thereby imparted to
these instruments of progression, enabling the bird
to battle effectively with the air. It must always
be remembered, moreover, that the flying capa-
bilities of a bird are most accurately measured by
taking into consideration the power and extent of
the particular muscles now specified, rather than
by regarding the development of the wings alone.
Thus, for example, although the sternum in such
birds as the swallow, the swift, or the sand-martin,
is not particularly remarkable in respect of size, yet

-- J"-

Fig. 171. Great Ncrtlicni Diver {Culi/>n/jus gldcialis).

paratively narrow and elongated neck and body,
conjoined with the short wings and suitably-placed
web feet, must powerfully contribute to the produc-
tion thereof. The immense expanse of chest pro-
bably also enables the bird to take a deep breath
immediately before diving, so as to obviate the
possibility of suiTocation while traversing the watery
regions. Moreover, it is worthy of observation
that the outline of its body is not (like the sea-
swallow, frigate-bird, &c.) broken up or diversified
by outlying feathers, but presents a smooth and
well-rounded surface to the spectator's eye.

(2.) It flies strongly and rapidly. The immensely
developed sternum in tiie Great Northern Diver
furnishes a steadfast fulcrum for the attachment of

the length, narrowness, and pointedness of the
wings, conjoined with the lightness and hollowness
of their bodies, insure an exceedingly rapid flight.
On the other hand, the body of the Great Northern
Diver is comparatively heavy, and the wings thereof
short and broad. These disadvantages, however,
arc amply compensated for by the possession of an
extensively developed breast-bone, which also (as
aforesaid) furnishes valuable assistance in the oper-
ation of diving.

(3.) Its" home is in the Arctic regions. The
powerful aerial apparatus indicated by the immense
development of sternum in our bird is also iu valu-
able in the way of generating a vast amount of
animal heat'. It is a fact well known to animal

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GUSSIP.

253

physiologists that the temperatiire of an animal's
body is in direct proportion to the activity of its
respiratory apparatus. Now, it is also familiarly
known that the temperature of birds ranges re-
markably high as compared with the mammalia.
But to those birds which dwell in the frigid zone
there would seem to be necessary
an exceedingly efficacious heat-
generating power, in order to sus-
tain life amid the rigour of that
terrible region. Such a state of
circumstances, therefore, we may
fairly assume to exist with respect
to the Great Northern Diver, and,
in short, generally throughout the
order Natatores, since these birds,
of all others, are most commonly
observed to inhabit the colder quarters of the
globe.

On the whole, therefore, from the foregoing
observations it will readily be discovered that the
Great Northern Diver exhibits many and diverse
points of interest for the consideration of the com-
parative anatomist or physiologist. The bird is
extremely interesting, moreover, from another point
of view. Its cry is very peculiar and wild, recalling
as an appropriate association the bleak and barren
regions whence it comes. And as the twittering of
a swallow heard in the morning is denominated
beautiful by reason of its association with the cheer-
fulness of that sweet season, so does the cry and
aspect of the Great Northern Diver forcibly suggest
to us the wildness and desolation of the home
whence it springs— characteristics well calculated
to awaken peculiar emotions. P. Q. Keegan.

MORE ABOUT CARBONIFEROUS EISH.*

SOjVIE time since, when sojourning in the neigh-
bourhood of Leeds, my attention was drawn
to an outlier of the coal-measures on Baildon Hill,
an eminence a few miles distant from Bradford, the
height of which is about nine hundred feet above
the sea. On visiting this locality I discovered that
the pit, which had been sunk for coal, had been
abandoned, but the shale that had been brought to
the surface had not been removed. This shale on
being examined furnished me with remains of four
fossil fish, two species of PaUeoniscws, one species
of Ccelacanthus, and one olAcanthodes, which I will
briefly describe, as some of the readers of Science-
Gossip may be interested in the extinct forms of
life met with in the shales of the coal-measures.

The genera just mentioned all belong to one of
Agassiz's great divisions of fish the Ganoids, which
have again been recently divided into the Lepidoga-

uoids and the Placoganolds* The former of these
sub-orders is represented by the Lepldosteus, or
Gar-pike of North America, whilst the latter is
represented by the Sturgeon. Again, the fish con-
tained in the former sub-order had their bodies
covered with scales of a moderate size, and their

Figf. i;2. Fossil Carboniferous Fish (Pa/iro«!scKs), restored.

* Science- Gossip, 1872, p. 176.

skeletons were more or less perfectly ossified,
whilst those comprised in the latter had their

Fig. 1/3. Fossil Carboniferous Fish {Ccelacanthus), restored.

skeletons imperfectly ossified, their heads and parts
of their bodies being protected by large ganoid
plates and scales.

Fig. i;4. Spine of Fossil Fish (Acantkodes).

Fig. 175. «, Scale oiFaloeoniscut, nat, size ; b, ditto magnified.

The Lepidoganoids have been again divided into
several sub-orders, in one of which, the Lepidosteidce,
the fish of the genus Palceoniscus have been placed.
The members of this sub-order have rhomboidal
scales, which do not overlap one another ; and their

* " Manual of Palaeontology," by H. A. Nicholson, p. 322.

254

HARDWICKE'S S CIENCE-GOS SIP.

fius, which have large fulcral scales on their front
margins, are paired but not lobed.

The fish that I am describing (fig. 172) {Palceo-
niscus Egertoni (?) is a small one, its length being
about two inches and a half, and its depth seven
lines. Its body iscoveredwith small scales (fig. 175),
which are covered with strongly defined and irre-
gular ridges and furrows, the former terminating in
sharp cusps on the hinder or free margins. It is
remarkable for the large and flowing form of the
dorsal and anal fins, the former of which contains
about twenty-five rays, of which the four or five
hinder ones increase in length in succession from
before, forming an ornamental border to the fin.
The upper lobe of the tail is remarkably long and
attenuated, and is covered with small scales to its
extremity.

Fig. 1/6. Scale of CxUicanthus lepturus; a, nat. size ;
b, ditto magnified.

Associated with the scales of Talmoniscus I found
a scale of Calacanthus lepturus (fig. 17G). This fish
is a Lepidoganoid, but belongs to another sub-order,
the Crassopterygid^e, the members of which are dis-
tinguished by having hollow fin-spines, two dorsal
fins, each supported by a single interspiuous bone,
cycloid* overlapping scales, two jugular plates, and
by the remarkable peculiarity of the swim-bladder
being ossified. 1 have also found this fossil in the
Derbyshire coal-measures.

The third fossil mentioned, Acanthodes, also
belongs to the same order as the preceding ones,
but has been placed in the sub-order Acantho-
didce. This fish was covered with small shagreen-
like scales, and was armed with strong spines
simply implanted in the flesh (fig. 174) at the
front of each fin, of which it had four ; viz., one
dorsal, one pectoral, one ventral, and one anal : it
had also a heterocercal tail. Moreover, it had not
any distinctly ossified cranial bones, and no oper-
culum .

Such is a brief description of three of the fishes
that roamed in the waters of the Carboniferous
age. On a future occasion I hope to return to the

subject, and describe other forms of piscatory life
that illustrate the wisdom and benevolence of the
Creator. Rev. W. H. Painter.

Derhj.

PHOST PHENOMENA.

DURING a recent hoar frost I observed the
following rather curious phenomena.

It was a perfectly calm morning ; even the light
twigs of the birch hung motionless. It must have
been as calm all nighi, for the frost-crystals stood
, thick on every spray, and many of them were half an
inch in length. The world at midsummer is not
more beautiful than on such a morning. But it
struck me as remarkable that all these crystals
pointed in one direction, nearly south-east. The
south-east side of every twig on tree or hedge, of
every brown bent in the pastures, of every blade of
grass by the M^ay-side, was fringed as with the teeth
of an ivory comb, while the north-west side was
entirely bare and dark. It looked as if a north-west
wind had been blowing and had driven them all
before it. But there was no wind at all ; had there
been any, the whole fairy fretwork would have been
shaken to the ground. By means of that dehcate
anemometer, a wetted finger, I found, however, that
there was the slightest possible air-current from the
south-east, and a moment's thought showed clearly
that such crystals must always face the current.
They are built up by the successive congelation of
minute particles of water floating in the air. If the
air is absolutely quiescent these particles will slowly
fall towards the earth and the frost-crystals will
stand erect. If there is a slight current the particles
of water will be carried by the current, laid one by
one on the points of the incipient crystals, and
freezing instantly will build them up in the very
teeth of the stream.

Coming to a level crossing over a railway, I noticed
a peculiar twinkling of light among the telegraph
wires. There>ere three wires,— two above at equal
heights and one below. They were all regularly
fringed with frost-crystals on one side, and I could
see them for a quarter of a mile down the line.

The twinkling light was caused by a very slight
motion of the two upper wires ; the lower wire was
perfectly at rest. I asked myself, what could cause
the motion of the two upper- wires without moving
the third ? The tension of all three appeared to be
about equal. The motion was not confined to a
single interspace between two posts; it extended
uniformly, as far as I could see, and the lower one
was everywhere at rest. It was not a lateral vibra-
tion, either perpendicular or horizontal, but a partial
rotation on the longitudinal axis of the wire. I

* Cycloid scales consist of thin, flexible, homy plates,
circular or elliptiral in shape, and have a more or less
completely smooth outline.

watched it for about ten minutes. It continued
with uniform velocity during the whole time, and

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

255

was unaltered when I left. The arc described by
the pomts of the frost-crj'stals appeared to me to be
not more that 45°, and if the points were half an inch
from the centre of the wire this arc would represent
a space of only llhs of an inch, while the motion on
the surface of the wire would scarcely exceed Jth
of an inch. Supposing that tlie frost-crystals had
not been there, would the motion of the dark wire
have been perceptible at all ? It is doubtful, I think.
Were the two upper wires conveying messages at
the time, and does the electric current cause a rota-
tory vibration in the wires, too slight to be noticed
except under such special conditions ?

Perhaps some electrician will answer this ques-
tion. Erederick T. Mott.

Leicester.

MICEOSCOPY.

The Royal Microscopical, Society's " Uni-
versal Screw" tor Object-glasses, &c. —
There is a general complaint amongst microscopists
respecting the " so-called " universal screw. 1 have
myself felt great annoyance wlien finding that the
screw is not universal. Some of my friends' object-
glasses (having the '"'universal screw") do not
screw home in the nose-piece of one of my micro-
scopes, while others fit loosely the nose-piece of my
other instrument, although both microscopes have
been supplied by the makers with the so-called
" universal screw " ! Moreover, I have seen modern
object-glasses (manufactured since the introduction
of the universal screw) by one of the leading
opticians, having different gauges of universal
screw, and by another not only object-glasses but
adapted for analyzers, Brooke's nose-pieces, &c.
When using high powers with a microscope having
a concentric rotating stage (which is now con-
sidered almost a necessary addition) these variations
of gauge render the stage eccentric, and no doubt
very often the rotation of a stage is condemned, and
the workmanship considered imperfect, when the
fault lies in the inaccuracy of the so-called universal
screw of either the object-glass or of the micro-
scope's nose-piece, and frequently of both. 1 am
quite aware that the smallest particle of dust in the
object-glass screw wuU cause eccentricity, but this
drawback is not a permanent one ; it is bad enough
to have it when it occurs — there is no necessity to
make eccentricity both a feature and a fixture !
With an universal screw, if we could not get in
every instance perfect concentricity when rotating
the stage, we should certainly approach it much
nearer than we do now ; of course accurate work-
manship being always taken for granted. Besides
the above inconveniences, there is another — -the
great difiiculty and trouble in centring achromatic
condensers of larqe angle of aperture with high

powers, by different makers, having different uni-
versal screws. The Eoyal Microscopical Society
have undoubtedly conferred a great boon upon
microscopists by introducing the present "universal
screw " ; but could not an effort be made to render
the screw really universal by causing the Eoyal
Microscopical Society's gauge to be adopted by all
the London opticians ? Some technical and prac-
tical reasons may be adduced as to the difficulty of
making universally true the "universal screw";
but, even admitting the next to impossibility of such
an accuracy, why then call the screw universal
when in reality nearly each maker of microscopes
in London has his own gauge of the " universal
screw " ? It would be also a great convenience to
have an universal gauge for the sub-stage fittings,
eye-pieces, &c., so that the apparatus of any one
maker should fit the microscopes of the others. At
present there is a great discrepancy in the diameter
and length of microscope - tubes and the gauge of
sub-stage fittings, of some makers, compared with
those of others. Why not make these also uni-
versal?— A. de Souza Guimaraens.

Leaves of Vegetable Marrows. — The sur-
faces of the older leaves of this plant {Curcurbifa
ovifera) are studded with siliceous hairs, or prickles,
at the base of each of which is a bead-like circlet
of white bodies. When viewed with an inch or
half-inch objective, with strong light, they come out
well. They are better shown when the leaves have
been well dried, and they can then be plainly felt by
the fingers.—/. E. T.

Amceb^. — I have found large numbers of this
animalcule in some yeast, evidently living under the
same conditions. They feed on the yeast torula.
Two or three could be seen enclosed in the Amceba
at one time. They varied in size, but increased and
moved about freely. I am at a loss to account for
their being found in such a situation. They were
taken from fermenting beer. — /. Abbott.

Colouring Matter of Neottia Nidus-avis. —
M. Prillieux has recently contributed a memoir on
this subject. He states that nearly all phanero-
gamic plants in which chlorophyll is absent are
parasites ; Neottia nidus-avis, however, is an ex-
ception to the rule. The brown of its petals is
due to minute crystalline spangles, mostly stone.
coloured, about ten to fifteen thousandths of a
millimetre in length (sphseraphides ?) When the
leaves are treated with alcohol, ether, benzine, and
alkalies, or boiling water, a green colour is deve-
loped. If a liquid capable of dissolving chlorophyll
is used, a green solution is obtained, which gives
the characteristic chlorophyll absorption-spectrum.
The chlorophyll does not pre-exist as such, but is
apparently produced by the alteration of the above-
mentioned crystalline bodies.

256

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GO SSIP.

Examining Miceo-fungi. — I have bad the good
ortune to meet with a considerable gatlieriiii? of
that rare and interesting Micro-fungus Xenodochiis
carhonarius, and intend to refer to it in your
exchange column. In the mean time allow me to
say, for the information of beginners in this depart-
ment of microscoi)ic study, that the best way of
examining temporarily this and other smuts or
brands, is to place a small portion in water on a
glass slide, and try the various powers, always
beginning with the lower ones. — T. Brittain.

EixiNG Diatoms.— I have found out a better
plan for fixing diatoms since I wrote the article
inserted in last month's Science-Gossip. The
plan is as follows :— Place the frustules in the
centre of the slide in a very minute drop of very
thin balsam. Then hold the slide over the lamp
till the balsam smokes. Then arrange the diatoms
with a hair before the balsam stiffens. Let it cool,
put the cover on, let the balsam run in, and then
bake. This plan does not do for devices, but for
ordinary slides of selected diatoms it will give
great satisfaction. — /. K. Jackson.

Staining Vegetable Tissues.— In a paper by
C. Johnson, M.D., Baltimore, U. S. A. (published
in the Monthly Microscopical Journal, vol. xii.,
p. 184), the following directions are given for pre-
paring a lilac or violet stain for vegetable sections
and tissues:— "Ordinary logwood extract is finely
pulverized in a mortar, and about three times its
bulk of alum (in powder) added ; the two ingre-
dients are well rubbed up together, and mixed with
a small quantity of distilled water. The complete
admixture of the alum and hsematoxylin is necessary,
and this will require fifteen to twenty minutes'
vigorous trituration. More water may now be
poured on, and the solution, after filtration, should
present a clear, somewhat dark, violet colour. If a
dirty red be obtained, more alum must be incor-
porated, and the mixture again filtered. After
standing several days, add 75 per cent, of alcohol,
in the proportion of two drachms to one ounce of
fluid. This fluid colours very rapidly, requiring but
a few minutes ; but if a slower tinting is required,
the fluid may be diluted with a mixture of one part
alcohol and three parts water. Before staining, it
is necessary to destroy any calour that may pre-
viously exist in the sections, &c., to be stained.
This, in the case of sections, may be done by soak-
ing in strong alcohol; for thin leaves and fresh
green sections the bleaching is to be accomplished
through the agency of Labarraque's solution of
chlorinated soda, in which the objects ought to be
macerated until perfectly achromatic and trans-
parent. They sliould then be transferred to distilled
water for an hour or two, and afterwards soaked in
a three per cent, aqueous solution of alum, and
Then transferred to the strong solution."

Cymbella Ehrenbergii, &c.— The improve-
ments made in the resolving power of objectives
led to the discovery of delicate markings on many
species of Diatomaceae, which the earlier micro-
seopists supposed to be "smooth." To resolve
these delicate markings they must have a large angu-
lar aperture, and light of more or less obliquity is
required. Those forms with coarse lines not re-
quiring these adjuncts were easily resolved by very
imperfect objectives which did not admit of the
use of an oblique pencil of light. As oblique light
was not necessary for the resolution of these coarse
lines or costge, it does not seem to have been used
upon those forms possessing them. Some years
ago I called attention to the fact that if the costaj
of Pinnularia peregrina were examined with a high
power (one-eighth) and oblique light, a series of
fine lines would be found crossing them in a trans-
verse direction. I have since examined many other
forms with continuous lines or costse, and in several '
cases have been able to detect finer lines upon
them ; and I would particularly call attention to
th.e co?,idi ov Synedra robmia and Ci/mhella Ehren-
hergii. If a valve of either of these forms is
examined by oblique light, the coarse, rib-like line
will be found to be composed of a series of com-
pressed beads, reminding one of a row of peas in a
well-filled pea-pod ; the lines on ^S*. robasta are more
dilficult of resolution than those on C. Wirenbergii.
I may perhaps remark that other species of the
genus Cymbella show similar markings. I have
not hitherto been able to detect any markings on
Pinnidaria nobilis, P. major, P. cardinalis, or
P. alpina. On P. cyprinus there appeared faint
traces of transverse lines.— I may here correct an
error hi my paper on the Diatom Erustule (No. 117,
September 1, 1S7-1). Fig. 135 is a section of
Burirella, and fig. 136 a section of JSfitzschia. — F.
Kit ton.

Chlorophyl in Spongilla.— Mr. Sorby, E.R.S.,
and E. Bay Lankester, have been recently inves-
tigating this subject. In the last number of the
Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, the latter
states, as the result of recent examinations, that he
found among the ama-biform sponge ])artioles of a
green - coloured specimen o[ Spo)?giUa, some com-
posed of naked, colourless protoplasm, throwing
out absolutely hvaline lobose pseudopodia. The
outline of the nucleus is not strongly marked, but
the nucleolus is obvious enough. In others were
two, three, or four, or a crowd of even twenty
green - coloured granules, of a uniform size and
peculiar form, being concavo-convex discs or cups.
The usual colour of Spongilla is a pale salmon. It
might be suggested that the green granules (the
chlorophyl-bearers) are parasitic, as has been sug-
gested in the case of the starch-bearing yellow cells
of Badiolarin. In the colourless Spongilla, however.

HARDWICKE'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP.

257

sponge - cells five found which contain colourless
granules, corresponding to the green-coloured gra-
nules of the green sponge particles. These are less
definite in their form than the other. It has been
found that in the orchid Neoitia, where chlorophyl
is absent, a green colour may be developed by the
action of strong sulphuric acid, and Mr. Laukester
has found that the same thing is true of the colour-
less specimens of SponglllafinnatiUs. In the latter
the green is fully as intense as in natui-ally green
specimens. He thinks the colourless parts are
those which first turn green, though after the reagent
has acted, the whole mass of coagulated sponge-
sarcode is uniformly impregnated with a green
colour. Mr. Lankester has heard that Spongilla
contains a starch-like body, and asks whether this
is so. Perhaps some of our microscopical readers
may assist in this matter. Anyhow, the above
observations tend to show that chlorophyl in
Spcngilla, as in the higher plants, is preceded by a
distinct chlorophyl-evolving substance, which is
calourlcss.

ZOOLOGY.

" SoMGS OF PisiiES."— A learned and highly
readable article on this subject, by Mr. John C.
Galton, F.L.S., appears in the last number of the
Popular Science Uevieio. Two other articles in this
capital magazine are worth careful perusal— "The
Thermometer as a Companion in Daily Life," by
Professor A. H. Garrod, one of our most promising
young naturalists ; and another, on " The Vegetable
Cell," by Mr. A. W. Bennett, the well-known
botanist.

Spidxks' Webs and Spi?;neiiets. — Since the
above article was sent, a further examination of a
Clnijld's web leads me to think that I have fallen
into error when describing it, from the bad habit
of " jumping to conclusions." Under my highest
power (a quarter-inch) the fourth threads of a
Ciniflo's web present the appearance of being com-
posed of a multitude of threads, as I have stated,
which they also do with a power of 320 diams., but
on increasing the magnification to 750, this appear-
ance vanishes, and they, i.e. the "film," looks as if
it were simply mucus. A few days ago I stained
some of the web with magenta, and the examination
of these stained specimens with a quarter-inch
objective confirms me in the idea that the film is
nothing but mucus, though 1 am not yet sure that
this is the case. I hope soon to have another op-
portunity of examining my slides with a power of
750, which I think, now that I have stained the
threads, will settle the point. Figs. 120 and 122 are
both magnified IGO diameters : this was not stated
in the foot-note.— i7. /. M. Underhill, Oxford.

Spiders' "\Yebs and Spinnerets.— As I have
the pleasure of knowing Mr. John Black wall, the
eminent arachnologist, I sent him last month'.s
number of Science-Gossip, containing Mr. Under,
hill's paper on the " Spinnerets of Ciniflo." 1
examined this object some years ago, when visiting-
Mr. Black wall, and was fortunate enough to see it
as Mr. Underhill describes it, except that I dis-
tinctly saw the extra pair of spinners covered with
papillce. and not holes. Mr. Blackwall saw them
also, and I enclose a letter I received from him on
the subject. — W. Statham.

The September number of Science-Gossip
which accompanied your kind letter came safely to
hand, and I am much obliged to you for it. Mr.
Underbill's concluding part of the article on
" Spiders' Webs and Spinnerets " is especially inter-
esting as supplying additional evidence, based on
anatomical (details, of the soundness of my views
relative to the fourth pair of spinners, — calamistrum,
and snare of Cinijlo afro.v, derived from careful
observation and experiment, and confirmed by the
inspection of these structures under your powerful
microscope. This is highly satisfactory, as the
correctness of my statements in connection with
these subjects has been called in question both by
native and continental zoologists. The nomenclature
adopted by Mr. Underhill differs somewhat from
that employed by me ; the parts termed ' spinnerets '
by him I name ' spinners ' or ' spinning mammulse,'
and the delicate tubes from which the viscid secre-
tion that forms the lines of spiders proceeds, the
' spinning-tubes ' or ' spinnerets.' Mr. Underbill is
certainly mistaken in supposing that the fourth pair
of spinners are not provided with spinning-tubes,
but are merely perforated ; and he is also in error
in thinking that the lines constituting what I
denominate the floccuU, are spun at the same time
as the foundation-lines to which they are attached ;
this, however, is not surprising, as he admits that
he has never seen the spider use its calamistrum. I
should much like to know what he says of the
snares of the Epe'irce or geometric spiders.— t7o//«
Blackwall.

Changes of Skin in Caterpillars.— Those
who have reared caterpillars from the egg to matur-
ity are well acquainted with the fact that they pass
through various changes of skin, called scientifically
the ecdyses of these insects. It is a matter of some
interest ; and in regard to which I should be glad
to elicit the opinion of others, who have had oppor-
tunities of observing many species; whether the
number of these changes is fixed and invariable in
each. As is pretty well known by entomologists,
hairy larvae undergo more frequent changes ; in some
species they reach the number of seven or eight.
Three or four changes of skin appear to be about
the average with the bulk of the smooth larvae, ex-

25S

HARDWICKE'S SCIE N CE-GOSSIT.

cepting, of course, those that are internal feeders or
miners, with regard to whicli we are rather in
ignorance. Tliat the familiar silkworm {Bomhyx
mori) casts its skin thrice, is certain ; and various
as have been the records giving details of its life-
history, I am not aware that any breeder of silk-
worms has found the number of changes more or
less, however the insect might be reared. Yet the
idea has been thrown out, that in the case of some
Lepidoptera at least, a short or abundant supply of
food, or a high or low temperature, may have an
influence in producing more or fewer changes of
skin during the larval life. If not, indeed, one is
obliged to suppose some carelessness on the part of
observers, since published accounts vary. The Puss
Moth, for example, is said by some to cast its skin
thrice; others state that the number of changes is
four; the latter has been given as the number in
Bomhyx pernyi, though in caterpillars that I have
just reared belonging to that species, there were
but three. It is rather astonishing, also, to read
that Mr. Newman fed up a caterpillar of the Poplar
Hawk-moth, and never saw it cast its skin at all.
It should be added, that as far as my experience has
gone (a not very extensive one) in caterpillar rear-
ing, I have noticed a uniformity in ecdysis in the
species that I have had from the egg.—/. R. S. C.

