HARDWICK E'S

Science-Gossip

1878.

a

WORKS BY THE EDITOR OF " SCIENCE GOSSIP,

HALF-HOURS IN THE GREEN LANES: a Booh for a Country Stroll

Illustrated with 300 Woodcuts. Fourth Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s.

HALF-HOURS AT THE SEA-SIDE; or, Recreations with Marine Objects.

Illustrated with 150 Woodcuts. Third Edition. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s.

GEOLOGICAL STORIES : a Series of Autobiographies in Chronological Order.

Fourth Edition. Illustrated with 175 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo., cloth, 4s.

THE AQUARIUM ; its Inhabitants, Structure, and Management. Illustrated

with 239 Woodcuts. Crown 8vo„ cloth extra, 6s.

FLOWERS; their Origin, Shapes, Perfumes, and Colours. Illustrated with

32 Coloured Figures by Sowerby, and 161 Woodcuts. Second Edition Crown 8vo. cloth, 7s. 6d.

NOTES ON COLLECTING AND PRESERVING NATURAL HISTORY OBJECTS.

Edited by J. E. TAYLOR, F.L.S., F.G.S. Contents: Geological Specimens by the Editor;
Bones, by E. F. Elwin ; Birds' Eggs, by T. Southwell, F.Z.S. ; Butterflies and Moths, by Dr.
Knaggs ; Beetles, By E. C. Rye, F.Z.S. ; Hymenoptera, byj. B. Bridgman ; Fresh-water Shells, by
Professor Ralph Tate, F.G.S. ; Flowering Plants, by James Britten, F.L.S. ; Mosses, by Dr. Braith-
waite, F.L.S. ; Grasses, by Professor Buckm an ; Fungi, by Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S. ; Lichens,
by Rev. James Crombie, F.L.S. ; Seaweeds, by W. H. Grattan. Illustrated with numerous Wood-
cuts. Crown 8vo., cloth, 3s. 6d.

HARDWICKE & BOGUE, 192, PICCADILLY.

I

yU

HARDWICKE'S

AN ILLUSTRATED MEDIUM OF INTERCHANGE AND GOSSIP

FOR STUDENTS AND

LOVERS OF NATURE.

EDITED BY

J. E. TAYLOR, Ph.D., F.L.S, F.G.S., F.R.G.S.I, & c .

VOLUME XIV.

LONDON:
HARDWICKE & BOGUE, 192, PICCADILLY.

1878.

WYMAN AND SONS,

ORIENTAL, CLASSICAL, AND GENERAL PRINTERS,

GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON, W.C.

10 if? f

PREFACE.

-o-0«^jt£oo-

O write a Preface year after year for a volume
like Science-Gossip, to mean the same thing,
and yet to say something new, would be a tax
upon the ingenuity of the most skilful writer.
Nevertheless, the Editor feels it both a duty
and a pleasure to take such an opportunity of
expressing his gratitude towards so many
cheerful helpers, his sympathies with diligent students
and inquirers with whom he has been in silent monthly
communication, and his hopeful anticipations that the time to
come may find him surrounded by as many friends as at the close
of the eventful year 1878.

The last four years have been fruitful beyond measure in Scientific
discoveries. In Physical Science, the numerous revelations have
been almost startling in their novelty, and these have culminated
in that simple and yet wonderful instrument, the Microphone. To
listen to the tramping of insects is like hearing the " footfalls on the
boundary of another world." Is it possible that the Microphone will
be to organic sound what the Microscope has been to vision ? Shall
we listen to the love-narratives of insects as we do unaided to those
of birds, or be possible hearers of their domestic squabbles ?

Unhappily, it would seem as if Science, like some land of
Goshen, were the only arena where Peace may find a perpetual
home! For, although scientific men, as inheritors of a long ancestry
of the spirit of partisanship, cannot avoid taking sides in debating
the great questions which are continually raised in their unfettered
investigations of natural phenomena; they do not condemn each

PREFACE,

other to pains and penalties for daring to disagree. No sword is
here wielded, nor artillery thundered, to determine by force what
calm reason finds herself unable to settle. Rather, a greater incentive
to further inquiry is produced, to redoubled observation and verifica-
tion of facts, and to renewed diligence in the search after truth, if
haply they may find it ! Will the time ever come when Politicians
will condescend to follow the example of savans ?

It is cheering: to observe the wider love of Nature and the
spread of scientific culture among all classes ; to note how the
pursuit of Science is a bright spot in the lives of toilers at the desk,
the loom, the anvil, and in the field. Our position fortunately makes
us acquainted with diligent and capable students, low in the scale
of worldly wealth and position, whose lives are sweetened by the
new interest in common things which popular Science has created
for them. Long may it continue to be so, and may the day soon
come when men and women will be rescued from their lower natures
by the calm dignity which Wisdom bestows on those who seek her !

As hitherto, our purpose is to keep pace with modern discovery
and investigation, and to throw open our columns to the recording
of new facts. Not less desirous are we of helping the young inquirer,
and of putting him in a way to gain higher and sounder knowledge.
Whilst endeavouring to keep clear of mere gossip, we do not wish
to write above the heads of our large circle of readers by essays on
abstruse subjects. Our aim is to spread and popularize Science,
and to encourage a love of it.

In conclusion, we heartily thank all who have helped us, and
who have promised to continue their aid. At the same time, we
implore the sympathies of those who are unaware of the burden of
correspondence and work entailed in editing a journal like SciENCE-
GOSSIP, and who may feel aggrieved at imagined slights. To each
and all of those with whom we have been in cheerful literary
and scientific companionship for the last year, we wish a " Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year !"

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Arenicolites sparsus, tracks and

burrows of, 181
Arenicolites didymus, 181

Taking Cast of, 109
Blow-fly, Teeth of the, 148, 149
Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Delphinus tursio),

8S
Brambles about London, 204, 205, 206, 220
Brill, the, Prepared for Taking Cast of,

108

Bronze Celt (Bronze Age), Chesterfield,
109

Butterflies in the Neighbourhood of Dork-
ing, 196, 197

Butterfly, Blenny, Prepared for Taking
Cast of, 109

Cabbage Leaf, Malformation of, 201
Catocala sponsa(Dark Crimson Underwing

Moth), 32
Chair in Great Yarmouth Church formed

from Skull of Sperm Whale, 28
Collecting-box, a New, 269
Common Daisy, Median Prolification in

the, 160
Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis), 85

"Dero," a Fresh-water Annelid,
Structure of, n

Diatom, Sections of a, 104, 105

Drosera rotundifolia (Round-leaved Sun-
dew), 4

Drosera anglica, Leaf of, 160

Drosera obovata, Leaf of, 160

Dublin, Geological Map of the Neigh-
bourhood of, 180

Epping Forest, Fungi, &c. of, 249, 252,

253. 273
Equisetaceae (Horse-tails), 224

Flint Axe (Neolithic), Denmark, 100
Flint Dagger (Neolithic), Denmark, 100
Flint Implement from Brandon, 76
Flint Implement from Langey, 76
Flint Implement from Le Moustier, 77

Flounder, the, Prepared for Taking Cast

of, 108
Flowers, adaptive appliances in, 156
Foraminifera of the Shetland Isles, 52, 53
Fossil Polyzoa, 248
Frog's Spawn, Modifications of, Changes,

and Structure of, 53

Glass-eating Lichen, Cellular
Structure of, 129
I Glyciphagus plumiger, 132
; Gnat, Larva of the, 269
Grampus griseus (Rissot's Dolphin), 61
Grampus (Orca gladiator), the, 60
Graphiola phcenicis (Date Palm), Leaves
of, 124

Hafted Implement (Neolithic),

Schaffes, Switzerland, 100
Harvestman Spider, the, 80
Histioderma Hibernicum, 181, 182
Hylisinus fra.xini, 125

Kestrel, the (Falco tinnunculus),
ioi

Lama, the, 245

Lavatera arborea (Tree Mallow), 13

Linnet, Parasite of the, 233

Lophius piscatorius (Angler-fish), 153

Lucernaria auricula, 132

Lythrum Salicaria (Purple Loose-strife), 5

Machine for Mounting Slides, 87

Mercurialis annua (Annual Dog's Mer-
cury), 12

Micrometer Measurements, Diagrams to
Illustrate, 176

Miniature Microscopic Lamp, 232

nvmphon gracilis, 133

Oldhamia radiata, 181
Orobanche rapum (Broom-rape), 13

Parasite of a Cod, 34
Parasite of a Gurnard, 34

Parasite of a Ling, 34

Parietaria officinalis (Pellitory of the

Wall), 12
Parnassia palustris (Grass of Parnassus), 4
Perisporiacege, 172, 173
Physeter macrocephalus (Sperm Whale), 8
Pilot Whale (Globicephalus melas), 85
Pinnularia, Diagrams Illustrating, 28
Piper Gurnard, Prepared for Taking Cast

of, 109
Pisa tetraodon, 132
Pollack Whiting, the, Prepared for Taking

Cast of, 109
Pseudorca crassidens, 61

Quartzite Implement from Creswell,
77

ROCKLING, THE, 109

Rotifer, Diagram Illustrating Birth of a,
200

SCHIZANTHUS PAPILIONACEUS, RACEME
OF, 157

Section of Sand-dune, Lancashire, 29
Section of Sandstone Cliff, Suffolk (after

Lyell), 29
Skull of Sperm Whale, 28
Sphinga, or Sphinx Ape, 225
Spiranthes autumnalis (Ladies' Tresses), 14

Tamarisk (Tamarix gallica), 14

"Tangle" Dredge, a, 221

Terraced Hills of the Bun en, as seen from

North of Galway Bay, 229
Terraced Limestone Hills, Glen Colomb-

kill, 228
Thornback, the, Prepared for Taking Cast

of, 10S
Thunbergia alata, 56

White Mites, 35

White-beaked Dolphin (Delphinus albiros-
tris), 86

Ziphius Mesoplodon, Head of, 84

mm

THE POTATO BEETLE.

A LITTLE OIL ON THE WATERS.

By W. V. ANDREWS.

Corresponding Secretary of Long Island Entomologists' Society, U.S.A.

PHE occasion of the ap-
pearance of this little
article is a paper which
appeared in the Sep-
tember number of
Science-Gossip, writ-
ten by Mr. E. C. Rye.
No one will dispute
the assertion that any-
thing from the pen of
that gentleman, particu-
larly on entomology, is worthy of our serious atten-
tion, and therefore it is that I regret to see him in
the ranks of the alarmists, — already, as I should
judge, too well recruited.

I will assure your readers that to us, who have now
for some years been familiar with D. decemlineata,
the alarm seriously felt in the Old World lest this
insect should visit your shores seems verging on the
ridiculous. I do not, of course, mean that reasonable
precautions should not be taken ; but the idea of
stopping the transmission of dead specimens through
the mails, as I know has been done, and thus pre-
venting your people from making a personal acquaint-
ance with the insect, appears to me to have a ten-
dency to defeat the object in view.

Certainly I should adv.se no Englishman to import
Jive specimens, and I shjuld advise all farmers and
gardeners to rid themselves of the presence of the
beetle, as I should advise them to rid themselves of
a crop of thistles. But if they imagine that its
existence in their fields is likely seriously to injure
■their crops, then I assure them that they are very
much mistaken. We have had this beetle on Long
Island in immense numbers for some years, and I
do not believe that any one has suffered any
appreciable loss through its depredations. Farmers
.all say this.
No. 157.

If any loss have been sustained, it has rather been
through the i - emedy used than through the disease.
And here let me earnestly advise my countrymen — for
I am an Englishman — if the 'ieetle should make its
appearance in the tight little island, to use no Paris
green, or other poisons, with a view to its extermi-
nation. There are two or three sufficient reasons why
such remedies should not be used : —

1. Its application, in any form, is not without
danger. If it be dangerous to wear green silks or to
use green paper for walls, it surely must be injurious
to apply this poison in any way by which its entrance
into the human system is rendered possible, and
probable.

2. The first shower of rain or gale of wind will
remove every particle of the powder from the foliage
of the potato, and either disseminate it through the
atmosphere or imbed it in the soil, to be stirred up
by the hoers or diggers.

3. Its use is entirely unnecessary. For small plots
of land hand-picking by boys or girls is efficacious
and without danger (for I do hope that your readers
are not believers in the foolish stories told of the
beetle being poisonous). For larger lots an ordinary
butterfly bag-net, swept gently along the potato-
tops, will capture more beetles in an hour than Paris
green will kill in a week ; and, by the way, recollect
that Paris green will kill other things besides potato
beetles. An American farmer applied a pretty good
dose of this poison to the potatoes in his garden " one
dewy eve," and on the next morning found four dead
milch-cows in his pasture. The cows had broken
into the garden, and — increased the quantity of beef
in that vicinity.

Mi". Rye tells you that Paris green is a favourite
remedy here, but he does not understand the American
mode of doing things. Some State entomologist or
other probably had ~ friend in the oil and colour

B

HARD WICKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P.

business, and gave a friendly puff to Paris green.
Then the oil-and-colourman advertises in some
agricultural papers that he has the " never-failing
exterminator " of potato-bugs — Paris green, and the
editor of that journal at once strongly recommends
it. You do not do things in that way in honest old
England, but we do here.

One word of advice. When your potatoes are
four or five inches high, just occasionally turn up
the leaves and examine the under side. If you find a
bunch of orange-coloured eggs, nip them off. They
probably were deposited by D. decemlineata. In a
week or so look again. If you find that the foliage
has been eaten from a plant pretty thoroughly, and
should find a dirty brick-red animal, like that figured
by Mr. Rye, on that plant, remove the animal the
way I have advised. It is the beetle in its larval
state ; and, recollect, that in that state it does most
of its eating. But it is a poor traveller, and does
not wander about unnecessarily. So, when you
have found one from a batch of eggs, you may be
sure the others are near at hand. One stroke from
the net will capture most of them. Work atten-
tively, now and again, and your potato crop will
not suffer. Recollect, however, that other things
besides D. decemlineata eat potato vines. Here we
frequently suffer from the attacks of the Lyttas, or
blister-beetles, which devour lots of potato foliage.

Caution ! Mind, that all striped beetles found
on potatoes are not Colorado potato beetles, but
may be useful little fellows, whose larva; devour
other larv;£ injurious to us.

THE PRONUNCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC
NAMES.

IN regard to the pronunciation of Latin and Greek,
perhaps the confusion of theory and practice is
greater at the present time than it has ever been.
The attempt to give c and g the hard (guttural) sounds
in all such words is really only a part of a much
wider scheme, which aims at restoring, as far as
possible, the actual pronunciation of the ancients
themselves. If these actual sounds can be recovered
with any certainty, there is a possibility that some
time Latin and Greek will be pronounced in a similar
way by all who learn them, to whatever nation they
belong. This is only what is done, as a matter of
course, in the case of all other tongues, and no reason
could be assigned for adopting a different practice in
this instance. Prejudice stands in the way, but we
need not despair of overcoming it. When I began to
learn Latin, I was told that when I travelled in a
foreign country, the language of which was unknown
to me, I should be able to communicate my wants to
any well-educated man by expressing them in Latin.
In writing, of course, this could always be done, as,
in fact, it is in the correspondence of many scientific

men of the present day, especially those who belong
to the Russian, Swedish, and other nations, whose
languages are not generally known. But if two of
these savans met, they would be as entirely unable to
communicate orally with one another as if they knew
no Latin at all — a result which I have no hesitation
in calling ridiculous.

But is there any possibility of recovering the actual
sounds used by the Greeks and Romans at the time
of their greatest literary prosperity? — the last clause
being necessary, because their pronunciation changed
with time, as ours has done. This is not the place to
discuss the question, but the attempt has been made,
and, I believe, with success ; not with absolute
certainty, perhaps, but sufficient to remove, at any
rate, most of the difficulties in the way of the adoption
of a universal standard. It is no objection to this
proposal to say that the people of each nation are in-
capable of pronouncing certain sounds. This is not
true, so far as relates to the languages with which we
have practically to do. No Englishman, for instance,
if properly instructed, can fail to learn the sound of
the German ch, or the French u or eu in a short time,
and practice will then make it easy. Moreover, the
number of sounds peculiar to each nation is much
exaggerated. The French, it is said, have a dislike
to the sound of w. It would not be difficult, were
this the place for doing so, to make out a long list of
words which every Frenchman uses, in which this
sound occurs, though not the letter. Conversely, the
so-called peculiar vowel-sound of the word cueillir
has its exact counterpart in English words.

Although the time is not ripe for the adoption of
the above-mentioned scheme in its entirety, there is
one feature of it which will form a good step in ad-
vance, and which may be at once accepted. This is
the absolutely certain fact that c and g should invari-
ably have a guttural sound. I am not speaking of the
attempt to make this rule apply to English words
derived from classical roots. That is quite a distinct
subject, though it is not always kept distinct. Scien-
tific names are Latin words, and should be so pro-
nounced. The case of Geranium and the like will be
no obstacle, for it is easy to pronounce the g hard
when we speak of Geranium molle to a fellow-botanist,
and soft when we speak to a lady-friend of the
geraniums in her conservatory. This is no more than
is done every day by people who can speak more than
one language. They do not, for instance, give the
same sound to ball in English, and ball in German,
because they are spelled the same, and are names of
the same object : and similarly with the French and
English point.

With reference to the pronunciation of words
derived from names of persons and places, it will be
only consistent to insist that they shall be sounded
according to the rules of the language from which
they are taken. In so far as they are neither classical
words nor derived directly from classical sources,

HARD WICKE } S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

there can be no reason for pronouncing them as such,
even if it were not sometimes impossible to do so. I feel
sure every botanist, meeting with one of these strange-
looking words, would rather give it the proper sound
than attempt to pronounce it according to English
rules, with a result which, he is painfully conscious,
is absurd. What is wanted, is a compendious and
handy guide to the sound of the letters in the chief
foreign tongues, such as French, German, Italian,
Swedish, etc., and even Russian. It will be found
that the sounds which do not exist in English are
very few, and plain directions can be given for the
attainment of most of those. Were such information
commonly disseminated among scientific men (and
perhaps Science-Gossip would be a good place for
it to appear in), we should cease to hear such
barbarisms as Hypniun Swartzii, with the w pro-
nounced as in English, and Veronica Buxbaiimii, with
the ait as in the English haul. It would be found,
too, that the trouble required would not be great.
Merely to learn how certain consonants and vowels
are sounded in a language, is a very different thing
from learning the language itself.

W. B. Grove, B.A.

A DOMINIE'S BOTANICAL HOLIDAY.

WHAT a grand thing it is to have a holiday,
and how refreshing to live almost out of doors
for a whole month ; to wander hither and thither fancy
free, by the brookside, or amid the tangled mazes of
the wood, to ascend to the top of yonder hill, or to
find out a path for ourselves through the glen — to
climb the rock by the sea-side, or to lie on one's back
on the thyme-covered bank above ! With some
such thoughts did I awake one morning in the
summer-time of last year. My holiday I intended
this year to spend in the west of Scotland, and once
on board the Marmion, with the "guid braid"
Scotch tongue all around me, I fancied myself there
at once. The weather was beautiful, and the good
ship Marmion steamed away right merrily for the
North. As we reached Flamborough Head we had
a good view of the land, and all the way from this
point the objects of interest were noted by tourist
passengers.

All this time I am on the sea, and as I cannot do
much in a botanical way on board of a steamer, I
live in a sort of poetical dream, in which the cha-
racters in "Marmion" are all chasing each other
through my brain. At length we arrive at our
destination, and saying good-bye to the steamer,
I pay a short visit to " Auld Reekie," my Alma
Mater, and in a short time find myself en route for
the west.

On arriving at A , my botanical rambles at

length begin, and I am soon in the full enjoyment of
the pleasures I had looked forward to. Over most

of the ground I had already made excursions as a
boy. Then my pursuit savoured somewhat of orni-
thology, now in manhood's day I was a humble
student of the beauties of Flora's domain.

Several of my rambles on this occasion I shall
always remember with pleasure, and one of those in
the foremost rank would be that visit to the Carrick
country. Who does not admire the purple heather
of our Scottish hills ? Now I was able to make a
distinction between the commonest kind of all —
Ling or Calluna vulgaris, and the different kinds o
Erica which grow together on the hill-side, and a
new pleasure seemed to be mixed with my boyish
love for the "dark purple heather." The Blue-bell
{Campanula rotundifolia) is to be found gracefully
nodding its head to every little breeze, and seeming
to bring up memories of "auld lang syne," and,
although I can remember it as one of the most
delightfully common of little flowers of my boyhood,
I can also remember the words of Ellen, the " Lady
of the Lake," that—

" It drinks heaven's dew as blithe as rose
That in the king's own garden grows."

A wealth of hillside flowers is to be found around
me, such as the pretty little Eyebright and the
Creeping Cinquefoil, with its relative the common
Tormentil. Moving on a little on one side I come
across two of Our Lady's flowers — the Lady's Mantle
(Alchemilla vulgaris), and the Galium verum, or
Lady's Bedstraw, or Beadstraw. Getting into a
part where the ground is somewhat moist and boggy,
the lovely Parnassia palustris soon rivets attention.
What a splendid view from the top'of the hill ! Right
away to the Irish coast almost, on one side, and
around me I can survey the whole extent of country
where

" Bruce he shook his Carrick spear."

Another very enjoyable ramble was the one paid to
Loch Doon, the birth-place of the " bonnie Doon."
This was accomplished by going by rail to Dal-
mellington and walking to the loch. The walk by
the side of the Doon is a magnificent one, and as the
glen gets narrower and the rocks higher I am fairly
enraptured with nature's works. At length I emerge
from the glen with pleasant thoughts of the beauty of
the ferns and mosses which I have seen peeping out
from the crevices of the rocks and adorning every
spot of vantage. Keeping company with the Crypto-
gamia I had also observed quantities of that pretty
saxifrage the London Pride, or " None-so-pretty,'"
and the Crow Garlic, with its beautiful star-like
blossoms, and its leaves somewhat resembling those
of the Lily of the Valley. Having got safely through
the glen, I find myself on the borders of a wild high-
land lake, studded here and there with islets. Being
desirous to change the walk, I reach Dalmellington
by a different route, and as I have to pass through

many acres of bog-land, my old friend the Parnassia,

B 2

HARD WICKE 'S S C1ENCE • G O SSIP.

fialnstris is found in great plenty. The Ericas also
look well, and I am constrained to gather some of
them. I also find the Milkwort, or Rogation
flower, in great plenty and very various in its hues.
Dalmellington is at length reached after a long
ramble, and I am glad of a little rest after my
labours.

The flowers on the Ayrshire coast are very
numerous, and an excursion for the purpose may be
made with advantage by any one who may be

Fig. i. Grass of Parnassus {Pamassia jial/ts/r/s).

interested in wild flowers. The Sea Convolvulus
and the Rest Harrow, with the Scurvy Grass and the
Eryngo Maritimum, may be found here in great
plenty, besides hundreds of other well-known plants.
A great many varieties of the most beautiful of the
Alga: may be gathered on the sea-shore after a
storm.

After spending about a fortnight on the mainland
I determine to make the Isle of Arran, in the Firth of

Clyde, the scene of my operations for the remaining
part of the time. Crossing one morning from
Ardrossan in a little steamer, I arrive at Brodick,
and at once start for a walk across the island.
Having got right to the other side I proceed to
arrange about a lodging, and as I am out of the way
of all bustle I make up my mind to enjoy myself.
I could soon see that 1 was looked at, as I thought,
with some degree of patronage by the natives. In order
to encourage me several hoary islanders used to

iifc^

Fig. 2. Round-leaved Sundew {Droscra rotund if olio).

appear with immense bundles of weeds round the
cottage where I lodged, about eventide. As the
evenings were fine I used to take a chair out uf
doors and hold a sort of reception. It was to me
very amusing to observe the specious pretexts by
which these "ancient mariners" used to lure one
to talk when they found that I could tell them
about London ; and how desirous they were to
know all about it. Almost every evening I might

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

5

expect one or more of my friends coming to visit
me, and to hear something more about the "big
ceety." In the daytime I enjoyed my rambles
exceedingly, and I came across many specimens
here that I had not seen for some time. The
lovely Alpine Lady's Mantle repaid a climb up one
of the hills, and in the boglands below I found the
Drosera rotundifolia, and its usual companion the
longifolia. Another carnivorous little plant which
is often a near neighbour, one of the Butterworts,

Fig. 3. Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum Salkaria).

I also found in
part of the bog

the same neighbourhood. One
I found quite covered with the
Cotton Grass, and close by a great deal of the
Marsh Cinquefoil, which, although it has done
flowering, I am able to make out by its strawberry-
looking seeds. Another part of the bog I find
covered for a great distance by the Horsetail
(Equisetitm), and in the running stream by the side,
its representative the Hippunis. The Bog Bean is

also present with its tripartite leaf, but it is now
destitute of flowers, and in close proximity is the
Marsh Valerian. Before leaving the moist ground
I feel called upon t o admire the beauty of a large patch
of the Purple Loosestrife, which has a grand effect.

It was after one of my excursions, and whilst I was
holding my usual evening " confab " with my friends,
that one of them confided to me that ' ' a wee drap
o' Luckie Findlay's whusky wad be a guid thing
to carry wi' ane oot on tha hills." I told him that
it might or it might not, but as I did not want it
for the purpose of quenching thirst it would be a
useless encumbrance. I saw that Donald looked
quite astonished at my te merity to venture to speak
slightingly of what was to him, no doubt, a sove-
reign remedy for everything whatever.

It was only a day or two after this that I took
my farewell ramble in Arran. It was not the best
of days, and the weather seemed to be breaking up.
As my holidays were now drawing to a close, I was
not so much concerned on the subject. In this,
my last excursion, I came upon the Osmunda regalis
in a boggy piece of ground. It was growing up in
several clumps, and looked very well indeed. After
this I also came across the Sweet Gale, or Bog
Myrtle. It was about here in great profusion, and
smelt very strongly of the myrtle-scent belonging
to it. A little farther on amongst the Sheep's-bit
Scations and the heather, both purple and white,
I found for the first time the pretty Bog, or Lan-
cashire, Asphodel. Another plant which I found
for the first time was the pretty White Sedum,
down on the rocks by the beach. Though I have
often gathered these two plants since, this was my
first introduction to them, and I shall always re-
member them in connection with the " Misty Isle of
Arran." J. Mills Higgins.

TAME BEARS IN SWEDEN.
By John Wager.

IT is well known that the Bear, by a course ot
severe discipline, can be taught to carry a long
pole in his paws or a pert monkey upon his back, to
dance to the music of pipe and drum, and to perform
tricks which the solemn gravity of his demeanour,
his clumsy motions, and shaggy hide, render the more
amusingly grotesque. He may also be seen, in the
den of a 'menagerie, to leap through a comparatively
small ring encircled with flame, associated, during
the performance only, with leopards and a hyaena ;
though the uncouthness and reluctance with which he
accomplishes the feat, contrasted with the graceful
and ready spring of the leopards, is enough to make
the hyaena laugh ; while, of all the performers, he has
evidently the most intractable temper, and is least
trusted by the spangled damsel who presides with
the whip.

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OSSIP.

Yet, when young, the Bear is not altogether devoid
of amiable qualities, as the following narrative will
prove. The account was communicated to the present
writer in 1867 by a Swedish acquaintance residing at
Mora, in Dalecarlia, the bear being then living, and
the property of a gentleman at Siknas, in Venjan, an
adjoining parish, having been taken when about three
weeks old from the adjacent forest in February, 1865.
Being fed with warm milk, young Bruin throve
satisfactorily, and when large enough to enjoy liberty
he usually sojourned in the yard with the bear-dog
" Jeppe," playing and springing about his companion
like a cat. He was also much attached to his master,
delighting to accompany him not only to the forest,
where he often clambered up trees, but also into the
house, where removing chairs and tables from one
room into another appeared to be his favourite oc-
cupation. Strangers who visited Siknas always
received his attentions ; but as these were somewhat
brusque, and expressed in a surly tone, they tended
rather to repel than attract.

To Swedish punch (a luscious compound of arrack
and sugar) he was extremely partial, and partook of
it, whenever invited, out of a glass, like a well-bred
gentleman, but afterwards showing his loutish and
lumpish nature in a drunken fit, concluding with
heavy sleep and loud snores.

One day, while Bruin was yet of tender years, a
kitten came into the yard and immediately drew his
surprised attention upon herself; but young Puss, not
admiring his looks, first cast upon him an angry glance,
and then sprang up and fixed her claws in his head,
exciting such alarm that he trotted off in a nervous
perspiration, and ensconced himself in an outhouse.
Subsequently he always fled at the sight of this cat,
though she was the only one of which he showed fear.

Bruin took a daily bath in the river, which flows
within a stone-throw of the house ; swimming across
and back again. He then trotted to an ice-cellar, the
roof of which was easily accessible and covered with
deal boards, one of which projected considerably
beyond the rest ; towards the end of this he used to
ci"eep warily, to enjoy the swinging motion that
resulted. It was a mode of recreation of which he
frequently availed himself.

Whenever he could intrude into the kitchen he
bemeaned himself like an officious and meddlesome
husband, disordering affairs, greatly to the vexation
of the domestics, to whose castigations with a stout
knob stick he payed little regard. One day he laid
hold of a coffee-pan that stood on the hearth, and was
conveying it in his paws to the yard, when the hot
contents, overflowing on his bosom, provoked him to
cast it on the ground and flatten it with a stroke of
his paw. He would also, when opportunity occurred,
smuggle himself into the larder (a detached building),
looking round first to see that he was not observed,
then bring out some article, especially a cheese, which
he found convenient to carry ; but on one occasion he

made free with a tub of clouted milk and cream,
handling it, however, so awkwardly that the ropy
tenacious contents streamed down the front of his
erected corpus, and, as in the case of the coffee-pan,
brought vengeance on the tub. After fruitless en-
deavours, with tongue and claws, to clear the viscous
mass from his best fur coat, he betook himself to the
river, and then solaced himself with a swing.

This partiality for swinging or rocking rendered
him an undesirable companion in a boat ; yet he
constantly followed his owner to the river-side, and if
not admitted as a passenger, would swim after the
boat, grunting like a hog. During one river excur-
sion which he had been allowed to share he enjoyed
as usual his rocking, till the boat, gliding down the
river, entered a stormy rapid, when he became quite
agitated with fear, trembling in every limb and hold-
ing on each side of the boat so long as it remained in
the weltering force. When indulged with a ride by
land, he would sometimes leap on the shafts of the.
vehicle, and placing a hind leg on each, rest his fore
paws on the horse's back.

As he grew older it was found necessary to impose
some check upon his movements, and for this purpose
a chain, with a log at the end of it, was attached to a
collar round his neck. Such badge of servitude and
interference with the liberty of a free-born bear was-
not to be borne. At first he tried to strike off the
log with his paws ; then he dragged it to the river,
but was vastly irritated to find that after every attempt
to sink it, the audacious log came to the surface again.
Finally he dug a hole, put the log into it, and re-
placed the earth, stamping or pressing it down ; then
apparently satisfied with his work he attempted to
move off, but found himself in a worse fix than before;
however, after sundry curvets and angry jerks the
chain broke and he regained his freedom, leaving his
encumbrance in the grave.

In concluding his ursine anecdotes my Swedish
friend remarked : ' ' These are but a few of Bruin's
traits and droll tricks, which must be seen to be fully
enjoyed. At present he lies quietly in his winter lair,
but imagine his humour when he leaves it in spring ;
he is then no agreeable companion, especially for the
kitchen-maids, towards whom, and the fair sex in
general, he shows the greatest disregard."

Poor Bruin ! he must indeed have got up on the
wrong side of the bed, for he became so unbearably
troublesome and subject to such angry moods, that,
as I afterwards learned, at the early age of about
three years he was doomed to death, and executed
accordingly.

Another young bear, captured in the winter of
1869, was kept for about two years at Eksharad, in
Wermland ; but as it grew older it became danger-
ously ferocious, and, consequently, was also shot. A
tame bear, kept at Sno-an, had accidentally one
Saturday evening got locked up in the smithy, and
not liking to remain in a workshop on a Sunday,

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -G0SS1 P.

attempted to escape through an opening in the roof.
But to reach this Bruin had to clamber upon a lever,
which, under the pressure of his weight, opened the
sluice-gate, and, turning the water upon the wheel,
set the great hammer to work. Evidently annoyed
by its persistent motion and noise, he appears to have
grasped the hammer in his paws with intent to stop
it; but the contest proved beyond his strength, for
the neighbours, hearing loud roars, hastened to the
smithy and found him lying upon the anvil, having
received a death-blow before their arrival.

THE SEALS AND WHALES OF THE
BRITISH SEAS.

Part VI.

By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., &c.

WE now come to the second sub- order into
which the Cetacea are divided, namely, the
Odontoceti, or Toothed Whales. In this section, baleen
is never present, but well-developed teeth are found
in one or both jaws of the adult ; in some species
they are very numerous ; sometimes, though rarely,
deciduous. The blow-hole is single, and the skull
generally asymmetrical, or not precisely alike on both
sides of the medial line. Professor Flower divides
the Odontoceti into three families, one of which, the
Blatunistidm, as already said, is found only in
India and South America ; the other two, Physe-
terids and Delphinidce, are represented in our Fauna
by about fifteen species.

Of the Physeteridcc, four genera are represented
in the British Fauna by five species ; namely, one
Physcter, the Sperm Whale ; two Hypcroodons, the
common Beaked Whale, and a very rare species
called the Broad-fronted Beaked Whale ; one Ziphius,
Cuvier's Whale ; and one Mesoplodou, Sowerby's
Whale.

By far the most interesting species is the Sperm
Whale, Physcter viacrocephalus (Linnaeus), which
rivals the Right-whale in commercial importance and
in the value of its products. This species has a very
wide geographical range, having been found in almost
every sea between lat. 60° north and 60° south. The
attempt has been made, I think unsuccessfully, to
show that the Sperm Whale of the southern hemi-
sphere is distinct from that of the northern ; there
seems, however, no reason to doubt at present, al-
though, of course, it may eventually be found other-
wise, that the same species of Sperm Whale ranges
• over the whole of this vast tract of ocean. North of
about 40 it appears to be only a straggler, and
although the Arctic seas are almost always stated by
-authors to be its head-quarters, no well-authenticated
instance of its occurrence farther north than Scotland
is on record, and Lilljeborg excludes it from his
-account of the Scandinavian cetacea. Of its occur-

rence on the British coast there are numerous in-
stances; in all cases, however, they are believed by
Andrew Murray to have been stragglers, " which
have rounded Cape Horn (they have never been
known to double the Cape of Good Hope) or un-
promising colonies, for they are becoming scarcer and
scarcer in more than their due proportion."* Of the
numerous occurrences on the coast of the British
isles I shall confine myself to a few early records.

In the church of St. Nicholas, at Great Yarmouth,
is the basal portion of a skull of this animal, which
has been converted into a chair : it formerly stood
outside the church, and of course, as it was an object
of wonder, it was relegated to the powers of dark-
ness, and christened (?) the "Devil's Seat"; it
has, however, now been admitted into mother church,
and stands beside the north-west door under the
clock. Mr. C. J. Palmer tells me that in the church-
wardens' accounts for 1606 there is a charge of 8s.
for painting this chair, which clearly proves its an-
tiquity. Sir Hamon L'Estrange, in a letter to Sir
Thomas Browne (Wilkins's edit., 1852, editor's pre-
face to " Pseudodoxia," vol. i. p. lxxxi.), says that
in June, 1626, a whale, afterwards referred to by
Sir T. Browne as a sperm whale (vol. iii. p. 324),
was cast upon his shore or sea-liberty, " sometyme
parcel of the possessions of the Abbey of Ramsey,
&c." The same author, in his account of the " Fishes
found in Norfolk and on the Coast," says, "A Sper-
maceti whale of 62 feet long [came on shore] near
Wells, another of the same kind twenty years before
at Hunstanton [the one referred to by Sir H. L'Es-
trange] ; and not far off, eight or nine came ashore,
and two had young ones after they were forsaken
by the water." The whale mentioned by Sir H.
L'Estrange came on shore in 1626 : twenty years
after would give 1646 as the date of the Wells
specimen ; and in December of that year, according
to Booth's " History of Norfolk," published in 178 1
(vol. ix. p. 33), "A great whale was cast on the
shore here [at Holme-next-the-Sea], the wind blow-
ing strongly at the north-west, 57 feet long, the
breadth of the nose-end eight feet, from nose-end to
the eye 154 feet ; the eyes about the same bigness as
those of an ox, the lower chap closed and shut about
four feet short of the upper ; this lower chap narrow
towards the end, and therein were 46 teeth like
the tusks of an elephant ; the upper one had no
teeth, but sockets of bones to receive the teeth : two
small fins only, one on each side, and a short small
fin on the back ; it was a male . . . . ; the breadth
of the tail, from one outward tip to the other, was
13! feet. The profit made of it was £2.1']. 6s. 7d.,
and the charge in cutting it up and managing it came
to ;£ioo or more." It seems probable that a
"school" got bewildered in the shallow waters of
the Wash, and that the individual of which Booth

* "Geographical Distribution of Mammalia." By Andrew
Murray, 1866, p. 211.

8

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

gives such an excellent description, formed one of
the same party as the eight or nine mentioned by Sir
T. Browne. In May, 1652, Mr. Arthur Bacon
writes to Sir T. Browne about the sperm whale cast
on shore at Yarmouth, but the actual date of the
occurrence is not given. This is the last record of
this species being found on the Norfolk coast, with
which I am acquainted : it has, however, occurred
many times since, singly or in small parties, on other
parts of the coast ; the last instance, I believe, being
in July, 1871, when one was stranded on the shore
of the Isle of Skye. Of the osteology of the Sperm
Whale, Professor Flower has given an exhaustive
account in a paper published in the " Transactions

very remarkable appearance, the truncated form of
the snout looking as though it were cut off at right-
angles to the body : at the upper angle is situated the
single blow-hole. The juncture of the head with the
body is the thickest portion, and the body decreases
little in size till the "hump," which is situated in the
place of the dorsal fin, is reached ; from this point
it rapidly diminishes to the tail. The flukes of the
tail are from twelve to fourteen feet in breadth, and
the two flippers each about six feet long. The under
jaw is pointed, and about two feet shorter than the
upper ; it is furnished with about twenty-five large
conical teeth on each side ; but the number is not
constant, nor is it always the same on each side. In

Fig. 4. Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephaltis, Linn.)-

of the Zoological Society," vol. vi., and of its habits
a very interesting account is given by Thomas Beals,
who, in the capacity of surgeon on board ships
employed in the South Sea fishery, had unusual
opportunities of observing this remarkable animal.
He published a book entitled " The Natural History
of the Sperm Whale," to which I am largely indebted
for what I shall have to say about this species.

The colour of the Sperm Whale is black above and
grey beneath, the colours gradually shading into each
other. The full-grown male is about sixty feet
long ; the females are much smaller and more slender
than the males. The head, which constitutes more
than one-third of the whole of the animal, presents a

the upper jaw are no visible teeth, but those of the
lower jaw shut into corresponding depressions in the
upper. The tongue is small, and, like the lining of
the mouth, of a white colour. The upper part of the
head, called the "case," contains the "spermaceti,"
which upon the death of the animal granulates into
a yellowish substance. Beals says that a large whale
not unfrequently contains a ton of spermaceti. Be-
neath the "case" is situated the "junk," which
consists of a dense cellular mass, containing oil and
spermaceti. The blubber is about fourteen inches
thick on the breast, and in most other parts of the
body from eight to eleven inches. By the whalers
this covering is called the " blanket." With regard

HARDWI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P.

to the apparently ungainly head of the Sperm Whale,
Beals remarks as follows : — " One of the peculiarities
of the Sperm Whale, which strikes at first sight every
beholder, is the apparently disproportionate and un-
wieldy bulk of the head ; but this peculiarity, instead
of being, as might be supposed, an impediment to the
freedom of the animal's motion in its native element,
is, in fact, on the contrary, in some respects, very
conducive to its lightness and agility, if such a term
can with propriety be applied to such an enormous
creature ; for a great part of the bulk of the head is
made up of a thin membranous case, containing,
during life, a thin oil, of much less specific gravity
than water, below which is again the junk, which,
although heavier than the spermaceti, is still lighter
than the element in which the whale moves ; conse-
quently the head, taken as a whole, is lighter specifi-
cally than any other part of the body, and will always
have a tendency to rise at least so far above the sur-
face as to elevate the nostril or ' blow-hole ' suffi-
ciently for all purposes of respiration ; and more than
this, a very slight effort on the part of the fish would
only be necessary to raise the whole of the anterior
flat surface of the nose out of the water. In case the
animal should wish to increase his speed to the ut-
most, the narrow inferior surface, which has been
before stated to bear some resemblance to the cut-
water of a ship, and which would, in fact, answer the
same purpose to the whale, would be the only part
exposed to the pressure of the water in front, enabling
him thus to pass with the greatest celerity and ease
through the boundless track of his wide domain "
(p. 28). When swimming at ease, the Sperm Whale
keeps just below the surface of the water, and goes
at about three or four miles an hour ; but on an
emergency it is able to attain a speed of ten or
twelve miles an hour : it then progresses by means
of powerful lateral strokes of its tail, and alter-
nately rises and sinks at each stroke. In progress-
ing in this manner, the blunt anterior surface of
the head never presents itself directly to the water ;
the animal's body being in an oblique position, it is
only the angle formed by the inferior surface which
first presents itself, and this, which Beals likens to the
" cutwater " of a ship, offers the least possible amount
of resistance. When undisturbed, the Sperm Whale
rises to the surface to breathe about once every hour.
Beals says the regularity with which every action
connected with its breathing is performed is remark-
able ; the time occupied differs slightly in each indi-
vidual, but each one is minutely regular in the per-
formance of every action connected with respiration,
so that the whalers know how long it will remain
beneath the surface before reappearing to renew its
supply of air. A full-grown ' ' bull, " he says, remains
at the surface ten or eleven minutes, during which he
makes sixty or seventy expirations ; after which he
disappears, to return again to the surface in one hour
and ten minutes. The blowing is not accompanied

by any sound, and notwithstanding the wonderful
accounts of its roarings and bellowings, the Sperm
Whale may be said to be an absolutely silent animal.
The females and young males are gregarious, but are
found in separate herds or "schools," as they are
called. A " school " will sometimes consist of five or
six hundred individuals. The herds of females are
always accompanied by from one to three large
"bulls"; but the full-grown males are said to be
generally solitary in their habits, except on certain
occasions, when it is supposed they are migrating
from one feeding-place to another. The majority of
those which occur on our coast are these solitary
males ; when they visit us in herds, as mentioned by
Sir Thomas Browne, they are all probably females
or young males. The "bulls" are veiy fierce and
jealous, and fight fiercely. The females show great
attachment to each other and to their young, so much
so that, one being wounded, the others of the herd
remain and fall a comparatively easy prey. The
young males, on the other hand, are very wary and
difficult of approach, and should one be attacked, the
others immediately take the alarm and retreat . The
female produces one young one, rarely two, at a time,
and breeds at all seasons of the year. Their senses
of sight and hearing are very acute, and after being
once unsuccessfully attacked, they are very difficult
and dangerous to approach.

The food of the Sperm Whale consists almost en-
tirely of Cephalopode Mollnsks (cuttle-fish), although
at times, when feeding near the shore, it has been
known to take fish as large as salmon. It is, how-
ever, essentially a deep-water species, but how it con-
trives to capture such active prey as fish seems difficult
to conceive. Beals is, however, of opinion that the
Whale sinks to a proper depth in the sea, where re-
maining as quiet as possible, and opening wide its
mouth, the prey are attracted by the glistening white
colour of its lining membrane, curiosity leading them
to destruction ; for no sooner have a sufficient number
entered his mouth than the Whale, rapidly closing his
under jaw, they are made prisoners and swallowed.
{To be continued.")

THE HISTORY OF SALAD PLANTS.

By H. G. Glasspoole.

CRESSES.

CRESS is a general name of a number of plants,
mostly, if not all, belonging to the Cntciferce,
and possessing, in common with the plants of the same
order, pungent and aromatic qualities. The ancients,
we are told, ate cresses with their salads to counter-
act the cold nature of lettuces and other herbs.

The garden cress, Lepidinm sativum, appears to
have been known to Theophrastus (see article in
Rees's "Encyclopaedia"), but the tribe of Nasturtium,
to which the Water-cress belongs, was, no doubt,

IO

HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G SSIP.

most common in use. The Greeks thought that the
warm and stimulating qualities of these plants put
life and energy into persons with a sluggish tempera-
ment, and also brightened the understanding of those
who partook of them : this circumstance gave rise to
the Greek proverb, " Eat cress and learn more wit."
Xenophon recommended the Persians to feed their
children with cresses, which he said would make
them grow tall, and be of more active habits. Pliny
dwells much on the medicinal virtues of these plants,
and recommends them to be eaten with vinegar as a
remedy for those minds that were deranged. The
garden cress is said to have been introduced into this
country about the middle of the sixteenth century.
Gerard mentions having received the seed of the
curled cress, which is a variety, from his loving friend
John Robins, of Paris. Thomas Cogan, in his
"Haven of Health," tells us "that the often eating
of this herb in salettes doth give sharpnesse and
readinesse to wit." The native country of this plant
was unknown until Dr. Sibthorp discovered it in
Greece.

No British plant is in such popular request for
salad as the Water-cress, Nasturtium officinale, the
young leaves of which are supposed, like those of the
Scurvy-grass {Cochlearia officinalis), to purify the
blood, and therefore largely partaken of in the
spring. Our old friend Gerard recommends young
ladies to eat them as a restorative to the natural
bloom of their faded cheeks. A decoction of its
juice with that of Scurvy-grass and Seville oranges
used to be given to children as a medicinal drink in
the spring in days gone by. In Europe the water-
cress appears to have been first cultivated at Erfurth,
about the middle of the sixteenth century, but it was
not until 180S that it became an object of cultivation
in England. About that period a Mr. Bradbery began
to grow them for the London markets in the pretty
valley called Springhead, Northfleet, Kent, with
great success. In 1820 he removed to West Hyde,
near Rickmansworth, where he had no less than five
acres under water-cress cultivation. It is now ex-
tensively grown in the northern and eastern suburbs of
the metropolis, and also at Cookham, Farringdon, and
other places on the Great Western Railway, which line
brings no less than a ton a week of this wholesome
breakfast salad to London. Many hundred bunches
are sold every morning in Covent Garden, but the
largest share goes to Farringdon Market. The en-
tire supply to the various Metropolitan markets
cannot be less than from three to four tons per week
(see Wynter's "Curiosities of Civilization"). The
sale of this plant forms an important though humble
branch of domestic commerce in our towns and
cities. " Fine fresh Water-cresses ! " is the first coster
cry heard in a morning in the streets of London.

Water-cress contains chloride of potassium and
sulphur in considerable quantities, and iodine occa-
sionally.

The botanical name of the garden-cress, Lepidium,

is derived from lepis, a scale, from the form of the

seed-pouches ; that of Nasturtium, from nasus, nose,

tortus, torment, from the effects most of this genera

have upon the muscles of the nose,— a name given to

it by Pliny. In some counties these plants used to be

called ' ' Nose-smart " for the same reason. The word

" cress," perhaps, may be derived from cresco, being a

quick grower. In the last edition of the " English

Botany " we are told that the word "cress" is found in

various forms in all Teutonic languages. Some have

derived it from the cross form of the flowers.

Chaucer employs the Saxon form of the word Kers,

to signify anything worthless : —

" Of paramours ne raught he not a Kers ; "
from which, perhaps, is derived the phrase of not
caring a curse for anything.

THE ANNELID "DERO."

By R. Garner, F.L.S., &c.

'"pHE two little fresh- water Annelids, portions of
J. which are figured at a, b, c, are very dis-
tinct from their allies, the Naids. of which, however,
several species are often found with them ; Nais
proboscidea, for instance. Dero is the generic name
appropriated to the present annelids. Though hardy,
they seem to require a warm temperature, and those
here described inhabit the slimy mud of a pool, into
which hot water is constantly pouring from an engine.
A dark green Oscillatoria also grows in the same
mud, and thrives in a higher temperature than either
the annelid or the hand can endure.

The peculiarity of Dero, and one which makes it a
pretty object for the microscopist, is the expanded
membrane or respiratory disk, situated at the posterior
part of the body, having projections or processes
upon it, and the whole strongly ciliated, thus pre-
senting some resemblance to the corona of a Bryozoon,
though the ciliated processes are fewer. This part,
the undoubted respiratory organ, it is the habit of the
little animal to protrude out of the mud in which it
lives, and when the disk is expanded, the processes
fairly extended, and the cilia in strong action, few
objects are more striking. There is a difference
between a and b and c, the former having a pair of
antenna-like processes, which are not retractile.

Another interesting point, and one which from the
transparency of the animal and the bright-red colour
of the blood, is not difficult to investigate, is the
circulation. Of this, investigation has already been
made,* and all that we give here is solely what we
have ourselves noticed. An abdominal vein running
from the head, /, to the respiratory disk at the
opposite extremity, a, receives the blood from the

* M. E. Perrier, " Comptes Rendus," 1870, an extract being
given in Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist., fourth sec, vol. 6.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

ii

head, and from what may be termed a vascular rete
mirabile enveloping the stomach and intestine, and is
divided behind, g, and distributed to the branchial
processes. From these, vessels again converge into
a dorsal artery, following the undulations of the
alimentary canal, and conspicuous from an intrinsic

portions, two as above and a third behind, and
the somites in the last portion have evidently been
most recently formed.

A double abdominal nervous cord is plain enough
all along below the longitudinal vein ; the brain is
less definitely seen ; there are also two minute bodies

I

Fig. s. Structure of Dero-

-a freshwater Annelid, a, b, c, posterior extremity; d, head ; e, seta; ;/, g, vessels of
the head and branchia?.

metility which the vein has not. The course of the
dorsal vessel is somewhat the same as the ventral.
When it lies above the middle part of the alimentary
canal it forms the beautiful network already men-
tioned, and is, besides, connected in each somite or
section of the body with large contractile loops,
apparently distributing the blood to the viscera and
parietes of the body, but, according to Perrier, not
immediately connecting the two vessels. The little
worm is well supplied with abdominal tufts of sigma-
shaped hooks for crawling, and also with lateral or
dorsal seta? for swimming, the former are bifid at their
extremes, e.

The mouth, d and f, is furnished with a bulbous
tongue, which can be protruded a little in feeding ;
both here and behind the alimentary canal is ciliated ;
there is some appearance of a stomach at about the
seventh and eighth somite of the body, and here is
the liver incorporated with the canal, and also
in the same region the ovaries, &c. ; the intestine is
dilated in each division of the body, and connected
by bands with its parietes.

We have no sufficiently matured observations to
offer as to the development of the ova in the Dero.
Perrier describes its fissiparous mode of increase, but
the following account differs somewhat from him.
Sometimes a long Dero, say of fifty joints, very
evidently divides into two, a respiratory disk for the
anterior secondary worm, and a head for the posterior
one being formed at the place of disjunction ; here
the anterior portion, containing the ovaries, probably
becomes the germ-mother, and perhaps winter-nurse.
In other cases the individual Dero presents three

at the sides of the brain, probably acoustic, a few
darker coloured spots more forward, and apparently
lateral oral ganglia. The animal is sensitive to a
very slight concussion of the vessel in which it lives.

PLANT-HUNTING AT BARMOUTH.
By J. Percival.

HAVING read with great pleasure the interest-
ing notes of your correspondent Horace
Pearce, F.L.S., of the flora of the neighbour-
hood of Cader Idris, I wish to add, by way of
supplement, a few of the plants that came under my
observation during the summer of 1876, for I find
that he has omitted a great portion of the rarer
species. Walking along the road in the direction of
Llanaber may be seen Parietaria officinalis, Eckium
vidgare, Clinopodium vidgare, Origanum vidgare,
Eaonymus Europazts, and Aspleninm lanceolatum.
This latter plant may be found for a mile on old walls
and rocks, and in far greater abundance than its near
ally, Aspleninm Adianlum-nigrum. It may also be
found on walls overlooking Barmouth, and also for
two miles on the Dolgelly road from Barmouth;
turning into the harbour, a little short of a mile from
Barmouth, it may be seen there very fine and abun-
dant. A little further, on rocks facing the sea, may
be gathered Rubia peregrina, or the common Mad-
der ; growing also with it is Inula conyza, or the
" Ploughman's Spikenard " ; another mile further on
brings you to Carex extensa and Tamarix Gallica ;
and also Spircca salicifolia : both the latter have, no
doubt, been planted, but probably they are as wild

12

HARD WICKE 'S S CI EN CE- G OS SIP.

there as elsewhere in Britain. Half a mile further
on, until coming to a large stream, going up the hill
side, may be found Carex binervis, C. laevigata, and C.
fulva, the latter in the greatest plenty. Gnaphaiium
dioicum, Scutellaria minor, almost in all swampy places,
along with Drostra rotundifolia. Up this valley, t
picked up of the Drosera an immense number of
sports, varying from one to six and seven stems from
the same root ; others branched into several divisions
at the top of the stem : I picked up about twenty of
them, and scarcely two alike. Crossing over the

it also grows on the railway banks, both near Bar-
mouth and at Friog. Along the coast may be
gathered Crithmum maritimum ; amongst loose
stones in several places, and also very fine, two feet
in height, on rocks exactly behind the pay-house. In
crossing the bridge, Polygonum Raii, Sclerochloa loliacea
and rigida. On the railway banks, about 400 yards
from the station, grows Mentha rotundifolia , and in
grassy flats, running parallel with the railway at this
place, there are large quantities of Juncus acutus and
maritiimis. On Sept. 5th, 1 876, I saw hundreds of

Pellitory of the Wall [Parietaria officinalis)

hill from this point (say a mile up the valley) in the
direction of Barmouth, my friend Mr. Roger,
gathered a plant of Onobrychis saliva. On the hill-
side overlooking Barmouth may be found Geranium
sanguineum, Dianthus delloides, and Orobanche
major ; and on an old wall nearly opposite the Corsy-
geddol Hotel may be gathered Orobanche Heditue ;
whilst on the rocks in the direction of Llanabers
near the toll-gate, may be found Veronica hybrida.
Proceeding along the high road for a mile may be
found, in the greatest abundance, Lathy rus sylvestris ;

Fig. 7. Annual Dog's Mercury [Mercurialis annua).

Spirant hus autumnalis growing in the same flat
with Spergida nodosa and a white-flowered variety
of Erythnea Centaurium. Eiythma latifolia I have
seen growing at Pensarn along with Juncus acutus
and maritimus. Convolvulus Soldanclla grows amongst
the sand-hills near Barmouth, and in several places
may be found Mercurialis annua, Koniga maritima
abundant (probably an escape). Malva sylvestris and
rotundifolia are both common plants. Lavatera arborea
growing in several places on the coast ; likewise
may be seen Sinapis nigra and Hordeum muriuum.

HA R D WICKE'S S CIENCE- G O SSI P.

