S.Hk- THE POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. A QUARTERLY MISCELLANY OF ENTERTAINING AND INSTRUCTIVE ARTICLES ON SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS. EDITED BY JAMES SAMUELSON. VOLUME I. ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1862. LONDON : GOX AND WYMAN, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN S INN FIELDS. CONTENTS Corn. By Professor J. Buckman, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.S.A., &c., Illus- trated by the Author ... ... ... page, 9 The Daisy. By Mrs. Lankester. Illustrated by J. E. Sowerby ... 17 The Crown Animalcule. By P. H. Gosse, F.R.S., with Illustrations by the Author, engraved by Tuffen West, F.L.S ... 26 The Lowest Forms of Life. By the Editor, with Illustrations by the Author and Dr. J. B. Hicks, F.L.S. , engraved by G. H. Ford, and Tuffen West, F.L.S. ... ... ... ... ... ... 50 Iron and Steel. By R. Hunt, F.R.S. ... .'. 61 Artificial Light. By Professor Ansted, F.R.S 80 The Breath of Life. By W. Crookes, F.C.S. 91 The West Coast of Equatorial Africa. By the Editor. With a Coloured Map ... ... ... 100 The Great Comet of 1861. By J. Breen. Illustrated by the Author 111 Caverns and their Contents. By Professor Ansted, F.R.S. ... 135 The Lowest Forms of Life. By the Editor. Illustrated by Tuffen West and G. H. Ford ... ... ... ... ... ... 145 The Flower Animalcules. By P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. Illustrated by the Author ... ... ... 158 Cotton. By Dr. Lankester, F.R.S. Illustrated by Tuffen West ... 170 Grass. By Professor Buckman, F.L.S. Illustrated by J. E. Sowerby 186 The Reflex Theory. By G. H. Lewes 196 Solar Chemistry. By R. Hunt, F.R.S. With a Coloured Diagram 205 Optical Phenomena of the Atmosphere. By G. F. Chambers ... 216 The Phosphorescence of the Sea. With a Plate. By A. de Qua- trefages, Member of the Institute of France, &c. &c. Translated, with Explanatory Notes, by the Editor 275 The Sun and Solar Phenomena. With a Coloured Plate. By James Breen, F.R.A.S 299 Light and Colour. With a Coloured Plate. By Robert Hunt, F.R.S. 310 IV CONTENTS. The Great Exhibition Buildings. With an Explanatory Plate. By W. Fairbairn, C.E., D.C.L., Member of the Building Com- mittee, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science page 317 The Application of Science to Electro-Plating. By G. Gore . . . 327 Artificial Precious Stones. By W. S. IIowgraye 332 The White Clover. By Mrs. Lankester. With Two Plates by Tuffen West ... ... ... ... ... ... 337 The Human Heart. By Isaac Ashe, B.A., T.C.D 350 The Great Exhibition of 1862. Introduction : the Agricultural Implement Department. Part I., with page Plate. By Howard Reed ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 405 The Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges. With page Plate. By W. C. Unwin, B. Sc. .. 416 Primitive Astronomy. With two Coloured Illustrations by the Author. By the Editor 426 The Physics of a Sunbeam. With a Coloured Plate. By R. Hunt, F.R.S. 438 The English Califprnia. By G. P. Bevan, F.G.S. 444 The Contents of Caverns (concluding Part). By D. T. Ansted, F.R.S. 450 The Microscope, with Directions for its Use. Illustrated with Wood- cuts. By C. Collingwood, M.B., F.L.S 461 The Builder Animalcules. With a page Plate. By P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. 474 The Common Truffle. With a page Plate. By Jabez Hogg, M.R.C.S., &c. 496 Miscellanea ... ... ... ... ... ... 123, 223, 362, 502 Reviews of Books ... ... ... ... ... 116, 232, 370, 506 Scientific Summary — Quarterly Retrospect ... 128, 247, 379, 511 INTRODUCTION. THERE is a tale told of a wealthy farmer who had a lazy and improvident son, whom he called to his bedside in his dying hour, to inform him that in a certain part of his farm he had concealed a treasure. Before he had time, however, to state the precise locality in which it was hidden he was over- taken by death, and prevented from completing the revelation. The narrative goes on to say that as soon as the old man’s spirit was departed, the son delved over every portion of his farm in search of the treasure ; and in order the better to conceal his object, he at once caused the soil to be prepared for ^t he sowing season. The precious hoard was nowhere to be found; but owing to the thorough tillage to which his land had been subjected, his first crop was so prolific that it encouraged him to further industry ; and growing in substance, he forsook his indolent ways and became a wealthy and respected yeoman. This story, which is no doubt familiar to most of our readers, is remarkably figurative of man’s progress in scientific know- ledge. There is another Father; and one of the means employed by Him to develop the noblest powers of his children (often turning them from evil to good courses), is the appeal to their love of gain. A moment’s consideration will suggest to every thoughtful reader familiar illustrations of this truth, and we venture to say that every number of this Journal will contain statements of facts by which it will be corroborated. One example, however, appears to us more striking and appropriate than any other, and it is this : The desire to become possessed of immense treasures induced the representatives of science, in former times, to deny them- selves almost every earthly enjoyment. Secluding themselves b 2 4 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. from society, they porecl over philosophical works, and passed whole days and nights in experimenting upon the elements, and in submitting the baser metals to every conceivable process, with a view to them conversion into gold. We have his picture before us — the old alchemist ! There he sits in his vaulted chamber, upon his carved, high-backed arm-chair. His head, of which little else is visible than his long bowing hair and beard, leans upon his left hand, whilst with the right he turns over the pages of some mouldering volume in search of the “ hidden treasure.” Around him may be seen the emblems of his craft. In one corner is a small furnace, fitted with a primitive pair of bellows, on which stands an iron still. Mortars, pestles, crucibles, air-pumps, weights and scales, flasks, funnels, pincers, jars, and vessels of every kind lie scattered about in confusion. On a board or rude table, sur- rounded by these appliances, sits the great black cat, and, suspended over the head of the hoary philosopher, the stuffed owl with outspread wings sways gently to and fro. They never found the hidden treasure, these misguided but persevering workers, but they broke through the hardened incrustation of ignorance in which mankind was buried in their day ; and it was left for their posterity, for practical men of science, to prepare the soil, sow the seeds, and reap the golden harvest. And what, after all, was the object they sought to attain, compared with the indirect results of their labours? They desired to convert the baser into the more valuable metals. This has since been accomplished; but so much more won- derful have been the other victories of science, that this one is barely known to the world. Who cares to be informed that whole services of plate which grace the banquets of the affluent have been wrought from silver extracted from the crude ore of lead ? or that the brilliant ornaments of aluminium which adorn the persons of the faff have been tortured from a lump of despicable clay ? — ay, from the meanest soil whereon you trod, and winch Avas not deemed worthy of your regards, profound philosopher and alchemist ! INTRODUCTION. 5 What, we ask, are these benefits compared with the magic influence which lulls the sufferer to sleep and spares him all the anguish of a painful operation ? or with the silent messenger that speeds from land to land with news of life and death, of peace and war, outstripping Phoebus in his course ; or to the vapoury element which, when confined and controlled, bears its master on his journeys over land and sea like some mighty “ Genius ” of the East ; or, in the stillness of night, conveys intelligence, borne on the wings of lightning from the farthest corners of the earth, and, multiplied indefinitely by this self-same power, to the home of eveiy family throughout the length and breadth of the land. But there is still another lesson of importance suggested by the simple story of the farmer’s son. He delved with a view to enrich himself alone, but the fruits of his toil supplied the wants of many. So has it been with regard to science. Had some alchemist been enabled through a mysterious process to convert the baser metals into gold, he would have amassed enormous stores of wealth, and with them hoarded up the secret of their production, and carried it with him to the grave. But it has been wisely ordained by Providence that the spread, of knowledge should be gradual, not only in this, but in every other particular ; and the unfolding of nature’s secrets has neces- sitated the united efforts of many minds. The principle of com- bination, whilst it has lightened the labours of the student, has aided materially to enrich our stores of knowledge, and the greater the harvest becomes, the more numerous will be the husbandmen. The men Avliose avocation it is to penetrate nature’s secrets, do not now, as formerly, work alone, secluded from the world, and surrounded by mysteries impenetrable to the vulgar gaze, as were their ancestors. They vie with one another in imparting, not in concealing, information ; and the thoughtful sage