How THE PtJFPIN ASCENDS TO ITS NeST.— lu

the September number of The Zoologist, Mr. H. M.
Wallis has a short note on the above subject. He
says :— Considering its habits, the Puffin, in com-
parison with most birds building on heights, seems
somewhat insufficiently provided with the means of
getting to its nest. How it contrived during the
breeding season to make the frequent ascents ueces.
sary whilst feeding its young, was a question tome,
until a short visit to Plamborough Head in June
last explained the process. On the cliffs north of
the lighthouse numerous guillemots and puffins
were nesting. The latter chose the lower clifl's, and,
from their boldness, their actions were easily
watched both from above and below. Their manner
of ascending to their nests, which were from 50 to
100 feet from the sea, was as follows : — The bird
rose from the water some way from the shore, flying
so as barely to clear the tops of the M'aves until
within fifty yards from the cliffs, when it appeared
to depress its tail, which was fully spread, and by
extending its webbed feet on either side to nearly
double the surface of resistance, its course was
changed, and the bird rose without any apparent
difficulty to its nest. Whilst thus used, the legs
were laid along the sides, the inner toe of the ex.
tended foot was covered by the outer feathers of the
taU, the points of the toes did not project beyoud
the curve formed by the tips of the tail-feathers; the
combined arrangement of feet and tail thus forming
a short but very powerful instrument, broader in

proportion than the tails of most birds at that dis-
tance from the body. The habit was common to
all the puffins which I saw go to their nests, and I
think the guillemots used their feet in a similar
manner ; whilst rising, the wings were moved with
the same regularity as in horizontal flight. It is
evident that the use of the tail and feet described
must lessen the speed of flight, and the Puffin is not
eminent for its flying powers. It seemed as if the
bird ^were conscious that it must have plenty of
^'way" on it at the commencement of the rise, and
approached the point at which it began to ascend
at a great speed. It occurs to me that the weight
of the Puffin's body must tell in its favour, if the
bird ascends by the momentum gained in its level
flight, driving it up an inclined plane of air. If the
above explains the peculiar action of the feet
described, it may account for the singularly short
allowance of tail that many web-footed birds are
favoured with.

Vibratory Motion of Gnats at Rest.— I have
never read or heard an explanation of a fact in
natural history which many of your readers must
have witnessed sometimes ; I allude to the singular
vibratory motion exhibited by certain gnats when
at rest on walls of outhouses, &c. It is as though
they were suffering from some nervous affection
which forbade their being still, the motion being a
rapid approach to and retreat from the wall on
which they rest, their long legs acting as springs.
I have more than once excited this motion in gnats,
pi'eviou&ly motionless, by gently blowing upon them.
That the vibratory motion which then commences is
not due to the mere physical effect of the blowing
is evident from the fact that it continues for some
minutes afterwards, and that it is not caused by a.
draught acting upon the insect's body is certain,
inasmuch as I have witnessed it in situations
absolutely free from currents of air. Why then
does the insect indulge in it ? Some insects I know
feign death to elude death from their enemies, but
why an insect should apparently attract attention
by rapid motion is by no means evident. The
similarity of the movement with that seen in dead
and sucked-Old insects in a spider's web alone seems
to me to supply a sort of clue. But then we must
attribute too much instinct to the little gnat, surely !
Perhaps some of your correspondents may offer a
far more likely solution. — JFindsor Hambrough.

The Pigmy Whale. — Dr. Hector writes from
New Zealand, in the last number of the Annals and
Magazine of Natural History, to say he has obtained
the calf of this whale {Neohaleena marginata), two
feet three inches in length. All the baleen is in
situ, so that there is no mistake. The Doctor thinks
the animal is not uncommon on the coasts of New
Zealand, but it is rarely obtained, as it does not
grow to a large size.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSS LP.

259

BOTANY.

Edelweiss. — There lias been some mystery re-
garding this plant on account of the various notices
referring to it by its German name only, and the
readers of such notices being led to suppose it is
only to be found near glaciers, where the accident
happened to an unfortunate lady when in search
of it from Pontresina, in the Engadine. It is the
Qnaphalium leonfopodmm, Scopoli {Leontopodlum
alpinnm, Decandolle), a plant not only of the Swiss
Alps, but various parts of the Pyrenees, Dauphine,
&c., in mountain pastures, far away from glaciers,
although, of course, it may be met with in pastures
near them ; it is, or was a few years back, tolerably
abundant on the summit of the Dole, in the Jura
mountains, above Geneva, and is not unfrequent iu
the Engadine, in a contrary direction to wliere the
lady referred to sought it, though not far from it,
but not near a glacier. It belongs to a genus of
which we have many in England, known as " cud-
weeds," It is a very beautiful plant, remarkable for
its dense clusters of flower-heads, surrounded by a
kind of radiating general involucre of floral leaves,
all densely clothed with a close white cotton, and
is well known to all botanists accustomed to high
alpine and mountain pastures. The gnaphaliums
are closely allied to the Elichrysum, the guapha-
lium of Linnaeus, which is so often seen in the
shops made into wreaths as votive offerings to the
dead, common in Prance, and sometimes iu England,
in cemeteries, and is the Gmphalimn citrinum of
Lamarck.— I'. B. W.

P. VESCA AND P. PKAGARiA. — Any observant
lover of wild flowers may soon learn to distinguish
Fragaria v. (wliich seldom flowers before May)
from Potentilla f. (which is one of our earliest
spring flowers, not unfrequently blooming in Feb-
ruary and even January) by its much greener foliage,
its more conspicuous starlike flowers, and its more
erect habit. Botanists would, I suppose, be agreed
in accepting the following characters as distinctive,
in addition to the great generic difference of fruit :
—Fragaria ».— Petals contiguous ; leaves bright
green above, with few silky hairs ; nerves of leaflets
sunk above ; stem with runners. Fotentilla /—
Petals smaller, not contiguous ; leaves greyish
green, densely covered with long silky hairs on
both sides ; nerves of leaflets not sunk above ;
flowering-branches weak, and less erect than iu
Fragaria v.; stem tufted, sometimes shortly creep-
ing.—7^. M. Rogers.

Varieties of Plants. — I enclose a curious
specimen of what I suppose is Angelica sylvestris.
Instead of five stamens and five petals, it has only
two of each. Tiie umbels are very irregular, several
of the flowers standing on pedicels only, without
any primary ray or umbellule. The flowers, too.

instead of being all white or all light red, are some
white and some dark red, and some a mixture of
the two colours. There were no leaves to be seen-
It is probably a monstrosity, and so not likely to
reproduce its kind. Does not such a case prove
conclusively that many of the so-called varieties of
plants, especially of ferns, are mere chance produc-
tions ?— i2. W.

Kabe Plants.— a meadow at Stainall, North
Lancashire, assumes in April a dusky-brown hue
from an abundance of the plant Fritillaria Meleagris,
and about two miles from the above, in the town-
ship of Out Rawcliffe, another meadow is almost
white in the month of May with the beautiful
Narcissus poeticus, both of which habitats are far
remote from any garden.— /«»2e5 Pearson.

Disappearance of Rare Plants. — Having
lately returned from a short tour in Scotland, I can
state from experience that many of the rare plants
of the country are disappearing from their habitats,
owing to the wholesale manner iu which they are
taken away. This remark applies more particularly
to ferns, but is unfortunately true to a great extent
iu regard to phanerogamia also. Thus, for instance,
I found it stated in an old number of the " Phyto-
logist," that in certain specified localities near
^vsi&mdiX Polysiichitm lonchitis a,nd Asplenium viride
were abundant. This is certainly not the case now.
They are I believe still to be had in some parts near
there, but have all but entirely disappeared from
the localities mentioned iu the " Phytologist." The
waiter at the hotel at Braemar told me- he had
frequently seen whole boxfulls of ferns sent away,
and therefore it is no wonder they are now scarce.
Even on Lochnagar (at least near the beaten track)
lonchitis was exoeedingly rare, and Asplenimi
viride I could not find anywhere. Linncea horealis
had also, so far as I could make out after a careful
search, quite disappeared from the habitat assigned
it in the aforesaid number of the "Phytologist."
At the Botanical Garden at Edinburgh, I asked
one of the curators whether there was any chance
of my finding Corallorrhiza innata and Lin7i(sa
borealis, both which plants are stated in the " Flora
of Edinburgh " to grow within ten miles of that
town. He told me that there had already been
that season a party of students to look for the
Corallorrhiza, and as for the Liimcea it still grew in
some parts of the Pentlands, but in very out-of-the-
way parts. The result of all this wholesale de-
struction of plants is that many of our rarities are
fast disappearing from the country altogether. At
Braemar I found Geranium sylvaticiim, Oxyria
reniformis, Polypodium dryopleris, and phegopteris
plentifully, as also Arctostaphjlos mm ursi. On
the ascent to Lochnagar I found Betula nana,
Jimcus hifidus (in abundance). Azalea procumbens,
Aspidium lonchitis (rare), and, I believe, Polypo.

260

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

dium alpestre, &c. ; but I can plainly see that at the
present day those who wish to find rarities must
go quite out of the beaten track. — T. W.

The " Tea-tree." — It is interesting to record
that this autumn a tree of the above kind, at
Lincoln, has produced a large number of berries,
many of which have come to maturity. Some of
these are now lying before me ; they are m point
of size intermediate between the fruit of the haw-
thorn and that of the dog-rose, and in colour they
nearly approach the latter. I shall be glad to know
if this i-ipeniug is really of so rare occurrence as has
been stated.— /F., Oxford.

A Plea. roR our Grasses.— I quite agree with
the remarks of Mr. J. Harrison, in a late number
of Science-Gossip, upon the subject of our native
grasses. Considering their elegance and the ease
with which they can be preserved, it seems to me
most wonderful that they should be so much
neglected. It surely cannot be on account of the
difficulty attending upon their study ; if so I would
assure the student of our interesting Plora, that I
have had pupils who have been exceedingly critical
upon this tribe of plants simply by being introduced
to them infield explorations; and with a little teach-
ng we find that very young people can well appre-
ciate their differences. My old agricultural class
was always fond of them, as their practical teachings
appeal with especial force to the farmer, as no other
class of plants is so capable of teaching us the
different qualities and capabilities of soils with
equal exactitude. — /. B., Bradford Abbas.

Plants of Castle Eden Dene, Durham.— I
frequently read with pleasure notes by the corre-
spondents of Science-Gossip, telling of their visits
to some particular locality in search of plants or
insects, &c. ; and I regret that there are not more
of these : they give most valuable information to
the entomologist and botanist, and frequently are
the means of guiding him to favoured localities,
which otherwise he might overlook, although in the
immediate neighbourhood. To show what I mean,
I will copy from my notes for the last week in July,
memorandum of an excursion I made to Castle
Eden Dene : it is situated about midway between
Eerryhill and Hartlepool, is easily reached by rail-
way, and has been long noted for its many botanical
treasures. The most conspicuous plant, as we
strolled in the upper parts of the Dene, was the
elegant Hart's-tongue fern, growing in the greatest
abundance by the road-side ; the Melica nutans was
plentiful, also the Lily of the Valley, the Rubus
sa.vaiilis, and the Faris quadrifolia, the latter two
in fruit ; in one spot we saw the CepJialaiithera eiisi-
folia in seed. By the wayside was the Epipadis
latifolia, and in one place near the mouth of the
Dene, JEpipadis palustris in flower ; in many parts

the Hemp Agrimony {Eupatorium cannabinum),
Orchis compsea, and the Comfrey {Symphytum
offidnale). As we approached the wider parts of
the Dene, near the sea, we found the Geranium
sangunieum, and on the sea-banks the beautiful
Pariiassia palustris and the Orchis pyramidalis.
There is a vague rumour that the rare Lady's
Slipper (C calceolus) is still to be found in the
Dene, but as the time of flowering was long past,
to search for it would have been a hopeless task.
Another plant I searched for in vain, the sweet-
scexited and elegant Pyrola rotundifolia, although
I examined well the spot where I had seen it
growing in profusion some years ago ; it had com-
pletely disappeared, the site being monopolized by
the perennial Mercury and other dense-growing
plants. The end of May or beginning of June
would have been a much more favourable time to
find most of these plants in their greatest per-
fection, and I certainly should recommend botanists
to select that time to visit the Dene. — T. I. B.,
Ferry hill, Durham.

Sudden Appearance of Plants, &c. — I am
able to confirm much which your correspondent
Mr. Edwin Lees has communicated in your Sep-
tember number, and add my experience of the
same. Some twelve or fourteen years since a new
basin was formed in the river Lea, and the earth
deposited on a waste piece of ground alongside,
which produced the next year many of the varieties
of Chenopodium and Atriplex, especially C. rubrum,
hybridum, and ///ct/o/?«;;;, whilst in the year follow-
ing 1 could not find ten plants altogether. Again
last year the other parts of the river were dredged,
and the muddy gravel produced again quantities of
Chenopodium andJtripilex, with Nasturtium terrestre.
Erysimum cheiranthoides, Saponaria vaccaria : these
have this year given way almost entirely to several
of the Polygonum, Sinapis, Camelina, and grasses.
The sand scraped from our roads has this year pro-
duced a large crop of Camelina saliva and Limtm
usitatissimum. When the branch line of the Great
Northern Railway was cut from Hatfield to Hert-
ford, Centaurea calcitrapa made its appearance the
first year, and has not been seen since. Scrophu-
laria vernalis also visited us six years ago with
about twenty plants, and only one has been seen
since, viz. last year. — Robert G. Andrews.

Sudden Appearance of Plants, &c. — In con-
nection with the paper in last month's Science-
Gossip, page 190, by Mr. Lees, on the above
subject, I have noticed a curious circumstance
respecting Fyrola secunda (serrate winter-green).
I had known a patch of Pyrola minor for several
years, and frequently seen the plants both in flower
and in seed. One season I found intermixed with
minor a few specimens of P. secunda. I could
scarcely have overlooked them had they been there

HARDWICKE'S S C IE N C E-GOSSIP.

261

formerly. However, they grew and multiplied till
in 1872 tliere were at least fifty individuals of this
species. But the strange thing is that last year,
and this year also, the serrate have all entirely dis-
appeared. I cannot believe that any one meddled
■with them, nor has the soil at all been disturbed.
Minor is still in abundance, but not one plant of
Secunda is to be found. How are we to account
for this ?— 72. W.

GEOLOGY.

The Lemming ix Cave Deposits. — Professor
Owen has communicated a note on this subject to
the Royal Society. When his "British Eossil
Mammals " was first published, this animal had not
been found in England. Since then it has been
found in lacustrine brick-earth at Salisbury, asso-
ciated with remains of the mammoth. ~ The sup-
posed lemming from Brixham Cave, the Professor
believes to be a Pika, a tailless hare, and not a
lemming at all.

Fossil Oyster-Bed.— Your correspondent E.
Lovett will probably find that the "recently-dis-
covered " bed was noticed in 1872 in the " Memoirs
of the Geological Survey," vol. iv. As, however,
neither the exact locality nor the geological position
of the bed is mentioned in his letter, I can but
infer that the "bottom-bed" of the Woolwich and
Reading Series is alluded to. This bed was laid
open at Croydon, in 1869, and oyster-shells have
been known to occur in it in othej- places for many
years. — W. W.

The Geologists' Association. — This useful
society, which has its head-quarters in University
College, has just issued Parts 6 and 7 of its " Pro-
ceedings," in which are some capital papers by
Samuel Sharp, E.G.S., on "The Geology of North-
amptonshire"; and a very elaborate essay by the hou.
secretary, Mr. W. H. Hudieston, F.G.S., on " The
Yorkshire Oolites." The chief features of this
association, however, are the periodical excursions
(sometimes of several days' extent) which its mem-
bers make to well - known fossiliferous localities,
under the generous leadership of celebrated palaeon-
tologists and geologists. During the last summer,
and that of the previous year, such excursions were
made to Brighton, Hatfield, Plumstead, Cropness,
and the Malvern district. The " Proceedings " are
ably edited by J. L. Lobley, Esq., E.G.S.

Record of Geological Literature.— It has
been decided to publish, as a yearly volume, a
Record of works on Geology, Mineralogy, and
Palaeontology, British and Foreign. The first
volume will be printed by the middle of 1875, and
will contain short abstracts or notices of papers,
books, maps, &c., published during the year 1874.

It is estimated that this volume will contain from
200 to 300 pages, and that its price will be 10s. 6d.
The editor of the volume is Mr. William Whitaker,
B.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey, who is
well known for his extensive acquaintance with
geological literature. Among the gentlemen -who
are assisting in the work are Messrs. Carruthers,
David Forbes, Prof. Geikie, Prof. Green, Prof*
Rupert Jones, Rudler, E. T. Newton, Topley,
Henry Woodward, and others. This work will be
greatly helped if Provincial Societies and Field Clubs
will forward copies of their publications to the
editor. It is expected that the number of sub-
scribers will cover the expenses ; but if not, several
well-known geologists have come forward as
guarantors.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A Natural History Field Club in Ijondon.
—On referring to back numbers of the Science
Gossip, I came across a short paragraph by Mr.
James Britten, F.L S., in which lis regrets the want
of a working " Naturalists' Field Club " in Loudon,
and expresses his readiness to help any that might
be formed. If a few such well-known naturalists
as himself were to stai't a society of the kind, I have
every reason to believe they would meet with great
success, and be conferring a real benefit on many.
This want is but poorly supplied by the numerous
Microscopical Clubs of the metropolis. The absence
of that, enthusiasm (so characteristic of the Country
Field Clubs) keeps most of the really active workers
from the periodical excursions made by the London
clubs. I trust the matter may not be allowed to
drop, and that Mr. Britten and others of the leading
naturalists will take the matter in hand this winter,
so that before next season a Naturalists' Field
Club in London may be " uu fait accompli." — James
Groves.

Snakes and Toads. — An American correspon-
dent has told you that he once saw a snake eating
a toad. As I was walking in the New Forest this
summer, 1 saw what looked like a leafless bough,
with a dead toad lying at the end of it. Upon
approaching, I discovered it was a snake, in the act
of swallowing a toad. The head of the latter was
in the snake's mouth, from which the toad's body
and legs stuck out quite stifily._ When I stooped
over them, the snake quickly glided away, and left
the toad half covered with thick saliva, and quite
stupefied. I bathed the toad's head, and it slowly
came to its senses, and at last crawled away. — John
Hugh Bertram Brooke, Stockwell.

Do Fishes utter Sounds ?— The other day I
was out trawling, and amongst a number of fishes,
such as soles, plaice, &c., was a common skate,
about 18 inches in width. About half an hour after
this latter fish was caught, I heard it utter a series
of distinct squeak-like sounds. Several friends
were with me at the time, and we were all astonished
at the performance. 1 should be glad to know if
any of your correspondents have met with a similar
experience. — CP.O.

Herring Gull. — Sitting at my window'one day
lately, I was much amusedj by watching the

262

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

manoeuvres of our tame sea-gull "Jack." What
first attracted my attention was the steady way he
stood beside an old barrel placed on its end in an
outhouse. At first I cnild not think what he was
at, until I reiueiiibered that the bens were in the
habit of laying there, and I knew Jack's well-known
weakness for eggs ! Presently I heard a cackling,
and out came a hen ; upon wliicb. Jack dived into
the barrel and reappeared with an egg stuck on his
long bill ; but instead of at once boUliuj it, as I have
seen him do with tivo at a time, he placed it on the
ground and began to execute an Indian war-dance
round it. Pionnd aud round he went, until I tliought
a case of "death of a sea-gull from blood to the
head" would be the result, and he seemed so
C9nfident, I thought a "sell" would be good for
him ; so I called to my cook to take the egg, and
continued to watch master Jack. No sooner was
the egg removed than rage got the better of him.
He screamed at his very loudest, aud ruslied about
the yard as if he had but just escaped from an
asylum for lunatic sea-gulls, until he suddenly
espied another hen enter the barrel, upon which he
took up his old station, this time watching the hen
through a slit in the side, and pecking viciously
at every live thing that came within reach. I
could not wait to see if this time his patience was
rewarded ; but even though I should be the loser, I
almost hope it was. — L. A. Brenan, Vomeroij.

Swallow - tail Buttekflies on the Lion
Mound at Waterloo. — Being advised by a non-
entomological friend (who liad some years ago seen
some curious black and yellow butterflies on the
Lion Mound at Waterloo), to take my net there, I
was successful in taking tliree Machaon on Sep-
tember 1st. The day was fine but breezy, and the
three I captured on the leeward side of the mound
were all 1 saw in the loc;ility. Is it not curious to
find them in such a situation, miles away from any
fens "i—E. A. K., Hayes, Kent.

The Goosebekry - leaf Caterpillae. —
There are few gaiden pests more easily got rid of
than these caterpillars if taken in time. If
" F. B. " will adopt the following plan, he will
neither lose a gooseberry or leaf. As the leaves un-
fold in April, the parent fly will deposit her eggs in
the densest of the foliage, and the young cater-
pillars will give notice of their presence by eating
away the underside of the leaf in little patches,
giving it the appearance of being pierced with pin-
holes. _ Each of such leaves will produce 50 or 60
caterpillars or unhatcbed eggs, which may thus be
destroyed in a moment. The search must be
repeated during the montli for fresh broods. The
leaves are so easily detected that a couple of minutes
for each bush is quite enough.—^. 1F.

BuTOMUs umbellatus.— At the 147th meeting
of the Leeds Naturalists' Fluid Club and Scientific
Association, held Sept. 15, Mr. James Abbot men-
tioned that he had gathered this plant in flower at
Kirkstall on the 12lh Sept. The plant formerly
grew in the small stream at the foot of Batty Wood,
Woodhouse llidge, but has not been known tiiere,
or in any part of the Leeds district, for upwards of
twenty years. — JFm. Denison Roebuck,

Larva OF Privet Hawkmoth.— About this time
last year 1 obtained the larva of a privet hawk-
moth, which, alter a few days, changed into pupa.
I placed some dry earth in an empty cigar-box,
and put the pupa into it, covering it 'lightly with

I mould and dry leaves, giving, however, access to
' the air. The whole was placed in a dry cupboard
in hope to see this year the imago ; but there it is
in the pupa state and still alive, for, when exposed
to the sun or breathed upon, it will move. Can
you or auy of the readers of Science-Ggssip
suggest why it does not perform its metamorphosis
into imago ; and is this a common event ?

Feiine Oddities.— It may interest your corre-
spondent to hear that we had for some time in the
early part of this year, a pure wliite kitten with one
eye a bright blue, and the other quite yellow. Her
mother is a dark tabby cat, with one yellow and one
black eye. The white kitten came to an untimely
end in May last, being run over by a van in the road.
She would never, under auy circumstances, drink
milk, nor, if she could help it, clean water; but
would greedily lap soapy water in w-hich one's hands
had been washed, seeming to prefer this to any
other drink. — H.

Aquaria. — I have not much more practical know-
ledge of these and their inmates than "Querist,"
but I have been a pretty diligent student of " Half-
hours at the Seaside " during the past month or
two, and would recommend him to procure that
volume from the publisher of Science-Gossip for
information about anemones aud anemone collect-
ing, and about other " things " whose habits cau be
watched in an aquarium. As to its management,
" Querist " will find some hiuts in the number for
May, p. 118 ; and he might also refer to the previous
number, p. 95. One word of warning. Anemones
do not like being torn from their beds (tiiough
these be of stone), any more than human beings
do. " Querist " will therefore be wise to substi-
tute the plan of knocking off the piece of rocic to
which the creature is attached, for the " pulliug-oif "
process ; by a little extra search he will often find
some specimens located on fragments of rock small
enough to carry home to his aquarium. — W. R. E.

A Feline Oddity.— I have seen a black and
white cat, whose eyes were precisely similar to
those described by " W. R. L. " in Science-
Gossip for August— one a yellowish grey, and the
other a bright blue. Its tail, instead of being long,
like an ordinary cat's, was stunted like a rabbit's.
A kitten born in the same litter had eight legs, two
tails, and four ears. It died at birth, and its owner
has it preserved in spirits, and I have seen it. —
E.JF.