13

Crossing over the estuary, and getting on to the
bog at Barmouth Junction, may be found Phragmites
communis, varying in height from 18 inches to more
than six feet. I have a specimen not 20 inches high,
with roots and four perfect panicles ; growing along
with it is CEuant/ie erocata, Scirpus maritimus, and
Typha latifolia. The last-mentioned plants grow in
the sluice by the railway-side, until one gets beyond
Penman Pool Station from Barmouth. At the Bar-
mouth side of the estuary, on the bog may also be

Fig. 8. Tree Mallow {Lavatcra. arborea).

found Radiola millegrana, Osmunda regalis, Carex
distans, C. Jlava, var. lepidocarpa, Drosera rotundifolia
and intermedia. Going on to Arthog Station, amongst
the salt marshes, may be found Statice Limotiium and
S. rariflora, also Sueda mariiima and Saticornia in
the greatest abundance. CEnanthe Lachenalii and
Apium gravelens both grow near Penman Pool Sta-
tion, and, retracing my steps to the rocks, near
Friog, growing in inaccessible situations, may be
seen Asplaiium marinum ; and following the

coast to the next village, Llangrwyen, near the
station, I have found Mentha viridis, M. piperata,
and M. gentilis, and also Tanacetum vulgare.
By the road, in woods, are large quantities of Hyperi-
cum androscemum and Orobanche major. In woods,
at or near Barmouth Junction, at Arthog Falls, Tor-
rent Walk, and several other places, I have seen
Hymenophyllum Wilsoni in the greatest abundance.
At the margin of the lakes, on the ascent to Cader
Idris, from the Arthog side, I have seen Hypericum

Fig. 9. Broom-rape (O rolanclit rapuni).

elodes. I have also seen it in swampy ground near
Barmouth. I have seen L. selaginoides in several
places near small rills near Barmouth ; and Aspletiium
Ruta-miiraria grows very fine on an old wall leading
from Dolgelly to Penman Pool ; but out of reach,
except by a ladder. Amongst mosses, the rarer
species I have observed are Entosthodon Templetom
and E. ericetorum, Bartramia rigida, Bryum alpwum
and B. eloiigatnm, Hedwigidinm imberbe, Zygodon
viridissimus and Z. conidens, Campy/opus longipilus

14

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

Fig. 10. Tamarisk (Tamarix gallica).

C. densus and C. paradoxus, Rhabdoweissa Jugax, &c.
Asplenium viridc is found in ascending Cader, and

MICROSCOPY,

An easily-made Cell. — The " American Journal
ol Microscopy " gives the following excellent recipe
for constructing cells: — "A cell which we have
found very durable, easily and quickly made, and
very neat, is constructed as follows : Having pro-
cured some good gold size and pure litharge, grind
the latter to a very fine powder. Mix the litharge
and gold size to the thickness of cream, and colour
either black or dark olive by adding lamp-black.
With this paint, as it may be called, make as many
cells as are wanted, and when made, dust finely-
powdered litharge over them until they are covered
a sixteenth of an inch deep ; allow them to stand a
few minutes, and then shake off all the loose litharge
by means of a few smart taps. The surface of the

Fig. ii. Ladies' Tresses Orchid {Spirant 'ies aiitumnalis).

Lastrca amithtm grows in woods near Penman Pool.
— J. Percraal.

cell will now be quite rough. Allow it to stand a
few hours, and then press it against a plate of glass.
If this be done carefully, a smooth, solid ring will
be left on the slide. If the edges should not be as
smooth as they ought to be, it is easy to trim them
off on the turntable by means of a small chisel.
Such cells, after a few weeks, become very hard, and
may be finished so as to be very neat. For dry
objects they leave nothing to be desired, and as we
have had them in use for over five years, we can
speak as to their durability. For objects mounted
in liquids it will be necessary to coat them with
suitable varnish. Thus, for saline liquids, a coating
of gold size renders them perfectly impervious. For
glycerine use Bell's cement, or a solution of shellac in
alcohol."

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

15

The Monthly Microscopical Journal.— We
have received a copy of the November and December
number of this well-known journal, containing a
very brief account of the death of the late Editor
(Dr. Lawson), and a notice that the present number
is the last of the series, and that henceforth the
Royal Microscopical Society intend to publish their
own Transactions, after the manner of the other
learned societies.

The " Spontaneous Generation " Contro-
versy. — At a recent meeting of the Royal Society,
Professor Tyndall referred to some hermetically-
sealed flasks opened on the Alps, which, he thought,
set this controversy at rest. Professor Tyndall
stated that he took with him last summer to the
Alps sixty hermetically-sealed flasks, containing
infusions of beef, mutton, turnip, and cucumber,
which had been boiled for five minutes, and her-
metically sealed whilst boiling was going on. The
flasks were kept for six weeks and were then
opened, some in haylofts and others near precipices.
The two groups of flasks were then placed in a
kitchen, where the temperature was from 65 to
90° Fahr. The result was that twenty-one out of
the twenty-three flasks opened in the hayloft were
filled with organisms, whilst all the flasks opened
near the edges of precipices remained as clear as
distilled water !

Sph/ERAPHIDES. — I have found the following
a very simple and efficient method for procuring
sphceraphides from rhubarb when not required to be
viewed in situ: — I take a piece of rhubarb and
separate the fibres into several small pieces, length-
wise, then allow them to remain for a few days until
moderately dry. If rubbed together over a sheet of
note-paper, the matter thus obtained may be collected
on a slide : it will be found to consist principally of
detached spharaphides. The few particles of fibre
may be easily removed with a camel-hair pencil.
They can then be mounted, when dry, as opaque
objects or in Canada balsam, as required. — W. H.
Harris.

Birth of Vinegar Eels. — While occupied, a
few evenings since, with the microscope, examining
an eel from some vinegar, I was the fortunate witness
of an interesting event. I had, by the cap of the
live box, caused a sufficient amount of pressure to
keep the worm still, when a segment, about the
centre one, ruptured and allowed the egress of a
twin. The pair were, in all respects but size, pre-
cisely similar to their parent. I do not find any men-
tion of the like occurrence in Dr. Carpenter's very
excellent and interesting work, "The Microscope,"
very little being written about Anguillulce aceti in the
chapter devoted to Ar.mdosa. — IV. H. S.

The late Dr. Beatty. — We are sorry to notice
the death of Dr. Beatty, of Baltimore, at the early

age of 40 years. Dr. Beatty was a valued contributor
to our pages, and microscopists are under a debt of
gratitude to him for the elaborate articles he pub-
lished in these columns on " Decolouring and Stain-
ing Vegetable Tissues."

Cleaning Slides. — I have seen very frequently
in different books, plans, troublesome and awkward,
for cleaning the balsam off slides. Why do not people
just wash them with rectified naphtha? The balsam
is removed instantly. The hardest and oldest, when
thick, only requires the naphtha to be warm ; but all
that can be should be scraped off first. In this way
it is the easiest thing possible. I have used it for
slides and lenses for many years. — Edward Thos.
Scott.

To Clean Old Slides. — The following has been
my plan for years, and is simple, easy, and effica-
cious : — Warm the slide over a spirit-lamp to remove
the covering glass which, place in a water-glass with
benzole. Scrape off as much as you can of the bal-
sam, or whatever it may be, from the slide, and
wash zvith benzole, and use an old silk pocket handker-
chief, which I dip into the benzole, a very little
of which is sufficient. — John Bramhall.

To Preserve Glass Slips ready for Use
after Cleaning. — As it is most inconvenient to
make each slip chemically clean at the time it may be
wanted for mounting a specimen, doubtless most of
your readers clean a quantity (say half a gross) at a
time ; but then probably they have often, in common
with myself, experienced the inconvenience of their
again getting dirty before they are used, through their
lying about in a drawer or on the table of the laboratory.
To obviate this difficulty, I have recently adopted a
method which is simple, and, at the same time, so
effectual, that the slips may remain for months
covered with dust and dirt, and yet be clean and
ready for use whenever they are required. It is
this : — After cleaning, the slips are arranged side by
side, with their flat surfaces in approximation, when a
ready-gummed piece of silver or tissue paper,* 10
inches long by a width which varies according to the
number of slips, is affixed to their edges in the same
fashion as the sheets of paper in a drawing-block are
joined together, so that, although they are firmly
attached to each other by their edges, their surfaces
are left uncovered. The block thus bound is left to
dry, when each slip may be detached by running the
thumb-nail round its edges. The surface next the
adjoining slip should be used for the preparation to
be mounted as it is, of course, quite clean, although
the other (or exposed one) may have become dirty ;
the fragments of tissue-paper being removed after the
mount is completed. — J. W. Groves, London.

* Any other paper is so thick that it is difficult to separate
the slips without the use of a knife.

i6

HA RD Wl CKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SI P.

How to Clean Thin Covers. — The difficulty
of cleaning very thin covers without breaking them
is very great. It is almost impossible to handle them
in the fingers, and when they are rubbed between
two plain blocks covered with chamois leather, it is
difficult to clean more than one side, since one par-
ticular side will always stick to the leather next it,
and the other side only will be subjected to friction.
Mr. Jones has devised a very simple method of over-
coming this difficulty. Into a brass cylinder he fits
a heavy plug, the lower end of which is covered
with chamois leather. When a thin cover is placed
on a piece of stretched chamois, and the tube placed
over it, the under side only of the cover is subjected
to friction, and consequently a few rubs suffice to
clean it thoroughly. The tube is then raised, the
cover turned over by means of a delicate pair of
forceps, and the other side is cleaned. The pressure
of the plug is so even that there is no risk of fracture,
even with the most delicate covers.

ZOOLOGY.

Dublin University Biological Association.
— We have received three parts of the first volume of
the " Proceedings " of this well-known society, con-
taining some very valuable and well-written papers,
among which are the following : — "The Leaf Struc-
ture of Begonia" and " Irish Fungi," by Greenwood
Pirn, F.L.S. ; "Some Curious Marine Forms," by
Prof. Macalister ; and " Papers on Anatomical
Irregularities," by Mr. Malet and F. O. Ross, &c.

Arctic Birds. — At a recent meeting of the Zoo-
logical Society, Mr. Henry Seebohm, F.Z.S.,
exhibited and made remarks upon some of the rarer
Eggs and Birds which he had obtained during his
recent visit to the Arctic regions of the Yen-e-sey, in
Eastern Siberia, and gave a rapid sketch of his
journey. Some of the skins were interesting from the
fact that they extended our knowledge of geographical
distribution'; such as, Phylloscopus trochilns and
Acrocephahis schccnobanns, from long. 88° E.,
Anthns Custavi of Swinhoe (A. Seedo/wii of Dresser,
A. batchianesis of Gray) from the same longitude, and
young in first plumage of this species.

The Leeds Naturalists' Society. — We have
received a copy of the Report of this Society, and
are delighted to find it in vigorous health, and with a
good programme of work before it for the forth-
coming year. May we suggest to the secretaries of
Provincial Natural History, Microscopical, and
other societies, that they should send us the names of
officers, &c, of their societies, so that our volume for
1878 may be a kind of "Science Directory," for
provincial scientific societies ?

Rose-coloured Pastor or Thrush {Turdus
rosens). — A specimen of this rare bird was obtained

[ this year in the north-west of county Donegal,
Ireland, where it was captured alive in the garden of
the Gweedore Hotel, which is situated about four
miles from the coast of the Atlantic. It unfortunately
died a few hours after its capture, whilst being
conveyed in a basket to the residence of Lord George
Hill, the owner of the hotel. This is not the first
instance of this beautiful bird being found on our
shores. Thompson, in his " Birds of Ireland," informs
us of one or two specimens being shot in the
neighbourhood of Hillsborough, county Down, some
thirty or forty years ago. Perhaps some reader of
Science-Gossip could furnish us with other instances
of its appearance, either in Ireland or England, which
may have come under his notice, and which would be
interesting to all lovers of birds. — Shelah.

Sagartia sphyrodeta. — A specimen of the
beautiful golden-disked variety of this anemone in
one of my tanks has twice undergone spontaneous
fission within about seven weeks. The original
specimen had been in my possession nearly twelve
months, and by care and regular feeding had in-
creased from about the size of a fourpenny-piece,
when fully expanded, to nearly that of a florin.
Previously to its first division, I had noticed for several
days that the base had been growing more oval in
outline, and, to my surprise, on the morning of
September 10th, I found it divided into two, right
across the centre. The severance was not quite
complete when I first discovered it, but became so in
course of a couple of hours ; the two portions dragging
themselves away from each other, until they were
about half an inch apart. The severed edges of each
gradually closed together, a suture was formed, and
in course of a few days I had two perfect anemones.
These have thriven well, fresh tentacles have been
produced, and both have increased in size, till last
week I noticed that the larger of the two, which I
suppose must be considered the parent anemone, was
again elongating its base, as if contemplating fission.
About noon of the 31st ult., I had the satisfaction of
seeing that the process had begun, and watched it at
intervals till completed. The base appeared to
separate into two lobes, which gradually dragged away
from each other, making a rent which extended
upwards, till only the mouth formed a connection
between the two. This eventually gave way, and the
fission was complete, the whole performance occupying
about five or six hours. A few acontia were thrown
out, but these were soon withdrawn, and the healing
process commenced. Two days later I was feeding
my stock, and offered food to the two halves, both
of which seized it greedily, but soon expelled it
through the partially healed rents in their columns.
I shall watch the further increase of my specimens
with great interest, as the species is one of the hardiest
and most beautiful tenants of the aquarium with
which I am acquainted. It feeds well, is almost
always expanded, thrives in a comparatively small

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P.

i7

body of water, and the contrast between the brilliant
yellow disk and the pure white tentacles is very
pleasing. Like most other anemones, it opens best
at night, and should not be exposed to too strong a
light ; mine are kept in a north aspect, and the colour
of the disk is as brilliant as when I first had them.
The same remark applies to the highly-coloured
varieties of S. troglodytes, which are very apt to fade.
— Edward Horsnaill, Dover.

A Five-winged Butterfly. — At a recent
meeting of the Entomological Society Mr. Meldola
exhibited a five-winged specimen of the Sulphur
Butterfly {Gonopteryz rhamni), which had been taken
in Norfolk by Mr. John Woodgate. At the same
meeting Mr. H. Goss, F.L. S., showed a specimen
of the Sulphur Butterfly, in which the left wings were
those of a male, and the right those of a female.

Destroying Mites. — In reply to A. F.'s query
as to destroying mites in a cabinet of Lepidoptera,
I find the best and simplest method is to saturate a
piece of blotting-paper in chloroform (methylated is
cheapest) ; place it in the drawer infected, and close
securely, repeating the operation two or three times,
at intervals of a few hours. If the drawer be tolerably
air-tight, this will effectually destroy the mites, but it
should be carefully watched for some time afterwards,
in case of fresh mites coming into existence from
e gg s > upon which the chloroform would not take
effect. Camphor should be kept in the drawers of a
cabinet, and renewed as fast as it evaporates — it will
keep mites away ; but if they are introduced with, new
specimens, or otherwise, they will exist in spite of the
camphor. All fresh acquisitions should therefore be
put in quarantine before being placed in the cabinet.
Instead of camphor, a very good recipe is, equal
parts of "oil of thyme, oil of anise, and spirit of
wine," applied as I have described for chloroform
and renewed as often as the scent goes off : it must
not be allowed to touch the lining of the drawer, as
it will stain the paper. — H. Miller, Ipswich.

The Berlin Gorilla. — Poor "Pongo," who
returned to Berlin to die, after holding his levees at
the Westminster Aquarium, has been post-mortemed
and dissected by Professor Virchow. His death was
ascertained to be due to acute inflammation of the
bowels, — the same disease which carries off young
children so rapidly. Even in his very diseases
therefore, the Gorilla claims an affinity with man !

Chameleon-like Changes in the Frog. —
The changes of colour noticed by "J. J. M." in the
frog are truly chameleon-like, and, together with
similar changes seen in fish, are brought about by
the same mechanism. The skin of these animals
contains branched and ramified cells pervaded with
fine granules of a dark-coloured pigment. Similar
cells are found in certain parts of the human eye, and
without the pigment in all parts of the body, in the

so-called "connective tissues." They can nowhere
be better seen than in the preparation of frog's web
used to show the circulation. In such an object
many cells may be seen as mere black spherical
patches, whilst others cover a larger surface and show
the branches, joining similar ones from other cells.
Now under various stimuli, applied either to the
cutaneous surface or through the eye, the branched
patches of pigment may be made to contract with the
spherical form, whilst other stimuli have the reverse
effect. Inasmuch as the cell-branches join one
another, they obviously cannot contract ; it is the
contained pigment-bearing protoplasm that shrinks
out of the branches and forms the globular mass.
Obviously, when such a change occurs in the greater
number of the cells present, a change in the colour of
the animal must result. It has, moreover, been
proved that this change can only be brought about
so long as the animal's power of sight remains.
Destruction of the eyes renders the pigment masses
immovable. Section of certain nerves has a like
effect. When any of these animals are pursued by
their enemies, they are thus enabled, by rendering
themselves pale and therefore less easily seen, to
elude their would-be captors. Emotions other than
fear may also, perhaps, be expressed by this means,
and not only can some creatures render themselves
pale, but actually approximate their colour to that of
their surroundings. Such is the permanent state of
very many animals ; this condition being brought
about by natural selection, e.g. lions, sand-colour ;
muddy water fish, mud-colour ; green, sloths, &c. &c.
Pallor, as an expression of human terror, brought
about by a contraction of small blood-vessels, may
have had a similar cause, it at least seems analogous.
— D. A. K.

Holes in the Head of Pike. — The apertures .
on the head of the common pike (Esox lucius) are
the openings of follicles, or mucus-secreting glands.
Similar but smaller openings may be found along the
lateral line that separates the dorsal from the ventral
half of any fish. These openings form an uninterrupted
series, from head to tail, and constitute the opening of
muciparous ducts that may be seen as white threads
by the naked eye on dissection. The function of
these glands is obvious ; they secrete the mucus
by which the integument of the animal is lubri-
cated, and probably act also as sweat-glands to
excrete waste products from the system. — R.

New Habit of Red Grouse. — It does not matter
whether Mr. Dixon or Mr. Dealey claim the honour
of calling the attention of naturalists to the habit of
Red Grouse perching on trees. It is a habit that all
persons who reside near the moors (who take any
notice of the habits of birds) are familiar with. I
saw them perching on trees and hedges years before
the time they say they first observed them. — Jatnes.
Ingleby.

i8

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

BOTANY.

ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE AT DOLGELLY. —
It has been known for some years amongst a few-
lovers of nature that not only Asplenium septcntrioiiale
but also A. gcrmanicum, Weiss, grew in the Dolgelly
district, and it has only been from a desire to preserve
the plants from extirpation that the habitat has not
been made public. Now that it is known, it may be
well to place the discoverers' names on record.
Asplenium septcntrioualc was discovered in 1867
growing on an old wall not far from the river Maw-
dach, by Mrs. Chamberlain Barlow, of Edgbaston.
The plants of it (two only I think) were of course
spared, and for some months I saw them every
time I passed the locality, peering stealthily at them,
for fear they should be discovered by some ruthless
collector, and believing at that time they were the
only plants in the country. After a considerable
interval, when I revisited the spot, the wall had been
altered or repaired, and the little ferns had dis-
appeared. Some time afterwards the Rev. W. Foley
Vernon, of Shrawley, searched the crags on a hill
that rose up behind the old wall, and had the plea-
sure of finding both A. scptcntrionale and A. ger-
manicum in tolerable abundance, and I have a fine-
grown plant of each which I owe to his kindness.
I enclose a few fronds. May I ask your botanical
contributors if they know of any locality where
one only of these two species is indigenous without
the other occurring somewhere in the immediate
neighbourhood? An acute observer has informed
me that they are always found together, and sus-
pects a more intimate relationship than is generally
supposed to exist between them. — T. Belt.

Gentiana acaulis (L). — Without in the least
wishing to impeach the veracity of Mr. Colebrook,
especially as he is "as certain as he is of his own
existence," that this plant was growing upon Cader
Idris in August, 1862, I would inform him firstly
that, so far as my experience goes, the G. acaulis of
the Swiss Alps is in its full bloom towards the middle
of June, and completely and entirely over by July,
ripening its seed in that month. Its place is then
taken by G. bavarica, and others of that section, as
well as G. campcstris, Germanica, and Amarella,
which are essentially August flowerers. With regard
to the remarks, "the present plant has no stalk,
whence its name acaulis, but cultivated in gardens it
becomes [sic] one," — does Mr. Colebrook here in-
tend to make a playful allusion to its peregrinatory
powers, as well as origin, the word stalk being a
double-entendre in the sense of a stalker. I believe
G. acaulis was found at Stafi'a in the month of June,
1834-5 ; but doubtless it had escaped from cultiva-
tion, as the plant has never been seen there since that
time. Concerning the subject of Mr. Colebrook's
other query — Cotoueastcr — I obtained it in the month

of June, 1874, from the one situation on the Great
Ormeshead, where it is still to be found ; and I must
say that had I not been guided to the spot by one
who knew it well, I might be still searching, but in
vain, for it. Associated with it, in the clefts of the
limestone rock, was abundance of the local Potcntilla
vcrna.—J. C. M.

Gentiana acaulis. — I have been interested in
reading the remarks on this plant that have appeared
lately in the pages of Science-Gossip. Many years
ago I came across what I had no doubt was Gentiana
acaulis, growing in tolerable profusion, and, as might
be supposed, truly wild on the downs between the
Needles and Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. It
was a small plant, without stalk, about i^ inch
high, half of which comprised the large bright blue
flower. At that time I was not aware that Gentiana
acaulis was "not a native," so I made sure of my
prize, and gathered as much of it as the strong wind
blowing at the time would suffer me to do. On
subsequent examination and reference to Sowerby's
"English Botany "and other authorities, I came to
the conclusion, and I believe rightly, that it was the
veritable Gentiana acaulis. A little further down the
slopes of the hill, upon the same occasion, I came
upon Gentiana Aviarclla, so I had an immediate
opportunity of comparing the two flowers and
observing the wide difference between them. Some
time after this I became aware that the lovely little
Gentiana acaulis had been excluded by botanists from
its former place in the British Flora, and I have often
wondered since how it came to pass that its beautiful
blue flowers had found that accidental lodging far
away from houses and gardens, up on the wind-blown
heights of the Freshwater Downs. I have never
visited the spot since, and I should be glad to know
whether any of the readers of Science-Gossip have,
like myself, ever met with it in their wanderings in
that locality. — Isabella H. Knox.

Plant Chemistry. — Professor Church has ex-
amined the colouring matter of the well-known
bordering plant with variegated leaves, Coleus Ver-
shajjeltii, and thinks that it is identical with a-nobin,
the colouring matter of red wines, as well as with
other substances extracted from blue and purple
flowers.

Solanum Dulcamara. — Can any of your readers
give me any information as to the properties of the
berries of this plant ? " Chambers's Encyclopaedia"
says, "red berries of tempting appearance, which,
being poisonous, are not unfrequently the cause of
serious accidents, particularly to children." Garrod,
in his " Materia Medica," says he has administered
half a pound of the ripe fruit as a conserve, and
without any definite effect. Buffon says " the scarlet
berries are not poisonous, five pounds weight given
in the course of ten days did not produce poisonous

HARD WICKE ' S S CIEN CE-GO SSI P.

*9

effects " ; but neither of these authors says if the
berries were swallowed by man or beast. I think
I should have a difficulty in finding any one
who would eat even two or three berries, as they
are almost universally considered poisonous. — Dr.
Morton, New. Brompton, Kent.

Hybrid Primula. — The frequent tendency of the
Primrose family to hybridize often causes a difficulty
in determining a plant and its varieties. The Primula
clatior is by some supposed to be a hybrid between
the P. veris and the common primrose ; and Sir
William Hooker " was not satisfied that the Primula
clatior of Jocquin was really distinct from the nu-
merous hybrids between P. vulgaris and P. veris."
In one locality near Geneva I found both growing
together in abundance, producing different forms of
hybrids, some approaching one parent plant and some
the other. Many Swiss botanists call the P. vulgaris
acaulis, as it appears to be stemless, with a variety /3,
which, as having an evident, though very short, stem
or scape, they place the Primulas in two divisions,
as "especes legitimes capsule fertile," and "especes
hybrides capsule avortee " : under the former they
include P. veris, P. vulgaris, and P. elatior ; under
the latter, Primula acatdi-officinalis, P. acanli-clatior,
and P. elatiori-qfficinalis. — T. B. W.

Anomalous Parts of Plants. — I gathered
some Trifotium repens this last summer at Esholt,
near Bradford, the calyx segments of which were
transformed into leaflets ; in some of the heads all
gradations betwixt leaflets and calyx segments could
be observed. I afterwards gathered some in Chee
Dale (Derbyshire), in which all the calyx segments
were converted into leaflets, some of the latter being
on petioles several times the length of themselves.
Two friends of mine have noticed this also, but I
have not seen it recorded. I gathered some speci-
mens of Ctaytonia perfoliata at Bakewell, in all of
which the leaves that are usually perfoliate were not
so at all. The several text-books I have been able to
consult (including Symes) do not give any habitat
for this plant : the specimens I gathered were grow-
ing amidst Chrysosplenium oppositifolium in the
middle of a wood, which appeared a very unlikely
place for its introduction as a weed of cultivation.
I collected also in the same wood a Myosotis, having
the corolla nine-partite. Near Bradford I gathered
Sitene inflata with two complete flowers (except the
calyx) in one calyx ; also in this neighbourhood,
Lotium pe?-enne, in which the spikelets were trans-
formed into spikes. Near Leeds I collected y uncus
bufonius in a viviparous state, like that which J uncus
supinus often assumes ; but I have not seen this state
recorded. I gathered a specimen of Lychnis diurna
near Miller's Dale, in which the stamens were trans-
formed into petals. At Eldwick, near Bradford, I
got a specimen of Orchis maaelata, which agreed
with the description of that plant in every particular

save the lip, which was about twice as long as usual
and strap-shaped, with parallel sides, tridentate, the
central lobe being less than the others. I have re-
ceived from Scotland a specimen of the common
Dandelion, the peduncle of which is furcated, bear-
ing two capitula. — Win. West, Bradford.

Inflorescence of Gourds and Pumpkins. —
In Science-Gossip for November was an interesting
note on the above topic by John Gibbs. He notices
that the fruit on fertile blossoms appear first — before
the sterile blossoms on the same plant. In this
country (Michigan, U.S.A.) I have often noticed
many staminate or sterile flowers open before a single
pistillate flower had opened. This I have repeatedly
seen in case of Hubbard squashes, summer squashes >
and several varieties of cucumbers. I do not make
this assertion as doubting what Mr. Gibbs has said,
but as a curious difference. If he is correct, perhaps
our warmer and drier summers may have something
to do with it.— W. J. Bcal.

Gourds and Pumpkins. — The fact to which Mr.
Gibbs calls attention is one of considerable interest.
The separation of the sexes is common enough in
flowering plants, and in the Gourd tribe is of two
degrees : on distinct flowers (moncecism), or on dis-
tinct plants (dicecism). It has also been noticed in
these delicious flowers, as well as in those structurally
"hermaphrodite" or "monoclinous," that the sexes
are sometimes developed simultaneously (synacmic),
sometimes successively (dichogamous); but of the two
possible cases of the latter — at least in "monoclinous"
flowers — the precedence of the male (protandry) is
far more frequent than examples similar to the one
Mr. Gibbs describes (protogyny). This might be ex-
pected in single flowers, since the stamens occupy an
older whorl than the carpels ; at least, are generally
believed so to do. But when we come to diclinous
plants, new interests arise. A most careful and as-
siduous American observer, Mr. Thomas Meehan, of
Philadelphia, has shown that there is a close relation
between sex and energy, and that female flowers are
more characteristic of strong shoots than male.
Might we not, therefore, expect a plant to produce
male flowers only after its energy has been to a cer-
tain extent exhausted in producing female ones ?
Numerous cases are on record, especially of figs and
oranges, of the swelling of the "fruit" without the
fertilization of the ovule : it would be interesting to
learn if this ever is so with gourds. Of course, how-
ever the "fruit-blossoms" may "make haste," they
cannot set seed without pollination. In this case,
the pollen must be derived from another plant pro-
bably, perhaps from another situation where different
conditions make gourds flower earlier ; so we may
have here an illustration of Mr. Darwin's rules that,
while pollen from another flower of the same plant is
little, if at all, better than that of the same flower,
pollen from another plant is an advantage, and if

20

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

from one grown under different conditions, even still
more so. I hope Mr. Gibbs will continue his obser-
vations. He could not have a more interesting or
practical subject. — G. S. Boulger.

Fertilization of Flowers. — Dr. M idler has
called attention to the occurrence, in some of the
Labiates, of two distinct forms, one with larger
hermaphrodite protandrous flowers, and the other
with smaller female flowers. He shows that the
latter can only be fertilized by the former, and that
they disappear when the former are not present.
We would suggest that otr botanical readers should
devote their attention during the coming summer
to the analytical structures of well-known and
abundantly-represented orders of plants ; and, further,
that they should also note the kind of insects which
frequent them, and whether these insects affect any
-special colours of flowers.

GEOLOGY,

Prehistoric Man in Japan. — Mr. E. S. Morse
sends a note to Nature, in which he gives an account
of the Kitchen Middensat Omori, in Japan, which con-
tained arrow-heads, bone implements, but no flint or
■stone weapons. Mr. Morse believes these large
shell mounds were accumulated by a prehistoric race
of men in Japan.

The Insect Fauna of the Paleozoic Period.
—Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., has read a paper on
the above subject before the Brighton and Sussex
Natural History Society. This makes the third
•of Mr. Goss's papers on fossil insects, and it is equal
in character to its predecessors. In these three
papers the geological student is possessed of a most
valuable generalization of all that is known on fossil
entomology.

Jointed Limbs in Trilobites. — Mr. C. D.
Walcott has just figured and described jointed limbs
in the genera Calymenc and Ceraurus, from the Tren-
ton limestone. Calymene senaria showed axial ap-
pendages with three joints. In Ceraurus pleurex-
anthemus the limb was five-jointed. The legs ended
in a single blunt end, and Mr. Walcott thinks these
•trilobites will be found to have five or six joints with
a terminal claw. He further thinks that the dis-
covery of these limbs more closely than ever as-
sociates the Trilobites with the King-crabs and
Eurypterids.

The Cumberland Association of Litera-
ture and Science. — A copy of the Transactions of
•this vigorous natural history and literary society has
been sent us, and it is a pleasure to find so high a
degree of culture so far removed from the centres
where culture is supposed to be especially confined.
But the development of local science is nearly always
•dependent upon the personal interest taken in it by a

few men, and there can be little doubt that the
great success of the Cumberland Association during
the last two or three years is mainly due to their
possessing such an indefatigable secretary as Mr. J.
Clifton Ward, F.G.S., of her Majesty's Geological
Survey, the author of a number of remarkably sug-
gestive papers on Geology and Physical Geography.

Artificial Precious Stones. — MM. Fremy
and Freil have recently been experimenting on artificial
productions of corundum, ruby, and other crystal-
lized silicates. They showed that in a crucible of
refractory earth they put a mixture of equal weights
of alumina and minium and calcined them for some
time at a red heat. After cooling, they found two
layers, one vitreous (formed chiefly of silicate of
lead) and the other crystalline, and often presenting
geodes full of beautiful crystals of alumina. To obtain
the red colour of ruby, about two or three per cent,
of bichromate of potash was added to the mixture of
aluminia and minium. A silicate of aluminia was
produced by heating for some time a mixture of equal
weights of silicon and fluoride of aluminia.

Precambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) Rocks
in Caernarvonshire. — At a recent meeting of the
Geological Society, a paper on this subject was read
by Dr. Hicks, F.G.S. The author gave an account
of the special examination of the great ribs of so-called
intrusive felspathic and quartz porphyries which are
found associated with the Cambrian rocks in Caernar-
vonshire, made by him in company with Professor
Hughes, Mr. Hudleston, and Mr. Homfray last
summer. He described sections at and near Moel
Tryfan and across the mass from Pen-y-groes to
Talysarn, in which he showed that instead of being
of an intrusive nature, as hitherto supposed, the
whole, with the exception of a few dykes at those
parts, is made up of bedded volcanic rocks, lavas,
breccias, &c, similar to those found in the Pedibian
series at St. David's, and that the Cambrian rocks,
instead of being intruded by this mass, rest every-
where upon it unconformably, and the pebbles in
the conglomerate of the Cambrian at the base are,
as at St. David's, identical with, and must have been
derived from, the rocks below. Similar results were
obtained in the examination to the north and south of
Llyn Padarn, and the conclusion, therefore, at which
the author has arrived with regard to the great mass
which extends from Llanellyfine in the south to
St. Ann's chapel in the north, is that it is entirely
Precambrian, and that it belongs to the series de-
scribed by him under the name Pebidian at St.
David's. The other mass, extending from Caer-
narvon to Bangor, he considered also entirely
Precambrian ; and from the mineral characters ex-
hibited by a portion of this mass directly behind
Caernarvon, he thought it would prove to be, at
least at this part, of Dimetian age. The altered beds
near Bangor and their associated quartz felsites he

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

21 *

considered entirely of Tebidian age, as there is no
evidence that the Dimetian rocks are exposed there.
Afterwards, Professor Hughes read a paper on the
Precambrian rocks of Bangor, which consist of slates,
agglomerates, and porphyritic rocks ; and these, he
thinks, are equivalent to Dr. Hicks's " Pebidian."

Palmam qui meruit. — The Royal Society of
England have just awarded Professor James D.
Dana, the distinguished American mineralogist and
geologist, their highest honour, the " Copley Medal."
The "Royal Medal" went to Professor Heer, the
equally distinguished fossil botanist, of Zurich.

A Fossil Fungus. — A very interesting article in
your last number, which is headed " A Fossil
Fungus," refers to the discovery of a fossil fungus
in Lepidodendron, by Mr. Carruthers, and its subse-
quent study and classification by Mr. Worthington
Smith. It is there stated: "This is, perhaps, the
oldest fungus on record. " As this is not quite correct,
I beg to inform you that in 1858, C. Wedl found
something very much like Saprolegnia ferox in a
Leptiena from the Devonian. In May, 1876, I read
a paper before the Geological Society, in which
unicellular algoe were described parasitic within a
foraminifer from the Lower Silurian, a coral from
the Upper Silurian, in brachiopods, and corals from
the Devonian, and from a coral in the Miocene.
I named and figured this penetrator Palceachlya
pcrforans. In the Proceedings of the Royal Society,
No. 174, 1876; I explained the physiology and
morphology of AcJilya penetrans, now found in
recent corals and shells, and explained the life
cycle of this saprolegnions plant, so that, from its
almost complete resemblance with the ancient form,
it could be considered its descendant. The septa,
which are said not to occur in the mycelium of
Saprolognia are really seen very rarely, but still they
do exist. — P. Martin Duncan.

Erratum. — In my last paper on the Carboniferous
Polyzoa, December 1S77, the reader will oblige by
correcting the following : page 272, 8th line in list,
G. flesicajinala read G. flexiearinata. Page 273,
1st col., nth line from top, for "genus" read
" familv. "—C. R. V.

NOTES AND QUERIES,

The Pairing of Birds. — Is it sufficient proof of
birds pairing for life, that we find the old nests
tenanted year by year ? Some birds are known to
use the old nests of other species ; e.g. , the House
Sparrow, which is one of the species which, upon this
evidence, Mr. Dixon quotes as pairing for life,
frequently uses the old nests of the House Martin ;
and if of other species, why not of the same species ?
I fail to see why Mr. Dixon supposes that polygamy
tends to prolificness : it can only do so if the number
of females born, or arriving at maturity, be in excess
of the males. Among mankind, as men and women

arrive at adult age in about equal numbers, if one
man have two wives, another must go without one,
and it is obvious that both the procreative power, and
what is probably of more importance, the power to
maintain offspring of two males, will be greater than
that of one male. Polygamy can only tend to a
more rapid increase of population where the number
of females is much in excess of that of males, either
through female immigration, as in the Mormon settle-
ments, or, as more usually happens, through the
greater mortality of males. It is hard to believe that
nature has been so considerate to mankind as to make
fowls polygamous in order that the superfluous males
may afford us food. It seems more reasonable to
suppose that the habit of polygamy is in some way
advantageous to the polygamous species itself.
Polygamous animals are usually provided with special
weapons of offence, like the cock's spur, and are in
the habit of fighting for the females : the strongest
and best-armed male wins the largest number of fair
prizes, and the progeny of such a male are likely to
have the advantage over their competitors in the
struggle for existence. It does not seem difficult to
explain why species which are monogamous in the
wild state should be polygamous in captivity. Given
an excess of females over males, and in the absence
of social and moral restraints, polygamy follows as a
matter of course. — H. F. Parsons, M.D.

Pairing Instincts of Birds. — If birds returning
to their old nests is a sign that they pair for life,
I may add to Mr. Dixon's list the Blackbird ( Tnniits
mcrula), for a nest has been occupied successively for
the last three years by a pair of these birds. Now as
there are two or three other nests in the same hedge,
I think it must be the same pair that has successfully
reared three broods in the one nest. Perhaps
Mr. Dixon— since he has been observing particularly
the pairing instincts of birds — could kindly give me
some information as to one species of bird pairing with
anather (see Science-Gossip, p. 263). I have known
instances of hybrid grouse, but never of a hybrid
between a blackbird and a thrush. — G. F. B.

Mites in a Collection of Lepidoptera. — In
reply to the query in the December number of
Science-Gossip I beg to say that, having had the
misfortune to find mites in my collection of Lepido-
ptera, I was recommended to try naphthaline, and so
far as I am at present able to perceive, no further de-
struction has taken place since I used the same. I put
the naphthaline in a small pill-box with a perforated
lid, which is glued into the corner of the drawer, and
does not attract attention. Any insect specially
affected should be removed from the cabinet or store-
box and carefully painted on the thorax with corro-
sive sublimate. — A. J. R.

Destroying Mites on Lepidoptera. — In
answer to "A. F.'s " query on this point, let me draw
his attention to the following extract from Mr.
Newman's preface to his splendid work on British
Butterflies and Moths : — " Directly you observe any
dust, however little, underneath an insect, ....
take out the infected individual ; as soon as he is
removed from the drawer, drop benzole on his back,
drop after drop, until he is thoroughly saturated, and
all his wings are rendered perfectly transparent. In
this state remove him to the drying-cage, and there
let him remain until all the benzole has evaporated,
and his colours have returned, bright and beautiful as
ever." I have not tried this method myself, but I
have friends who have, and they find it to answer
perfectly. — W. J. B.

22

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE - GOSSIP.

The "Furniture" Beetle. — Having just been
put to much expense by repairs to furniture and
skirting-boards, &c, which have been injured more
or less by the furniture beetle, I should be glad to
elicit any remarks upon its probable cure or pre-
vention. I have generally found it in the sappy part
of the wcod, and have found it in every kind of wood
used in house-building and furniture, except in ma-
hogany ; and I cannot hear of its being ever found in
pitch pine. I am not sure of the correctness of my
supposition, but I think that the beetle (it is not larger
than a middle-sized pin's head) bores and lays its egg
or eggs, and the grub eats till its changing period,
the beetle from which then eats its way out ; the
holes not being larger in bore than a middle-sized pin.
I have just been taking out several pieces of wood in
my house, but could not detect the insect itself in any
stage of existence. I have only twice seen the beetle,
and can recollect the time was summer or autumn.
On my own premises I have also found it out of
doors, in old wood laid aside two or three years for
burning. I hope to have some remedy discovered
that may protect the new wood now replacing my
damaged furniture and shelves. — y. Hashes.

Mistletoe. — In reading the short notes on this
species in the December Science-Gossip, I remem-
bered seeing many large specimens some few years
ago when engaged as a botanical collector in Nor-
mandy, that would with ease have been sufficiently
long in the stem to have made a "small javelin."
At the time, I took particular notice, but I do not
believe I saw a single example on the Oak ; the
finest specimens were observed on the Lombardy
Poplar. It is very abundant in the north of France.
— R.

Mistletoe on Lime-trees. — I do not think that
this is an unusual phenomenon. Next to the Apple,
the Hawthorn, and the Black Poplar, I should say
that the Lime was the most frequent host of the
Mistletoe. I have never seen the mistletoe growing
in greater luxuriance than on two fine avenues of limes
at Cutteridge House, near Westbury, Wilts. Near
Malvern, where the mistletoe is abundant, I have
seen it growing on a variety of other trees, as the Oak,
the Maple, the Willow, and Robinia Pseudacacia. —
H. F. Parsons.

Seeds of Mistletoe. — Some twenty-two years
ago I put two seeds of Mistletoe in a cavity formed
on the stem of a young apple-tree, caused by the
partial healing over of the part where a small branch
had been cut off the previous season, tying a string of
bass over to prevent birds, &c. from picking out and
devouring them. They both took, and in three
years had grown to about three inches in length ;
since then they have grown to about two and half
feet through, but during the time have only produced
three berries : that was two years ago. Since then
one of the plants has died. It first showed symptoms of
decay by the leaves becoming yellow and dropping
off; since then it has fallen away piecemeal by
breakage at the joints, the larger portions still remain-
ing attached. The other plant, although so close,
remains in perfect health and looks as usual, except
that it is much thinner from the loss of the inter-
mixed branches of the former plant. I cannot say
which of the plants is dead, — either that which bore
the berries or otherwise, but the remaining plant has
no berries this season. Until the berries were pro-
duced, I had a notion that the plants were of one sex,
consequently barren, but had always neglected ex-
amining them to ascertain the fact, which I now re-
gret, as I fancy the berries produced were barren ; — at

least, none of them grew when inserted in the usual
way. My plants, at first, were of very slow growth :
the first season only produced two small stumpy
leaves from each seed ; the second, four on each, and
so on ; and I rather think only one joint in length has
been produced of a season, but as the plant got
stronger, frequently four shoots were produced instead
of two, increasing thereby much faster, as well as
forming a handsomer and much stronger-looking
plant. Some years ago, I was much pleased and
interested by observing, about an inch above the
plant, several young plants which had pushed their
way through the bark, which they have since con-
tinued to do, always ascending, and about an inch
from each other, some of which are now dead and
some living ; from which I draw the conclusion that
those produced from the former plant are dead also.
These off-sets were of equally slow growth as the
young seedlings, only a pair of leaves of a season,
although more elongate, and I cannot understand H.
E. Wilkinson's statement when he says he observed a
protuberance and very soon a leaf, — mine always
came in twos — and presently a good-sized plant of
Mistletoe. Mine always take four or five years to
come to anything like a good-sized plant, and I have
grown many since the first, both on apple and pear-
trees. The " Dumelow Seedling" is the apple on
which my large plant is now. It was removed once
when the Mistletoe was about five years old : it made
not the slightest difference to its growth ; but I have
lost plants by removing the tree when only of the first
year's growth. I also lost a fine young plant of four
years' growth by the dying off of the tree itself by can-
ker of the root, the Mistletoe living some months after
the tree died, but losing colour and becoming rigid,
and finally perishing also. My trees do not suffer in
the least from the growth of the parasite on it, either
in growth or bearing, although established on the
main stem about three feet from the ground. — Wm.
Curnow.

How to Preserve Animalcul.e. — I have several
works on the microscope, but I have never read of
any way to preserve animalculce ; that is, the best
medium to use. I have tried several, but none have
acted satisfactorily; viz., spirits, glycerine, glycerine
and camphor : the last was the best. I mounted
some Canthocamptus minatus and some ChyJorns
sp/uzricus in it, and found the objects looked better
than when preserved in the other mediums, but still
they were not to my satisfaction. Could you, or
some of your correspondents, tell me of some better
medium, I should be greatly obliged. — II, Foley-
streei, Portland-place.

Root- Propagation of the Ipecacuanha. —
In a paper on i-oot-propagation read by Mr. Lindsay,
of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden, before the Scottish
Horticultural Association, that gentleman stated a
curious fact in connection with the propagation of the
Ipecacuanha by that operation — viz., from a piece of
the root about a foot long or only one of the rings of
the annulated root, one plant would be the conse-
quence. Have any of the readers of Science-Gossip
had any experience of the multiplication of that
highly serviceable plant in that way ? — M. King.

Badly-blown Eggs. — If any of the able corre-
spondents to your journal could tell me of some fluid
that would dissolve the hard albumen in badly-blown
eggs without affecting the shell, I should be much
obliged. I have had some rare eggs given to me
that I wish to preserve, many of which are so badly
blown that they have broken with very careful
handling. — G. T. B.

HARD Wl CKE 'S S CIENCE -GOSS IP.

23

Preserving Animals. — I have just seen an
article mentioning a method of preparing insects,
fish, &c, for the cabinet, said to have been practised
many years by Mr. Waterton, of Walton Hall. It is
stated that the specimens are perfectly life-like, and
not liable to damage by moth, mite, mould, or grease.
I should be much obliged to any reader of SciENCE-
Gossip who would give me a few details of the pro-
cess, or refer me to some work containing the neces-
sary information. — IV. G.

Stormy Petrel. — Dr. Keegan, in his article in
the September number of Scence-Gossip, states
that this bird is only found in the wake of vessels
during stormy weather. He then goes on to give a
very ingenious theory to account for this, or rather to
account for their following ships at all. In the North
and South Atlantic, where the trade winds prevail
and storms seldom or never occur, Mother Cary's
chickens are constantly seen, and frequently near the
equator, where possibly there is not a ripple on the
water at the time. I think it is hardly necessary,
when accounting for these or other birds following
vessels, to bring forward a theory of their supposed
love of the beautiful. The fact is, they know by ex-
perience that substances— to them very great delica-
cies — are continually thrown overboard, and they will
as readily follow a hideous collier as a magnificent
full-rigged ship. On the Thames, the Herring Gulls
have the good sense to prefer fishing-boats, however
old and dirt)', to the smartest yacht on the river, well
aware that from the former they will obtain the larger
amount of food. — y. S. G.

The Veteran Eel. — I think that this subject will
be one of interest, not only to " E. L.," but also to
many aquarium-keepers, particularly so when we read
of the death of an eel at the age of twenty-two years.
I for one should be glad to know from Mr. Plant its
size when he first had it, and at its death. Two years
ago I had an eel which has grown three quarters of
an inch in my keeping, and is now nearly four inches
long. If this be the proportional rate of growth, we
shall easily see to what length it will have attained in
twenty-two years. I find that the best material to
feed eels upon is the common blood-worm, which
ought to be well washed before being put into the
aquarium ; otherwise some of the mud in which they
live will be thrown into the tank. — J. J. Newton.

Cement for Marine Aquaria. — I can fully
endorse the opinion of Mr. Worster as to the value
of pitch as an aquarium cement, especially when used
in the manner which I shall presently describe. A
year and a half ago I rendered perfectly water-tight
an eight-gallon tank which had been for years thrown
aside as useless, and it has not leaked a drop since.
This last spring I built another, holding about eighteen
gallons, with an inch slate bottom, to which are
screwed through holes drilled in the slate, the two
ends of Spanish mahogany, well clamped to prevent
warping, and lined with stout roofing slates cut to
exact size. Into the mahogany ends the front and
back of plate glass are grooved, and the whole
finished with a strong mahogany capping rail all
round, which also serves the purpose of tying die
two ends well together. The glass is of course set in
red-lead putty, and after giving the latter time to
harden, I coated all the joints, the inner faces of two
wooden rails into which the bottom of the plate glass
was set, and in fact, every part which was likely to
leak, with a mixture of pitch and gutta-percha
(about quarter part of the latter). This mixture was
laid on pretty thick with a putty-knife when just hot
enough to stick. I then cut strips of sheet glass of

suitable widths, and from two to four inches long,
heated them over a small gas stove, and pressed them
while hot into the pitch : of course, a pair of hot pliers
must be used to handle the glass with, or it will fly.
This plan I have found to answer admirably ; it
prevents the pitch from chipping or flaking off, and
the best of it is, a tank so treated is ready for use im-
mediately, as there is no effluvia of red-lead to be
got rid of, eveiy particle of poisonous cement being
covered up with pitch and glass. This tank has now
been stocked about four months, and is in eveiy
respect satisfactory. I may mention that one or two
of my friends and myself have long been in the habit
of using for rock- work a calcareous tufa found in this
neighbourhood. It can be obtained in good-sized
pieces, forms a good nidus for conferva, and is easily
worked out into caves and hollows suitable for
aquarium animals to shelter in, whilst at same" time
hard enough for the purpose. It also has the advan-
tage from its porous nature, of holding a good deal
of water, so that the space it occupies is not all lost.
— Edward Horsnaill, Dover.

Aquariums. — Why should sticklebacks fight so
in aquariums, as "S" says, unless they cannot get
food properly ; for they live in shoals : at least, we
find numbers together, though at times they seem
very jealous of one another, and do not like intruders
into their peculiar domain ? — Edward Thomas Scott.

Slugs and Foxgloves. — With reference to
Mr. J. W. Slater's observations respecting slugs and
snails feasting heartily on the leaves of the Foxglove,
I can testify to my fowls doing the same thing with
impunity — without any bad result to those who sub-
sequently eat their eggs. — G. F. Cooke.

Unusual Appearance of the Martin. — This
week (December 4) this bird is busily flying about
the summit of Overton Hill, Cheshire : it selects a
sheltered wooden shed every evening for its roosting-
place. It must have been a late-hatched bird, and
thus left behind when its friends migrated. My
little boy, who takes a deep interest in ornithology,
states he believes it has been injured, and, therefore,
not able to undertake the wearisome journey to a
warmer climate. Mr. G. White would probably
have made much of this fact in his day. — R.

White Hairbells. — On October 31st, I gathered
several beautiful albino specimens of the common
hairbell ( Campanula rotundifolid), by the side of the
Upper Shaftesbury road, about a mile and a half
from this town. I gathered several on the same spot
in October last year. It is noticeable that although
not the slightest trace of colour was discernible in the
flowers, yet, upon being dried, they assumed a bluish
tinge. The ordinary pigment was therefore not quite
absent, but was only precipitated in the process of
pressing. Is not //a/rbell, as above, the correct name
for this graceful little flower, on account of its fine
hair-like stem, and not harebell, which is quite un-
meaning ? — W. R. Tate, Blandford.

Bournemouth Insects. — With reference to
Mr. Groser's remarks (p. 256, November number)
upon the larvae of E.jacobea, I may mention that I
have seen them here regularly year after year on the
Ragwort, but have often observed that they occur in
patches ; i.e. one patch of ragwort will swarm with
them, while the next will have none. I infer that this.
is due to the sluggish flight of the insect. Bourne-
mouth possesses an excellent list of local lepidoptera : :
I may instance, N. viridata, E. cribrnm, H.
dipsaceas, B. trifolii, L. littoralis, and others. —
E. B. Kemp-Welch.

24

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS,

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip at least a week earlier than hereto-
fore, we cannot possibly insert in the following number any
communications which reach us later than the 9th of the
previous month.

Science Gossip Botanical Exchange Club. — In our
last number we prematurely stated that all the parcels had been
made up and sent out in connection with the above club. The
majority of them have been delivered, but there still remain
others, which will be forwarded as soon as possible. The work
of arrangement and exchange has been enormous, and we must
beg those members who have not yet received parcels to enter-
tain a little patience. We feel certain that the result will
satisfy all parties.

J. Bramhall. — It is not at all meditated to bring out a
second edition of Blackwall's " Spiders " at present. We are
not aware whether Messrs. Douglas & Scott have yet pub-
lished their monograph on British Homoptera.

S. T.— Get the "Collector's Handy Book," price 2s. 6d.,
published by Hardwicke & Bogue, 192, Piccadilly. You will
there find full instructions as to mounting microscopic objects.
The best way of preserving animal bones is to steep them in
gelatine, or boil them in a solution of glue.

F. H. L. —The "coral-like substance" you sent us from
Falmouth beach is not a coral but a lime-secreting sea-weed,
called by Harvey Melobesia fasciculata. It is allied to the
common Corallina officinalis.

E. Edwards. — Many thanks for your good wishes. You
had best procure Robson's book of " Botanical Labels" from
Messrs. Hardwicke & Bogue, and paste each label on the
species.

W. K. (Leeds). — We know of no better way of hermetically
sealing specimens in bottles containing spirits than the old-
fashioned one of covering the outside of the cork with a layer
of melted sealing-wax.

K. A. Deakin. — The Palaeontographical Society have
published the fossils of nearly every British formation, and
these are contained in about thirty large volumes. By applying
to the secretary, Rev. T. Wiltshire, Lewisham, we have no
doubt you could obtain a list of all the society's publications.
You can get the implements you speak of at any large natural-
history dealer's.

J. H. Morton. — There is no possible danger of being
bitten by the slowworm (A nguis fragilis).

S. T. — For stocking small aquaria see instructions con-
tained in "The Aquarium, its Structure and Management,"
published by Hardwicke & Bogue, 192, Piccadilly.

J. D. O.— Get S. Wood's shilling book on "The British
Bird Preserver," published by Warne & Co.

A. Michael. — Your desmid is Closterinm setaceum (in con-
jugation).

J. R. James. — Many thanks for your kindly suggestions,
they will not be unheeded.

EXCHANGES.

Dr. Morton, New Brompton, Kent, would like to have a
botanical correspondent in Southampton or neighbourhood.

For well-mounted slides or good material the following
objects, unmounted : — Barbadoes Polycystina, sponge sand,
nfusorial earth, cleaned guano, leaves of Deutzia scabra
mounted and unmounted ; mounted slides of Polycystina,
Foraminifera, flies' tongues (good), diatoms from Varra Yana,
New Nottingham, Mediterranean, &c, Arachnoidiscus, Isth-
tnia, Salicine, double sulphate magnesia and copper, selenite
films, eel's skin, parasites various, polyzoa, and others. —
William J. Fuller, Broad Plain Soap-works, Bristol.

Herbert Wheldon, South Parade, Northallerton, Yorks,
will send post-free fifty foreign stamps, all different, on
receipt of eggs of Sparrow or Kestrel Hawk, or any of the
Raptores.

Sections of Thyroid Gland and Scirrhous Cancer, stained,
ready for mounting, in exchange for Slides (Diatoms pre-
ferred). — T. V. D., 33, Sloane-street, London.

Slides of fresh-water Alga? and Fungi for others of same
class or Physiological. Send lists to Dr. Parsons, Goole.

Fifteen bottles, each containing, from twelve to sixty
sections of British and Foreign Woods, in exchange for deep
sea soundings (cleaned)or other good objects. — H. L., 6, Upper
Phillimore-gardens, Kensington, London, W.

Wanted, British and American Fossil Diatomacese, Earth
of Dolgelly, South Mourne, Loch Boa, Bermuda, Richmond,
Nottingham, Guano Ichaboe, &c, for good slides, fossils,
Swiss Diatoms, Oran, Santa Fiora, Franzcusbad, &c, or cash.
— Eug. Mauler, Travero, Switzerland.

For river mud from Lagos send some object of interest or
good material for microscope. — A. Smith, 198, Essex-road,
Islington.

Wanted, living specimens of Hydra fusca ; will exchange
for unmounted Sertularia abietina. — Henry Leipner, 47,
Hampton Park, Cotham, Bristol.

Good specimens of Moths in exchange for good microscopic
objects : Populi, Ligustri, Elpenor, Bidentaia, Roborardi,
Papilionaria, Taminata, Flarago, Persicaria?, Pembica,
Croceago, Pyramidea, and many oiher specimens. — J. Mighall,
2, High-street, Lindfield, Sussex.

Lardner's " Museum of Science and Art," 12 vols., in
good condition, in exchange for any good works on the micro-
scope. — W.Wilson, 4, Caledonian-place, Edinburgh, N.B.

A Number of Dragon-flies, &c, from the North of Ireland
and Diptera, Lancashire, may be had by sending box and
return postage to F. Curtis, 32, Woodfield-terrace, Fernhill,
Bury, Lancashire.

For piece of Cuticle of Aloe send stamped envelope to
E. B. L. Brayley, 2, Burlington-buildings, Bristol.

For Birds' Eggs or Lepidoptera can offer Sponges from the
White Chalk, and other fossils from the Red Chalk, small size,
suitable for a cabinet. — M. Lawson, High-street, Bridlington.

Wanted, mounted or unmounted Diatoms of every variety
in exchange for mounted micro objects. — Atkins, Chemist, 200,
Essex-road, Islington, N.

Wanted, microscopical slides in exchange for British
flowering plants and ferns (many rare). — T. Watson, 'Bank
Parade, Burnley.