who spends his nights in study may be seen in the broad light of day rambling through country lanes sur- rounded by anxious inquirer^ — youths and maidens, the aged 6 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. and young — all anxious to secure a little of tlie knowledge which he has secured at the cost of so much toil, hut now dispenses with such a liberal hand. Indeed, the reserve of bygone days has passed away, the patent for man’s wisdom has expired, the microscope and telescope, the printing-press and all the other aids to scientific progress, are the guide-posts to the traveller on the road to knowledge. But still the path of the adventurer who dedicates his noblest powers to science is far from smooth. Departing from the shores of the “ great ocean of truth ” (as the wisest man of modern days has called the province of research), he commences the ascent of one of the precipitous acclivities that rise on eveiy side. Here, as he scrambles up from rock to rock, each step he mounts places within his reach fresh works of interest and wonder. These he collects, and, wearied soon with his exertions, stops to rest. But only in one sense does he rest. Adventurers less active than himself are scrambling up the heights, and cheerfully he lends a helping hand to each as he approaches. And should he, looking down, perceive some undecided pilgrim, doubtful whether the reward is worth the venture, he easts the waverer a hard-earned treasure to lure him on, and show how tempting are the prizes that await him if he persevere. And then he contemplates the glorious scene around, and in the widening prospect finds fresh coiuage to resume his upward course. Onward he goes, and at each turn he finds fresh treasures, meets with new surprises, and a still extending prospect. ;Tis true, the higher he mounts the fewer are his comrades ; but then the atmosphere becomes more pure and more invi- gorating, and greater his anxiety to reach the summit. At length it is attained ; the final effort being perchance the greatest j but what a recompense rewards his arduous ascent ! Beneath him roll majestically the clouds that hid the clear INTRODUCTION. 7 expanse which now spreads out in purest azure overhead ! He sees the limits of the mist that often well-nigh blocked his path, and still envelopes his less nimble fellow-travellers ; whilst at his feet he many provinces and departments, all grouped in harmony and constituting Nature’s realm. What next ! Shall he, exhausted, lie him down and rest upon the summit ? contemplate with indifference the fruitless efforts of those who seek to follow in his track ? or smile contemptuously upon the ignorant flounderers in the pools below ? No ! no ! If he but raise his head and gaze into the infinite blue dome above, he will perceive the approving Eye that watched him in his upward course, and will obtain a glimpse, however faint, of the Creator- Sovereign of the realms below. To Him he should direct the attention of his fellow-labourers still toiling up the heights, and thus encourage them once more to persevere. He should not plume himself upon his own successes; but should employ them for the good of others. This is the high prerogative of every advocate of scientific truth. “ Truths that the learn’ d pursue with eager thought Are not important always as dear bought, Proving at last, though told in pompous Strains, A childish waste of philosophic pains ; But truths, on which depends our main concern, That ’tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre, he that runs may read. ’Tis true that, if to trifle life away Down to the sunset of their latest day, Then perish on futurity’s wide shore Like fleeting exhalations, found no more, Were all that heaven required of human kind, . And all the plan them destiny design’d, What none could reverence all might justly blame, And man would breathe but for his Maker’s shame. But reason heard, and nature vrefl perused, At once the dreaming mind is disabused. If all we find possessing earth, sea, air, Reflect his attributes, who placed them there, Fulfil the purpose, and appear design’d Proofs of the wisdom of the all-seeing mind ; ’Tis plain the creature, whom He chose to invest With kingship and dominion o’er the rest, Received his nobler nature, and was made Fit for the power in which he stands array’d ; That first, or last, hereafter, if not here, He, too, might make his author’s wisdom clear, Praise him on earth, or, obstinately dumb, Suffer his justice in a world to come.” COWPER. Plate I. 9 CORN. BY JAMES BUCKMAN, F.G.S., F.L.S., F.S.A., ETC., PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY AMD BOTANY IN THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. THE notion entertained by the ancients, that corn was the gift of the beneficent goddess Ceres, may not impro- perly be held to express the fact that they knew little, if any- thing, of its natural origin, and that with them the need of reflection was obviated by attributing the possession of corn to a special divine interposition. The honour paid by the Romans to the “ bountiful goddess” may be gathered from the care which they evinced in depicting her form and attributes. The representation of Ceres, on a tessellated pavement, dis- covered at Cirencester ( Corinium of the Romans), gives no bad notion of the dignified treatment of which tins kind of subject was susceptible, when, even with potsherds and bits of different coloured stones, the artist, aided as he must have been by pro- found veneration and deep religious feeling, produced a design of so much grandeur as to elicit from Mr. Westmacott, the Royal Academician, the observation : “ These interesting specimens satisfy me, as an artist, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that such works were produced after examples of the very highest reach of art.”* But, however much the ancients may have venerated Ceres for her gift of wheat, &c., the care with which every natural object has been studied in our day has conduced to the conclu- sion that the so-called Cereals, in all the varieties employed by man for different purposes, were not created in the forms they now assume, but that they have been derived by cultivation from wild plants very different indeed from the civilized types with which we arc at present acquainted under the collective name of Corn. In England, wheat, rye, barley, and oats, are spoken of as corn; in the United States the Zea Mays (maize or Indian corn) enjoys that title solely ; whilst different sorts of grain are mentioned under their specific names. The scientific agriculturist, recognizing corn-plants as be- longing to the natural order Graviinacece (in other words, as * This opinion was founded on a study of the figures of Ceres, Flora, and Pomona. 10 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. being but an elevated grass), divides tliis order into two groups. Firstly, Cereal Grasses (corn) . Those yielding a seed large enough to be collected and stored as food for man and the inferior animals ; and, Secondly, Meadow and Pasture Grasses, in which the whole plant is employed as pasturage, or fodder for cattle. The seed-grain of the cereal grasses, then,forms the com crop ; and our own experiments, particularly with regard to the oat, show that our cultivated varieties, with their plump seeds, are derived from a wild oat, the seeds of which are entirely valueless — in fact, the whole plant is a weed, the mis- chievous nature of which is fully recognized by society when it speaks of a reformed profligate as having sown his wild oats.* The seeds of the wild oat are covered with stiff bristles (fig. 1 ) of a brown colour, and this, 'with the long bent awn, is in appearance so much like an insect, and the con- tortions caused by the un- twisting of the awn as it touches the water so nearly imitates the behaviour of a struggling fly, that the country urchin employs it with success as a bait for trout, whilst the Waltonian, ■with his ingeniously con- structed “artificial fly,” may get little more than his ex- ercise for his pains. The wild oat is botanically known as Avenct fatua ; it grows from three to five feet in height as a weed in corn and pulse, SPIKELET OF THE WILD OAT. (a a, the Hairy Seeds, simulating a Fishing- Ply. * We recollect once, whilst on a visit to a farmer in Worcestershire, having seen the weed-oat growing for the first time, and, though then on our way to church, we could not resist the temptation of plucking a specimen, which - was at once consigned to our sabbatical botanical vasculiun, namely, our hat ; the contents of which were noticed by our friend, and elicited from him the serious (?) remark : “ Ah, sir, what is the good of your going to church if you don’t leave your wild oats behind you 1 ” COEN. 11 in which, of course, it is a great pest, if only from the circum- stance of its encumbering the ground, and so preventing the growth of the required crop. About ten years since we collected some of the seeds of this weed (see engTaving, fig. 1), and in the following spring com- menced its cultivation in our experimental plots at the Royal Agricultural College ; and so, year by year, we saved seeds ; and in 1855 we were enabled to report the following changes : — 1st. A lighter-coloured fruit. 2nd. A less degree of hairiness, when compared with the fruits of the true Avenci fatua. 3rd. A greenish-coloured, straight, and slight awn,* in place of the black rigid one, bent at right angles, and twisted at the lower part, which characterizes the wild plant. 