Trees SPRINGING out of inclosed ^Tombs. —
I am inclined to think that the story mentioned by
your correspondent " J. B. S. C." (Science-Gossip,
No. 114, p. 143), with respect to the seven ash-trees
springing from the inclosed grave in Tewin church-
yard, was made to fit the cn-cumstance of the ap-
pearance of the seven ashes. If the trees that
appeared had been fewer than seven, probably no
tale would have been invented respecting tliem.
The story, if really worthy of consideration, should
be traced to its originator, and the date of inter-
ment given, when perhaps some light could liave
been thrown upon the lady's history which might
give colouring to the tale, or render it improbable.
As to the appearance of ash or other trees within
the space of inclosed graves in neglected church-
yards, where families have died out or removed far
away, it is not an uncommon circumstance. To go
no farther than Perivaie, Middlesex, when I was
last in the churchyard there, I made a sketch of an

IIAllDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

263

altar-tomb surrounded by iron railing, within which
several self-sown trees had got, and quite em-
bowered the tomb with a dense growth of verdure.
As far as I remember, three of the trees were ash,
hawthorn, and elder. This was the tomb of a lady
once residing in the parish, but whose family had
long left the neighbourhood. In a churchyard not
far from Worcester, an ash-tree, nature-planted,
has been suffered to spring up within the railing of
a lady's tomb, and as it grows larger will probably
displace both tomb and railing. The lady's family
left the parish some years since. So only last
summer 1 observed two large trees— hawthorn and
sycamore— within the railing of a tomb in Conway
churchyard. North Wales. Tliey were evidently of
many years' growth, and had completely embowered
and almost hidden the tomb. These are not trees
that are planted over graves, for the weeping-
willows and evergreens that are often placed in
cemeteries by lamenting friends seldom grow so
well as these wildings planted by Nature's hand.
The Ash, from having winged seeds, is the most
likely tree to get into neglected spots, and will even
mount upon old pollard willows. But I have "no
tale to tell " about these vegetable intruders, and
should not like to reflect on the memory of the
dead whose remains they shadow. These intrusive
seedlings are, however, quite in the usual course of
vegetable growth, though old tombs in country
churchyards are more commonly invested with ivy
or hidden by brambles. But occasionally trees get
within churches, as at Ross, Herefordshire, where
the stolons of a felled elm in the churchyard have
forced their way within the sacred structure, and
now embower a pew, tvhere, it is said, the famed
" Man of Ross " used to sit ! This is made a wonder
of by the Rossites, and photographs of the intru-
sive elm have been made, and are sold to inquisitive
visitors. As "shady rows" of elms, as Pope says,
were planted by the Man of Ross, there is some-
thing poetical and grateful in an elm offering a
frondal bower to his memory where he once sat
and worshipped. In Kempsey church, near Wor-
cester, in a recess of the north wall, is the recum-
bent efligy of a knight in armour, which is shadowed
by a horse-chestnut in full foliage ; and by whatever
chance the tree has sprung up within the church, it
is allowed to grow there, and makes a pleasing
object in contrast with the white walls of the
chined.— Echoiu Lees, F.L.S., Green Bill Summit,
Worcester.

Earthworms, &c. — A short time ago I witnessed
a curious encounter. An earthworm about three
inches in length was in violent contortions, twisting
itself into the shape of the letter S, and throwing
itself out again, evidently striving to rid itself of
an enemy. On closer inspection, this enemy was a
small thmg about half an inch in length with a
brownish head and lighter-coloured body, which
had lastened itself like a weasel on the body of the
worm. I tried to secure the assailant, but it
vanished too quickly for me into the light niould.
I had but an imperfect view of it. Could it have
been a wireworm, or are you aware of any insect
likely thus to attack the common worm ? The next
morning 1 secured the worm with a piece off its
body : this part was quite paralyzed, and in a few
hours the worm was dead. — If. A. C.

Addek-bites.— Permit me to call your attention
to a case (a fatal one) of poisoning by the bite of
an adder, x\hich occurred m Sutherlandshire, and
has been recorded in Land and JFater of August 1.

I drew your attention, two months ago, to a case
that had occurred in Sussex, but 1 did not see any
notice of it in Science-Gossip. My reason for
wishing the matter should be alluded to is simply
this : I, a few years ago, mentioned that I knew of
instances wherein the bite of a viper had caused
death ; and my assertion drew forth much contra-
diction. That I stated a fact has been fully borne
out since, by the unfortunate occurrence of several
fatal accidents from a like cause. — //. E. Watney.

Stocking Aquaria.— When living by the sea I
used the two following methods, recommended by
the Rev. J. G. Wood, to obtain aquarium objects.
I either chipped off the piece of rock to which the
anemone was attached, and transferied it bodily to
my aquarium, or I used a very thin paper-knife,
and slowly peeled the Actinia from the rock. lu
using the last method great care must be exercised,
or the sucking base will be injured. In selecting
anemones it is best to pick out the smallest, as
they seem hardier, and do not require so much
water. With regard to fish, I always obtained
specimens from the nets of the fishermen, or from
the rock-pools at low tide. Of course in keeping
fish, anemones, &c., you must have fronds of algae
in the water, or your specimens will not thrive.
With regard to food, it is better not to feed your
anemones much, as they will live for months
without any, and be none the worse for their fast.
If you give them anything, let it be a tiny morsel
of meat. — }F. H. Rean.

Ocops. — In answer to Mr. Harry Leslie, I think
I can say that the term " Ocop " is applied in Devon
principally to Melolonthidce (cockchafer), and is a
corruption of oak-web, probably from Anglo- Saxon
" wibba," a worm._ The smaller chafer with green
thorax — I forget its name, common on fern — is
always called Pern-web, as it is Bracken-clock in
Scotland. It is famous as a trout- bait. — Charles
Kingsley, Eversley Rectory.

Ocops. — The word "Ocops "which your corre-
spondent Harry Leslie has heard applied to
various beetles in South Devon, is, I beheve, the
same which in North Devon is given to cockchafers
only. I have always understood that the word is
a corruption of oak-web, and that cockchafers were
so called because, at certain seasons, they are found

in great numbers on oak-trees.-

-W. F. Richards.

BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED.

"A Synopsis of British Mosses." By C. P. Hobkirk.
London : L. Reeve & Co.
" Popular Science Review." October. London: Hardwicke.
" Monthly Microscopical Journal." October.
"Journal of Applied Science."
"The Animal World."
" American Naturalist." September.
" Les Mondes."
" The Colonist." &c., &c.

Communications Rbceived prom : — W. E. — W. R. H. —
B. M.— H. W.- J. E. R.— T. B.- W. T.— C. P. O.— J. H. B. B.—
H. M.— C. D.— J. W.— F. W.- J. P.— J. G.— A. W. L.— L. A. B.
— H. A. K.— R. W.— W. G.— A. N.— J. H. B.— J. C— W. D. R.
—J. T.— W. P.— W. H. P.— H. G. W. A.— W. S.— T. B. W.—
V^r. L. S.— J. G.— J. K. J.-H. G G.— E. H.— W T.-C. H. B.—
W. R. H,— J. B. M.— F. H. A.— B W.— F L— W. M.— J. W. H.
— D. B.— Dr. S.— E. H — J. K. J- J. S— H. B. T.— R. T. S.—
W P. F.— F W.— W. M. R.— E. W.M.— C. U.-R. R.— J.T.—
W. H.— C. V. G.— W. W. S.— T. B.— W. W.— B. W. G.— A. W.—
W. G. P.— G. R. W.— W. H. G.-W. F. S.-J. A.-G. D. B.—
A. F. F.— J. P.— J. T. T. R.— J. S.-J. M. K.- H. P. A.—
A. deS. G.— C. G— J. K.— L. R. T.-K.-C. F. W.— S. A. B.-
J. W.— A. C. H.— W. A. v.— T. L.— M. M.— J. W,— W^. S. P.

2Gi

HARDWICKE'S S C lEN CE- GOS SIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

T. Swallow.— Your mosses are: 1. Hiipnum velutiyium,

.Dicranetla heterdmnlla. and 3. Luphocola IMentata. Get
Cooke's " British Repaticse," with figures, price 4d., or the
parts now issuing of Carringfton's "British Hepaticse," both
published by Hardwicke, 19-'. Piccadilly.— R. B.

Gbmixi. — We are not aware of any bird equal to the task of
clearing away ants. Try sprinkling with a little carbolic acid.

Charles Dickik.— To clear a room of cockroaches place a
shallow plate full of beer on the floor at night. As these
insects are not Good Templars, they rush in large numbers to
the beer, and thus share the fate of the Duke of Clarence.

H. G. W. A.— The Arachnid found in the grass to which you
refer answers in its description to the Dog-tick {Ixodes
ricinus).

G. R. W.— It is not uncommon for the spore-bearing fronds
of young specimens of the flowering ferns {Osmunda regalis)
to be converted into pinnules.

,Ida F. T.— The malformed specimens of Corn Feverfew
iPyrethvum inodovum) come under what Dr. Masters, in his
" Vegetable Teratology," calls " excess of development."

Horace. — The insect you inclosed was an Ichneumon
{Ophion).

J. Sims.— We will do our best to obtain you a specimen of
Miocene lignite. Perhaps some of our readers will forward
us a bit from Bovey Tracey.

A Constant Subscriber asked us to name an "inclosed
plant " ; but none was " inclosed." By the way, we should
feel obliged if our correspondents who wish to preserve their
incog, would adopt some other nom de plume than " Constant
Subscriber."

Mrs. a.— We are sorry to say your MS. has been mislaid,
and is not to be found.

Thos. Buck.— It is not uncommon for the eggs of domesti-
cated fowls to occur with double shells in the way you name.
Doubleyolked eggs are still commoner.

H. Marshall V/aru. —Potenti/la fragoriastfum, similar
to Fragaria vesca, but has no runners, nerves of leaflets not
sunk above, and fruit very different. Hooker's " Flora of
the British Isles."— B. W.

F. L. — The natural food of the larva of the common house-
fly {Musca domeatici) is said to be horse-dung. Conse-
quently, these insects are always most abundant in the
neighbourhood of stables, &c.

D. BRAni.KY.— The best work on Diatomacere is that now
issuing in parts, by Dr. Donkin.

Bk. Smart.— Your specimens of flint were covered with
a lichen called Vernicnria nitida.

J. K. J.— The package arrived, but the glass was smashed.

C. U. (Reigate). — Your specimen is not an Erica, but its
near sister, the common Ling, Calluna vulgaris. Perhaps its
unusually hoary foliage may have misled you into supposing
it to be a form of Erica tetralix. — R.

H. E. Dent. — The specimen of Lnmium album is the pretty
and elegant variety, recognized as a species by some authors,
under the name of L. maciilatum ; other writers, on the
contrary, unite L. Icevigntum and L. vinrulatuin with L.
album, into one species. We have noticed large roots of this
variety in our cottage gardens. — R.

F. R., Clapham (August number, p. 189).— Green Cater-
pillars.— Dust your gooseberry bushes with white hellebore
directly you see the caterpillars, and they will drop off dead.
Broad beans plantf-d in rows between the rows of gooseberry
bushes preserve them from blight : supposed cause is, that
the beans give out a great deal of carbonic acid gas.— A. F. F.

Mrs. a. Watnev. — " Grevillea," edited by Dr. M. C.
Cooke, is now published quarterly, by Williams & Norgate,
Covent-gardon, London.

A Constant Subscribbr (No. 2). — The flower sent, found
at Twickenham, is the Bloody Crane's-bill {Geranium
sanguineum).

EXCHANGES.

One HuNnRKo Spkcies of Australian Shells for the last
edition of Wood's " Index Testaceologicus," and "5 species
for Chenu's " Manuel de Conchyliologie." — W. T. Bednall,
Adelaide, South Australia. Correspondents desired.

Wanted, Spores of the Cryptogams, in quantities of not
less than a quarter of a grain. One specimen of each genus
will be sufficient. Other Microscopic Objects or Money given
in exchange. — Medicus, Arnside House, Stretford-road,
Manchester.

Packets of Foraminiferous Sand, containing all known
British species, several marine objects, such as from Echinus,
Anemones, Algct, Sponges, &c., Parasites, Insects, Seeds of
Orchids and Wild plants. Living and Dried Ferns in great
variety, and Alpine plants.— -T. McGann, Biirrin, Oran.nore,
County Galway.

Bomhyx Pernyi, B. Cecropia,B. Tromethia, B. Cynthia, silk
moths ; <S>«!a cmpxnpfiilii, Sexia bomhycifurmis, T. fulvn, M.
titero.in, M. arcuosii, N. mundana, for any of the silk moths,
except B. mnri and B. gamma mia.~ John Thorpe, Spring
gardens, Middleton, near Manchester.

Rough and Chipped Flint Flakes, from north of Ireland
gravels; also Flint Arrow-heads and Stone Celts for similar
remains from other localities.— William Gray, Secretary of
the Naturalists' Field Club, Belfast.

Wanted, specimens of Palm and Tree-fern Stems, suitable
for the use of a science class, or informatiou for obtaining
them.— W. Piper, Bank Plain, Norwich.

For Xenodoc/ius carbnnarim, send stamped envelope to
T. Brittain, 52, Park-street, Green Heys, Manchester. No
exchange required.

For Leaf of Groundsel with Brand, send stamped envelope
to T. Lane, I, Camden-villas, Broomy Hill, Ilerelord.

Eggs of the Sandwich Tern, Eider Duck, Puffin, Dipper,
Grasshopper Warbler, and others, for other British Birds'
Eggs.— Joseph Watson, 20, Fountain-lane, Blaydon-on-Tyne.
For Living Plants of Wulffia ar/tiza, send stamped enve-
lope, a small box, or a piece of oil silk, to Mrs. C. F. White,
42, Windsor-road, Ealing.

Rare Shells Offered: CUiusilia rugusa, va.r. Schlechtu
(new and rare variety recently determined by Mr. Jeffreys) ;
Helix obvuluta, Stlix reoelata, Pisidium cinereum, Clausilia
dubia. Pupa unglica, P. edentula, for— Pup" minutis.fima, P.
alpestris, P. substriata, P. puxilla, P. Ve7ietzii, Limneus
involutus, L. Burnetii, Succinea oblonga. Acme lineata.—
W. F. Sutton, Gosforth Grove, near Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Larv.b of Betularia, Itlunaria, and H. pisi ; Ova of
Jllunaria and Angularia, for other Ova, Larva:, or Pupae.—
J. Pickles, 12, 13, Warehouse-hill, Leeds.

W'anted, specimens, living or preserved, of Dinncea
nepenthes and Sarracenin,Polygonatum DerticiUatum, Maluxis
paludosa,Corullorhiza. Offered : Teucrium rhamccdrys.Senecio
squalidus, Anchusa sempervivum, &c.— W. G. Piper, Bank
Plain, Norwich.

Phyllactiniu guttata, Microsphoeria Bcrberidis, or Nucimda
bicornis, fresh, for other Micro-fungi, or for Foreign Polyzoa.
—George D. Brown, Henley Villa, Ealing, W.

Duplicates: Australin, Empyrea, Obscuraf.a, Nupta,
Libratrix, Pisi, Oxycanthea, Lota, Teitacra, Oculeu, Liaiosa,
Duplaris, Vinula, Bucxphala, Sainbucnta, iHargaritata,
Sirtaria, Fulvata, Badinta, Marginata, Plagiata, S. populi,
Potatoriii, Dispar, Caja, Ligustri, Rliamni, Corydon,
Atalanta, Semele, lo. Desiderata: many Local Species.—
Morris Mond, Lewes.

Wanted to Exchange, three lots, 75 species in each, of
South Australian Marine Shells, for common English Sea-
shore Shells, common Ferns, and common Minerals ; speci-
mens to be named.— Address, W. P. Forwood, Port Adelaide,
South Australia.

Fossils from the Chalk and Red Crag for Wenlock Lime-
stone, Mountain Limestone, or Carboniferous Fossils.—
C. Griffith, St. Swithin-street, Winchester.

Wanted, British Marine Shells in fine condition, for Foreign
Shells.— A. W. Langdon, 4, Castle Down-terrace, Hastings.

Duplicates : Pupae of Swallow-tailed Butterfly (P.
Machau7i) and Imagos of T. quercas, A. Adippe, and P. jEgon.
Desiderata : T. betula, C. Elpenor, Srapta C. album, M.
Cinxia, il. Artemis, M. fuci/urmis, or others.— D. I. Preston,
Riversfield, Catton, near Norwich.

Wanted, Fronds of British Ferns, for others, or Micro-
slides. Send list to F. W., Belvidere, Tenby.
f British Birds' Skins and Eggs, for Insects, Shells, Fossils,
and Minerals, or rare Eggs. Microscopic objects not wanted.
—J. T. T. Reed, Ryhope, Sunderland.

For Cuticle of Indian Corn send a stamped directed envelope
to W. H. Gomm, Somerton, Taunton.

For Stems of Pteris aquilina and Acacia, prepared for
section-cutting, send stamped envelope and object of interest
to A. Haward, 1, Shirley -villas, Addiscombe-road, Croydon.
Six first-class well-mounted Micro-slides, various
subjects, for each number of " Quarterly Journal of Micro-
scopic Science."— H. B. Thomas, Boston, Lincolnshire.

Good Crag Fossils, for good Upper Silurian Fossils. —Address,
J. E. T., 192, Piccadillv, London.

For a Leaf of common Daisy, with Cluster-cups, send
stamped directed envelope to J. Turner, Davenport, Stock,
port.

A Book Folding-case in roan leather, to hold 72 Slides,
for good mounted objects. — F. W., Belvidere, Tenby.

For Pollen of Cobea scandens, send stamped envelope to
R. RatcliCfe, 25, Market-street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Anything
acceptable.

Wanted, 59, 233, 464, 579, II78, 1131 ; for 57, 2.'?2, 466, 574,
802, 846, of London Cat.— Rev. F. H. Arnold, Fishbourne,
Chichester.

WELL-MouNTEoShdes of Marine Algre, named, for mounted
sections of Human Body, &c.— R. T. Smith, 25, St. Alban's-
street, Weymouth.

Mari.ve Shklls from Devon coast, also British Land and
Freshwater for exchange. Lists exchanged.— Martin, 97,
Union-street, Torquay.

W.^nted, spores of Cryptogams, in quantities of not less
than one quarter of a grain for which other microscopic
objects or money will be given. One example of each genus
will suffice. Address, Medicus- Arnside House.Stretlord-road,
Manchester.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

265

THE HISTOEY OF OUR CULTIVATED VEGETABLES.

No. VII.— THE PARSNIP {Pastlnaca sativa).

HE Parsuip be-
longs to the
same tribe of
plants as the
Carrot (Umbel-
lifer a;), and
^^<^^J^ grows on simi-
lar soils. In its natural state
the stem rises from two to
three feet high, bearing yellow
flowers, which are succeeded
by thin, flat, oval-shaped fruit.
The leaves are simply pinnate,
shining, downy beneath, and
are not so delicately formed as
those of the Carrot. Like that
plant the Parsnip is biennial.
It appears that this vege-
table was reclaimed and early
cultivated at Gelduba, in the neighbourhood of the
Rhine, from which place the Emperor Tiberius,
who held parsnips in high repute, had them brought
annually to Rome. They were served for the table
with their pith taken out, after being boiled ; and
eaten with a sauce made of honey or mead. The
ancients attributed wonderful qualities to this root,
and it was much esteemed by the worshippers of
Vulcan. Pliny tells us the Romans were accustomed
to transplant their parsnips in the spring into
ground that had been dug to a considerable depth
for the purpose, and that they were fit for eating at
the end of the year, still better at the end of two ;
but it was impossible to get rid of its strong pungent
flavour. It was also believed that persons wlio
carried this plant about with them were never stung
by serpents. Mixed with axle-grease {Axnugia),
properly swine grease, with which the axle-trees of
the chariots were rubbed, it was applied to parts of
the body stung by reptiles, and the leaves were
eaten as a remedy for indigestion.
Parsnips might have been brought into England
No. 120.

by the Romans, but of this we have no account.
Hartlib, who wrote in 1650, states that they were
introduced with carrots, &c., from Holland or
Elanders. Old Gerard says, " The herbelist of our
time do call the garden parsnip Pastinaca, and
therefore we have surnamed it LatifoUa, or broad-
leaved, that it may differ from the other garden
parsnip, with narrow leaves, which is truly and pro-
perly called StaphjUnus, that is the garden carrot."
Parsnips were also called Mypes in the time of this
author, who adds they are more nourishing than
carrots or turnips. He tells us that there is good
and pleasant bread made from the roots of the par-
snip, " as my friend Master Plat has set forth in his
book of experiments." That student in physic and
astrology, Culpepper, states in his " Herbal," " that
the root of this vegetable is often used, but the seed
much more. The wild being better than the tame,
shows Dame Nature to be the best physician."
Parkinson informs us that the seed ripens the
second year after sowing, and adds, if they do
flower the first year, the country people call them
Madde Neepes.

Ray says it is asserted by some writers that eating
old parsnips is likely to cause delirium and madness,
and for this reason they are called Mad Napes.
Withering states that the seeds of this plant con-
tain an essential oU ; they were much used in medi-
cine, and were often taken to cure intermittent
fevers, and should be those of the wild plant ; but
the druggists in his time commonly sold the seed of
the garden kind, which they could purchase at an
easy price when it was too old to grow. Dr. John
M'Cuiloch was the first writer who noticed more
than one cultivated variety of this plant. In his
paper on the Parsnip, addressed to the Caledonian
Horticultural Society, September, 1814, he men.
tions three kinds being known in the islands of
Guernsey and Jersey: in the same paper he mentions
that this plant will stand the frost better than any
other vegetable. "The unusually severe winter of

266

HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

1813-14," he writes, " has enabled me to decide this
question most positively and to name the parsnip
the only cultivated root which appears to defy all
cold. In the garden of a friend at Waltham Abbey a
crop of parsnip was suffered to continue in the ground
throughout the winter. That land is well known
to be wet meadow-land, and was frozen in a solid
mass to the depth of a foot or more. The roots
remained unhurt, and while I write (in the begin-
ning of April, 1814) they are all putting out their
new shoots." They also withstood the intense
frost of 1838 in the open ground. A very large
variety, with roots three to four feet long and three
inches in diameter, is much cultivated in Normandy
and the Channel Islands as food for cattle. As an
agricultural plant, it is not much cultivated in
England ; but in Jersey and Guernsey it forms one
of the most important crops, and the preparation of
the land, which requires deep ploughing, is one of
the most laborious tasks of the small farmers in the
early spring. One Jersey farmer is recorded to
have raised upwards of 14,000 lb. of parsnips upon
about a quarter of an acre of land. Very little
manure but seaweed is used ; still the quality of the
root is materially affected by the soil, and it exhausts
the laud more than the carrot. According to
Colonel de Couteur, the .weight of a good crop
varies from thirteen to twenty-seven tons per acre,
the latter quantity being sufficient to suppport
twelve Jersey cows for six months, with a mixture
of mangolds and turnips. Don states that in the
fattening of cattle, the parsnip is found equal if
not superior to the carrot, performing the business
with much expedition, and affording meat of an ex-
quisite flavour and of a highly juicy quality. The
leaves being more bulky than those of carrots, may
be mown off before taking up the roots and given
to cattle and horses, which will devour them
greedily. The parsnip yields a large quantity of
nourishing food for human kind. In the north of
Scotland, Neill observes, "they are often beat up
with potatoes and a little butter ; of this excellent
mess the children of the peasantry are very fond,
and they do not fail to thrive upon it." From the
same authority, we learn that in the north of
Ireland an agreeable beverage is prepared from the
roots brewed with hops. Phillips informs us that
a wine made from these roots approaches nearer to
the Malmsey of Madeira and the Canaries than
any other wine. It is made with litlle expense or
trouble, and onlv requires to be kept a few years to
make it as agreeable to the palate, as it is whole-
some to the body. A very pure spirit is obtained
when parsnips are distilled after a similar prepara-
tory process to that used with the carrot. The
parsnip resembies the carrot in composition. In
the latter, however, the starch, which is found in
considerable quantity in the parsnip, is replaced by
sugar. This plant, like the carrot, is found wild in

all parts of Europe, except Lapland and Finmark.
The name is derived from Fastns, nourishment, or,
according to others, Pastinum, a dibber, or a tool
used in digging vineyards, the root resembling that
implement in form.

Hampden G. Glasspoole.

SPECULATIONS CONCERNING THE USES
OF COMETS IN THE UNIVERSE.

BY JOHN I. PLUMMER, M.A.

Pakt II.

rpHERE are several other considerations de-
-*- serving our attention, which may be thought
to strengthen more or less the hypothesis I have
enunciated in the foregoing number regarding the
uses of comets, and of which I must say a few
words. Our knowledge of chemistry is perhaps
not sufiieiently advanced to enable us to declare
positively that the substances, which spectroscopic
analysis has proved to exist in the nebulse, and of
which they are either wholly or in great part com -
posed, are not in themselves adequate to form a
central sun and system of attendant worlds. It
cannot, however, be denied that the nebular hypo-
thesis, the brilliant conception of Kant and of
Laplace, while it has received on the one hand much
confirmation from recent discoveries, has been to an
equal, perhaps to a greater, extent rendered less
probable by them. It has been iucontestably
proved that true nebulae, masses of gaseous matter,
actually exist, but we can scarcely conceive that
the three simple, non-liqueflable gases, whose united
spectra constitute that of the nebula;, can, unless
by the help of additions from without, be com-
petent to build up a system of the same character
as that of *vhich our own planet is a member ;
and this becomes still more difficult to admit when
we find the elements which such systems would
appear to want, existing as wandering bodies of
whose use we are otherwise quite ignorant. Yet
once allow that the cometary system has a share,
and an important share, in the development of new
stars and systems, and the hypothesis may stand as
securely as before, challenging, us it has always
done, our admiration for its beauty, for its sim-
plicity, for its comprehensiveness, and for the bold-
ness with which it has been originally conceived
and subsequently maintained.