For Foraminifera and Red Spicules from West Indian
Sponge please send slides or unmounted material (good) to
E. W. Burgess, 35, Langham-street, London, W.

Wanted in quantity, good typical Gneiss, Amygdaloid and
Porphyries. Good exchange given in Fossils, Shells, or
Minerals. — Thos. D. Russell, 48, Essex-street, Strand, W.C.

Would the gentleman who sent me three slides for sounding
please to let me know his address, as I lost his letter? —
A. Alletsee, n, Foley-street, London, W.

For specimen of Sertuiaria abietina send stamped envelope
and object of interest to Chas. Williams, Kingmeade, Woolcott
Park, Redland, Bristol.

Foreign or British shells offered for living specimens of the
Diving Spider A rgyroneta aquatica. — Tom Workman, Belfast.

Duplicates. — Edusa, Cardui, Galathea, Cassiope, Tanira,
Pamphilus, Ages/is, Adonis, Chrysorrhosa, Sambucaia,
Petraria, Piniaria, Gilvaria, Impura, Chi, &c. Desiderata:
Lepidoptera. — A, H. Shepherd, 48, Roden-street, Holloway, N.

Offers in birds' eggs for a stamp album containing 332
stamps of various countries, including Egypt, America, Spain,
Russia, Greece, &c. — J. Wheldon, care of Miss Appleton,
Market-place, Darlington.

Wanted, Science-Gossip for 1870, '71, '72, '73, and '74,
either bound or unbound ; microscopic slides, &c, given in
exchange. — W. A. Hyslop, 22, Palmerston-place, Edinburgh.

By
By

BOOKS, &c, RECEIVED.

"Physiography." By Prof. Huxley. London: Macmillan.

"A Lecture on Winds, Ocean-Currents, and Tides." By
W. Leighton Jordan. London : Hardwicke & Bogue.

"Geological and Geographical Survey of Colorado.'
Prof. Hayden.

"Ethnography and Philology of the Hidassa Indians. 1
Washington Matthews.

" Fur-bearing Animals, a Monograph of the North American
Mustelidae." By Dr. Elliott Coues. Government Printing
Office, Washington, U.S.A.

" Industrial Art." December.

"Journal of Applied Sciences." December.

" Botanische Zeitung." November.

" Land and Water." December.

" American Naturalist." November.

"Time's Footsteps: A Birthday Book of Bitter-sweet."
London : Hardwicke & Bogue.

Last No. of " Monthly Microscopical Journal."

" The Naturalist." December.
&c. &c. &c.

Communications have been received up to the iotii
ult., from:— T. S.— W. W. S.— D. B.-W. J. S.— K. A. D.
— H. W. S.— T, B.— J. H. M.— J. M. H.— Dr. M.— T. B.
— W. H. S.— R. G. — H.G.— S. T.— W. H. S.— V. C— T. L.—
W. P.— H. W.— G. C— F. C. K.— W. M. G. W.— R. J. W.—
j. w. G.— W. H. M.— J. J. W. S.— W.,G.— T. V. D.— F. H. L.
— G. C. D.— H. L.— E. M.— Dr. H. F. P.— J. S. G.— A. S.—
W. H. W.— T. R. M.— H. A. B. L.— J. B.— M. J. W.— H. M.
J. M.— E. T.S.-J. H. R.— W. W.— E. E.— G. C. M.— J. B.—
S. S. B.— M. L.-W. K.-J. C. J.— F. C.-J. C.-G. C. D.-
E. B. L. B.— Prof. G. S. B.— W. E. G.— W. C.-W. A. H.-
A. J. R — L. W. G.-T. T. R.— J. D. O.— G. P.— J. D.—
j T._W. H. S.— M. S.— W. H. L.— A. A.— C. F. W. T. W.
—J. H.— T. W.— A. H. S.— E. F. C— J. W.— W. J. B. -
W J. B — E. W. B.— W. W.— T. W.— A. M.— A. S.— D. S.
— W. S. W.— J. A., Jun.— J. H. K— J. C. M.-A. R.—
1 T. R. J.— P. M. D.— D. D.— 8k. &c.

HA RD Wl CKE 'S S CTEN CE - G OSS IP.

25

THE PRONUNCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC NAMES,

By RANDAL II. ALCOCK, F.L.S.

BSfiffi^ ^^?

K

|I§H

wm\

P9

pH^jl

S/gBr' <** J!

^■3^3

Ml

^j^nt.t^

Wj^jmn^rylm

T is a source of satisfac-
tion, I should imagine,
to all authors, when
they find that their
works are read ; and
I feel flattered that Mr.
Newlyn should quote
from my work, "Bo-
tanical Names for Eng-
lish Readers, " especially
as, in the half-dozen
pages I wrote on the pronunciation of scientific
names, I aimed only at giving a few plain, though to
the best of my knowledge correct, hints on the
subject to those who might wish for them ; but by
no means at assuming the position of a teacher of
this matter to those who, by their knowledge of
Greek and Latin, are competent to form a judgment
of their own. But Mr. Newlyn, in his article on the
pronunciation of scientific names (No. 153, p. 193), has
misunderstood my meaning. He says : " Mr.
Randal Alcock points out, in a rule, that in words
direct from the Greek, especially modern scientific
terms, the g is pronounced hard " ; and remarks,
" Really, this is implying that the older terms may
go their own way as regards our dealing with this
letter in any of them, and the young student in
botany must be utterly puzzled in his attempts at
utterance of scientific language." Perhaps these
words of mine, thus separated from their context,
may seem to imply what is stated, but not other-
wise. The sentence immediately preceding the one
quoted is : " Those Greek words that come to us
through the Latin, and have been long in use with
us, generally follow English usage, and are pro-
nounced soft, though not always ; for instance, both
gymnastic and jymnastic may be heard." In an
earlier part of the same chapter, I endeavoured to
show how much pronunciation must depend upon
usage, and how futile it is to lay down hard-and-fast
rules to meet every case. I have, therefore, not left
it to be inferred that any class of terms " may go
No. 15S.

their own way," but I have said the rules must be
modified by usage.

Mr. Newlyn disagrees with my view that the g in
scientific names from the Greek should be pronounced
uniformly hard, as in Geum and Potamogeton ; in-
deed, he asserts that it should not be in these cases,
though he allows that authorities differ. I entirely
agree with Mr. Boulger (No. 152, p. 191), when he says
that " a scientific name is a Latin and not an English
word, and must be pronounced, if not spelt, accord-
ingly." This being so, the only question is how to
pronounce Latin, a question which cannot at present
be answered decidedly, as both the traditional English
pronunciation and the new pronunciation are being
taught. Which will ultimately prevail remains to be
seen ; but if the new pronunciation become universal,
there will no longer be any difficulty, or ambiguity,
regarding such names as have been written about in
your journal. Mr. T. D. Hall, M.A., in "A Child's
First Latin Book," which aims at leading "step by
step to the acquirement of the pronunciation of Latin,
as set forth by the professors of Latin at Cambridge
and Oxford," says, "c has always the sound of k :
as Cicero, pronounced Kikero ; Cresar, Kaysar ;
clvis, keevis ; scilicet, skeeliket ; scio, skio. g is
always sounded hard, as in go, gun: as genus, gigno,
regina." We do not meet here with the pronun-
ciation of ch, but in Dr. Smith's "Principia Latina,
Part I.," we find, ' ' Latin c, ch = English &." This
would give us, or the "utterly puzzled" young
student, without any doubt, Rikardsonia as the pro-
nunciation of Richardsonia ; Rikardia of Richardia,
Lakenalia of Lachenalia ; Fuksia of Fuchsia ; Gera-
nium, Totamogeton, Geum, with g like g in gun.

I am very much in favour of the new pronunciation
myself for many reasons, which it is not necessary to
enter upon. I merely say that it has been arrived at
by competent authorities, and is now very extensively
taught. " The usage of our universities " is rather a
vague expression, as they do not all agree ; and so long
as we have English teachers who have studied
abroad, and distinguished foreign savans visiting us

c

26

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

here, there must always be a certain amount of lati-
tude allowed, if we retain the English method of
pronouncing Latin. We may say Fewschia or ,
Jeranium to an Englishman, but who would do so to '
a German ?

I cannot see, then, that the pronunciation of many
of the names can at present be reduced to strict rules,
which any one would feel bound by ; scirpus is pro-
nounced sirpus, according to the old style ; skirpus
according to the new, &c. ; but in the case of
quantities, I think absolute uniformity might be
arrived at, which is not the case at present. If I were
to ask, what are the correct accentuations of Conium,
Cyperus, Populus, for instance, I should not expect
to receive uniform replies.

As to the euphony of the names, those who have
to apply them are responsible, and they are supposed
to have sufficient knowledge of plants, and the
system of nomenclature, to give correct names : much
of what remains depends upon taste. " It is certain
no one ought to name a plant, if he is not a botanist ;
nor is any one at liberty to impose a generic name
who does not understand genera ; on the other hand,
we have no doubt that any one who knows that a
plant is perfectly distinct generically from all others,
also knows how to apply a distinct name " (Linn.
"Crit. Bot.," § 218). It is true that names are not
always everything that might be desired, nor have
they always been correct ; but if correct, they should
not afterwards be altered. Euphony does not en-
tirely depend upon the taste of the plant-namer, for
often he has little choice. Thus, as Jacquin wished
to do honour to Patrick Browne, and named Brownea
after him ; Smith, when he wished to honour Robert
Brown in the same way, had to invent a fresh form,
and therefore named his genus Brunonia ; Linne
having already used Brunia in honour of Lebrun.

Mr. Newlyn is scarcely correct in saying that
Brownea and Brunonia are "etymologically identi-
cal," for, not only are they derived from the names of
different people, but also, in the first case, the name
was spelt Browne and in the second Brown. Hence
Brownea — Theis has it Brownaea — notBrowma, which
it would have been but for the final e. It is well
these minutice should be noticed, else "both the
complimentary importance and the etymological form
might be sacrificed."

I have not hitherto felt inclined to take any part in
this controversy, because, if common usage be taken
into account, no decisive answers can be given to the
questions asked. Thus "E. C." (No. 151, p. i64)argues
that the ch in Lachenalia should have the sound sh,
because it was "named after M. de la Chenal."
De Theis says it was named after Werner Lachenal,
professor of botany at Bale. Whether he was a pure
Frenchman, or a pure German, or a German of
French extraction, I do not know ; but if he were the
latter, as his Christian name, and changed surname,
would seem to indicate, there is still no certainty how

he pronounced his own name, for the Germans them-
selves do not pronounce ch in a uniform manner ;
some would pronounce it k, some ch, as in the Scotch
loch, some sh ; and there are also intermediate sounds
between these to be met with. According then to
"E. C.'s" idea, he may call Lachenalia what he chooses
without being incorrect ; but certainly Mr. Boulger's
view that it should be pronounced as though it were
spelt with a h, because it is a Latin word, seems
more reasonable. We cannot follow the pronuncia-
tion of all languages in commemorative names, but
must take them as Latin, and pronounce them
accordingly. Magnol pronounced in French, does
not correspond with Mag-no-lia pronounced in Latin.
I repeat, in conclusion, my opinion that when we
have a uniform pronunciation of Latin, we may have
a uniform pronunciation of botanical names, but not
until then. In the mean time, as Mr. Newlyn says,
"the pronunciation of botanical names is but of
secondary importance," and I have taken my pen up
now, only because Mr. Newlyn has misunderstood
what I have previously published on this subject,
and, unintentionally no doubt, misrepresented my
meaning. This is the general teaching of my book,
with regard to the pronunciation of the letter g, in
botanical names. In names direct from the Greek,
it should be pronounced hard; e.g., Geophlia,
Georchis, Geropogon. But if the student always
hears the g, in such words as Genista, Gentiana,
Geranium, in the British Flora pronounced soft, let
him pronounce it soft, though Geranium is a Greek
name of Dioscorides ; or, if he sees, judging by
analogy, that according to English usage, such names
as Gerardia, Geoffroya, Gilia, would be pronounced
soft ; let him follow that usage. I would add, that
if he should be in doubt about such names as
Gireondia, Gesnera, Genipa, Giukgo, let him pro-
nounce the g hard. I hope it may be pronounced so
before long in every case.

THE SEALS AND WHALES OF THE
BRITISH SEAS.

By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., &c.

The Sterm Whale {continued).

No. VII.

THE pursuit of the Sperm Whale is attended with
much greater clanger than that of the Greenland
Whale, and Beale gives many instances in which, in
his own experience, boats were stove in and men lost ;
stories of fighting whales, he says, are numerous, and
probably much exaggerated ; one, known as " Timor
Jack," is said to have destroyed every boat sent
against him, till at last he was killed by being
attacked from several directions at the same time,
thus diverting his attention from the boat which made
the successful attack. Another fish, known as " New
Zealand Tom," destroyed nine boats successively

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

before breakfast, and when eventually captured, after
destroying many other boats, many harpoons from
the various ships which had attacked him were found
sticking in his body. There is one well-authenticated
instance of a vessel being attacked and destroyed by
a sperm whale : the American whale-ship Essex was
attacked by one, which, first passing under the vessel,
probably by accident, came in contact with her keel
and carried it away ; then turning and rushing
furiously upon the ship, the whale stove in her bow ;
so serious was the breach that the vessel speedily
filled and went down. Most of the crew were away
in their boats at the time, but those on board had
just time to launch their one remaining boat before the
vessel sank. The boats made for the coast of Peru,
the nearest land, many hundreds of miles distant ; one
of them was picked up drifting at sea, and three of
the crew, who were found in it in a state of insensi-
bility, were the only survivors of the ill-fated vessel.

In addition to the sperm and oil, this species yields
another product which is, or was, very valuable,
although it is the result of disease, and one would
imagine a very uninviting substance — I refer to
Ambergris, the origin and composition of which was
so long a puzzle to the learned. This substance is
now well known to be a concretion of the indigesti-
ble portions of the Cuttle-fish, which form the food
of the Sperm Whale. The nucleus of the mass is
generally the horny beaks of these creatures, and
the substance itself is found in the intestines of the
Sperm Whale, or on the shores of the seas frequented
by this species : no other whale is known to be
subject to these bezoars. It was formerly believed
that the origin of ambergris was in some way con-
nected with the sea, and when it was afterwards
found in whales, the fact was simply attributed to
their having swallowed it. Sir Thomas Browne
writes of the Sperm Whale which came on shore at
Wells, in 1646 : — " In vain was it to rake for
ambergriese in the paunch of this leviathan, as
Greenland discoverers and attests of experience
dictate that they sometimes swallow great lumps
thereof in the sea ; insufferable foetor denying that
inquiry ; and yet if, as Paracelsus encourageth,
ordure makes the best musk, and from the most
foetid substances may be drawn the most odoriferous
essences ; all that had not Vespasian's nose (Cuiodor
lucri ex re qualibet) might boldly swear here was a
subject fit for such extractions" (p. 356, vol. i.).
It was not until 1783, in a paper read before
the Royal Society by Dr. Swediaur, that a scienti-
fic account of 'the origin of ambergris was made
known. At the present time its medical virtues,
which were formerly considered very great, are
altogether at a discount, and the only use to which
it is applied is in the preparation of perfumery.

I have said veiy little about the method of pur-
suit and capture of this species and of the Right-whale,
because it is a subject in which I take no pleasure ;

those who wish to know how these peaceful and
highly-organi/.ed giants are approached, and how
they behave when terrified and smarting under the
harpoon and whale-lance, can pursue the subject
ad nauseam in the pages of Scoresby, Bcale, and
others; the sickening process of "flensing" and
disposing of the blubber is described with equal
minuteness. I for one cannot appreciate the halo-
of romance with which some authors seek to sur-
round the whale-fishery. Doubtless the occupation
is one of hardship and danger, but the remunera-
tion when successful is in proportion, and I can
hardly conceive of men inflicting the fearful amount
of suffering which every "full" whaleship, or in
a still greater degree every "full" sealer, repre-
sents, — under any circumstances. Science is con-
stantly adding to our resources, and it is sincerely
to be hoped that ere long substitutes may be found
for animal oil and whalebone which will supersede
their use in the few processes in which they are
still requisite : should this be long delayed, it is to
be feared that the seals and whales, at least of the
northern seas, will soon cease to exist.

Although so widely spread over the waters of the
globe, possessing, I believe, a range greater than
any other known species of animal, it is only open
and deep waters which can be said to be the home of
the Sperm Whale ; and when found in shallow seas, its
generally emaciated condition indicates the absence
of its proper nourishment ; and the readiness with
which whole herds precipitate themselves stupidly
upon the sands, shows how little they are acquainted
with such objects. Mr. Andrew Murray makes some
observations upon this subject, which are so interesting
and so suggestive that I must ask you to excuse my
making a long quotation.

Speaking of those specimens which have now and
then been cast ashore in the North Atlantic or in the
English seas, he says : "They seem to be un-
prepared for, or not adapted for, shallow seas.
Accustomed (perhaps not individually but by here-
ditary practice or instinct) to swim along the coral
islands of the Pacific within a stone's throw from the
shore, they cannot understand, their instinct is not
prepared to meet, shallow coasts and projecting head-
lands. If they were habitual residents in our seas,
they must either be speedily extirpated, learn more
caution, or be developed into a new species." ....
Mr. Murray further says: "I observe that almost
every place that has been above mentioned as a
favourite resort of the Sperm Whales, although not
out of soundings, has claims to be considered the site
of submerged land. The islands of the Polynesia,
which are its special feeding-ground, are the beacons
left by the submerged Pacific continent. In pure
deep seas animal life is usually scarce, and the
absence of breeding-ground is probably the chief
cause of it ; but this only applies to a certain kind of

animals, those which require a bottom on which to

c 2

28

HA R£> WI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G OSS IP.

deposit their spawn ; but there are many which do
not require this. The spawn of some floats about
unattached ; for others a frond of weed is sufficient
attachment ; and it has occurred to me that the dis-
tribution of the Sperm Whale may in some way be
connected with the geological antecedents of the
ocean it inhabits. I think it not improbable that the

Fig. 12. Chair in Great Yarmouth Church formed of the
basal portion of the skull of a Sperm Whale (from Palmer's
" Perlustration of Great Yarmouth").

site of a submerged land may swarm with life, which
originally proceeded, or was dependent on it, long
after it had been in the deep bosom of
the ocean buried. The Sargasso seas,
which swarm with Eolidcr. and Crustacea,
are examples of this life : it is not invaria-
bly either present or absent in deep water,
and it is its presence or its absence which
is instructive. Those animals which re-
quired a bottom to spawn upon may have
died out or been developed into others
which do not ; and those which do not
require such a support may have multi-
plied correspondingly. In one of the maps
in Lieutenant Maury's book, already cited, there
is a space of sea opposite the western coast of South

in some way to it — might continue to linger over it
long after it had passed beyond the depth at which it
could practically have any effect upon the animal life
above it ; but if a part of the circumference of the
globe has always been under water, before and ever
since the creation of life, no life is likely to be found
on that spot, because it has never had a starting-point
of life from which to begin ; and, as already said, a
slender barrier stops the spread of species, and
species would certainly not spread to a spot where
there was nothing for them to feed upon. Again,
animal life could not begin to feed upon animal life
till vegetable life had previously prepared the way by
providing food for the animals which were to furnish
food for others ; and vegetable life could not begin to
grow without a foundation of land, accessible either
above or below water. The total and constant
absence of all life at any particular spot appears to
me, therefore, to furnish a presumption that there has
never been dry land or shallow water there. Whether
the continuance of deep water in one spot for some

Fig. 13. Under surface of the Chair (from same work).

America, and lying between Patagonia and New Zea-
land, marked ' Desolate region, distinguished by the
absence of animal or vegetable life ' ; — no sperm
whales here— nothing for them to feed upon — and no
symptoms, either by banks of Sargasso or coral islets,
of any land ever having existed there. There is no ap-
parent reason why this place, except from some special
cause peculiar to itself, should be more desolate than
any other in the same latitude — than the deep sea on
the east side of Patagonia, for example. I can
imagine that, if the bottom of the sea should subside
gradually, where animal life had once abounded,
animal life — not that animal life, but animal life due

Fig. 14. Skull of Sperm Whale.

interminably long time might not have the same
effect is another question, which, whatever way it
may be answered, would not affect my explanation of
the cause of the absence of the Sperm Whale from
such spots."* I am indebted to the kindness of
Chas. J. Palmer, Esq., of Great Yarmouth, for the
woodcuts (figs. 12 and 13) representing the chair in
Yarmouth Church which is formed of part of the
skull of an individual of this species.

The sub-family Ziphiina, which follows next, is,
perhaps, the most remarkable of the whole of
this interesting order. The Zipkieid Whales, as
they are designated, are, with one exception,
very rare, and until the commencement of the
present century, with that one exception, were
known to science only from their numerous re-
mains, found chiefly in the Crag deposits. "Since
that time, however," says Prof. Flower, in his
memoirs of this group (Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. viii.
p. 203), "at irregular intervals, in various and most
distant parts of the world, solitary individuals have
been caught or stranded, now amounting to about
thirty, which by some naturalists are referred to
upwards of a dozen distinct species, and to very

"Geographical Distribution of Mammalia," pp. 211-213.

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - G O SSJP.

29

nearly as many genera. No case is recorded of
more than one of these animals having been observed
in one place at a time, and their habits are almost
absolutely unknown. . . . This comparative rarity
at the present epoch," he farther says, "contrasts
greatly with what once obtained on the earth,
especially in the period of the deposition of the Crag
formations, and leads to the belief that the existing
Ziphioidsare the survivors of an ancient family which
once played a far more important part than now
among the cetacean inhabitants of the ocean, but
which have been gradually replaced by other forms,
and are themselves probably destined ere long to
share the fate of their once numerous allies or pro-
genitors."

The members of the group may be distinguished
at once by the absence of functional teeth in the
upper jaw : those in the lower jaw are always
quite rudimentary, with the exception of one, or
occasionally, two pairs. These may be largely de-
veloped, especially in the male sex, and are placed,
generally, well forward. The blow-hole is sub-
crescentic, and a pair of remarkable furrows occur
in the skin of the throat, almost in the form of the
letter V, the point directed forward. The skull
presents a remarkable appearance in the genus
Hyperoodoti) caused by the enormous maxillary
crests which produce the peculiar conformation of the
head in the living animal, originating the trivial name
"Bottle-head." The common Beaked Whale, or
Bottle-head (Hyperoodon rostratus, Chemnitz), is
of frequent occurrence in the North Atlantic, and
generally visits our shores in autumn, sometimes
ascending the estuaries of rivers : it has been taken
several times at the entrance to the river Ouse. It is
solitary in its habits, more than two are never met
with in the same place, and in that case it is often the
old female and heryoung one : the old male is said to
be very shy and rarely secured. In September, 1877,
an adult female, 24 ft. long, was taken in the Menai
Straits ; it was accompanied by another, probably
its young one. The colour is black above, the
under parts being lighter : the two teeth in the
lower jaw are generally hidden in the gum. Its
food consists of cuttle-fish, the remains of great
numbers of which have been found in its stomach.
Another species of Hypcroodon, H. latifrons, has
occurred three or four times on the British coast ;
it has also been taken in Greenland. Very little
is known about it as a species, and that only from its
bones : it is supposed to attain a greater size than
II. rostratus, probably upwards of 30 ft.

Cuvier's Whale {Ziphius cavirostHs, Cuv.),
another of this remarkable group, has been met with
once on the coast of Shetland, and it, or its remains,
have been found about five or six times in other parts of
Europe, and also, it is believed, at the Cape of Good
Hope, and the east coast of South America. It has
two teeth, one on each side the lower jaw, close to

the extremity. Cuvier established the genus Ziphius
in 1825, from a fossil skull found on the coast of
Provence, in 1S04, which he believed at the time to
belong to an extinct animal.

( To be continued.')

STRUCTURE OF SAND-HILLS.
By W. B. Grove, B.A.

LAST summer I had a very good opportunity of
examining the structure of the dunes on the
Lancashire coast. A copy (fig. 15) of a sketch, made
on the spot, may be interesting, as I can find none
in our common text-books which give an accurate
idea of it. It was taken from a natural section of a
hill about 14 feet high, half of which had been neatly
blown away by the wind. The irregularity of the
bedding, represented by the darker lines, is due to

Fig

Section of Sand-dune, Lancashire.

changes in the direction of the wind, which, after
depositing a stratum, often sweeps away a part of
it ; and then, after another change, deposits fresh
material on the new surface. As the successive
laminae conform accurately to the varying outline of

Fig. 16. Sandstone Cliff, Suffolk (after Lyell).

the surface on which they are deposited, a series of
irregular beds is thus produced. This is often called
false-bedding. The same name is also applied to
diagonal stratification, in which the planes of the
lamina of sandstone are oblique to the plane of strati-
cation, as seen in fig. 16. But this latter structure
can only be formed, I believe, when a current of
water, carrying coarse sediment, meets with a sudden

3°

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSI P.

check to its velocity, and lets its burden fall ; the
particles then arrange themselves at the proper
"slope of repose," which depends upon their size
and form. This can seldom or never happen to a
current of air on a large scale, and consequently
diagonal stratification will rarely occur in sand-
dunes.

My reason for repeating these well-known facts is
that, in J. Geikie's small "Geology," I find the
following passage: — "Sometimes the layers of de-
position in a single stratum are inclined at various
angles to themselves. This structure is called false-
bedding ; the laminae not coinciding with the planes
of stratification Hillocks of drifting sand fre-
quently show a similar structure, but their false-
bedding is, as a rule, much more pronounced." The
first two sentences of this passage contain slightly
different ideas, and must confuse the student's mind.
According to my observation, moreover, the state-
ment in the last sentence is not true, if he takes the
latter of the two definitions apparently given of false-
bedding, as he would naturally do. It is best not to
use the term false-bedding at all, but discard it, as is
done by Lyell and Jukes, in favour of the two, irre-
gular bedding and diagonal stratification. The latter
of these cannot be called by the rejected name, as it
is not the bedding but the lamination that is ab-
normal ; we may, indeed, apply the name to the
former, but we shall have to explain that false means
irregular in this case, and we do not gain much,
except the opportunity of writing a second sentence
to explain the meaning of the previous one.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE
FORAMINIFERA.

By W. K. Marriott.

THIS was the subject of a paper recently read
before the Metropolitan Scientific Association.
The author referred to the Eozoon Canadense, and
while giving a brief recapitulation of the arguments
in favour of its organic origin, he held it up as not
only the fust of all foraminiferous life, but also, in its
special capacity as a rock builder, as typical as the
very Globigerina itself. He considered as inimical
to the claims of the Eozoon that Messrs. King and
Rowney, the leaders of the opposition, had lately
received a grant from the Endowment of Research
Fund, for "Researches to determine the Structural,
Chemical, and Mineralogical Character of a certain
Group of Crystallic Rocks." If this were aimed at
the Eozoon, he was content to leave the matter in
their hands, feeling confident that its position in the
animal world was assured. After referring to the
utility of classification in general, he showed how
the classification of the Foraminifera had been
alternately neglected and over-indulged in ; how in
the one case it was left to itself, and in others had

been filled with synonymes, and how M. D'Orbigny
had rescued it, and how he again had spoiled it.
He then showed the system of the classification of the
whole Protozoic group, and how its two great
branches, the Rhizopoda and Ciliata, develope on the
one hand, through many stages, up to the many-
chambered Foraminifera, and on the other to the
Actinophrys and Vorticella. He regretted he could
at present do no more than indicate the great question
that lay open at this point, namely, how these two
developments of Protozoic life are related to the
supplementary groups of Polycystina, Thallassacollida,
and Spongiada, and to the Ichthydina and Noctilu-
cida. As the classification of the Foraminifera rests,
by reason of the simplicity of its animal matter, upon
no physiological basis, it remains very clearly that it
can only be upon the structural difference of its
shell ; this, again, being due to the hardening, with
only very slight modifications, of the outside of the
creature— the calcifying of its epidermis, as it has
been somewhat curiously called ; this classification
rests on very reasonable and simple grounds. The
necessity of the first great divisions into Monothalamia
and Polythalamia immediately suggests itself. The
Monothalamia, or one-chambered Foraminifera, con-
sists of three families. The first, and largest, in point
of genera, is the Lagynida, so called from the flask-
like shape of its members. Specimens were shown
under the microscopes in the table, and were found to
exhibit every variety of form of flask that ever left the
hand of the potter. This distinctive feature was also
shown upon the black-board ; indeed, Mr. Marriott
materially assisted his audience in understanding the
principles of the classification by sketching thereon
typical genera of all the families, giving the salient
points in the structure of the shell by which the
creature earned its name and position. The second
family, Orbulinida, has but one member, but this is
the interesting Orbulina that the Challenger Expedi-
tion has brought prominently to the front ; its points
of resemblance to the Globigerina were dwelt upon,
and also its curious divergences from that genus.
The third family, Comusfii ida, was then shown, and
its great apparent resemblance to our fresh-water
mollusk, the planorbis, at once fixed it on the mind ;
this concluding the Monothalamia. The grouping
of the Polythalamia was next shown, but here a
greater number of families are found, and conse-
quently intricacies of various kinds to be encountered.
The first group, the Helicoidea, contained every spiral-
shaped Foraminifera there was, and some, like some
of the members of the first family, that were not spiral
at all, but simply possessing more chambers than
one. These were the Miliolida, from their resem-
blance to millet seed. The second family, Turbi-
nida, possessed, with many variations, a shell like
the well-known mollusk Turbo, and specimens of
this family are found in all collections. A sub-
family of this, called, from its clustering and grape-

HA RD WICKE 'S SCIENCE - G OSSIP.

like form, the Uvellida, contains the world- famed
Globigerina. And another well-known sub-family,
the Textilaria, shows a curious conformation of a
spiral that produces the appearance of being woven.
Then comes the second great family of the Poly-
thalamians, the Natitiloidea, that led M. D'Orbigny
into the error of classing them with the Nautilus
and Ammonite. A reference to specimens showed
how far he was justified in this. The first sub-
family, the Cristellarida, the second Nonionida,
third Peneroplida, and fourth Orbientina, contain
well-known genera that, either in outward form or
inward structure of cell and segment closely mimic
the form of that great class from which more recent
investigation has banished them. The remaining
two families were then enumerated, and the Orbitn-
lita, as being the most interesting belonging to them,
was detailed, after which the Rhaboidea, the second
great group, or rod-shaped Foraminifera, was ex-
plained. This possesses but one family, the Nodosa-
rida, whose knot-shaped chambers, arranged one on
another, enables everybody at once to identify
them. This brought the classification to an end.
Mr. Marriott, in conclusion, passed on to the life
history of one of the Foraminifera as typical of the
whole of the class. He chose the Globigerina, because
round it has centered the most popular and scientific
interest and research, and gave the most recent
investigations and speculations on the subject.

A VISIT TO SPONSA'S HEADQUARTERS.
By H. C. Dent.

AFTER' reading the two papers on " Lepidoptera
of the New Forest" and "Sport in the New
Forest," our hopes were roused, and we arranged to
go] to that Elysium in the long vacation. As my
brother was not free till the first week in August, I
filled up some of the spare time in visiting Darenth
Wood, Box Hill, and Epping, in successful quest of
the spring species ; and at the end of June went for
three weeks to Switzerland, and visited its glaciers,
snow-peaks, and insect hunting-grounds. Here I
must wander, and give a few localities for those who
propose a trip to that glorious country next season.
The upper end of the Lauterbrunnen valley, near
Trachsellauenen (very good little inn) is a splendid
place. Here, while revelling in the sight of the
Jungfrau, Monch, and many other superb peaks, you
may take Machaon, Arion, Hyale, Cratcegi, Globu-
larics, Trifolii, Lonicenc, Grammica, two kinds of
large copper, and many foreign species of blues and
fritillaries ; on the Chaumont near Neuchatel, Apollo
and Podalirius abound (also the most atrocious and
pertinacious Diptera) ; at Grinclelwald I captured
four superb Machaons at one fell swoop ; the Nicolai
Thai — and in fact the Zermatt district generally —
with the vineyards above Saxon (Rhone Valley) well

repay a visit ; while at Gryon, near Bex, Dia and
other rare fritillaries abound ; besides Sinapis, Hero,
the Zygenida:, Szc.

To return. We arrived at Brockenhurst on August
8th, and put up at the "Rose and Crown" (pro-
prietor, James Ings), where we had, a week previously,
ordered beds. Nothing could be more cheerful than
our rooms, and during our whole stay we were most
comfortable, while the charges were reasonable. Affer
a good lunch, we sallied forth for a couple of hours,
and — considering that the weather was bad — obtained
a very fair "bag." In the evening, however, we
were not so fortunate, as we only took one Promissa
and a few Pyramided ; although the weather was
suitable, rarities would not appear.

The next morning we went through the Forest to
Lyndhurst, on the right side of the road for about
halfway, and then on the left. We saw innumerable .
Paphia — all more or less rubbed — two Sibylla, and
' ' buttered " a female Iris ! This splendid lady was
sipping the nectar from a bramble blossom, when
down came the net over her, but, alas ! her imperial
majesty quietly glided downwards through the thorns,
evading the death-dealing gauze, and soared triumph-
antly to the top of a neighbouring oak. This
damped our spirits, but they soon rose when we
captured two Argiolus and a pair of Qiiercus. The
latter we found very abundant at the tops of young
oaks ; so at length we devised a plan for their
capture, and having cut down a straight birch
" stick" of about 15 ft. long, and fixed a net at the
top ; after two days' practice we succeeded in taking
eighty specimens in less than a couple of hours ; the
abominable Forest flies tormenting us all the time
above measure. We saw daily a few Iris besporting
themselves above and around the high oaks, but they
were inaccessible.

From August 8th to 10th, the weather was unpro-
pitious ; as clouds, wind, and rain are not compatible
with fly-catching. However, as we liked the sylvan
beauties of the places we had visited, and as we feared
"to go farther and fare worse," our daily plan was
to start from the "Rose and Crown" about nine, go
through the Forest to Lyndhurst (about three miles
direct), where we arrived about one. Then after
lunching at the "Crown and Stirrup " (three minutes
from forest, proprietor Charles Pack, who lets apart-
ments), we returned through the Forest, arranged our
captures, dined, and set off for sugaring.

At length we were told of a place where Sponsa
was said to abound. "Some gentlemen 'uv took
fourty a noight this season," said our informant.
Thither we determined to go, and the following
evening (August 13th) we started, equipped with
bags full of empty pill-boxes, chloroform and cyanide
bottles, and corked boxes well stocked with No. 6 pins.
We arranged to sugar 150 trees, and keep on visiting
them till we were tired. We had sugared over 100
when an individual approached armed with a net, a

HA RD IV 1 CKE 'S S CIENCE - G SSIP.

cyanide-bottle and a corked box. We tackled him.
"Any Sponsa about? Wy bless yer, 'eaps on 'em.
Thur's one on that thur tree now." Our blood was
up, we longed to dart at it, but it was that man's tree,
and we refrained. He told us he had taken 1 20 in
three nights, and that his usual nightly haul was from
twelve to twenty. We asked him how many trees
he " painted." "Wall," he said, "I begun doin'
about thirty, but w'en they're plentiful I doaint
have no time to look at more'n about six trees ; there's
ten on a tree sometimes." We were roused to mad
excitement ; in half an hour we had taken a dozen on
as many trees. Many flew off, and that night we
had no nets. It was now 8.30, and we met our
friend going home. " They're ovur for to-noight,"
said he. We stayed another half-hour, but took only
a couple on his trees.

Fig. 17. Dark-crimson Underwing Moth (Catocala s/>ousa),

The next night, having found that Sponsa flew
early, we sugared earlier, and before dark had taken
another dozen Sponsa, and two or three Promissa,
besides the rare Subseaua. We had intended going
to the Isle of Wight on the 15th for Hyale and
Helice ; but another Sponsa hunt was not to be
winked at. That night we captured twenty-one
Sponsa and two Promissa, while the multitudes of
Pyramidal were as usual a perfect pest.

To see whether any Sponsa are settled on sugar
needs some practice, when their wings are folded over
their backs — especially in the dusk — as the upper
wings resemble closely the bark of the trees ; when,
however, the wings are partly expanded — showing the
splendid crimson bands — I can hardly imagine a
more exciting sight ; the very thought of it makes me
thrill even now. Our mode of proceeding was to pill-

box the moths, pour in a drop of chloroform, and
when they were quiet, pin and remove them to the
corked box. When we got home they were stabbed
with oxalic acid. If they were too wary for the pill-
box or cyanide-bottle, we netted them, and then
pill-boxed. We thus found half a dozen pill-boxes
ample.

At length, on the 16th, we left Brockenhurst with
sad hearts, took the train to Lymington, and steamed
across the Solent, at the rate of four miles an hour,
under a hot sun, to Yarmouth, in company witli a
flock of sheep and a fat farmer, who was much
wrapped up and enduring all the agonies of sea-sick-
ness. We were greeted by numerous Rdusa, Cardui,
and Polychloros, besides innumerable Atalanta.
Having "humped" our knapsack, we .marched on
the west side of the Yar to Freshwater. Wishing to
be near the sea, we scorned the respectable Red
Lion Inn, and put up at the Albion, Freshwater
Bay, where we were duly charged next morning.
That afternoon we walked towards Alum Bay,
but a strong gusty wind prevented anything
more than a grand view from the beacon above
the Nodes, and the capture of a few Corydon
and Edusa. As the weather continued un-
favourable the next morning, and it was incum-
bent upon us to be in London by Saturday, we
threw over our plan of walking to Shanklin,
Ventnor,and Cowes, and determined to have
another evening at Sponsa 's headquarters. We
therefore went back to Yarmouth, where we
netted many Edusa, Galathea, Cardui, and a
hybernated Helice, and then returned to Brocken-
hurst. We were rewarded : over two dozen
Sponsa requited our endeavours before 7.45,
when the moon shone brilliantly, and the
underwings retreated to the tops of the oaks.

This brought our Hampshire expedition to a
close, and the next lepidoptera I saw — three
days after — were some Edusa, Io, Cardui,
&c, in the picture-galleries of The Hague,
Haarlem, and Amsterdam, calmly flitting
round and settling on bouquets which, though
painted a couple of centuries ago by Mignou,
Ruysch, and others, still retain much of their original
freshness.

The following is a list of thirty-one diurni
we saw in the New Forest : — Rhamm, Edusa,
Brassicie, Papa, Napi, Galathea, sEgeria, Ilyper-
antlius, Megara, Semele, Tithonns, Janira,
Pamphilus, Sibylla, Atalanta, Io, Polvehloros,
Urtiae, Cardui, Iris, Quercus, Betuhe, Adippc,
Aglaia, Paphia, Phleas, Argiolus, Alexis, Artaxerxes,
Sylvanus, and JJuea. We were informed that
this year had been bad for Valezina, and especially
for Sibylla. Of the latter we only saw half
a dozen, while ten days before they were abun-
dant in Fssex. Orion and Balis had been
plentiful.

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P.

33

A PLEA FOR THE MICROSCOPE AS
A TOY.

IT 7E are °f ten reminded that the microscope is
V V no longer a toy, but a scientific instrument,
and those who use it for recreation only are not un-
frequently hard hit, as mere wasters of time and
desecrators of a noble power.

Now, while fully appreciating the scientific use of
the microscope, I would suggest a slight alteration in
the above dictum, and say, it is not only a toy, but
a scientific instrument. I would plead for it as a
source of amusement. The President of the Quekett
Club, in his recent address, reminds us of a remark
in the first page of the "Microscopic Journal" of
1841, where it is said of microscopic research in those
days, that it "is for the most part an amusement
rather than a profession" — it is an "intellectual
pastime, which is sure to terminate in beneficial
results. General knowledge may be acquired by
observation," and this " by industry and perseverance
imperceptibly produces recondite science." This is
just the view I would take of microscopical employ-
ment. It is first an " intellectual pastime." Wearied
in body and mind the man of business or of litera-
ture seeks rest. Some find it in mere lounging in an
easy-chair, and joining in the family chit-chat ; others
in listening to the music which a wife or daughter
elicits from the pianoforte. There is no objection to
this ; but if the taste leads to the observation of
nature in the sky, the earth, the sea, then a special
interest is felt in whatever tends to reveal the secrets
of that existence by which we are surrounded. Some
turn to the telescope, others to the microscope, not
as a means of scientific research, but as "an intel-
lectual pastime." Investigation requires powerful
effort, both of mind and body. Few have this to
expend now-a-days on what does not bring grist to
the mill. The mind wants recreation, as the appetite
longs sometimes for change of diet and enjoys the
dainty bit. The holiday keeper rushes into the
country, not to study, but to enjoy, its beauties. He
visits the picture gallery, not to become an artist, but
to satisfy a taste. He goes to the British Museum or
the Zoological Gardens not to become a naturalist,
but to enlarge his ideas. He cultivates a variety of
sweet and pretty flowers in his garden, not with the
remotest intention of becoming acquainted with their
orders and relationships, but purely for the enjoy-
ment to be derived from them. And why may a
man not use his microscope in the same way ? What
wonders — what beauties — does it reveal ! Well has
it been said that the microscope is a door into another
world. It is so, and the man who uses it merely as
such is amply rewarded. The door is opened and he
is almost bewildered with the variety and beauty of
what he sees. His mind is enlarged, his views are
corrected ; his taste is charmed, his wonder excited.
The whole man is elevated, refreshed, and invigo-

rated. It is not only a pastime, but "an intellectual
pastime."

But, further, we are told it is "sure to terminate
in beneficial results." This " intellectual pastime,"
then, does not as a rule stop there. It is not a lovely
vision which vanishes away, but is an avenue to a
brighter and broader view. It induces the habit of
observation, and surrounds even the least things with
a halo of interest which they could never otherwise
have possessed. The smut on the ear of corn — the
disease of the leaf of the potato — the mould on the
cheese — all are now full of interest. The most un-
promising object often exhibits a most unexpected
character, or reveals a long-looked-for secret. And
thus the mind is not only refreshed but stored with a
new fact, which in its turn proves to be only the
cradle of another : so, step by step, the " beneficial
results " are evolved. And great as these are in an
educational and abstract point of view, they are by
no means wanting in a practical, as the application
of the microscope to physiological, histological, and
commercial subjects, abundantly proves.

Let us begin, then, by play. If it ends here it is
at least as innocent and pleasing as any other — let
some of us begin by using our microscopes as toys,
let others use them so sometimes, for the amusement
of the uninitiated— it is "an intellectual pastime
which is sure to terminate in beneficial results."

This toy, moreover, is not an expensive one, either
to begin with, or to keep going. If you buy a gun
there is the annual licence, and the constant supply
of ammunition. If you buy a horse, the first outlay
is nothing compared with the keeping of it. But
when once you are provided with a microscope, there
is no tax to pay, no food required. Let this be a
plea for getting a fairly good instrument at first,
capable of being added to as required. Even the
magic-lantern soon tires unless new slides, which aye
very costly, be continually added. Having, then,
this toy, we learn to find objects which cost us
nothing, but, on the contrary, contribute largely to
our pleasure and profit. It has, too, a great
advantage over the telescope. You have not to wait
for cloudless nights, nor to run the risk of colds and
neuralgia. Every night is a microscopical night, and
the long dark evenings of winter may be not only
■beguiled but improved. — T. R. J., Codicote Vicarage.

PARASITES ON FISH.
By John Davis.

THE subject of the various parasites found en
fish has not hitherto received much popular
attention, except in Van Beneden's " Animal Mess-
mates." It is hoped, therefore, that the following
description of three of such parasites may induce
other naturalists to contribute further information on
this subject to the pages of Science-Gossip:

34

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE ■ G OSSIP.

Parasite of COD (Gadus morrhua) taken from the
outside of the gill (there is another parasite which
infests its back). — The tail is composed of two tubes,
finely marked, which commence at the end of the
animal at each side, and gradually narrow until they
meet. These tubes are nearly as long as the body.

The Gurnard [Trigla hirundo) has parasites :
this one was taken from the eye, to which it fastens
itself by the large wheel-like sucker ; it then bends
its body until it brings the small rings at the end of
the animal on the fish, and so jerks itself along. I
have drawn one end of the large sucker, as seen undei

Fig. iS. Parasite of a Ling; 3-inch object ; size, -A- x T * T ; pale yellow and pink spots, with

a dark brownish-pink eye.

The size of the specimen is -fa of an inch, and the
objective used in this instance was i^-inch, with C
eyepiece.

Fig. 19. Parasite of Gurnard. — This
parasite infests the eye of the fish : it is
a milky-white in colour and \ inch long ;
it moves about like a caterpillar ; i^-inch
A eyepiece.

End of sucker
through a J-inch.

Parasite of Ling {Molva lota). — The integument
of this parasite is covered with small spots and
lines, and the body is of a dense opal-white. An
indistinct oesophagus (on account of the thickness
of the animal) can be traced from the eyespots to the
stomach. The latter is composed of a spiral arrange-
ment of tubes, and marked with cross-lines, the same
as the antenna of the Lobster. It is a pretty sight
to watch the circulation in these vessels. At the
dorsal end is a rather large cavity, which I take to
be the ovary. The size of this parasite is -f'$ x -fa,
and examined through a 3-inch objective. It was
taken from the back of the fish.

Fig. 20. Parasite of a
Cod ; ii-inch ; size, fg '•'
opal-white, with a pink
eye-spot and dots.

a i-inch objective. The length of this parasite is
about -]- inch, and perfectly white.

WHITE MITES.

DURING the month of June, 1877, whilst driv-
ing in the countiy, I observed a black poplar
tree evidently suffering from the ravages of insects ;
I therefore stopped the vehicle, and got out to ex-
amine. I found the tree bored in many places by the
larva; of the Goat-moth (Cossus ligniperdd), three of
which I secured. A considerable portion of the bark
was loose, and the sap kept this quite wet, the
peculiar smell produced by the larva? being very
evident. On removing a portion of the bark where
it was moist with sap, I found it covered with a
moving mass, consisting of myriads of very peculiar
White Mites. On examining them under the micro-
scope, I found them to differ from any Mites I had
ever seen, nor could I find any notice of similar ones
in any work to which I could refer. The females,
which were in the greatest abundance, were egg-
shaped, the larger end being in front, and the sides
towards the posterior, somewhat bent in. On slightly
compressing them, they were seen to contain eggs.
The abdomen was of a milk- white colour, and the legs
reddish-brown. On crushing one of the Mites con-
taining eggs, one or two young ones escaped from the
almost mature ova ; these had only six legs, one of
the hind pair being missing. The males, which were
few in number compared with the females, were very
peculiar in appearance ; their bodies were less in size,
flatter, and the legs longer and stouter in proportion
than those of the females ; the posterior pair not used

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

35

for walking, but stretched out backwards, their ex-
treme ends bent inwards, and, as far as I could make
out, not furnished with claws. Their gait was ex-
tremely awkward. In certain Dermaleichi, found on
small birds, the males have one of the hind pairs of
legs very largely and peculiarly developed, but in
their case it is the third, the fourth pair being very
small, and used in walking.

Fig. 21. Male of White Mite.

Fig. 22. Female of White Mite.

About the middle of August I again visited this
tree, and found upon and with the White Mites a
number of Hypopi, but whether these were parasitic
on the White Mites, or merely residing with them,
I was not able to determine. I passed this tree
on several occasions during the summer, and fre-
quently saw Wasps and Red Admiral Butterflies
enjoying the sap, which kept some parts of the
tree continually moist. The figures are all drawn
from mounted specimens under a §° object-glass,

Fig. 23. Young of
"White Mite.

Fig. 24. Hyjiopus found
with White Mites.

with A eyepiece, and are magnified about 72
diameters.

Kirton Lindscy. C. F. GEORGE.

THE HISTORY OF OUR SALAD HERBS.
Part III. — Mustard.

MUSTARD was, according to the belief of the
ancients, first introduced from Egypt, that
country which claims the honour of being the birth-
place of Ceres, the goddess of seeds, and ^Esculapius,
the god of medicine, through whose means this plant
was made known to mankind as an agreeable and
wholesome herb in its green state ; while the seed
was used as a medicine, and occupied the first rank
among alimentary substances which exercised a
prompt influence on the brain. Mustard is mentioned
by Pythagoras, and was employed in medicine by
Hippocrates, B.C. 480. Pliny states that there were
three kinds of mustard cultivated in his day ; the first
of a thin and slender form, the second with a leaf
like that of the rape, and the third with that like the
rocket. The best seed, he says, was imported from
Egypt, but that this plant grew in Italy without
sowing. The Romans made great use of the seed in
medicine ; the oil extracted from it, mixed with olive
oil, was used by those who suffered with stiffness of
their limbs after a cold bath. Pounded with vinegar
it was employed as a liniment for the sting of serpents
and scorpions, and a dose of it effectually neutralized
the poisonous properties of fungi. The Romans, and
other nations after them, used to ferment mustard-
seed in new wine, which converted it into a kind of
inferior brandy, and was known by the name of
Must urn aniens, burning wine.

The mustard-seed mentioned in the Scripture has
of late years been a matter of considerable controversy,
some authors supposing it to be quite a different
plant from the one we are now treating of ; but it is
generally believed by the best authorities in the
present day that the plant referred to was Sinapis
nigra, the common mustard, which is indigenous to
Palestine, as it is to Britain. Dr. Thompson, in his
" Land and the Book," records that he has seen
this plant as tall as the horse and his rider in the rich
plains of Acre.

36

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P.

" As small as a grain of mustard-seed," appears to
have been a proverbial expression for any small object
among the Jews ; and this seed, which was the
smallest the husbandman was accustomed to sow,
produced the largest results by becoming the greatest
of the husl landman's herbs.

We have no record when mustard was first used in

this country, but in the household accounts of the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries we find that

mustard was known to our forefathers under the

name of " Senapum," and appears to have been used

in large quantities, for in that interesting Household

Book of the Earl of Northumberland, in the reign

of Henry VII., it is stated that 160 gallons of

mustard-seed was the allowance per annum to his

servants and retainers. In those days the seed was

not manufactured, but brought to table whole, when

it was bruised and mixed with vinegar, according to

the taste of the eater. It was not only used as a

condiment, but also, no doubt, for medicinal purposes.

Tusser, who wrote his "Five Hundred Points of

Good Husbandry " in the reign of Queen Mary, says,

in the direction for February, — ■

"Where banks be amended or newly upcast,
Sow mustard-seed after a shower be past."

From this it appears that mustard was cultivated as
a field crop ; we also find it mentioned as an agricul-
tural produce in Rogers's " History of Agriculture and
Prices in England," as far back as 1285. It must
then have been S. nigra, black mustard, or S. arvensis,
the charlock, for Gerard tells us that the garden
mustard, which produces the whitest of seeds, had not
become common in the days of Queen Elizabeth, but
that he had distributed the seed into different parts
of England to make it known. He says, "Mustard
makes an excellent sauce, good to be eaten with gross
meats, either fish or flesh, because it promotes diges-
tion and sharpens the appetite." Thomas Cogan,
M.D., of Manchester, who published his "Haven of
Health " in 1605, says, "The force of the seed is well
perceived by eating mustard, for if it is good in
making to weep we are straightway taken by the nose
and provoked to sneeze, which plainly declareth that
it soon pierceth the brain. Wherefore as it is a good
sauce and procureth appetite, so it is profitable for
the pulse, and for such students as be heavy-headed
and drowsy, as if they would fall asleep with meat in
their mouths. And if any be given to music, and
would fain have clear voices, let them take mustard-
seed in powder, work the same with honey into little
balls, of which they must swallow one or two down
every morning fasting, and in a short time they shall
have very clear voices." Shakspeare mentions mustard
as a condiment in his play, "Taming the Shrew," act
vi. , scene iii. , where Gi itmio says to Katliarina, ' ' What
say you to a piece of beef and mustard?" It is also
mentioned in his play " As you like it," in connection
with pancakes (see scene iii.). In Evelyn's time,
Tewkesbury was famous for its mustard. The seed,

Coles tells us, in 1657, used to be ground there and
made up into balls, which were brought to London
and other remote places as being the best the world
affords. Mustard used formerly to be largely culti-
vated and manufactured in the county of Durham ;
but until the year 1720 the seed used to be pounded
in a mortar and coarsely separated from the black
integuments of the seeds, and in that rough state
prepared for use. About the year mentioned an old
woman of the name of Clements, resident at Durham,
conceived the idea of grinding the seed in a mill, and
to pass the meal through the several processes which
are resorted to in making flour from wheat. The
secret she kept for many years to herself, and in the
period of her exclusive possession of it supplied the
principal parts of the kingdom, and in particular the
metropolis with this article ; and George I. stamped
it with fashion by his approval. Mrs. Clements used
to travel twice a year to London for orders, and was
able to pick up a small fortune. From this woman's
residence at Durham, it acquired the name of ' ' Durham
mustard" (Mechanic's Magazine, vol. iv., p. 87).
The seeds of Sinapis arvensis, charlock, and Kaphanus
raphanistrum, the wild radish common in our corn-
fields, are often sold and used as a substitute for
mustard-seed. The seed of the black mustard, like
that of the wild sort, and also of the wild radish, if
sown below the depth of three or four inches, will
remain in the ground for ages without germinating :
hence when once introduced it is difficult to extirpate.
Whenever they throw the earth out of their ditches
in the Isle of Ely, the banks come up thick with
mustard, and the seeds falling into the water and
sinking to the bottom will remain embalmed in the
mud for ages without vegetation (Loudon's "Ency-
clopaedia of Agriculture ").

Sinapis alba appears to be a native of the more
southern countries of Europe and Western Asia. It
is now cultivated not only as a garden herb, but is
grown very largely as an agricultural crop, chiefly as
food for sheep or to be ploughed in for manure in its
green state. Mustard is extensively cultivated in the
Fen lands of Lincolnshire and Cambridge, also in
Essex and Kent. Its medicinal properties are well
known ; in its action it is an irritant, stimulant, emetic,
and stomachic.

Some authors think Sinapis is derived from sino to
hurt, and opts the eyes, from the pungency of the
plant causing the eyes to water ; others from the Celtic
nup (modern Gaelic neup) a turnip which belongs
to this tribe. Our word "mustard" is derived from the
French moutarde, but in early times it was, both here
and on the Continent, sauve or senevi. Some
authors assert that the etymology of this plant was
changed from the following circumstance. In 13S2
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was marching
against his rebellious subjects of Ghent, and the city
of Dijon, which traded largely in senevc, supplied
him with a thousand men-at-arms, for whicli service

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

37

the Duke granted that city many privileges, amongst
others that of bearing his arms, with his motto ' l Moult
me tarde" in old French (I long or wish ardently),
which was carved on the principal gate of Dijon.
By some accident the middle word was destroyed ; the
other two, moult tarde, caused many a smile at the
expense of the citizens, and in derision the seneve
in which they traded was called mourtarde, a name
it has preserved ever since.

MICROSCOPY,

ACTINO-CYCLUS BERKLEY!. — I have some speci-
mens of this diatom, with reference to which I shall
be glad if one of your correspondents will give me a
little information. I should like to know, in the
first place, whose nomenclature A. Berkley is; and,
secondly, whether it is synonymous with any of the
species described in the fourth edition of Pritchard's
"Infusoria"; if not. where are the specific cha-
racters to be found ? — C. V. S.

Researches among the Sponges. — In the last
number of the "Annals and Magazine of Natural
History " there appear several important articles on
the structure of various kinds of sponges. W. Saville
Kent commences with one on " Professor Ernest
Haeckel's group of the Physemaria, and on the
affinity of the Sponges." W. J. Sollas describes
two new and remarkable species of Cliona. There
is also a paper by C. Mereschkowsky, on Wagnerella*
a new genus of sponge allied to the Physemaria of
Ilaeckel.