4th. The fruits were much more plump, arising from a greater development of gram, than in the truly wild state. 5th. The ripe fruit separated from the floral envelope less readily than in A. fatua. In 1856, seed with the characters just described was sown in a prepared bed, and the result was a large admixture of two forms or types of crop oats, one with the flowers all round the stem — the “ potato oat” form of the farmers ; and the other with the flowers all drooping to one side — “the so-called Tarta- rean oat.” (See engraving, fig. 2.) Since then we have grown these sorts so derived, in the field, and with a gradual improve- ment in point of productiveness and weight per bushel, an item which no horse-keeper will fail to appreciate. These experiments, then, have been of great interest, not only as proving that a cereal grass is derived from a wild or meadow grass ; but that the remarks of old farmers, who, in some situa- tions, objected to grow oats as a crop, “because they degenerated into the wild weed-oat,” are founded on fact ; and it is a cwdous and interesting example of experience forestalling science. This matter is further of great interest to the vegetable physiologist, as now we have, by experiment, obtained cultivated oats from wild ones ; and since then we have watched the production of loild oats as a gradual degeneration from cultivated ones. Wheat. — If one vegetable production more than another has come to be considered a direct gift to man, handed down to him in an unaltered state from the most remote periods, it is wheat ; yet, when we consider the enormous number of varieties of this plant found in different parts of the world, and remember, too, that new sorts are introduced almost every year, we cannot help being struck with the capabilities of wheat to assume a varia- tion, not only in external form, but also in differences in quality, * The beard or bristle. POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 1 9 Jl u and with, its power of adaptation to very variable conditions, such as those of climate, soil, and modes of cultivation. Let us then start from the point of view afforded to us by an examination of the two more prominent English forms of wheat, which may be thus epitomised. Triticum liybernum — ear compact, smooth, or nearly so, beardless (smooth beardless wheats) . T. vulgare — ear more or less hairy, with beard (awn) of greater or lesser length (hairy, bearded, or cone wheats). Of these there are so many varieties, that it would be almost impossible to enumerate them. Commencing then with these, we have to premise that, although their extreme differences are so great, yet they, after all, merge into each other; and we are justified in concluding that, as the sorts of wheat differ so much among themselves, the cultivated wheat- plant is derived from a wild grass. It may be remarked also, that nowhere is the wheat-plant found wild in any form at all resembling any cultivated variety. However, to quote the language of Mi1. Bentliam, in “ Morton’s Cyclopaedia of Agri- culture,” article Triticum : — “ It has never been contended that their original types have become extinct, and various, therefore, have been the conjectures as to the trans- formations they may have successively undergone ; and as no accidental returns towards primitive forms have been observed, we have, till lately, had but little to guide us in these vague surmises. Within the last few years, however, the experiments and observations of M. Esprit Fabre, of Agde, in the South of France, seem to prove a fact which had been more than once suggested, but almost always scouted, that our agricultural wheats are cultivated varieties of a set of grasses common in the South of Europe, which botanists have uniformly regarded as belonging to a different genus, named TEgilops. The principal character by which the latter genus had been distinguished, consisted in the greater fragility of the ear, and in the glumes (i. e. the chaff- scales) being generally terminated by three or four, and the pales by two or three points or awns (beards). But M. Fabre lias shown how readily these characters become modified by cultivation ; and wide as is the apparent difference between EEgilojJs ovata and common wheat, he has practically proved their botanical identity ; for, from the seeds of the JEgilopts first sown in 1838, carefully raised in a garden soil, and resown every year, from their produce, lie had, through successive transformations, by the eighth year (1846) obtained crops of real wheat as good as the generality of those culti- vated in his neighbourhood.” A paper on this interesting subject, by M. Fabre himself, will be found in the “Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,” the following note upon which, from the pen of Pro- fessor Dunal, will not be devoid of interest : — • “ The foregoing observations show that sE. ovata (L.), is capable of being extremely modified under certain circumstances. Whilst its floral envelopes lose their width and some of their awns, and thus become like those of Triticum, their stems, leaves, and ears become more and more developed, and at length acquire all the characters of wheat. The necessary inference is, that some, if not all, cultivated Tritica are peculiar forms of TEgilops, and COEN. - 13 ought to be regarded as races of this species. If this be admitted, it is easy to reconcile the accounts given of the origin of wheat. It has been said, both in ancient and in modem times, that wheat was wild in Babylonia, Persia, and Sicily. In all these countries JEgilops is common, and it is not surprising that some of its species may have accidentally acquired a wheat-like form, and have been afterwards improved and propagated by cultivation. Thus to M. Esprit? Fabre is due the merit of having ascertained the true origin of cultivated wheat. Its origin had, it is true, been suspected and vaguely pointed out by several persons ; but the honour of a discovery is really due, not to the authors of a surmise, but to him who has established the fact by observation, experiment, or reasoning, leaving no room for further doubt.” Now, it was the description of these experiments that deter- mined us to obtain some of the seeds of the 2E. ovata, and submit them to cultivation. Our first sowing was in the year 1855, in the experimental garden of the Royal Agricultural College ; but, probably owing to the cold climate of the Cottes- wolds, upon which chain the College is situate, the annual changes were but slight ; but in the warm summer of 1859 our plot of specimens had made great advances, which may be best explained by reference to our engraving'. Fig. 3 represents a spikelet of a type of JEcjilogs ovata such as we introduced into our garden. Fig. 4. A spikelet of the same kind of grass modified by cultivation, 1859. Fig. 5. An ear of bearded wheat. Our crop of last year had not improved, but it is curious to note that this wet season produced in this grass all the ordinary blights on the stalks, leaves, and ears that usually belong to degenerate or badly grown wheat crops in this country, and more particularly those black dots of fungi on the stems and leaves called mildew. Due reflection, coupled with the experiments to which reference has here been made, especially when combined with the tradi- tion that the gift of wheat corn came from the East, would lead to the inference that a wild eastern grass was operated upon by the cultivator in very early times — indeed, at a period so remote as to be referred to the ancient gods ; and the result was the pro* duction of a grain probably not so good as we grow in these days of advanced agriculture, but one in which the necessary changes were brought about from the large-seeded JEgilops to a still larger and so useful grain ; and this transformation would of course be accelerated by the warm climate in which it was effected. The subject of the production of new varieties of wheat is one of great national importance ; for inasmuch as our wheat, like most other plants of cultivation, are but derivative forms or induced varieties, it follows that with long growth in any one district a particular sort is liable to become degenerate. 14 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. It may be said, indeed, that no crop is absolutely without a new variety. This may be selected and cultivated ; and should the qualities for which it is chosen remain permanent, aud be found valuable, its extension over the whole country is insured by means of advertisements, and by the reports of the large crops produced therefrom, and its value enhanced, securing a reward to the cultivator, to which he is justly entitled as a com- pensation for his toil. One of the more recent introductions of this kind is “ Morton’s red-strawed white wheat,” the history of which is described in the “ Cyclopedia of Agriculture,” vol. ii. page 1131. Another point of public interest is that, although our fore- fathers eat rye and barley bread, and that often of a very questionable dark colour and made from a very inferior grain, bread from these kinds of grain is now almost if not quite un- known in England. Not only do the masses now eat wdieaten bread, but the drainage of our lands and better farming have greatly tended to the spread of the finer kinds of wheat all through the country.