As has been frequently asserted, it requires, how-
ever, that nebula; of every degree of condensation
should be found in the heavens, a fact sufficiently
well attested already by the telescope, but of which
the spectroscope has given us litlle, or perhaps
even contradictory, evidence. It is true that the
faiutuess of these bodies places serious obstacles in
the way of such observations, but it has been noted

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

267

that over and above the bright line spectrum of
which I have so frequently spoken, there exists
generally an excessively faint continuous spectrum,
such as would be given by a liquid or solid nucleus.
No observations have been made of the relative
brightness of this continuous spectrum in different
nebulae, nor as compared with that of the lines
themselves, and in the face of the difficulties to be
surmounted in such an inquiry no undertaking of
the kind is likely to be attempted. Still, the ex-
istence of the continuous spectrum tends very
strongly to confirm our supposition, since this is
precisely the way in which the product of the
chemical union of the cometary matter with the
nebular would be expected to show itself. On the
contrary, an increased density of the gases near the
centre gradually becoming in the more marked
instances a liquid nucleus, such as the nebular
hypothesis assumes to exist in such cases, would
lead to a very different result. If this were the
condition of the condensed or developed portion of
the nebula, we should necessarily find the bright
lines assume a much more sensible width there
than near its borders, where the gases would be
subject to less pressure, or at least that in different
nebulae the bright lines would present considerable
differences of width, a result so entirely opposed
to observation, that it does not seem too much to
say that the theory I have suggested and the hypo-
thesis 'of Laplace must stand or fall together, or
that the supporters of the latter must suggest some
explanation or emendation which at present they
have not attempted.

A few well-developed nebulae should present us
with another feature. When all, or nearly all, the
original gaseous constituents have been absorbed by
combination with other matter, and the nebula has
assumed a liquid or semi-solid form, we ought to
find a body giving a continuous spectrum, but irre-
solvable by the telescope into individual stars ; a
disc of greater or less extent should present itself
similar in form and appearance to the well-known
planetary nebulae. It will be known to my readers
that a considerable number of these have equally
defied the powers of the telescope and of the spec-
troscope. While the former instrument, in its
most powerful form, has failed to pronounce them
aggregations of stars, the latter has also failed to
declare them gaseous. The presumption has hitherto
been that this remainder would be resolved into
stellar groups if the powers of the telescope could
be indefinitely increased ; but this may still be ques-
tioned. To assume such developed nebulas to be
liquid globes in the second stage of formation would
be absurd, didlwe hold that these bodies are more
remote than the stars tLemselves ; but there is no
evidence whatever that such is the case, and in the
want of it we are equally at liberty to believe them,
on the contrary, our nearest neighbours. It is an

assumption also that brings with it no slight sense
of relief, since we are no longer obliged to attribute
to the larger members of the group dimensions so
enormous, that even the mind trained to compre-
hend the greatest magnitudes fails and shrinks from
attempting to grasp their real volume.

I now come to speak of the probable uses of
comets to systems like our own, which are fully
developed, and find myself equally left to speculate
rather than to determine, Eor some years the
question of the source whence the enormous expen-
diture of solar heat is replenished has remained
undiscussed and undecided, and yet it is a problem
well worthy consideration. If the only satisfactory
theory that has been proposed, namely, that the
solar waste is renewed by the heat generated by
the falling of meteoric bodies upon its surface, is
upheld, the intimate connection of these with comets
puts the latter in somewhat close relation with this
subject. Nor is the popular opinion that large
comets give rise to increased solar heat altogether
to be despised, especially as it is found to be an
almost universal belief. Statistics are not wanting
to show that years noted for large comets have also
been remarkable for exceptional crops and vintages.
In Germany and France the comet wines are inva-
riably spoken of as the most excellent, while iu
England the popular notion is as well known as it
is well supported by several recent and rather per-
plexing instances. Wide-spread beliefs such as this
are always to be respected, being generally the
result of an immense number of individual expe-
riences ; and although of themselves of no value as
evidence of a scientific truth, they will often direct
our investigations aright when we may be wise
enough to be guided by them. Schiaparelli has
demonstrated that since meteoric streams follow iu
the orbits of comets, the latter must be environed
by the densest part of the stream, and our expe-
riences of the Biela Comet meteors which fell in
such profusion on November 27th, 1872, and of
those known as the Perseids, and which are con-
nected with a comet visible in 1862, fully bear out
his deductions. If, therefore, the meteors supply
the Waste of solar heat, it is not difficult to under-
stand that the approach of a comet, especially when
large, accompanied by a dense, wide - stretching
cloud of these bodies, may produce a marked in-
crease in the amount of heat received from the sun,
because a large addition to the ordinary supply of
fuel has been brought within the range of its attrac-
tion ; * but it must be noted that owing to the

* If the neighbourhood of the sun is occupied by a very
extended atmosphere, the smaller meteorites, as offering
relatively to their mass a greater opposing surface, will be
more impeded by their passage through it than the larger,
and will fall in spiral orbits upon the sun's surface : this
would materially increase the sun's range or power of attract-
ing these bodies to itself, as I have already hinted in the
previous part.

N 2

268

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOS SIP.

variety of compositiou of comets and meteors, aud
the very various degrees of nearness of approach to
the sun's surface by them, very different effects
must be expected to take place in different cases.

We have here a fairly wide field for future obser-
vation and research, for it would still remain to
discover whether this supposed cause of increased
heat acts directly or indirectly. The action of the
sun upon comets is very great, strangely varied, and
easily noticed, and it may well be that some reci.
procal action is produced upon the sun's surface by
them that may be observable. I may hint here that
the observation of the solar spots at and near the
time of the perihelion passage of a comet might
throw some light upon this problem, as, if my
theory is correct, some disturbance of the solar
atmosphere is to be expected. Had the sun's
surface occupied the attention of astronomers as
much as the movements of comets have done, it
would have been comparatively easy to test the
suggestions now thrown out ; but unfortunately
bright comets appear so rarely that the establishing
of such a theory must necessarily occupy a con-
siderable interval of time. We arc forced rather
to depend upon collateral evidence, upon the fitness
of the hypothesis to fill a void previously noted, or
to connect together into a consistent whole facts
already acknowledged. In some respects this last
is claimed for the speculations I have made upon
the probable uses of comets. The nebular hypo-
thesis appears to receive from them some much
needed support on the one hand, and on the other
the meteoric theory of the maintenance of the
solar heat, to which it serves as a connecting link,
blending the two theories into one. The popular
belief in cometary heat has received a possible
explanation, aud the opposite constitution of comets
and nebulae pointed out as significant. It is of the
utmost importance that no fact should be distorted
in order to give a colour to a theory insecurely
based, and this I have been most careful to avoid.
One or two assertions have been made in opposition
to previously accepted opinions, which it is open to
the reader to accept or reject as he may see reason
for so doing ; but it is certain that the discussion of
these points, whichever way they may be decided
eventually, can result only in the establishment of
truth.

As one of the strongest evidences of design in
the creation must ever be that each individual part
of it has its appropriate function to perform, and
actually serves a most useful purpose, we are bound
to show that both comets and meteors either are,
or have been, of eminent service in the develop-
ment or maintenance of our own system, or else
to yield this argument to our opponents. I have
suggested certain uses for these bodies, which, so
far from contradicting any known fact of science,
may fairly be taken as in agreement with the most

advanced state of knowledge, at the same time that
I have contributed some ideas which '.indicate, as
I believe, the direction in which scientific discovery
must tend in future.

Oncell Park Observatory.

A ERESH-WATER POLYZOON.

{LopJiopus crystallina.)

THIS beautiful Polyzoon, of which I send a
sketch, was obtained from a dyke near the
paper-mills at Chartham, about three miles from
Canterbury, on July 9th, 1874.

The Lophopus is one of the largest fresh-water
Polyzoa known. When exserted they are about
^th of an inch in length, aud are found attached
to the roots of Callitriche verna, duckweeds, aud
other fibrous roots in shady dykes of slow-moving
water, under thick masses of floating plants ; for
in their habits they are light-shunning animals,
and are always on the under-side of aquatic plants.
They are [very beautiful microscopic objects, and
their being perfectly transparent renders them
most interesting animals for examination, as the
formation of their statoblast (/) can be seen in
their different stages of growth, from their first
appearance as a little swelling (at which stage
they are quite colourless) to their perfect form,
when they become detached aud fall free in the
perigastric space {I), having become gradually
coloured, the centre of a dark brown, and the
margin a rich yellow. The process of their pro-
pagation by gemmation or budding, by which
young ones are added to the existing colony of
living Polyzoa, can be plainly seen; while the
statoblasts (/) are designed to propagate the
species in the following spring, and are liberated
from the Polyzoon at its death, when the trans-
parent sac is decomposed, and the statoblast
escapes aud sinks to the bottom of the water.

The perfect transparency enables us to witness
the internal operations of their system. The
action of the stomach in the process of digestion
can be observed with great clearness. The contents
are seen at times to consist of small desmids, such
as Closterium Lunula, Havicula^andother disc-shaped
and globular bodies, together with decayed ve-
getable matter, &c. As the action of cilia on the
expanded tentacles causes a current of water to set
in towards the mouth {a, h, h), bringing with it the
food required; and if in the vortex thus formed
there should be any large aud objectionable pieces,
they are prevented from entering the mouth by a
quick lashing motion of the tentacle, which rejects
and throws them out of the reach of the vortex.
The accepted morsel passes directly into the
oesophagus (^), from thence i^to the stomach (c),
where it is digested by the up-and-down motion of

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

269

a contracting and expanding nature of that organ.
The lower part of the stomach at intervals is seen
to be contracted somewhat in the shape of an
hour-glass, in which for a moment part of the
contents of the stomach are retained, and then
again released to mix with the rest. After being
subjected to the action of the stomach for some
time, the alimentary matter is delivered by degrees
into the intestine {d), from whence it is expelled
•through the vent (o), in form of oval or egg-sliaped
pellets.

great rapidity. No doubt this motion is produced
by vibratile cilia on the interior of the body, though
not to be observable. In some of the colonies of
the LopJiopus there are a number of globular bodies
{g), varying in size from the y^Wth of an inch in
diameter up to the size of an ordinary Volvox glo-
hator. These bodies are considered to be para-
sitical, as they do not appear to have any necessary
connection with the economy of the Polyzoa in
whose interior they occur. This would appear to
be the case from the fact that in some colonies not

iTig. 177. Fresh-water Polyzoon {LnpTiojms erysfallina) : n, reg-ion of the mouth; /), oesophagus ; ^.stomach; d, intestine;
e, muscles ; /, statoblast ; g, parasitic globes ;/(,/(, mouth ; i, tentacles retracting: within cell ; k, outer transparent envelope ;
I, perigastric space ; m, lophophore; n, tentacles excised to show mouth ; 0, vent ; p, hollow globe ; r, place where division
commences ; «, cell.

The perigastric space (0 is filled with a clear
fluid, which also extends up the lophophore (ra), in
which fluid are seen floating numerous particles of
very varied forms and sizes, the smallest ascending
to the tip of the lophophore {m). By the move-
ment of those bodies it is evident that there is a
constant rotating motion in this transparent fluid,
by which these particles are kept in a perpetual
whirl from one part to the other, and at times with

one of them is to be seen, while in others they are
very numerous.

In one instance of a colony under my observation
they were increased in such numbers of all sizes
that they entirely filled the perigastric space {I)
forcing the smaller particles up even into the lopho
phore {m), and ultimately bursting the whole
colony and escaping into the water, when all motion
n them ceased, and they soon disappeared alto-

270

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

getlier. When they are few iu number, and of
various sizes in the animal, they form a novel and
pleasing sight as they are carried up and down by
the current before mentioned in the perigastric
space ; at times revolving with great rapidity on
their own axis, and at the same time round one
another. Frequently a group of five or sis may be
seen revolving together. Some of them are per-
fectly clear, others are partially covered with small
globular forms of a brighter appearance than the
globe itself. The largest of them are sometimes
marked with irregular patches of various shapes,
and as they revolve on their axes, it gives them the
appearance of a miniature world. A few show an
opening (p), by which they are seen to be empty
hollow globes, but what they really are is not
known.

On being alarmed, the Lopkopus quickly retracts
within the transparent cell (s), and again protrudes
when all is quiet, unfolding its beautiful crown of
tentacles, in the course of which movement the
action of the muscles is plainly seen (e). The
expanding of the tentacles immediately on the
protrusion of the polypide from its cell is one of
the most pleasing sights that can be presented to
the observer, as the cilia with which they are
studded are instantly in full play, passing up on one
side of the tentacle from the base to the tip, and
down the opposite side, like an endless chain,
thereby forming the vortices in the water by which
the particles of food are brought to the mouth.
Sometimes the colony consists of from six to twelve
polypides, and will divide into two colonies, com-
mencing the division at p, and slowly separating
down to the point where it is fixed to the plant,
&c., each part moving in opposite directions. They
then propagate by gemmation or budding. This
process is very interesting to watch, from the first
appearance in the parent to the issuing of the young
from the newly-formed cell. When the minute
tentacles of the young are exserted, they form a
beautiful contrast to the fully developed of their
parents. Though small, yet the same functions are
visible in relation to digestion, &c., as in the older
ones.

I would advise those lovers of natural history
who possess a microscope and live iu a neighbour-
hood where there are shady dykes or a millpool,
&c., to search for them ; when found they will am-
ply repay the trouble iu the pleasure they afford
in observing and investigating their wondei'ful
mechanism and marvellous beauty. No pencil can
portray nor pen describe them. I have had them
under observation for over three months, have seen
some of the colonies die out, and have their stato-
blasts iu glass cells, from which I anticipate the
pleasure of seeing the young Polyzoa emerge iu
due time.

Tu endeavouring to show the position of the

mouth in the sketch (k) I have left out the continu-
ous line of tentacles at n, where, to complete the
crown, they should be continued quite round ; bu t
then the mouth could not be seen, only the region
of the mouth, as shown at a. Transparent as those
creatures are, they are covered by a still more
transparent envelope (k), which escaped my obser-
vation until my attention was called to some
Forticella and Rotifer vulgaris that were attached
to something near the LopJiopus, which on closer
examination proved to be the outer envelope which
entirely covers them, with the exception of the
orifice of the cell. The Rotifers, being attached to
an almost invisible substance, become very interest-
ing objects. The muscles of LopJiopus, when the
polypide is fully exserted, are seen drawn tight, and
have the appearance of fine glass threads ; when
retracted within the cell (/), the muscles are relaxed
and bent {e).

Canterbury. James Eullagae.

THE DIADEM SPIDER.

{Epeira diadema.)

y EUWENHOEK, about the beginning of the
-" last century, jrecognized only five species of
spiders. More than two thousand years before this,
Aristotle had, in the ninth book of his zoological
work, described eight kinds — spiders, doubtless,
found in Greece, and with which the philosopher
was practically acquainted. Eighty years of the
eighteenth century had scarcely elapsed before Dr.
Berkenhout described twelve species as indigenous
to this country, first and foremost among which he
placed the Diadem Spider. Although these two or
three native spiders have now increased to several
hundreds, yet JEpeira diadema, considered histori-
cally, and economically too, perhaps is the jnost
interesting of them all.

The ancient naturalists had often watched a
spider that was wont to spread its snare from tree
to tree, to wait, motionless, for many an hour in
the centre of its web, and, when an insect was un-
fortunate enough to become entangled, to rush up
and envelop it in threads. This, one of the largest,
brightest, and commonest of the geometers, could
not have failed to attract their attention. The
Diadem Spider adorns our gardens in the autumn
with a web intricately woven, yet wonderfully simple
as a whole. It is suspended perpendicularly, or
somewhat obliquely, from plant to plant, from wall
to wall; the denizen, head downwards, occupies
the centre, or is concealed by the duplicature of a
leaf.

The question may be asked, why does the spider
invariably watch in an inverted position ? The Abbe
La Pluche has attempted to explain this ; he says,
the abdomen in any other attitude would fatigue her

HARDWICKE'S SC lEN CE-GOS S IP.

271

too much : is it uot rather that the eight eyes, so
curiously arranged, may have as large a field of
view as possible ? The food of this species is very
various, dipterous insects beiugmost commonly taken.
One sometimes sees ladybirds {Coccmella hipimctd),
bees, and hornets, iu their webs. Most books on
natural history say that, not only will a spider
object to make a meal of a hornet, but will even
assist the insect in disengaging itself. I was not
sceptical of the statement until I saw a garden
spider feeding on a hornet, and a bee, placed hors
de combat, waiting its turn. A sunny day is the
hope of the spider ; a wet one, the forlorn hope.
In the former case many a dipterous insect is on
the wing, and, incautiously flying over garden beds,
and among garden plants, too often falls a victim to
the webs of the Geometric spiders. I have known
a female of the species under notice catch no less
than six large flies and a gnat in the course of a
single day.

Fig. 17s. Diadem Spider {Epeira diadema).

This species does not wait until the prey is fairly
involved, as the house spider is said to do ; on the
contrary, they will rush out when a fly merely
buzzes close by, and, giving the web a shake tbey
dart back, and once more conceal themselves from
view.

We will suppose a large fly is caught : the active
spider is upon it in an instant, and, cruelly burying
the falces in the body of the struggling fly, waits,
with these instruments imbedded, until the insect is
dead. This, as we shall see hereafter, takes several
minutes. The spider does not ahvays begin in this
way; in fact, it is the exception, rather than the
rule. Sometimes she envelops her victim im-
mediately after the first incision, and while the
insect is still struggling; sometimes she envelops
it first and bites it afterwards ; and, finally, some-
times envelops and leaves the prey suspended with-
out attempting to inoculate the poison at all. If
the web contain no other capture, she drags the
insect to the centre, there to feed upon it at her
leisure; but if there are other insects -to dispose
of, she leaves it where it was caught. The process

of envelopment appears to be as follows : — With
the front pair of legs the spider, with marvellous
dexterity, turns the prey round and round, simul-
taneously drawing out a row of threads by means
of the fourth pair of legs ; with the latter she
rapidly sweeps them, as it were, over and over the
body of the revolving animal; in this^way the whole
body is very soon surrounded by a sort of cocoon.
After wrapping the threads round for some time,
the arachnid pauses in her work, sometimes to
inflict a bite, and, should she perceive any part not
sufficiently covered, and the animal still struggling,
to heap on more threads. When the victim is too
bulky to be revolved conveniently with the fore-
feet, the spider runs round and round, previously,
of course, having taken the precaution to press the
spinnerets against her web.

Should the fly be small, the spider seldom
troubles to spin threads round it, but, having
seized, carries it off by means of the falces, or the
mouth, to the spot where she wishes to devour it.

We will suppose", this operation, which usually
occupies a few seconds only, over. The spider now
breaks the threads surrounding the temporary
cocoon, reserving a single firm one, however, to
draw it to her salle a manger. But it is obvious
that progressive motion would pull the thread from
the spinnerets so that the prey would be left behind.
To prevent such an occurrence, the spider places
one of the feet either on the single thread or on the
body of the victim. In the case of a fly, I have seen
a spider go through some unaccountable actions ;
for instance, after dragging the insect some way
along the web, she left it dangling iu the air^
proceeded a little alone, turned round, walked up
to her prize, rolled it over and over, and once more
took it iu tow ; these performances were repeated
several times.

The captive is occasionally very troublesome and
tenacious of life. I once threw a well-known
myriapod {Geoplalus longicornis) on the web of a
Diadem Spider. The latter, notwithstanding the
long and narrow body, and innumerable lively legs
of the mould-dweller, succeeded in encompassing it
with threads, but the centipede soon freed its head
and waved it aloft as if in defiance. The spider was
not to be daunted, but made futile attempts to
thoroughly incarcerate the awkward animal, for no
sooner was one part bound down than another
became free. The same species of Geophilus was
put on the web of another individual ; this time the
spider did not attempt to carry off the centipede,
but, having wrapped it round many times, took up
her position in the centre of the web, but the ever-
moving antenna; and legs soon called her forth to
fresh exertions. The spider stood over the anima
for upwards of an hour, every now and then givii.'g
it a sharp bite ; it was a long time before the centi-
pede was dead. On another occasion a repulsive

272

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

beetle {Ocypiis olens) was flung near the centre of a
web. The occupant soon wound it round, notwith-
standing that the beetle formed tlie back into a
most awe-instilling curl, and gnashed the mandibles
until the head was bathed in the dark-brown liquid
the beetle emits on being handled.

The formidable LitJiobius forcipatus was perfectly
at fault on the web of a spider, its mandibles and
clawed feet being of no avail.

Like newts, spiders will seldom seize a motionless
animal. The following fact appeared to prove this :
The full-grown larva of a moth {Arcila menthasteri)
was thrown on a spider's web ; as the caterpillar
remained perfectly immovable, the spider descended,
and caused the load to drop below by breaking the
threads round it. The caterpillar was replaced,
this time it moved, the spider immediately wove a
cocoon round it, but the larva was very active,
struggled violently, the threads gave way, and it
was precipitated below. Spiders, in like manner,
free their webs of leaves and other objects that fall
or are blown on them. They go systematically
rouud the leaf, breaking off thread by thread by
means of a falx. In one case a leaf was cut down
with the exception of a single thread adhering to
the stalk : the spider did not trouble to break this,
nor was it necessary to do so, for it shortly fell by
its own weight. In another instance a leaf fell on
the upper surface of an oblique web, consequently
it became more and more involved according as the
spider increased her efforts to get rid of it. The
upshot of the affair was, the spider gave up, after
having demolished half the web.

E. Halse.

CARNIVOROUS PLANTS AND TBEIR
PREY.

By PiioFEssoK C V. Riley.

rpHE insect-catching powers of these curious
-*- plants, the Fly-traps {Bionact), the Sundews
{Broscrci), and the Trumpet-leaves [Sarrucenici) ,
have always attracted the attention of the curious,
but renewed interest has been awakened in them by
virtue of the interesting experiments and observa-
tions on their structure, habit, and function, that
have lately been recorded, and especially by the
summing up of these observations in some charm-
ing papers by Professor Asa Gray, which recently
appeared under the title of " Insectivorous Plants."
Through the courtesy of various friends I am able
to submit the following notes of an entomological
bearing on the Spotted Trumpet-leaf [Sarracenia
variolar in), which must henceforth rank with the
plants of the other genera mentioned as a consum-
mate insect-catcher and devourer. The leaf of Sar-
racenia is, briefly, a trumpet-shaped tube with an

arched lid, covering, more or less completely, the
mouth. The inner surface, from the mouth to about
midway down the funnel, is covered with a compact
decurved pubescence which is perfectly smooth and
velvety to the touch, especially as the finger passes
downward. Prom midway it is beset with retrorse
bristles, which gradually increase in size till within
a short distance of the bottom, where they sud-
denly cease, and the surface is smooth. There are
also similar bristles under the lid. Running up the
front of the trumpet is a broad wing with a hardened
emarginate border, parting at the top and extending

'" v^/ ■ »■ -

Fig. 179. Pitchers of Sarracenia variolaris.

around the rim of the pitcher. Along this border,
as Dr. Mcllichamp discovered, but especially for a
short distance inside the mouth, and less conspicu-
ously inside the lid, there exude drops of a sweet-
ened, viscid fluid, which, as the leaf matures, is re-
placed by a white, papery, tasteless, or but slightly
sweetened, sediment or efflorescence; while at the-
smooth bottom of the pitcher is secreted a limpid
fluid possessing toxic or inebriating qualities.

The insects which meet their death in this fluid
are numerous and of all orders. Ants are the prin-
cipal victims, and the acidulous properties which
their decomposing bodies give to the liquid doubt-
less render it all the more potent as a solvent.
Scarcely any other llymcuoptera are found in the

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

273

rotting mass, and it is an interesting fact that Dr.
Mellichamp never found the little nectar-loving bee
or other Mellifera about the plants. On one occa-
sion only have I found in the pitcher the recogniza-
ble remains of a Bombus, and on one occasion only
has he found the honey-bee captured. Species
belonging to all the other orders are captured, and
among the other species that I have most commonly

J^O

Hr

Fig. 180. Leaves of Venus Fly-trap {Dioneea muscipula).

met with, which, from the toughness of their chitin-
ous integument, resist disorganization and remain
recognizable, may be mentioned Asaphes memnonius
and Euryomia melancholica among Coleoptera, Fen-
tatonia ingeiis and Orsilochis variabilis, var. compli-
cafus, among Heteroptera; while kyatids, locusts,
crickets, cockroaches, flies, moths, and even butter-
flies, and some Arachnida and Myriapoda, in a more
or less irrecognizable condition, frequently help to
swell the unsavoury mass.

Fig. \Sl.X(ml!iopfera xemicrncea : a, egg-, enlarged, the natural
size indicated at side; i, c, larva, back and side views;
d, chrysalis ; e, moth, normal form, with wings expanded ;
/, pale variety with wings closed.

But while these insects are decoyed and macerated
in order, as we may naturally infer, to help to sup-
port the destroyer, there are, nevertheless, two
species which are proof against its siren influences,
and which, in turn, oblige it either directly or in-
directly to support them.