Mounting Marine Alg.e. — Mr. H. F. Atwood,
of Chicago, gives the following account of his
method of mounting alga?, in the November number
of the " American Journal of Microscopy." Mr. At-
wood advocates the use of salicylic acid, and
says — "My process is as follows: by using sea-salt
(which can be bought for a trifle at any first-class
druggist's) and distilled or rain water, a good sub-
stitute for sea-water is obtained ; into this I im-
merse the rough-dried specimens of alga?, and in an
hour or two they have resumed their natural shape.
Now, picking out and clipping off such pieces as
are best adapted for mounting, I transfer them to a
bowl of distilled water, and wash them clean, and
from thence transfer them to a small saucer con-
taining a saturated solution of salicylic acid. The
shallow cell into which they now go is built up of
shellac cement, made by dissolving bleached shellac
in Cologne spirits. Cells made of this substance are
ready for use twelve hours after being laid on to the
slide. I pick up the specimen with forceps, put it on
the slide, and fill up the cell with the salicylic acid.
I now breathe on the covering glass, and put it in
its place, and by the use of blotting-paper absorb the
superfluous fluid. A thin coating of gold size com-

pletes the work for the time being ; in a day or two
I lay on more gold size, and afterwards white zinc
cement or Brunswick black ; the finish, of course,
being a mere matter of fancy. In mounting a piece
of alga; having Isthmia parasitic on it, it is almost
impossible to fill these diatoms if balsam is used,
whereas by the use of salicylic acid every valve will
be filled. In some cases the medium I have used
has robbed the alga: of its colour, but this occurs
but rarely. I have a slide of Ptilota hypnoides in
full fruit, the beauty of which could never be brought
out except by first immersing the specimen in the
sea-water I have referred to. For the study of
alga:, direct light should be used, but using dark
field illumination is the best way."

The Quekett Microscopical Club. — The last
number of the Journal of this well-known and useful
club contains an address by the President, Mr. Henry
Lee, F.L.S., and a paper by Mr. W. K. Bridgman,
on "The Ordinary Condenser Improved, or 'Cir-
cular ' Illumination Superseded."

Coloured Oysters. — The oysters of the cele-
brated Arcachon beds having last summer acquired a
peculiar violet colour, the cause has been inquired
into by M. Desconst, who finds it was due to the
exceeding abundance of the highly-coloured spores of
a sea-weed {Rhytiphhva tinctoria). The colouring
matter of these spores had been assimilated by the
oysters, and retained by them, the extreme drought
of the summer months having favoured the operation
by reducing the water until it was not sufficient to
dissolve the colouring matter.

The Spore-producing Power of Fungi. —
At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society, Mr.
Worthington Smith exhibited drawings of Boletus
subtome>itosus, and stated that in a specimen five
inches in diameter, there are 17,000 pores, or tubes.
Each pore when cut across shows 2,000 cells on the
surface. The number of surface-cells on the under
side of a specimen is 36,000,000. The cells in ar.
entire plant are calculated at 615,000,000,000 ; and
the number of spores produced by the same specimen
are 5,000,000,000.

Parasitic Alg.l. — Professor Percival Wright has
described a new species of Chytridiacea' under the
name of Rhizophydium Dicksonii. It was found
parasitic in the cells of a sea-weed [Eetocarpus granu-
losus), and it is believed that the so-called " utricular "
fruits of Harvey, and the "spores" of Kiitzing, are,
in the Eetocarpus at least, in reality parasitic
Chrytridia.

Carnivorous Slug. — No doubt the slug which
your correspondent in the November number (p. 260)
saw feeding on a worm was Testacella Mangel, of
which a full and interesting description is given on
page S9 of Science-Gossip for April, 1S67. — JV. R.
Tate.

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

ZOOLOGY.

The Popular Science Review commences the
new year well. Besides a capital summary of scien-
tific progress, and many well-written and very fair
reviews, there are articles as follow: — "On some
Armour-plated Fishes," by II. Woodward, F.R.S. ;
"The Old and the New Chemistry," by M. M.
Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E. ; "The Geological An-
tiquity of Flowers," by J. E. Taylor, F.G.S. ;
"Cloud Outlines," by Rev. S. Barber, F.M.S. ;
"The Extinct British Wolf," by J. E. Harting,
F.L.S., &c.

New Australian Marsupial. — Professor Owen
has recently described a new marsupial animal from
Australia, under the name of Plcopus nudicaudatus.
It is a small creature, allied to the Kangaroo-rats,
but distinguished by having the type number of
mammalian toes (five) on each of the hind feet.

The Furniture Beetle. — F. Hughes cannot
do better than rub the furniture affected by this pest
with carbolic acid, and let the latter soak into the
wood. He will see no more of the beetles after
this treatment. — A. Smith.

Glyciphagus palmifer. — I was staying for a few
days at Christinas in a country house at Austrey, in
Warwickshire, and one wet morning it struck me that
I would brush the wall of the beer-cellar, and have a
microscopical examination of the result. I was
rewarded by finding a considerable number of the
extraordinary mite Glyciphagus palmifer. — At the
time of the publication of Mr. Murray's late work on
theAptera (where this insect is figured) this remarkable
species does not appear to have been known as an
inhabitant of this country, although Mr. Murray
anticipates that it may be one. Possibly, therefore,
this may be the first instance of its capture here. —
Albert D. Michael.

The Beaked Whale. — In the last number of
the Zoologist there is a capital description by Mr.
Henry Lee, F.L.S., of the Beaked Whale, Hyperoodon
rostratus, killed last September in the Menai
Straits, and afterwards publicly exhibited at Bangor.
This species is one of the Ziphioid Whales, an inter-
mediate group between theCachelotsand the Porpoises
and Dolphins ; and it is characterised by having its
teeth reduced to a single rudimentary pair at the tip
of the lower jaw.

Mimicry in Insects. — At a recent meeting of
the Entomological Society of London, Prof.
Westwood gave an account of a remarkable Mantis
(Gongylus gonegyloides) which mimics a flower, the
deception being supposed to attract the insects upon
which the Mantis feeds, to their destruction.

Notes on rare Lf.pidoptera, &c. — Referring
to Mr. Molony's note in October Science-Gossip,

on the occurrence of C. Celerio on Aug. 29, Mr.
Stainton, in the "Manual," gives October as the
month for the perfect insect to appear, and Mr.
Molony is, therefore, right in his statement of its
being early in its appearance. It is a curious fact
that though Colias Edusa has positively swarmed on
the S.E. coast this summer, very few rare Helice have
been taken, and its congener Hyale has not been seen
there, but has occurred quite inland. Mr. S. Machin
took (last August) a very fine specimen of C. Hyale'vsx a
wood near Henley, Oxfordshire. Last yearl find among
my specimens of Heterocera a fine one of Acronycta
tridens, taken in Hillgrove-road, Avenue-road, N.W.
The occurrence of this species near London, I believe,
is unusual. September 13th, two specimens of Edusa
seen in a street leading to the Hampstead-road (viz.,
Frederick-street), and I last saw it in Regent's Park,
on September 15th. Since then it seems to have
disappeared. It will be interesting to note if it ap-
pears again this year on any fine, mild day. — R. T.
Gibbons.

Plants for Reptile Vivaria. — Probably the
only plants which would succeed in a Reptile case
are succulents, such as Sedums and small Semper-
virjums. These, I know, will flourish ; but my slight
experience tells me that it is better to consider plants
as entirely secondary objects in a vivarium of any
kind, and in Reptile cases to do without them alto-
gether. I experience but little difficulty in the winter
with respect to food. Mealworms can be obtained
from the miller's, and kept in barley-meal as long as
one pleases ; common earth-worms are also useful ;
while, in order to secure flies during the winter
months, I place fly-blown meat in a tightly-closed
box, having bran at the bottom two or three inches
deep. I place the box in an outhouse, and supply
fresh meat twice a week, till the worms become
chrysalides or gentles. Then I remove the box to
the coldest part of the house, till flies are required,
which I can obtain by taking a few of the gentles to
a warm room for a day or two, so as to hasten the
hatching process. Sometimes, however, the flies will
hatch out, in spite of all precautions, in which case
I keep the flies in the same box, and feed them with
fruit and sugar and water. — IV. T. H. C. Trome.

Badly-blown Eggs and Preserving Animals.
— I should recommend " G. T. B." to try a solution
of carbonate of soda for dissolving out the hardened
contents of his egg-shells. He must take care to
wash the inside of the egg well with clean water
after using the carbonate of soda, and to prevent its
coming in contact with the outside of the shell.
"W. G." will find a chapter by Mr. Waterton on
preserving insects for the cabinet, in the 1839 edition
of his "Essays on Natural History," p. 72. Mr.
Waterton also gives instructions for preserving birds'
eggs, p. 65, but I should not recommend their adop-
tion. In a chapter at the end of his celebrated

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

39

"Wanderings in South America" (1S25 edition),
Mr. Waterton fully explains his mode of preserving
birds ; the process is very tedious, but the result, as I
can testify, is very beautiful. Both this process and
that of preparing insects would be too long to give an
account of here. — T. S.

Preserving Animals.— The basis of Waterton's
proceedings was the preservation of his specimens by
the use of bichloride of mercury dissolved in alcohol.
This hardens the skins and causes them to retain the
shape in which they are placed when wet for any
length of time : thus no wires are necessary.
" W. G." will find the whole process most minutely
described in "Waterton's Essays on Natural History,"
new edition, F. Warne& Co., price 7s. 6d. — W. B. R.

Preserving Animals.— The late Mr. Waterton
had a peculiar mode of his own of preserving animals,
an account of which will be found in his life by Mr.
Hobson. It is not, however, by any means,
equal to the present mode by a skilful artist of setting
up birds. If " W. G." wants a ready way, let him
eviscerate a bird, place it in the position he wants, and
then fill it with cotton soaked in carbolic acid
dilute ; and the bird will be preserved for ages. This
does not do, however, and is given up for the
skinning process. — C. R. Bree, M.D.

Later Appearance of the Hirundinid/E. —
"R." will be interested to hear that I have in my
possession the nest and one egg of Hirundo rustice
{Chimney swallow), which was taken while the bird
was sitting ; she having been duly watched when
building in a cart-shed at Walton-on-the-Naze, in
December, 1S66. See Field, January 12th, 1867. —
C. R. Bree. M. D.

Badly-blown Eggs.— Let " G. T. B." get Prof.
Newton's little Essay upon blowing and preserving
birds' eggs, which he can buy for a shilling or so, and he
will get all the information he wants. — C. R. Bree,
M.D.

The " Midland Naturalist." — It is with much
pleasure we welcome this new literary labourer into
the field of popular science. Like the Scottish Natu-
ralist (which relates chiefly to the Natural History
of Scotland) and The Naturalist (the organ of the
West Riding Natural History Societies), the Midland
Naturalist purposes to give preference to local
scientific information, and to chronicle the doings
of the numerous energetic clubs and societies which
are springing up in central England. Among these
are the following : — Various societies in Birmingham,
Burton, Caradoc, Dudley, Derbyshire, Leicester,
Northampton, Nottingham, Rugby, Oswestry,
Severn Valley, Shropshire, Stroud, Tamworth, &c.
The first number of the Midland Naturalist appeared
on January 1st, and appears with an attractively
got-up cover designed by Worthington Smith. It con-
tains well-written articles on Ferns, Meteorology,
Zoology, and Geology.

BOTANY,

Further Notes on the Flora near Cader
Idris. — Seeing from the "Botanical Notes in the
Neighbourhood of Cader Idris," and also from
another correspondent in the September number, that
there are some of your readers interested in the plants
of that neighbourhood, I should like to mention a
few more to be found there, in addition to those
already specified : — Saxifraga stellaris ; Melittis Me-
lissophylhtm (bastard balm) ; Impatiens noli-me-
tangere (yellow balsam) ; Ranunculus Lingtta (great
spearwort) ; Sedum telephium ; Euonymus europaus
(spindle tree) ; Asperula odorata (woodruff) ; Ruscus
aculeatus (butcher's broom) ; Narthecium ossifragum
(bog asphodel) ; Myrica Gale (bog myrtle) ; Lobelia
Dort/nanna, found in Llynn Creigenau, and also in
Llynn Cyri, another lovely little tarn not far off,
nestling close in under the mountain. Nearer to the
sea I found Eryngium maritimum (sea holly) ; Aster
Tripolium (Michaelmas daisy)'; Statice Limonium (sea
lavender) ; Crithum maritimum (samphire) ; Silenc
maritima (sea campion) ; Rosa spinosissima (burnet-
leaved rose) ; Tanacetum vulgare (tansy), found at
Llangrwyll, a village four miles south of Arthog.
Aspleuiuni maritimum grows on the cliffs between
these two places ; and to the list of Ferns I can also
add, having | found Asplenium viride and Hymcno-
phyllum tunbridgense on the Llynn y Gader side of
Cader Idris. These plants were found in the month
of August, during a week's stay at Arthog, a village
on the Dolgelly side of the estuaiy, nearly opposite
to Barmouth ; and the district through which they
range is included in walks the farthest point of which
reaches Llynn Gader in one direction, and in another
stretching along the coast three or four miles south of
Arthog. — A. Warner.

The Watford Natural History Society. —
The eighth part of the " Transactions " of this
vigorous society contains a capital paper by the
Rev. George Henslow, F. L. S., on "The Fertiliza-
tion of Plants," and another on "Instructions for
taking Meteorological Observations," by William
Marriott,iF.M.S.

The Influence of Trees on Rainfall. —
From observations by M. Fautrat, relative to the
comparative influence of leafy woods and resinous
woods on rain and the hygrometric state of the air,
recently communicated to the Paris Academy, it
appears that pine forests have a much greater influ-
ence on the hygrometric state than others ; so that if
the vapours dissolved in the air were apparent, like
fogs, we should see forests shrouded in a large screen
of moisture, and in the case of resinous woods the
vapoury envelope would be more distinct than in that
of leafy woods. M. Fautrat also shows that pines
retain in their branches more than half of the water
which is poured upon them, whereas leafy trees allow

4°

RARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

fifty-eight per cent, of the precipitated water to reach
the surface of the ground. He suggests, therefore,
that in planting with a view to oppose inundations, it
would be advisable to choose by preference resinous
trees, as offering a better covert.

Gentiana acaulis in Wales. — As one of the

correspondents who felt doubtful as to the occurrence
of Gentiana acaulis on the Cader, may I be allowed
to say the doubt has not been removed ? My personal
authority about the Cader is of little use, since when,
as a boy, I ascended it I was more fond of Lepidoptera
than flowers, but I have a distinct impression of
seeing a Gentiana there, but neither acaulis nor
amarella, but campestris. I see this latter is included
for Merioneth in "Topographical Botany," though
Mr. Ley does not mention it in his list ; but as this list
is principally of such plants as are not mentioned in
" Topographical Botany," it does not follow that he
failed to observe it. The habitat of campestris, as
given in Hooker's "Student's Flora," is moist,
especially hilly pastures, ascending to 2,400 feet in
the Highlands. I have gathered it on Ben Lawers
at i,Soo feet, where it is not at all uncommon on
sub-Alpine slopes, and though campestris is very
unlike acaulis, yet I would respectfully suggest if this
might not be the gentian that was noticed ;* anyhow
the discussion will probably lead to a more thorough
search of the Cader shortly by some of your readers.
— G. C. Druce.

Worms in Flower-pots. — These can always be
got rid of by watering the plants with a solution to
which a tenth part of grated horse-chestnut has been
added.

Wild Cherry-tree {Primus avium). — As some
notice has lately been taken of the size of this tree,
I beg to report one as at present existing within a
field of my farm, which presents the following
proportions : —

2 feet from the ground, 21 feet circumference.

3 IJ 5) 15 ))

6 >, ,, 21 „

10 „ „ I9' 6

12 feet up to the bifurcation of the branches.
This grand tree was first shown me by my friend
Mr. E. Lees, when it was in fruit. Since then the
hurricane of the 14th October has swept away its
principal arm. I figured it or. the 5th of November
of the present year. — J.B., Bradford Abbas.

British Marine Ai.o.l. — A correspondent of
mine, resident in St. Helier's, Channel Islands,
writes me that a short time since, a considerable
number of the singular sea-weed Gigartina Teeaii,
had there been washed ashore, some of the specimens
very fine, and a few of them fertile ; this plant has
not been discovered on any of the British shores for

* I see the authority upon which acautis figured in Smith's
Botany is that of Moris, de St. Amans, who found it near
Haverford-w est, where, without doubt, it was a garden escape.

upwards of fifty years. I have received a few of
these specimens also from the French coast, and
believe it to be tolerably abundant on the coast of
Normandy, and southwards along the west shores.
I last year visited Weymouth, and there on the sands
picked up a few very interesting specimens of Gigar-
tina pistillata in fruit, and also found two or three
fronds in very bold form of Graceolaria compressa.
From that town I proceeded to Bournemouth, and
was there fortunate in discovering two specimens of
Dasya pumicea, which appears to have been absent
from our waters for some years. The shore of
Torpoint, Plymouth, is very celebrated for receiving
from its adjacent waters many very beautiful sea-
weeds ; amongst its number I last year found in some
abundance the very pretty weed Niliphyllum Tliy-
sanorhizans, some of the specimens in fruit. I also
found it in the same locality in the year 1S73, and in
fruit, and the somewhat scarce plant Dudrisina dudri-
snagra also came before me on the same shore. —
//. G.

AsrLENiUM Sei'TENTrioxale. — I can confirm
what your correspondent, Mr. Belt, says as to Aspic-
niton Septenttionale being found near Uolgelly ; my
friend Mr. Rose, of Gorton, and I saw it growing
there in the summer of 1874 (but sparingly), and
we did not even bring a frond away. — T. Brittain.

Solanum Dulcamara. — My impression, after
reading a great many articles about this plant, is
that the bulk of evidence points to the berries as
being innocuous, or nearly so. In Pereira "Materia
Medica " (edited by Bentley and Redwood), the
following account of the properties of this plant is
given: — -"Physiological Effects, not very obvious.
It is reputed to operate as a diaphoretic, diuretic,
and demulcent, and in overdoses as an acro-nar-
cotic ; but many have given the fruit and prepara-
tions of the young branches in very large doses,
without any obvious effects." The dried young
branches are used in medicine, and used very
seldom in comparison with other medicines. I can
practically say that it is very rarely prescribed in
this neighbourhood, and why ? Because of its un-
observed effects. The following is an extract from
Bentley's "Botany": — "A fatal case of poisoning
by the berries has occurred at Toulouse." Why do
we not hear more of their toxicological effects, when
so many of our damp hedges are so profusely
adorned with their tempting berries? — William West,
Bradford.

GEOLOGY,

Geology of Colorado and the Adjacent

Territories. — We have received a copy of the

I ninth annual report of the United States Geological

I and Geographical Survey of the above country, in

HARD JVICKE'S S CIENCE- G OSS I P.

4i

which is contained a copious report of the progress
of the exploration for the year 1875, written by
Dr. F. V. Ilayden. The volume is attractive,
although bulky, and is copiously illustrated by maps
and sections. A zoological appendix furnishes us with
the new discoveries concerning the wild animals and
insects of the districts surveyed ; and this part is also
abundantly illustrated with plates. The generosity
of the United States Government in supplying foreign
men of science with numerous copies of their scientific
books is in strong contrast with the niggardliness with
which our own Geological Survey publications are
dribbled out.

The Solitaire. — In the Annals and Magazine
vf Natural History, Prof. Owen gives a lengthy de-
scription of this extinct bird, based on the remains
brought home from the island of Rodriguez during
the Venus Transit expedition. The Solitaire
{Pezophaps solitaria, Strkl.) was a huge ground-dove,
about three feet long, whose wings gradually became
aborted until it could no longer fly. The absence of
any extirpating enemies (until man appeared), and
the presence of abundant food, enabled the Solitaire
to acquire its great size.

The Geologists' Association. — Besides some
well-written and profitable descriptions of several
visits made by the members of this association to
the Crag districts of Suffolk ; Grays, Essex ; Leices-
tershire ; to Caterham, Godstone, Tilburstow,
Nutfield, Hampstead, Guildford, and Derbyshire,
the last two parts of their " Proceedings " contain
papers by the Rev. J. F. Blake, on "The Restora-
tion of Extinct Animals"; "On the Geology of
Leicestershire," by W. J. Harrison, F.G. S. ; "On
the Flints of the Chalk of Yorkshire," by J. H.
Mortimer, F.G.S. ; on " The Forms of the Genus
jlficraster," by C. Evans, F.G.S. ; the " Geology of
the Eastern portion of the Banbury and Cheltenham
Direct Railway," by T. Beesley, F.C.S., &c.

" Fur-bearing Animals " is the title of a mono-
graph by Dr. Elliott Coues on the North American
MnstelidiE, and is published as one of the United States
Geological Survey works. It gives a detailed account
of the Wolverine, theMartens or Sables, Ermine, Minx,
and various other kinds of Weasels ; of several species
of Skunks, of the Badger, Sea-otter, Land-otter,
and allies of these animals. This compact and handy
volume is illustrated with sixty figures on twenty
plates. It is published by the Government Printing
Office, Washington, U.S.

The Huge Fossil Bird from Sheppey. — At a
recent meeting of the Geological Society of London,
Prof. Owen described some remains of a large bird
obtained by Mr. W. H. Shrubsole from the London
Clay of Sheppey, consisting of parts of fractured
humeri belonging to the right and left sides of the
same species, or perhaps individual, and including the

head of the bone, with portions of the upper and
lower parts of the shaft. The texture of the shaft.
the thinness of its bony wall, and the large size of the
cavity, recall the characters of the wing-bones of the
large Cretaceous Pterodactyles. The author indicated
the characters which led him to regard the remains
under consideration as those of a volant bird, most
nearly approaching the genera Pelecanus and Dio-
inedca ; and as the evidence derived from the cranium
of Dasornis would indicate a bird too large to be up-
borne by wings to which these bones might have be-
longed, whilst the skull of Odontopteryx is far too small
to have formed part of a bird with wings as large as
those of the Albatross,— and Lit/iomisand Pelargornis
are excluded by the characters of their remains, the
author concluded that the bones obtained by Mr.
Shrubsole furnished indications of a new genus and
species of flying birds, for which he proposed the
name of Argillornis longipennis. He regarded it as
probably a long-winged natatorial bird, most nearly
related to Diomedea, but considerably exceeding the
Albatross {D. exulans) in size.

Geological History of the Deer Family. —
At the same meeting Prof. Boyd Dawkins gave an
outline of the history of Deer during the Miocene
and Pliocene periods. He said the majority of known
antlers could be referred to two types, — an earlier or
capreoline, and a later or axidine. In the Middle
Miocene period the cervine antler consisted of a
simply forked crown. In the Upper Miocene it had
become more complex. In the Pliocene it had become
still more complex and complicated ; and in this respect
the development of antlers in time represented that
in age of the same individual. The nearest living
analogue of the Miocene Deer is, according to the
antler, the Muntjak [Styloceros), now found only in
the oriental region of Asia, along with the Tapir, which
also coexisted with Ccrvits dicranoceros in the Miocene
forests of Germany. The Pliocene Deer, again, are
generally most nearly allied to the oriental Axis and
Rusa Deer, the only exception being Ccn'us aisanus,
the antlers of which resemble those of the Roe, an
animal widely spread over Europe and Northern and
Central Asia. The alliance of these Pliocene Deer
with those now living in the Indian region is regarded
by the author as a further proof of the warm climate
of Europe in Miocene times, confirmatory of the
conclusions arrived at by Saporta from the study of
the vegetation.

The Fossil Fungus. — In the December number
of the Science-Gossip is a reprint of a paper on
a fossil fungus, in which Mr. G. W. Smith is repre-
sented as the discoverer. My knowledge of this
particular fungus induces me to dispute his claim to
its discovery. In the first place, the section from
which he has sketched the figures to illustrate his
paper came from my own cabinet. In the second
place, I read a short paper before the Scientific

42

HARD WICKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P.

Students' Association, Manchester, during the session
of 1874-5, on tms f uri S us ) which was identified by one
of the members of that society as Peronosporites. No
record of this discovery was made at the time,
except in the minutes of the Society. After reading
the above paper, I put a section of this fungus
(among other sections), in the hands of my friend,
Mr. Young, for his own cabinet, and he casually
showed it to Mr. Carruthers and Mr. Smith, which
resulted in Mr. Smith's paper. This is one instance
among many of the necessity of more permanent
record being made in some leading journal of the
work of our country societies. — John Butterworth,
'Goats Shaw, Oldham.

NOTES AND QUERIES,

British Snakes. — Is there any evidence of our
English snake feeding upon birds or field-mice, or,
indeed, anything but frogs and toads ? I have kept
many snakes (Natrix torquata), and have only twice
seen them consent to swallow toads, and that was
during very hot weather, when their appetite was
excited by the high temperature of a melon-frame, in
which they were kept. Most snakes (I am now
referring only to our native species) will prefer
starving to death, according to my observation and
that of many of my friends, to partaking of any other
food than frogs, though it is said in many books that
they will eat mice and birds.- — A. R.

Venomous Reptiles of Ireland.— Can any
reader of Science-Gossip give me information re-
specting the venomous reptiles of Ireland? Having
explored the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, I was
much struck at never coming across any such reptile,
although in so many spots where one would expect
to find them — ruins, river-banks covered with thick
undergrowth, and deeply-secluded dells. Can any
reader inform me if this is the case throughout the
isle, or how to account for the lack in these parts ?
Has climate or soil anything to do with it (casting
aside, of course, the popular legend of St. Kevin
having banished them to Glendalough) ? — S. E.
Bennett, St. Hildred's.

Pertinacity of the Hawk. — On the'soth of
September last I was staying with the family of
Colonel C, and, while they were at church, a
hawk flew into Mrs. C.'s bedroom, attracted by her
bulfinch and her linnet, each sunning itself in a
separate cage. How long the intruder kept these
poor birds in agonizing terror no one can precisely
state ; the maid, who first entered the room, chased
the enemy away, and informed her lady of the un-
welcome visitor. Mrs. C. rushed up-stairs to the
cages of her pets, and found them both greatly dis-
turbed : they approached her, and with eloquent eyes
and various expressive gestures, made her under-
stand how terribly they had been frightened by the
appearance of a bird of prey. Nothing could prove
this to a greater certainty than the loss of their
feathers, which lay scattered in their cages. The
bulfinch dropped nine feathers from his tail, and the
linnet seven. These feathers were carefully wrapped
up in silver paper and put into a box, as a memento of
that Sunday. The wretched culprit flew to an op-
posite tree, where he was watched by the stablemen,
till they saw him fly again into the tempting room,
evidently determined to make a good Sunday's meal

of the plump little birds, but there the villain met
with his due. Somebody disturbed him, out he flew,
and, clumsily, like a burglar who is caught in the
fact, knocked himself against the window, blooded it
all over, and disappeared, to be seen no more. The
hawk could not have got to these birds, the wires were
so close. — E. A. I J'.

Query as to Watercress. — The plant referred
to by Chateaubriand is the great water-radish (Nas-
turtium amphibiwn), a plant which increases rapidly
by stolons. Sir James E. Smith ("English Flora,"
vol. iii. p. 195) writes : "This plant is noticed by
the celebrated M. Chateaubriand in his account of
England, for its wonderful powers of increase by the
root. He observed it in the river near Beccles, where
he long resided as an emigrant, and his rather florid
description has excited wonder and curiosity in many
who daily, perhaps, pass over, without regard, several
no less interesting works of their Creator." I should
doubt whether the peculiar method of progression
described by M. Chateaubriand is the usual habit
either of this or any other plant, and I have cer-
tainly never observed it myself, though I have long
been familiar with this species of cress ; nevertheless
I have no doubt that M. Chateaubriand accurately
related what he himself saw, as it is exactly what
mio-ht very easily occur if the bottom were disturbed
by an oar or punt-pole. — F. V. P.

Caves in Somersetshire. — Can any readers of
Science-Gossip give me any information as to the
caves of Somersetshire, especially those of the
Mendip range, in Barrington Combe ? On an
elevated spot, known as Dolbury Camp, there is
a curious inclosure of fallen stones and earthworks,
in the centre of which is a' deep pit, of such a
depth that one cannot from the mouth see the
bottom. Can this have been a well for the garrison,
or an artificial shaft for mining, or even a natural
cave? Any information on this subject will be
gratefully received, as I have ineffectually tried to
gather explanation for some time past. — Somersu.'a.

A Feline Nurse.— Calling at a farm-house the
other day, I was told I was just a day too late to
see a very wonderful sight — a cat nursing some
little chicks. It appears the cat had a family of
dead kittens a few days before, and the same
morning some five or six chicks were hatched ; as
there were others to come out, the lady of the
house took the just hatched chicks into the house till
all were hatched, and placed them before the fire
in the sitting-room, or, as we say here, the "keeping
room." Pussy, greatly to the horror of the good
lady of the house, took a great fancy to them, and
could not be kept away from them. Wishing to
see what would take place, the owner allowed her
to come near, when she began to stroke them down
with her paw in the most affectionate and tender
manner, and, after a while, lying down, gathered
them well under her. There she lay all the day ;
in the evening they were taken from her, but next
day she did the same ; but the third day, fearful of
accidents, they were taken away from her and put
under their proper mother, who had now hatched
out her whole brood. I wonder what pussy would
have done with them. — Gobbs.

Entomological and Botanical Localities. —
Can any of your correspondents tell me exactly
where the following places in Berks and Oxon
are : _Shotover Hill, Winchwood Forest, Cowley,
Combury Quarry, Sunninghill Wells, and Bagley
Wood ? I have seen it mentioned that various

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

43

insects and plants are to be found in these localities,
and shall be obliged to any one who will give me the
required information. — H. Morton.

Nesting of Missel Thrush. — Can any reader
of Science-Gossip tell me whether it is rare or
not for the Missel Thrush ( Tardus viscivorits) to
build its nest on the tops of walls ? I found a nest
in May, 1S72, on the top of a wall, — it had four eggs
in it, and the female was sitting on it ; and another
in May, 1876. — Jas. Iugleby.

Blackbird and Thrush. — About the middle of
April, hunting round the garden, I found a nest
nearly finished, which I thought belonged to a black-
bird, though I could not catch sight of the female
bird. Two days after, looking into the nest, I found
four eggs, all just like a blackbird's, except that one
egg had the deep claret markings of a thrush : the
female being still very wary, had flown away before
I could see her. Two or three days after I again
visited the nest, and found that the bird sitting was a
thrush ; she was then very tame, and, showing no
signs of fear, let me watch her, standing within a
few feet of her nest. The last week in April the
eggs were hatched. I was unable to watch her again
for about ten days, when, to my regret, I found
that only one young bird remained ; the old bird was
then very restless, flying round and round her nest,
but never going more than ten yards from it, and
uttering incessantly a single low plaintive note. I
had then ample opportunity of watching her, aud can
state with certainty that it was a song-thrush ( Tardus
mitsicus). As soon as the young bird could fly at
all, both the mother and her offspring disappeared.
The blackbird was not nearly so assiduous in the
welfare of the young one as its mate, and I cannot
see why it should mate with a thrush when there
are plenty of blackbirds all round us. — G. T. B.

Blackbird or Thrush. — In the November num-
ber of Science-Gossip I saw a notice, by "G. T. B.,"
of Blackbird and Thrush. I have taken, at several
places, nests built like a blackbird's, but at the top of
a high fir generally (while blackbirds build near the
ground), containing eggs like a thrush's, but instead of
black spots, a few pale reddish ones. The nests were
lined with hay, not mud, as a thrush's, surrounded
outside with coarse pieces of stick and bits of fir or
grass. I have never seen the old birds, but I have
named them in my cabinet as produced by the mat-
ing of a blackbird and thrush. — S. S. B., Bradford
Abbas.

Birds' Eggs. — In your number for September last
a correspondent gives a few reasons for " birdnesting,"
which I think are open to the following objections.
To take them in order : — 1. Is it necessary that, to
obtain a knowledge of the situation and materials of
a bird's nest, the eggs need be taken ? Would not a
note, made on the spot, of the nest, its contents,
position, &c, without disturbing the eggs, be more
to the point ? 2. With respect to the many people
who take their only knowledge of ornithology from
the robbing of nests, I may venture to assert that, as
far as my knowledge goes, three out of four such
collectors take little or no interest in the birds them-
selves ; in some cases not even in the nest, the eggs
being all they look or care for. And of how much
value to science is the knowledge they thus acquire ?
3. There is certainly a great difference between taking
the eggs of domestic poultry and those of wild birds,
for in the former, domestication seems to have almost
eradicated their natural feelings (though even in them
there is some trace left, as is shown by their some-

times concealing their eggs as much as possible,
laying in out-of-the-way holes and comers), but thai
pain is thus given to wild birds, there can be no
doubt, after one has heard the painful twitter of the
parent-bird whose nest is disturbed. 4. That the
taking of their eggs is necessary to keep the com-
moner species within bounds, I fail to see. In the
first place, if there were any fear of their becoming too
numerous, why should an Act of Parliament have
been passed to check this "practice"? On the
other hand, is there not a fear of causing the rarer
species to become extinct, for it is on them that the
brunt of this "practice " falls ? How many are there,
even of those who call themselves collectors, or
oologists, who only take what rare eggs they really
require for their own cabinets? How many resist the
temptation to take all the very rare ones they find,
when they are so easily exchanged, or when a friend
would ■ be so pleased to accept them ? Of course
there are some who do, but I am afraid they are
sadly outnumbered by those who do not, as reference
to your Exchange column any month will show. But
those of the commoner kinds are neither saleable nor
exchangeable, and therefore remain comparatively
unmolested, except by the veritable nest-robber ; and
the rarer a bird becomes, the more are its eggs sought
after. Another of your correspondents reminds Mr.
Van Dyck that there is a law which prevents the
shooting of many birds during the time of their stay
with us. May I be allowed to remind him that there
is also another, to prevent the robbing of their nests ?
As to the "fond remembrances of bygone days" on
which he lays such stress, could not they be brought
to the mind just as vividly by looking through the
note-book, the companion of such rambles (he
accuses Mr. Van Dyck of a crib : may I ask him if he
has not read the paper on " Birds' Egg> " in " Notes
On Collecting and Preserving Natural History
Objects"?), and would not the pleasure of searching
out the nest be rather heightened than otherwise by
leaving the eggs ; for he is hard-hearted indeed in
whom the plaintive notes of the mother-bird raise no
touch of feeling akin to remorse ? Then we are told
that alter a "few years' " earnest collecting (it would
be interesting to know how many eggs are usually
destroyed in a few such years) most "collectors"
are able to give "not only the name of the bird,"
but an account of its habits, &c, with a "number
of interesting facts " ; but, as before mentioned, I
fail to see that it is at all necessary to rob the nest
of its eggs to obtain a knowledge of these "interesting
facts, " and if it were, to use a French expression, is
" the game worth the candle" ? In short, I do not
see that in ninety cases out of a hundred any object
is gained by breaking the laws of the land in this
particular, and cordially agree with the Editor in
wishing that all Natural History societies would
follow the good example set by the Woolhope Club.
— L. W. G.

Singular Affection of a Hen. — We had a
hen, of the barndoor or common fowl breed, say
about two years old, which we purchased, with
another from the same brood, from a farmer in this
neighbourhood some months ago. It was observed
that the hen's eyesight was dim when we first had
her, but after a few weeks the sight seemed to leave
her altogether, and of course total blindness followed.
The fowl was fed by placing her food immediately
under or close to her, and she picked up sufficient to
sustain life. The other fowls seemed to take excep-
tion at the blind hen's company, and each one, with
one exception, constantly attacked her. The curious
part of the thing was, that the sister of the blind

44

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

hen (previously mentioned) had chickens, and as soon
as she returned at night with her young brood (four), the
blind hen was called by the sister, and shared the pro-
tection with the little chicks, i.e. under the wing of
their mother. This continued for two or three weeks,
or until some ten days ago, when a carrion crow,
while making a predatory visit to the precincts of the
farm, observed the helpless condition of our blind
pet, and made an attack upon her, and before any
assistance could be rendered, killed and devoured
nearly the whole of the body. We, as you may
imagine, were full of sorrow for our loss. — P.
Donaldson, Goytrey, Monmouthshire.

"Fairy-flax." — In the September number of
Science-Gossip, No. 153, p. 194, Mr. Robert Hol-
land speaks of the amazing undergrowth of fairy-flax.
What plant is known under this name ? — E. L. R.

Predatory Slug.— This may have been Testacella
haliotoidea, a species known to live on earthworms ;
but usually subterranean in its habits. It may easily
be distinguished from the common slugs by the
following characters : the body increases in size like
that of a leech, from the head to the posterior end,
which terminates abruptly ; and bears a small external
shell ; it is very tough, and of a yellow-grey colour,
with grooved lines along the side of the body. The
common slugs, Limax and Avion, are, however, not
only carnivorous, but cannibals. After slaughtering
one of these garden pests, I have often found in the
evening two or three more feasting on the body of
their late comrade. Slugs and snails, as Mr. Slater
remarks, seem to be unaffected by vegetable poisons ;
indeed, the poisonous Solanacece, as Atropa Bella-
donna, seem specially attractive to them. This,
however, is less remarkable when we remember that
the rabbit, an animal much higher in the scale of life
than the snail, can eat any quantity of Belladonna
with impunity. — H. F. Parsons.

Is THE LEMMING rOUNI) IN ENGLAND ? — Is it not

very likely that the holes referred to, under this
heading in Science-Gossip, No. 152, p. 189, were
made by the common Shrew (Sorex araneus, Bell),
which it is well known makes large superficial
burrows in the earth ? The fact of its being on such
high ground is probably accounted for by the increase
of its great enemy, man, in the valleys below. The
size of their burrows would be about an inch in
diameter. — S. T.

Fructification of Sycamore (No. 155, p. 257).
— Mr. W. E. Green has, I think, scarcely appreciated
my difficulty in accounting for the increased number
of winged seeds in so many sycamore fruits. With us
in the north, although sycamores, hollies, nuts, and
some few other trees and shrubs have produced large
quantities of fruit, it has decidedly been an unfruitful
year. We have had no apples, pears, or plums, and
very few cherries ; no acorns, very few ash-keys, and
scarcely any haws ; therefore, I do not think the
phenomenon can be accounted for by supposing that
the season has been a particularly fruitful one, which
really means that the weather was suitable, or the
insects numerous enough during flower-time for the
fertilization of existing germs, or sunny enough for
the full and perfect development of fertilized germs.
If sycamore flowers usually contained several pistils,
one only, as in the Nut, coming to maturity, or even
the rudiments of several pistils, one could readily
understand that congenial weather might cause those
already existing, though rudimentary organs, to be
developed and to reach maturity ; but this is not the
case. The flower of the sycamore does not contain,

under ordinary circumstances, even the rudiments of
several pistils. No doubt, as Mr. Green suggests, an
unusually mild winter might cause great changes in
the growth of plants, but the tendency of a mild win-
ter is to produce rather a scanty crop, partly by the
blossom opening too soon, and partly by the time of
rest for the tree not being sufficiently prolonged ; and
I suspect the cause is more remote. The weather of
the present year could hardly have caused the forma-
tion of new organs ; the mildness of last winter may
have had some peculiar effect, but it is perhaps more
probable, if weather has had anything to do with it,
that there was some specially congenial weather dur-

i ing the summer or autumn of 1876 which induced
such a complete ripening of the wood that it caused
the sycamore-trees to start with unusual vigour in the
spring of this year, and that organs were thereby pro-

I duced which, had the trees been somewhat less
vigorous, would have been entirely suppressed. —
Robert Holland, Norton Hill, Runcorn.

The Tyrian Dye. — Your correspondent " B."
(see No. 155, p. 260) is evidently unaware that this
celebrated dye was of a crimson hue, or he would not

1 have imagined that it might have been extracted from
Leptoclinium punctatum, "because when put into

I water, it (Z. pnncta/itm) stained the water of a blue
colour." The word purpureas, whence the English
purple, signifies "bright red," as Digitalis purpurea,

j the Foxglove. The present corrupt use of the word

; purple to signify a shade of blue is quite recent. Has
" B." never read Izaak Walton's lines on fishing, in

. which he mentions the common perch, with its " fins
of Tyrian dye"?— W. R. Tate, Blandford, Dorset.

A Curiosity .—I have in my possession a Hindoo
or Burmese sword-handle made from an elephant's
tusk, on which, after the Eastern fashion, many quaint
and curious figures are carved: men with grotesque
and hideous faces disfigured with elephants' trunks,
crocodiles' mouths, monkeys' heads, and the like.
Among these forms, but separated from the rest, is
carved a tiger or bear, I am not sure which, but
think the latter : in its mouth it holds a fish. Now,
I should very much like to ascertain if this has been
carved among its fellow-anomalies as a prodigy that
has been said to have existed, but which the executor,
desiring to ridicule, placed among his monstrosities.
South American travellers of good repute tell tales
of the common jaguar (Leopardus Onca) hanging over
the banks of streams, and catching the unwary fish
that chance to pass by. Is it on record that any
member of the Felidre or Isabella; of the old world
ever performed the same feat ? — Daccart Aikone.

Sudden Change in Colour of the Human
Hair. — " Is it possible for a person's hair to turn
white in a short time ? " There are so many instances
now on record, that there ought to be no longer any
doubt upon the subject. In the late Arctic expedition
nearly every man's hair became greyer, and in some
cases white, but assumed its natural colour when the
men returned to lower latitudes. In many cases the
human hair is said to have turned grey from grief,
extreme care, or sudden fright. My experience is
very small, but nevertheless may be interesting to
some of the readers of Science-Gossip. During an
outward passage to Australia, the ship I was in
suffered greatly in the British Channel ; twice we
were nearly wrecked, having lost three anchors and
two cables. The pilot who had charge was con-
stantly on watch, only snatching a few minutes' sleep
here and there, as opportunity afforded. On the
whole, he had a very anxious time indeed, and when
he eventually left the ship off the Isle of Wight he

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE ■ G OS SI P.

45

certainly looked twenty years older. I thought his
hair had decidedly turned greyer : this may, however,
have been only imagination, and therefore ought rather
to be considered as an impression than actual fact.
Within the last few months a fresh case of the possi-
bility of the colour of hair changing has come under
my notice. An old gentleman, aged eighty-nine,
residing in my immediate neighbourhood, lately died.
For many years his hair had been perfectly white,
but a few days before his death some of his hair
became black, giving the appearance of his having
dark brown or black hair. Here it is interesting to
note that in his younger days his hair was light.
After the death of this gentleman the tips of the hair
for about an inch assumed the original colour,
becoming white again. Has a similar case fallen
under the notice of any of your readers ? I have heard
of another instance, where after death the hair turned
from white to black. Dogs seem to be affected with
regard to their hair in like manner as human beings.
I lately read of a case where a black Newfoundland
dog became grey in a few weeks ; and the writer
declares that the only cause for this sudden change
was grief. — C. P. Ogilvic.

Mistletoe, Apple, and Pear. — Does not the
fact mentioned by Mr. C. H. Westley, that mistletoe
does not grow commonly, if at all, on the pear, open
up some interesting questions ? I believe I am correct
in saying that, though the apple and the pear can
each of them be grafted on a variety of stocks,
amongst others on some but remotely related to them,
neither can be grafted on the other. The growth of
the mistletoe is a kind of natural grafting, and occurs
on trees belonging to several widely different orders ;
yet it seems to be confined to one of these two allied
species. May there not be some underlying physio-
logical identity between the various possible stocks,
some physiological difference between apple and
pear ? Has any one ever attempted to graft apple or
soecies ther on mistletoe? Will mistletoe grow on
all stocks used for apples, or on any used for pears ?
— G. S. Bo i tiger.

Mistletoe. — Bentley mentions Viscum album as
parasitic on thorns and willows ? Can your readers
tell me whether it is commonly found on these ? also
whether Primus spinosa is the plant meant by
thorns ?— J. J. W. S.

Watercresses. — The following extract may per-
haps be of interest to some of your readers. At the
meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society on
Tuesday, Mr. Shirley Hibberd, of Stoke Newington,
presented a dozen pans of watercresses, grown in the
manner he has practised for some years past. One
of the advantages of this system is, that the plants
are under complete control to be placed in the sun or
the shade, or during winter in heated plant-houses,
and can at all times be supplied with pure water, and
thus be preserved from contamination by the pollu-
tions common to rivers, and even to watercress-beds.
The pans in which they are grown measure from
1 5 inches to 20 inches across, and from 6 inches to
9 inches deep. They are filled with rich loamy
soil, intermixed with lumps of chalk or old mortar,
and then very small cuttings are inserted. These
soon become strong plants, and in from fifteen to
twenty days may be gathered from, the cresses being
tender and delicate in flavour, and of the most beau-
tiful appearance. The twelve plants shown have
been regularlvcut for the table for a period of six weeks,
and their fresh and robust appearance indicated that
gatherings might be had from them for another six
weeks without their being exhausted. The sorts shown

were die Erfurt sweet green cress, the Springhead
brown cress, and the Stoke Newington purple cress.
The adjudicators signified their approval of this mode
of cultivation by the award of a medal to Mr. Hibberd.
— H. Budge.

Query respecting Sea Anemones. — Will a
correspondent kindly give a little information respect-
ing Sea Anemones : should they be fed, and if so,
how often, and about in what quantity ? — W. T. H. C.
Trome.

Swans and Rats. — Some time since I noticed
some rats had taken possession of a hollow tree grow-
ing by the side of my mill dam, and not wishing to
retain them there as tenants, I suggested to one of
my servants the propriety of serving them with
"notice to quit," and to this end I enlisted the ser-
vices of a ferret. Very soon two or three of the family
leaped into the water. A pair of swans were close
by watching our movements, and no sooner did the
rats attempt to swim across the dam, than the swans
at once gave chase to the enemy ; more than once they
seized the rats and threw them above the water, and as
often as they raised their heads, the swans, regardless
of the presence of spectators, pursued their enemy to
their bitter end, and by frequently pecking at them
eventually succeeded in drowning them, as was proved
by the dead bodies floating down to the mill ruck a
few minutes after the battle. — R. Cooke, G Ian ford-
Mill, Norfolk.

Spectral Phenomena. — Two curious phenomena
have lately come to my knowledge in conversation
with friends who were eye-witnesses of them.
Perhaps some of your readers may be interested
enough to endeavour to throw some light upon them.
A gentleman was parting with a friend on Hampstead
Heath, one night about eight years ago, the moon
and stars shining, when they both observed what
appeared like three bright bars stretching across the
sky about midway between the zenith and horizon
towards the west, and apparently also twenty or thirty
yards in length, and remaining so for over half an
hour. A lady walking along the Euston road when
the sun was shining brightly, saw in the air before her
a gigantic semaphore. Upon reaching one of the
stations of the Metropolitan Railway, a real sema-
phore was noticed to correspond in position with the
spectre. — A'. II. A. B.

The Lunar Bow. — I observed this remarkable
phenomenon on November 22nd under very favour-
able circumstances. At about 8.25 p.m. the moon
was shining very brightly, and on looking towards
the western sky, I perceived a faintly-coloured bow
spanning the heavens and extending some distance
across the distant landscape. The colours were pale
and indistinct, but the general form of the bow was
very definitely marked. — George Clinch, West Wick-
ham, Kent.

Lapwing and Sparrow-hawk. — I am not much
surprised at the communication of J. C. Stephens,
No. 155, p. 262, in which he states that he " observed
a lapwing or peewit pursuing a sparrow-hawk."
I believe that, under certain circumstances, that bird
will attack, or at least chase and attempt to frighten,
any bird whatever that approaches the ground where
it has taken up its abode. As a proof of this I will
mention what came under my own observation during
the past spring. In a field of about twelve acres
in extent adjoining my residence, two lapwings took
up their abode. There are some rookeries at a short
distance from this, and on several occasions the
colonies came into this and the adjoining fields to

4 6

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSIP.

forage. For some time the lapwings paid little
attention to the crows, but ultimately the female
commenced to hatch her eggs, and then a real warfare
began with the male. No sooner did the crows,
generally two or three hundred, alight in the field
where the female was sitting, than the male com-
menced a most determined attack on them. It darted
towards them with the rapidity and vigour of a hawk,
but evidently with the sole intention of banishing
th cm from the field, as I could never notice that it
came actually in contact with them, but always so
near as to render them uncomfortable. Those who
have observed a lapwing under these conditions
will be aware of the peculiarly loud noise that it has
the power of producing with its wings, and this, no
doubt, has its effect upon the birds that approach its
domain. This was the case in the present instance.
Not a moment's quietude was allowed the crows until
the whole colony was banished from the field, and they
were obliged to betake themselves to the neighbouring
grounds, where they could follow their occupation in
peace. Not more than a few minutes elapsed until
the lapwing had cleared the field of the intruders.
T witnessed cases of this kind repeatedly, and always
with the same effect. This faithful sentinel of its
mate would allow no bird whatever to enter this field
without attempting to banish it. These attacks of
the lapwing were not confined to birds alone, but also
to human beings. If any person happened to pass
through this field, and more especially when near the
nest of the female, the male immediately darted past
him on all sides, and so contiguous that it might
almost be touched, making the peculiarly loud noise
with its wings. Thus it continued without inter-
mission until the intruder had left the field. On one
occasion I was greatly amused with a crow that it
took prisoner. The crow alighted in the field near a
tree, but the moment it did so the lapwing commenced
its usual attack by darting close past it (on no occa-
sion did I see it come fairly in contact with the
intruder), and the crow to avoid it took refuge in the
tree. The lapwing then soared away for a short
distance, but never out of sight of the crow, and the
latter, no doubt thinking that its enemy had dis-
appeared, left the tree and again began to forage in
the field. But this was only momentary. The lap-
wing was quite aware of the fact, and down again it
pounced on the crow, which, as before, took shelter
in the tree. This state of things continued more than
a dozen times, until at last the crow, finding that
neither peace nor profit could be obtained there, con-
trived to steal from the tree, and took its departure to
some other locality, where it might forage in peace
and quietness. The courageous and faithful guardian,
however, at last came to an untimely end. I did not
witness this myself, but was told by a game-watcher
who did, and therefore cannot say whether the hawk
which killed it did so without provocation, or that the
latter had been annoyed by the usual attack of the
lapwing to banish it from the field. However, the
lapwing was struck to the ground by the hawk, and
the game- watcher, thinking that he might be able to
save its life, went to its rescue with all speed, but on
reaching it found that the hawk had torn its head off.
Since that time I have never seen the female, nor any
ofitsyoung — if it succeeded in hatching them, — and the
crows may now be seen daily foraging in the field
without interruption. — Dipton Burn.

The Betularia and its Varieties. — In the
month of June, 1874, I was proceeding on the out-
side of an omnibus from Middleton to Manchester
in company with a brother entomologist, when I
thought I observed a large specimen of the Betularia

in a plantation in the neighbourhood of Heaton
Park, on the left-hand side of the high road. The
driver of the 'bus, noting my anxiety to capture the
specimen, very kindly promised to proceed slowly for
a short distance, so as to give me an opportunity of
seeing whether my impressions were right or not with
regard to what I had seen. I soon reached the plan-
tation, near the entrance to which, to my great joy and
surprise, I found a large female Betularia of the buff
variety on a tree, in conjunction with a black male.
I picked them off the tree and returned to the 'bus,
several of the passengers being astonished when I
told them the value of my prize. Not being prepared
with a box at the time, I allowed my captures to
creep on my clothes, but after we had gone some
distance I set the black one free, to the evident sur-
prise of the passengers, who seemed to think that the
more valuable of the two. However, on arriving at
Cheetham Hill, my entomological friend procured a
large-sized pill-box, and into this I placed the buft
specimen. We proceeded to Belle-Vue Gardens, to
spend the afternoon, though I will confess that the
pleasure I experienced there received additional zest
from the discovery and capture I had made during
the afternoon. On arriving home I was sorry to find
the specimen in a somewhat sorry condition, the box
in which I had confined it having been rather too
small. Fortunately I succeeded in restoring it, and
I afterwards reared about 120 specimens, but,
singular to say, and to my great disappointment,
the buff variety did not make its appearance. At
this time a friend of mine had some of the black
variety, and he was kind enough to give me a few ; so
I crossed them, but with the same result. Still I
had faith that they must have some of their parent's
buff qualities in them, and I made another attempt
to breed them. The result, I am glad to say, was
very gratifying indeed. On the 4th of December last
I placed about fifty of the pupa? in a box ; for, being
very eager to see the buff variety come forth, I
resolved to try what artificial means would do.
Impelled by curiosity, I, on the 4th of January this
year, took a peep into the box, when, to my great
delight, I found that one of the buff variety had
emerged from the pupa. I followed up my success,
and have succeeded in obtaining about one buff one
out of twenty of the whole brood, some of them being
all buff, and others very variable, both in their colour
and markings. The foregoing information, therefore,
makes me feel confident of having established two
distinct varieties of Betularia from a domestic point
of view, and possibly what I have stated may be of
value to entomology, and to those who love the
science. — Thomas Lomas.

A Fight with an Eagle. — The Dagbladet, a

Danish newspaper, for July 10th, 1S76, gives the
following account of a rare incident which occurred
on the previous Wednesday evening upon Rovling
Heath, in the district of Aalborg, Jutland. Two
girls, eight and twelve years of age, having been sent
by their parents to fetch home the cows from the
heath, were attacked, while returning, by a very
large eagle, which made several attempts to swoop
down, but was deterred by the elder girl swinging a
tethering mallet over her bead till she could procure
some stones ; these she hurled against her powerful
antagonist, and was at last so fortunate as to strike it
with such effect that it fell dead. It measured from
tip to tip of its extended wings, six feet eight inches
(3} alen), and weighed about ten pounds (9 pund).
Its largest claws were from an inch and a half to two
inches long ; its colour was intermingled grey and
white. — J. Wager.

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G OS SIP.

47

Colias Edusa and its Varieties. — At the time
my few notes on this interesting butterfly were
written, which appeared in Science-Gossip, No.
156, p. 280, I considered myself fortunate in secur-
ing two of the white varieties, having collected
thirteen or fourteen years, and being obliged till this
year to put up with one tattered English and a foreign
representative. Since then, however, my brother
and I have captured forty-five Helice, forty of which
were taken in one field close to this town. The
specimens exhibit much variety in colour, some being
a rich cream and primrose, others a greenish white ;
in the size of the marginal spots there is also great
difference ; in some they are reduced to a minimum.
— Joseph Anderson, Junior, Chichester.

Destroying Mites. — Your correspondent,
"A. F." will, I think, find no difficulty in ridding
his collection of mites, if he will adopt the following
plan, which I have never known to fail. It is simply
to dip a camel-hair brush into benzine, and let the
fluid fall upon the insect drop by drop until it is
completely saturated ; the little heaps of dust which
usually betokens the presence of mites underneath
the specimens can be wiped up with the brush. On
account of the extremely volatile nature of benzine, it
is not of much use as a preventive for this purpose ;
it is better to employ plenty of camphor, or cotton
wool soaked with a solution of carbolic acid. With
even ordinary care mites need never be permitted to
do any serious mischief, and no better piece of advice
for their prevention can be given than that by
Dr. Knaggs, to put into quarantine every insect we
receive. — Joseph Anderson, Junior, Chichester.

Destroying Mites. — Many years since I left two
cabinets of lepidoptera in the country for some twelve
months, and on bringing them home found the bodies
■of many of the specimens eaten, and the mites travel-
ling over the drawers in large numbers. I made a
saturated solution of camphor in rectified spirit of
wine, poured about a teaspoonful in one corner of
each drawer, and by tilting, caused the liquid to flow
round the angles ; I then closed the cabinets, and on
opening them a few days after found all life extinct.
If "A. F." has not a compartment in each drawer for
camphor, he should procure some muslin bags about two
inches by one inch and a quarter, put a lump of cam-
phor in each, and fix one in a corner of every drawer by
a pin at both ends, renewing the camphor as often as
it evaporates. By this means he may preserve his
collection from injury by mites for any period. —
D. S.