* All classes, then, are deeply interested in agricultural improvements, for not only do they tend to increase the quantity, but also to improve the quality, of human food. W e now turn to Rye ; to illustrate the history of which for our present purpose we cannot do better than quote the following from the pen of Professor Lindley : — “ Secede cereale (the common rye) is a cereal grass, distinguished from wheat by its narrow glumes, and constantly twin narrow florets, with a membranous abortion between them. Otherwise it is little different in structure, although the quality of its grain is so inferior. According to Karl Koch, it is found undoubtedly wild on the mountains of the Crimea, especially all around the village of Dishimil, on granite, at the elevation of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet. In such places, its ears are not more than one to two and a half inches long. Its native country explains the reason why it is so much hardier than any variety of wheat, the southern origin of which is now ascertained.” Rye, more especially under bad farming, is subject to a mal- formation of tbe grain, by which it becomes elongated in the form of a black spur, which is seen projecting from the chaff- scales. This, which is known to the apothecary as Secale cornutum, is used in modern obstetric practice. As it was formerly ground up in the flour of the affected rye, the con- stantly partaking of so potent a drug hi even small quantities is said to have produced the most fearful results, not only in man, but in the inferior animals who fed upon its grain or bread, such as decay and gangrene of the extremities, frightful convulsions, * It is well known that in large towns, such as Liverpool, the working classes will have the very finest flour, whilst the middle classes mostly con- sume best seconds. — Ed. COEN. 15 and death. Happily, those improvements which enable us now to cultivate a less hardy grain (for such was wheat formerly, with greater reason than at present, held to be), have in our day freed man from those devastations which a bad year of rye entailed upon the human family in times gone by. Bariev, the last cereal on which we shall comment, is practically known under three forms according to the arrange- ment of the seeds, viz. — so? TWO-ROWED. FOUR-ROWED. 0 Ao ofio 0U0 SIX-ROWED. The two-rowed forms are those ordinarily cultivated in England ; the six-rowed is more grown in Scotland, where it is known under the name of Bere. The four-rowed is, perhaps, only a variety of the six-rowed, as, in fact, may be the two- rowed — being, in one case, an abortion of a single seed in each spikelet ; and in the other, the non-perfecting of two seeds ; the whole spikelet having perfect seeds in the bere. Barley belongs to the botanical genus Hordeum, but very various have been the opinions as to the wild species from which it has sprung. In all probability Professor Lindley’s remark upon the Hordeum disticlmm is somewhat near the mark : — u H. disticlmm.- — This is the only kind of barley that has been found apparently wild. We have now before us specimens gathered in Mesopo- tamia, during Colonel Chesney’s expedition to the Euphrates, with narrow ears, little more than an inch long, exclusive of the awn (beard), or four and a half inches, awn included ; and others from the ruins of Persepolis with ears scarcely so large as starved rye. Both are straw-coloured, but that from Mesopotamia has the glumes much more hairy than the others.” The varieties of cereal barley are probably all derived from this type, or at least all the two-rowed ones ; but still with us it is a matter of doubt whether the specimens just described are not after all derived from cultivation. The H. hexastichum, six-rowed barley, or bere, in Scotland also called “ big,” of which there are several varieties, has been recommended from time to time to the English farmer. As Morton observes, “ some enterprising farmer brings them out as novelties,” while perhaps they have little else to recommend them.” “ It is only lately (1848),” says the same authority, “that a considerable sale of black barley, at high prices, for seed, was effected by the advertisement of a story connected with it, which was singular enough to attract attention. The whole of the stock it was stated, was raised from a seed taken from the crop of a goose shot on Lake Simcoe, in West Canada, whilst on its southern autumnal flight. But there was no need for the Canadian sportsman to have sent us the produce of this solitary 16 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. grain, for we have abundant stock of these varieties at home, as would long’ ago have been known to farmers in general, if either of them had deserved a more extended cultivation.” There is an old couplet which informs us, that — “ Turkey, carp, hops, pickerel, and beer, Came into England all in one year.” Now, as we incline to the belief that beer was known in England before turkey, carp, or hops, it is not improbable that this refers to the introduction of the here, or big-barley, which latter is, in fact, still much grown in Scotland, being favoured by the climate; but the two-rowed variety not only grows better in England, but commands a higher price. In bringing these notes on Corn to a conclusion, we would express the hope that our remarks have not been of too pro- fessional or technical a character for the readers of this Journal. To some extent they have been necessarily so, for it would otherwise have been impossible for us to draw attention to the all-important fact, that the corn-grasses are useful in conse- quence of the size and variety of the grain, and that these desiderata have only been acquired by careful cultivation. Reference might indeed be made to many more general truths in connection with the subject. It is our belief, on which we might have enlarged, that the production of more delicate and finer sorts of grains of every kind accompany a more extended civilization and a better class of farming ; in fact, that grain is as susceptible .of cultivation as is man himself, and that the one can no more remain at a standstill than the other. Nay, we may even carry the analogy still farther ; for a degree of over- refinement in the plant is as productive of disease and degene- ration as in the human being’, so closely does the history of corn appear to be allied to that of our race. Nor must it be supposed that the professional man is inca- pable of regarding the object of his studies solely in a utilitarian spirit — that he does not see in it something beyond mere drudgery: A “harvest home” is to us, at least, as joyful a spectacle as to the farmer whose grain is housed, and, we venture to say, in many instances, a more instructive one. “ The harvest song we would repeat : ‘ Thou givest us the finest wheat ‘ The joy of harvest’ we have known ; The praise, 0 Lord ! is all thine own. “ Our tables spread, our garners stored ; 0 '! give us hearts to bless thee, Lord ! Forbid it, Source of light and love, That hearts and lives should barren prove.” % \ \ 17 THE DAISY. BY MRS. LANKESTER. THERE are few plants which excite more general interest than the daisy. Growing extensively throughout the continent of Europe, its true home may, nevertheless, be said to be in the British islands. The very name speaks for itself ; the “ day’s eye,” as Chaucer, our old English poet, has it — “ The daisie, or els the eye of daie.” The daisy, botanically known as Beilis perennis, belongs to the natural order Compositce, of which it may be taken as a type. Possibly, to those who know nothing of the general structure of this order, the daisy may present some difficulties, and it will, therefore, be preferable, in the first instance, to employ a larger flower of the same order for observation. The Sun-flower, the French Marigold, or the Ox-eye Daisy form good examples. First let us consider the flower-head, surrounded as it is with a bright green cup, or involucre, and having the appearance of a single flower, called by old writers a compound flower, with a common calyx. It is in fact, however, a number of florets situated on a common head, or receptacle, the en- larged summit of the peduncle, or flower-stalk, is, as it were, expanded at the top, to admit of the introduction of the flowers. Thus, in a raceme, or long stalk of florets, they are situated at the sides of the flower-stalk. Were it possible to convert this into a composite flower, it would be done by push- ing it down, as it were, until it spread out in every direction ; the florets would then be fixed upon the expanded stalk now forming a receptacle. In the Composite e, the receptacle is usually covered with chaffy scales, or hairs, which form interesting’ objects under the microscope. The involucre surrounds the receptacle, and consists of a number of bright green bracts, in some cases adhering together at the edges, in other cases distinct. Within this involucre are placed the florets, which are either all ligulate, that is, flat, linear, or oblong, forming only a short tube at the base, or the flowers are all tubular, or else the central flowers are all tubular and the outer ones all ligulate. In each floret the calyx is attached to the top of the ovaiy, and assumes the form of long feathery hairs, or pappus, as it is called, which, when the florets dry, no. i. c 18 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. and fall off, still remain bleached almost white, and are familiar to us in the dandelions and thistles, where they are wafted away by the wind, like parachutes, bearing at their base the tiny fruit which is to perpetuate