The first is Xanthcptera semicroccci, Guen., a little
glossy moth, which may properly be called the Sar-

racenia Moth. It is strikingly marked with grey-
bluck and straw-yellow, the colours being sharply
separated across the shoulders and the middle of the
front wings. This little moth walks with perfect
impunity over the inner surface of the pitcher, which
proves so treacherous to so many other insects. It
is frequently found in pairs within the pitchers soon
after these open, in the early part of the season, or
about the end of April. The female lays her eggs
singly, near the mouth of the pitcher, and the young
larva, from the moment of hatching, spins for itself
a carpet of silk, and very soon closes up the mouth
by drawing the rims together and covering them
with a delicate, gossamer-like web, which efl'ectually
debars all small outside intruders. It then frets
the leaf witliin, commencing under the hood and
feeding downward on the cellular tissue, leaving
only the epidermis. As it proceeds, the lower part

Fig. 182. Sarcophagn StirraceniiB : o, larva ; /;, pupa; e, fly,
the hair lines showing average natural lengths ; d, en-
larged head and first joint of larva, showing curved
hooks, lower lip {g), and prothoracic spiracle ; e, end of
body of same, showing stigmata (/) and prolegs and
vent ; /(, tarsal claws of fly with protecting pads ; i, an-
tenna of same. All enlarged.

of the pitcher above the putrescent insect collection
becomes packed with ochreous excrementitious
droppings, and by the time the worm has attained
its full size the pitcher above these droppings gene-
rally collapses. This worm when fully grown is
beautifully banded transversely with white and
purple or lake-red, which Dr. Mellichamp poetically
likens in brightness to the Tyrian dye. It is further-
more characterized by rows of tubercles, which are
especially prominent on the four larger legless joints.
It is a hall'-looper, having but six prolegs, and keeps
up, in travelling, a constant restless, waving motion
of the head and thoracic joints, recalling paralysis
acjitam. The chrysalis is formed in a very slight
cocoon, usually just above or within the packed ex-
crement. The species, kindly determined by Mr.
A. R. Grote, was many years ago figured by Abbott,
who found it feeding on Sarracenia variolaris, in
Georgia. Guenee's descriptions were made from
these figures, for which reason I append a few
descriptive notes from the living material. It feeds
alike on ^S'. variolaris and S. jlava, and there are
two broods each year ; the first brood of larva; found
during the early part of May, the second toward

274

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

the end of June, and disappearing with the dying
of the leaves, the latter part of July.

The second species is a still more invariable living
accompaniment of both kinds of Sarracenia men-
tioned. By the time the whitish efilorescence shows
around the mouth of the pitcher, the moist and
macerated insect-remains at the bottom will be
found to almost invariably contain a single whitish,
legless, grub or " gentle," about as large round as
a goose-quill, tapering to the retractile head, which
is furnished with two curved, black, sharp hooks,
truncated and concave at the posterior end of the
body.

This worm riots in the putrid insect-remains, and
when fed upon them to repletion bores through the
leaf just above the petiole and burrows into the
ground. Here it contracts to the pupa state, and
in a few days issues as a large two-winged fly, which
I have described in the Transactions of the St. Louis
Academy of Science as Sarcophaga Sarracenice, — the
Sarracenia Tlesh-fly.

The immense prolificacy of the Flesh-flies, and
the fact that the young are hatched in the ovaries
of tlie parent before they are deposited by her on
tainted meat and other decomposing or strong-
smelling substances, have long been known to en-
tomologists, as has also the rapid development of
the species. The viviparous habit among the
Muscidse is far more common than is generally sup-
posed, and I have even known it to occur with the
common house-fly, which normally lays eggs. It is
also possessed by some ffistridse, as I have shown
in treating of CEdrus ovis, the Sheep Bot-fly.

But the propensity of the larvae for killing one
another and their ability to adapt themselves to
difi'erent conditions of food-supply are not sufficiently
appreciated. I have ; long known, from exten-
sive rearing of parasitic Tachiuidse, that when, as is
often the case, a half-dozen or more eggs are
fastened to some caterpillar victim only large
enough to noiirish one to maturity, they all hatch
and commence upon their common prey, but that
the weaker eventually succumb to the strongest and
oldest one, which finds the juices of his less fortu-
nate brethren as much to his taste as those of the
victimized caterpillar. Or, again, that where the
food-supply is limited in quantity, as it often is and
must be with insects whose larva; are parasitic or
sarcophagous, such larvae have a far greater power
of adapting themselves to the conditions in which
they find themselves placed, than have herbivorous
species under like circumstances.

Both these characteristics are strongly illustrated
in Sarcophaga Sarracenia. Several larvee, and often
upwards of a dozen, are generally dropped by the
parent fly within the pitcher; yet a fratricidal
warfare is waged until usually but one matures, even
where there appears macerated food enough for
several. And if the Xanthoptera larva closes up

the mouth of the pitcher ere a sufficient supply of
insects has been captured to properly nourish it,
this Sarcophaga larva will nevertheless undergo its
transformations, though it sometimes has not
strength enough to bore its way out, and the
diminutive fly escapes from the puparium, only to
find itself a prisoner, unless deliverance comes in the
rupture or perforation of the pitcher by the Moth
larva or by other means. This rupturing of the
pitcher does not unfrequently take place, for Dr.
Mellichamp writes under date of June 27 as follows :
—"Most old leaves now examined — I might almost
say all — instead of being bored, seem ripped or torn,
as if by violence, apparently from without. You
see occasionally shreds of the leaves hanging.
Surely the legless larva of Sarcophaga cannot do
this! What then— toads, or frogs, or crawfish
abounding in these moist, pine lands ? or rather is
not the fat maggot the occasion of the visits of the
quail which lately I have observed here ? "

These two insects are the only species of any size
that can invade the death-dealing trap with impunity
while the leaf is in full vigour, and the only other
species which seem at home in the leaf are a minute
pale mite belonging apparently to Holothyrus, in the
Gamasidai, and which may quite commonly be found
crawling within the pitcher ; and a small Lepido-
pterous leaf-miner, which I have not succeeded in
rearing. There must, however, be a fifih species,
which effectually braves the dangers of the bottom
of the pit, for the pupa of Sarcophaga is sometimes-
crowded with a little chalcid parasite, the parent of
which must have sought her victim while it was
rioting there, as a larva.

But all other insects, so far as we know, tumble
into the tube and there meet their death. The moth
is doubtless assisted in walking within the tube by
the spurs on the legs which it, in common with
most other moths, possesses ; while the Flesh-fly
manages to hold its own by its widely extended legs
and stout bristles. Dr. Mellichamp says that when
disturbed it buzzes violently about, just as if an
animated sheep-bur had fallen into the tube— not
apt to go down, because it will hitch and stick, and
finally, by main force, it generally emerges, but, once
in a while, also succumbs.

Two questions very naturally present themselves
here :— (1) What gives the Flesh-fly more secure
foothold on the slippery pubescence than the common,
house-fly exhibits ? (2) What enables the larva of
the Flesh-fly to withstand the solvent property of
the fluid which destroys so many other insects? I
can only ofl'er, in answer, the following suggestions :
the last joint of the tarsus of the common house-fly
has two movable, sharp-pointed claws, and a pair
of pads or " pulvilli." These pads were formerly-
supposed to operate as suckers, and all sorts of
sensational accounts of this wonderful sucker have
been given by popular writers, who forget that

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

275

there are auy number of minute insects having no
such tarsal apparatus, which are equallj' indifferent
to the laws of gravitation so far as walking on
smooth, upright surfaces, or on the ceiling, is con-
'Cerned. In reality, these pads are thickly beset on
the lower surface with short hairs, most of which
terminate in a minute expansion kept continually
moist by an exuding fluid— a sort of perspiration.
Take the human hand, moistened by perspiration or
other means, and draw it, with slight pressure, first
over a piece of glass or other highly-polished surface,
and then over something that has a rougher surface,
such as a planed board, a papered wall, or a velvety
fabric, and you will experience much greater ad-
hesion to the smoother objects, and may understand
the important part which these moist pads play in
the locomotion of the fly ; they also act, in part,
like the cushions of a cat's paw in protecting and
preventing abrasion of the claws, which are very
useful on the rougher surfaces, where the pads are
less serviceable.

Now, compared with JIusca domestica, the claws
of Sarcopliaga Sarracenice are much the longest and
strongest, and the pads much the largest, presenting
three or four times the surface. These differences
are, I think, sufficient to explain the fact that while
the common fly walks with slippery and unsteady
gait on the smooth pubescence (the retrorse nature
of this pubescence sufficiently explaining the down-
ward tendency of the movements), its sarcophagous
wngener manages to get a more secure footing ;
for not only does the latter present a larger adhesive
surface, but the longer claws are more likely to
reach beyond the pubescence and the bristles, and
fasten to the cellular tissue of the leaf beyond. j

In answer to the second question, I can only say
that there is nothing exceptional in the power of the
larva to withstand the solvent quality of the fluid ;
it is, on the contrary, in accordance with the facts
known of many species of Muscidai and OEstridse,
some of which, like the well-known horse-bot, revel
in a bath of chyme, while others are at ease in the
intestinal heat of other warm-blooded animals. It
is also well known that they i,will often live for
hours in strong liquids, such as alcohol and turpen-
tine.

To one accustomed to seek the why and where-
fore of things, the inquiry very naturally arises as to
whether Xauthoptera and Sarcophaga play any
necessary or important role in the economy of Sar-
racenia. Speaking of the Sarcophaga larvag, Mr.
Eaveuel asks, " May it not do some service to Sar-
racenia, as Pronuba does to Yucca ? " And if so,
may not all this structure for the destruction of
insects be primarily for his benefit ? Can he be
merely an intruder, sharing the store of provision
which the plant, by ingenious contrivance, has
secured for itself, or is he a welcome inmate and
profitable tenant ? Self-fertilization does not take

place in Sarracenia, and the possibility that the
bristly Elesh-fly aids in the important act of pollina-
tion lends interest to the facts. No one has wit-
nessed with greater pleasure than myself the unpulse
which Darwin has of late years given to such in-
quiries ; but we should be cautious lest the specula-
tive spirit impair our judgment or cur ability to
read the simple lesson of the facts. My own con-
clusions summed up are : —

1. There is no reason to doubt, but every reason
to believe, since the observations of Dr. Mellichamp,
that Sarracenia is a truly insectivorous plant, and
that by its secretions and structure it is eminently
fitted to capture its prey.

2. That those insects most easily digested (if I
may use the term) and most useful to the plant are
principally ants and small flies, which are lured to
their graves by the honeyed paths ; and that most of
the larger insects, which are not attracted by sweets,
get in by accident and fall victims to the peculiar
mechanical structure of the pitcher.

3. That the only benefit to the plant is from the
liquid manure resulting from the putrescent captured
insects.

[Mr. Ravenel, in making a transverse section near
the base of the young leaf, noticed large tubular
cells passing down through tho petiole into the
root, and much of the liquid manure may possibly
pass through these into the root-stalk.]

4. That Sarcophaga is a mere intruder, the larva
sponging on and sharing the food obtained by the
plant, and the fly attracted thither by the strong
odour, as it is to all putrescent animal matter or to
other plants, like Stapelia variegata, which give
forth a similar odour. Tliere is nothing to prove
that it has anything to do with pollination, and the
only insect that Dr. Mellichamp has observed about
the flowers with any frequency, is a Cetoniid beetle,
the Euryomia melanclwlica.

5. That Xauthoptera has no other connection with
the plant than that of a destroyer, though its greatest
injury is done after the leaf has performed its most
important functions. Almost every plant has its
peculiar insect enemy, and Sarracenia, with all its
dangers to insect-life generally, is no exception to
the rule.

6. That neither the moth nor the fly has any
structure peculiar to it, that enables it to brave
the dangers of the plant, beyond what many other
allied species possess.

MICROSCOPY.

New Diatoms. — A new genus and several new
species of diatoms have been figured and described
by Mr. P. Kitton, of Norwich, in the November part
of the Monthly Microscopical Journal. The more
remarkable forms were found in a gathering made

276

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

by Captain Perry, of Liverpool. The following are
the forms described : — Pemja, n. g., forms some-
what resembling Nitzscliia;, but are distinguished
from that genus by the absence of the more or
less marginal keel. The species figured (P. pul-
cliernma) resembles an Indian canoe, the scales of
which are much compressed and marked with dis-
tant transverse moniliform lines not reaching the
edge ; between these lines are transverse series of
fine moniliform strife. It sometimes exceeds one-
fiftieth of an inch ni length. Nitzschia rjrandis, n. s.
This is probably one of the most beautiful of the
genus. The valve is linear, broad, suddenly taper-
ing towards the incurved apices ; keel sub-central,
costate, punctate between the costse; remainder
of valve marked with transverse moniliform
stria;. Length from -0100" to -OSOO". The
most magnificent form detected in this gather-
ing was a seven-angled Triceratinm witli large
hexagonal cells ; the internal surface of valve
marked with conspicuous radiating puncta. From
observations on broken valves, the author con-
siders that the valve has a thin siliceous plate
attached to its inner surface (a very early state of a
new valve), upon which occur the radiating puncta,
seen when the lower surface of the valve is in focus.
Mr. Kitton has named the form Tricemtmn Faviis,
var. sept-angulatum. A new species of Surirella
was found in a deposit from New Zealand, which
the discoverer thus describes : Surirella contorta, n.s.
Valve elliptically or slightly ovate, canaliculi fine,
numerous ; alse inconspicuous, narrow median eleva-
tion terminating in short spines ; surface of valve
obscurely striate ; valve in front view contorted.

QuEKETT Microscopical Club.— The October
number of the Journal of this celebrated club has
just been published, and as usual contains several
very useful and excellent papers. The most note-
worthy are two of a series by Dr. Braithwaitc, on
the " Histology of Plants," and one by E. T. New-
ton, E.G.S., of the Jermyn-street Museum, on the

"Preparation of Microscopic Sections of Soft
Tissues." There are also papers on " How to make
Thin Cover Glass," by G. J. Burch ; on a "Ealse
Light-excluder" for objectives, by J. E. Ingpen,
Hon. Sec. ; on the " Development of Hydra
vulgaris" by James FuUagar ; and a paper on a

" New Perm of Section-cutting Machine for the
Microscope," by Dr. Hoggau.

The Derbyshire Microscopical Society. — The
Monthly Meeting of this Society, which now at the
close of the second year of its existence, numbers about
forty members, was held in Derby on Thursday even-
ing, their)th ult., the Rev. J. M. Mello, M.A.,P.G.S.,
President of the Society, in the chair. The Presi-
dent read a paper on " Microscopical Geology," in
which he called attention to the great importance

to the geologist, as well as the mineralogist and
petrologist, of an intelligent use of the microscope
in their investigations. It was shown that by its
means, in conjunction with thepolariscope,itwas pos-
sible to discriminate between the various minerals
which enter into the composition of rocks, even
when these minerals take the most minute forms, but
that it was possible also to arrive at tolerably clear
notions regarding the history of the formations of
the rock, and of the individual crystals when pre-
sent, of which it is composed. It was also shown
how much service the microscope rendered in the
investigation of the minuter organisms in rocks,
many of which were undiscoverable by the naked
eye. In a similar way small fragments of a bone,
or of a tooth, might be found sufficient to enable
the skilled observer to trace its affinities, just as an
examination of coal by the microscope had been the
means of throwing a large amount of light upon the
nature of the plant-life of bygone ages. In the
course of the paper the microscopical characteris-
tics of the minerals most commonly met with in the
igneous rocks were pointed out, and the whole sub-
ject was illustrated by diagrams and by a very ex-
tensive display of rock and mineral sections under
the microscopes of some of the members present.

Re Society's " Universal Screw." — Mr,
GuimaraenSjOr any one in doubt as to the accuracy
of the so-called Universal Screw, of either object-
glass or microscope nosepiece, has but to apply to
Mr. Reeves, at the Royal Microscopical Society's
rooms, and he, with his usual courtesy, will test it
with the screw gauges deposited with the Society,
which gauges are not likely to have altered from
use, as are those of the optician, although in the
latter case there is still the formula for their re-
adjustment.

ZOOLOGY.

A Variety op Land-shell New to Britain. —
I have been fortunate enough during the last few
months to find a new and distinct variety of Clausilia
rngosa, the peculiar characteristics of which were
first noticed by G. SherriffTye, Esq., of Handsworth,
and which has since been kindly determined for me
by J. Gwyn Jeffreys, Esq., E.R.S. I send a de-
scription of them, as also the remarks made upon
this new and rare variety by the same eminent
authority, who has kindly favoured me with his
opinion respecting them. He considers it to be the
variety Schlechtii, of Zelebor, whose description of
it is published in the monograph of Adolf Schmidt,
entitled "Die Kritischen Grappen der Europiieschen
Clausilien," lSo7, page 40. " Claus. dubia Dra-
parnaud g. var. Schlechtii. Zelebor, gracilis^
cerasiora, nUidula, striafula, rarc-strigillata, carina

HARDWICKfi'S SCIENCE. GOSSIP.

277

valida. Long. J 2 diam., 2i-2i millim., Ap. 2 J- millim.
longa, 13 lata, fag. 91, 95, 198." Mr. Jeffreys
further remarks, " I believe this is the same variety
which Pareyss of Vienna has named eximia, but that
name has not been published," adding, " the inter-
mediate gradations between Claasilla riigosa and its
var, dubia, are very numerous." The new variety
referred to is apparently confined to one or two
spots in the counties of Northumberland and
Durham, the best specimens being found in the
latter county, in a particular locality, not very far
from the coast ; they are generally larger, more
elongated, smoother, and more transparent than
Clniisilia rugosa, var. dubia, the colour likewise
different whereas the latter attains occasionally a
fine purple colour, and runs generally through the
usual shades of brown to purplish-brown, the
former appears only in a pale brown form, frequently
resembling in external appearance ClaiisUia lamiiiata,
both in smoothness and in transparency.— W. F.,
Sutton.

How THE Puffin Ascends to its Nest. — In
the November number of Science-Gossip there
appears an extract from the Zoologist, under the
above heading, by Mr. H. M. Wallis. As this
extract appears to me to be erroneous, and likely to
mislead, I shall endeavour, with all respect to Mr.
Wallis, to point out the fallacy. In the first place
the proper and only answer to the question " How
does the pufiin ascend to its nest ? " is the simplest
one that can be given ; viz., it flies there. I have
frequently observed puffins flying, and all the books
to which I have referred speak of the bird as a
"good flyer." Besides, bad flyers have their choice
to build in rabbit-warrens. If the question were
asked about the Great Auk or the Penguins, it
might be more desirable to have an answer as to
the modus operandi, for these birds have only
flappers, or we might say " feathered fins," and yet
build on high rocks. The paragraph in question
goes on to say, " The bird rose from the water some
way from the shore, flying so as barely to clear the
tops of the waves until within fifty yards from the
cliff, when it appeared to depress its tail, which was
fully spread, and by extending its webbed feet on
either side to nearly double the surface of resistance,
its course was changed, and the bird rose without
any apparent difficulty to its nest." If this theory
is correct, the Puffin forms a little law of nature for
itself. The depressed tail and feet spread out would
just exactly send the puffin down towards the water,
instead oinp towards the nest. The tail of a bird
is analogous to the rudder of a ship. The tail being
depressed, impedes the lower side of the bird, and
the bird would turn head downwards, whereas rais-
ing the tail would impede the upper part of the
bird's body and the bird would turn upwards. Place
a large stone under one wheel of a cart when in

motion, and the cart will be turned towards the
impediment. The same with a boat ; the rudder
impedes one side and the boat turns in the direction
of the impeded side ; the same with a bird. Now
we see by practice that this is correct, if we observe
a pigeon alighting on a road, as it swoops down it
spreads out its tail and turns it up. The body
immediately balances backwards, i.e., the head
turns up and the pigeon alights. The same effect
can be seen in the poising of a hawk, or the gyra-
tions of sea-gulls on our tidal rivers. I can perfectly
easily account for the error into which Mr. Wallis
has fallen. It appeared to depress its tail, i.e. from
his point of view ; as the bird sailed upwards
the tail appeared lower. He considered the depres-
sion of the tail the cause of the rising of the bird.
He should have taken the rising of the bird as the
reason of the apparent depression. I believe the
action of the feet described to be quite accurate, and
1 hope your correspondents will excuse any errors
they may discover in either the length or style of
this correction.— C C. Russell, Neiotownards, co-
Down.

Papilio Machaon.— In reply to "II. A. K.,"
who asks whether it is not curious to find this
butterfly miles away from any fen— on the Lion
Mound at Waterloo,— I reply that it by no means
confines itself to such localities on the Continent.
At Freiburg, in Baden, I found a clover-field so full
of this sp(;cies that there were one, if not two, for
every stalk of clover. They were all settled ; and
so intent upon sucking the iioney of the flowers
that ihey hardly flew away when disturbed.
Wherever I have travelled on the Continent 1 have
found this insect, and its congener P. podalirius.
In my opinion, no continental specimens come up
to the genuine fen ones of England in beauty. The
depth of the black transverse band on the fore-
wings is not so strikingly delineated, and we may
almost call those specimens, which justly stand at
the head of our native collections of Lepidoptera,
typical varieties of the European species. There
is as much difference between them as between the
fen C. dispar and the C. hippolhai of the Pontine
Marshes, near Home.—/. C. M.

The Late Dk. Lankesteu, F.Pl.S.— It is our
sad duty to record the death of another distinguished
scientific man. Dr. Lankesier, E.R.S., was one of
those few men who, in addition to holding a high
position in his own profession, was also distinguished
for original research, and still more so as one of
our ablest and most eloquent popularizers of science.
His works are widely known and read, and every-
where highly appreciated. Tliose who personally
knew him will sadly miss his genial and hopeful
presence, and his outspoken and concise expression
of opinion on scientific subjects. He died in his

278

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

sixty-first year. To the unscientific public he was
perhaps better known as the energetic coroner for
Central Middlesex.

BOTANY.

SoLANTJM GBANDIFLOKUM.— The plant spoken
of in your journal by "T. B. W., Brighton," as
Solanum grandijlorum or dentatum, is, I have no
doubt, the Solanum crispum of Buiz et Pao. It is
a native of Chili, but is quite hardy in this country,
and well worth a place in all ornamental gardens
and shrubberies. The stem is'woody and flexuous,
growing twelve or more feet high, but requires
some support, as a wall, stake, or, where I have
seen it in great perfection, clinging round the stem
and branches of a deciduous growing tree. The
flowers are pale lavender.iu large corymbs of great
beauty ; when crushed they give off a disagreeable
perfume, and the whole plant is intensely bitter. —
/. 8. T.

Skikeet {Slum Slsaruvi). — The skirret is one
of those plants which are now neglected, because we
have become acquainted with others more pleasant
to the taste and more profitable in their culture. It
belongs to the same class as the carrot and parsnip,
but differs from tliose roots in being perennial. It
is a native of China, and was introduced before
1548. Worlidge, a writer in the latter end of the
seventeenth century, described it as the sweetest,
whitest, and most wholesome of roots. The root
consists of a cluster of fleshy tubers, which are
connected together at the crown or head ; eacli
separate tuber is about the thickness of the little
finger. They grow very uneven, and are covered
with a whitish rough bark, while a hard core or
pith runs through the centre. According to
Loudon, it was cultivated in the north of Scotland
under the name of Crummock. It is grown on the
Continent, and much used in French cookery. In
China it is reputed to possess peculiar medicinal
virtues. Sir James Smith observes that the Chinese
have long been in the habit of sending this root to
Japan as the true Ginseng of Tartarj', or Fanax
quinquefolla of Linnaeus, a plant possessing very
different properties. (See "Penny Ency.") The
skii-ret abounds in saccharine matter, and a fine
white sugar, little inferior to that of cane, has been
extracted from \i.— Hampden G. Glasspoole.

Wakvvicksiiire Plants.— An exhaustive and
cleverly drawn-up catalogue of the plants collected
in Warwickshire in 1873 has just been 'published
by the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaio-
logical Society. The catalogue has been com])iled
chiefly by Dr. R. Baker and the Bev. T. R. Young,
both of them well-known botanists. The " Loudon
Catalogue " has been followed, and it would be well

if all local lists copied this example. The hope is
expressed by the authors, in which we fully concur,
that the present catalogue may form the ground-
work of a county Flora a few years hence.

"Tea Plant."— There is a plant here which is
this year covered with scarlet berries. I have seen
many plants in. this neighbourhood, but never before
noticed the berries. These could hardly have
escaped attention, as they are very conspicuous, in
consequence of the plant being almost destitute of
leaves at this season. The one referred to above is
trained up the front of a house facing the south. —
G. Hardy, Liverpool.

GEOLOGY.

A SUBMAKINE EOBEST IN THE OUWELL.— Mr-

J. E. Taylor, E.G.S., &c., has made a communica-
tion respecting an extensive submarine forest under-
lying the mud-banks of the estuary of the Orwell,
near Ipswich. The bed of the channel was recently
deepened, and a stratum of peat passed through to
the thickness of five feet. The latter was full of
beautiful impressions of leaves, fruits, &c., and
trunks and branches of beech, oak, fir, &c. Several
fine 'molar teeth of the Mammoth {Elephas primi-
genius) were obtained from the same bed, in which
were found layers of freshwater shells. At pre-
sent all the mollusca in the Orwell are marine. Mr.
Taylor considers this forest as coeval with several
other submarine forests which fringe our coasts, and
which probably grew before the last depression that
separated England from the Continent.