The Sun and the Earth. — I have the following
figures before me of the distance between us and the
sun. Taking Guyot's mean diameter of the earth,
giving a radius of 3,938 miles —
Laplace gives a distance of miles = 92, 636,990
The Quarterly Review, July, 1875,

note, p. 209 =91,000,000

The Academy, 20th October, 1877,

P- 389 =93,000,000

The Mail, 19th December, 1877,
in a letter from Mr. Proctor

{ Tupman =93,321,000

( Newcomb =92,393,000
Mr. Proctor suggests that this measure is un-
trustworthy, as long as we get warmth and light, the
actual distance of the sun is of little consequence ;
but what are the precise sciences to do ? Newcomb
and Laplace are as near the mark as we can hope for ;
but how is it that the precise sciences reach their
conclusion as to the size of this world from the
Nebular hypothesis of Laplace, without adopting his

measure of distance between the earth and the sun ?
I find the figures for Laplace in his translation by
J. Pond, p. 24, 1809. Will some one kindly tell us
which distance is right ? — //. P. M.

Reasoning Power of Dogs. — Having witnessed
the following occurrence some years ago, I could not
help being struck with the great reasoning powers

displayed by a dog. I lived in the town of N ,

and the back of our terrace had small gardens, sepa-
rated from each other by a short fence. One windy
morning the clothes were drying on the line, and the
dog (a fine retriever) was sporting itself on the grass,
when a sudden gust blew the "things" on the
ground ; the dog at once ran into the house, and by
sundry barks and pulls at her dress, induced the girl
to go into the garden, where she discovered the cause
of the dog's uneasiness. The next day being the
"week's wash" of our neighbour, the clothes were
airing in the garden, when our dog rushed into
the house, and presently brought out the servant,
who found that the prop had given way, and the
" wash " was all on the ground. — J. D.

Superstitious Dislike to the Wren {Troglo-
dytes Europa-us). — This little bird, though generally
a favourite, is in some rural districts regarded by the
uneducated with the bitterest aversion, while its rela-
tive, the Redbreast, is considered sacred from all
molestation. So deeply seated is this hatred to the
Wren, that its nest is often ruthlessly torn away,
and both nest and its contents trampled under foot.
The only explanation which these good folks will
vouchsafe, is that the " wran" is the devil's bird,
and should therefore get no quarter. This strange
superstition has, I believe, had its origin in one of
the many myths which have been handed down from
generation to generation, and received as truth be-
yond question. The legendary account of how the
Robin got her red-breast is widely spread, both in
Ireland and England, and no one in this country will
molest the "poor robin," because his name is asso-
ciated with our Lord ; but the Wren has the mis-
fortune of being associated with the sacred history in
an unfavourable light : hence the odium which hangs
around him. In the south of Ireland it appears this
unkindly feeling does not exist, which is shown by a
curious practice which existed at no veiy distant date
in Cork. On St. Stephen's day a number of young
men, in holiday dress, paraded the city, carrying a
furze-bush, in which a wren was secured. As they
stopped before the house, one of their number recited
the following lines —

" The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
Was caught St. Stephen's day in the furze ;
Although he's little, his family's great,
Then pray, kind gentle folks, give him a trate."

It is to be hoped that this cruel and unmeaning
dislike to a little bird of which poets have so sweetly
sung, and naturalists so interestingly written, may

; ere long be swept away by advancing education. —

' H. Allingham, Ballyshannon.

Harebell ( Campanula rotundifolia). — The English
^ name, we are told, was bestowed upon it because it
' grows in the dry and hilly pastures frequented by the
hare, but we would suggest, at least, an alternative
derivation — or rather the plant itself suggests it — as
to whether it may not have originally been named
hair bell from the extremely light and delicate stems
from which the blossoms hang. Another plant,
equally light and delicate, is named the maiden-hair.
I have extracted the above from p. 78, part 10, of
" Familiar Wild Flowers," to which I refer Mr. Tate
for an interesting article on the plant. — T.

48

HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE ■ G SSI P.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip at least a week earlier than hereto-
fore, we cannot possibly insert in the following number any
communications which reach us later than the 9th of the
previous month.

Fresh Chara. — A correspondent asks our good offices to
obtain for him "a little fresh Chara." Will our botanical
friends, who can obtain it, send us a small supply ?

W. Patrick. — You can purchase Anodotis of R. Damon,
F.G.S., Weymouth.

A. F. Fischer. — You cannot do better than preserve the
chrysalis in the earth of a flower-pot. Put the latter out of
doors. It will soon cease " wriggling." Out of doors is their
natural condition of hybernation.

W. H. Legge.— The caterpillar of which you sent us a
coloured drawing, is that of the well-known Pale Tussock-moth.
The caterpillar goes by the name of the " Hop-dog" (prgyia
jntdibvnda).

Y.. M. (baddleworth).- — The specimens sent us from the turf-
pits are flint chips, and seem to us to be the result of human
handiwork. This appears all the more probable from the fact
that flint is a very rare mineral, even in the drift beds, in
your district. Can you send us some larger specimens for
inspection ?

W. H. S. (Colchester). — We shall feel obliged if you will
send us some of the insects which demolish the " black beetles,"
as we cannot identify them from your description.

W. S. Wakefield. — The plant sent us is Veronica Hen-
dersonii.

F. Coleman. — We have heard of no other instance of non-
fulfilment except your own.

J. A. Sandkokd (Ohio). — Accept our thanks for specimens of
AJ>ocy>ium androsamiifolnim,

C. W. H. — There is no fear whatever of the ants doing your
Deodaras any harm.

Colonel M. — You had best have Science-Gossip sent to
you direct from the publishers. The small crystals are car-
bonate of lime,

F. R. B. — We cannot, of course, tell you the name of the
species of mussel without seeing specimens. But there is no
doubt that the deposit in question is a post-glacial one, of the
same age as our raised beeches.

F. Q. — You had best consult Whitaker's "Geology of the
London Basin," published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office,
for details of and references to the various sections of the
Woolwich beds exhibited in the neighbourhood of London.

S. C. M. — Sach's " Botany," translated and edited by A. W.
Bennett and Professor Dyer, and published by the Clarendon
Press, gives the best account of the laws of vegetable growth
and development.

A. M. (Wandsworth). — The crustacean, of which you sent us
a drawing is Idotca tricuspidata.

J. Ransom.— We have no doubt that Mr. Bartlett, the
Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens, would give you all
the necessary information respecting the management of
Marmosets.

T. C. M.— -We have referred to the MS. of your " Exchange "
in the January number, and find that we printed it exactly as
you wrote it !

R. T. Andrews. — The "glass-like substance" you sent us
is Selenite, or crystallized sulphate of lime ; very likely from
the London Clay formation.

J. Cunnack. — Your written description of the Hawk answers
best to that of the common Buzzard (Puteo vulgaris).

W. K. and Others. — Your specimens have been forwarded
to competent authorities to be named, and their names will
appear in these columns as soon as we have received them.

E. R. F. — Potton, in Bedfordshire, is situated on the Lower
Greensand formation, and the fossils you mention are, no
doubt, from that deposit.

W. B. wishes for the address of the South London Ento-
mological Society, as it has removed from its old quarters. We
shall always be glad to chronicle such changes of removal.

C. Harris. — Many thanks for the specimens, which are very
interesting. But we cannot undertake to name zoophytes from
the Cape of Good Hope, or any other place where the fauna has
not been scientifically worked and described.

EXCHANGES.

Wanted, British examples of I'ertigo angustior, V. alpes-
tris, and Acme lineata. Will give a liberal exchange in
American land and freshwater shells. — G. Sherriff Tye,
62, Villa-road, Handsworth, Staffordshire.

Wanted, Microscopical Dictionary (old or new edition), in
exchange for foreign insects, chiefly parasites, mounted or
unmounted. — Address, M., Anglesea Lodge, Godalming,
Surrey.

I would like to exchange U.S. Coleoptera for British or
Foreign. Eggs in exchange for Coleoptera, if desired. — Address,
Geo. J. Angell, 64, Elliott-place, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.

Wanted, Fresh specimens of any Cuttlefish or Squids.
Offered in exchange, shells, insects, microscopic slides, scien-
tific books, or money. — W. Cash, 38, Elmficld-terrace, Halifax.

A Few well-mounted micro slides to exchange — Lists to
T. Shripton, The Terrace, Chesterfield.

Many species of British marine, land, and freshwater
shells — offered in exchange for land shells from New Zealand,
South America, Madagascar, and South Australia. — F. M.
Hele, Fairlight, Elmgrove-road, Cotham, Bristol.

For unmounted or mounted diatoms will be sent some
cleaned diatom Coccones Placentula, or Foraminifera from
Spain : also, river mud from Lagos, for any object of interest
for microscope.— A. Smith, 198, Essex-road, London.

For Tripoli, composed of diatoms, send well-mounted slide
in exchange.

In exchange for any other mounted objects: Proboscis of
Blow-fly, Plenrosigma angulatum, Atnphipleura pellucida.

To French Marine Botanists. Wanted, in exchange for British
sea-weeds, those of French growth. — H. G., 15, Mulgrave-
street, Plymouth.

Exchange microscopical slides of different stages of the
Pentacrinite larva of Comatula, various species of Marine
Polyzoa, with their tentacles exerted, Australian seaweeds, &c.
(list forwarded on application), for other thoroughly well-
mounted slides. Illustrations of animal and vegetable struc-
tures preferred. — Adolph Leipner, 47, Hampton Park, Cotham,
Bristol.

Several sets of six-opaque sections of coal plants and tissues ;
wanted, recent and fossil polyzoa, graptolites from Silurian
strata, or vegetable preparations. Several sets of six recent
and fossil foraminifera ; wanted foraminiferous material,
soundings, dredgings, or unwashed Lias clay. — G. R. Vine,
Atterclifte, Sheffield.

Duplicates. — Rhamni, Edrisa, Cardamiues, sEgeria,
Semrle, Atalanta, Cardni, Io, Pa/hia, Galathea, Quercus.
Xauchographa, Desiderata, IV. Album, Betuhe, Pruni,
Paniscus, Attopos, the Sesiidw ; many Noctua ¥ and Geometrie.
— A. Dent, 20, Thurloe Square, London, S.W.

A large number of leaves with stellate hairs in situ from all
parts of the world, in exchange for other good microscopic
objects. — H. L., 6, Upper Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, W.

Wanted, Erythra-a lati/olia, other plants in exchange. —
Rev. F. H. Arnold, Fishbourne, Chichester.

Send 2 good slides for 1 dozen patent mounting clips, brass,
new kind, and capital to work with. — W. Tylar, 165, Well-street,
Hockley, Birmingham.

Exchange or otherwise. — A Ross's ~ s in. object-glass — wet
and dry — a useful glass. — Apply to Rev. S. Bramhall,
St. John's Vicarage, Lynn.

Lyell's " Principles of Geology," 4 vols., boards, 1834,
Figuier's "Primitive Man" (quite new), will exchange for
British Birds' Eggs, or well-mounted British wild plants or
mosses. — J. R. Murdoch, Horsforth, near Leeds.

BOOKS, &c, RECEIVED.

" Elementary Botany," Part II. By W. Bland. London
Bemrose & Sons.

" Industrial Art." January.
" Popular Science Review." Januarj'.
"The Midland Naturalist." January.
" Land and Water." January.
"The Naturalist." January.
" American Journal of Microscopy." December.
" Canadian Journal of Entomology." December.
" Potter's American Monthly." December.
" Boston Journal of Chemistry." December.
"Journal of Applied Sciences." January.
" lien. Brierley's Journal." January.
" Chambers's Journal." January.
&c. &c. &c.

Communications have been received up to the 7TH
ui.t., from:— T. S.— T. B. W.— T. L.— G. C— Dr. R. C. R.
— G. S. T— C. F. G.— W. B.— H. P. M.— A. M.— D. A.
— W. H. P.— W. H. S.— G. S. B.— Mrs. B.— D. S.— J. A. jun.
— C. V. S.— G. C. D.— G. P.— A. R.— J. D.— C. P. O.—
W. B. G.— G. A. H.— W. W.— S. E. B.— H. C. D.— R. C —
P. D.— H. A.— W. C— G. J. A.— T. S.— J. S. L.— W. J. F.—
T. B.— M. K.— J. G.-A. C. C— A. S.— C. C. H.— A. D. M.
— W. J. S.— T. C. M.— J. C— A. S.— R. T. A.— F. N. H.—
j. H.— W. R. T.— Dr. B.— W. S. B.-J. B.— W. B.—
C. E. B. H.— M. L.-J. B.— J. W— W. T.— W. W.— G. L.—
G. C.— G. E. B.— H. L.— H. P.— A. L — G. R. V.— A. D.—
C. H.— J. R. M.-H. E. W.— W. M. -J. B.— C. B. M.—
T. B.— A. W.— K. S.— T. F. U.— H. A. A.— R. G. C—
Dr. F. C. C.-W. K.-E. R. F— J. B.— W. B.— H. G.—
C. D.— &c. &C.

HARD WI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G SSI P.

49

THE FLORA OF NATAL

By J. M. WOOD.

S possibly some of your
readers may feel inte-
rested in a few notes
on the flora of this
part of the world, I
will, with your per-
mission, enumerate a
few of the native
plants at present grow-
ing in my garden. I
reside about twelve
miles from the sea, and though my garden is
neither extensive nor particularly well kept, still
I have taken pleasure in adding to it some of
our beautiful native plants, a number of which
were already growing in it when I came to reside
here, having been planted by a former occupant.
The first plant which attracts the eye at this season
is Gieya Suthcrlandi, a shrub or small tree, now
covered with its beautiful scarlet flowers, though
the leaves have hardly yet made their appearance;
it is a sapindaceous plant, though its true position
appears to be doubtful, and is a native of the higher
districts of the colony, in the Drakensberg, a range
of mountains on the border of the colony. I am told
that its spikes of flowers are sometimes a foot or more
in length. Here it is usually called the "Natal Bottle
Brush," but it is rarely seen in cultivation, as, on the
coast, at least, it does not succeed well. Close beside
it is Crinum Capense, usually called in the colony the
"Natal Lily," and everywhere found in profusion, from
the coast to far inland ; and in the ,spring and early
summer producing its corymb of pink and white bell-
shaped flowers. Near this plant is an Arum, of the
genus Richardia (known here as the "Lily of the
Nile ") ; it is now out of flower, but in the season
flowering freely without the slightest care or attention.
On the opposite side of the walk is another Arum of
the same genus, whose leaves are spotted with white,
like a Caladium, and which has a primrose or yellow
spathe, and which is in this district quite plentiful.
Beyond this plant, and scrambling about amongst the
No. 159.

adjacent shrubs, is a species of Mesembryanthtmum,
with small but richly-coloured deep magenta flowers ;
and near it another species with larger white flowers,
and which is in some places near here quite common.
In the middle of a small grass-plot in front of the
house are two plants of Encephalartus, a cycadaccous
plant, which sometimes has a caudex 10 feet or more
high ; one of these plants, though its stem is only
about iS inches high, has produced three large cones
in the centre of the crown of leaves or fronds, some-
thing like overgrown pine-apples. It is, I think, a
male plant, though the scales are not yet sufficiently
separated to decide with certainty ; during the five
years that I have observed the growth of these plants,
they do not seem to have increased much in height,
but as they only put forth one crown of leaves in each
season, this is not to be wondered at. The largest
plant has upon it at the present time four sets of
leaves, the lowest whorl of which are now nearly five
years old, and rapidly decaying ; but when the spring
has fairly set in it will unfold another complete
crown of leaves, and thus the trunk gradually increases
in height year by year. These plants were brought
from Noodsberg, twenty miles from here, where they
grow on the sides of precipitous rocks and under
slight shade, at an elevation of 3,000 feet or more
above the sea-level. We have a species of cycad
growing in similar situations near here, but which
does not, even in old age, develop a trunk ; its root
is napiform, and, when dug out, as much as a man
can carry with comfort ; it bears pinnate leaves
6 feet or more long. Near this latter plant is Stan-
geria paradoxa, also a cycadaceous plant, found, I
believe, only in Natal, and named in honour of the
late Dr. Stanger, Surveyor-General. It is a very
common plant in this neighbourhood, both in the
open grass and in bush, and has the fruit of a conifer
with the venation of a fern. On one side of the
grass-plot is a fence formed of an apocynaceous plant
of the genus Carissa, called here the ' ' Amatungulu, "
and which bears a fruit which is much esteemed. It
has pretty white star-like flowers, and plum-shaped

5°

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

scarlet fruit, but its double or forked thorns make it a
rather unpleasant plant to come violently into contact
with. The fruit, when unripe, is rather astringent,
and full of a white milky juice ; and it is a standing
joke here, that J. C. Byrne, the emigration-agent in
the earlier days of the colony, when speaking in
England of the natural products of the place to which
he wished to attract the emigrants, said that in Natal
the strawberries and the cream grew upon the same
plant. The fruit is extensively used for making jams
and jellies, a large quantity of which is, I believe,
exported. At each end of this fence, and also around
and near the house, are trees of Eucalyptus globulus,
a native of Australia, some of them 70 feet high,
though I believe only twelve years old ; and twining
round one of these gum-trees is the stem of a native
plant, Testutidinaria elephantipes, the Tortoise-plant,
or Elephant's foot, a singular-looking plant, belonging
to the family Dioscorea, or Yams. Its rhizome, which
is above ground, is hard and tesselated ; and in my
specimen the resemblance to a tortoise is sufficiently
startling. It is perennial, and sends up a slender
twining stem to the branches of the trees amongst
which it grows, while the rhizeme sends down tough
wiiy rootlets, with which it takes firm hold of the
ground. The specimen under notice was the first
which I had seen, and in climbing up some rocky
ground I placed my hand upon it, but quickly with-
drew it under the impression that it was the shell of
a tortoise. There are, I believe, two species of this
plant in the colony, but I have only met with one as
yet. We have also two species of Gardenia, G. glo-
bosa, now completely covered with its creamy bell-
tnaped flowers, and G. grandiflora, with larger,
salver-shaped flowers, which fill the garden with a
delightful perfume. Then there is that rare plant,
Mackaya bella, with its pale lilac pendulous flowers
and curiously-veined corolla. I have been informed
that this plant is only found wild in the valley of the
Tongaat, but whether this is correct or not I do not
know ; at any rate, it is not by any means common.
Then we have a croquet-lawn, formed of a running
grass which is commonly used for that purpose here ;
and at one end of it stands a row of trees which have
originally been stakes in a post and rail fence, but
which have now grown into trees, some of them fine
ones ; two belong to a species of Aralia, common
here, and much used for fencing, as the post will gene-
rally take root. Two others are fig : trees, of a species
plentiful about here, and which have now grown into
fine spreading trees, 20 to 30 feet high, with leaves
which arc thickly covered underneath with small
peltate scales or glands, the use of which I have not
been able to discover. While the leaf is fresh, they
appear, under the microscope, to be closely adpressed
to the leaf; but as the leaf dries, they curl up at the
edges, and are then easily detached, leaving a small
pit or hollow. Three more of these trees belong to
the genus Erythrina, or, as it is called here, " Kafir

j Boom," and are now covered with beautiful scarlet
! blossoms, but without a single leaf. This tree is
common in the colony, and during the winter months
its magnificently-coloured flowers make it a very
conspicuous object. We have several species in the
colony, two of which are growing here ; one is usually
called the ' ' Cork-tree, " as its bark has much the appear-
ance of rough cork ; its leaves are large and coarse,
and the wood of both species is so light, that I believe
it is sometimes used for floats in fishing. I have used
it for setting butterflies, for which purpose it answers
almost as well as cork, which is not procurable here.
And I have no doubt that it may yet be put to many
other uses, though at present it is not used, as far as
I know, for anything but fencing. I have also a
small fernery, of which I may have something to say
on another occasion, should it be acceptable to your
readers, and also about the numerous wild flowers
growing so profusely in this neighbourhood.

THE LATE ANDREW MURRAY, F.L.S.

BY the death of Mr. Andrew Murray, which
occurred on the 10th ult. at his residence in
Bedford Gardens, Kensington, entomology and
botany loses an assiduous and careful worker. Born
in Edinburgh in 1812, he paid some attention in his
youthful clays to the study of medicine. He was,
however, educated with a view to following the law
as a profession, and for a short time practised as a
Writer to the Signet. Subsequently he assisted his
relative, John Murray (Lord High Advocate), in his
desire to provide some practically useful reading for
village schools by writing a little pamphlet entitled
"The Skip-jack; or, Wire- worm and the Slug,"
which, though published without his knowledge, may
be considered as his first contribution to economic
entomology. The year preceding his removal to
London, he contributed to the " Transactions of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh " a paper relating to a
subject then under discussion, as to what extent the
unity of species in the parasite showed unity of
species in the animal preyed upon; "the pediculi
infesting the various races of man," giving minute
descriptions and considerations as to how far the
variations might be considered to amount to specific
differences.

After his removal to London in 1S60, Mr. Murray
devoted himself specially to the sciences of ento-
mology and botany. About this time he became
officially connected with the Royal Horticultural
Society, being appointed assistant-secretary. After
relinquishing this post, he continued, almost to the
moment of his death, to show a great interest in the
society, being one of the strongest supporters of, and
most frequent attendants at, the meetings of the
scientific committee.

In 1869 he formed one of a party, including Sir

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

5i

Joseph (then Dr.) Hooker, of representatives of
English science at the Botanical Congress at St.
Petersburg. In acknowledgment of the service
rendered on this occasion, he was presented by the
Emperor Alexander with a splendid malachite table.
During his absence from England at this time, he
paid considerable attention to the subject of Conti-
nental forestry, and every facility was given him in
his inquiries in Belgium by the Belgian Government.
In 1 87 1 he undertook the laborious task of superin-
tending much of the selection or arrangement of the
English exhibits at the Polytechnic Exhibition at
Moscow in the following year. In botanical science,
Mr. Murray's work lay principally among the
Conifene, having written a small book on the " Pines
and Firs of Japan," and contributed numerous papers
on the same group of plants to different scientific and
horticultural journals. He was secretary to the
Oregon Committee, who sent out a collector to Oregon
and California to collect Coniferse, and in 1873 he
undertook an expedition to Salt Lake and California,
partly with a scientific object, and partly with a view
to investigate the working of the silver-mines. In
the course of his mining investigations he was ex-
posed to considerable danger, minute inquiries mak-
ing him obnoxious to some of the parties concerned.

In his entomological career, the great point was
the devotion of the last ten years of his life to the
subject in its practical bearings. As a monument of
his skill and profound knowledge on this point, the
results stand in the Government collection of econo-
mic entomology at Bethnal Green. The charge of
receiving and arranging the contributions to this
collection was placed in his hands officially in 1868,
and from thenceforward he may be said to have
given himself up to the task unceasingly, down to his
latest hours ; for, during his American expedition,
he left behind him the threads by which the collec-
tion might be proceeded with in his absence.

Of the patient labour and scientific research he dis-
played in this collection it is impossible to speak too
highly. Under his guidance the life-histories of the
insects (of which knowledge was required to ascertain
their remedies) were, in some cases, worked out,
in others verified and amplified ; remedies were
ascertained and experiments initiated ; and the whole
life-history was shown at once correctly, scientifically,
and as clearly as possible to the popular eye by
illustrations of the insect in its various stages, and the
object injured, accompanied by drawings and, when
possible, facsimile models. Mr. Murray was an
accomplished draughtsman, and a large number of
the insect drawings are his own work, in all cases
clearly executed, and many, especially those of the
Coleopterre, really works of art. On this collection
he was working up to his latest days, having, we
believe, a quantity of material in progress of arrange-
ment. It is much to be regretted that his descriptive
catalogue of the collection should not have progressed

beyond the first volume devoted to the Aptera,
which was to have been followed, as we learn from
an introductory note, by a complete series. The
compilation of such handbooks is a work requiring
great knowledge of the subject, as well as familiarity
with writings of previous observers, and the head and
hand which formed the collection could best give us
the description which utilizes it for general reference.

Mr. Murray contributed valuable papers of original
observation both to home and foreign scientific
societies and serials, and amongst his larger works, his
volume on the " Distribution of Mammals " is one of
very great value, with regard to the representation of
families, both prehistoric and present, and also for
its synonymic lists and tables.

It is said that Mr. Murray's health suffered much
during his American tour, but that the immediate
cause of the unfavourable change was due to the
amount of chloroform inhaled whilst rearranging a
portion of the Doubleday collection infested with
Mites. He was not in strong health at the time, but
continued at his post from day to day, trusting that
after effects might wear away ; his general health,
however, sank from that time, and all who had the
privilege of knowing him will feel that by the death
of Andrew Murray they lost a true-hearted and loyal
friend, as well as a gifted naturalist. J. R. J.

ON SOME RECENT FORAMINIFERA FROM
THE SHETLAND ISLES.

S

By George Robert Vine, Jun.

OME time ago my father gave me a small
packet of dredgings that he had received from
Mr. Lovett, Holly Mount, Croydon. The dredgings
consisted of minute particles of broken shells,
quartz, &c, but especially of Foraminifera. These I
worked out, and the following is a list of the species
obtained.

Globigerina bulloides, D'Orb., both in the young and
mature state, were very plentiful ; Rotalia Beccarii,
Linne, Very small, but showing the character of the
genus well; Rotalia oi'bicularis , D'Orb., and varieties,
small, transparent, and perfect, common ; Planorbu-
lina [Truncatulina) lobatula, Walker and Jacob, very
common in Dog's Bay, &c, but only 8 or 9 speci-
mens here represented the genus, and all these were
not very distinct in the septa and foramen, but distinct
enough to identify the species ; Operculina ammono-
ides, Gronovius. This is a species hat can hardly te
mistaken for another, being ammonite-like (as the
name implies), with the septa distinct and double
(see fig. 31); small and middle size, rare; Pulvimdina
Micheliniana, D'Orb. (see fig. 28). This is a peculiar
species : it has three different views ; the front is raised
very much, with the septa rather wide apart ; the
bottom is flat, with two convolutions showing the

primordial, and the side view is bell-shaped; middle

D 2

52

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-G OSSIP.

size, rare. One species, resembling a Nonionina, is
rather common: it is middle size, and has all the septa,
foramen, &c, very much obliterated. Another most
beautiful form is very common : it is small, semi-
transparent, and veiy distinct ; the segments overlap
one another, and in the 3 or 4 segments the septa
form a fork-like arrangement ; the foramina are
clearly seen with a low magnifying power. This
one, with figs. 33 and 34, I cannot name, and I should
feel obliged if anybody could help me to name it.

Fig. 26. L . globosa ;
nat. size, ^V i n -

Fig. 27. L. sulcata;
nat. size, ~g in.

Fig. 25. Lagena
distoma ; nat.
size, -„ \ in.

Of the genus Textularia, small, transparent, and
perfect specimens were very common, but the larger
end opaque ones rare. Five species of Textularia
were found, but there is only one of them that I can
name, and that is Textularia abbreviata, D'Orb. : it
is small, transparent, and rare. Two other species

Fig. 28. Pulvinulina

M icheliniana ; nat.
size, 3V > n -

Fig. 29. Side-
view of ditto.

Fig.

30. Front view
of ditto.

were small and transparent. One of these I have
figured to show the points protruding from the side
of the shell. One of the opaque forms is about the
5 * T of an inch in length. The chambers go down
to a fine point, are rather wide at the top, and a slight
bit wider in the middle. It is very difficult to recog-
nize the species on account of the middle portion
being covered over by some arenaceous matter, there-
by hiding the characters that in some respects
determines the species.

Of the Lagenida, some very good species here
represented this family. The first of these is the
neckless variety of Lagena sulcata, Walker and Jacob.
It is a small form, and rather rare : only one of the
three specimens obtained show the lines that traverse
the shell distinctly. Lagena globosa, Montagu (see
fig. 26). This form is very small and rare. It is a
globular shell without any strire or foramina visible.
Lagena disto?na politia, Parker and Jones. This
is an elongated species, having the neck about half
the size of the body. All three of these species of
Lagena have been figured by Messrs. Parker and
Jones in their paper on the Arctic Foraminifera, in the
Philosophical Transactions for 1865, Part I. Cris-
tellaria rotulata (fig. 36), Lamarck ; small and middle

Fig. 31. Operculum amiuo-
noides ; nat. size, ^ in.

Fig. 32. Nohionina (?);
nat. size, 5 y in.

Fig. 33. Textularia, sp.

Fig. 34. Uvigerina />yg]
vicea ; nat. size, 3 \ in.

Fig. 35. Rotalia
orbicularis.

Fig. 36. Cristetlaria rotulata ,
nat. size, ^5 in.

size, rather rare. A good specimen, showing the
septa well. Another peculiar species is an elongated
form traversed by rather deep furrows, as in
Lagena sulcata, with the septa placed in rather
irregular positions. Four good examples were ob-
tained, all showing different characters (see fig. 34).
The Miliolida family was here represented by three
very characteristic species. The first was Triloculina

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

53

oblonga (?). These were very minute and indistinct ;
rather rare. Biloadina ringens: this is a most
beautiful and perfect specimen ; it is of a white
colour and middle size. Rare. Spiroloculina canalicu-
lata, D'Orb. (fig. 37). Two perfect examples of
this species were found, showing the character of the
genus well. Small and rare.

In this short paper I have endeavoured to give an
idea of the character of the Foraminifera found at
Shetland. I have not given all the species found
there, and only those that I possess myself. I have
drawn the figures myself, without the aid of the
camera lucida. In my research among this bit of
sand I find that nearly all of the Foraminifera are of

Fig. 37. Spiroloc2iliua canalicidata ; nat. size, J 3 in.

Fig. 38. Biloculina ringens; nat. size, J 3 in.

Fig. 39. Truncatulina loba-
tula ; nat. size, ^ in.

Fig. 40. Ditto, other side.

NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF
FROG'S SPAWN.

By A. M. M'Aldowie, M.B.,

Member of the North Staffordshire Naturalists' Field Club.

PROBABLY no animal is better known, from an
anatomical and physiological point of view,
than the Common Frog. Developmentally the frog
has been specially studied, on account of the inte-
resting metamorphoses through which it passes before
it arrives at maturity, and also on account of the
advantages which its egg offers for the examination
of the ovum, the transparent albuminous covering
affording unrivalled facilities for observations on, and
experimental investigation into, the subject of deve-
lopment. The microscopic structure and changes

a brownish colour, showing that the water is impreg-
nated with oxide of iron ; also that the Globigerina
are dwarfed and thin, owing to the shallowness of the
water, 120 fathoms, whilst the same species from
the Atlantic, at a depth of 1,450 fathoms, are larger
and more bulky. And this gives the fact that the
Globigerina grow larger and more bulky in deep water,
whilst they are dwarfed and thin in shallow water.
Attercliffe, Sheffield. .

Fig. 41. Frog's Spawn ;
nat. size, March.

Fig. 42. Ditto,
April 4th.

Fig. 43. Ditto, April Sth ;

dorsal aspect ; lateral

aspect.

44. Ditto, April nth;
dorsal aspect ; lateral
aspect.

which are observed during the development of the
embryo of the frog, are described and figured in
most text-books of comparative physiology and his-
tology, but the ordinary naked eye appearances and
modifications which it exhibits are not to be found in
these works. Nearly all zoological manuals give a
series of illustrations representing the various stages
in the development of the tadpole after its escape
from the egg, but they do not figure the alterations
which take place previously, without which the series
cannot be considered complete. St. George Mivart,
although he details the process of yolk subdivision
and cleavage, and the other microscopic changes
through which the embryo passes, yet with regard to
the naked eye appearances he merely states,* "Gra-
dually the embiyo assumes the form of a young tad-
pole, and is provided with a pair of little ' holders '
(or organs for adhesion), just behind the mouth, with
six openings on each side of the neck, and with a
pair of rudimentaiy external gills. " Huxley, in what
is undoubtedly the best work on the frog extant, in
reference to this subject says,f "While still within
the egg the embryo assumes the form of a minute
fish, devoid of limbs and with only rudiments of gills,
but provided with two adhesive discs on the ventral

* The Common Frog (Nature Series), 1874, p. 15.
t Elementary Biology, 1875, p. 155.

54

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP.

side of the head behind the mouth." The following
notes, although very crude and imperfect, may serve
to draw the attention of some of the readers of
Scie>."CE-Gossip to this interesting subject during
the season which is now approaching. I intended to
supplement them the following year, but had no
opportunity of doing so.

About the end of March, 1874 (exact date uncer-
tain), I exposed a mass of frog's spawn to the light in
a glass tank, placing it in a window having a westerly
aspect. There was no fire in the room. The small
round ovum (fig. 41) gradually became elongated,
assuming at first an ovoid form, but afterwards one
end became attenuated, while a small groove formed
near the other extremity, and on the 4th of April
most of them presented the appearance shown in
fig. 42. As the embryo enlarged, these characters
became more marked, until, on the Sth, the form of
the head and the body could plainly be detected

(fig- 43)-

April Sth. Most of the embryos show signs of
animation. The movements consist of alternate
flexion and extension of the body, the animal folding
itself up laterally and then straightening itself at
intervals of about half a minute. Movements first
observed in the afternoon, and continued till sunset.

April 9th. Movements more active than yester-
day, but still as restricted as before.

April 10th. Movements not quite so quick as
yesterday, but more extensive and fish-like.

April nth. Most of the tadpoles appear to be
trying to free themselves from the albuminous mass
by quick wriggling movements. External gills very
plainly seen on all (fig. 44). They first appeared as
two small protuberances, situated one on each side of
the hinder part of the head. These gradually elon-
gated, divided and subdivided, until they presented
the appearance of small branched filaments.

April 1 2th. Tadpoles all out this morning. Ar-
range themselves in clusters with their heads all in
one direction. Most of them remain quite motion-
less, but a few swim actively about the tank.

Stoke-on-Trent.

A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS.

THE present winter has not been remarkable for
the number of scientific books issued. When
wars and the rumours of wars prevail, and the reading
world has its taste demoralized by the vivid descrip-
tions of such rapidly-succeeding events as those which
have marked the history of the last six months, it is
hardly to be wondered at that scientific literature
should retreat almost to the vanishing-point. But
there is a break in the clouds, and thoughtful people
are hoping that the storm will clear away as fast as
it gathered ; then we shall return to soberer literature
than war and anti-war newspaper leaders, with a sense

of relief and a fervent thankfulness for our narrow
escape.

Notwithstanding the paucity in the issue of first-
class scientific books, the appearance of a new volume
from the pen of Darwin is always sufficient to create
interest. And perhaps of the works which that in-
dustrious author has recently published, none is more
important than the present work, entitled, "The
Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same
Species " (London, John Murray). Herein Dr. Dar-
win has entered into the minutest and fullest investi-
gation of the inner structures of flowers. We now
find how abundant are the phenomena of trimor-
phism and dimorphism (only a few years ago deemed
so peculiar and exceptional), and that the number of
species bearing cleistogamic flowers is also being added
to every day ; that the latter structure of flowers,
produced by exceptional circumstances, varies from
one extreme to the other, and that these extremes
are connected by an inosculating series. Thus the
Grass Pea (Lathy?-us nissolia), bears cleistogamic
flowers, which can hardly be told from the ordinary
flowers just before the latter finally expand. At the
other extreme we find cleistogamic flowers which are
actually fertilized beneath the soil, and so are little
above the condition of subterranean buds. Dr. Darwin
further enters into the sizes and shapes of the pollen-
grain produced by different-sized stamens in dimor-
phic and trimorphic plants. The absolute necessity
for crossing to be produced, by the pollen from the
flower of one plant being carried to the pistil of
another plant, comes out strikingly in Dr. Darwin's
experiments ; for it is proved that very little is gained
by the pistil of a flower being fertilized by the pollen
of another flower borne by the same plant. The
origin of monoecious and dicecious flowers, of nectaries
in flowers, and many other singular and striking
botanical peculiarities, are here discussed in the easy
but philosophical style for which all the author's
books are celebrated. It is truly a rich treat to the
botanist to peruse such a book as this, and one to
which all our readers who have not yet read it will
thank us for attracting their immediate attention.

"The Antelope and Deer of America," by John
Dean Caton, LL.D. (London, Triibner & Co.), is a
handsome treatise upon the natural history, including
the characteristics, habits, affinities, and capacity for
domestication, of the Antilocapra and Cervidce of
North America. This is a question of the deepest
importance in practical natural history, and one which
has been too much neglected. Books on wild animals
usually tell us more about their destruction under the
name of "sport " than of possibilities of their domes-
tication and utilization. Dr. Caton tells us he has
for many years kept in domestication the American
antelope, and all of the American deer of which his
book treats, except the moose and the two species of
reindeer. 1'his book deals with the important and
difficult subject selected by the author with a fulness

HARDWICKE'S SCTENCE-GOSSIP.

55

■which leaves nothing to be desired. The structural
affinities and habits of the various kinds of deer, and
their comparison with each other, are most clearly set
forth. To a zoological student this book has a pecu-
liar and special value. The woodcuts are numerous,
original, and well done.

"Proteus; or, Unity in Nature," byC.B.Radcliffe,
M.D. (London, Macmillan & Co.), is the second
edition, revised and brought up to the newer views of
science, of a book which created some attention when
it first appeared some years ago. Practically it is
quite a different volume to what it was then, when
the disturbing theory of evolution was either unknown
or ignored. Dr. Radcliffe is an opponent of evolu-
tion, and although not a prejudiced one, we cannot
help feeling he has not taken sufficient pains to fully
understand it. Apart from this we have read his
book with sincere pleasure and profit. It most
thoughtfully and reverently discusses the many-
changing varieties of Nature, physical, animal, and
vegetable ; and dry facts and their relations light up
with the glow of the author's genius. The literary
style is of the most attractive character, not demonstra-
tively fervid, but chaste and yet enthusiastic.

"Physiography," by Professor Huxley, F.R.S.
(London, Macmillan & Co.), will be hailed with
pleasure by science students. Although we do not
like the new name with which the South Kensington
authorities have replaced the older one of Physical
Geography, Professor Huxley shows us in this hand-
some and well got-up volume how natural pheno-
mena may be studied in the concrete, even in their
relation to our earth, in a wider and deeper sense,
perhaps, than was undertaken in the science of
physical geography. The author eschews the old
system of treatment in works on physical geography,
wherein the readers were first taught about the shape
and motions of the earth, &c, and begins just at the
other end, leaving such astronomical facts to be dis-
cussed last. The river Thames, in fact, is employed
as a sort of scientific text, and Professor Huxley
makes its relations and associations the groundwork
of a general description which will answer almost
equally well for any other river and river-valley in
the world. The plan is admirably worked out, as
we might reasonably expect it would be at the hands
of such a master.

"The Origin of the World," by Dr. J. W. Dawson
(London, Hodder & Stoughton). Dr. Dawson is
well-known as an ardent field geologist, and one who
has largely and successfully contributed to the vast
storehouse of geological knowledge. Unfortunately
he appears to us to be an equally ardent theologian ;
and so, when he writes books on geology in general
(and he always writes them well and attractively), he
cannot forget the theological bayonets against which
the stony science has been repeatedly impelled. The
consequence is a melange of geology and theology,
which we are afraid is not of special advantage to

either. Especially is Dr. Dawson angeied with the
theory of evolution, and he loses not an opportunity
to tilt against it, frequently with as much success as
Don Quixote's similar attempt to overthrow the
windmills. The present volume is especially satu-
rated with what Professor Huxley calls "Mosaism";
one almost feels as if we had gone back to the time of
Hugh Miller. But there are many readers who are
fond of discussing the many points of contact which
still exist between Genesis and geology ; and to such
we can confidently recommend Dr. Dawson's book
as likely to please them in no ordinary degree.

"Accidents in Mines: their Causes and Preven-
tion," by Alan Bagot, Mining Engineer (London,
C. Kegan, Paul, & Co. ). In this small but attrac-
tive volume the author has collected all the informa-
tion possible, as seen by those who are engaged pro-
fessionally as mining engineers, in order to its being
brought before the public. He discusses whether the
principles of Davey's Safety-Lamp hold good when
the atmospheric pressure is as great as we find it in
deep coal-mines. Also, what effect the vibrating
waves of sound may have on the flame within the
lamp when the latter is surrounded by an explosive
mixture of gas. Mr. Bagot thinks that in the solution
of these two problems lies the secret of explosion
after shot-firing in mines. In the eighteen chapters
which compose this book, the author enters most
fully into the economy of coal-mines, and all that
concerns their safe and effective working. The work
is therefore a most valuable one, and ought to be in
the hands of all those whom the subject directly or
indirectly concerns.

A REMARKABLE GARDEN PLANT.
( Thunbergia alata. )

THIS very pretty tropical climber, belonging to
the natural order Acanthacecc, a native of India
and Madagascar, was introduced to our gardens some
fifty years ago. It presents in the structure of its flowers
numerous points of interest. The plant is a slender
twiner, with hastate leaves, whose petioles, as the
specific name alata, implies, are broadly winged.
The calyx is very minute, consisting of twelve hair-
like sepals, its place being occupied by two large
membranous, almost transparent, bracts. These are
strongly keeled, and overlap each other, completely
enveloping the calyx, and about one-half of the corolla
tube. Besides the keel, there are about six well-
marked longitudinal veins, connected by numerous
smaller ones almost at right angles, forming a rect-
angular network somewhat resembling that of Ouvi-
randra fenesiralis. The whole surface is beset with
scattered hairs, which are either simple, or with one
or two septa, and bent where the septum occurs.
They are hollow, except at the nodes and near the
points, the hollow portion terminating in a bulbous

56

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

expansion similar to a nettle-sting. There is but little
chlorophyl, a large portion of the bract being occu-
pied by air-spaces, into which numerous long, narrow
stomata open. The corolla is salver-shaped, slightly
oblique, and of a clear Nankeen yellow, the colour
being somewhat brighter round the throat. In some
forms the throat is a dark chocolate-brown, almost
black, while in one variety the limb is pure white
with a dark throat. The stamens are four in number,
and are situated far down in the tube of the corolla,
the interior pair being considerably shorter than the
exterior pair. The filament is inserted into the dorsal
portion of the connective, a short distance from the
base of the anther, thus giving the ventral face of the
anther a slight inclination forwards and upwards.

Fig. 45. Diagram of flower of Thunbergia alata (vertical
section).

The anthers adhere by the ventral suture, the pro-
jecting margins of the lobes being densely bearded
with hairs of a peculiar and interesting form. They
are slender and clavate, consisting of numerous joints.
The lower are oblong, three or four times as long as
broad. Proceeding from the base upwards, the joints
become shorter, thicker, and more rounded, and with
deeper constrictions, giving a beaded appearance, the
uppermost one being frequently divided by vertical
septa into two or three. These topmost cells are
some twice or thrice the diameter of what I may term
the stem of the hair, the whole of which, from base to
summit, is finely tuberculated, the tubercles increasing
in number and size from below upwards. A trace of
this tuberculation occurs also on the hairs of the bract,
but to a very much smaller degree. The pollen,
which, like the anthers and the anther hairs, is almost
white, is spherical, and has several broad, flat, spiral
grooves winding round it in opposite directions, pro-
ducing a very curious appearance. The pistil is long
and slender, passes up between the interior and
shorter pair of stamens, and, like them, is closely

! adpressed to the back of the corolla tube. The
stigma, which is situated a short distance above the
upper stamens, appears to consist of two parts. The
upper portion is the style slightly flattened and curved
round into a kind of a narrow funnel, at the base of
which, and on the front of the style, is a semicircular
cup-shaped body, which seems to be a further develop-
ment of the stigma, as I have observed numerous
pollen-grains adhering to its viscid edges. The con-
cave surface of this cup is upwards, the convex down-
wards. Thus it appears that every precaution is taken
to avoid self-fertilization. The corolla is almost erect,

Fig. 46. Anther-hair and pollen-grains of Thunbergia x 200.

Fig. 47. Hairs of bract of Thunbergia X 50.

the stamens densely bearded on the ventral or front
side, with hairs pointing downwards, which hairs, still
further to retain the pollen from any accidental dis-
turbance from wind, Sec, are club-shaped, thickened
at the apex, and closely tuberculated, while the
pollen-grains themselves have spiral grooves to
increase their tenacity to the hairs. Again, the stig-
matic surface is turned directly away from the pollen,
so that it is scarcely conceivable that self-fertilization
could take place. Suppose an insect with a long pro-
boscis visits the flower, its proboscis passes down-
wards freely to the base of the corolla ; on with-
drawing it, the trunk cannot fail to brush upwards or
backwards some of the anther hairs, and in so doing
set free some of the pollen which adheres. The
horizontal and non-stigmatic portion of the pistil
being downwards, receives none of the pollen. The
insect visits another flower, and thrusts its proboscis,
laden with pollen, into the corolla. In so doing, the
stigma being in a narrow portion of the tube, is
nearly certain to intercept some of the grains, and
thus ensure fertilization. Even should this fail,
touching the base of the style causes it to bend for-
ward, and thus be ready for the next comer. The

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE - GOSSIP.

57

truth of this is readily proved, for flowers which are
"set" artificially freely produce seed, while those
left to themselves, being grown under glass, and thus
out of the reach of most insects, never come to matu-
rity. The seed-vessel is somewhat curious, as well as
other parts of the plant, being in shape a flattened
sphere with a long beak, and contains two to four
hemispherical rough blackish seeds. Altogether,
whether as botanical curiosity, or a garden ornament,
this Thunbergia is well worth growing.

Greenwood Pim, M.A., F.L.S.

THE POTATO-BEETLE.

IN thanking Mr. W. V. Andrews, the Correspond-
ing Secretary of the Long Island Entomologists'
Society, U.S.A., for his kind and complimentary
allusions to myself on page I of the present volume,
I am reluctantly compelled, as he classes me " in the
ranks of the alarmists," to conclude either (i) that I
have, in my article on the Beetle in question, in
Science-Gossip of 1st September last, acted un-
wittingly upon the principle that language is given us
to conceal our thoughts ; or, (2) that Mr. Andrews
does not thoroughly understand the English tongue.
There is some slight excuse for the first hypothesis in
my remarks upon South Kensington on p. 202 ; and
it is humiliating to have to point out, even to an out-
sider, that these were "written sarkastic," as the
great Artemus says. For the second one, I must
refer to my express statement, on p. 203, that " to
the writer it seems that our much damper and colder
climate, not affording opportunities for the rapid suc-
cession of broods which the insect develops in
America, must materially militate against its obtaining
a permanent hold ; and the collateral arguments, that
no American beetle has ever established itself in Eng-
land, and that we possess no near ally of this parti-
cular one, cannot fail to have some weight in the
matter." The fact is, that to every Coleopterist of
my acquaintance, and to every one (the name is
legion) with whom I have had conversation on the
s ubject, it is well known that I have from the first
steadily and strenuously been opposed to any belief
in the idea that the potato-beetle could be of any
harm in this country ; and this view I have always
upheld in everything I have written. Indeed, I have
a firm conviction that, if circumstances had not pre-
vented the present Editor of Science-Gossip (long
may he reign !) from attending the Plymouth meeting
of the British Association, where there was much
talk, post-prandial and otherwise, upon this subject,
the false conclusion as to my being among the alarmists
would never have appeared — at all events, without
simultaneous correction.

Mr. Andrews says : — •" Mr. Rye tells you that Paris
green is a favourite remedy here, but he does not
understand the American mode of doing things.

Some State entomologist or other probably had a
friend in the oil or colour business," &c, and, " You
do not do things in that way in honest old England,
but we do here." Without going so far as to quote a
homely Saxon proverb, concerning a certain ill bird
and its nest, I must, remembering Riley, Le Baron,
Packard, Cyrus Thomas, and other "good men and
true," of whose scientific help the U.S. Government
has wisely availed itself, energetically disclaim the
acceptance of such remarks as these as a sample of the
" Science-Gossip " of the States. It is to the first-
named of these authorities that we owe most of our
knowledge of Transatlantic economic entomology ;
and his reputation is far too securely established to be
shaken by the insinuations of even the Corresponding
Secretary of the Long Island Entomologists' Society.
That gentleman's concluding caution to English
readers, that all striped beetles found on potatoes are
not Colorado beetles, but may be useful little fellows,
&c, shows an ignorance of our Insect Fauna, re-
markable in one who proposes to allay our (hypo-
thetical) fears. E. C. Rye.

NOTES FROM WEST KERRY.

ONLY a few species of Cetacea are known to
frequent the Irish coast ; the common por-
poise is of every-day occurrence ; the pilot-whale
{Globioceplialus Svineval) is often met with in large
numbers, and an immense B alalia is occasionally
cast on shore. All the smaller species of Cetacea are
termed " Porpoises " by the Irish peasantry, who
value them, not only as excellent food, but attribute
to their flesh and oil hygienic and medicinal proper-
ties. Consequently, whenever one or more happen
to be stranded, they rush in crowds with scythes and
sickles, hatchets, pitchforks, spades, knives, and all
manner of deadly weapons, to the scene of the occur-
rence, hew, hack, decapitate, and cut into fragments
the unwieldy stranger, and long before rumour of the
capture has reached any educated person, the coveted
flesh is stored away in tubs, or piled in a corner of
some sooty cabin ; the entrails and useless viscera
thrown into the receding tide or torn by hogs (the
dear and cherished associates in Irish cabins of scro-
fulous children and of their filthy parents), and so
far as science is concerned the unfortunate fish, seal,
or cetacean, might as well have remained in his
marine abode. On a March morning in 1S64, on
the shelving sandy beach of Fermoyle, skirting the
waters of Brandon Bay, on the west coast of Kerry,
I observed two men moving a heavy object, which
on closer inspection proved to be part of the head of
a cetacean such as I had never before seen. The
head had been much larger, and divided vertically
behind the eyes ; the front portion only remained ;
the eyes, however, were left untouched, as also the
lunated spiracle, with the concavity looking forward.

53

HA RD WICKE >S S CIE NCE - G O SSI P.

The measurements in the recent state of the animal
were —

From centre of fold of spiracle to each eye, 10 in.

From same point to extremity of upper jaw, 22 in.

From commissure of lips to extremity of upper jaw,

13J in-
From same to extremity of lower jaw, 14 in.

On the lower surface of the integuments corre-
sponding to the space between the rami of the lower
jaw, was a well-defined angle, formed by two de-
pressed lines, or furrows, each ten inches long.
These lines converged to an apex in front, while
their extremities behind were seven inches apart.
The acute angle thus defined corresponded, I say,
externally with an almost equal internal angle, formed
by the convergence of the lower jawbones, and giving
accommodation to the deep pouch of the pharynx, as
shown in my illustration With the kind assistance of
my friend, Mr. R. Conway Hickson, whose finely-
placed residence at Fermoyle is in the immediate
vicinity of the scene of capture, the remains of the
head were rescued from the destroyers and conveyed
to Carthgregory, a neighbouring village, where scien-
tific appliances are scarcely more numerous than
"strawberries grown in the sea." However, under
unfavourable circumstances four or five photographic
illustrations were obtained from it — riot artistic, cer-
tainly, but affording correct ideas, for the first time,
I believe, of the physiognomy of the curious creature.
Eagerly, as you may suppose, and at once, I con-
sulted the few authorities within my reach, and found
that this remarkable cetacean had not been pre-
viously recognised as a visitant of the Irish coast,
nor of Great Britain, save once before, in 1 790. In
Jardine's "Naturalists' Library" it is described and
figured as Diodon Sowerbii, but the Plate there
given has little resemblance to the animal, and none
as regards the beak, its most conspicuous peculiarity.
It is described, though not figured, in the " English
Cyclopaedia, as "Ziphius Sowerbii," and that is
now its recognised appellation.

The genus "Ziphius" is remarkable chiefly for
its elongated jaws, which extend to, at least, a length
of fourteen inches from the commissure of the lips,
and form a beak or snout of great solidity and
strength. The upper fits into the lower as a cylinder
into a semi-cylinder. Before the lower jaws con-
verge to form this semi-cylinder, and posterior to the
point where the front of the pharyngeal pouch is
attached to the bone, one stout pyramidal tooth is
inserted in a deep socket on each side of the lower
jaw ; thus the tooth is nine or ten inches from the
extremity of the beak. The soft parts on the upper
jaw are notched on each side for the reception of the
high projecting tooth ; these teeth are believed to be
characteristic of the male. Though found in the Scotch
and Irish animals, there are a few specimens in Con-
tinental museums from which they are absent ; this
absence was supposed by some to indicate difference

of species, by others to be merely a sexual distinction.
The genus Ziphius is comparatively new to Natural
History. Nothing was known of it till some fossil
remains were sent from Holland and from the south
of France to Cuvier, who, not being then aware of
any existing cetacean with similar beak, supposed
the remains to belong to an extinct genus. The dis-
covery in Scotland, in 1 790, proved that this supposi-
tion was erroneous, and a very few living specimens
met with since have shown that Ziphius does exist in
modern seas. Still they are extremely rare, and an
unmutilated specimen would be of great anatomical
interest, and its skeleton a desideratum in any museum.

In 1870, after a lapse of six years, it was my fortune,
alone of all men, I believe, to meet with a second
Ziphius, about five or six miles from the site of the
first capture. This time the animal came in near
Brandon Pier, a very interesting and well-known
fishing-station, worthy of more remark than would
be relevant here.

Before I saw it, it had been treated like its prede-
cessor ; its flesh had been cut into a thousand pieces
by the greedy peasantry, and its bones unscientific-
ally sawn and broken. I snatched a portion of its jaw
from a dog's mouth, and disinterred parts of the split
skull from a dungheap ; and I dragged some portion
of the skeleton, as well as part of the stomach which
pigs had not torn, from the ebbing tide. The intes-
tines generally were so mangled as to be useless for
anatomical purposes ; nor could any part of the solid
viscera be obtained. An irregular hole, whose largest
diameter may have been an inch, had been made in
one compartment of the stomach, which I had taken
from the tide-covered sand, and this compartment
was completely filled with sand. I do not think it
probable, or even possible, that the sand could have
entered through the accidental aperture while for a
short time under water. I cannot offer any explana-
tion of hozv or why it was there ; but who will affirm,
in our total ignorance of the habits of the animal,
that he did not swallow it during life, impelled by
some unaccountable physiological necessity, or per-
haps from -depraved appetite, the result of disease ?
I opened what seemed to be a second compartment
of the stomach, when more than a pint of bile rushed
out. Anatomists have denied a gall-bladder to zoo-
phagous cetaceans, but what was this ? — or is ziphius
not zoophagous ? Nothing but sand and bile existed
in these viscera ; I was much pressed for time, and
could not examine more closely into the matter, but
sent both stomach and bile to Dublin to competent
investigators.

Ziphius No. 2 was about seventeen or eighteen feet
long, and was first observed on the beach at high
water, in great uneasiness, floundering, and, of course,
working a cavity in the sand, in which it remained
when the tide had ebbed. When first approached
by its butchers it was seen to open its cylindrical
jaws in a portentous way, and to close them with an

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G O SSI P.