the plant. Inside the tube of the corolla we find the stamens, usually numbering five, sometimes four; they are adherent by their filaments to the corolla, and the anthers are united to each other in every case. This union of the anthers is one of the chief characters of the plants belonging to the order Composites. The fruit of Compositous plants consists of a single httle nut, placed immediately on the receptacle, below the pappus, to which it is attached, and this nut contains a single seed. The appearance of these fruits differs but slightly in the tubular and ligulate florets. In the disk, or central portion of the flower, the pappus which crowns the fruit is more perfect than in the ray, and frequently one of its hairs is elongated into a sort of stiff bristle. The involucre has the power of opening when the flower expands, and of closing when the florets fall off, in order to inclose the young seed, and to protect it while ripening ; it also opens and turns quite back as the fruits increase in size and become matured. This is particularly remarkable in the dan- delion. In order to facilitate the arrangement of this family of plants, it has been divided by botanists into three sub-orders. First, Cichoracece, the Chicory or Lettuce sub-order or section, in which both the ray and the disk are composed of ligulate flowers alone, to the exclusion of all tubular ones. They are remarkable for their stems yielding a white, milky juice, which, when concentrated, has a soporific quality in some species. Some plants of this section are esculent, and are eaten as salads, such as the lettuce ( Lactuca sativaj. The second section, or sub-order, is known by the name Gynarocephake, the Thistle-headed section. They have no ligu- late florets, but consist entirely of tubular florets, generally very wide at the mouth. The common artichoke (Gynara Scolymus) , as well as the various forms of thistles, belongs to this division. The third section of Compositas is the sub-order Corymb if eroe, the Chamomile section, with heads composed of both sorts of flowers, tubular and ligulate ; the tubular ones are in the disk, the ligulate in the ray, hence they are called radiate. To this sub-order belong the asters, hence it is also called Asteracece. This is by far the largest section of Composite plants. To this division belong the Michaelmas Daisies, the Chamomile ( Art fb cm is nob ills) , Leopard’s-bane ( Arnica montanaj , the Dahlias of our gardens, the common Sunflower (HeUanthus annuus) , the Colts- THE DAISY. 19 foot, Marigold, Groundsel, Ragwort, Elecampane, the Chrysan- themum, and our special favourite, the common Daisy, of which we will now proceed to speak. From the foregoing remarks on the order Composites generally, the family relationship of our little friend will he pretty well established. Nowhere has the structure and- general appearance of the daisy been described so pleasantly as in some letters on the elements of botany, by the celebrated philosopher and poet, Rousseau, but he does not appear to have thought of g-oing further into the subject than would be suggested by merely external observation. We have at this day so many appliances at hand to assist our investigations, that if we are disposed to make use of them, we shall find in our little plant much that is most interesting, hitherto undescribed. Having- determined to study the daisy in all its parts, no subject can be obtained with less difficulty. Throughout Great Britain, we find its tiny bright flowers spi-inging- up on every “ lawn and grassy plot,” by waysides, on mountain- slopes ; and in almost every country in Europe may we find “ These pearled Arcturi of the earth, The constellated flowers that never set.” In the extreme north of Europe, however, and in America, it is not common, and is there treasured as a garden flower. Though not exclusively a British plant, yet so closely is the daisy associated with the eai-liest recollections of every native of the British isles, that we can scarcely wonder that it is especially dear to the wanderer from home in distant lands, and that it brings back recollections of rural scenes such as cannot be met with elsewhere. There is an old Celtic belief that each new- born babe taken from earth became a spirit which scattered down on the land it had left some new kmd of flower to cheer its bereaved parents ; the tale is thus told : — “ The virgins of Morven, to soothe the grief of Malvina, who had lost her infant son, sung to her — f W e have seen, oh Malvina ! we have seen the infant you regret, reclining on a fight mist ; it approached us, and shed on our fields a harvest of new flowers. Look, oh Malvina ! among these flowers we distinguish one with a golden disk, surrounded by silver leaves; a sweet tinge of crimson adorns its delicate rays ; waved by a gentle wind, we might call it a little infant playing in a green meadow ; and the flower of thy bosom has given a new flower to the hills of Cromla.-’ Since that day the daughters of Morven have consecrated the daisy to infancy. It is called the flower of innocence, — the flower of the new-born.” Leaving the regions of fancy and poetry, which, however tempting and delightful if indulged in without some previous c 2 20 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. knowledge of facts as they really are, frequently mislead and confuse the mind, we will commence our close examination of the daisy by digging up as large a root of the plant as we can find. The inhabitant of a town or city has it almost as much within his power to study this botanical specimen as one who lives in the wildest country district, for there are but few places so entirely denaturalised as not to afford some space devoted to a park, green, or open play-ground. On such a plot of ground we may almost surely find the omnipresent daisy. Those who have gardens and grass-plots or lawns, be they large or small, know but too well how inveterately these little plants disperse themselves over the otherwise smooth green surface, and disturb the equal growth of the velvet turf. Much as we delight to see the poet’s flower on “waste or woodland rock or plain,” we may without compunction remove it from our garden carpets, and turn it to scientific account. First let us observe the root, or roots we should say, for they are perennial, and in digging up what appears to be but one daisy plant, we are sure to remove several others. There is an original root-stalk or rhizome, which sends into the earth num- berless fibrous rootlets ; from each original plant proceeds one or more creeping stems or offsets, which at a distance of about an inch or so produce buds or other little plants which in their turn send down fibres into the ground and propagate themselves by other offsets (pi. ii. fig-. 1). This mode of propagation does not extend indefinitely as in some plants with creeping roots, such as the Potentilla, for we do not often find more than two or three offsets attached to each plant. It would appear as though, after producing two or three new plants, the original connecting stem died away and left the young plants free. Undoubtedly, the original plants are produced from the seeds, of which we shall presently speak ; but the mode of propagation we have described is evidently very general in the daisy, for we seldom dig up a root without finding the attendant offsets at- tached to it. The roots of the daisy have a slightly bitter astringent taste, and contain, in common with other plants of the same group, a portion of tannic acid. This principle has, however, never been separated, and it is doubtful whether the old recipe of “ daisy- roots and cream ” had more than a fancied efficacy. Above the ground the daisy appears as almost interwoven with the materials forming the green carpet of our fields and pastures, so closely does it adapt itself to the circumstances in which it is found. In barren and uncultivated land it becomes a very dwarf, keeping its leaves very near the ground, and with its flower-stalk scarcely raised above the leaves. In rich mould and under favourable conditions its leaves assume a greater size, THE DAISY. 