The Comparative Microscopic Bock-struc-
ture OF SOME Ancient anb Modern Volcanic
Rocks.— At the last meeting of the Geological
Society, a paper on the above subject was read by
J. Clifton Ward, Esq., F.G.S. The author stated
at the outset that his object was to compare the
microscopic rock-structure of several groups of
volcanic rocks, and in so doing to gain light, if
possible, upon the original structure of some of the
oldest members of that series. The first part of
the paper comprised an abstract of what had been,
previously done in this subject. The second part
gave details of the microscopic structure of some
few modern lavas, such as the Solfatara Trachyte,
the Vesuvian lava- flows of 1G31 and 1701, and a
lava of the Albau Mount, near Borne. In the
trachyte of the Solfatara acicular crystals of felspar
show a well-marked flow around the larger and first-
formed crystals. In the Vesuvian and Albanian
lavas leucite seems, in part at any rate, to take the
place of the felspar of other lavas ; and the majority
of the leucite crystals seem to be somewhat imper-
fectly formed, as is the case with the small felspar

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

279

prisms of the Solfatara rock. The order of crystal-
lization of the componeut minerals was shown to
be the following : — magnetite, felspar in large or
small distinct crystals, augite, felspathic or leucitic
solvent. Some of the first-formed crystals were
broken and rendered imperfect before the viscid
state of igneous fusion ceased. Even in such
modern lava-flows as that of the Solfatara consider-
able changes had taken place by alteration and the
replacement of one mineral by another, and is very
generally in successive layers corresponding to the
crystal outlines. The frequent circular arrange-
ment of the glass and stone-cavities near the cir-
cumference of the minute leucite crystals in the
lava of 1631 was thought to point to the fact
that after the other minerals had separated from the
leucitic solvent, the latter began to crystallize at
numerous adjacent points; and as these points
approached one another, solidification proceeded
more rapidly, and these cavities were more
generally imprisoned than at the earlier stages
of crystallization. In the example of the lava
of 1794, where the leucite crystals were further
apart, this peculiar arrangement of cavities was
almost unknown. The third part of the paper dealt
with the lavas and ashes of North Wales ; and the
author thought that the following points were
established: — 1. Specimens of lava from the Aran.s, the
Arenigs, and Snowdon audits neighbourhood, all Jiave
the same microscopic structure. 2. This structure
presents a hazy or niilky-lookiug base, with scattered
particles of alight-green dichroic mineral (chlorite)^
and generally some porphyrilically imbedded felspar
crystals or fragments of such, both orthoclase and
plagioclase. In polarized light, on crossing the
Nicols, the base breaks up into an irregular-coloured
breccia, the colours changing to their complemen-
taries on rotating either of the prisms. 3. Einely-
bedded ash, when JiigJdy altered, is in some cases
undistinguishable in microscopic structure from
undoubted felstone. 4. Ash of a coarser natures
when highly altered, is also very frequently not to
be distinguished from felstone, though now and
then the outlines of some of the fragments will
reveal its true nature. 5. The fragments which
make up the coarser ash-rocks seem generally to
consist of felstone, containing both orthoclase
and plagioclase crystals or fragments ; but
occasionally there occur pieces of a more crystal-
line nature, with minute acicnlar prisms and pla-
gioclase i'elspar. G. In many cases the only tests
that can be applied to distinguish between highly-
altered ash-rock and a felstone are the presence of
a bedded or fragmentary appearance on weathered
surfaces, and the gradual passage into less- altered
and unmistakable ash. In the fourth division of
his paper the author described some of the lavas
and ashes of Cumberland of Lower Silurian age.
With regard to these ancient lavas, the following

was given as a general definition : — The rock is
generally of some shade of blue or dark green,
generally weathering white round the edges, but to
a very slight depth. It frequently assumes a tabular
structure, the tabulai being often curved, and breaks
with a sharp conchoidal and flinty fracture. Silica
59-61 per cent. Matrix generally crystalline, con-
taining crystals of labradorite or oligoclase and
orthoclase, porphyritically imbedded, round which
the small crystalline needles seem frequently to have
flowed ; magnetite generally abundant, and augite
tolerably so, though usually changed into a soft dark-
green mineral ; apatite and perhaps olivine as
occasional constituents. Occasionally the crystalline
base is partly obscured and a felsitic structure takes
its place. The Cumberland lavas were shown to
resemble the Solfatara greystone in the frequent
flow of the crystalline base, and the modern lavas
generally in the order in which the various minerals
crystallized out. In external structure they have,
for the most part, much more of a felsitic than a
basaltic appearance. In internal structure they
have considerable analogies with the basalts. In
chemical composition they are neither true basalts
nor true felstones. In petrological structure they
have much the general character of the modern
Vesuvian lavas; the separate flows being usually
of no great thickness, being slaggy, vesicular, or
brecciated at top and bottom, and having often a
considerable range, as if they had flowed in some
cases for several miles from their point of eruption.
Their general microscopic appearance is also very
different from thtit of such old basalts as those of
South Staflbrd and some of those of Carboniferous
age in Scotland. On the whole, while believing
that in some cases the lavas in question were true
basalts, the author was incliued to regard most of
them as occupying an intermediate place between
felsitic and doleritic lavas ; and as the felstone lavas
were once probably trachytes, these old Cumbrian
rocks might perhaps be called Eelsidolerites,
answering in position to the modern Trachy-
dolerites. A detailed examination of Cumbrian
ash-rocks had convinced the author that in many
cases most intense metamorphism had taken place,
that the finer ashy material had been partially
melted down, and a kind of streaky flow caused
around the larger fragments. There was every
transition from an ash-rock in which a bedded or
fragmentary structure was clearly visible, to an
exceedingly close and flinty felstone-hke rock,
undistinguishable in hand specimens I'rom a true
contemporaneous trap. Such altered rocks were,
however, quite distinct in microscopic structure
from the undoubted lava-flows of the same district,
and often distinct also from the Welsh felstones,
although some were almost identical microscopically
with the highly altered ashes of AYales, and together
with them resembled the felstone lavas of the same

280

HARDWICKE'S S CIE N CE-GOS SIP.

country. This metamorpliism among the Cumbrian
rocks increases in amouutastiie great granitic centres
are approached ; and it was believed by the author
that it took place mainly at the commencement of
the Old Red period, when the rocks in question
must have been buried many thousands of feet deep
beneath the Upper Silurian strata, and when
probably the Eskdale granite was formed, perhaps
partly by tlie extreme metamorpliism of the volcanic
series during upheaval and contortion. The author
stated his belief that the Cumbrian volcanoes were
mainly subaerial, since some 12,000 feet of ash and
lava-beds had been accumulated without any
admixture of ordinary sedimentary material, except
quite at the base, containing scarcely any con-
glomeratic beds, and destitute of fossils. He
believed also that one of the chief volcanic centres
of the district had been the present site of Keswick,
the low craggy hill called Castle Head representing
the denuded stump or plug of an old volcano. The
author believed that one other truth of no slight
importance might be gathered from these investiga-
tions, viz., that neither the careful inspection of
hand-specimens, nor the microscopic examination of
thin slices, would in all cases enable truthful results
to be arrived at, in discriminating between trap and
altered ash-rocks ; but these methods and that of
chemical analysis must be accompanied' by often-
times a laborious and detailed survey of the rocks
in the open country, the various beds being traced
out one by one and their weathered surfaces par-
ticularly noticed.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Swarming of Bees.— A friend of mine relates a
purious incident in relation to a swarm of bees.
The queen bee having settled in a crack in the wall
of the house, the whole hive turned out to seek
her. They swarmed all around the hole wherein
the queen had taken up her abode, and not content
with the outside of the house a large number of
them came in at the open window of the room
above. When at night-time the bees had gone into
their usual torpid state, they were swept into a pan
and destroyed. The affinity of bees for the queen
is well known. Here is anolher instance which
proved to our complete satisfaction that the crea-
tures would prefer to starve and die rather than
forsake their sovereign. — W. S. Palmer.

A Cat. — Was it Reason or Instinct?— On
the 19th of last month a stray black cat was found
to have brought forth four kittens, all of which
were black. They could only have been a few
days old when found, as they were quite blind.
Wanting a cat at the time, we thought, this a good
opportunity to secure one : so we drowned three
and left one. The next diiy, to all appearance, the
kitten was found lying dead on the floor under the
shelf on which stood the box the mother had used
for a bed. Two or three days afterwards one of
the servants came in to say the cat had got another

kitten from somewhere, and that it could see. On
going to look at it, it was found to have moved
into an outhouse on the_ other side of the garden,
and had got the kitten in an old coal -shoot on a
shelf about five feet from the ground; and in-
quiring into the matter it was found that the boy
had thrown the three dead kittens into the dust-
bin, and I think there is no doubt the old cat had
brought the dead one fi'om thence, and had left it
where it was found, and had moved the living one
to its new abode. _ If this was not done by design,
what could have induced her to move only one of
the three dead ones ? It seems to me that it was
something more than what we are pleased to call
instinct. It looks very much as if she had been
actuated by past experiences, and had thought this
the best method to preserve the remaining one. —
/. B. B., Norwich.

Deiopeia pulchella (cPvnisoN speckled). —
It may be interesting to some of the readers of
Science-Gossip to hear that I have been fortunate
enough to tiike a specimen of this insect at Dover,
Kent. — L. B. Vujers.

Wasp Duel. — A young lady friend witnessed the
following occurrence, and I should be glad if any of
our readers could explain it. The other day two
wasps were observed furiously fighting ; they were
rolling over each other on a flight of steps, buzzing
all the while in a very angry manner. Presently
one gained the victory, and having killed his anta-
gonist, proceeded to dismember him. He bit off a
le? or two, and flew away with the abdomen ; after
about a quarter of an hour he returned, carried the
thorax to a leaf close by, and biting off the remain-
ing legs, wings, and head, flew triumphantly off
with it. — A. C. Hacldoii.

Gossamer.— I have had an opportunity of witness-
ing the almost unaccountable extent and compara-
tive density of a shower of this substance. The
singular appearance it presented caused much ad-
miration ; it corresponded generally with the vivid
description given by Mr. White, in his Natural
History of Selborne, with respect to the very similar
appearance which he beheld in September, 1711.
I was called into the garden on the 26th September,
at Tedworth, on the borders of Hants and Wilts,
purposely to see the " fallin": shower of cobwebs."
The day was such as Mr. White describes, cloudless
and calm, and the time, early in the morning.
Around, and in every direction, from the higher
regions of the atmosphere, were falling flossy flakes
and long threads, surpassingly gracefully. They
were almost as buoyant as the air ; hence the long
threads slowly assumed curls and waving undula-
tions, and their tufts of snowy cottony appearance
sparkled and glistened in the sunshine like so many
stars. Illustrative of this buoyancy, I may mention
that one long web, which in particular I tried to
secure, and even did touch, rose slowly again into
the air and passed over the house. There was no
manifestation of the presence of a spider, and we
felt almost incredulous that the astonishing number
could have been produced as suggested. The more
intently one looked, so much the more the number
of {lie webs and the films seemed to increase. Later
in the day I had a drive to Andover, which is ten
miles distant, and I observed that the hedge-rows
by the roadside were thickly covered the whole way,
and I have heard from a brother, who journeyed on
the SI! me day to Town, from a western part of Wilts,

HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCJE-GO SSIP.

2S1

that be noticed the festoons clinging to the
telegraph wires of the Great Western Railway until
close to London. — Martha Cape.

New Zealand Porests. — When I went to
Canterbury, New Zealand, in 1852, the settlers were
very desirous of rearing about their homesteads some
of the beautiful trees and shrubs that composed the
native forest. But all attempts at making plant-
ations of those indigenous trees, with the exception
of a few small shrubs, either by transplanting or by
sowing the seed, were unsuccessful, so much so,
that if people were seen carrying home young trees
out of the forest, with the view of planting them
about their land or the open plains, they were
immediately recognized as having recently arrived.
When the timber was cleared, the ground used to
get covered with a kind of thicket, the least common
of the multitudinous flora of the forest. Now the
eucalyptus, the oak, elm, and pretty well all English
fruit and forest trees, gave promise when I left in
1862, of paying for cultivation. I wish to ascertain
from any of your readers who may have recently
arrived from the province, whether, as seemed to be
foreshadowed then, the New Zealand forest trees
are approaching the end of the period allotted to
their existence ? — Kaiapoi.

Anatomy of a Caterpillar. — Permit me to
call your attention to the parallelisms contained in
W. Tylar's account of the " A natomy of a Cater-
pillar," as compared with the description at page 74
of Wood's " Common Objects of the Country." It
will not be necessary I think for me to quote the
passages or to point out the similarity of the
annexed drawing ; a reference will suilice to show
the truth of my remarks. The only statement for
which I cannot (ind a foundation in the little volume
quoted, is that which asserts that the eyes of
caterpillars are compound ; with reference to which
I will only observe that all those I have had an
opportunity of examining are simple {ocelli). — A.
Hammond.

The Bridgeman Triple Lantern. — This
interesting instrument is, as its name denotes, three
lanterns in one body. By an ingenious arrangement
it can be converted into a double lantern, which the
operator can use while his assistant is preparing
the one already removed for phantasmagoria effects.
What is more to the purpose, he can be fitting to this
either the Oxy-hydrogen Microscope, Polariscope,
or the Spectrum Analysis apparatus, which, requir-
ing some little time to adjust, can be done without
any tedious delay on the part of the exhibitor ; the
single lantern is not required to be placed upon
the other lanterns tor this purpose, but is equally
well adapted to work quite distinct from the bi-
unial part of the arrangement. One great advan-
tage is that this lantern has a very wide margin of
focal power. The exhibitor can show within 10 ft.
of the screen, or at any other distance he chooses
up to 70 ft., the several sets of lenses being fitted
into telescopic fronts. The supply of the gases to
the lanterns is regulated to a very fine degree, by
an ingenious arrangement called the "Universal
Dissolver," which answers its purpose most admir-
ably, for it is no slight task to regulate the gas-
supply of three lanterns, all working at the same
time : but by this dissolver, after once starting, all
anxiety may be removed, as by tlie movement of two
single levers the whole of the lighting arrangement
of the three lanterns is entirely under command.

Ancient Trees. — So many notices of the old
trees of different parts of England have already
appeared in the recent numbers of Science-Gossip,
that 1 feel it invests those in my own immediate
neighbourhood with a greater amount of interest
than I have before felt in them. Of these the
examples I shall select are most worthy of notice
to a general public. The upper waters of the
Itchin beautify and fertilize a portion of Hampshire,
which (without any of the more striking features
of the many popular resorts of the south of Eng-
land) is well worth visiting for the general and
almost universal beauty it presents. The soil is
principally chalk, and nourishes almost every kind
of tree known to England, and this, too, without
undue favour to any one species. The only tree
that is uncommon is the Poplar, while to make up
for its scarcity, the Aspen, with its beautiful bough-
forms, lends an attraction to the scenery. Of old
trees the most noticeable is the Gospel Oak (I should
like to know how many gospel oaks there are in
England) in the parish of Cheriton. In the north-
western portion of this parish, and near the boun-
dary of the parish of Oviugtou, stand the remains
of a venerable tree, which is mentioned as a known
and ancient boundary in an old manuscript without
date in the muniments of the bishopric of Win-
chester. And again, in a survey taken about the
year 1560, and is stated to be so called because " a
gospel was wont to be said there in the perambula-
tion week between the lordships of Cheriton and
Ovington." Of course the rustics say it is th^
place where the Gospel was first preached in the
neighbourhood, before any church existed. It is
computed to be at least five centuries old. At
Chilton Condover is a fine avenue of old yews,
perhaps not old enough for the antiquary, but cer-
tainly of great age. This avenue stretches from
the open downs to a small park-like inclosure, with
a few old yews in it, and some obscure foundations
to mark the site of Chilton Old House. Placed on
the northern slope of a bleak hill, and with a sheer
chalk soil, no tree but the Yew would thrive, and
perhaps we should hardly look for so large a size
in such a position as the richer ground of a church-
yard or cultivated field would produce. In the
churchyard at Itchin Abbas is, or was, an old yew-
tree of great age and enormous size. To conclude,
at the mouth of the Itchin is a church called Jesus
Chapel, but more often known as Pear-tree Church,
from an old pear-tree near it. The age of this tree
is not known, but two hundred years ago it gave its
name, as now, to the green on which it stood. —
T. IF. G., Alresfonl.

Green Caterpillars. — If "P. E." will watch
his currant and gooseberry-bushes very closely next
spring, while the leaves are still very young, he will
see some of them pierced all over with tiny holes.
This is done by the young caterpillars just hatched,
and beginning their ravages on the under side of
the leaf. I first observed this many years ago. I
then destroyed every leaf so pierced, and till about
three years ago, when I suppose a fresh importation
came in, we have never seen a caterpillar on either
currant or gooseberry-tree since. — M.J. Livett.

Green Caterpillars.— In answer to F. R.'s in-
quiry (SciENCE-GossiP,p.lS9) as to the best method
of exterminating the green caterpillar, which for the
last few years has so grievously mfesied the goose-
berry-trees, from personal experience and obser-
vation, may I be allowed to say that, in the first

282

HAHDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

place, to pick off every caterpillar as it appears and
destroy it, is the best means both of saving the
leaves and the fruit ; and as a preventive of
future mischief to paint the bark of the trees well
■with a preparation of lime ; also at the end ot the
year dig out the soil round the root some six or
seven inches deep, and^put in a mixture of soot and
lime, with a good layer of freshly-prepared soil at
the top.— ^. Edicards.

Abe El-vteks young.Eels?— This, I suppose, is
a question which would puzzle most lawyers, who,
probably, never heard of elvers in their lives;
but Mr. Frank Buckland has answered it. He was,
I believe, requested to appear before the Gloucester
magistrates in the case referred to by W. Mac-
millan in your August number, and gave them the
benefit of his knowledge of the subject ; and he
proved, to the entire satisfaction of the magis-
trates and all reasonable persons, that elvers are
young eels. The case was fully reported at the
time— end of May or early in June— in the Standard,
and is extremely interesting. — M. A. Livett.

Lobsters.— I believe it is perfectly true that
lobsters occasionally utter screams. When we
were staving on the Yorkshire coast some time
since, our landlady told me that once when she was
going to boil a large lobster, as soon as she put it
in the hot water " it screamed like a baby," and
jumped out of the pan on to the kitchen floor.
Another time, she said, a lobster caught hold of
the edge of the table, and she had to get her hus-
band to remove it. My informant had lived near
the sea all her life, and was not at all given to
exaggeration. — A. B., Ealing.

The Name "Tray" as applied to Dogs.—
What canine peculiarity or habit could have origi-
nated the frequent giving of this not remarkably
melodious name to house-dogs in the last century ?
I don't think it is at all in use now ; but so common
was it at one time to call dogs "Tray," that in
several authors the word will be found to be
employed as synonymous with " dog." Perhaps no
other name, excepting " Dash," was ever so general,
and yet its significance does not appear at first. I
do not suppose the M'ord represents the Prench
trait ; and if then we take it for granted that some-
how the tray, a familiar article in household ar-
rangements, got to be associated with the dog, it
must have been either because dogs were employed,
under certain circumstances, to guard a tray of pro-
visions, or because appetite woukl naturally lead a
dog to be on the watch for scraps when the tray
was brought in. Unless, indeed, it can be shown
that " Tray " was a corruption of some other word
when so used as an appellation. — J. R. S. C.

SciRPUS MARiTiMUs, &c.— In a recent number
of Science-Gossip, "J. W." inquires about some
Thames-side plants, which inquiries 1 can perhaps
answer. The confusion he complains of is occa-
sioned by certain errors in the " Plora of Surrey"
(p. 258), which I had previously noted myself for
correction at some future time. According to this
work, Scirpus maritimuH is extremely rare, since it
only gives one station for it, and that where it was
only a casual, whilst on the authority of the editor,
S. triqueter is "plentiful by the Thames about
Putney." The fact appe;irs to be that /S'. maritimus
is very common from Wandsworth upwards ; I
have seen it as far as the Church-ferry al Isleworth,
whilst S. triqueter is fouud far more sparingly. 1

have only seen two patches of it in the parts I have
searched. The readiest mode to distinguish the
three Scirpi, which are generally met with near
Putney, is as follows :— In S. triqueter the few 'pale
sessile spikelets are inserted near the top of the
light green triangular stem, which has its angles
produced almost as if winged ; S. maritimus has, it
is true, acute angles, but which angles are not what
I have called produced, whilst the dark green stem,
with its many leaf-like bracts and chocolate-coloured
spikelets, renders it very distinct in appearance from
the foregoing ; S. cariiiatus, abundant opposite the
" Crab-tree," and may be distinguished from ^S".
lacustris (which it closely resembles) by its bluntly
three-angled stem and uin-ight bract beneath the
panicle (Sm. E. PL, i. 60). If "T. W." still has
any difficulty, I shall be happy to show him my
specimens from this locality. — B. D. Jackson, 30,
Stockwell-road, S.W.

Viper-bite. — I for one having taken part in the
"discussion," am much interested by the account
quoted by W. MacMillan, and glad to find that it
was recorded in the Dorset newspaper, where, doubt-
less, it must have met the eye of some gentlemen,
who contradicted my assertion in Science-
Gossip, a few years ago, that the bite of a viper
was very poisonous, and had in some cases proved
fatal, i have within the last few years heard of
other cases— more recent ones— where the bite has
caused death, and I narrowly escaped a bite last
summer from a very fine specimen. My sou had been
out with other boys " snaknig " and brought home
a reptile in a large, wide-necked bottle ; the weather
was cold, and the creature seemed quite harmless.
I handled it, so did he, and we returned it to its
glass cage, having put some plucked grass in with
it. Towards evening on the following day the
snake seemed to wake up ; the heat of the room
had cheered it, and on consulting Mr. Cooke's book
of " British Reptiles," we found that we had really,
not figuratively, been fostering a vi]}PA\— Helen E.
Tf'atne//.

Names of Birds. — In Science-Gossip for 1873,
p. 143, you were good enough to publish a query
of mine respecting some southern sea-birds, of
which 1 could only, at that time, give a few exceed-
ingly imperfect descriptive notes. Since then I
have met with further memoranda on the subject,
and have had, moreover, an opportunity of identify-
ing all the birds inquired after, as follows : 1. Molly-
mawk {Diomedea melanophrys);^^ 2. Stinkpot _( Pro-
cellaria gigantea); t 3. Parson- bird {Procellaria c.on-
spicellafa);% 4. Ice-bird {Prion tiirtiis) ; § 5. Whale-
bird {Prion vittalus).\\ Like, all names given by
unscientific observers, however, these sailors' desig-
nations are very loosely applied, and furnish no
guide whatever to species. The birds called " white-
bellies " in the North Atlantic Ocean, which were
asked about at the same time, are guillemots, the
common guillemot, Uria trole. — H. G.

Chaffinch and Missel-Thrush. — Can any of
your readers inform me if the Chaffinch, Piedfinch,
Pink, as it is sometimes called, is to be found
wherever the nest of the Missel-thrush is located ?
"As in many parts of Prance it is a general belief
amongst the jieasants and bird-nesting urchins,
that no nest of the Missel-thrush is ever found

* Gould, " Birds of Australia," vol. vii. Pi. 43.
t Ibid. PI. 45. t Ibid. PL 46.

§ Ibid. PL 54. U Ibid. PL 55.

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP.

283

without there being one of a ChaflBnch hard by, often
on a branch of the very same tree, and the reason
assifsjned is that the Chaffinch seeks the protection
of the Missel-thrush from hostile birds, especially
the Magpies, which, as every one knows, are allowed
to do pretty much as they like in most parts of that
country, the Chaffinch on its part giving early
warning to the Thrush as soon as the common enemy
approaches to pilfer any unprotected eggs." We
are inclined to think the above statement may be
correct, as in the early spring of this year, while
walking through our plantation with a gentleman
friend, curious in the matter of birds and their nests,
we startled what we thought was a chaffinch, from
its peculiar cheery sweet note ; it evidently did not
wish us to find its nest, as it decoyed us amongst
the shrubs some distance without our being able to
discover its whereabouts. Now, as the Missel-
thrush has built for many years in our garden always
two, and sometimes three nests, I thiuk it is very
probable that the above anecdote from " Cassell's
Egg Collection " may be correct. Perhaps I
ought to state the Latin name for the Chaffinch is
Frhigilla coslebs, the latter name, or rather I should
say, the specific name being given on account of the
separation of 1he sexes at one period of the year.
Vvhite, in his "History of Selborne," says that in
his neighbourhood, towards Christmas, vast fiocks
of chaffinches appear in the fields, most of whom are
the hen bird — at least fif'.y toone. LiiintBus remarks
"all their hen chaffinclas migrate through Holland
into Italy." In hard winters no females are seen
in North Staffordshire.