59

angry snap, while from each tooth stood out laterally
two or three large barnacles, giving it a wild and
extraordinary appearance. Of these cirripedes only
parts of the peduncles remained when I got posses-
sion, but, as the captors said, they were not common
barnacles (Lepas Anatifera), so well known to all
dwellers on the sea-coast ; I am inclined to believe
they were another well-known species {Conchoderma
Aurita). The presence of these barnacles seems to
discountenance an opinion which some might rashly
entertain, that the sharp strong teeth, if not confined
to the male, were used to impale the animals' prey,
while being crushed by the powerful beak ; but if
such were the case, the impudent and daring guests
would be rubbed off before they could become firmly
fixed to their strange abode, so close to the maw of
their monstrous host. On the other hand, the ex-
tremely sharp point of the tooth would seem to
indicate constant use. As to the colour of the
animal, the skin on the head of the Fermoyle speci-
men was of a glossy satiny black, badly represented
in the photograph, owing to the reflection of light,
but I cannot now speak with certainty of the mouths
proper and the tongue. In the Brandon Pier speci-
men I cannot speak of the head, but the deep pha-
ryngeal pouch was of the usual reddish colour of
mucous membrane. I obtained a few square pieces
with the natural skin, not torn or gnawed, black and
glossy, but vermicularly marked with white streaks,
up and down and across, in irregular network. Many
of the "streaks bore a singular resemblance to old
cicatrices — scars from greedymarine warriors, inflicted,
perhaps, by grampuses or sharks. Though I will
vouch for it that Ziphius himself, if angry or jealous,
could give a sharp nip to an enemy or rival, yet I do
not believe that these teeth were given for attack or
defence ; if fixed at the point of the beak, they would
be powerful instruments for either species of warfare.
One of the spectators asserts, that when first stranded,
the unhappy animal "roared like a bull." Another
insists that he was perfectly silent. In this, as in
almost every case, I would be inclined to believe the
less sensational witness.

A recital of the synonyms applied to our long-
beaked friend — ungallantly assuming that the tooth-
less specimens are the females — would fail to interest
your readers. Diodon, Physeter, Delphinorynchus,
Mesodiodon, Dioplodon, Mesoplodon, are a few of
the jaw-breaking epithets, dangerous to any jaw less
mighty than its own! "Ziphius Sowerbii," like
Aaron's Rod, has swallowed the others.

My friend, Mr. William Andrews, the zealous and
learned naturalist who has done so much for Irish
Natural History, and especially for that of West
Kerry, has given them all, and much information
besides, in an excellent paper read to the " Royal
Irish Academy," descriptive of Brandon Ziphius No. I,
to which I may refer all readers for information be-
yond the scope of my " gossip."

I placed the few fragments of skeleton No. i at the
disposal of Lord Ventry, and of No. 2 at the disposal
of Mr. Andrews, and I believe they are now in the
museum of the " Royal Dublin Society."

J. W. Busteed.

THE SEALS AND WHALES OF THE
BRITISH SEAS.

No. VIII.

By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., &c

ONE more British Ziphioid is known, Sowerby's
Whale {Mesoplodon Sowerbiensis, De Blain-
ville) ; it was first described from a specimen which
came ashore at Brodie, Elginshire, in 1800, and has
since been found three times in Ireland ; there is also
a skull in the Museum of Science and Art at Edin-
burgh which belonged to a specimen believed to have
been captured somewhere on the Scotch coast ; the
remains of five others are preserved in various
Continental museums.

Of the individual which came on shore on the
coast of Kerry, in March, 1864, Mr. Andrews has
given a description in the " Transactions of the Royal
Irish Academy," for April, 1867. Fortunately it
came under the notice of Dr. Busteed, of Castle
Gregory, who being interested in zoology, and aware of
the great importance of the occurrence, photographed
the head in several positions while it was yet fresh :
Dr. Busteed's photographs were reproduced in the
Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The head
had unfortunately been removed immediately behind
the frontal portion of the skull, the base of which is
lost, as also the other parts of the skeleton. The total
length of the animal was about fifteen feet, the two
teeth largely developed and projecting like the tusks
of a boar ; these teeth are believed to be developed
only in the males. On the under part of the throat
the V-shaped furrow was very conspicuous. Sowerby's
specimen was coloured black above, and nearly white
below. The skin smooth like satin. ' ' Immediately
under the cuticle the sides were completely covered
with white vermicular streaks in every direction,
which at a little distance appeared like irregular cuts
with a sharp instrument."

The remaining family, Delphinida, as has been
said, is a very numerous one, it has ten representatives
in the British fauna, contained in seven genera,
the first of which, according to the arrangement I
have adopted, is that of Monodon. The Narwhal
{Afonodon monoceros, Linn. ) is a native of the Polar
seas, seldom leaving the ice ; stragglers have occurred
three times on the British coast, one in 1648 in the
Firth of Forth, another came ashore alive at Boston,
in 1800 ; the third was taken in Shetland in 1S08.
This species is very numerous in the frozen seas
to the north of latitude 65 , and is remarkable

6o

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OSSIP.

for the enormous development of the left canine tooth,
which is projected forward in the form of a tusk or
a spear, reaching to the length of six or eight feet.
The spear is of fine compact ivory, hollow for the
greater part of its length, grooved spirally along its
outer surface, but smooth at the end, and bluntly
pointed. The right canine is rarely developed, but
a few examples have occurred in which both tusks
were present (see Proc. Zool. Soc, 1S71) ; the female
is rarely furnished with this appendage. Not long
since I saw preserved in a country mansion, the tusk
of a Narwhal measuring 7 ft. 5 in. long ; it was care-
fully kept in a long case resembling a barber's pole,

tusk, which is frequently found in a broken condition,
is used for purposes of attack and defence. The
Narwhal is very social in its habits, great numbers
being often met with together ; its food consists of
cuttle-fish and crustaceans. The length of the full-
grown animal is about 16 feet, the upper parts gray,
the sides and belly white, and the whole animal
spotted with black and gray. The only authentic
figure of the Narwhal with which I am acquainted is
that given by Scoresby ; this is so well known from
frequent reproduction that it is not necessary to give
it here.
The White Whale, or Beluga {Delphinapterus

Fig. 48. The Grampus (Orca gladiator, Lacep.).

and bore a ticket attached, which stated that it was

" Bequeathed in 1561 by the Countess of ■ , to

her daughter ." The use of this remarkable

appendage appears very doubtful ; it has been con-
jectured that it serves to stir up food from the bottom
of the sea, in which case the female would be badly
off without it ; or that it is employed to keep breathing-
holes open in the ice, and an instance is related in
support of this view, in which hundreds were seen at
an ice-hole protruding their heads to breathe, but it
is not clear whether they made the hole for them-
selves, or whether they were attracted by it,
particularly as there were numbers of White Whales
with them. It seems certain, however, that the

lucas, Pallas), like the preceding species is a native
of the Polar seas, where it is common; it is abundant
in the White and Kara Seas and in the Gulf
of Obi ; on the coast of Norway it is occasionally
met with ; and in our own seas has occurred
several times, but must be regarded only as an
accidental straggler. On the east coast of America
it is found as far south as the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
where, as in the White Sea, it delights in ascending
the mouths of large rivers. In the British Associa-
tion Report on the Fauna of Devonshire (1S69, pp. 84
and 85), occurs the following passage. " Mr. P. H.
Gosse writes :— 'On August 5th, 1832, I was return-
ing from Newfoundland to England, and was sailing

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

61

up the British Channel close to the land, when just
off Berry Head, I saw under the ship's bows a large
cetacean of a milky-white hue, but appearing slightly
tinged with green from the intervening stratum of
clear water. It was about 16 ft. long, with a round,
bluff head. It continued to swim along before the
vessel's head, a few yards beneath the surface, for
about ten minutes, maintaining our rate of speed,
which was five knots an hour, all which time I
enjoyed from the bowsprit a very good view of it. It
could have been no other than the White Whale, the
B. borealis of Lesson.' " The whale lately exhibited
at the Westminster Aquarium belonged to this
species; unfortunately it did not live to equal in
docility and intelligence a specimen exhibited in

kill great numbers, extracting the oil and drying the
flesh for winter use ; in Russia, the prepared skin
is much used for reins or other parts of harness
requiring great strength and lightness. The length
of the full-grown animal is about 1 6 ft., and its food
consists of fishes, Crustacea, and Cephalapods.

The common Grampus or Killer {Orca gladiator,
Lacepede), (fig. 48) is a well-known and widely dis-
persed species, being found in both the North Atlantic
and Pacific Seas. Andrew Murray says "the common
Grampus tumbles through the heavy waves all the way
from Britain to Japan, viA the North-west Passage."
In the British seas it is frequently met with, and has
occurred in several instances on the coast of Norfolk.
This species is very fierce, its appetite insatiable, and

Fig. 49. Pscudoiva crassidciis (Reinhardt).

Fig. 50. Risso's Dolphin {Grampus griseiis, G. Cuv.).

America, which "learned to recognise his keeper
and would allow himself to be handled by him, and at
the proper time would come and put his head out of
the water to receive the harness " by which he was
attached to a car in which he drew a young lady
round the tank, — or to take his food. A specimen of
DelphiiiKS tursio which was for a time with him in
the same tank, is said to have been even more docile
than this remarkable animal.* The adult Beluga is
pure white, and a "school "of these animals "leaping
and playing in the calm, dark sea," is said to be a
very beautiful sight. In summer the Greenlanders

* Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 3rd series, vol. 17, p. 312.

carnivorous in the strictest sense of the word ; to the
Greenland and White Whale, as well as to porpoises
and seals, it is an implacable enemy, and follows
them ruthlessly. Dr. Brown says, ' ' the White Whale
and seals often run ashore, in terror of this cetacean,
and I have seen seals spring out of the water when
pursued by it. The whalers hate to see it, for its
arrival is the signal for every whale to leave that
portion of the ice." Eshricht took out of the
stomach of a Killer, 21 ft. long, which came ashore
in Jutland, no less than thirteen common porpoises
and fourteen seals.

The rounded, compact form of this species gives the
idea of great strength and swiftness, and the beautifully

62

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

polished glossy black skin of the back contrasting |
with the equally pure and well defined white of the
lower parts has a very striking effect ; altogether it is
a very handsome species, but there is something in
its appearance which seems to indicate its cruel
nature. The adult Killer measures about 21 ft. in
length, the back is pure black, the under parts white^
and over the eye is a well-defined white spot ; there
are thirteen or fourteen strong, slightly curved teeth
on either side of both jaws ; the flippers are broad
and oval shaped, the dorsal fin high, particularly in
the male.

As these papers are intended for the purpose of
assisting in the identification of casual visitants to our
shores rather than of giving anything like a history of
the known British species of Cetacea, it may be
desirable to mention here a very remarkable form,
which although it has never been known to occur in
the flesh on our shores, was first made known to
science from an imperfect skeleton found in a semi-
fossil condition beneath the peat in a Lincolnshire
Fen. To this Dolphin " come back as it were, from
the dead," and which forms a connecting link between
the genus Orca and the genera Grampus and Globi-
cephalus (and which Owen had named Phocana
crassidens), Reinhardt gives the name of Pseudorca
crassidens. On the 24th November, 1861, a large
shoal of these dolphins made their appearance in the
Bay of Kiel, about thirty of which the sailors suc-
ceeded in separating from the remainder, but all, with
one exception, escaped. This was a female i6feet long,
which after being exhibited at Kiel and other places,
was bought for the collection of the University of
Kiel. In the summer of 1862, three other individuals,
presumably from the same shoal, were thrown ashore
on the north-western coast of Zealand. Of the general
appearance of this creature the accompanying
figure (49), copied, by kind permission, from Pro-
fessor Flower's translation of Reinhardt's paper
read before the Royal Danish Society of Sciences
in 1S62, and published by the Ray Society,
will give an idea ; the figure is from a photo-
graph of the Kiel specimen, and is not in the
original paper. The length is from 16 to 19 feet ;
of the colour no account is given, but judging from
the woodcut of the Kiel specimen it appears to be
uniformly shiny black. The number of teeth differs
in individuals, but in this one it was from 9 to 10 on
either side of the lower jaw, and 8 to 10 in the upper.
From the observations made by Reinhardt, he suggests
the possibility that there may be " a difference in the
sizes of the different sexes, and whether the females
are not larger, but at the same time, perhaps, provided
with a head comparatively smaller than that of the
males." It is very suggestive of how little we know
of the inhabitants of the sea, that at least one vast
shoal of a species known only from its sub-fossil
remains should be roaming the seas only to be accident-
ally discovered when its members became entangled

in shoals from which probably many never lived to
extricate themselves.

Risso's Dolphin {Grampus griseus, G. Cuvier) is
a rare and little known species, which has been met
with four times on the south coast of England and
about eight times in France. In the "Transactions
of the Zoological Society," for 187 1, Prof. Flower
gives an account of an adult female which was taken
in a mackarel-net, near the Eddystone Lighthouse,
on 28th February, 1S70, and which eventually was
sent up to London, when it was seen and described
by that gentleman. About a month later, a second
specimen was received in London, the precise locality
of which was not known, but it was probably from
somewhere in the Channel. This was also a female,
but a very young animal, and as the adult female first
taken had recently given birth to a young one, it is
quite possible that it may have belonged to her. On
the 26th July, a male of the same species was captured
alive at Sidlesham, near Chichester, and sent to the
Brighton Aquarium, where it lived only a few hours.
Risso's Dolphin varies very considerably in its
colouration. The Sidlesham specimen was bluish-
black above, and dirty white beneath ; in the adult
female described by Professor Flower (from whose
illustration our figure is, with his permission,
copied), "the head and the whole of the body
anterior to the dorsal fin was of a lightish grey,
variegated with patches of both darker and whiter
hue. . . . Behind the anterior edge of the dorsal
fin the general colour of the surface, including the
dorsal and caudal fins, was nearly black, though
with a large light patch on the upper part of the side
directly above the pudendal orifice. The middle of
the belly as far back as the pudendal orifice, was
greyish white. "* The most remarkable characteristic
however, was the presence, scattered over the body,
of irregular light streaks and spots, these markings
extended from the head to within about two feet from
the tail and presented a most singular appearance.
In the young one the upper parts and sides of the
body were almost black, the lower parts nearly white,
the junction between the two colours being very
abrupt and sharp. " On either side the body were
six vertical whitish stripes nearly symmetrically ar-
ranged, and almost equidistant, being about six inches
apart. They did not extend quite to the middle line
of the body above, and were lost below in the light
colour of the abdomen. ™f The length of the Sidle-
sham male was 8 feet, that of the adult female 10 ft.
6 in. ; in the former there were present four teeth on
each side the lower jaw, in the latter three only on
each side, and in the immature specimen there were
present seven teeth, four on the right, and three on
the left side, the teeth are always placed in the front
part of the mandible, and in every specimen exa-

Trans. Zool. Soc, vol. viii., p. 3.
t 1. c. p. 13-

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G O SSIP.

63

mined there has been an entire absence of teeth in the
upper jaw. In general appearance, Risso's Dolphin,
more particularly the dark-coloured specimens, is said
very much to resemble the next species {Globicephalus
melas). Of its habits and distribution nothing positive
is known, but from its visiting France or England in
the spring or summer. M. Fischer " concludes that
this species is migratory, visiting the shores of Europe
in the summer, and passing the winter either to the
south towards the coast of Africa, or to the west
towards the American Continent." *

MICROSCOPY,

Volvox Globator. — It may be interesting to
Microscopists to know that Volvox Globator can be
found in considerable numbers — although so early in
the year — in the large pond near Wandsworth Com-
mon Station. On Wednesday, Jan. 23rd, the Super-
intendent of the Sunday School here gave a treat to
the children, and we arranged to make it both in-
teresting and instructive. Having undertaken the
Microscopic department, I was examining a bottle of
fishings from the pond, and was surprised to find it
contained Volvox in great plenty. To find it so early
being quite new to me, I have inquired of several
friends, but none of them had met with it at this time.
Most of them seem to have imagined that it was use-
less to expect to find it till about the end of March.
It may be that many others have not found it for the
same reason ; and a knowledge of the fact of its being
obtainable now may be an addition to the Micro-
scopist's pleasures. While examining a portion of
the gathering, we were particularly struck with a fine
specimen, containing no less than ten small ones en-
closed. It rolled round with a motion so grand, that
all who saw it were delighted. Suddenly, while
watching it, it stopped for a moment, and then burst.
Five of the little ones escaped from the parental en-
velope. There was a distinct pause between their
liberation, and each came out with a sort of dizzy
staggering movement, and then, after a momentary
rest, would start off and commence to roll as if quite
an old hand at doing it. The other five seemed to
die, and make no sign. — IV. Winsford, Upper
Tooting.

Cleansing Old Slides. — In my paragraph on
this subject, which appeared in the January number
ofSciENCE-GossiP, p. 15, at line 4, instead of "water-
glass," read " watch-glass." In line 7 put a full stop
at "Benzole," and instead of "and use," read
" /use." — John Bramhall.

Improvement in Microscope-Stands. — Mr.
George E. Fell, of Buffalo, has recently suggested a
new addition to the microscope-stand. It consists

1. c p.

of a finely-engraved scale on that part of the body of
the stand which sides the limb. The latter can be
furnished with a vernier, giving readings as close as
may be desired.

Plant-crystals. — At the last meeting of the
East Kent Natural History Society, numerous draw-
ings were exhibited of Raphides, and other microscopic
plant-crystals, intended to be engraved on two plates
of more than forty figures. They were the work of
Prof. Gulliver, F.R.S., who gave explanatory ob-
servations thereon. Among these was the curious
and novel description, that some trees and other
plants, from stem to branches and leaves, are in-
vested by a most delicate network, or tesselated
pavement like mosaic work, of cells all studded with
splicer -aphides, so that eacli cell is set and adorned
with a gem of one of these beautiful crystals. Aralia
spinosa was said to form an example, beneath its
bark or epidermis, of this external skeleton of crys-
talline tissue. And an internal crystalline skeleton
was shown in other plants, including some Legu-
minosce, as may be well seen in the common white
clover ; the crystals being arranged in chains along
the vascular bundles. Mr. Gulliver remarked that
boiling a portion of the plant, before its examination,
in the solution of caustic potass which is kept by
druggists, exposes the crystals very clearly. He
added that he had learned that Mr. Hammond, of
Milton Chapel, had found the long crystal prisms of
Iridacece, Sec. , admirably suited for experiments on
the polarization of light ; and that the whole subject
of plant-crystals belongs to the vast domain of the
cell-biography of plants, hitherto sadly neglected, but
which must be diligently cultivated before we can
hope for the most complete system of botanical
classification, and knowledge of the laws which
govern the vegetable kingdom.

Habirshaw's Catalogue of the Diato-
mace.e. — Mr. Frederick Habirshaw, of 6, West Forty-
eighth Street, New York, to whom I am personally
unknown, has kindly sent me a copy of the above
work, which supplies a want long felt by diatomists.
To explain its plan and intention I cannot do better
than quote the short preface. "The following Cata-
logue, made for private use, contains ' the references
to the literature of the Diatoniacece, published prior
to May, 1877. At the suggestion of Prof. Hamil-
ton L. Smith, of Hobart College, fifty copies have
been reproduced by the Edison electrical pen pro-
cess, for gratuitous distribution among those specially
interested in this branch of natural history, and I
trust the errors or omissions will not be found suffi-
cient to impair the value of the Catalogue." The
volume is a convenient quarto, 11 in. x 6 in., of
some 270 pages, the first six containing a list of
the principal writings relating to the diato?nacea:,
the rest being devoted to the general catalogue. The
genera and species are arranged alphabetically, and

6 4

HA RD Wl CKE 'S S CIE NCE -GOSSIP.

there must be considerably over 7,000 species enu-
merated, to each of which short but copious refer-
ences are attached, as to where it may be found
figured or described, the synonyms being also given.
As far as I have been able as yet to verify these, they
seem quite correct. Those who have been fortunate
enough to receive a copy will, of course, show it to
their friends, who will wish to obtain one also, and I
fancy Mr. Habirshaw will be induced to print off a
much larger edition, though, of course, not gratui-
tously, to supply the demand. — Fred. II. Lang,
Torquay.

Microscopic Life of the Carboniferous
Limestone. — At the last meeting of the Chester
Society of Natural History, Mr. G. W. Shrubsole,
F.G. S., read a lengthy and interesting paper on
" The Microscopic Life of the Mountain Limestone
(foramenifera, radiolaria, entomostraca, poiyzoa,
&c.)." The various objects described had been
chiefly obtained from the mountain limestone of
North Wales and the neighbourhood.

ZOOLOGY.

Turning an Enemy to Use. — The United
States Entomological Commission, which was organ-
ized for the purpose of investigating and reporting
on the entire subject of insect ravages throughout the
western regions of the United States, have discovered,
by means of chemical analysis, that dead locusts will
furnish a new oil, which will be christened caloptine,
and a very large percentage of pure formic acid.
Though this acid exists in the ant and some other
insects, it is with difficulty obtained in large quanti-
ties ; whereas, by the action of sulphuric acid upon
the locust juices, it passes off with great readiness and
in remarkable quantity and gravity. The uses of this
acid, as a therapeutic, are capable of great and valu-
able extension, where it can be obtained so readily and
in such quantity.

The Red-throated Diver. — When visiting in
Shetland two years ago, I had a capital opportunity
of witnessing the nesting of the Red-throated Diver
(Colymbus septentrionalis). Having been informed by
a Shetlander that the aforesaid bird had frequented a
certain loch the previous year, I was determined to
walk over thither, a distance of about six miles.
Accordingly I set out, but, in crossing the mountains,
encountered a very heavy shower of rain, which con-
tinued for the space of about an hour ; nevertheless
I succeeded in seeing the object of my expedition.
When on the summit of a mountain near my journey's
end, I descried the loch, and also the Diver swim-
ming leisurely about. This, however, proved to be
the male, for, on walking round the margin of the
loch, I saw the female sitting on her nest with out-

stretched neck. She permitted me to approach within
about four yards of her. When I had stood for five
or six minutes to admire her beauty, she suddenly
dived from the nest, and all my efforts to see her
afterwards were unavailing. The nest was nothing
more than a slightly hollow depression on the very
edge of the loch, and contained but one egg, of a
more elongated form than usual, of a dark brown
colour, sparingly spotted with black. — C. D. Wolsten-
holme.

Rare Birds Shot. — Lately there have been
the following rare birds shot : — A Merlin (Falco
sEsalon), shot near Wetherby on the 16th Decem-
ber, 1877; a Bittern (Botaurus stellaris), shot at
Castle Howard, on the 26th of the same month ;
and a Pied Water Rail (Rallus aquaticus), shot in
Ireland in January, 1878. The latter has a great:
quantity of white on the back ; the top of the head and
neck have also a little white about them. There is a
little white on the tail, and the tertials are nearly pure
white. — P. Thompson.

St. Mary, Lambeth, Field Club. — This most
useful and unostentatious Natural History Society
was originated about six years ago by the Sunday
School teachers of the parish, who have been very
successful in diffusing and popularising a love of natural
history. It includes about thirty members, of whom
Arthur Eve, Esq., is president, and Mr. G. Masters
secretary.

The Birds of Costa Rica. — At a recent
meeting of the Zoological Society of London, Mr. A.
Boucard, C. M.Z.S., read a paper, in which he gave a
list of the birds he had collected during a recent ex-
pedition to Costa Rica. The number of birds col-
lected during his five months' stay was about one
thousand in number, representing two hundred and
fifty species, amongst which were two new to science
{Zonotriehia boucardi and Sapphironia boucardi of
Mulsant) and many others of great rarity.

" Sponsa's Headquarters." — I find I made two
mistakes in my article. They both occur in the list
of Diurni at the end of the article -.—Aglaja should
be omitted ; and, for Artaxerxes, of course Agestis
should be put. At the time I wrote the paper I was
much occupied with Artaxerxes, and suspect that was
the reason of the mistake. — Hastings C. Dent.

BOTANY,

The Inflorescence of Gourds. — The gratifica-
tion which I feel at the interest excited by my note on
the inflorescence of gourds and pumpkins is tempered
with regret at finding that I did not express myself
with sufficient clearness to be understood by your
correspondents, who seem to think that I had said
that fertile blossoms were expanded before any
staminate flowers had appeared on the same plant ;

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - GOSSIP.

65

■ which indeed was not my meaning. My observations
do not at all contradict those of Mr. Beal. What I
notice as remarkable is this: — In regular indefinite
inflorescence, when a flower appears in the axil of every
leaf, the flower in the axil of the lowest leaf is the
oldest, and therefore opens first ; then, that in the axil
of the leaf next above it ; and so on, as in the pimpernel.
In gourds and pumpkins, this order of expansion is
observed only among flowers of the same sex. Sup-
pose, then, that a plant bear ten flowers, the first
nine of them may be staminate flowers, the tenth,
pistillate. If a flower open every day, as is usual in
our climate, the fertile flower would not open in the
ordinary course till the tenth day. Instead of that,
however, it will be found expanded on the fifth and
sixth ; it may be simultaneously with one of the
staminate flowers or not, but always before the
staminate flower immediately below it. Flowers of
the two sexes, though indiscriminately mixed as to
position on the stem, thus form two series as to the
order of their expansion. I think that there are
usually more staminate flowers produced early in the
season, and a tendency afterwards to the production
of pistillate flowers which are abortive for want of
vigour in the plant to perfect them. I only remember
one instance of a gourd producing a fruit blossom too
early in the season to be fertilized : it was a miniature
gourd, which produced a fruit, as the result of that
blossom, with no seed. — John Gibbs, Chelmsford.

ASPLENIUM SEPTENTRIONALE AND GERMANI-
CUM. — About ten years ago I found Asplenium septen-
trionale in the Beddgelert district. There were a great
many plants growing within a limited area, but the
spot was very difficult of access, and it was, perhaps,
owing to this that they had escaped observation. I
brought away four or five specimens, and took fronds
from some other plants, but they were all septen-
trionale. I did not look specially for Germanicum,
certainly, but, as far as my observation went, there was
not a plant of it there. At the same time I quite
agree with the observer whose opinion Mr. T. Belt
quotes, that a very close relationship exists between
these two species. — Edward Hart Vinen, M.D.

Gentiana ACAULis. — In the Autumn of 1875, I
was staying, after illness, at the Freshwater Hotel,
Isle of Wight, and, during my first ramble over the
Downs, I gathered two species of Gentiana, which I
sent to my friend Mr. Varenne, of Kelvedon, who has
a fine collection of British plants, and is a first-rate
botanist. After reading the communication in your
last, about the appearance of Gentiana aeaulis in that
locality, I wrote to Mr. Varenne to let me know
what species I sent him, and I enclose his answer : —
"Dear Dr. Bree, I am much afraid the lady who wrote
in Science -Gossip made a mistake about the
Gentiana aeaulis in the Isle of Wight. You collected
two specimens of gentian there, in September, 1S75,

as forwarded to me. One was a stunted state of
Gentiana Amarella, and the other, equally dwarf, was
a specimen of Gentiana campestris, probably. Both
are many-flowered, and by that character very
different from Gentiana aeaulis. — E. G. Varenne.'" —
Dr. Bree.

Gentiana acaulis.— I would beg to remind your
correspondent, "J. C. M.," with reference to some
remarks inserted in your recent issue, that the flower-
ing of plants vastly depends upon elimatal influences.
There is no reason because G. acaulis blossoms on the
Swiss Alps towards the middle of June till July, that
therefore it should flower here at that time ; the con-
ditions are totally dissimilar. Many years ago I
noticed several blossoms of this lovely plant, in a
friend's garden in East Sussex, during the month of
September. It has been stated that " Alpine flowers
are signalized by the intensity of their colours, this
increase of brilliancy in tints being attributed to the
pure snow-water nourishing the roots, to the greater
excitement of the light, and refined purity of the air."
Not only so, there are other forces at work which
should cause an earlier floral development. They get
a longer and more persistent rest in winter, and pro-
tection from the carpet or blanket of snow. During
my travels in Italy, in February and March of 1865,
vegetation appeared to be most backward ; but on
my return home by Florence, in early April, the vege-
table world was in full luxuriance of leaf and beauty.
Whilst journeying over the Mont Cenis pass,
numerous flowers were in full bloom, some peeping
through patches of snow, others in places where it
had melted. Nothing of the kind existed out of doors
in England. If indeed G. acaulis blossoms with us
in June and July, as it is said to do on the Alps
during those months, the remarks by Treviranus,
quoted by Dr. Lindley in his "Theory and Practice
of Horticulture," might hold good: — "It is well
known that plants from the northern half of the
world, when they have become naturalized in the
south, have changed almost entirely the time of their
vegetating, blooming, and fruit-bearing, so as entirely
to accord with the habits of the indigenous plants of
the country. Thus we find at the Cape of Good
Hope oaks, alders, almond, peach, and apricot are
in full bloom in August." Our best botanists, such
as Mr. Bentham, I believe, maintain that G. acaulis is
not indigenous here ; so it might obey the dictum as
laid down by Treviranus. — John Colebrook.

Gentiana acaulis (S. G. 1878, p. 18). — I hope
your fair correspondent, Isabella H. Knox, will not
be offended if I tell her in your pages that Gentiana
acaulis is not found wild in the Isle of Wight, and.
that the plants she found between the Needles and
Freshwater were not Gentians at all, but dwarfed
specimens of Campanula glomerata. There can be
no doubt about it. Bromfield, in his "Flora Vic-

66

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SIP.

tensis," says of the plant, "on Freshwater Downs in
various places, as near the Needles Plotel and Light-
house, but scarcely an inch high, being browsed
down by sheep " ; and he further adds in a note at
p. 291, "On the bleak and lofty Downs, at the
western extremity of the island, this species scarcely
attains an inch in height, and specimens from thence
were actually described and figured by Withering
("Arrangement of British Plants," 3rd ed. ii p. 282,
and pi. xi., fig. 5) as a new species of Gentian, and
named by him G. collina." I. H. K. may therefore
■console herself that others before her have been
deceived by the same plant at the same place. — Win.
Marshall, Ely.

Side Lights on the Composite. — A most
suggestive paper on this subject appears in the last
number of the Journal of Botany by Dr. Masters.
It is based on a specimen of Helenenium autumnale,
in which all the florets appeared stalked and bearing
opposite leaves on the stalks, the whole forming a
corymb of flowers instead of the ordinary capitulum
of a composite.

British Marine Alg/e — Mr. H. Goole (Ply-
mouth) desires us to correct a few mistakes which
appeared in his communication on the above subject
in our last issue, p. 40. For instance, instead of Dasya
puviicea it should be D. punkca ; for Dudrisinia
dudrisnagra there should have been Dudresnaia
dudresnao-ia.

GEOLOGY,

Important Paper on the Geology of West-
ern Scotland. — At a recent meeting of the
Geological Society of London, Prof. Judd, F. R.S.,
read a most important and highly interesting paper
on Scottish geology. During the seven years in which
he has been engaged in the study of these interesting
deposits, the author has been able to prove that not
only is the Jurassic system very completely repre-
sented in the Western Highlands, but that associated
with it are other deposits representing the
Carboniferous, Poikilitic (Permian and Trias) and
Cretaceous deposits, the existence of which in this
area had not hitherto been suspected ; and by piecing
together all the fragments of evidence, he is enabled
to show that they belong to a great series of forma-
tions, of which the total maximum thickness could
have been little, if anything, short of a mile. The
relations of the scattered patches of Mesozoic strata
to the older and newer formations respectively, are
of the most interesting and often startling character.
Sometimes the secondary rocks are found to have been
let down by faults, which have placed them, thousands
of feet below their original situations, in the midst of
more ancient masses of much harder character.
More usually they are found to be buried under many

hundreds, or even thousands, of feet of Tertiary lavas,
or are seen to have been caught up and enclosed
between great intrusive rock-masses belonging to the
same period as the superincumbent volcanic rocks.
Occasionally the only evidence which can be obtained
concerning them is derived from fragments originally
torn from the sides of Tertiary volcanic vents, and
now found buried in the ruined cinder-cones which
mark the sites of those vents. In some cases the
mineral characters of the strata have been greatly
altered, while their fossils have been occasionally
wholly obliterated by the action of these same igneous
forces during Tertiary times. In every case, the
survival to the present day of the patches of Secondary
rocks can be shown to be due to a combination of
most remarkable accidents ; and a study of the dis-
tribution of the fragments shows that the formations
to which they belong originally covered an area having
a length of 120 miles from N. to S., and a breadth
of 50 miles from E. to W. But it is impossible to
doubt the former continuity of these secondary
deposits of the Hebrides with those of Sutherland to
the north-east, with those of Antrim to the south,
and with those of England to the south-east. From
the present positions of the isolated fragments of the
Mesozoic rocks, and after a careful study of the
causes to which they have owed their escape from
total removal by denudation, the author concludes
that the greater portion of the British Islands must
have once been covered with thousands of feet of
secondary deposits. Hence it appears that an
enormous amount of denudation has gone on in the
Highlands during Tertiary times, and that the
present features of the area must have been, speaking
geologically, of comparatively recent production-
most of them, indeed, appearing to be referable to
the Pliocene epoch. The alternation of estuarine
with marine conditions, which had, on a former
occasion, been proved to constitute so marked a
feature in the Jurassic deposits of the Eastern
Highlands, is now shown to be almost equally striking
in the Western area ; and it is moreover pointed out
that the same evidence of the proximity of an old
shore-line is exhibited by the series of Cretaceous
strata in the West. Although the comparison and
correlation of the Secondary strata of the Highlands
with those of other areas, and the discussion of the
questions of ancient Physical Geography thereby
suggested, are reserved for the fourth and concluding
part of his memoir, Prof. Judd took the opportunity
of making reference to several problems on which
the phenomena now described appear to throw im-
portant light. In opposition to a recent speculation,
which would bring into actual continuity the present
bed of the Atlantic and the old Chalk strata of our
island, he points to the estuarine strata of the Hebrides,
as demonstrating the presence of land in that area
during the Cretaceous epoch. He also remarks on
the singular agreement of the conditions of deposition

HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OS SI P.

67

of both the Silurian and Cretaceous strata of the
Scottish Highlands and those of the North American
Continent. But he more especially insists on the
proofs, which we now have, that the Highlands of
Scotland, as well as the greater part of the remainder
of the British Islands, were once covered by great
deposits of Secondary strata, and that the area has
been subjected to enormous and oft-repeated denu-
dation. He dwells on the evidence of the vast
quantities of material which have been removed
subsequently to the Mesozoic and even to the Miocene
period, and he maintains the conclusion that many, if
not all, of the great surface-features of the Highlands
must have been produced during the very latest
division of the Tertiary epoch, namely the Pliocene.

The Fossil Fungus. — I have frequently observed
that, in being called upon to answer criticisms of my
work, I have more commonly to reply to statements
I have never made (or even thought of) than to defend
the position I have really taken. In your January
number (p. 21) P. Martin Duncan combats the idea
that Peronosporites "is perhaps the oldest fungus on
record. " I have never made any such statement, so
I need not reply. Your correspondent then quotes
instances of Algae being found in older rocks than the
Palaeozoic, but as my description refers to a fungus,
and not to an alga, the instances brought forward by
P. M. Duncan, though of the greatest value and in-
terest, refer rather to true algce than fungi, i.e., if the
distinguishing characters between the two, and now
generally received, are to hold good. The letter in
your February number (p. 41), signed "John Butter-
worth, Goats Shaw, Oldham," is of a very different
character, and hardly demands an answer. This
gentleman writes to "dispute " my " claim to its dis-
covery," because he " discovered " it {i.e., the Pero-
nosporites), and read a paper upon it (at Manchester)
which was not published. Now, I have never set
myself up as the "discoverer " of the fossil fungus ; I
claim to be nothing more than the humble drudge who
pored over the fungus preparation for some weeks,
made out the structure of the mycelium and fruit, its
affinity with living plants, and then attempted a de-
scription and illustration. If J. Butterworth did all
this in 1874-5, I re g r et, with him, that some per-
manent record was not made of his work " in some
leading journal." In my paper I distinctly stated
that Mr. W. Carruthers, F.R.S., the Keeper of the
Botanical Department of the British Museum, was
the "discoverer" of the plant, as he certainly was —
and something more. The parasite has been known
by this gentleman for many years. J. Butterworth
states that a member of his Society identified his
fungus "as Peronosporites" in 1874-5. How this
learned "member" did so, I am at a loss to know,
as no such genus as Peronosporites existed before last
year, when the name was given by me to the parasite
in question. I have certainly had something more

than a " casual " view of the slide, as I have had it in
my own house for six months, and have it now. —
Worthington G. Smith.

The Fossil Fishes of Sussex. — At a recent
meeting of the Eastbourne Natural History Society,
Dr. Ward read a paper on ' ' The Fossil Fishes of the
District." They are met with chiefly in the Upper
and Lower Chalk strata of the Downs at Holiwell ;
others in the Greensand and Gault ; and a few in the
Wealden beds. Dr. Ward's paper was illustrated by
specimens.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Importation of Humble Bees into New
Zealand. — Perhaps some of your correspondents
could give some valuable hints as to the best method
of importing humble bees into New Zealand. The
farmers there are anxious to introduce them, as they
are said to be necessary for the successful cultivation
of clover, which they aid by carrying about the
pollen. An attempt was made, I understand, to
bring over a number of the insects, but they all died
an the way, and it has now been proposed to bring
over the eggs. But if, as I believe, the larvce are
hatched in cells, and fed by the parent bees until
entering the pupa-state, this idea would not seem to
promise better success than the former. Could the
perfect insects be transported in a torpid state ? Or
would it be possible to naturalize them by introducing
the pupa;? I hope some practical solution of the
auestion maybe given by some contributor. — Charles
B. Moffat.

Crayfish in Cumberland. — Some of the small
runners into Croglin Water, a tributary of the Eden,
abound with crayfish. I had many opportunities of
seeing them last spring. The inhabitants of the dis-
trict have a legend that the "crabfish" were intro-
! duced by some member of the Featherstonhaugh
j family, but so long ago that I could gather no precise
information as to the date. I think it improbable
that they are indigenous, but not knowing anything
of their geographical distribution, I shall be glad of
any information on the subject. — W. Duckivorth,
Grey-street, Carlisle.

Natterjack Toad on the Shores of the
Solway Firth. — -While staying at Bowness on
Sol way in August last, I found quite "a colony of the
Natterjack. On one part of the shore, where the
ground was damp, nearly every stone of moderate
size I turned up had a natterjack below, sometimes
two. There was no mistaking it, the yellow line
down the back being ample means of identification.
It would be interesting to know if ever it has occurred
thus far north before, as I was under the impression
that it belonged only to the east and south of Eng-
land. — IV. Duckworth, Grey-street, Carlisle.

The Pigeon a Polygamist. — In Mr. Dixon's
interesting account of the pairing instinct of birds,
; he says, ' ' I have once observed the rook practising
polygamous propensities. We have a pigeon of the
' horseman ' variety which is a confirmed polygamist.
I observed this during the course of last summer
repeatedly." Is this peculiarity in the pigeon known
to ornithologists as a common or uncommon occur-
rence ? Does this present to view an inherited energy,
or only applicable to the surrounding circumstances ?
— ill. King.

68

HARD JVI CKE ' S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P.

Query respecting Sea-Anemones. — Sea-
Anemones, like other animals, require to " be
fed." But, unlike most other domestic animals,
this need not be done daily. Once a week will
do in most cases, though some like it oftener ;
but if it fouls the water more harm than good will
accrue to the animals by over-feeding. No doubt
they derive some nourishment from organisms in the
water, but these should be microscopical, and not
perceptible, i. e., the water should even be sparMingly
clear and colourless ; if not, there is something wrong.
Find out the cause of this, and set it right without
changing it : time and patience alone will often
effect this. Or it may be aerated or circulated with-
out changing. In no case change it, unless it has
become chemically poisonous. Organic impurities
can always be got rid of by oxygenation, or a process
known as cremacausis, or burning up. Thus, living
animals give out carbonic acid gas, and certain effects
of food, which, if allowed to accumulate, generate
carburetted or sulphuretted hydrogen. But living
plants take up these poisonous gases (assimilate the
carbon to build up their tissues), thereby rendering
them harmless, and liberate the free oxygen again for
the animals to breathe. This goes on ceaselessly
under the action of light, and this balance of animal
and vegetable life is the grand governing principle of
all aquaria, great or small. If W. T. If. C. Trome
wishes to keep a scientific aquarium, he will remember
this, and never change the -water. He will thus be
able to keep his animals more happily, healthily, and
easily. But the anemones must be fed. Mussel or
oyster flesh is best, handed to each individual by a
pair of wooden forceps, in pieces varying in size from
a pin's head upwards, say, to a quarter of a mussel,
according to the size of the anemone ; experience
will soon show how much. Under proper conditions
this is nearly all assimilated. If it is rejected, perhaps
the pieces are too large, or the water too hot or too
cold, or the animals too crowded, — most probably
the latter with beginners. The thing is to find out
how many animals will live and flourish in a given
space : keep these and no more. If oysters or mussels
or fish cannot be easily procured for food, butcher's
meat will do, but not so well. Much depends upon
the distribution of the water. The smaller the
depth in proportion to the size of the animals the
better; because the greater the surface aeration,
and, as oxygen is perpetually wanted for the animals
to breathe, and to purify the water, the more regular
the supply the better. This may be accelerated by
stirring in air, say, with the stick of a camel's
hair pencil, this may be done daily, especially so
the day after feeding, to prevent or dissipate any
cloudiness in the water. The brush at the other end
will be useful to pick up any refuse bits, and skim off
the mucus which otherwise collects round the base of
most anemones, and would in a state of nature be
washed away and dissipated by the waves. We
collect them into a cup of water, and throw them
away, and thus prevent the accumulation of untidi-
ness, in small domestic aquaria of still water. In
large aquaria, as at the Crystal Palace, impurities are
dissipated by a ceaseless flow of water from tank to
tank, down to the underground reservoir, to be
pumped up again fresh and clear for ever ; and I
know of no cheaper or better guide than the sixpenny
and twopenny handbook to this successful institution ;
but if \V. T. H. C. Trome will state his aquarium
dimensions and difficulties, we may be able to tell
him more in Science Gossip. Hardy anemones
are about the easiest animals to begin with. Ours
live and flourish, year after year, in shallow tanks, or
glasses, commercially known as "anemone pans,"

or pastry pans. In all cases growing plants cannot
be dispensed with, and spontaneous vegetation is found
best, because best suited to each separate situation.
To prevent this growing to excess, and causing the
water to become green, avoid too much direct day-
light, by using blinds or screens. Blue paper will
sometimes serve sufficiently. — G. S.

Botanical Localities. — The following is a fairly
accurate description of the localities inquired for by
Mr. H. Morton, in the January number of Science
Gossip : — Shotover Hill is z\ miles E. of Oxford ;
Cowley is a village not far from the latter place,
2 miles S.E. of Oxford ; Bagley Wood lies 2.\ miles
to the S. of Oxford and 3 N. of Abingdon; Wych-
wood Forest (Winch wood being apparently a mis-
print) lies 14 or 15 miles to the N.W. of Oxford
(nearest station, Charlbury, on the Oxford and
Worcester line) ; Cornbury Park is situated at the
N.E. corner of Wychwood Forest, and half a mile S.
of Charlbury station. I have been unable to discover
the exact situation of Cornbury Quarry, but presume
it must be in the immediate neighbourhood of the
Park. Sunninghill Wells is in the extreme S.E.
corner of Berks., 6 miles S.S.W. of Windsor, 6W. of
Egham, *j\ E. of Wokingham, and nearly a mile from
Ascot station. Most of these places are, as Mr.
Morton says, good localities for plants (I knownothing
about insects), and he may perhaps be interested to
know what plants may be found there. The fol-
lowing are the names of a few, which I give partly
from my own observation, partly from " Walker's
Oxfordshire Flora." Shotover Hill, Polcmonium
cceruleum, Droscra rotundifolia, Gentiana Amarella,
G. campestris, Trifolium subterraneu?n, Haboiaria
bi folia, H. viridis, Epipactis palustris, Cephalanthera
grandijlora ; Cowley, Geranium rotundifolia, Pin-
guicula vulgaris, Anagallis cczrulca, A. tenella, Fri-
tillaria mcleagris, Orchis conopsea ; Cowley Bog is
also very rich in Scirpi, Carices, &c. ; Bagley Wood,
Irisfastidissima, Convallaria viajalis, Luzula congesta,
Neottia nidus-avis ; Wychwood Forest, Asperula cy-
nanchica, Atropa Belladonna, Orchis pyramidalis.
If Mr. Morton wishes to learn more about the good
botanical localities in this neighbourhood, I shall be
very happy to correspond with him. — H. IV. Trott,
24, Walton-street, Oxford.

Entomological and Botanical Localities.
— (Reply to H. Morton.) (Winchwood should be
Wychwood ; Sunninghill Wells should be Sunning-
well Hill. ) Four of the places inquired for are within
a short distance of Oxford — say two to four miles
Shotover and Cowley are on the Oxfordshire side of
the Thames valley ; Sunningwell and Bagley Wood
on the Berkshire side. Shotover may be reached by
rail to Wheatley, whence a pleasant walk of five
miles over the hill to Oxford. Sunningwell and
Bagley form part of an ironsand range of hills bound-
ing the Thames valley, between Abingdon and
Oxford, and are easily accessible from Radley sta-
tion. Cornbury Park and Wychwood Forest adjoin
Charlbury station on the West Midland line, about
twenty minutes' ride per rail from Oxford. — E. C.
Davey, JVantage.

FAIRY Flax (No. 15S, p. 44), and Fairy Lint,
are names which, according to Johnston, in his
" Botany of the Eastern Borders," are given in the
border-land to Linum ca/harticum, L. The district
comprehends "Berwickshire, the Liberties of Ber-
wick, N. Durham, and the immediately adjacent
parts of Northumberland and Roxburghshire." I
should think the name, " Fairy Flax," is given to this

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

6 9

pretty little plant merely from its delicate appear-
ance, being, in fact, a miniature or fairy imitation of
the common flax in everything but the colour of the
flowers. Still there may be some legend connecting
it with the fairies, and, if so, I shall be much obliged
to any correspondent who can furnish me with any
folklore of Fairy Flax illustrative of its name or other-
wise. " E. L. S. "may be interested to know its other
English names, though, as far as I am aware, it has
fewer than most British plants. Gerard calls it
Mill Mountains, which Prior, in his " Popular Names
of British Plants," derives from the Lat. Cha-moel-
inum montanum, Gr. , xcrjuat-Xtvov, Ground-Flax.
In Cumberland, Shropshire, and Cheshire it is called
Mountain Flax, being frequent in hilly and moun-
tainous districts : and in the latter county it is also
known as Purging Flax, a translation of its scien-
tific name, or vice versa, and it is so called from its
reputed cathartic properties. In Cheshire, however,
I have found that herb-doctors are not very particular
what the effects of a herb may be, so long as it is a
herb, and they generally administer it as a stomachic
on account of its bitter taste. — Robert Holland.

The Nebular Theory. — It has been discovered
by M. Cailletet, and M. Raoul Pictet that our air can
produce water; they have also converted oxygen and
nitrogen into liquids, and have produced a vapoury
cloud from hydrogen, under great pressure and ex-
cessive cold. Under the nebularh ypothesis of La-
place, the origin of water is nowhere satisfactorily
accounted for. Mr. Proctor has told us that it is to
all intents and purposes demonstrated that the nucleus
of this earth was formed from a nebulous condition.
The German astronomer, Gruithuisen, adopting the
same primary condition, formed this earth by the slow
aggregation of cold matter, leaving the water origin
unaccounted for. By this new discovery, it seems
that all the conditions for producing the water were
present under the latter system. The light and heat
had not penetrated the nebula ; there was therefore
intense cold, as there is now in the air above us and
at the sea-bottom. As the solids of the nebula slowly
condensed, they caused great pressure. As the gases
are expressed now in water from the earth, so we may
infer that they were at the beginning. In The Mail
of January 9th, 1878, I find, "It is only a question of
carrying these experiments further in order to reduce
these liquid gases to the solid form." We have then
a nebulous mass filling the whole space now occupied
by the atmosphere, the water, and the solid earth.
Under the universal law of gravitation, the heaviest
molecules of the mass subsided towards their centre —
as these molecules condensed, they produced pressure.
Hence we have the result in our quasi-solid earth, the
water resting on it, and the air enveloping the whole,
the entire system resulting naturally from the nebu-
lous mass, the sunlight and heat reducing or refining
the atmosphere to its present condition by causes well
known. — H. P. Malet, 8, Via Venezia, Florence.

Harebell (No. 158, p. 47). — There are two good
reasons why this name should not be derived from the
hairlike stalks upon which the flowers hang. The
first is that the spelling " Hairbell " is of compara-
tively modern introduction, inasmuch as the older
writers, such as Gerard and Parkinson, spelled it
" Harebell," though it must be confessed that the
spelling of the older herbalists does not go for very
much. The second reason is that when those old
writers do make use of the name, they are not speak-
ing of Campanula rotundifolia, but of Scilla nutans.
When the name was transferred in books from Scilla
to Campanula I am not aware. Some choose to spell

the word "Airbell," from the supposition that it
refers to the colour of the flowers being similar to the
air or sky ; but the same objections apply to this also
— the first does, at any rate. As a matter of fact,
however, the name Harebell or Hairbell is not the
name in most general use, except in books, for either
plant. In fourteen different stations in England and
Scotland I only have Hare — or Hairbell recorded for
Campanula in three, viz , Yorkshire, Cheshire, and
the West of England ; and in twenty-five counties I
have the name applied to Scilla in but one, Devon-
shire. Lyte is, I think, the oldest writer who gives
an English name to C. rotundifolia, and he calls it
"Blewbelles," which is still one of its commoner
names, but which is also as often given to Scilla. It
would seem, then, that Scilla nutans is the original
"Harebell"; that it was "hare," not "hair"; that
the name has been transferred to Campanula rotundi-
folia, and the spelling altered in some cases in order
to account for the name, because its stalks are delicate
and hairlike. I do not possess a copy of Gerard to
refer to, but it is possible he may say why Scilla is
called " Harebell."— Robert Holland.

Pairing Instinct of Birds. — As to the question
of birds using the nests of other species, and why not
of the same species? It will invariably be found that
the selected nests are old ones, and belong to birds
who only once use them for their purpose. In the
case of the House Sparrow using the nest of the
Martin, the bird has utilized it for its purpose, in the
absence of the Martins, and, upon their return, keeps
possession of the nest by "force of arms," and 'con-
sequently compels the rightful owners to build else-
where. I may also mention that sparrows may be
found breeding the year throughout, and retain their
old nests in many, if not all cases. There is a stately
fir-tree in my neighbourhood containing several
sparrows' nests. They have been there for several
years, and I have not the least doubt but they have
been tenanted by the same pairs of birds, as the nests
are always equal in numbers, and should one of the
nests be destroyed, it will again be built in a more
inaccessible situation. Now, if birds used the nests
of their own species indiscriminately, their ranks
would be fraught with strife and discord, which I
have, as yet, failed to observe. All birds would con-
sequently strive to obtain an old nest, rather than be
at the trouble of constructing one for themselves ;
fierce combats would prevail, and then, no doubt,
the " survival of the fittest " would in one sense be
correct. Again, all birds work as influenced by their
respective instincts. The Martin, having once con-
structed its abode, remains, through the agency of
instinct, at rest, as far as nest-building is concerned,
until that structure is damaged, or forcibly taken from
it, as in the case of the sparrow, when it must repair
its handiwork, or make new quarters elsewhere, if
not able to repel the aggressor. How can we explain,
except through this peculiar instinct, the annual
return of the same number of birds, and the little
wanderers alighting upon their temporary homes
shortly after their arrival; or, if their nests have been
destroyed, clinging to the old sites, and, as the breed-
ing season arrives, constructing new nests on the ruins
of the old ones? A word as to the circumstance
mentioned by your correspondent, "G. T. B." Ihave
no doubt that he is quite correct in believing that
the pair of blackbirds laying in the same nest
three successive years is one and the same pair.
But did not the nest undergo repairs? I have
never known a nest of this bird, however com-
pactly built, be fit for its purpose again, even the
next season, let alone three successive seasons.

7°

HA R D J VI CKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P.

However, as no such instance has come under my
own observation, I decline making further remarks
■on such instance. The blackbird pairing with the
song-thrush, if correct, is no doubt a very exceptional
occurrence, and can only be explained as a mon-
strosity, which this, and all similar instances, un-
doubtedly are, and which, however unexplainable,
are repeatedly found in various birds and animals.
I will also mention the fact, that the pairing of
annual birds is not so closely linked with the vernal
year as is currently supposed. The hedge-sparrow,
through what I have observed, invariably pairs late
in December. A few weeks prior to that date the
birds are solitary; they gradually become more social,
and very garrulous ; and now, at the time of writing
this, all specimens seen are invariably in pairs. I
think Mr. Parsons somewhat mistakes my object in
saying, "the only way is by polygamy." I do not
for a moment entertain the idea that all birds could
multiply quickly by practising it, but only those
which I have stated (first section of gallinaceous
birds), and for what that gentleman brought forward
the human race as examples, bearing on the present
subject, I am at a loss to imagine. As to polygamy
occurring ill species under domestication, I ask why
the domestic swan (C. olor) remains in a strictly
monogamous state for life, although, in mafiy cases,
the males must be in the minority. I have known
a case where three of these birds were kept (two
females and one male). Now, the male bird paired
with one of the females and remained united to her,
and never bestowed any of his affections upon the
more unfortunate female. Ducks always show a
polygamous instinct when in confinement, if the
females do not exceed the males. Again, the do-
mestic pigeon, though the females may far exceed
the males, a polygamous instinct will never be
manifested, the male birds pairing in due season,
and assisting to rear their offspring with as much
care as the female birds. It must also be remem-
bered that the males of polygamous birds are in-
variably of bright, if not conspicuous colours, while
the females closely resemble the colours of surround-
ing objects. The males, too, are the best eating,
invariably the largest, and consequently the most
liable to capture, and the most prized as articles of
food ; while the females are more often rejected, or
never discovered in their haunts. It will thus be
seen that the females would exceed the males, and,
did no such polygamous instinct exist within them,
circumstances the most disastrous would arise with
deadly certainty to their race. Thus, I again say,
that through one of the wisest provisions of nature,
these birds are able to afford us sustenance, and at
the same time maintain their position amongst their
•congeners in the struggle for existence. — Charles
Dixon, Hecley, near Sheffield.

The Pairing Instincts of Birds. — Seeing
something in January part of Science-Gossip, about
the pairing instinct of birds, I thought the following
might be interesting. About April of last year I had
a brood of chickens, and amongst them I reared one
duck. When they grew old enough I killed all the
cocks except one, for which one the duck has shown
a strange attachment, following it all about. The
cock has reciprocated and continued this sexual
attachment, showing a decided preference for the
duck over the hens. I have, unfortunately, lost the
duck, but the night before, the cock, instead of going
up to roost beside the hens, as it generally did, slept
on the ground beside the duck. It is impossible now
to say what would have been the result of their
attachment ; but perhaps some of your readers would

say whether they have observed the like. — John
Baillie, Sunderland.

Herrings. — Can any of your numerous readers
inform me, what are the signs by which some fisher-
men know where large bodies of herrings are
swimming, even when their boats are sailing rapidly
through the water ? — J. W.

Dredging. — Would some of your correspondents
be so kind as to give me some information on dredging
not far from the shore, also as to what books would
be useful in determining the objects I am likely to
find?— R.G.C.

Curious Modes of Blossoming. — I have in my
garden here a Rhododendron which grows near the
house, and is sheltered by it from the south and
west, but has no shelter from the north or east. For
the last three years it has blossomed about this time
of the year (January). There have been several flowers
this year, but all on the same side of the tree, and
near together. Last year they were on the other side,
towards the house, and were a little earlier (at Christ-
mas), and less numerous, but this year there is no
shelter whatever from the north and east. The
flowers are a beautiful pink, like the flowers on the
same tree in the summer. There is also a yellow
jasmine, which grows in the drawing-room balcony,
now in blossom, and neither of these plants has any
sun during the winter, and not much in the summer,
owing to their position. — L. T.