21 the stalk rises several inches in height, and all its parts expand in proportion. The leaves, of a bright grass green colour, appear above the ground at the end of the offsets, around which they are closely set ; they are usually ten or twelve in number, shaped like a spatula or oval, with the end nearest the stem gradually narrowing off. The petiole or leaf-stalk can scarcely be said to exist. At all events, it appears more like the narrow continuation of the leaf than a petiole properly so called. These leaves are notched all round the broad end, which notches are tooth- shaped; they appear covered with hairs, which are depressed or lie on the surface of the leaf, and are more abundant on the lower side than the upper. The epidermis or cuticle exhibits a number of little openings, known as stomates, from the Greek aro/m, a mouth, which have the usual form and shape of those found in exogenous plants (pi. ii. fig. 4). These orifices allow a free communication between the external air and the internal tissues of the leaf ; hence they have been called breathing pores. Some botanists have considered them as organs for the absorption of carbonic acid gas, which is the principal food of plants ; but others, amongst them Schleiden, regard them solely as organs of exhalation, enabling the plant to throw off” extraneous moisture. This view, which seems more probable than any other, is confirmed by the fact that stomates are entirely absent in succulent plants, and that in moist states of the atmosphere they are found closed, and in dry weather they remain open. There is but one rib up the centre of the leaf, the veins proceeding therefrom being hardly perceptible ; but, by holding up the leaf to the light of a candle, they may be distinctly traced. Botanists describe the leaf of the daisy as obovate, spathulate, single-ribbed, crenate, dentate, which comprises in a few words what I have endeavoured thus to simplify and explain. From the midst of the depressed whorl of leaves springs the simple flower-stalk, bearing at its summit the one flower head. Each little plant or circlet of leaves may send up one, two, or three flower-stalks. These are covered with hairs, which become thicker and more dense towards the top. These hairs resemble those on the leaf, but are shorter (fig. 15). In their early stage the flower-stalks are solid ; but as they grow they become hollow in the centre, and the cavity is especially evident near the top ; this is formed by the growth of the tissue of which it is com- posed being more rapid externally than internally (fig. 2). Like the stems of all other exogenous plants, the stalk of the daisy is composed of cellular pith in the interior, which is removed as it becomes hollow ; then some layers of woodjr fibre and bundles of spiral vessels, which are covered with an outer covering of 22 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. delicate cellular tissue or epidermis. At the summit, the flower-stalk expands into a receptacle, which is of a conical form, and at first is filled up internally with cellular tissue. When the flowers and fruit have been perfected and fallen off, we find the receptacle left, and that it has become hollow like the stalk. At first the receptacle presents the form of a small protuberance, but as it gets older it assumes more of a sugar- loaf appearance, which is very decided when the flowers and fruits have fallen from it. Around the receptacle are placed the bracts in two rows, one behind the other, forming an involucre, or, as botanists call it where the bracts overlap, a Phyllary. These bracts number from twelve to fifteen. In order to examine them perfectly we must use the microscope. Under a quarter-inch object-glass, we observe the centre portion of the bract to be denser and of a deeper green than the outer edges, which are almost transparent (fig. 3). The cellular tissue (fig. 5) of which they are composed is elongated at the margins into delicate hairs ; this condition of the edges of the bracts, produced by the absence of cMorophyle (the green colouring matter of the leaf), when very decided, is known by the term scarious. The surface of the bract is rami- fied with delicate veins running symmetrically on each side of the centre vein, and the intervals present stomates such as we have seen on the leaves. The receptacle on which the flowers are placed is covered with little elevations which, when the flowers die and fall off, mark the places where they stood (fig*. 6). In common with the rest of the tri he Aster ctcece, the flowers are of two kinds, ligulate and tubular (fig. 2, a, b). The outer white bodies which appear so much like the petals of other flowers, and are so frequently mistaken for them, are in reality the ligulate flowers of the plant, each perfect in itself. It is almost im- possible without a magnifying glass or microscope to compre- hend the true nature of these pretty little objects, which are well worth careful examination. There is no apparent calyx, neither do we find any cpiantity of the downy pappus, so abun- dant in some of the Gompositce ; this organ seems to be repre- sented by a few little hairs around the tube of the corolla in the daisy. The petal-like expansion is the monopetalous corolla of this ligulate flower (fig. 7). It is most frequently of a white colour, but in a large number of instances the tips of flowers will be found to be coloured pink. The pink colour sometimes covers the whole of the back of the flower. The ligulate flower has no stamens or pollen-bearing organs, but has a single pistil which at the top divides into two branches forming stigmas (fig. 7). Under the microscope it is evident that the pollen grains produced by the tubular flowers, of THE DAISY. oo Zo which we shall speak presently, have access to these stigmas, and so fructify the seed contained in the inferior fruit at their base. The whole body of the style is covered with delicate hairs. In the interior of the tissue of the style may be distinctly traced two or more spiral vessels, which are evidently continuous with those observed in the ribs of the leaves and in the flower- stalks. Before speaking of the tubular flowers, we would draw attention to the fact that both the bracts and ligulate flowers move under the influence of the stimulus of hght. In the evening these parts contract, and the whole head of flowers is “ shut up,” in order apparently to secure to the tubular flowers a night’s repose. But, under the light of the nest morning’s sun, the bracts and ligulate flowers spread themselves out to the fullest extent, so as to allow all access to the beneficent rays of the sun. This movement of the parts of plants under the influence of the sun’s light is very general, and is even more marked in some other compositous plants than in the daisy. Every one is familiar with the fact of the sunflower turning its noble head of flowers towards the east at the rising of the sun, and closes its large bracts over its tubular flowers whilst nodding to it in the evening towards the west. The yellow tubular flowers forming the centre portion of the daisy appear at first sight similar to the stamens of other plants, and to the casual observer would pass as such (fig. 8). Viewed under the microscope they are individually a perfect flower ; each one of these little yellow bodies contains in itself all the organs of the perfect flower. The edges of the five yellow petals unite to form a monopetalous corolla around the five stamens which enclose the pistil. These stamens having very short fila- ments, are united together by them anthers (fig. 10), which are twice as long as the filaments, and form beautiful objects under the microscope. Usually, in examining the anthers of plants we find the pollen generally diffused in irregular masses in the interior of the valves or anther-cases, of which most plants have two ; but in the case of the daisy, the pollen is found lying in two regular even rows in the cavity of the valve (fig. 11). At the time of shedding the pollen, the valve which encloses this row of bead-like bodies bursts by a longitudinal slit, and allows their escape on to the pistil in the centre or on to the pistil of the ligulate flowers surrounding them. Under the microscope the inner layers of the valve of the anther are found to be composed of fibro-cellular tissue (fig. 13). Each pollen grain is round, and covered with minute spines, and forms a beautiful object under the microscope (fig. 12). The pistil which rises in the centre of the flower has an elongated style in which are discernible the spiral vessels that exist more or less in the whole tissue of the plant. The 24 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. stigma or top part of the pistil differs from that of the ligulate flowers in that it is not so deeply cleft, and each branch is more conical than those of the formerly described stigma (fig. 9). They are covered with little processes or projections, which seem provided for the entanglement of the pollen grains that fall on them. At the base of both ligulate and tubular flowers we find the fruit which contains a single seed. The structure of the fruits of plants is a study of itself, for on careful examination the fruit is found to be a very complicated organ. The minute example before us has its various parts in as great perfection as the largest fruit with which we are familiarly acquainted. There is the hardened pericarp (fig. 14), consisting of three mem- branes or layers, an external one called the epicarp , a middle one or mesocarp, and an inner one, the euclocarp. In other fruits the middle layer being frequently of a fleshy or succulent nature, is also called the sarcocarp. Around the edge of the pericarp there is a sort of ridge or keel, which terminates at one end opposite to that where it was attached to the receptacle, and from which point the young seed or embryo sprouts forth. All over the surface of the fruit are minute depressed hairs, excepting on the keel, where there are no hairs to be seen. It does not appear that the single seed enclosed within this pericarp ever leaves its abode there ; but, as it develops and grows, the walls of its habitation divide, and allow it to expand and grow beyond them. Although this paper has been an attempt to enter as fully as possible into the microscopic structure and nature of this most interesting plant, there yet remains much to be done worthy the attention of the botanical student. The nature of the ger- mination of the seed and the development of the earliest forms of the plant would supply materials for a series of experiments and researches. It is well to remember that the forms and conditions of the daisy vary very much, according to the soil in which it grows and the circumstances under which it is found. In favourable soil the leaves attain a larger size, are of a brighter