Reptiles savallowing their Young.— Meeting
with two intelligent men the other day, whose know-
ledge of Natural History was, I found, rather above
the average, I questioned them as to their belief in
the above, and they both unhesitatingly expressed
their firm conviction of its truth. One of them had
resided for a considerable time in a viper country,
and had iiad many sheep killed by the bites of these
reptiles ; he therefore knew a great deal as to their
habiis, but was obliged to confess that he had never
met with an instance of their swallowing their
young alive. The other man, whose knowledge of
vipers was more limited, advanced what was to me
an entirely new assertion, viz., that the common
snake (Natrix torquata) swallows its young when
the latter are in danger. — W. II. Warner, Kingston,
Abingdon,

The Lakge Tortoise-shell. — This morning
(July 16, lS7i), I observed a number of the large
Tortoise-shell butterfiy {Vanessa pohjchloros), — so
many, at first, as twelve dotted all over the pinkish
flowers of the Orpine everlasting [Sedum Telephiuvi],
which edges one of the flower-beds in my town
garden. We first saw them about nine o'clock.
During the day they increased considerably, were;
on nearly every flower-head, and now, at half-past
four, they have risen in quite a swarm, and are
resting in numbers on the brick walls of my hus-
band's office, and on several shrubs. They seemed
as if only lately emerged from the pupa state, so
fresh and brilliant in colour. 1 cannot account for
their appearance, as I found neither caterpillars
nor chrysalides of this particular butterfly, either
during the autumn of 1S73 or this past spring,
though finding numbers of others ; amongst them
those of the Tiger-motii, whose favourite food, 1
may here remark, seems to be the spotted-leaved
dead-nettle, Lamium maculutum. I reared eight of
these caterpillars on it tiiis season, and they have

passed through their several stages successfully :
and one splendid molh has just deposited over fifty
eggs on the bell-glass of ray insect vivarium. One
May evening, about thirty years ago, I saw several
of another species of butterfly, the Orange-tip
{Euchloe cardamines), asleep on a rose-bush, and very
lovely they looked ; but a swarm like that of this
afternoon I never saw, and can give but a faint idea
of the beautiful begemmed flower-border, covered
as it was with their outspread wings, glistening
beneath the mid-day sun. Can the presence in my
garden of all these winged beauties be attributed
to its being, like that of " Lady Corisandes," con-
fined to old-fashioned, sweet-smelling flowers, such
as stocks, campanulas, and other dear old friends,
which were my childhood's admiration ? and even
now they charm me more than the present system
of gardening, though it has such wealth of glorious
colouring both of flowers and foliage. — H. R. B.,
Limerick.

The Eagle at Dare. — I see in a late num-
ber the so-called golden eagle at Dare, in Somerset-
shire, has again made its appearance, where it was
first mentioned by Mr. Gifford in Science-Gossip
for 1872. I soon after sent you a note asking! for
further particulars and some description of the bird ;
and about the same time " G." wrote, throwing
doubt on the ideutityof the bird. Neither of these
notes were answered' in Science-Gossip, and 1 have
not been able to go over and see the bird myself,
but two ornithological friends of mine have seen it,
and from their description there can be no doubt
about it, that the bird is a young white-tailed eade,
as the tarsi are bare of feathers ; in the golden
eagle, as you know, the tarsi are at all ages feathered
dovyn to the junction of the toes. This distinction
of itself is sufficient to settle the question at any
time as between the white-tailed and the golden
eagle, and can hardly be mistaken by any one who
looks at the birds for the purpose of identification.
—C. S.

Centaurea calcitrapa.— Whilst out on my
usual rounds I was attracted by some yellow patches
in a field of lucern. I thought at first that they
consisted of hawkweed picris, but tliey appeared too
gaudy. On reaching them, I found to my surprise
that they were most luxuriant plants of Centaurea,
calcitrapa with brilliant lemon yellow - coloured
blossoms. G. calcitrapa is abundant here, but I
have never found it with other than pink flowers.
Will any of your correspondents kindly say if the
yellow variety is found elsewhere ? I shall be pleased
to forward a specimen to any subscriber to Science-
Gossip on receipt of stamped envelope. — Br. Morton,
New lirompton, Kent.

Cats' Imitation. — A gentleman of Falmouth
informs me that his dog (like many others) has been
taught, to beg for a bone, sitting on his haunches
and bending his fore paws. His master was lately
surprised to see one of his cats, having observed the
success of the dog's attitude, imitate it. Another
cat followed the example of its nnieh younger com-
panion. Such a copying by one animal of the
acquired habit of another of a different genus seemed
worthy of notice.

Swarms of Ants. — Did any of the readers of
Science-Gossip notice on Wednesday, the 19th of
August, the vast swarms of ants (winged and or-
dinary) which covered the ground in large patches ?
I shall feel obliged if some one will tell me the
reason of this phenomenon. — J. L. J.

284

HARDWICKE'S SC lENC E-G OS SIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

E. LovETT.— Your specimen of fern was forwarded to a
good authority on such matters and returned with the remark
that nothing could be made of so small a fragment. Please
send a perfect frond if possible.

J. Coi-soN.— The plant forwarded to us is an unflowered
specimen of Erica cinerea, whose flowers had been meta-
morphosed into tinted leaves.

J. W. Jeans.— Your specimen is the common Centaury
(Erytlirium centauriiim).

Dr. G. D. Beati.y.— Thanks for the slides, which arrived
safely. The staining is most beautiful ; we have seen nothing
to equal it. Article will appear next month.

F. S. Sheldon. — For information as to the Ray Society
apply to the Secretary, Somerset House, London.

Q V. G.— The fungi inclosed in match-box arrived in too
smashed a condition to be identified.

H. A. S.— The " Epidemic," as you call it, which has set in
in your aquarium and killed your gold-fish, &C., is probably a
micro-fungus, called Achyla ■prolifera. There is no remedy,
and your best plan will be to clean out the glass.

C. Wood.— The small insects inclosed in quill are bird-lice
{Mallophagu).

C. F. G.— For description and figure of the cast of the
British gold coin sent, see Thomas Wright's "Celt, Roman,
and Saxon." Trichodectes is a genus of parasitic insects,
belonging to the family Mallnpliuga. Antenna; triarticulate;
tarsi with a single claw. All the species live only on mam-
malia. Eaematopina have tarsi uni-articulate, with snigle
arcuate claw ; parasitic on man and other animals.

J. W. WiLi.MiK. — The head of the common sparrow with
elongated upper beak is a very remarkable specimen.

H. P., Ashbourne.— ilM^acomniwTO palustre, Tortulafallax.—
R. B.

R. R., Selkirk.— 1. Hypnwn sericsuni; 2. H. molluscum ;
.■?. Rhacomitrium lanugiiiosum; 4. Tortilla runills; 5. Fissideiis
adiantoides; 6. Hypnum denticuiatum.—R. B.

J. Cooper.— The " scarlet substance " on the back of
Coltsfoot leaf is a micro-fungus called Coltsfoot Rust {Culeo-
sporium tussilnginis).— 'M. C. C.

Dr. B. L.— Your specimen is Purcinen malvacennnn; there
is not the gelatinous element oi Podisoma.—M. C. C.

CoBRiGKXDA.- For fig. l-.'f, p. 253, "Coelacanthus," read
" Acanthodes." Page 254, line 34, for "four, viz., one dorsal,
one pectoral, one ventral, and one anal," read, " six, viz., one
dorsal, two pectoral, two ventral, and one anal."— W. H. P.

W. C— We are much obliged for your specimen of Roccelta
furiformis.

T. Green.— Your packet of foraminiferons sand arrived
safely ; please accept our thanks for it. In the neighbourhood
of March we have some of the most recent of post-glacial
marine sands, of which we believe the bed containing the
foraminifera to be a member. Consult Professor Williamson's
" Monograph of British Foraminifera." The commonest of
the fossil forms appears to be Rotalina.

M. J. MuRTON.— It would seem as if the bo.x were attacked
with the fungus known as " Dry Rot" {Merulius luchrymans).
The only way to arrest its ravages is by applying corrosive
sublimate, or a solution of zinc.

W. Bradley.- The "Fairy Circles" occupied by fungi
which you describe are probably caused by the Marasmms
oreades. See " Half-Hours hi the Green Lanes," p. 318.
Cardials eriophoriis, although not a common plant, is not to
be considered rare. It grows in Suffolk in several places
rather plentifully. Carduus nutans is a common plant.

EXCHANGES.

Well-mounted Diatomacese, Zoophytes, Palates, Sections,
Spicule, &c., for mounted Parasites, showing all the legs.—
John Boyd, Victoria-park, Manchester.

Well-mounted Diatoms, for other equally good Slides.
Send exchange list.— J. R., 288, Blackburn-road, Bolton.

A Scotch moss-collector would be glad to exchange with
EngUsh collectors.— Address, J. R. S., Office of Science-
Gossip.

Fine Fruiting Specimens of Roccelta fiiciformis for Charac-
teristic specimens of liocrelta tinctoria, or Farmelin sinuosa,
Stc—W. Curiiow, Pembroke Cottage, Newbyn Cliff, Penzance,
Cornwall.

A Piece of Wing-case of Mexican Diamond Beetle, for
good Material. Send Hit.- T. Gardner, Qucen's-road,
Walford.

Wanted, lanthina communis, J. Britiinnicn, I. pallida, T.
exigva, Mya truncata, Mactra stiiltornm, X'enus fasciata, ior
other Shells, Microscopic Slides, or Material.— F. R. M., 9".
Union-street, Torquay.

For Packet of Pure Foraminiferous Shells, send good
Mounted object of interest to James Green, March.

Good Microscopical Slides for others, or for good un-
mounted Material. Lists exchanged.— R. H. Philip, 23,
Prospect-street, Hull.

For Seeds of Ice-plant, send stamped directed envelope to
W. H. Goram, Somertoii, Taunton.

Rare Shells Offered ; Clausilia rugosa, var. Schlecfitii
(new and rare variety recently determined by Mr. Jeffreys);
Selix iibvoluta, H. revelata, Limneus gliitinosus, L. Burnetti,
L. involiitus, for — Succinea oblonga. Acme lineata. Pupa
Venetzii, P. pusilla, P. suhstriata, P. alpestris, or named
good Marine Specimens.— W. F. Sutton, Gosforth Grove, near
Newcastle- on-Tyne.

For Fungi from Melon, mounted, send well-mounted Slide'
to H. C, 24, Rodney-street, Liverpool.

Fob Injected Section of Fcetal Human Lung, mounted, send
well-mounted Insects. A few others to exchange.— Tylar,
l65, Well-street, Birmingham.

Aglaophenia pluma with Corbulse (unmounted), and several
of the Sertulariidae offered for other Hydroids. S.fusca.S.
fiUcula, and D. rosacea most desired. — MissDonagan, Handel
House, Haverstock Hill, N.W.

Me.mbers of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club are prepared
to exchange Microscopic Slides, Botanical and Geological
Specimens from the north of Ireland. — Address Wm. Gray,
Secretary, 6, Mount Charles, Belfast.

Dried specimens of Gentiana verna for specimens of Botany,
Conchology, Entomology, Geology, or Microscopic Objects.—
Rev. J. M. Hick, Newburn, Scots wood-on-Tyne.

Z,. glulinosa for L. Burnetii, L. lacustris, or Vertigo
alpestris.— J. Fitz-Gerald, 10, West-terrace, Folkestone.

A Few Good Slides for Foraminifera from Dog's Bay, &c.,
unmounted.— J. Carpenter, Turner's Hill, Cheshunt.

For 82, 133, 733, 1040, 1480, 1504, Lond. Cat., 7th Edition,
wanted any of the following : 123, 127,693, 737,746, 1335,1482,
1485.— Rev. F. H. Arnold, Fishbonrne, Chichester.

Wanted, 1, 3, 4. 5, 7,9, 10, 12, 17, 22, 25, 29, .30, for 87,
143, 184, 253, 312, 315, 501, 699, 725, 753, 846, 969, 970, Lon.
Cat.— W. J. Hannan, 6, Tattoii-street, Ashton-under-Lyne.

Fltnt-flakks, with other Worked Flints, Arrow-heads,
&c., from the north of Ireland, for similar Specimens from
other localities.— William Gray, Mount Charles, Belfast.

A perfectly pube gathering of Naviculii humerosa, well
mounted and prepared, for good Slides or Material.- Send
lists to H. B. Thomas, Boston, Lincolnshire.

British Examples of Unio tumidiis and pictorum wanted ;
other Land and Fresh-water Shells offered.— Harry Leslie,
6, Moira-place, Southampton.

Primula Scofica for other plants.— Joseph Neil, Drumgellocli
by Airdrie, N.B.

Peristo.me of Funaria (to show Hygrometric experiment),
Pollen of Mallow, Citric Acid, *:c., tor other well-mounted
Slides.— J. C. H., 61, Fenney-street, Broughton, Manchester.
F.GGS of Fowl Parasite, Menopon pallidum (mounted), for
any other Slide -. Parasites preferred.— Edward Lovett, Holly
Mount, Croydon.

Well-mounted Micro Objects offered for mounted Para-
sites, all kinds.— Send list to T. Curties, 244, High Holborn,
London.

For (Ecidium T/iesii send good unmounted Object for inch
(not polar) to W. Sargant, jun., Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent.

BOOKS, &c. RECEIVED.

Newman's " British Butterflies" and " Moths " (2 vols, in
one). New Edition. London: R. Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly.

" On Protoplasm." By James Ross, M.D. London: R.
Hardwicke.

" Grevillea." November.

" Monthly Microscopical Journal." November.

"American Naturalist." October.

" Canadian Entomologist." October.

"Journal of Applied Science." November.

" Animal World." November.

" Les Mondes." November.

" Land and Water." November.

Correspondence Received up to 12th ult. fro
M. C.-K.— J. R.— J. S. T.-E. B. W.-H. E. W.-C. V.
J. R. S.-T.— F. R. M.-H. P.— J. P. C— T. H.— J.
W. S. P.— J. C.-J. R. S. C— J. T.— J. M.— H. C— T.
C. D— R. G.— W. T.— Capt. F. H. L — T. W.— C. F.
J. G.— K.— F. S. S.— J. P.-R. \V.— B. W— H. A. S.— T.
W. M.— J. B.— C. C— H. B. T.— W. S., jun.— J. I. P.— R.
M. C. C.-R. D.-D. J.-C. C. R.-H. L — T. G. W.-G.
J. A., jun.— W. B.— W. H. G.— J. N.— E. J. H.- J. C. H.-
— R. H. P.— W. H. P.— W. F. S.— H. B. B.— J. C— F. H.
W. G.— J. M. H.-J. F. G.— G. P.— E. W.— W. I. H., Ike.

M : —
G.—
B.—
C—
G.—
B.—
B.—
H.—
E. L.
A.—

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

28-1

INDEX TO VOL. X.

Acclimatization op Eucalypti, 65.

Adder and Mole, I89.

Addresses of Provincial Natural History

Societies, 134.
Adulteration of Pepper, 19.
A Freshwater Polyzoon, 268.
Africa, Changes in the Vegetation of

South, 43.
Africa, Diamonds of South, 44, 187.
Agassiz. Death of Professor, 41.
Age of Yew-trees, Presumed, 100.
A Half-day's Plant-hunting, 150.
Air, Microscopic Examination of, 90.
Alauda alpestris, 45.
Algse, British Marine, 115, 211.
AlgtC, on Preserving and Mounting, 18,

98.
Algiers to the Sahara, Geological Notes,

93.
Alligators, Economic Value of, 113.
Alpine Plants, Slugs and, 166.
American Otter, the, 132.
American Potato-bug, 89, 90.
Amoebce, 255.

Among the Andamans, 81 .
Analysis, Microscopic, 111.
Anatomy of a Caterpillar, 248, 281.
Anatomy of Menobrancltus, 113.
Ancient Ti-ees, 47, 56, Qb, 100, 136, 139,

141, 213, 238, 281.

Ancient Volcanoes of the Highlands, 65.

Andamans, among the, 81.

Anemones, Solution for Preserving Sea,

45.
Anglers' Worm -bait, igo.
Animals, Dress of, 177.
Animals, Suicide of, 42.
Antenna of Insects, 29, 60.
Ant, the Wood, 71.
Ants, a Chapter on, 58.
Ants, how to Destroy, 23, 70.
Ants, Swarms of, 283.
Apes, Man and, 110.
Aphides, 145, 16".
Aphis, Etymology of, 234.
Aphis, Ichneumon of the, ISO, 208.
Aquaria, to aerate, 124.
Aquarium, Freshwater, 70, "1.
Aquarium in Winter, 69.
Aquarium, Marine, 71, 94> 95i 118, 191>

223, 262, 263.
Aquarium, the Manchester, 162.
Arachnid, a New, 121, 161, 1/1, 185, 209,

234.
Argas reflems, 121, I6I, 171, 185,209,234.
Arrival of Migratory Birds, 162.
Ash-trees, Seven, in Tewin Churchyard,

143, 214, 215.

Asperities in the leaves of Bryonia alba,

19.
Asphaltum and Rubber Varnish, 64, 130.
Azadiracta Indica, Bark of the, 43.

Barbastei-le Bat, the, 67.

Barium, Chloride of, as a Preservative,

207.
Bark of the Azadiracta Indica, 43.
Barnet, Geology of, l65, 187, 188.
Barometer, a Natural, 69.
Basalt, What is it? 139, 212.
Bat, the Barbasteile, 67.
Bat, the Noctule, 215.
Bats in Spring, 118.

Bee, the Queen, 46.

Beech-blight, a New, 19.

Beech-leaves, White, 166.

Bee-food, a Query, 192.

Beehives, Duration of, 22.

Bees and Wasps, 112.

Bees, Swarming of, 280.

Beetle, the Stag, 69-

Belfast, Geology of, 169.

Belfast, Guide to, 237.

Bermuda, Vegetation of, 44.

Bird, large Struthious, 213.

Bird, Rare, 46.

Birds and Primroses, 135, 166, 172, 184.

Birds, arrival of Migratory, 162.

Birds, caged, and Cat, 23.

Birds, Local Names of, 67, 282.

Birds, Longevity of, 63.

Birds, Neotropical, 135.

Birds, New Classification of, 63.

Blackbeetles or Cockroaches ? 215.

Blight of the Beech, a New, 19.

Blood-corpuscles, Origin of, 183, 20/.

Boar-fish, the, 42.

Boleosoma Olmstt-di, 57.

Bombyx Cynthia, 69, 135.

Books, New, 11.

Botanic Society, the Royal, 43.

Botanical Extracts, 64.

Botany, Sowerby's English, 137.

Brachiopods, Embryology of, 62.

Bracts of Crucifers, the, 115.

Brains of Tertiary Mammals, 237.

Breathing of Frogs, 20.

Bridgeman Triple Lantern, 281.

Brimstone Butterfly, 119.

Britain, the Oldest Trees in, 95.

British Association, 184.

British Hepaticii, 137, 210.

British Marine Algse, 115, 211.

British Orobanchaceas, 69.

British Shrews, 22.

British Spiders, 112.

Bryonia alba. Asperities in the Leaves of,

19,
Buds on Roots, 92, 116, 119, I62.
Butomns umbellatus, 262.
Butterflies, Cloud of, 139.
Butterwort, a Carnivorous Plant, 233.

Cabbagr, Histoev of the, 178, 193.
Caged Birds and Cat, 23.
Calla palustris in Surrey, 43.
Canada Balsam, Mounting in, 106.
Canterbury Arachnid, New, 121, 161, 171,
185, 209, 234.

Carboniferous Fish, more about, 253.
Carbuncle, the, 48.
Carduus tenuifloriis, 128, 175.
Carnivorous Habits of Certain Plants, 230,

235.
Carnivorous Plants and their Prey, 272.
Carrot, History of the, 241.
Castle Eden Dene, Plants of, 260.
Cat and Caged Birds, 23.
Cat and Rat, 142.
Catalogue of Plants, the London, 91, 114,

211.
Caterpillar, Anatomy of a, 248, 281.
Caterpillar, the Gooseberry-leaf, 262, 264.
Caterpillars, Changes of Skin in, 257.
Caterpillars, Green, 189, 2S1.
Cats, clever, 280, 283.

Cats, curious, 191, 262.

Cave-deposits, the Lemming in, 261.

Cells for; Microscopic Objects, 16, 41, 88,
167.

Cements and Turntables, 130.

Centaurea calcitrapa, 283.

Chaffinch and Missel-Thrush, 282.

" Challenger," News from the, 221.

Changes in the Vegetation of South
Africa, 43.

Chapter on Ants, 58.

Chapters on Cuttles, 4, 26.

Chert, Organisms in, 188, 207,

Cheshire Boulder Clay, Foraminifera in
117.

Cheshire Low Level Sands, Shells of, 20.

Chicken hatched by a Pigeon, 214.

Chicory, Wild, 236.

Chlorophyll in Spongilla, 256.

Cicliorium intybus, 236.

Classification of Birds, New, 63.

Classification of the Labyrinthodonts,
237.

Clevedon, Geology of, 117, 144, 164.

Cloud of Butterflies, 139.

Coal, to cut Sections of, 94, 120.

Coal-measures, Fossil Teeth from, 74.

Cockatoos, 151.

Cockroaches or Blackbeetles ? 215.

Colias Ediisa, 63, 95.

Collecting, Indiscriminate, 68, 137, 140,

142, 166, 190, 259.
Collecting Osteological Specimens, 226.
Colony of Natterjacks, 62.
Colorado, Flora of, 211.
Coloiu-ing Matter of Neottia Nidus-avis,

255.
Colours of Flowers, 136, 190.
Comets, Speculations concerning, 246,

266.
Common Lizard, the, 224.
Companions, Strange, 23.
Corncrake, 22.

Crane-fly, the Mouth of the, 155, 189.
Creation, 122.

Crickets, &c., Remedy against, 168, 264.
Crucifer,a wind-fertilized, I87.
Crucifers, the Bracts of, 115.
Crustacean, New British, 209.
Crystals in Plants, 18.
Crystals of Lime in Prawn's Skin, 18, 64.
Crystals, on Mounting, 22.
Cuckoos and their Young, 162, I89.
Cumberland, Origin of the Lake Basins

in, 92.
Curious Place for Robins' Nests, 16".
Cuticles and Raphides, 141, I62, 183.
Cuticles, Silicious, 134, 255.
Cuttlefishes, Gigantic, 42.
Cuttles, Chapters on, 4, 26.
CymbMa Ehrenbergii, &c., 256.

Dammar Varnish, 183.

Darter, the, 57.

Death of Professor Agassiz, 41.

Deer, New Species of Fossil, 45.

Dtioij'tia pulchf.Uii, 230.

Derbyshire Microscopical Society, 276.

Derbyshire, Post-glacial Animals in, 139.

Derivation of Ladybird, 70, 94, 119,131,

140, 143, 191.
Devices of Diatoms, to fix, 203, 233, 256.
Diadem Spider, the, 270.

286

HARDWICKE'S SCIEN GE-GO^ S IP.

Diamonds, South African, 44, 187-
Diatom Frustule, Form of the, 197.
Diatomaceee, History of the, 2, 25, 149.
Diatomaceen Typen Platte, Holler's, 176,

233

Diatomaceous Deposit, Ehrenberg's, 120.

Diatoms, New, 275.

Diatoms, to fix Devices of, 203, 233, 256.

Jiigitalis and rerb'iscum, 69.

Disappearance of Colias Edusa, 63, 95.

Discovery of Verrucaria ochrosfoma, 19.

Disease, the Potato, 65, 09, 210.

Diver, the Great Northern, 251 .

Dodo, the, 4S.

Dos?, a Fireman's, 125, 198.

Dog's Name "Tray," 282.

Dorsetshire, Flora of, 235.

Doryphora decemliiieata, 15, 89, 90.

Dress of Animals, 17".

Drying Flowers, 152.

Duel, a Wasps', 280.

Duration of Beehives, 22.

Flowers, Fertilization of, 43, 236.

Flowers, Study of, 151.

Forammifera in Cheshire Boulder-clay,

117-

Forests, New Zealand, 281.

Form of the Diatom Frustule, 197-

Fossil Deer, New Species of, 45.

Fossil Oyster-bed, 188, 261.

Fossil Teeth from Northumbrian Coal-
measures, 74.

Fossils, to Preserve Gault, 48.

Fragaria vesca, &c., 239, 259.

Freshwater Aquarium, 70, 71.

Frog-hopper, the, 52.

Frog, the Green Tree, 141 .

Frogs, Breathing of, 20.

Frost Phenomena, 254.

Fungi, Microscopic, 68, 139, 256.

Fungi, Preserving, 165.

Fungological Excursions, 19.

Eagi.es, Golden, 214, 283.

Earthworms, &c., i!63.

Earwigs, Gastric Teeth, &c. of, 132.

Eastbourne. Fauna and Flora of, 115.

Ebonite Cells, 41, 167.

Ecdysis of Caterpillars, 257- .

Echinothuridw, &c.. Relationship ot, 111

Edelweiss, 259.

Eels and Elvers, 191,282.

Eggs of Insects, 69.

Eggs of Sparrows in December, 69.

Eggs of the Lamprey, 185.

Eggs, Spontaneous Changes m, 20.

Eggs, Sucked, 47.

Eggs, Tortoise, 239.

Ehrenberg's Diatomaceous Deposit, 120,

Electricity, 95, 239.

Elvers, are they Young Eels? 191, 282.

Embryology ot Brachiopods, 62.