Caves in Somersetshire. — Nearly all that is
known of these caves is summarised in Mr. H. B.
Woodward's "Memoir on the Geology of East Somer-
set, and the Bristol Coalfield," published in 1S76
by the Geological Survey ; but as ' ' Somersaeta " and
other readers of Science-Gossip may not have ac-
cess to such expensive luxuries as Survey Memoirs, I
venture to offer a brief epitome of the subject. The
Lamb Cavern near East Harptree is now closed. It
seems to have been artificial, but was fully described
in Collinson's "History of Somerset" (1711). In
Burrington Combe are several caverns, four of which,
viz., Aveline's Hole, Plumley's Den, Whitcombe's
Hole, and the Great Goatchurch Cavern in Lower
Twinbrook Ravine, were explored by Professor Boyd
Dawkins and Mr. W. A. Sandford. (Geol. Mag.
vol. ii. p. 43 ; Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1864 ; Proc Somer-
set Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc, partii., vol. xii. p. 161.)
They obtained remains of sheep, ox, reindeer, roe-
deer, ibex, goat, mammoth, bear, water-vole, wolf,
fox, badger, rabbit, hare, pig, mole, birds, and, in
Aveline's and Whitcombe's Holes, of man. The
human bones encrusted with stalagmite were evidently
buried. There are, or were, also caves in the Carboni-
ferous Limestone at Weston-super-Mare, Loxton, the
western end of Banwell Hill, and near Hutton. At
Uphill there are caves in the same formation, in which
remains of mammoth, deer, rhinoceros, wolf, ox,
horse, bear, otter, pig, hycena, fox, polecat, water-
vole, mouse, birds, and man, have been found.
(Pooley, Geologist, vol. vi. p. 331 ; E. C. H. Day,
Geol. Mag., vol. iii. p. 118 ; W. W. Stoddart, Proc.
Bristol Nat. Soc, vol. v. p. 37.) There are several
caverns at Cheddar, but Cox's is, though not large,
perhaps the most beautiful in England from its stalac-
tites. Bones of bear, deer, ox, horse, and man,
were recorded from a cave on the summit of the
Mendips here, by Mr. Long, in 1838. (Brit. Assoc.
Rep. 1838, p. 85.) Wookey Hole, near Wells, more
correctly spelt Okey (from British ago, a cave), is only
second to the Peak Cavern in Derbyshire in point of
size, being nearly six hundred feet long, and, in one

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP.

7*

part, eighty feet high. It is in the Dolomitic Con-
glomerate of the Trias. Messrs. Dawkins and Sand-
ford found here bones of hyaena, lion, bear, wolf,
fox, mammoth, two species of rhinoceros, horse,
Irish deer, red deer and reindeer, and human im-
plements of flint, chert, and bone, of contemporary
date. (Dawkins, Q. J. G. S., vol. xviii. p. 115;
vol. xix. p. 260 , Proc. Somerset Arch, and Nat.
Hist. Soc, vol. xi., part ii., pp. 197-219; and Geol.
Mag., vol. ii. p. 44.) — G. S. Bonlger.

The Furniture Beetle. — I can mention another
instance of destruction to furniture by the " furniture-
beetle." Two years ago I found them working and
living in the frame of a sofa that has been about thirty
years in my possession. The sofa was taken out of
the house, and during three days was frequently
brushed with very strong carbolic acid. Last week I
examined it, and found fresh borings of this pest.
The sofa has a beechwood frame, 1 in. thick and faced
with mahogany half-inch thick. The insects have not
touched the mahogany, but in many places have bored
close up to it. I am now having the beechwood re-
moved, and mahogany substituted. Can anything be
devised (short of destroying the wood) that would kill
these destructive insects ? I fear that their habits
render liquid applications unable to touch them or
their eggs. — T. Hughes.

The Freshwater Aquarium. — Scarcely a
number of Science-Gossip appears but contains
queries or notes on the above subject ; and, judging
from some of these queries and the replies to them,
aquarium-keeping on a small scale would appear to
the tyro an extremely difficult task. We are told
(" Ben Plant," July, 1877) to limit the plants to three
species, molluscs to two, and reptiles to exclude en-
tirely. Others have complained of sticklebacks eating
all their snails, and of killing each other. My own
opinion is that there is nothing in connection with
practical natural history involving less trouble than
aquarium-keeping. In giving this opinion, it is true
that it is not the result of so many years' experience
as some of your correspondents can boast, but it is
based upon seven or eight years' successful work.
With regard to the vessel which is to constitute the
aquarium, I believe this to be of minor importance,
and that, so far as the inhabitants are concerned, a
washing-tub will serve as well as an elaborately con-
structed plate-glass tank, though, of course, the latter
is the best adapted for observation. I think the chief
charm (and use also) of an aquarium lies in the fact
that we see various creatures living under natural
conditions. To make the conditions as natural as
possible, I would introduce most of the inhabitants of
an ordinary pond ; the exceptions would be only such
species as prey inordinately upon the others. Such,
as the aquatic coleoptera and hemiptera, and the
larvae of dragon-flies. I would admit all the pond
gasteropods ; the two species of newts {cristalus and
punctatus), and I certainly have not found it necessary
to limit the species of plants. The larvae of the
caddis-flies are interesting and amusing, and I cer-
tainly cannot agree with " S. " as to the difficulty of
rearing them to their final stage. The aquarium must
have walls, and as the caddis-worms have legs, they
can therefore have no difficulty in reaching the surface.
It is no uncommon thing, at the proper season, to see
several escaped caddis-flies hovering about my aqua-
rium. "P. E. C." is troubled because the stickle-
backs eat his snails. His best plan would be to feed
the fish with small worms, until the snails have had
time to increase in number ; this they will soon do at
such a rate as will defy the most voracious stickleback.

Difficulties of this kind only occur at starting ; things
soon right themselves, and the ' ' balance of power "
is maintained. " S." thinks sticklebacks are the most
troublesome inmates of an aquarium. I would sub-
stitute " interesting " in place of "troublesome," and
I think Mr. Scott (Jan., 1878) has given " S." the
correct reason of his failure in keeping them. I believe
that all these difficulties are caused by having the in-
mates unnaturally select. With a plentiful and varied
supply of vegetation, a host of Entomostraca and In-
fusoria will be introduced, which will form an inex-
haustible food supply to the fish. The decaying plants
and animal exuviae will form a fine mud at the bottom,
in which the pretty little bivalve, Cyclas cornea,
annelids, &c, will find a congenial home. The water
should not be changed or disturbed. In spite of the
mud the water will neither be turbid nor odorous, and
the student can observe the habits of the inmates under
natural conditions. An aquarium, so conducted, may
not look so ornamental as an elegant glass vase with
a floor of scrupulously clean gravel, above which two
or three lazy gold-fish are slowly swimming round a
solitary plant ; but it will afford the microscopist or
biologist excellent opportunities of study. — Edward
Step.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now
publish Science-Gossip at least a week earlier than hereto-
fore, we cannot possibly insert in the following number any
communications which reach us later than the 9th of the
previous month.

W. Wakefield. — ■ Your mosses are : — 1. Hypnum nndii-
laticm ; 2. Neckera crispa ; 3 and 4. Hypnum sericeum.

W. A. C. — Your specimens are : — 1. Physcia parietina. ;
2. Evemia prunastri (both lichens) ; and 4. Hypnum squar-
rosum (a moss).

F. T. M. — Your moss is Hypnum confertum.

M. Skilton.— Your specimens are : — 1. Hypnum riparium ;
2. Bryum capillare ; 3. Hypnum rutabidum.

J. C. Johnstone. — Your specimens are: — 1. Dicranella
heteromalla ; 2. Rhacomitrium heterostichum ; 3. R.
elliptic um ; 4. Orthothecium rufescens ; 5. Bryum criidum ;
6. B. bimutn ; 7. Rhacotnitrium lanuginosum .

G. S. — Apply to the London Stereoscopic Company, Regent-
street, London ; or to James How & Co., 5, Bride-street,
London; or C. Baker, 244 and 245, High Holborn, London;
or J. H. Steward, 406, Strand, London, and inform them of
the kind of lantern slides you require.

C. Swatman. — The article you refer to has not yet appeared.

C. Harris. — The following are the names of the zoophytes
sent:— 1. Flusta ? 2 and 3. Sertularia polyzonia ; 4. Sertu-
laria operculata ; 5. Antennularia antennina.

A. W. P. — We do not think your chrysalides will harm under
the circumstances.

A Constant Subscriber. — A facsimile reprint of Walton's
" Compleat Angler" has been issued by Messrs. Eliot Stock.
Frank Buckland's " Popular History of British Fishes " is
cheap and good. Couch's "British Fishes" is our best and
largest book on the subject.

T. Q. C. — The fungus is called Peziza autaiitium.

J. K. — Your sponge specimen is Halic/iondria (or Chalitia)
oculata.

The Botanical Exchange Club. — Those members who
may be still waiting for return parcels are requested to bear
the delay, which has been owing to the severe illness of the
Secretary. No time will be lost in distributing the parcels as
soon as possible.

W. B. — The present address of the South London Entomo-
logical Society is the South Metropolitan Temperance Hall,
Blackfriars-road, S.E.

K. D. (Almondsbury). — Your shells are : 1. Clausilia
Zaminata ; 2. Balia perversa ; 3. Cochlicopa lubrica ; 4.
Bulimus ; 5. Pupa marginata ; and 6. Siiccinea putris. _ .

J. Sims. — The "coloured matter" sent was doubtless iron
oxide, produced perhaps by the decomposition of the argillaceous
carbonate of iron nodules often so abundant in the coal mea-
sures. The piece of limestone shale is of carboniferous age,
and is impressed with Pt-oducta, Ortkis, and Rhynconella.

R. M. Christy. — We have no doubt that a published list of
British marine shells for labelling cabinet specimens, &c, may
be had of Van Voorst, publisher. A cheap book on bird and
animal stuffing is that published by F. Warne & Co., price
one shilling.

72

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

H. Haines.— Your shells are all correctly named, and many
of them are most excellent examples of their kind.

G. A. Holt.— The object on Briza media was not a fungus,
but looks like one of the pollen masses of an orchid, transferred
by some insect.

J. Tempeke. — The micro-fungus on leaf of Lavatera
sylvestris is Puccinia malvacearunt, Corda.

F. C. Kelland. — Your micro-fungus is Phragmidium
mucronntum, Fr., see Dr. Cook's " Rust, Smut, Mildew, and

Mould." ,

Geo Clinch.— The fragment of fossil wood sent appears to
be from the Portland beds, but it is impossible to tell from such
a small piece. The fossil from the chalk is not a tooth, but
part of an encrinite.

T. W. B.— The drawings sent us for identification are :—
No I. Pleurosigma ; 2. Stephanodiscus ; 3. Amphora avails;
4. is not a diatom ; 5. Globigerina is an interloper. It certainly
did not live with the diatoms, which are all fresh-water forms.

J. Cunnack.— Masters's " Vegetable Teratology ' was pub-
lished by the Rav Society.

A. B. C.—Marchantia should be pronounced Markantia.

EXCHANGES.

Send mounted or unmounted material (good) for various
Diatomaceous Earths, to W. Wood, 25, Gower-street, W.C.
Monotropa /ivpopitys offered for 3, 13, 14*, 15. 33. 3 8 > 9°,

IO4, III, Il6, 117, 151, l62, 187, 195, 209, 2l6, 220j_222, 227,

251^, 275, 287, 343, 351, 379, 452. 466, and 474; and Cnthmum
maritimum for 411, 413. 4M» 4 I 5, 421,. 422, 43°. and 4°9- —
E. W. Andrews, University School, Hastings.

Several duplicate slides, well mounted, Diatoms in situ,
fruited Marine Alga, Holothuria plates, and other interesting
marine objects ; some choice unmounted material in Diatoms,
Foraminifera, Zoophytes, Holothuria, Alga:, &c. &c. Wanted,
Magic Lantern, first-class Slides, or Cash. Will send mine on
approval— T. McGann, Burrin, Ireland.

For exchange : 690 foreign stamps (in book), all difierent, ot
95 countries, and all genuine. Wanted, Lepidoptera or Eggs.—
R. McAldowie, 82, Bonaccord-street, Aberdeen. _ _

Will exchange washings from the London Clay containing
Foraminifera, Entomostraca, &c, or select specimens of larger
Fossils for Bell's " Monograph on the Malacostracous Crus-
tacia," Part I. London Clay.— W. H. Shrubsole, Sheerness-on-

Dr. Partridge, of Stroud, will exchange Science-Gossip
for 1877 for well-mounted micro slides of parasites,— fish es-
pecially wanted. . „

Duplicates.— Missel Thrush, common Snipe, Water rlen,
Bald-headed Cock Peewit, Pheasant, Blackbird, Song Thrush,
and Greenfinch in exchange for other eggs ; side-blown eggs
only accepted.— John Thorpe, 2, Spring-gardens, Middleton,
Manchester. ,

For seeds of Blue Gum {Eucalyptus globulus) send stamped
envelope to C. P. Ogilvie, Sizewell House, Leiston, Suffolk.

Eight years' Science-Gossip, newly half-bound in leather,
for good slides or micro apparatus.— R. Bridger, 23, Oxton-road,
Birkenhead. . .,

Di vtoms twenty-one fossil and sub-fossil earths (material;
from various parts of the world. Good recent Diatoms wanted
(material), marine species preferred. Send list to \\ . M.
Paterson, Westfield-terrace, Loftus.

Wanted, a half-inch objective o 40 degrees, with or with-
out adjustment, made for binocular, in exchange for one of
about 80 degrees, with adjustment.— W. H. P., 255, Milkwood-
road, Heme Hill, S.E.

Orthosira arenaria, Foraminifera, Post Pliocene, and Irom
Turkish coast, Froghopper, section of Pith of Arabia, Nipnobdus
lingua, spores of Platycerium alcicoma, and section oi Cane.
Wanted, objects mounted or unmounted in exchange for above.
— T. Watson, Bank Parade, Burnley.

For Aregma bulbosum send stamped directed envelope and
object of interest (Fungi preferred) to Chas. Williams, King-
meade, Woolcott Park, Redland, Bristol.

Malayan and Himalayan Ferns offered in exchange tor
other kinds from Africa or other parts.— J. N., 14, \ ork-road,
Brighton. , . , .

Wanted, Lepidodendrons and other stems from the carboni-
ferous system in exchange for geological, physiological, and
other well-mounted slides. — M. Fowler, 20, burn-row,
Slamannan, N.B.

7 th London Catalogue : Nos. 171, 812, 1071, 1074, 1403,
1492, 1600, and 1605, and others, for Nos. y, 4*. 6 *f- 2 , 3 ' *'
lists exchanged. - C. A. O., 7 5, Mildmay-road, Highbury
London, N. .._..,

Will forward Packet of Sand containing Foraminifera on
receipt of two penny stamps.— Geo. Clinch, West Wickham,

London Catalogue, 7th edition: 121, 122, 130, 163, 201,
217, 238, 328, 330, 346, 363, 533, 539, 542, and others. Send
list to Edwin Hepworth, 17, Spring-lane, Lees.

Teeth of Saurichthys acuminatum, and other small teeth
(named), from the Rhcetic bone-bed at Aust Cliff, to_ exchange
for tertiary fossils, Barton series preferred.— Rev. K. Deakin,
Almondsbury, Gloucestershire.

Send good slides or material for Siliceous Foraminifera,
fossil (rare), or Sucker-foot of Acilius sulcatus (beetle).— Wm-
J. Fuller, Broad Plain Soap Works, Bristol.

J. W. Bulmer, South Parade, Northallerton, Yorks, will
send, post free, 50 varieties of rare Foreign Stamps for British
Birds' Eggs.

Exchange.— British and Foreign Shells, Fossils, Minerals,
and polished specimens of Madrepones, for Dudley and other
Trilobites.— A. J. R. Sclater, 4, Bank-street, Teignmouth.

Exchange. — Can occasionally send Octopus, Squid, Cuttle-
fish, and a great variety of marine animals to parties who will
exchange for the same. — A. J. R. Sclater, 4, Bank-street,
Teignmouth.

Zonites purus, Z. fulvus, and a few Rotundata (var. Alba),
also a few Birds' Eggs, for British Marine Species or Foreign
Helices.— Thos. Hedworth, Dunston, Gateshead.

Good Slides offered for unmounted material ; specially
wanted, Parasites and Eggs of Parasites, Eggs of Lepidoptera,
&c, also British Polyzoa, Biccellaria, Cillata.— J. D. Pepper,
15, Talbot-street, Moss Side, Manchester.

For a Slide of Crystals for Polar send two good Prepared
but Unmounted Entomological Objects to Wm. Sargant, Jun.,
Caverswall, Stoke-on-Trent.

For sound pieces of Wood 8 by 6 by 4, showing bark on one
side, of No. 46, 295, 297, 299, 382, 480, 482, 516, 616, 621, 830,
848, 1 125, 1201, and 1203, I will give in exchange rare British
plants or micro slides.— J. Tempere, 23, Croucy-street, Col-
chester.

Will send specimen of Ptychogasier albus (microscopical
fungus) for good plant, moss, or microscopical material. —
F. Crosbie, The Chestnuts, Barnet.

Wanted, recent Diatoms from Monterey Bay and Cuxhayen
Mud, Diatomaceous Earth from Stoneyford, County Antrim,
and well-mounted slides offered in exchange.— William A. Firth,
Whiterock, Belfast.

Will exchange Book on Diatoms by Prof. A. Mead Edwards,
cost 3s. 6d., for some back numbers of Science-Gossip or
unmounted micro objects. — E. V., 41, Peckham Grove, S.E.

The beautiful Green Lizard, L. Viridis (living), in any
number. Open to offers.— J. Sinel, Bagot, Jersey.

In exchange for any other Mounted Objects, Proboscis of
Blow Fly, Pleurosigma angulation, Amphiplcura pellucida.
—Address, T. C. Maggs, Yeovil.

Wanted, Gosse's Works on " Marine Natural History, in
exchange for Botanical Works.— C. A. Gwines, 8, Crafford-
street, Dover.

Wanted, Cuticles, Insects, &c, prepared for mounting, for
other material. 200 oz. covers, glass, cheap. — Tylar, 165, Well-
street, Birmingham.

Send well-mounted 3 by 1 Slide for a sample of Diatomaceous
Tripoli. — T. Brown, 7, Spencer-street, E.C.

British Coleoptera. Exchange correspondents wanted. —
James Walkden, 183, Broad-street, Pendleton, Manchester.

Melicerta ringens, exchange for living Sea Anemones
(actinia) or madrepores, or good mounted micro object.— H. E.
Forrest, Lloyd's Bank, Aston-road, Birmingham.

Living or mounted specimens of I 'olvcx globatorm exchange
for good mounted or unmounted objects. — John Levick, Lime-
tree Villas, Albert-road, Aston, Birmingham.

BOOKS, &c, RECEIVED.

By Alan Bagot. Losdon : C. K.

"Accidents in Mines.
Paul & Co.

" Industrial Art." February.
" Land and Water." February.
"Journal of Applied Sciences." February.
" Chambers's Journal." February.
" Science pour Tous." January.
" Botanische Zeitung." January.
&c. &c. &c.

Communications have been received up to the 12TH
ult., from:-W. H. G.-T. S.-T. B. W.-F. W. E , S.-
H V — P T —J. D.— J. M. M.— E. W. A.— C. P. O.— Dr. B.
— W'D— S. A. B.— A. S.-A. M. Mc.A.— Dr. E. H. V.—
R. Mc.A.-J. W. B.-Dr. C. R. B.-E. C. R.-J. R. J.-
M K -T G.-C. B. M.-C. D. W.-T. Mc.G.-G. R. V.
jun -J. B -C. D.-R. G. C.-R. B.-G. S.-L. T.-T. W. D.
J _!!r m c -T. H.-C. S.-H. L.-W. T. V. D.-W. M. P.
-H P M -J. R T.-W. L. B.-H. E. W.-W. W.-G. G.
-W. M -V.C.-W. A. C.-C. H. H.-J. W.-W. G. S
-C. A. O.-W. H. P.-E. C. J.-T. W.-J.A.M.-M F.
- T B — C F W. T. W.— W. W.— A. F. G— R. H. K.—
H G.-Dr.' P.-G. O. H.-A. W. S.-E. T. M.-W H. S -
Major L.-H. G.-C. A. G.-E C D -R. E.-A. S.-Dr.
de C — A K.— A. W. P.-W. E. G— E. W. W.— J. C— V. G.
_F C M-G S._c. W. C.-D. S.-F. C. -H. W. T—
K r D-E V-W T-C. A. G.-J. W.-W. A. F.—
H F F-A B C.-H. A. M.-W. S. jun.-W. C.-J. Y.-
A IRS.-W B G.-H. K.-W. J. F.-C. P.-H. F. B.-
J H H -G. N.-K. D.-J. D. P.-W. W.-J. W. B.-
J H. J.-A. J. R.-T. Q. C.-J. M. M.-J. K.-&C. &c

HARD Wl CKE 'S S CTENCE - G OS SIP.

73

> JVCsy ^^pTJ^J ^JVOvV ^yViM ^^vCs.

vj?^;

REPORT OF SCIENCE-GOSSIP BOTANICAL
EXCHANGE CLUB,

N approaching this sub-
ject it is pleasant to say
we have in a measure
succeeded beyond our
expectations, but we
should have been still
more successful and
have been able to send
more of the marked
desiderata, had we been
supported in our efforts
by more of our working or rather collecting botanists.
Evidently it was regarded solely as an Amateur Club,
so that one of the rules seemed to be totally over-
looked in so far that a lot of specimens were sent
such as Bellis, Leontodon ; in fact, some few parcels
contained only such as could be gathered in a field a
few yards from our door. Another year, we are
satisfied, all this will be changed for the better.

A few contributors have kindly sent short notes
upon any specimens thought 'to be unusually rare :
these we give below. We also name a few good
things which we have had great pleasure in distri-
buting : — Ranunculus floribundus, Bab., common
in the Tweed district. Some of our plants ap-
proach elongaius, others triphyllus, and confusus. —
A. B. Ranunculus salsuginosus. This form is
frequent in the river Tweed. — -A. B. Ranunculus
fluitans, Newb., river Lathkill, Derbyshire. — C. B.
Draba niuralis, plentiful in cultivated ground
(nurseries), to which it has been introduced about
Kelso and Melrose, Roxburgh. — A. B. Raphanus
maritimus, Lizard Point, Cornwall. We supplied
about one half of the parcels with this rare species.
Dentaria bulbifera, High Wycombe. — T. E. D.
Viola Curtisii, Lytham. — J. C. M. V. amcena,
Bishop Auckland. — J. P. S. V. lactea, Helston,
Cornwall. — J. C. V. Curtisii, Land's End. — J. C.
Silene quinquevulnera. Introduced to the Tweed
district. — A. B. Cirava alpina, /3. intermedia,
Gaitheugh, Berwickshire, where it is abundant : along
with it I observed a few patches of C. luletiana,
No. 1 60.

possibly true " or typical." Alpina grows there also,
but I did not detect it. — A. B. Rubus ccesius, var.
pscudo-idtcus, Springwood Park, Roxburgh. Various
forms of Rubus ccesius are plentiful in the district, but
I have seen this only from the above locality. — A. B.
Rosa pomifera. On the roadside at the highest part,
above Sweethope, Roxburgh : one of the bushes is a
fine old plant about 7 feet high, and as much through .
They are as far as possible, under the circumstances,
from any house or garden, being about halfway
between two farm- places. I have never seen it in a
garden in the district. — A. B. Rosa Watsoni, also
common in the Tweed district, and, like Rosa subcris-
tata, very variable. — A. B. Rosa subcristata. This
variety is common in the Borders. — A. B. The
fruit of Watsoni can scarcely be confounded with any
other species, when once recognized. Alchemilla
conjuncta, Buttermere Fells, Cumberland. — R. W.
Upon writing to Mr. W. respecting this locality,
which is open to doubt, he informed us the specimen
sent was cultivated in his garden, but was originally
brought from Buttermere by a friend of his in the
North of England. Not the least doubt, however,
exists as to its being the true conjuncta, and if the
locality is also a genuine one, it is one of the most
important discoveries our contributors have brought to
light this season. We may also add, the leaves are at
least one-third larger than the plants we have inspected
at Kew and Benthall Hall. Mcdicago lappacea. I
have found a few specimens of this species on Tweed -
side every year, for the past five seasons. It grow^
in company with the other Medics (M. denliculala,
M. maculata, and M. minima), along with which it
has been introduced to the district with-wool. — A. B.
Trifolium Molinierii, Lizard Point. — J. C. T. stric-
tu?n, Lizard Point. — J. C. The above clovers are
old friends. It is pleasing to know they still retain
possession of the old station, from which they were
recorded many years ago. Sarothamnus prostratits,
Lizard Point. — J. C. Helianthemum caniun, Great
Orme's Head. — C. B. Ribes alpinum, Rokeby,
Teesdale. — J. P. S. Spergularia marginata, Arnside.

E

74

HA R D WI CKE 'S S CIE NCE-GO SSI P.

— C. B. Callitriche autumnalis, abundant in Yet-
holm Lock, Roxburgh. Although it has not been
recorded, so far as I am aware, from the Till or the
Tweed, judging from the large quantity that is
annually, after every high wind, carried into the Bow-
mont, and thence to the Till and the lower reaches
of the Tweed, it will very probably be found
there also. — A. B. We believe this was recorded
by Dr. Johnstone several years since. Lamium
intermedium, a rare weed in cultivated ground about
Kelso. — A. B. Scrophularia Scorodonia, Penzance.
— J. C. Pulmonaria officinalis, some very large
patches in Makerstown Woods, Roxburgh. Pro-
bably a remnant of monkish cultivation.— A. B.
Veronica peregrina, a garden weed, at New Louden,
Berwickshire. — A. B. This plant is rapidly spread-
ing : it seems but a few years since it was named
by Prof. Babington, from specimens then discovered
near Perth. Rumex rupestris, Helston. — J. C.
Polygonum littorale, Link, P. Rail, both gathered at
St. Bees Head. — C. B. P. arenastrum, Bor.,
St. Bees Head. — C. B. Orobanche azrulea, St. Owen's
Bay, Jersey. — G. C. D. O. rubra, Gunwalloe. —
J. C. Allium triquetrum, Helston. — J. C. Goodyera
repens, Bowmont Forest, Roxburgh. — A. B.
Plentiful in many Scotch Fir woods in both
Roxburgh and Berwickshire. Most likely it will
also be found in similar situations in Northumber-
land ; indeed, I have found it within three miles of
the borders of that county. Owing to the increase of
plantations, this plant has increased rapidly of late in
this district. The Goodyera appears to have been
one of the original natives of the Borders when this
part of the country was covered with forest. When
the land was cleared, it, and others of a like nature,
would disappear and remain in a dormant state, until
circumstances rendered the soil again suitable for
their existence. Cephalanthera gra?idiflora, High
Wycombe. — Mrs. T. E. D. Erica tetralici-ciliaris
Penryn, Cornwall. —J. C. Cuscuta epithynuun,
Kingswood-heath, Surrey. — J. L. Crocus nudiflorus,
Derby. — W. H. P. Impatiens parviflora, Ockbrook,
Derby. — W. H. P. Potamogeton nitens, Web.
Abundant in the Tweed and Teviot, in the counties
of Roxburgh, Berwick, and Northumberland (Che-
viotland). Like others of the genus, it is variable.
The description of P. nitens in " Student's Flora "
says the leaves are recurved, — surely a misprint for
incurved. — A. B. Potamogeto?i zoster a: folms, Spon-
don, Derbyshire. — W. H. P. P. lanceolatus, River
Lligway, Anglesea. — C. B. This is another record
for a very old station, originally made public in
Davie's "Welsh Botanology. " Plantago Timbalii,
Mullion, Cornwall. — J. C. We believe this has
not hitherto been noticed in the above county.
Veronica triphylla, York. — H. R. M. Mellittis
mellissophyllum, Beeralston, Devon. — W. H. Carex
humilis, Leigh Woods. — W. G. C. filiformis, abun-
dant in Lurgie Loch, Berwick ; Prins-de-bog, Rox-

burgh ; and Campfield Bog, Northumberland. — -
A. B. Wherever this species is met with, it is
generally abundant ; such is our limited experience.
C. digitata, near Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire. —
C. B. — C. ornithopoda, Cresbrook Dale, Derbyshire.
— C. B. Three of our contributors send a limited
supply of the above novelty. It will doubtless be
new to most of the members. Carex punctata, Gau-
din. Ledges of perpendicular rocks in the Water-
winch, Tenby. — C. B. We hope again shortly to
refer to this species ; the fruits have been submitted
to Dr. Syme. Cyperus longus, Rennoch Valley. —
J. C. y uncus pygmceus, Lizard Down. — J. C. We
are glad to be able to supply the whole of the mem-
bers with this species, which is, comparatively
speaking, a recent addition to the British Flora.
Scirpus parvulus, mouth of Ovoca, Arklow. — C. B.
Kobresia caricina, Widdy Bank, Teesdale. — J. P. S.
Leersia oryzoides, Woking, Surrey. — H. E. W. It is
but seldom good specimens of the Leersia can be
secured ; nearly all we have seen have been im-
perfect : the few we have on this occasion distributed
are excellent examples. Bromus Lloydianus, near
Lizard Point. — J. C. Ophioglossum ambiguum, St.
Martin's, Scilly Isles. — J. C.

A total of forty-four parcels of plants were sent
out. In each case we made as good selection as was
within our power.

DOES DESICCATION KILL DIATOMS?

A COMMUNICATION on the above subject, by
M. P. Petit, was made to the Societe de
Botanique, Paris, and as the subject is of considerable
interest to the diatomist, we have much pleasure in
reproducing it.

" As the heat of summer dries up the ditches, pools,
and puddles, one sees that when the last trace of
humidity vanishes, the diatoms with which they
were stocked also disappear. But when the rains of
autumn and winter refill the places we have indicated,
the diatoms revive and soon reappear in great
numbers.

For some years I have gathered with care the
dried surfaces of the ditches in which I knew that
great quantities of diatoms existed, in the hope of
finding traces of spores or zygospores. I, however,
never found anything but empty frustules mixed
with the soil that had served as a substratum. Never
being able to find traces of spores, the idea occurred
to me to make experiments on the diatoms when
placed under the same conditions as occur in nature.
I therefore collected, at divers periods of the year,
the diatoms, with their substratum of mud or clay,
and submitted them to desiccation in the sun, placing
the material in glass vessels covered, to keep them
from dust, some for six, and others for eight months.

The desiccation was such that the deposits at the

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- G SSIP.

75

bottom of the vessels were cracked in eveiy direction.
In the month of September last (1877) I examined
some fragments of these deposits. I saw that the
frustules were there, and also that they were trans-
parent and apparently empty. But on making a
more careful examination, I saw in the interior of
one of the extremities, in a majority of frustules, some
brown granules, which I considered were the remains
of the dried endochrome.

The vessels were then filled with distilled water
sufficiently aerated by prolonged agitation ; after this
they were exposed to the direct heat and light of the
sun.

During the first two or three days there appeared
but little change in the frustules, but on the fourth
day the large brown granules had augmented in size,
and had taken the yellow tint characteristic of the
diatomaceous endochrome. In following from day to
day the augmentation of the plasma, I remarked
that on or about the fifth day this nearly filled the
middle of the frustule, and on the eighth day it had
assumed the normal form peculiar to the genus to
which the species belonged. The naviculas had re-
sumed their curious movements, and some days later
it became evident that a number of the frustules had
commenced to multiply by self-division.

In the presence of these observations, we are able
to conclude that the diatoms, like many other of the
lower organisms, preserve the vegetative force in
spite of desiccation. At the same time I observed a
circumstance which deserves mention. In one of the
vessels a large number of diatoms were attached to
the sides of the glass : in these the endochrome never
returned to its normal condition. It is probable that
the plasma had been killed by too rapid a desiccation,
while the diatoms on the surface ■ dried less rapidly
as the substratum slowly lost its humidity : the
plasma was, therefore, able to contract slowly ; thus
preserving the power of returning to life under the
influence of favourable conditions. It seems, there-
fore, necessary, in order that the diatoms should
preserve their vegetative force, that the desiccation
should proceed slowly ; and that is exactly what takes
place in ditches and pools. After these facts, it is
easy to comprehend why, during the wet season, we
are able to find, almost directly, the diatoms for which
we have searched in vain during the drought."

{A T ote by Translator. — These experiments will, I
think, not only account for the rapid reappearance of
the diatomacese in dried-up pools when these were
again refilled, but will also explain their presence in
such habitats as the moss on the trunks of trees,
roofs of cottages, or the damp places near leaky
water-butts or tanks. The debris from the dried-up
ditches is raised by the wind as fine dust, and carried,
perhaps, miles away, and after a time deposited in
the localities just alluded to ; the presence of moisture
not only soon restoring their vegetative power, but
enabling them to reproduce by self-division.

Those who have examined gatherings from the
previously-named sources have, no doubt, been
struck with the absence of the larger forms : these
have, probably, been eliminated by their rapid sub-
sidence, owing to their much greater weight.)

Norwich. F. Kitton.

PRIMITIVE MAN :
HIS TIMES AND HIS COMPANIONS.

By the Rev. J. Magens Mello, M.A., F.G.S.

IN the history of almost all nations there is a point
at which that history loses itself in tradition and
myth, a point at which we should be left in im-
penetrable darkness were it not for the new light that
has been shed, at any rate, upon the past history of
man in Europe by the discoveries of the still young
science of Geology. When we attempt to trace back
the history of the human race in England, which we
may take by way of example, the earliest historical
records carry us back to the period of the Roman
Conquest ; the writings of the Roman Tacitus, and of
some other authors of that epoch, show us more or
less distinctly what kind of a countiy this was, and of
what sort the inhabitants were which they found in
possession ; and there history leaves us. We must
look elsewhere for any further information. That
information lay buried for long centuries beneath the
earth : in mounds, in caves, in gravel-pits the foot-
prints of primitive man were left for the explorers of
the 19th century to track and to interpret.

During the last fifty years evidence has been fast
accumulating, showing us that long ages must have
elapsed, ages marked by many changes, since man
made his first appearance here ; evidence slowly
received indeed at first, but which has yet surely
made its way, forcing upon us the belief that long
before the Romans visited our shores, generations after
generations of men had come and gone, men to whose
eyes was presented a very different England to that
with which we are acquainted, men who had as their
companions animals very different to those with
which we are now familiar. What that England was
probably like, what those animals were, and what
little we know about those men is the subject of this
present sketch.

Many ages before the Romans came there was a
time when England, instead of being an island,
together with Scotland and Ireland, formed part of
the continent of Europe ; there was then no Bristol
Channel, no Irish Sea, no Straits of Dover, no
German Ocean such as we now have them ; we must
picture to ourselves a northern and western extension
of the Continent with a great river, an enlargement
probably of the present Rhine, flowing northwards
through a wide valley or plain, where is now the sea.
Into this river flowed, as tributaries, the Thames and

E 2

7 6

HARD WICKE 'S S CIE NCE - G O SSIP.

Humber and other streams; dense forests, wild moor-
lands and heaths, great swamps and morasses,
diversified doubtless in places by green pastures,
stretched far away inland from this great valley, as
well as from others on the south and west of Eng-
land. In those early ages, no mild winters were
known, though probably the summers were far hotter
than any which we now experience. We may even
imagine, if we will, snow-covered mountains, with
their glaciers creeping down into the valleys, in which
the snow would lie thick as winter drew on, whilst
the rivers would be sealed up by ice. We may
picture to ourselves the animal life of that period. It
is winter ; from the northern hills and forests come
travelling southward, driven by the excess of cold,
animals now called Arctic ; and in the valleys and amid

Fig. si. Flint Implement from Brandon ; 3 nat. size.

the woods of middle and southern England might
have been seen the herds of rein-deer, the gigantic
shaggy-maned mammoths with their huge recurved
tusks, smooth-skinned but woolly rhinoceroses, great
bears, wolves, and foxes, crafty gluttons, troops of wild
boars and other animals. Spring and summer draw
on, and as these animals begin to move once again to
m ire northern pasture-grounds, we find with the
increasing warmth an influx of other visitors, strange,
indeed, to England now, — lions and tigers, and
leopards, hyaenas, hippopotami, elephants, and other
species of rhinoceroses; and thus, in the strange climate
ef those days, might have been witnessed a continual
swinging to and fro, and an intermingling for a time,
of Arctic and southern animals, who made this
c iuntry their home, and many of which were even
bo 1 here, and here lived and died. Do any ask,
! lo you know all this? is not all this a mere idle

die mi? Let us, then, record some of the evidence.
'J 1 :se animals have left us their remains to this day ;
-1 iiny a brick-field and gravel-pit, in the soil of
1 iinis caverns, their bones, nay, occasionally even
tl ir complete skeletons, have been found, and no
1 tee accumulation this, no stray bones are these,
v 1 ;hed in by some great flood or floods from distant
: jions. The evidence shows that many of these
1 les were deposited in the very spots near to which
t se animals died. Sealed up in the floor of many a
cave are these relics of the past, not water-worn and

rubbed, but fresh and sharp as to all their angles, some-
times also bone lying close beside its bone, as though
quietly dropped and covered up where found, as
must, indeed, have been the case, almost immediately
after death. Our cave floors give us proof also that
many of these animals, the rein-deer, hyaenas, mam-
moths, and others, must have been born in this
country. In the same bed, lying side by side, we
have found the young and the old, the rein-deer and
its fawn, the hyaena and its cub, the young as well as
the old elephant or rhinoceros, and a very brief
examination of the contents of some of our caverns will
demonstrate these facts ; we may not only see the
jaws, for instance, of the old hyaena with the teeth
worn by hard work almost to the gums, but also
those of the young animal, in which the permanent

Fig. 52. Flint Implement from Langey, Fr. ; f nat. size.

teeth are only just sprouting and pushing their way
beneath the deciduous ones. Most of the teeth of the
mammoths found in caves are those of young animals,
and when we come to look closely at all the bones
and teeth, we are at once struck with the fresh-look-
ing conditions of the majority, and are convinced that
they can have had no long journey to perform between
the death and burial of their owners. Another thing
which we may observe in the case of bones found in
caves is that many of them are seen to be scored and
gnawed into their present shape by the teeth of some
animal, and analogy has led to the conclusion that
the great devourer of the bulk of the animals whose
remains are found in caves was the hyaena. This
savage beast in those early days, as now, was
in the habit of dragging its victims wholesale or
piecemeal into its den, where it devoured not the
flesh only, but also the bones, rejecting only the
very hardest portions ; and the teeth, then, left lying
about on the floor, would soon be covered up by the
mud brought in, partly by the frequenters of the
caves, partly by floods, and also by the slow deposits
from the moisture which found its way through cracks
and fissures. It seems a strange thing that such
animals as those spoken of should ever have been
found side by side in our country, — the northern rein-
deer and the southern hyaena, for instance. Some
geologists have not been able to realize that they
could thus have lived during the same season, and

HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P.

77

have suggested that during those early times there
may have been warm and cold periods, each lasting
perhaps ten or twelve thousand years, and that ' ' the
southern animals lived in our island during the warm
periods of the glacial epoch, while the northern ani-
mals lived during the cold periods." That there were
such interglacial periods of warmth appears to be not
improbable, but, allowing this, I do not see how we
can, with the testimony of cave deposits before us,
fail to be convinced that northern and southern forms
did not make their appearance separately, each living
here for awhile and then disappearing, but that they
lived during long periods actually side by side. The
condition of the various bones found is such that they
undoubtedly convey the impression of perfect con-
temporaneity ; any way, they are found lying side by
side, without a vestige of rolling or wear and tear,

I

\ L .11,1 \ V •*. ^ ■)

u

m>

Fig. 53, Quartzite Implement, Creswell ; J nat. size.

in deposits from a few inches to only a foot or two in
thickness ; a rein-deer bone, for instance, almost, if
not quite, in contact with the jaw of a hyaena, and
bearing upon it what we can hardly help believing to
be the marks of the hysena's teeth upon its surface.
The remains of Arctic and southern forms are so
intimately blended together, and present such simi-
larity of aspect in such caves, for instance, as those
of Creswell, and the gnawed bones of rein-deer,
rhinoceroses, and other animals are so exactly like
the bones gnawed by hyaenas of to-day, that the
evidence appears overwhelming that they all must
have lived side by side ; and the easiest way of
accounting for such a condition of things is to sup-
pose, as has been suggested, a seasonal immigration
and intermingling of the animals in a climate subject
to an extreme range of summer and winter tempera-
ture, unless we accept as an alternative that the
intermingling may have taken place at the com-
mencement or close of an interglacial period, but that
there was such an intermingling of forms appears to
be beyond question.

Now, when these animals lived in England, man
was their companion ; there is now not the slightest
doubt of that. The evidence, fifty years ago so
scanty, so incredulously received, has become over-
whelming. To take the evidence of caves alone :
in numerous caves in this country, in those of France,
Belgium, and Switzerland, traces of man's presence
have been found in vast quantity intimately mixed up

in the same beds in which the bones of the animals
are found, and showing most clearly that they must
have been deposited at the same time. And is it
asked, what are those traces? Have you any
human bones ? The answer is, not many. A few
have been found in some caverns, and these have been
found to be in exactly the same condition as those of
the extinct animals ; but I do not think that we have
any right to expect to find many bones, and one
reason is that although man was then present, his
numbers were few indeed, compared with the vast
multitude of wild animals. Why, even as recently
as the time of Queen Elizabeth I believe that the
population of all England did not exceed that of
London to-day. Man would then be in the propor-
tion of one to many thousands of wild animals, with
whom he would have to wasre a hard and often

Fig. 54. Flint Implement, Le Moustier, Fr. ; f nat. size.

precarious struggle for existence. And again, if the
men of those primitive times neglected their dead, as
do some tribes of men now, the hycenas, wolves, and
other animals would not leave many bones to tell the
story of man's existence. What we do find to prove
that man then lived are his weapons and his tools, —
rude, indeed, at first, and ill formed, but yet showing
a certain amount of design and intention in their
shape never to be found in mere naturally-broken
stones. Man's first tools and weapons were the
pebbles picked up around him, rudely fashioned for
such simple work as he required them to perform by
a few pieces chipped off here and there, to enable
them to be more readily held in the hand, or fastened
into holders of bone or wood ; such rude tools would
serve as hammers to break bones for the sake of their
marrow, to scrape the skins of animals killed in the
chase with the primitive stone-headed lance or arrow.
Implements of this primitive character have been
found in abundance in the lower beds of some of the
caves of this and other countries, as well as in the
ancient river-beds. In England, the caves of Creswell
and that of Kent's Hole have furnished many highly
characteristic specimens of these earliest efforts of
human skill, whilst the gravels of the Thames Valley,
of the Ouse and other rivers in this country, and
those of Amiens and Abbeville, amongst others in
France, have also furnished numerous examples, some
made of quartzite and other pebbles, others of flint. In
the case of the rude hammer-stones, little has been

78

HARD WICKE >S S CIE NCE - G OS SI P.

done to the original pebble beyond giving it a suf-
ficiently convenient form to enable the user to grasp it,
but the bruised and battered face of the implement
clearly shows to what use it was put. In the scrapers we
see that a sharp edge has been placed by skilful blows
on one side of the stone, whilst the other has been
probably fastened into some kind of holder. Primi-
tive man would very soon have discovered that few of
the stones commonly met with more readily adapted
themselves to his wants than the flints so common
wherever there was chalk, or, indeed, often found
scattered here and there in gravel-beds and other
spots at some distance from their original source.
The sharp edge of a broken flint, the comparative
ease with which it could be variously shaped, soon
led man to prefer it to other materials.

The razor-like edge of a flint-flake would be found
to make an excellent knife, and such long thin flakes
are amongst the implements most commonly met
with. They are usually flat on one side, with a well-
defined bulb of percussion at one end, — a proof of
their having been struck by a deliberate blow from
the original block ; a mere splinter broken accident-
ally by the crushing of a mass of flint never has this
well-marked protuberance. The upper surface of these
flakes has also two or more faces, giving to the specimen
in section a more or less triangular aspect. Broader
flakes, with a sharpened edge at one end, would
adapt themselves as scrapers. We also often find
flints with very carefully-worked points, which may
well have been used for boring holes in fragments of
bone, to form needles, and they might be used, too,
for piercing the skins, that the bone needle might
more readily pass through. Some of the most
primitive implements were large, somewhat oval-
shaped, ones, made of flint or some other hard stone ;
these, which are frequently found in the old river
gravels, and some of which are made of quartzite
pebbles, have been discovered in the earliest beds of
the Creswell caves in England would, if bound firmly
into a handle, serve as formidable axes or tomahawks,
and were probably used as such.

( To be continued. )

THE REAPPEARANCE OF AN OLD
FRIEND.*

BRITISH natural history has produced few works
which have become national classics. But
White's " Natural History of Selborne" undoubtedly
takes rank as such, and finds its place on our library
shelves side by side with Goldsmith and Addison.
The unaffected and graceful simplicity of the style,
the cheerful and yet reverential tone of thought, the
quiet love for all that lives, the keen power of
observation, and the readiness to draw correct in-

* " The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne." By
the late Rev. Gilbert White. Edited by Thomas Bell, F.R.S.,
F.L.S., and Professor of Zoology, King's College, London.
2 vols. London : John Van Voorst.

ferences from complex facts, have rendered this work
the most popular of its kind that was ever written.
There is a freshness and a charm about every page,
which seems imbued with the breath of the green
fields, and the spirit of the silent woods. One returns
to its occasional perusal with delight. It appeals as
successfully to youth as to age, and commands its large
circle of readers by reason of its broad sympathies.
Naturalists and non-naturalists alike confess to its
charm. Perhaps no other English work on natural
history could have borne half the editing which
White's "Selborne" has had to experience. We
have editions of all kinds, voluminous and com-
pendious, editions de luxe, and "cheap editions for
the people" ; and still the work has lived throughout.
In our opinion the present edition of White's cele-
brated book is the best which could possibly be
produced. There are many reasons why this should
be the case. First of all the editor, Professor Bell,
is himself one of our best naturalists and natural-
history writers. No man more fully recognizes the
scope of his work — no living naturalist has more
pleasant memories of by-gone workers. Moreover,
Professor Bell has lived in White's house at Selborne
for the past thirty years, and so must have become
imbued in no small degree with the spirit and charm
of the place. This edition of White's work has,
therefore, been edited in the house where it was ori-
ginally written. The style in which this edition has
been published demands a few words of remark. The
binding of both volumes is after the modest style
which White would have undoubtedly preferred. The
engravings and woodcuts (not numerous) are of the
best kind of artistic work ; the paper is excellent ;
the type large and cheerful ; and there is an absence
of those abounding foot-notes in small print on every
page, which, in some editions of White's "Selborne,"
have made its perusal almost a torture.

After saying thus much for the manner in which
this edition has been brought out, we have next to
draw attention to several matters in which it differs
from all previous editions. A few years ago a series
of twenty letters, constituting a correspondence be-
tween Gilbert White to Robert Marsham, of Stratton,
Norfolk, were discovered, and published, we believe,
in the "Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich
Naturalists' Society," accompanied by a notice of
Mr. Marsham's life, by Mr. Thomas Southwell, hon.
sec. These letters are included in the second volume
of the present edition. In addition to them are other
letters and correspondence of Gilbert White's, which
now appear in print for the first time. Such is the
correspondence between himself and his brother John,
who was English chaplain at Gibraltar, and after-
wards vicar of Blackburn, in Lancashire. In these
letters we gain a loveable knowledge of Gilbert
White otherwise than as a naturalist. His brother
seems to have been as simple-minded and guileless as
himself, and this correspondence has a quaint, affec-

HA R D WICKE'S S CIENCE- G OSS IP.

79

tionate, brotherly, but unfortunately old-world charm
about it that almost makes one sad. The Rev. John
White was a correspondent of Linnaeus, six of whose
letters also appear in these pages. Another corre-
spondence consists of a series of letters, also now first
published, between White and his brother-in-law, Mr.
Thomas Barker, of Lyndon Hall, Rutland, and the
latter gentleman's son. Natural history and archae-
ology are the chief subjects herein pleasantly dis-
cussed. The correspondence between the well-known
naturalist Pennant and Gilbert White form the bulk
of the first portion of the work. In addition to the
above new additions to White's " Selborne," ren-
dering it richer and fuller than any previous edition,
Professor Bell has had the sympathetic aid of several
modern naturalists, among whom the suggestions of
Professor Alfred Newton on that part of the work
relating to Birds, have unquestionably raised its
authoritative value. All lovers of natural history and
English classics who can afford it, will have this best
edition of White on their library shelves ; and all our
provincial scientific societies and clubs ought to
include it in their circulating list.

THE HARVESTMAN "SPIDER."

THE animal which from the enormous length of
its legs has attracted the notice of most per-
sons from childhood upwards, seems from its very
slight resemblance in external appearance to the form
of a spider to have received a name to which it is
not at all entitled ; some of the peculiarities of spiders
are so exceptional to the general characteristics of all
other living beings, that no creature in which they
are absent ought to be called a spider. I am there-
fore induced to compare the harvestman with an
ordinary spider, in the hope that some one will suggest
its appropriate name.

The first difference that strikes the most superficial
observer is, that the bodies of spiders are divided into
two distinct portions by a very slender waist which
connects the abdomen with the chest and head ; in
the harvestman the head, chest, and abdomen are all
under one shell or horny covering, without any waist
or division. The most remarkable feature in spiders
is the position and character of the reproductive
organs. In the female spiders they are on that por-
tion of the abdomen next the waist, and in the male
spiders in a much more extraordinary position, being
connected with the head of the animal by the palpi ;
a further exception to the prevailing order of nature,
and equally remarkable, is seen in the fact that each
male spider has two distinct and complete organs,
one in each palpus, and both exactly alike, one not
being the complement, but the exact counterpart of
the other. In the different species of spiders these
organs vary in a greater or less degree, so that by
these differences species might be determined ; some

of them are extremely complex and beautiful, as in
Lyniphia marginata, others, though more simple, are
still worth studying. May not the absence of this re-
markable apparatus in the harvestman be considered
a conclusive answer in the negative to the question,
Is it a spider ?

Those who have not the opportunity of examining
these organs microscopically I would refer to Black-
wall's celebrated treatise on spiders, where they will
be found beautifully illustrated. This authority says,
spiders moult or change their skin from five to nine
times, according to species ; that the male sexual
organs are not commenced in their development till
the penultimate moult, and are not completed till the
final moulting : now in the harvestman the sexual
organs are found in the smallest individuals. In the
harvestman there is one slight approach to the resem-
blance of spiders, the position of the reproductive
organs being similar to that in the female spider, viz.,
nearly close to the chest ; in the harvestman the
position is the same in both sexes, there is, however,
no difficulty in distinguishing one sex from the other ;
in both sexes the organ is situated within a flexible
tube by means of which it is drawn within the abdo-
men, or projected externally, both organs are repre-
sented in the following sketches (figs. 55 and 58).

In the male organ the parallel lines represent the
membraneous tube, the shaded portion the horny
instrument which slides within it by introversion, or
something like the tube of a telescope ; it may be seen
in its normal position (after the body has been
rendered transparent) seated within the abdomen
with the hooked point near the external orifice, this
hook is attached to the shaft by a movable joint, and
the hairlike termination of the hook is also jointed,
so that it is possible to place the hook in a line with
the shaft, though it is always found at a right angle
as represented ; the length of the organ with its
elastic tube extended is about as long as the diameter
of the body, the horny portion being a little shorter
than the membranous. The female organ, from the
great length of its elastic tube, which is about twice
as long as the body of the animal, is probably used as
an ovipositor, the horny portion is not more than one
third the length of the elastic tube ; the latter, how-
ever, when drawn within the body is shortened by
contraction to the length of the horny part then con-
tained within it. This part appears to be formed of
a series of bands or rings connected together and
terminating in lobes, to which are attached strong
tufts of hair, or spines, the bands are covered with
stout hairs about as long as the width of each band,
and the membranous tube is so thickly studded with
minute hairs, that when contracted within the body
the organ appears black, the surface resembling that
of a steel rasp. It might be supposed that a tube
that has to slide within itself by introversion would
be greatly impeded by the friction arising from its
surfaces being prickly instead of smooth. If we ask

So

HARD WICKE *S SCIENCE -G OSSIP.

what purpose do these hairs serve, or why is it that
all other internal organs being so perfectly adapted
by their smooth and lubricated surfaces for moving
together without friction, these should present a
roughened surface, we might learn a lesson of
humility by reflecting that as we proceed step by step
in our investigations of the mysteries of nature, we
are continually finding how inadequate is the capacity
of the human mind to comprehend the designs of an
omniscient Creator. I now proceed to the considera-
tion of the breathing organs. Spiders breathe by
branchia, organs somewhat resembling the gills of
fishes, being a series of thin membranous plates
placed together like the leaves of a book in two
clusters within the abdomen, one on either side the

spiders says, " the foot (or portion corresponding to
the tarsus of insects), is divided into two parts, the
tarsus and metatarsus, and in some species into three
joints." The tarsus of the harvestman has in some
cases as many as ninety joints, the lowest number I
have met with being twenty-five. The feet of spiders
are terminated by two or more claws, generally pec-
tinated ; those of the harvestman have only one claw,
curved, but quite smooth. The palpi of the harvest-
man closely resemble those of the female spider,
excepting that the claw at their termination is
generally, if not always, pectinated in the spider and
smooth in the harvestman, though I have found two
instances in which the claws of the palpi were pecti-
nated, although those of the feet of the same

Fig. 56. Fal.\ of
Ditto.

Fig. 57. Bipennis of
Ditto,

Fig. 55. Oviposito of Harvestman " Spider." (The lines show actual size of full-grown organs.)

A A A A A A A

AA AAAAA

Fig. 59. Part of a (Fig. 55) highly magnified.

individuals were not so. The absence of spinnerets
distinguishes the harvestman from the generality of
spiders, but as some few species of spiders are also
without them, this is not a difference of so positive
a character as the other points I have noticed. The
last organs to which I would draw attention are the
fakes : in spiders these are terminated by a curved
claw sometimes deeply serrated on its inner side ; in
the harvestman the termination is a pair of forceps or
nippers like those of a lobster or crab. These fakes in
most of the harvestmen are rather smaller
than we find them in spiders, but in some
cases they are fully three times larger than
we find them in any of the spiders, and
assuming quite a different form ; in fact,
they no longer resemble reaphooks, from
which they derive their name of fakes, but
are much more like pickaxes : therefore, following
the same kind of nomenclature, I propose bipenni
as an appropriate name for them ; the fig. 57
shows an outline of their peculiar form and the
comparative size that the bipenni and the fakes bear
to each other. All the specimens I have found
possessing bipenni were males ; I think, however,
these organs do not distinguish the sexes, but a
difference of species, as both males and females
are found bearing the fakes ; as the upper spur or
arm of the bipenni is not present in those in-
dividuals that are less than half grown, I think it is
not fully developed till the last moult, as in some
that are about three-quarters grown it is very short

Fig. 58. Intromittent Organ of Ditto.

sexual orifice in the female. The air is admitted
to these branchia through stigmata, or horny plates
having fine irregular openings, presenting the appear-
ance of a grating, corresponding in some measure to
the spiracles of insects. The harvestmen breathe by
trachea, the same as insects ; there are two spiracles,
one on either side of the abdomen ; the principal
tracheal tube proceeds a short distance from each
spiracle, and then divides and subdivides, permeating
every part of the body. The eyes present a difference
in number only to those of spiders ; Blackwall says,
" the number of the ocelli in spiders is always two,
six, or eight ; " in the harvestman the number is
four. The same authority in describing the legs of

HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE ■ G O SSI P.

Si

and round at the top, instead of terminating in a sharp
point, as when the animal is full grown.

Having now shown (as I think conclusively) that
the harvestman is not a spider, will some one tell me
what it is ?

Xorwich. J. H . Gary.

THE MIGHTY DEEP.