green, and the stalks of the flowers are much longer, than when we find the plant in poor and barren districts. As it approaches the sandy shores of the sea it becomes almost stunted, and produces small dark-coloured leaves and minute short-stalked flowers. In counting the number of flowers produced on one head under these various circumstances, we find that both the ligulate and tubular flowers vary from twenty to forty or fifty in number, the colour of the ligulate flowers is also very variable, from white tinged with pink to a dee]) pink scarcely showing any white whatever. In the cultivated garden daisy this is very evident ; the tubular THE DAISY. flowers become almost, if not quite, obsolete, and tbeir place is taken by bgulate flowers, which assume a deep pink colour. In the variety known by the name of “hen and chickens,” little flower-buds are formed in the axils of the bracts ; sometimes as many as ten or twelve of these minute daisies surround the parent flower, thus suggesting its familiar name. We can scarcely take leave of the little flower which has afforded us so much interest in the examination of its parts, without recurring to its poetical associations. The French name Marguerite has reference to the resemblance of its pearly bud to the rarer pearls of the ocean. Its Scotch name is (joiran, and in Yorkshire it is recognized as peculiarly the flower of childhood, and is called bairn wort. In looking through old Gerarde’s writings we find the daisy mentioned under the name of “bruise wort,” as an unfailing remedy in “all kinds of pames and aches,” besides curing fevers, inflammations of the liver, and “alle the inwarde parts.” We are not inclined to think with some writers that the botanical study and minute examination of this favourite flower in any manner detracts from its pleasant or poetical associa- tions and simple beauty. The interest with which we have regarded each little starry flower, has increased tenfold since there has been revealed to us in that little circle multitudes of perfect flowers, each with its own organization, and in every leaf and stalk and tiny seed we have seen arranged and disposed tissues as wonderfully contrived and mechanisms as beautifully adapted to every condition of its life, as though it were the oldest cedar-tree or the largest oak of the forest. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE ROTIFERA, OR WHEEL ANIMALCULES .* BY PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S. I. THE CROWN ANIMALCULE (Steplianoceros Eichhornii ). A LITTLE more than a dozen years ago, being then resident in London, I became a great frequenter of all the acces- sible collections of water in the vicinity of the metropolis. I had just purchased a microscope, and, looking with ignorant but interested curiosity at some drops of water from a neighbouring pool, was charmed with the varied forms and sprightly motions of the strange creatures that were disporting there. The result was the immediate determination to study and depict these — the creatures, namely, that were at that time included under a single group, and which had recently been opened up to the scientific world by Professor Ehrenberg, of Berlin, in his mag- nificent work, Die Infusions-tliieTchen. Since then it has been sadly pulled to pieces ; like a block of granite, of which the constituent silex and feldspar and mica lie scattered in disinte- grated granules, the great class Infusoria, so compact and firm as it appeared in the folio of the eminent Prussian microscopist, has dissolved under the storms of scientific controversy. One runs away with the Rotatoria, another with the Desmiclece, a third with the Diatomacece : the Rhizopoda get pickings ; the Annelida put in a claim ; and the remainder is so nibbled at, that we are fain to huddle away the few sheets of delicate engraving that are left in our hands, and hide them in a port- folio, for fear that Professor Agassiz should actually fulfil his threatening, and swallow up the whole. Out of the great mass of strange forms thus brought under my notice, I soon selected the Rotatoria, or, as I prefer to call them, the Rotifera, as the objects of special attention and study ; and for years thenceforth the examination, description, * The papers of this series are chiefly intended for students somewhat advanced in science ; but, so far as he has been able, the author has aimed so to simplify and arrange the matter as to convey intelligible information to such readers as have but little previous acquaintance with microscopical Natural History and Physiology. The Crowi] Animalcule. ( Stephanocaros EichTaormi .) THE CROWN ANIMALCULE. 27 and delineation of these tiny creatures became the absorbing- occupation of my entire leisure. So elegant are their outlines, so brilliantly translucent their texture, so complex and yet so patent their organisation, so curious their locomo-„ five -wheels, so unique their apparatus for mastication, so graceful, so vigorous, so fleet, and so marked with apparent in- telligence their movements, so various their forms and types of structure, so readily attainable for study in almost every locality, and at all seasons of the year : that, as fact after fact and detail after detail of organisation and habit revealed itself to me, I often wondered that scarcely any one seemed to know anything about them beyond what might be picked up from turning over the pages of Ehrenberg at the soirees of the Microscopical, or from the abridged translation of his letterpress and the copies of his plates, which Pritchard had published. I have said that this line of study made me familiar with most of the accessible collections of water in and around London. It is one recommendation of the class Rotifera as an object of research, that the species are so easily procurable, even to a resident in great cities. A moderate walk sufficed to put me in possession of some or other of the hundred and twenty species that I know to be British, all of which, with the exception of a dozen or so, I have found immediately around London. Some of these waters were pi-ivate. My very first essay was on a pond in the grounds of Mr. Samuel Berger, at Clapton, where the white lily was sitting like a queen amidst her round green leaves, on the still surface. The large Eucldanis dilatata swimming at large, several kinds of Safina grubbing among the Nitella leaves, the pretty Mastigocerca carinata, with its rat- tail and its singular unsymmetrical dorsal keel, and the curious Acfi/nurus Neptimius, remarkable for its extreme development in length, with other more familiar kinds, rewarded my search here. From a reservoir in the grounds of Mr. Alfred Rosliiig, at Camberwell, were taken Monocerca wylata, a new species, Furcularia gracilis, Pli iindina roseola, remarkable for the rosy hue with which its transparent tissues are tinged, Notommata petromyzon, with its conspicuous ruby eye, and N. parasita, eating out the interior of the majestic spheres of Volvox globator. A tank in the garden of Mr. B. Edwards, at Shoreditch, which, though in the midst of brick and mortar, has been celebrated for the treasures which it has yielded to microscopists for more than a century, has yielded me, among many other things of interest, the fine Rotifer macrurus, Philodina aculeata, so sin- gularly studded with curved prickles like those of a rose-bush, and a new species of the very interesting genus, Gallidina. A small reservoir in my own garden, and even a mere earthenware pan, filled with water and allowed to stand hi the garden for some 28 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. time, liave been very productive of good things. In the latter I have taken the pretty little house-builder, Mel i cert a ringens, on the finely-cut leaves of the water-crowfoot, as well as the still more elegant JMoscularia ornata, and the exquisite Limnias ceratophylli ; and, among the sediment, the long-legged Di.no- charis pociUmn, the thick-necked Notommata collar is, the tiny but active Diglena catellina, munching the half-decayed leaves and dropping its large eggs here and there, and the singular creature which 1 have described under the name of Diglena (?) birapliis. Wayside ponds I found productive. There is one near the turnpike-gate at Lower Clapton, which I often visited, and always with encouraging success. Among other tenants, it contained JEuchlanis lima , that form with the shell so singularly hollowed in front as to give it the shape of a crescent ; the jumping P oh/ art 1 i. ra p 1 atyp ter a, with its twelve jointed spears; several species of Brachionus , and an interesting little new genus, which I have called Pompliolyx. A pond at Tottenham- green, well stocked with the Lenina polgrh iza, or many-rooted duckweed, has given me some prizes. The first phial of water I carried home from this pool proved very turbid when examined, and appeared to contain no animal life ; but, after standing a week or two, it became clear, and was found to be densely swarming with the fine Brach ion us pa In, and another species which 1 have named B. angular is. A broad pond in front of Forest School, at Walthamstow, has always been very rich in Rotifera. Thence I first obtained that large and brilliantly translucent species, Asplam ch na Briglitwellii, so singular in its structure and economy, which first made known to us the difference between the males and the females in this class of animals. Here, too, I found the elegant CEcistes crijstaUinus living in its pellucid tube affixed to the herbage ; Brachionus amplviceros, in- teresting for the clearness with which it has allowed me to understand some difficult points of structure ; the noble B. dor eas, a new species, with very long1 anterior curving spines ; and, swimming at large in the open water, the crystalline M/nchceta pectinata, and the pretty little Anurcece, incapable of rest, because destitute of a foot. Hampstead Heath has always been a favourite resort with microscopists. A pond where horses are watered, and another just behind the Castle inn, are very productive of species; but tiny hollows on the Heath itself, many of them scarcely a yard in diameter, filled with a red- brown water strongly impregnated with iron, and completely dried up in hot weather, are unusually rich. In these, among many vegetable forms of much beauty and interest, I took the little Smphanops, with its arched helmet; the Gonochilos volvox, forming spherical groups united by the feet ; and an interesting THE CROWN ANIMALCULE. 