Enemy, a New, 15, 89, 90.

English Botany, Sowerby's, 137.

EngUsh Plant-names, 162.

Entomological Queries, 118, 189-

Entomological Season of 1873, Notes

on, 1.

Entomology, Subterranean, 126.
Eozoon Controversy, the. 111.
Epeira diadema, 27O.
Errata, 96, 144.
Etymology of Aphis, 234.
Eucalrjptus globulus, 6I, 65, 115.
Eujileetellafpeciusa, 23, 47, 70, 119-
Exceptional Reproduction of lineida, 89.
Excursions, Fungological, 19.
Exotic Sea- weed, 250.
Expedition, the " Challenger," 221.
Exploration, Sub-Wealden, 20, 139.
Extermination of Plants, &c., 68, 137, 1^0.

142, 166, 190, 259.
Extracts, Botanical, 61.
Extraordinary Mounting, 64.
Exuviae of Insects, 233.

Fauna, and Flora of Eastbourne, 115

Feline Oddity, 191, 262.

Fern-cases, Mould in, 94, 136, 167.

Ferns, Parthenogenesis in, 236.

Fertilization of Flowers, 43, 236.

Field Club for London, 26 1.

Field Clubs, 140.

Fieldfares, 243.

Finder for Hartnack's Microscopes, 207.

Fireman's Dog, a, 125, 198.

Fires, Origin of, trom a Natural History

point, 73.
F'ish, more about Carboniferous, 253.
Fish, New Species of Fossil, 66.
Fish, the Boar, 42.
Fishes, Habits of Silnroid, 62.
Fishes. Songs of, 257, 261.
Flax, 238.
Flies, Parasitic, 32.
Fhnt, Organisms in Carboniferous, 188,

207-
Flora and Fauna of Eastbonrne, 115.
Flora of Colorado, 211.
Flora of Dorsetshire, 235.
Flowers and Insects, 184, 215.
Flowers, Colours of, 136, lyo.
Flowers, Drying, 152.

Garlic, History of the, 145.

Gastric Teeth, &c. of Earwigs, 132.

Generic Names, 208. , ,,«

Genista piliisii, as a Sea-side Shrub, 110.

GentianaverniifWi.

Geological Literature, Record of, 261.

Geological Notes, Algiers to the Sahara,

93.
Geologists' Association, 261.
Geology of Barnet, 165, 187, 1S8.
Geology of Belfast, 169.
Geology of Clevednn, 117, •'14, 164.
Geology of Redesdale Ironstone District,

21.
Geology of the Far West, 66.
Gersford Yew, the, 100, 137-
Geum rivale, 137, I62, 190, 211.
Gigantic Cuttlefishes, 42.
Glacial Period in Great Britain, last Stage

of, 164.
Glaciation, Polar, 138.
Glow-worm and its Light, 85.
Glycerine Jelly, on Mounting in, 54, 88,

160.
Gnats, their Vibratory Motion when at

rest, 258.
Gold-crested Wren, the, 31.
Golden Eagles, 214, 283.,
Golden Minnow, the, 9. . ^

Gooseberry-leaf Caterpillar, 262, 264.
Gossamer, 28U.

Gossip about Rare Plants, 40, 259.
Grafting, a Strange Freak, 68.
Grasses, Plea for our, 17*5, 2b(i.
Great Northern Diver, the, 251.
Guernsey, Lepidoptera of, 203.
Guide to Belfast, 237.
Gull, the Herring, 191, 261.
Gum-tree, the Blue, 61, 65, 115.

Infusoria, 134.

Injections, re-mounting, 71, 88, 89.

Insect, Rare, 68.

Insect-traps, the Oldest, 174.

Insects and Flowers, 184, 215.

Insects, Antennse of, 29, 60.

Insects' Eggs, 69.

Insects, Exuviae of, 233.

Insects, Indian, 20.

Insects, Noxious and Beneficial, 184.

Insects, Preserving, 214, 240.

Insects, Rare, and Bad Seasons, 165.

Insects, Structure of the Mouths of, 107,

155, 189.
Instinct and Reason, 201, 280.
Ionian Snipe, 69.

Ipswich Science-Gossip Society, 45.
Ireland, no Moles in, 238.

Jaculus Sudsonim, 84.
Jelly on Sea- weeds, 166, 192.
Johns, the late Rev. C. A., 190.
Jumping Mouse, the, 84.

4

Habits of Siluroid Fishes, 62.
Half-aquatic Aphides, 167.
" Half-hours in Green Lanes," 214.
Hawk-moth, Variety of tlie Lime, ]3o,

188.
Hawks, 215.

Hedgehog, the, 47, 70, 71.
Helix oljiuluta,2U.

Hematite Deposits of Whitehaven, 213,
Hemiptera. 52.
Hepaticx, British, 137, 210.
Herring Gull, the, 191, 261.
Hierucium mticulutum, I87.
Highlands, Ancient Volcanoes of, 65.
History of our common Cultivated Vege-
tables, 77, 101, 123, 144, 145, 1/8,193,
217, 241, 265.
History of the Diatomacese, 2, 25, 149,
History of the Lobster, 227-
Holiday Rambles, 195, 249.
Holman Siphon-slide, 173.
Holly, the, 119, 19'.
Hornblende Rocks, 45.
How to destroy Ants, 23, 70.
Hydrozoa, New Orders of, 208.
Hydrozoan Zoophytes, 152.

ICHNKUMOX OF THE APHlS, 1 80, 208.

Iguanodon, a Marsupial Animal ! 237.
Indian Insects, 20.

Indiscriminate Collecting, 63, 137, 1*0,
142, 166, 190, 259.

k.vowledge of science, 3.
Labyeinthodonts, Classification of

THE, 237.

Ladybird, Derivation of, 70, 94, 119, 131,
140, 143, 191.

Lake Basins of Cumberland, Origin of,

92.
Lamprey, Eggs of, 185.
Lancashire Low Level Sands, SheLsof, 20.
Lankester, the late Dr., 277-
Lantern, the Bndgeman Triple, 281.
Larva of Privet Hawk-moth, 262.
Larvje from Paris, 69, 135, 142, 238,
Last Stage of the Glacial Period in Great

Britain, 164.
Leaf-rollers, Notes on the, 220.
Leaf Sections, to cut, 182,
Leaves, Skeleton, 68, 1 13, 140, 142.
Lemming in Cave Deposits, 26I.
Length of Spiders' Cords, 208.
Lepidoptera, AntenucC of, 60.
Lepidoptera, Markings of, 46,
Lepidoptera of Guernsey, 203.
Life, a Sacred Thing totheNaturalist,6l.
" Life Slide," a, 161.
Light of the Glow-worm, 85.
Lime, Crystals of, in Prawn's Skin, 18, 64.
Lime Hawk-moth, Variety of, 135,
Links, Missing, 45.
Lijinea /j(/realis,\63.
Liver, the, 95.

Liverpool Literary and Phdosophical
Society, Proceedings of, 238.

Lizard, New European, 234.

Lizard, Spider and, 206.

Lizards, 119, 224.

Lobster, History of the, 227.

Lobsters, I90, 282.

Local Names, 22, 67, 142, 282.

Local Natural History Notes, 244.

London Catalogue of Plants, 91 , 1 14, 21 1 .

London Clay, large Struthious Bird from,
213.

London, Field Club for, 261.

Longevity of Birds, 63.

Lop/inpus crt/stallina, 268.

Luminosity of the Sea, 134.

Male Nurse, a, H 3.

Mammals, Brains of Tertiary, 237.

Man and Apes, 110.

Manchester Aquarium, the, 162.

Man-eater, a Mythical, 45.

Mantis, the Praying, 23.

Marine Aquarium, 71, 94, 95, 118, 191,

223, 262, 263.
Markings of Lepidoptera, 46.
Media; val Natural History and Sport, 35.
Medicago arborea, 43, 65.
Meniibranchun, Anatomy of, 113.
Menopoma Alleghinnnisis, QO.
Mtrcurinlis ntnbigua, 186.
Mice, Young, and their Mother, 22.
Micrographic Dictionary, 207.
Microscopical Cabinet Club, the Postal,.

46, 67.
Miercscopical Queries, 22, 94, 110, 141.

HA'RDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP.

287

Microscopic Analysis, 1)1.
Microscopic Cells, l6, 41, 88, l6".
Microscopic Examination of Air, QO,
Microscopic Finder, 20/.
Microscopic Fungi, 68, 139, 256.
Microscopic Objects, on Mounting, 18,

22,41, 54, 64, 71, 80, 88, 89,106,110,

130, 134, l60, 183.
Migratory Birds, Arrival of, l62.
Millstone-grit, New Species of Fish in, 66.
Mineral Wealth of Virginia, 44.
Minnow, the Golden, 9.
Minnows, 9, 57.
Missing Liniis, 45.
Mite, the Stone, 234.
Mode of Occurrence of Diamonds in South

Africa, 44.
Mole, Adder and, 189-
Moles, none in Ireland, 238.
Mailer's Diatomaceen Typen Platte, 176,

233.
Mollusca, Palates of, 71, 88.
MoUuscan Threads, 49, U", II9, 165.
Mosses, Mounting, 22, 41, 110.
Moth, Prehensile Organs of, 64.
Moth, the Processionary, 208.
Moths' Wings, 143, I66, 189, 215.
Mould in Fern-cases, 94, 136, l67t
Mounting Algse, IS, 98.
Moimting, a Problem in, 89, l60.
Mounting Extraordinary, 64.
Mounting Microscopic Objects, 18, 22,41,

54, 64, 71,80, 88, 89, I06, 110, 130, 134,

160, 183.
Mouse, eaten in the Trap, 142.
Mouse, the Jumping, 84.
Mouse, the Wood, 143.
Mousetrap, a Mysterious, 71, 9^.
Mouth of the Crane-fly, 155, 189.
Mouths of Insects, Structure of, 10", 155,

189.
Mud-craters on the Persian Coast, 21.
Murex purpura, 238.
Mugca furmicifijrniis, 46.
Mysterious Mousetrap, a, 71. 94.
Mythical Man-eater, a, 45.

Names, Generic, 208.
Names, Local, 22, 67, 142.
Names of Birds, 282.
Natterjacks, Colony of, 62.
Natural Barometer, a, 69.
Natural History, Medifeval, 35.
Natural History Notes, Local, 244.
Natural History of Norfolk, 184.
Natural History Societies, Address of

Provincial, 134.
Natural History, Utility of the Study of,

202.
Neottia Nidus-avis, Colouring Matter of,

255,
Neotropical Birds, 135.
Nerve, the Optic, 64.
Net, Substitute for a Water, 4".
New Arachnid, a, 121, 161, 171, 185, 209,

234.
New Beech-blight, 19.
New Books, 11.
New British Crustacean, 209.
New British Land-shell, 276.
New Classification of Birds, 63.
New Diatoms, 275.
New Enemy, a, 15, 89, 90.
New European Lizard, 234.
New Order of Hydrozoa, 208.
New Species of Fossil Deer, 45.
New Zealand Forests, 281.
New Zealand, Notes from, 129.
News from the " Cliallenger," 221.
Newt, Remarks on the Habits of the

Smooth, 104.
Nitophyllum versirolnr, 114.
Norfolk, Natural History of, 184.
Northern Swift, the, 67.
Northumbrian Coal - measures. Fossil

Teeth from, 7-1.
Nostoc commune, 114.
Notes from New Zealand, 129.
Notes on the Entomological Season of

1873, 1.
Notes on the Leaf-rollers, 220.
Notes on the Starling, 152, 190.
Notes, Teratological, 153, 187, 192.
Noxious and Beneiicial Insects, 184,
Nurse, a Male, 1 1 3.

Objects, Polariscopic, 161, 183.

Ocops, 191, 263.

Octopus, 72.

Old Trees and Squirrels, 118.

On Aphides, I47.

On the Mode of Looking at Pictures, 97,

141, 143.

Onion, History of the, 123.

Only a Sparrow, 247.

Opera, an Ornithological, 95.

Optic Nerve, the, 64.

Organisms in Chert, 188, 207.

Origin of Blood-corpuscles, 183, 207-

Origin of Great Fires from a Natural His-
tory point, 73.

Origin of Precious Stones, 66.

Origin of the Lake Basins of Cumberland,
92.

Origin of Window Gardening, 94.

Orme's Head, Plants of the Great, 128.

Ornithological Opera, 95.

Orobanchaceae, British, 6g,

Orfhognriscus, 239-

Orwell, Sub-marine Forest in the, 278.

Osteological Specimens, preserving, 226.

Otter, the American, 132.

" Our Jim," 198.

Oyster-bed, Fossil, 188, 261.

Palates of Mollusca, 71, 88.

Paleo-Botanical Researches in "Victoria,

154.
Paleotherium magnum, 66.
Parasitic Flies, 32.
Paris, LarvEe from, 69, 135, 142, 238.
Parrots, 143, 166.
Parsnip, History of the, 265.
Parthenogenesis in Ferns, 236.
Pepper, Adulteration of, 19.
Perch, a Voracious, 46,
PerischoechinidtB, Relationship of. 111.
Persian Coast, Mud-craters of the, 21.
Phenomena of Frost, 254.
Physical History of the Rhine Valley, 1 16.
Pictures, on tiie Mode of Looking at, ^~,

141, 143.
Pigeon, Chicken hatched by a, 214.
Pike, 248.
Pineapples, 46.

Pitcher-plant and its Prey, 210.
Plant Crystals, 18,
Plant-hunting, a Half-day's, 150.
Plant-names, English, IG2.
Plants, Carnivorous, and their Prey, 272.
Plants, Carnivorous Habits of certaia, 230,

235.
Plants, Gossip about Rare, 40, 259.
Plants of Castle Eden Dene, 260.
Plants of the Great Orme's Head, 128.

Plants, Sudden Appearance of, 91, 140,
1S9, 2bo.

Plants, the London Catalogue of, 91, 114,
211.

Plants, Unknown, l65, 189.

Plants, Varieties of, 259.

Plants, Water in, 91.

Plants, Warwickshire, 2/8.

Plea for our Grasses, 177, 260.

Ftica Polunica, 140.

Poisonous Effect of a Viper's Bite, 215,
263, 282.

Poisonous Snakes, utilizing, 161.

Polar Glaciation, 138.

Polariscopic Objects, 161, 183.

Polishing Shells, 39, 94.

Pollen-Brains, 21, 236.

Polyzoon, a Fresh-water, 268.

Popular Science, 184.

Portland, Quaternary Periodinthelsleof,
211.

Postal Microscopical Cabinet Club, 46, 67.

Post-glacial Animals in Uerbysliire, 139.

Potato-bug, the American, 89, 90.

Potato Disease, the, 65, 99, 210.

Potato, History of the, 77. loi, 137, 144.

Potato, Structure of the, I6I.

Potentiltafragaria, Sec, 239, 259.

Poultry, to Keepers of, 214.

Prawn's Skin, Crystals of Lime in, 18,
64.

Praying Mantis, the, 23.

Precious Stones, Origin of, 66.

Prehensile Organs of Moth, 64.

Preservation of Aigte, 18, 98.

Preservative, Chloride of Barium as a

207.
Preserving Insects for Dissection, 214,

240.
Preserving Fungi, 165.
Preserving Osteological Specimens, 226.
Preserving Sea-Anemones, 45.
Primroses, Birds and, 135, 166, 172, 184.
Privet Hawk-moth, Larvae of ,262.
Problem in Mounting, 89, 160.
Processionary Moth, the, 208.
Protest, a, 68, 137, 140, 142, 166, IQC, 259.
Provincial Scicieties, 209.
Puccinea Malvacearum, 19.
Puffin, how does it ascend to its Nest?

258, 277.

Quaternary Period in the Isle op

Portland, 211.
Queen Bee, the, 46.
Quekett Microscopical Club, 276.
Queries, Entomological, 118, 189.
Queries, Microscopical, 22, 94, no, 141.

Rabbits, Male, Suckliitg their

Young, 113.
Rainbows, 10.
Rambles, Holiday, 195, 249.
Raphides, Cuticles and, 141, 1 62, 183.
Rara Avis, 46.
Rare Insect, 68.

Rare Insects and Bad Seasons, 165.
Rare Plants, Gossip about, 40, 259.
Rare Zoopbyte, a, 125.
Rat and Cat, 142.
Rat, the Water, 22.
Reason or Instinct? 280.
Recent Paleo-Botanical Researches in

Victoria, 154.
Record of Geological Literature, 26l.
Redesdale Ironstone District, Geology of,

21.
Relationship of Echinothuridw, &c.. 111.
Remarkable Trees, 136.
Remarks on the Habits of the Smooth

Newt, 104.
Reproduction of Tineidas, Exceptional,

89.
Rhine- valley, Physical History of, 116.
Robin, a White, 71.
Robin, Story of my, 3.
Robin's Nest, Curious Place for, 167.
Rocks, Thermal Conductivity of certain,

236.
Rocks, Volcanic, Structure of, 278.
Roots, Buds on, 92, lid, 119, 162.
Royal Botanic Society, 43.
Rustic Superstition, 238.

Sand-blast, the, 41, 88.

Suxi/riiga grunulata, Bulbiferous Stem

of, 69, 116, 119, 162.
Science fifty years hence, 229.
Science-Gossip Society at Ipswich, 45.
Science, Knowledge of, 3.
Science, Popular, 134.
Scirpus lacustris, &c., 141, I67, 210, 282.
Scirpus parvulus, 22.
Screw, the Royal Microscopical Society's

" Universal," 255, 276.
Sea, Extraordinary Luminosity of the,

134.
Sea Holly, the, 113.
Seaside Shrubs, 43, 65, 90, 113, 115, II6,

119, 136, 163, 185, 186, 190, 239-
Sea- weed, Exotic, at Devonport, 250.
Sea-weeds, Jelly on, 166, 192.
Sections of Coal, to Cut, 94, 120.
Sections of Leaves, to Cut, 182.
Senebiera didyinii, 235.
Seven Ash- trees in Tewin Churchyard,

143, 214, 215.
Sex, Signs used to denote, 46.
Sliark, the Basking, 63.
Stiell, New British Land, 276.
Shells of Lancashire and Cheshire Low-
level Sands, 20.
Shells, to Polish, 39, gi.
Shore Lark, 45.
Shrews, British, 22.
Shrubs, beaside, 43, 65, gO, 113, 115, II6,

119, 136, 163, 185, 186, 190, 239.

288

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS'SIP.

Siberia, the Steppes of, 213.

Sidwell, 236.

Signs used to denote Sex, 46,

Silicious Cuticles, 134, 235.

Siluroid Fishes, Habits of, 62.

Simple Marine Aquarium, a, 223.

Singular Growth of Willow- trees, l62.

Skeletonizing, 6S, 113, 140, 141, 142, 184,

185, 213.
Slieleton Leaves. &c., 68, 113, 140, 141,

142, 184, 185,213.

Skirret, 278.

Slide, a "Life," 161.

Slide, the Holman Syphon, 173,

Slugs, 119, 143, 166.

Smoking Flowers, 152,

Snakes and Toads, 46, 68, 165, 261.

Snakes, utilizing Poisonous, l6l.

Snipe, the Ionian, 6p.

Snow-buntings, 20.

Snowdrop, the, 92, 140.

Societies, Provincial, 209.

Solanum grandifloruvi, &c., 235, 278.

Songs of Fishes, 257, 261.

Sowerby's English Botany, 137.

Sparrow, only a, 247.

Sparrow-hawk, Strange Freak of a, 23.

Sparrows' Eggs in December, 69.

Sparrows, White, 23.

Speculations concerning Comets, 246,

266.
Speedwell, Buxbaum's, 92.
Spider and Lizard, 206.
Spider, the Diadem, 270.
Spiders and Chestnut-trees, 191.
Spiders and Wasps, 47.
Spiders, British, 112.
Spiders' Cords, Length of, 208.
Spiders' Webs and Spinnerets, 180, 200,

257.
Spongilla, Chlorophyll in, 256.
Spontaneous Changes in Eggs, 20.
Sport, Medireval, 'J.b.
Squirrels, OldTreesand, 118, 142.
Stag-beetle, unsuspected Property of,

185.
Stag-beetles, 69.
Staining Vegetable Tissues, 25 6.
Starhng, Notes on the, 152, igo.
Stenocephalun ugilis, 20, 42.
Steppes of Siberia, the, 213.
Stones, Origin of Precious, 66.
Stores for Winter, 68.
Story of my Robin, 3.
Strang-e Companions, 23.
Strange Freak of a Sparrow-hawk, 23.
Straw-paper as a Polariscopic object, 183.
Structure of the Mo\iths of Insects, 107.
Structure of the Potato, 161.
Study of Flowers, 151.
Study of Zoology, 95.
Sub-ai^rial Action, 170.
Submarine Forest in the Orwell, 278.
Substitute for Water-net, 47.
Subterranean Entomology, 126.

Sub-Wealden Exploration, 20, 139.

Sucked Eggs, 47.

Sudden Appearances of Plants, 91, 140,

199, 260.
Suicide, Can Animals commit' 42.
Sundew, a Large, 92.
Superstition, a Rustic, 238.
Swallow-tailed Butterfly at Waterloo,

282, 277.
Swarming of Bees, 280.
Swift, the Northern, 67.
Syphon-slide, the Holman, 173.

Tachina Flibs, 189.

Tea-tree, the, 260, 2/8.

Teratological Notes, 153, 187, 192.

Tertiary Mammals, Brains of, 237.

Tetranychus lapidum, 234.

Theohroma Cacao, 69.

Thermal Conductivity of certain Rocks,

236.
Threads of Mollusca, 49, II7, 119, 165.
Tineidm, Exceptional Keproduction of,

89.
Toads, 46, 62, 68.

Toads and Snakes, 46, 68, 165, 26].
To Poultry-keepers, 214.
Tortoise, the, 167, 214, 239-
Tortoise-shell, the Large, 283.
Traps for Insects, the Oldest, 174.
Tray, a Dog's Name, 282.
Tree-frog, the Green, 141.
Trees, Ancient, 47, 56, 95, 100, 136, 139,

141, 213, 238. 281.
Trees in inclosed Tombs, 262.
Trees, Remarkable, in Tewin Churchyard,

143, 214, 215.
Trees, the Oldest in Britain, 95.
Turnip, History of the, 217.
Turntables and Mounting, 80, 130.

" Universal " Screw, the Royal

Microscopical Society's, 255, 276.
Unknown Plants, 165, isg.
Unsuspected Property of Stag-beetle, 185.
Utilizing Poisonous Snakes, 161.
Utility of the Study of Natural History,

Valeriana phu, 236.

Value of Alligators, Economic, 113.

Varieties of Plants, 259.

Variety of Lime Hawk-moth, 135, 188.

Varnish, Asphaltum and Rubber, 64, 130,

183.
Vegetable Marrow, Leaves of, 255.
Vegetable Tissues, Staining, 256.
Vegetables, History of our Common, "^y,

101, 123, 144, 145, 178, 193,217,241,265.
Vegetation of Bermuda, 44.
Vegetation of S. Africa, Changes in, 43.
Verbascum Lycknitis, 211,

Verbascum and Digitalis, 69,

Veronica Buxbaumii, 92.

Verrucaria ochrostoma, 19.

Vibratory Motion of Gnats at rest, 258.

Victoria, recent Paleo-Botanical Re-
searches in, 154.

Violet, the Scented, 211.

Viper's Bite, Poisonous Effect of, 215, 263
282.

Vipers swallowing their Young, 70, 94.

283.

Virginia, Mineral Wealth of, 44.

Viviparous Lizard, the, 224.

Volcanic Rocks, Ancient and Modern,

278.
Volcanoes of the Highlands, Ancient, 65.
Vole, or Water-rat, 22.
Voracious Perch, 46.

Warm Season, the, II9.

Warwickshire Plants, 278.

Wasps, 22, 47, 112.

Wasps and Spiders, 47.

Wasps, Duel between, 280.

Water Avens, the, 137, 162, 190, 211.

Water in Plants, 91 .

Waterloo, Swallow-tailed Butterfly at.

262, 277.
Water-net, Substitute for, 47.
Water-rat or Vole, 22.
Webs and Spinnerets of Spiders, 180, 200.

257.
Whale, the Pigmy, 258.
What is Basalt? 139, 212.
White Beech-leaves, 166.
White Robin, a, 71.
White Sparrows, 23.
White Worms, 191.
Whitebait, 168.

Whitehaven, Hematite Deposits of, 213.
Willow-trees, Singular Growth of, 162.
Wind-fertilized Crucifcr, a, 187.
Window Gardening, Origin of, 94.
Wings of Moths, )43, I66, 159, 215.
Winter Stores, 68.
Winter, the Aquarium in, 69.
Wire- worms, to destroy, 48.
Wood Ants, 71.
Wood-mouse, the, 143.
Worm-bait Anglers, 190.
Worms, White, 191.
Wren, the Gold-crested, 31.

Ykast, 140.

Yew-trees, and their presumed Age, 100,
137.

Zeus aper, 42.
Zoological Study, 95.
Zoophyte, a Rare, 125.
Zoophytes, Hydrozoan, 152.

V'YMA\ AXD SONS, PEINTERS, GKEAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.

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