IN a general way persons have a better appre-
ciation of the vastness of the land than of that
of the sea ; mainly because the former is more fre-
quently forced on their attention. The area of the
ocean is nearly thrice that of the land ; the one
being estimated at about 52 million square miles,
and the other at 145 million square miles. On the
land, as well as in the ocean, there are vast tracts on
which life is absent or scanty ; but whereas, on the
land the inhabitable portion is to a great extent
superficial, in the ocean life occurs more or less I
abundantly at all depths. The ocean forms one
continuous mass of water broken up into irregularly-
shaped portions by the land. When portions of
the sea are inclosed by the land, the water under-
goes so marked a change in character that such
inclosed portions (forming lakes and lagoons) can
no longer be considered as forming part of the
ocean. The sjreat bulk of the sea is concentrated in
the South hemisphere, and the pole of the sea (that
is, the centre of the hemisphere in which it is most
extensive) is in 52 S. 6° E. In this hemisphere
the land is to sea as 1 to 8, while in the opposite
hemisphere there is nearly as much land as sea.

The mean depth of the sea has been variously
estimated, but as yet there are scarcely sufficient data
for accurate estimates. Buffon suggested it might
be 200 fathoms or 1,200 feet ; Lacaille, 163 to 273
fathoms; Laplace, 656 fathoms ; Lyell, 2,600
fathoms ; and Herschel, 3,520 fathoms. The most
probable mean is about 2,600 fathoms. Assuming
this as correct, the average volume per square mile
would be 418, 176 million cubic feet, and the total
volume 60,635,520,000,000 million cubic feet. The
mean height of the land is 1, 000 feet above the sea-level,
which would give a volume of 1,449,676,800,000
million cubic feet for the supramarine portion.
Hence the ocean's bulk is 41 times greater than that
of the land above its upper surface.

One of the causes now in operation which tend to
make the ocean encroach upon the land is the intro-
duction of detrital matter into the sea. Every grain
displaces its own bulk of water, and so far causes it
to encroach upon the land. Denudation is always
going on at a probable mean rate of one foot in
3,600 years, at which rate all the land would be
removed in about ten million years. The sea, in
that case, would gain on the land at the mean rate of
about five square miles per year. If all the land

were transferred to the sea, the mean depth of the
latter would be reduced to 1,500 or 1,600 fathoms.
Other causes, however, may influence the extent of
the ocean. One is the subsidence of land below the
sea-level and elevation or subsidence of the sea
bottom. The subsidence of the whole of the land
would involve a depression of about 30,000 feet ;
and the elevation of the whole of the sea bottom
would require an uplift of about 35,000 feet. In all
probability elevation and subsidence proceed simul-
taneously in different parts of the earth, and may or
may not counterbalance each other. The bearing of
this conjecture is that extensive subsidence or eleva-
tion of the sea bottom is calculated to be more in-
fluential than the introduction of sediment in causing
the sea to advance upon or withdraw back from the
land. The introduction of a mass of matter equal in
bulk to all the supramarine land would be sufficient
to cause the ocean to overflow the land up to about
the level of 6,000 feet above the present level ; while
alterations of level less than those of which the
geologist is cognizant, as local phenomena at least,
would, if extended over large, areas account for the
displacement of entire continents and oceanic basins.
It has been assumed that the bulk of the ocean has
been approximately unaltered; but surmises might be
made upon the variations in the amount of water
which, in its aeriform and liquid states, is temporarily
withdrawn from the sea. A rough calculation indi-
cates that the average amount of vapour constantly
in the air corresponds to about 13,412,704 million
cubic feet of water, and that the amount of fluid re-
quired to keep all lakes, rivers, &c, supplied for six
months is about 2,364,072,004 million cubic feet, or
about sufficient to form 5,894 square miles of sea of
average depth. The entire absence of all flowing
fresh waters, or a doubling of their present volume
(extreme conditions which are not likely to have hap-
pened), would have no appreciable influence geolo-
gically in altering the relative areas of land and sea.
The accumulation of snow and ice would perhaps be
more influential. For, supposing it possible that at
one time there were no ice, and that at another some
10 million square miles were covered therewith to a
depth of 500 feet, this would give a volume of
139,392,002,000 million cubic feet, which cor-
responds to 309,071 square miles of sea of average
depth. If we assume that the sea has retained its
mean depth unaltered, the utmost probable irregu-
larity in the amount of "rainfall and in the accumula-
tion of ice upon the land would not cause its area to
vary by so much as one million square miles. Hence,
from a geological point of view, the possible influence
of such irregularities may be disregarded. There is
yet another influence to be noticed. It is exceed-
ingly probable — nay, we may say certain — that the sea
bed consists of material which is in places permeable,
and in others impermeable, to sea water. At what
rate the water percolates into the rocks, and what

82

HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE . G OSSIP.

quantities are retained in them temporarily, we are
not prepared to state ; but it does not seem likely
that the rates of absorption and evaporation have
varied much. A certain portion of the water, how-
ever, remains in the rocks for prolonged geological
periods, and it is believed the amount is constantly
increasing. It is not known what the amount may
be, but there seems to be no reason to suppose that
it has affected the volume of the ocean to any large
extent. The conclusion at which we arrive is that at
every geological period there has probably been water
somewhere on the earth's surface, having a mean depth
of over 9,000 feet. It has been suggested that comets'
tails may have condensed on the earth, and, as a conse-
quence, given rise to floods ; but such speculations may
be dismissed as purely imaginative. The attractive in-
fluence of the land draws the ocean above the level it
would otherwise have, and thus causes the water to
encroach upon the land ; but such elevation of the
water is a local phenomenon only, the mean level of
the ocean being in no way affected.

The existence and, to a large extent, the conditions
of the present sea are indicated by direct evidence ; .
but the position, depth, and conditions of the seas of
former periods can only be ascertained by indirect
means ; and mainly from the fossil remains found in
strata. The occurrence of a species belonging to a
group of organisms which, so far as known, is exclu-
sively marine, is a fair proof of the co-existence of
marine conditions, provided, of course, such remains
have not been introduced by accident or by derivation
from older marine beds. In most cases collateral
evidence sufficiently indicates whether the stratum is
or is not marine. The distribution of marine or-
ganisms is dependent upon circumstances, so that a
study of these in the case of living species enables us
to infer, more or less correctly, some of the condi-
tions of the sea in which they lived ; and amongst
others that of the contour or depth. The matter is,
however, somewhat complicated, for it would seem
that depth alone has little influence on the distribu-
tion of animals and plants, and that the influencing
conditions are temperature, light, food, currents, &c.
The evidence then which fossils afford as to depth is
probably wholly circumstantial. In the present seas
the greater depths are associated with a low tem-
perature, slow currents or movements of water, sedi-
ments of extreme fineness, and absence of solar lumi-
nous rays ; the probabilities are that such has always
been the case in the older oceans ; but the only con-
stant condition associated with great depth is absence
of the sun's light. In closed seas the temperature
may be high at great depths, and under certain con-
ditions moderate currents may exist in the deepest
oceans. In a general way shallow waters are asso-
ciated with the stronger currents, the coarser deposits,
varied conditions of temperature and accessibility to
solar light. Deposits of extreme fineness may occur
in shallow and cold seas, which conditions would be

nearly the same as those of the deepest seas ; for,
irrespective of depth, the principal difference is pre-
sence of light in the shallow water. This would
allow of the existence of species to which ordinary
light is directly or indirectly essential, along with such
of the deep-sea forms as could live in association with
them. In the shallowest waters along the sea margin
we find a certain relation between the depth and
particular groups of species of organisms ; but ex-
amination shows that this relation holds because
certain conditions of temperature, exposure to air,
food, &c, concur with such depths. These condi-
tions may correspond with a certain depth in one
area and with a different depth in another area ; so
that it becomes necessary to take many circumstances
into account before drawing conclusions as to depth
from the association of certain species. When the
conditions regulating the co-existence of particular
species are known, we can readily infer somewhat as
to the depth of the water. These considerations have
an important bearing upon the geographical distri-
bution of species and the inferences deducible from
such distribution in space and in time, and, conse-
quently, upon the continuity of oceans in space and
in time, or, rather, on the continuity of certain oceanic
conditions. A. Ramsay.

( To be continued. )

BOTANICAL WORK FOR APRIL.

THE early part of the present month will be the
season to work at several species : thus, the
common Pilewort [Ranunculus Ficaria, L.) is now
in full bloom in some parts of Britain. We have
been recently taught to regard it as comprehending
two distinct species ; for example, it is divided
into two varieties, viz., a. diverge/is, F. Sch. ;
b. inatmbens, F. Sch. The first variety, a, has lobes
of lowest leaves not oz'crlapping at the base, lowest
sheaths narrow : variety b, incumbens, has lobes of
lowest leaves overlapping at the base, or parallel with
petiole and lowest sheaths, very broad, amplexicaul.

Which of these varieties occurs in your district ?
It will make many a walk pleasant and delightful to
know one is helping to clear up a question not yet
satisfactorily answered.

In the south of Europe another form is found ; in
fact, a distinct species, named by most botanists
Ranunculus Ficariaformis. Have we not overlooked
it in England? It is very similar to our plant, and
may quite possibly have been passed over. Let it lie
cleared up this spring.

Viola sylvatka, Fries. — This is another species
which can be worked up in April. Most of our
readers are aware that from the days of Linnceus
until a very few years ago, this plant passed current
under the old name of V. canina; nay, not a few still
persist in knowing it under the old name, and refuse
to listen to the '"new species." Linnceus's name

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

{canina) was applied by him to the present and
another species, V. canina of Babington's "Manual."
When it was found needful to separate the two, this
name was restricted by Fries to the one now recog-
nized as the true canina, and he proposed sylvatica
as the present species. Most European botanists at
once adopted his views, but it was some time before
we recognized the new species. But we wish to call
the attention of our readers to another fact, which
may be advantageously worked at in every district,
for V. sylvatica comprehends two well-marked
varieties, viz., a. Riviniana, b. Rcichcnbachiana.
We have many book species, with not near the
distinctive characters possessed by the above.
V. Riviniana, Rich., has the leaves broadly cordate,
acute ; calycine appendages persistent, broad ; petals
blue, remarkably broad, lower one with many
branched veins at its base ; spur thick, cream-coloured,
or very light blue. V. Reichenbachiana, Bor. , leaves cor-
data, prolonged; calycine appendages small, narrow ;
petals bright lilac, lower one with parallel, few, nearly
simple veins at its base; spur flattened, light lilac. If
the above varieties are once recognized, they will
never again be mistaken. The common form, that
often called V. canina, Linn., is seen as a roadside
plant on every sunny bank or sandy lane in
the northern counties, but V. Reichenbachiana is
generally found, and then very sparingly, in deep,
damp ravines and glens, where the sun seldom
penetrates, although sometimes seen on the same
bank with the common form. It may be identified
at a glance, the peculiar lilac petals exceedingly
narrow when compared with any other species ; also
the narrow, often sharp-pointed spur, just tinted with
pale lilac : the leaves are, when young, pale green,
not thick, fleshy, and dark green, like Riviniana,
and it is altogether the prettiest violet known in the
British islands.

Draba vema, L. — Continental authors make six
species out of our earliest spring gem, the " Whitlow
Grass " {Draba vema). We have often wondered
how many of these could be found on our old walls
or sandy pastures. After fifteen years' experience in
the northern counties and Wales chiefly, we can only
detect three varieties, for we do not think they can
fairly take rank as species. From Boreau, "Flore
■die Centre de la France," we take the following; so that
our friends, who may have the opportunity, may work
them out : — I. Erophila (Draba) brachycarpa, Jord.
Leaves oval, lanceolate, narrowed at both extremities,
entire, clothed with simple and bifurcate hairs ; flower-
stalks slender ; sepals oval, hispid ; petals oboval,
oblong ; pedicels flexuose, 2-4 times longer than the
silicules ; silicule very obtuse at summit ; seeds
elliptical, few in number. Loc. old walls and
rocks; " the first to flower." 2. E. glabrescens, Jord.
Leavesdark-green, lanceolate, narrow, gradually taper-
ing into a long petiole, often smooth ; sepals oval, a
little hairy ; petals oboval, oblong, with slightly

spreading lobes ; pedicels hardly three times as long
as the silicules ; silicules nearly evenly oblon<r,
elliptical ; style very short ; seeds 20-24 in each
hemicarp. Loc. dry open places. 3. E. viedioxima,
Jord. Characters same as in E. glabrescens,
only the pedicels are longer, 4-5 times the length
of the silicule. 4. E. hirtella, Jord. Leaves linear
lanceolate, pointed, narrowed into a broad petiole,
often furnished on each side with one or two very
sharp teeth, covered on both sides with long, spread-
ing, often bifurcate hairs ; flower-stalks flexuose,
hispid at their base ; sepals oval oblong, a little
unequal at the base, clothed above with long recurved
hairs ; petals oblong ; seeds oval, brown, covered
with minute points, 30-35 in each cell. Loc. sandy
places. 5. E. stenocarpa, Jord. Leaves linear, pointed,
narrowed into a footstalk of nearly their own
width, covered with numerous bifurcate hairs ; flower-
stalks flexuose, numerous, in crowded tufts ; sepals
oblong, hispid ; petals oblong ; seeds oval, pale brown,
a little rough, about 40 in each cell. Loc. dry
open places. 6. E. majuscida, Jord. Leaves ashy-
green, oblong oboval, a little pointed, wedge-shaped
at the base, with a petiole slightly narrower than
their own breadth, entire, or more usually bordered
with strong teeth, clothed with short, thickly-set
bi- or tri-furcate hairs ; flower-stalks often hispid in
their lower half; sepals rounded oval, slightly hispid
near the summit ; petals large, nearly three times size
of calyx, oboval, veined, with wide obtuse lobes ;
seeds oval, pale brown, finely covered with raised
tubercles, 40 in each cell. Loc. dry sandy pas-
tures. They are thus divided dichotomously : —
I. Lobes of petals, more or less apart, spreading, 3 ;
lobes of petals nearly contiguous, 2. — 2. Silicules
rounded, very obtuse at the top, 1 ; silicules oblong,
much narrowed below, 4.-3. Leaves linear or lan-
ceolate, narrow, 4; leaves oblong oboval, 6. — 4.
Sepals oval silicules oblong, elliptical, 5 ; sepals ob-
long ; silicules linear oblong, 5. — 5. Pedicels hardly
three times the length of silicule, 2 ; pedicels 4-5 times
as long as the silicule, 3. We have met with No. 1,

D. brachycarpa, Jord.. frequently in sheltered nooks ;
also D. glabrescens, Jord. : the latter comes into flower
a week^or two later, and is what we have recognized
as our "common " plant. Then occasionally we have
come across what we should most unmistakably name

E. majuscida, Jord. : however, as it is an open ques-
tion, we hope it may soon be settled, as to whether
we have two, or three, or even six varieties amongst
us. F,

Glow-worms. — Returning from Barnstaple on
Friday evening, the 22nd of February, I was surprised
to observe a glow-worm shining as brilliantly as in
summer. To be certain I was not deceived, I caught
and brought it safely home in a vesta box. Is it not
very rare to see them at this time of the year? — Art hit/
Smyth, Parracombe, North Dcz<on.

34

HARD WJCKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP.

THE SEALS AND WHALES OF THE
BRITISH SEAS.

By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S.
No. IX.

THE Pilot Whale {Globicephahis melas, Trail),
known in Shetland as the Ca'ing or Driving
Whale, is a frequent, although a very uncertain,
visitor in British waters. It is met with, according
to Lilljeborg, in the North Sea and northern part of
the Atlantic Ocean, occasionally as far north as
( Greenland ; off the Orkney and Shetland Islands it
frequently makes its appearance, and has been found
on the British coast as far south as Cornwall. In

following. Bell gives many instances of large num-
bers of these animals being taken, the last of which,
quoted from the " Zoologist " for 1846, is, perhaps,
the most extraordinary. It is there stated, "on
newspaper authority," that 2,080 were taken in
Faroe in the previous year within six weeks, and that
1,540 were killed 'within two //ours in Quendall Bay,
Shetland, on the 22nd September, 1845. This
species (fig. 61) is remarkable for its peculiarly
rounded head, — hence its generic name ; the flippers
are long and pointed, the dorsal fin long and low ;
the teeth about an inch in length, seldom all present
in the adults, and the normal number, according to
Bell, about twenty-four on either side each jaw ; ten
to twelve is, however, the more usual number present.

Fig. do. Head of Ziphius or McsoplodoH (mentioned in Dr. Busteed's and Mr. Southwell's papers of last month ;

from Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xxiv.).

Bell's "British Quadrupeds" it is said that it also
appears to enter the Mediterranean. This species is
pre-eminently gregarious, and generally occurs in
large herds,, often numbering several hundreds. So
strong is their habit of association that they follow
the leading whale like a flock of sheep, a habit of which
the Orkney and Shetland Islanders are fully aware, and
avail themselves to the full. When a herd appears
in one of the bays, boats immediately set off, and, if
possible, get to seaward of them, then gradually
approaching, with shouts and splashes, they urge the
whole herd shoreward, and are generally successful
in driving a large portion of the whales into shallow
water ; but should the leader break through the line
of boats, the probability is that no efforts the boat's
crews can make will prevent all its companions

The length of the adult is about nineteen or twenty
feet, its colour glossy black, with the exception of a
white stripe along the belly, which has a heart-shaped
termination under the throat. Its favourite food is
said to be cuttlefish. The figure is from the " Trans-
actions of the Zoological Society," vol. viii., pi. 30.

The Common Porpoise (Phocana communis, F.
Cuv.) is the best known of the Cetacea inhabiting
the North Sea, being met with in abundance all
round the British Isles, seldom occurring far from
land, and often ascending large rivers for a consider-
able distance : it has been seen in the Thames as high
as London Bridge, and in the harbour at Lynn I have
often seen it. Nothing can be more interesting than
to watch a shoal of these animals at sea, sometimes
tumbling and gambling under the bows of the vessel

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP.

35

which is passing rapidly through the water, with as
much ease as if she were motionless, or chasing each
other playfully round and round the ship as she lies
becalmed, their white bellies glistening in the clear
sea, and frequently, apparently out of pure mad
delight, leaping completely out of the water, return-

they just bring the blow-hole to the surface, breathe
without stopping, and continue the curve, till in due
course they reach the surface again. This is repeated
for the whole length of their spacious tank, or is
vajied by unexpected eccentricities, all indescribably
graceful. Under these favourable circumstances for

Fig. 61. The Pilot Whale (GlobkepJiahts melas).

Fig. 62. Common Dolphin (Dclp/ihuis delphis).

Fig. 63. Bottle-nosed Dolphin (Delfhinus tursid).

ing to their native element with a most determined
header. But it was not till I saw these animals in
the Brighton Aquarium that I fully appreciated the
beauty, and I may even say the poetry, of their
motion ; swimming along in a series of gentle curves,

observation it is also clearly seen that the horizontal
tail is the propeller which gives the motion ; the
alternate upward and downward pressure of this
organ against the water evidently producing the
graceful mode of progression which is so difficult

86

HA RD IV I CKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P.

to describe, but so easily understood when witnessed.
All this I understood in theory before, but it was a
new and beautiful sight to view the practice from a
stand-point, on a level with the animal itself, and
as it were in its own element.

The food of the Porpoise consists of fish, and it
follows the shoals of herrings, &c, amongst which
it commits great depreciations ; it has a taste for
salmon, and is sometimes taken in the salmon-nets.
The period of gestation is said to be six months, and
it brings forth one young one at a birth ; its colour is
black on the back, shaded off to silver-grey on the
belly, the whole skin beautifully smooth and polished.
The teeth number about twenty- five on each side of
either jaw, and are spatulate, with a contracted neck,
unlike the usually conical teeth of the Dtlfihinidee.
The length is four or five feet. The flesh of the
Porpoise seems formerly to have been esteemed as an
article of food, and is mentioned several times in the
L'Estrange Household Book (15 19 to 1578) and
other similar records ; it is said by one who has eaten

ancients could raise the most gorgeous structures of
poetry and religion upon the most slender basis . . .
it requires some stretch of the imagination to
identify the round-headed creature which is repre-
sented in ancient coins and statues, with the straight
sharped-beaked animal " which is here figured. It is
said to destroy at one fell swoop all the romance
which once surrounded this species ; but Dr. Gray
tells us that "the dying Dolphin's changing hues"
are not observed in a cetacean at all, but in a fish of
the genus Coryphmna, which, although normally
black, is stated by Mr. Couch (as quoted by Mr.
Yarrell) to have changed to a fine blue whilst he was
making a drawing of it. The food of the Dolphin
consists of fish, cuttlefish, and crustaceans, and on
the Cornish coast it makes its appearance in con-
siderable numbers, according to Mr. Couch, in the
month of September during the pilchard season. It
is very social in its habits, and even more sportive in
the water than its relative, the Porpoise. The upper
surface is black, shaded off to white below, the length

Fig. 64. White-beaked Dolphin {Delphimts albirostris).

it to be " excellent meat, dark in colour, and large in
fibre, but of excellent flavour, very tender, and full
of gravy."

The Common Dolphin (Defykinus delphis, Linn.),
fig. 62, is not unfrequently met with in the seas
surrounding the British Isles, but it doubtless often
passes unrecognized. It may, however, be at once
distinguished from the Porpoise by its attenuated
beak, the head of the Porpoise being obtuse, and the
beak altogether absent. It is a native of the temper-
ate seas, and becomes scarcer as the north is ap-
proached. Lilljeborg says it is seldom obtained on
the coasts of Scandinavia; in Greenland it is rarely
met with. Professor Bell, in his "British Quadru-
peds," says: "The mythological and poetical associa-
tions which belong to the Dolphin, its reputed
attachment to mankind, its benevolent aid in cases of
shipwreck, its dedication to the gods, and many
other attributes expressive of the high estimation in
which it was held in olden times, afford a striking
example of how the unrestrained imagination of the

about six to eight feet. The illustration s copied
from Reinhardt's figure.

The Bottle-nosed Dolphin (D. titrsio, Fab.),
fig. 63, appears to be found occasionally from the
Mediterranean to the North Sea ; it is by no means,
however, a common species.

Of the habits of this species very little is known : its
colour is black above, shaded to dirty white below,
and its length from 8 to 12 feet. The figure is from
a drawing of a nearly adult male taken at Holyhead,
in October, 1868, for which I am indebted to the
kindness of Prof. Flower.

The White-sided Dolphin (D. aatlns, J. E.
Gray) is a rare species, which has occurred in a few
instances on the British coast : its colour is black above
and white below, between which runs a broad band of
yellowish brown, about the centre of which, and
surrounded by it, is a large oblong patch of pure
white. A figure and description taken from one of a
herd of twenty landed at Kirkwall, on the 21st August,
1858, will be found in the "Ann. and Mag. of

IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

87

Nat. Hist." (3rd series) for August, 1864, vol. xiv.

P- 133.

The last species on the British list, the White-
beaked Dolphin {D. albirostris, J. E. Gray), fig. 64,
is also of rare occurrence : it is a native of the North
Atlantic, but little is known of its habits. A dolphin
of this species was killed at Hartlepool in 1S34, but
not recognized at the time : the skull is now in the
Cambridge Museum. It was, I believe, first de-
scribed as British by Mr. Brightwell, under the name
of D. tursio, from a specimen taken off Yarmouth in
1846. His paper, with a figure from a drawing
made by Miss Brightwell, will be found in the "Ann.
and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," first series, January, 1846,
vol. xvii. p. 21. Another specimen was shot by
Mr. H. M. Upcher, near Cromer, and will be found
recorded by Dr. Gray in the same Magazine, for April,
1866, vol. xvii. p. 312. A fourth was taken at the
mouth of the Dee, in December, 1862 ; and a fifth
on the south coast in 1S71. A few Continental
specimens are also recorded.

In September, 1875, a young female was taken off
Grimsby, and in March, 1876, a young male was
captured off Lowestoft. The first-named of these
latter formed the subject of a communication to the
Zoological Society of London, by Dr. Cunningham,
of Edinburgh, and the latter of a subsequent notice
Mr. J. W. Clark, of Cambridge. Both papers will be
found printed in the " Proceedings of the Zoological
Society " for 1876, p. 679, et seq., and figures of the
two specimens are given on the same plate. Through
the kindness of Mr. Clark I am enabled to give a
figure of the Lowestoft specimen (fig. 64). Mr. Clark's
figure differs considerably from Dr. Cunningham's
both in outline and in the disposal of colour, being
much more slender, and showing considerably less
white ; both, however, differ still more from Mr.
Brightwell's figure than they do from each other. Mr.
Clark's specimen was glossy black on the upper part,
and creamy white on the under ; the upper lip white,
with a black spot at the tip, and a few irregular pale
grey cloudings on its surface ; the coloration exceed-
ingly beautiful, and such as no drawing could give
an adequate idea of. Mr. Brightwell's specimen had
the whole upper part and sides rich purple-black,
the lips, throat, and belly cream-colour, varied by
chalky white. This specimen, an adult, measured
8 ft. 2 in. in length, Mr. Clark's 5 ft. $\ in., and Dr.
Cunningham's 4 ft. 2 in. The teeth vary in number,
but are about twenty-six on either side each jaw.

This species concludes the short list of the twenty-
two British Cetacea, of which I have endeavoured to
give a popular, but I hope at the same time, so far as
it is at present known, a reliable account, my principal
object, as I stated in my introductory remarks, being
to induce those residing in suitable localities to take
up the study of this interesting family, and to assist
in the identification of those specimens which from
time to time are cast upon our shores.

MICROSCOPY.

The American Microscopical Journal. — We
have just received parts 1 and 2 of vol. iii. of the
A merican Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science,
and we have much pleasure in calling attention to
this unpretending periodical. It is not like our
own quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, in-
tended for specialists only, but addresses itself to all
who are anxious to know what is being done in those
branches of natural history requiring the aid of the
microscope. This periodical started into existence
in 1876, the annual subscription being 50 cents. :
with the commencement of the present year that has
been increased to 1 dollar, and the work enlarged
from 16 pp. to 24 pp. Amongst its contributors are
Professor H. Smith, of Hobart College, N. Y. (the
celebrated diatomist), Professor Hitchcok, J.Edwards
Smith, Zeus Zundlach, and others. A subscription
of 5s., which may be sent in English stamps, entitles
the subscriber to a copy every month, post-free.
Mr. Charles Stodder, 131, Devonshire Street, Boston,
has consented to receive subscriptions.

Machine for Mounting. — I send you a sketch
of a little mounting machine, which I have found
very useful. A is a zinc vessel to hold hot water ;

Fig. 65. Machine for Mounting Slides.

B are brass rods, topped with screws ; C are nuts ;
and D are brass springs. By turning up or down
the nuts C, any degree of pressure can be obtained
upon the thin glass. — Albert Smith.

A new Posting-box for Slides. — A new
style of posting, or as our American brethren call it,
"mailing" box contrived by Dr. R. H. Ward, has
proved successful beyond anything tried before. An
account of it is therefore published in the hope that
it may be made more generally useful. In the boxes
hitherto used for posting slides, the slides are occa-
sionally found shattered to pieces, while the box con-
taining them is quite uninjured or only a little
strained. In some boxes containing six or twelve
slides, half or more of the slides have been found
broken in a perfectly sound box. This seemed to in-
dicate not the effect of a crushing blow but the result
of the inertia of the slide itself, which was only sup-
ported by the wooden racks at the ends and more or
less perfectly by the cotton stuffed around it. An

ss

HARD WI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P.

adequate occasion for such an accident might be fur-
nished by throwing the mail-bag from a waggon to
the pavement, or transferring it to or from a rapidly-
moving train. It was therefore decided to reject the
wooden rack altogether, and instead to support the
slide by the whole of its edges and much of its sides
by cloth, leather, indiarubber, or other soft and
evenly-yielding material. This may be attained with
the common boxes by removing the racks, lining the
top, bottom, and ends with thick, soft cloth, and
arranging folds of the cloth, glued or stitched in place,
like a rack at each end of the box so that a double
thickness of the cloth shall extend between the slides
from each end one inch towards the centre. It i s
better, however, to have the boxes made for this use
somewhat larger than the customary size, so that very
thick beaver cloth can be used for the packing. For
six slides a box may be made of hard wood 3-l6ths
of an inch thick, 3§ inches long, \\ wide and \\ deep
inside measurement. The folds of cloth should be so
arranged that not more than an inch in the centre of
the slide is unsupported, except when large cover-
glasses are to be used, when more space should be
left to avoid pressing on the cover. The outside of
the box is covered with strong thin cloth. The com-
parative safety of this method is indicated by the expe-
rience of the American Postal Club. During a trial
of several months in many of the circuits, not one
slide is known to have been broken while packed in
this manner, while to slides in the ordinary boxes
with wooden racks, accidents are unfortunately fre-
quent. For sending by express, these boxes should be
made of thicker wood, or enclosed in larger cases, to
prevent crushing by the weight of heavy packages
among which they may be carried.

Actinocyclus Barklyi. — I believe this form
has not been published, at least in a scientific sense.
Some dozen or more years ago a diatomaceous
deposit was discovered in or near the Yarra Yarra,
Melbourne, Australia, and was distributed under the
name of the " Yarra deposit." The form about which
" C. V. S." inquires received the MS. name of
Coscinodiscus Barklyi, in honour, I believe, of one
of the governors. It was originally referred to the
Coscinodisci from the supposed absence of the mar-
ginal nodule. It is, however, to be detected by careful
examination, although very minute; it is situated on the
extreme edge of the disc, and when the inner surface
of the valve is uppermost, it is often invisible. Cos-
cinodiscus fuscus, Norman, is supposed to be identical
with the above species. — F. Kitton.

Sap Crystals.— The sap of the Scotch fir contains
very beautiful crystals ; they may be obtained at this
season of the year by cutting a slice through the bark,
from the under side of the branch ; in a few days the
sap will flow containing the crystals. — S. C. Hincks.

Cleaning Diatomace.e. — I have followed "Da-
vis" in his manner of cleaning diatoms, but cannot

get rid of the flocculent matter and the sand, — in fact,
my slides are sand interspersed with diatoms, &c.
I have washed, and washed, and washed, till there is
very little left out of a rich gathering ; can you give
me any help ? — //. G. IV.

The Resolution of Diatom Tests. — At a
recent meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society,
Mr. Adolf Schulze, of Glasgow, read a paper on "A
new and simple Method of Resolving the finest Bal-
sam-mounted Diatom Tests." The author described
the success which had attended the examination of
this dass of objects by means of the reflex illuminator,
and the immersion paraboloid moistened with Castor
oil instead of water. The lines on Amphipleura pel-
hicida were in this manner shown in order to illus-
trate Mr. Schulze's method.

ZOOLOGY,

The Golden Oriole {Oriolus ga!bula).—Cz.n
any of your readers supply information respecting the
notes of this bird ? It is asserted by those who have
heard it in Austria, that it has three definite notes,
and that those notes follow each other in the follow-
ing musical order :

^g^a

If this can be verified, it will elucidate a remarkable
statement made by Nieremberg in his Natures
Historia, 1635, in which he speaks of a bird called
the Tritono Ave, and to which the late Canon Kings-
ley refers in his Life (vol. ii. p. 332). It is worthy
of remark that Bechstein states that the male bird's
notes resemble "a flourish of trumpets," and very
curiously the above notes are a common bugle-call.
It will also be noticed that the last two notes are
those of the Cuckoo. If there be any truth in the
statement advanced, a very singular musical question
is solved, that a bird possesses the power of uttering
a " common chord " ! This was observed by Shield
in his treatise on Harmony (1S00), and which first
attracted the attention of the writer of this notice. —
IV. II. C.

Parasitic Worms in Leg ok Grebe. — When
skinning a Little Grebe (Podkeps minor, Pen.), on
November 25th, 1874, I came upon a cluster of
nematoid worms amongst the muscles and tendons of
both legs— exactly in the same place in each — near
the lower part of the tibia. From their larger size
they appeared to have been longer in the left leg than
in the right. They were rather hard and stiff — not
soft and flabby— of a regular spiral form, of about
six turns, tapering to each end, the largest about
three-quarters of an inch in length — not following the
turns of the spiral : if straight, they would be about
an inch long. They seemed unable to straighten

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

89

themselves ; when found, they were twined together
like the* strands of a rope, and I observed that one,
after being separated from the others, bent slowly
round until it was twisted on itself. The bird was
very much emaciated, and no wonder, as, in addition
to the worms in the legs, it had a large fibrous
tumour in the back." The above extract is from
some "zoological notes" contributed by me to the
" Proc." of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,
vol. viii. p. 288. Lately — February 27th, 1878 — I
had a similar case, but in a different species of bird, —
an immature female of the Water-hen {Gallinula
chloropus). When skinning the legs near where the
muscles end and the tendons begin, there was a quantity
of gelatinous matter which, as the bird was ap-
parently healthy and in good condition — not like the
Grebe in that respect, — induced me to examine it
carefully, when I found in both legs a number of the
same worms, or a nearly allied species, to that found
in the Grebe. The chief difference was in their not
being so regularly spiral, various sizes intermixed,
and not in such compact clusters. Although some of
them were entwined and interlaced together, others,
when the lower part of the tibia was pressed from
below upwards, came out singly amongst the ten-
dons, with a spiral motion like that of a corkscrew.
Perhaps some of the readers of Science-Gossip may,
from the above imperfect description, be ahle to
identify the species to which they belong. — Andrew
Brotherston, Kelso.

The Solitaire. — Prof. Newton recently drew
the attention of the Zoological Society to the state-
ment of Leguat that every Solitaire {Pezophaps soli-
laria) carried a stone in its gizzard, and exhibited
one of three stones found by Mr. Caldwell associated
with the remains of as many birds of that species in
the caves of Rodriguez.

The National Entomological Exhibition
at the Westminster Aquarium well deserves a visit
from every entomologist who has the opportunity.
The committee who have arranged it are well known
entomologists, and it is not too much to say that
there never was a series of collections of insects like
this got together before. The insect fauna of Great
Britain and other countries are shown ; insects bene-
ficial and injurious to man ; insect productions useful
in commerce, &c. Nearly all the collections are
sent by persons living in and near the Metropolis.
The few exceptions to this rule are Mr. Prest, of the
York Natural History Society ; Sir Thomas Mon-
creiffe, who sends a fine collection of Scotch insects ;
and Lord Walsingham, of Merton Hall, Thetford,
whose collection of preserved larvae, with their food-
plants, is one of the most interesting and beautiful
objects in the exhibition : the specimens were all pre-
pared by his lordship's own hands, and they repre-
sent a great amount of labour and study. Nearly

every class in the exhibition is well represented ; the
Lepidoptera naturally predominating on account of
their greater beauty. The collections of Mr. Well-
man, Mr. Stevens, and Mr. Farn are especially good,
while among the micro-lepidoptera, Mr. Machin's
and Dr. Harper's collections are remarkably good :
one case of the latter gentleman's contains upwards
of 3,000 specimens. Coleoptera and Hymenoptera
are also well represented, the latter by Mr. F. Smith,
of the British Museum, whose collection is the result
of forty years' labour. The life histories of insects,
illustrated by Messrs. Adams, of Enfield, the cases
showing the habits of insects, prepared by Messrs.
Eedle & Son, and the foreign lepidoptera of Messrs.
Cook & Son are highly meritorious.

The Odontophore in Moi.lusca. — At a recent
meeting of the Zoological Society, Mr. P. Geddes
read a memoir on the mechanism of the odontophore
in certain mollusca. In this paper the view of Cuvie r
— that the movements of the radula depend upon those
of the underlyingcartilages — was substantially revived,
arguments being adduced against the more recent
theory of Professor Huxley, that it runs like a chain-
saw, the cartilages merely forming a pulley-block.
The use of bacteria as food by Lymnccus was also
described by the author in this paper.

"The Fins of Elasmobranchs, with Con-
siderations on the Nature and Homologies
ok Vertebrate Limbs." — This is the title of a
paper by Prof. Mivart, read before the Zoological
Society, wherein the author detailed his dissections
of the fins of Elasmobranchs, which dissections had
convinced him that the paired and azygous fins are of
similar nature. He represented them all to have
resulted from the centripetal growth and evalescence
of a primitively distinct series of cartilaginous rays
developed in longitudinal folds, of which one was
dorsal, one ventral, and two were lateral. He also
advocated the view that the limb-girdles result from
the further centripetal growth of the evalescing limb-
cartilages, which growth seeks a point d'tippni, the
pectoral limb-girdles in fishes shooting upwards and
downwards as well as inwards to obtain a firm support,
and at the same time to avoid the visceral cavity.
He contended that the Archipterygium was not to be
sought for in Ceratodus, which he by no means
regarded as a primitive type of structure, but rather
in Rata and especially in the ventrals of Polyodon.
He objected to Gegenbauer's view that the meta-
pterygium formed the limb-axis of the cheiropterygium,
advocating instead the propterygium, or, if not that,
then the mesopterygium. He cited the varying con-
ditions described as evidences of the presence of an
innate intra-organic polar force as the main agent in
morphological modifications.

The Importation of Humble Bees into New
Zealand. — There would probably be no great

9°

HARD J VI CKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P.

difficulty in taking out dormant fertile female humble
bees to New Zealand, if they were dug up in the
early spring, and packed in moss, and put into an
ice-chest and kept cool until their arrival at their
destination. If, however, the common species, Bomlnts
terrestris, were sent out, it might do a great deal of
harm, and very little good. It obtains the nectar
from the red clover and other flowers with narrow
corolla-tubes, or otherwise difficult of access, by boring
holes from the outside, as has been shown by Darwin.
The red-tailed humble bee, Bombus lapidarias, on the
contrary, always, so far as my experience serves,
goes to the natural opening of the flowers, and is the
great agent in fertilizing the narrow-tubed ones. I
once watched a small patch of red clover for upwards
of an hour. Both of the above species came to it ;
Bombus tcrrestris, without exception, buried its head
amongst the flowers, and made holes at their base, or
sucked the nectar from those already made. Bombus
lapidarius just as invariably went to the opening of
the flowers, although the most of them had holes
made by the other species. Bombus lapidarius has
a longer proboscis than B. tcrrestris, and this is pro-
bably the reason for the different way in which they
go to work. Early in the summer I have seen young
individuals of B. tcrrestris sucking the nectar from
the flowers of the scarlet runners in a legitimate
manner, but they soon learn to make by preference
the holes at the base. The successive steps in their
education may be watched from their first hesitation,
awkwaixl attempts to do this to the instinctive-like
facility they attain later on in the season. I know
nothing more interesting to a naturalist when he
wishes to rest from more serious study than to devote
a few hours on a summer's day to watching the hum-
ble bees at work amongst the flowers. They have
been favourites of mine from early childhood, one of
my first experiments being the determination of the
stinging powers of the three species, and the time
they might be kept between the hollow of the two
hands before they got sufficiently angry to sting.
Aly recollection is that Bombus lapidarius, although
it has the longest proboscis, has also the shortest
temper and most virulent venom, and if it be not set
free as soon as its first angry note is heard, it will
not fail to punish severely. Notwithstanding this
trait in its character, I have no hesitation in recom-
mending that it is the one that should be sent out to
New Zealand, and that Bombus tcrrestris should not
be. — Thomas Belt, the Cedars, Ealing.

Development of Frogs' Spawn. — For the last
two years I have carefully watched the development
of frogs' spawn, and my observations give much
quicker results than those noted by Mr. McAldowie.
In 1876 frogs spawned on April 4th, and my note of
April 8th says, "Observed tadpoles associated
together in twos and threes, gills visible with Cod-
dington lens." Thus in four days my tadpoles were

as far advanced as those of your correspondent in
twelve. In 1877 frogs spawned in the afternoon of
March 30th ; at 9 a.m. on the 5th April one tadpole
was free, and at 5 p.m. several were clear of the
albumen. If possible I will again collect and watch
the spawn this year. If others do the same, and we all
send our notes to the editor of Science-Gossip,
perhaps he may make some use of them. While ex-
amining tadpoles under the microscope in 1876, I
fancied that the whole of the exterior cuticle was
covered with very minute vibratile cilia. I could find
no mention of such a fact in any work, and concluded
I must have been mistaken ; last year, however,
rather confirmed my idea, and as many readers of
this journal will doubtless keep and examine tadpoles
this year, may, I ask them whether my suspicion is
correct or not. — J?. B. C, Fauhams Hall, Ware.

The Human Eye. — A well-written and attract-
ively got-up book on this subject has just been
published by Messrs. Hardwicke & Bogue, from the
pen of Dr. R. E. Dudgeon. It deals with the optical
construction of the human eye, and has some novel
views concerning subaqueous vision, air lenses, &c.
The optics of human vision are clearly and scientifi-
cally discussed, and yet with a popular and even
attractive style of description. The book is well
illustrated.

Practical Taxidermy. — We have been fre-
quently applied to to recommend a good book on
Taxidermy, and are now glad to be able to do so.
Mr. Montague Brown has just completed a work en-
titled " Practical Taxidermy : a Manual of Instruc-
tion to the Amateur, &c." It is the completest
little hand-book of the subject we have, giving
figures of tools, modes of stuffing and setting up
bads and animals of all kinds, preparing skins, &c.
It is published at the Bazaar office, 32, Wellington-
street.

The Freedom of Modern Science. — Mr.
John Murray, of Albemarle-street, has issued, in a
cheap and well-got-up form, the address on this
subject by Dr. Rudolf Virchow, given before the
Conference of German Naturalists at Munich last
September. The high authority of the speaker and
the fact that he has not often expressed his opinions
on the evolution theory, although he may be said to
be the founder of embryological research, gave his
remarks much prominence. The address is a search-
ing criticism into the views of Darwin, Haeckel,
Naegeli, and others, and a protest against modern
science being led captive by any theory, no matter
how fascinating.

New Species of British Insects. — In the last
number of the Entomologists'' Monthly Magazine Mr.
P. Cameron describes two new species of lYcmatus
under the names of A r . hibcrnieus and X. plaeidus.

HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P.

9*

The former was taken near Dublin, and the latter in
England.

The Barbastelle (Synolus Barbastellus). — This
evening (March 7th), whilst driving near Colchester,
I fancied I saw three bats that were new to me. I
struck at one with my whip and killed it. On picking
up my game, I was pleased to find the above bat was
my unknown friend. This district therefore can be
added to those in which this rare British mammal
occurs. — Henry Laver, F.L.S.

BOTANY,

Carex punctata, Gaud.— This species was sent
to tbe Botanical Exchange Club, labelled as follows :
— "Ledges of perpendicular rocks in theWatenvinch,
Tenby. — C. Bailey.'''' This exceedingly rare sedge
has hitherto been reported from several places in
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Cornwall : we
believe the above locality is new to science. It is
very closely allied to Carex fulva, Good., but differs
from that species by its smooth humid fruit, which is
obscurely veined, but not ribbed. The fruit is also
pale green, but in C. distans, L., it is yellowish-
brown. The beak is slightly longer than in our
herbarium specimens, but the rough nut, tumid punc-
tate fruit, and tall slender stem, at once distinguish
this from its near allies.

Vegetable Teratology. — I recently found a
singular monstrosity in Harleston Firs, Anagallis
arvensis, which had the petals transformed into leaves,
and the calyx also leaf-like. The plant was fertile.
On the Barnack quarries Trifolium procumbens, was
so called viviparous. — G. C. Druce.

The "Rain Tree." — At a recent meeting of the
Linnean Society, Professor Thistleton Dyer described
the "Rain Tree" of Mogobamba, South America,
under the name of Pithecolobium saman. The so-
called "rain" is the fluid excreta of cicadas which
feed on the juices of the foliage, and its dropping is
therefore analogous to the "honey-dew " which some-
times drops from the leaves of lime-trees by the
agency of aphides.

Polygala calcarea. — In the February number
of Trimen's yournal of Botany, Mr. James Britten
notes the occurrence of a specimen of Polygala cal-
carea in a collection of British plants presented to the
British Museum herbarium. It is associated on the
same sheet as Polygala vidgaris, and was collected at
Hughenden, Bucks, in June, 1865. It had not pre-
viously been recorded as occurring in that county.

Monstrosity in R. bulbosus.— In a field near
Leicester, in June, 1877, I found a specimen of Ra-
nunculus bulbosus, having three completely deve-
loped whorls of petals, and nearly fifty stamens.

Neither myself nor any of my botanical friends have
ever found similar specimens. If the petals were
developed from the stamens, the original number of
the latter must have been much greater than usual. —
Arthur Wheatley.

Volvox globator. — In the neighbourhood of
Ashton-under-Lyne Volvox globator has been found,
by myself and others, in great abundance, from the
24th of last November (on which date it was first
detected in our locality) up to March. The pits
have been visited two or three times each month
since November, and several times we have got volvox
from under the ice. I myself gathered it from
under half an inch of ice on January 28th, some of
which were exhibited at the meeting of the Man-
chester Field Naturalists' Society on February 3rd. —
Thomas Whitelegg.

GEOLOGY,

The Influence of the Advent of a Higher
Form of Life in modifying the Structure
of an older and lower Form. — This was the
title of an important paper, by Professor Owen,
C.B., F.R.S., recently read before the Geological
Society. The author, after referring to the general
question of the modification of the structure of
organic forms produced by the action of external
influences, indicated that, in connexion with this,
changes in the nature of the prey of carnivorous
animals ought to be taken into consideration. He
inferred that cold-blooded aquatic animals formed a
much greater proportion of the food of Mesozoic than
than of Neozoic Crocodiles, and pointed out as con-
nected therewith the well-marked distinction between
the amphiccelian and proccelian type of vertebne re-
spectively characteristic of the two groups. The
proccelian character of the trunk-vertebrae better
adapts that part of the body to be sustained and
moved in air, and may be connected with the in-
coming in Tertiary times of mammalian prey inducing
the Crocodiles to rush on shore. The Mesozoic
Crocodiles were encased in a much stronger and
more complete dermal armour than their successors,
doubtless for their protection from the great Ich-
thyosaurs, Pliosaurs, &c, which coexisted with them ;
but as these passed away at the close of the Secondary
epoch, the armour of the proccelian Crocodiles has
become more scanty, and the diminution of weight
and rigidity thus caused would favour progression in
the air, and the rapidity of movement required for
capturing mammalian prey on land. The difference
in the position of the palato-nares, and in other related
gular and palatal structures, between the Mesozoic
and Neozoic Crocodiles is apparently connected with
the power possessed by the latter of holding sub-
merged a powerful mammal without permitting the

02

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

access of water to the posterior nostrils and windpipe
of the Crocodile : and hence the author is inclined to
ascribe a fish-diet even to those massive-jawed Croco-
diles from the Purbeck (such as Goniopholis crassidens
and simus), which in some respects might seem fitted
to grapple with large and active mammals. The
small size of the upper temporal apertures in Tertiary
and existing Crocodiles is regarded by the author as
a further proof in the same direction ; these apertures
are reduced by the progressive increase of the osseous
roof of the temporal vacuities, which again is corre-
lated with increase in the bulk and power of the tem-
poral muscles, the main agents in biting and holding.
The differences in the length and strength of the jaw,
as a rule, testify in the same direction. Further, the
fore limbs in Mesozoic Crocodiles are shorter than in
Neozoic species, indicating that the former were more
strictly aquatic in their habits ; the fore-limbs in all
Crocodiles being closely applied to the body during
rapid swimming, and small limbs being less ob-
structive than larger ones. On the other hand, they
would be less efficient as a means of progression on
land, and hence it may be inferred that the advent in
Tertiary times of mammals frequenting the water-side,
tempting the Crocodiles to make a rush upon the land
to seize such passing prey, would lead to such
strenuous action of the fore-limbs as would account
for the increased size and power of those organs in
the Neozoic species. The author concluded with
some remarks upon the influence of the above con-
siderations upon our views as to the generic divisions
of Crocodiles.

The Glacial Period. — Dr. Ricketts, F.G.S.,
has reprinted his valuable paper, read before the Liver-
pool Geological Society, on the "The Conditions
existing during the Glacial Period." It also contains
an account of the Glacial deposits in the valley between
Tranmere and Oxton, near Birkenhead.

Marine Fossils in the Gannister Beds. —
Prof. G. A. Lebour has announced the discovery of
marine fossils in the lower coal measures, or " gan-
nister" beds of Northumberland, between Stocksfield
station and Whittonstall. Hitherto no marine fossils
have been met with in these rocks.

The Geology of Colorado. — The Atlas of
Colorado, soon to be issued by the United States
Geological Survey of the Territories, under Prof.
F. V. Hayden, embodies the results of the geological
and geographical work of the survey during the years
from 1873 to 1S76 inclusive. This Atlas will contain
the following maps : — 1st, A general drainage map of
Colorado, on a scale of twelve miles to the inch.
2nd, An economic map of the same region, having at
its basis the above-mentioned drainage map. This
map will indicate the areas of arable, pasture, timber,
coal, mineral, and desert land in as great detail as

possible on the scale. 3rd, A general geological map
on which the areas covered by the principal forma-
tions will be shown. The drainage map will form
the basis for this also. 4th, A map showing the
scheme of the primary triangulation in the State.
Scale, twelve miles to the inch. 5th, Six topogra-
phical sheets, showing the same area as that covered
by the general drainage map, but in much more detail.
The scale of these sheets is four miles to an inch.
The relief of the country is indicated by contour lines,
at vertical intervals of 200 feet. The area covered
by each of these sheets is 11,500 square miles. 6th,
Six geological sheets, of which the basis is the six
topographical sheets just mentioned. On these the
detailed geology is expressed by colours. With the
appearance of this map, Colorado will be better
known, topographically and geologically, than any
other State.

Winds, Ocean-Currents, and Tides. — Mr.
W. L. Leighton, F. R. G. S., has published a second
edition of his lecture on the above subject, together
with the discussion which arose when the discourse
was delivered. Mr. Leighton is a formidable antago-
nist, and is not likely to surrender his own views
because some scientific authorities think lightly of
them. Even the latter must confess that he makes
out a good case.

Fossil Fungus. — Prof. Lesquereux has recently
described a fossil fungus (RhizomorpAw sigillaritz)
discovered under the baric of a Sigillaria from the
Carmelton Coal of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

A Singular Place for a Bird's-nest. —
Whilst waiting on the platform of the railway-station
at Coventry, one day last week, I observed an old
sparrow's nest built inside a signal-bell. This bell is
of a saucer shape, some 10 inches in diameter, and
placed with its concave face within about ii inch
of the side of the "crossover" bridge, and directly
over the centre of the railway. The hammer-head
of this bell is attached to a long lever, in connection
with a wire, leading to a distant operating spot.
There is also a heavy counterweight and lever,
forming part of the apparatus of the signal ; so that
when the bell is struck, there is, besides the loud
ringing, a great rattle and noise of levers, and a
heavy thump caused by the falling counterweight.
This bell is used many times every hour of the day,
and frequently during the night, three or four blows
being struck each time. The officials of the station
informed me that inside the bell was a favourite
building place of the sparrows, and that the nests had
frequently to be removed, but that young ones had
been hatched and reared there. — ' G. A. Biddell,
Ipswich.

Carnivorous Slug. — Whilst perusing the
columns of your journal, the accounts of the predatory
slug recalled to my memory a circumstance which
occurred to me some years ago. While out walking

HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP.

93

one day in the country, across my path I observed
a slug and a butterfly very close together. On
stooping down I noticed that the half of the body of
the butterfly had disappeared, and the slug (the com-
mon white variety) was busily devouring the remain-
der. In a short time it all disappeared. Now, the
curious part of this is, how could the butterfly have
been so unwary as t<5 allow the slug to approach so
near ? Perhaps some of your numerous correspon-
dents could relate some similar circumstances. —
J. D. O., Carrickfergus.

Asplenium septentrionale. — In the January
number of Science-Gossip there is a paragraph
which states that Asplenium septentrionale was dis-
covered near Dolgelly, by Mrs. Chamberlain Barlow,
of Edgbaston, in 1867. Allow me to inform the
writer that it had been previously discovered in the
district by the Rev. T. Salway, vicar of Oswestry,
and in a " List of certain Plants found in the Neigh-
bourhood of Barmouth," published by him in 1863,
this passage occurs : "Asplenium septentrionale, a
single plant gathered by me on the wall of the turn-
pike-road between Hendwet and Dolgelly, in 1842,"
and this note, "I could never find this in subsequent
years, though I gathered only a few fronds, and left
the root." — F. C. Raiulings, Barmouth.

Venomous Reptiles of Ireland. — In reply to
S. E. Bennett, page 42, for February, I beg to say we
have none such ; our reptiles are frogs, green lizard,
one newt, and Natter Jack, in Co. Kerry. It was not
St. Kevin, but a bigger saint — St. Patrick — who sent
them adrift from Croagh Patrick, in Co. Mayo. " He
gave the snakes and toads a twist, and banished all
the vermin, " as the song goes. — F. H.

Solanum Dulcamara. — In reply to Mr. W.
West, Bradford, as to above, I regret to say I have
known two fatal cases in this neighbourhood (Athy)
from children eating the berries of|this plant. One fact
is worth one hundred doctors. — F. H.

The Mildness of the Season. — On the 21st
of February, whilst taking my accustomed walk
through the beautiful beech- woods of Nettlebed, I
was surprised by an adder attempting to cross my
path, and having destroyed many of these venomous
reptiles, particularly in the county of Devonshire, I
found, on killing it, that it was the largest I had ever
seen, — its length being not less than twenty-eight
inches. The occurrence of this reptile so early, with
the primrose and other wild flowers in bloom, on this
elevated, picturesque, healthy range of the Chiltern
Hills, is a proof of the extreme mildness of the sea-
son. — Thomas Shipway.

Small Mites. — Some newly-married friends of
ours, gone to reside in a farmhouse in a pretty, undu-
lating country district in Gloucestershire, have been
sadlv annoyed for some time past by the presence of
numbers of very small mites ; they come on their
books, clothes, and furniture, — even on the piano
specks of dust-like particles are often seen, and an
inexperienced eye would think them to be only dust ;
but, on close inspection, they are seen to move.
Benzoline and sanitas have been tried in vain. Can
any of your readers throw any light on the matter ?
— whence they come, or in what way they may be
exterminated?—^/. R. D.

Age of Sea-Gulls. — It may not be generally
known to what age sea-gulls live. There is a gull
living at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, at the present

time, which has reached its thirtieth year, and is appa-
rently as well as ever. It was taken when young from
the nest, and was supposed to be a male bird, but
when nearly twenty years old, to the surprise of
every one an egg appeared, and since that time it has
laid many more. All this time it was called by the
name of Willie, but the name was then changed
to Rittie, which it still bears. The bird is perfectly
tame, and comes at once when called. It lives in a
garden, and is fed principally on meat and fish ; it
has also a great liking for cheese. The bird has been
in the possession of the same person all its life ; I
believe it is the common gull (Larus canus). — Frank
Morey.

Midnight Songsters.— On Feb. 15th and three
following evenings, blackbirds, thrushes, and many
of the smaller birds have been singing merrily at mid-
night. The gentleman at whose house I am staying,
a doctor, driving late through the park, and several
others, have heard the above, but no one seems ever
to have known of such an occurrence before. A
blackbird was seen while singing, perched on a tree,
close to the house-windows. The nightingale has
not yet been heard in this part. — M. B. Gordon,
Little Chart, Kent.

Birds Singing at Midnight.— On the night
of Saturday, the 15th of February, I was returning
home from the house of a friend, between the hours
of eleven and twelve o'clock, when I was consider-
ably surprised to hear a thrush singing away merrily.
Presently, the songster was joined by others, and in a
short time a regular concert began, taken part in by
at least a dozen thrushes and blackbirds, whilst the
robin, wren, and other small birds were singing and
chirruping in the hedgerows, just as you hear them in
the early morning in summer. On arriving home, I
called the attention of my friends to this singular"
circumstance, and we stood at the door for some
time listening with wonder to this — at such an hour
— unusual melody. On the following night, about
the same hour, the concert again commenced, and
was even more lively than on the preceding night,
and continued until