29 new form, which. I have named Sacculns viridis. Ponds at Barking’, at Greenwich, at Battersea, and other localities, have also contributed their quota to my observations. Even dykes and ditches are not to be despised. A small ditch in a field at Shac-klewell yielded me the lovely, but rather sluggish, Pterodincc patina, and the curious Triartltra ■ mystaeina , which leaps vivaciously hither and thither, by means of its three long bristles,— both somewhat rare species. Another ditch in Parson’s field, Stoke Newington, through which a tiny stream trickles, produced Noteus quadricornis, a fine, and by no means common species. In a dyke at the Isle of Dogs, I obtained Ilydatina sent a, that transparent species which Ehrenberg selected as his standard in describing the organisation of the class. Ditches at Stratford gave me Ohoetonotus liystrix, with Scaridium longicauclum, and Notom - mata longisetcc, both remarkable for extraordinary longitude of limb ; and an extremely curious form, very abnormal, as yet undescribed, but which I have called in MS. Cochleare. Then, again, in a dyke at Maidenhead — though this is rather beyond a walk from London — I found Diglencc grccndis, a very impos- ing species, highly predatory, and furnished with remarkable toothed jaws; and a new and fine species of Salpinco, — S. ma- cracantha (MS.). The reservoirs at Charing Cross, though not rich in species, have yielded me some of the free-swimming forms, as Synchcetcc and Amcrcecc ; and among the conferva that grows along the stone-work of the margins, Polyarthra and Furcularia forficula, a rather good thing. Collections of water of higher pretensions, such as the lakes in the public or private parks and pleasure-grounds, have not in general been more prolific in yield than these humbler pools and ditches. Yet these are the suitable places to search for those forms — in general of great beauty, and remarkable for their crystal clearness — which seldom or never rest, but are ever whirling with arrowy fleetness through the water. Such are the SyncJicetce, which I have taken in some numbers in that fine piece of water known as the Black Sea, on Wandsworth Common, and the Anurcece, mostly containing small, but very brilliant species, which are abundant in the lake in Kew Gardens. The Serpentine has yielded me, besides these, Asplanchna priodonta ; and I have taken this, together with Notommata cdavulata, a very fine thing’, in the water in Regent’s Park. From the lake in Richmond Park, I have obtained Stephan ops muticus, PMlodina megalofrocha , and some species of Rattvmcs, together with some of the stationary and tube- dwelling kinds, as Floscula/ria and Melicerta, and the fine predatory Diglencc fordpata. Finally, the water in front of Kensington Palace produced me the greatest treasure of all, 30 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. the rare ancl noble St&phcvnoceros Eichhormi. It was not till after years of search that I discovered this ; but, in April, 1850, it occurred in considerable numbers adhering to the minutely pectinate leaves of MyriophyUum, pieces of which.were floating on the surface, and were washed on shore by the little wavelets that the breeze threw up. The next year, at the same season, I again obtained it at the same spot, but in less abundance. A year or two afterwards I tried again ; but the pond had been cleaned out, the Myrio- phyllum had been carefully scraped to the shore and carted away, and not a Stephanoceros have I been able to find there from that day forward. I learn, however, that it has been taken hi a pool at Highgate, and my kind friend, Mr. W. P. Bodkin, who furnishes me with the information, has promised to be on the look-out, in order to supply me with specimens. To the history of this fine species I now address myself. Stephanoceros and Floscula/ria are the most abnormal genera of the class Rotifera. They are very closely allied inter se ; but differ importantly from all other forms. I associate them into a family, marked by the following characters. FAMILY FLOSCULARIAILE, OR THE FLOWER ANIMALCULES. Animal free in infancy, permanently fixed in adult age, undergoing considerable change in form after birth, inhabiting a gelatinous tube which is excreted from the skin. Front produced into five lobes, beset with long ciliary setae, or bristle- like filaments. Jaws seated far down in the abdominal cavity, not inclosed in a muscular bulb (mcistax). Foot long, wrinkled transversely, neither telescopic nor retractile. GENUS STEPHANOCEROS (Ehrenberg). Frontal lobes long, slender, erect, convergent ; ciliary setae set around them in whorls. Jaws each of three teeth con- nected by a web. There is but one well-established species, viz., S. Eichhornii (Ehrenberg). (See pi. iii.) This exquisitely elegant creature reaches the length of one-fifteenth of an inch, and is therefore distinctly visible to the unassisted eye. Ehrenberg- can have seen only small specimens, as he gives one-third of a line as its ultimatum — one-thirty-sixth of an inch, and Leyclig names half a line, or one-twenty-fourth of an inch ; but I have seen several individuals of the dimensions I have named. The five lobes, which take the form of the petals of a flower in Floscu- Iccria, are here produced into long slender incurved arms, and the long setae are arranged in verticils or whorls. They have not the length of those in Floscularia , but are still much longer THE CKOWN ANIMALCULE. 31 than Ehrenberg has figured them. I have traced them to a length equal to two -thirds of the greatest diameter of the body.* The points, however, run out to an extreme tenuity, and can only Jie perceived by the aid of delicate manipulation of the microscope. The five arms rise erect from the front, and con- verge to a rounded point after bulging outward, so as to present the figure of a tall crown or mitre (whence the generic name) ; but the points do not actually meet. It is rare to see a speci- men with the arms spread, as Pritchard has figured (after Ehrenberg) ; I have once seen it in this condition ; but I am persuaded that it is a mark of weakness or disease. The front, at the base of the arms, forms a broad head, which is separated by a sort of neck from the body. This neck consists of two thickened collars, produced by deep annular infoldings of the skin. The body is irregularly cylin- drical, or nearly so; but is generally swollen out in various parts by the full viscera, and the developing eggs. The dorsal side is the more swelling, and shows more distinctly the some- what abrupt attenuation into the long and slender foot.f At its junction with the body, the foot is twice or thrice the diameter to which it diminishes at its lower extremity, where it is permanently attached to some foreign object, such as the leaf or stem of some submerged water-plant. Throughout its length this organ is much and irregularly wrinkled; it is capable of some degree of contraction, but it cannot be retracted within the body ; it never shows any trace of those telescopic false joints which are so conspicuous in the Pliilodinadce. The Case. — The body is encased in a gelatinous envelope (pi. iii.), the general form of which is sub -cylindrical ; but the outline is thrown, into irregular transverse folds, appa- rently through sinking from its own weight. It is not a thin tube, as represented by Ehrenberg, with a roomy cavity, within which the animal lives, as Mclicerta does; but is manifestly a thick and solid (if such a term is not a misnomer as applied to such a material) mass of gelatinous substance, with the excep- tion of the space actually occupied by the body of the annual. From observations made upon the enveloping case, on occasions in which, for some reason or other, the animal voluntarily for- sook it, it was apparent to me, that there was no organic con- nexion between the animal and its case, after the latter was once formed. The cavity left was nearly of the same form and dimensions as the body and foot, showing that it had been * Leydig makes them equal to the full diameter of the body. t Leydig’s figure (in Sieb. and Koll. Zeitschr., July, 1854) is, both in outline and in anatomical details, too diagram-like for life. 32 POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. modelled upon these. During- inhabitation the upper margin of the case is turned inwards ; and when the animal suddenly and strongly contracts itself, the top of the case is somewhat drawn in after it. But this is not the result, as has been stated,